The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

by Annie Heloise Abel

Commanding the Department of Mississippi:

General: It is the desire of the President, on the application of the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, that you should detail two regiments to act in the Indian country, with a view to open the way for the friendly Indians who are now refugees in Southern Kansas to return to their homes and to protect them there. Five thousand friendly Indians will also be armed to aid in their own protection, and you will please furnish them with necessary subsistence.

Please report your action in the premises to this Department. Prompt action is necessary.

By order of the Secretary of War:

L. THOMAS, Adjutant-general[²²⁶]

Footnote 223: [(return)]

Two thousand was most certainly the number, although the communication from the War Department gives it as five.

Footnote 224: [(return)]

Dole to Halleck, March 21, 1862 [Indian Office Letter Book, no. 67, 516-517].

Footnote 225: [(return)]

—Ibid., 517-518.

Footnote 226: [(return)]

Official Records, vol. viii, 624-625.