Footnote 818: [(return)]
Steele to Blair, July 22, 1863 [Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 940-941].
as he had, the mere idea of such an undertaking would be preposterous. The defensive would have to be, for some time to come, his leading role; but he did hope to be able to harry his enemy, somewhat, to entice him away from his fortifications and to make those fortifications of little worth by cutting off his supplies. Another commissary train would be coming down from Fort Scott via Baxter Springs about the first of August.[819] For it, then, Steele would lie in wait.
When all was in readiness, Fort Smith was vacated, not abandoned; inasmuch as a regiment under Morgan of Cabell's brigade was left in charge, but it was relinquished as department headquarters. Steele then took up his march for Cooper's old battle-ground on Elk Creek. There he planned to mass his forces and to challenge an attack. He went by way of Prairie Springs[820] and lingered there a little while, then moved on to Honey Springs, where was better grazing.[821] He felt obliged thus to make his stand in the Creek country; for the Creeks were getting fractious and it was essential for his purposes that they be mollified and held in check. Furthermore, it was incumbent upon him not to expose his "depots in the direction of Texas."[822]
As the summer days passed, Cabell and Cooper drew into his vicinity but no Bankhead, notwithstanding that Magruder had ordered him to hurry to Steele's
Footnote 819: [(return)]
Steele to Bankhead, July 22, 1863 [Official Records, vol. xxii, part ii, 940]
Footnote 820: [(return)]
Duval to A.S. Morgan, July 18, 1863 [ibid., 933; Steele to Blair, July 22, 1863 [ibid., 940-941].
Footnote 821: [(return)]
Steele arrived at Prairie Springs on the twenty-fourth [Steele to Blair, July 26, 1863, ibid., 948] and moved to Honey Springs two days later [same to same, July 29, 1863, ibid., 950-951]. On August 7, his camp was at Soda Springs, whither he had gone "for convenience of water and grass" [same to same, August 7, 1863, ibid., 956].
Footnote 822: [(return)]
—Ibid., 951.