The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

by Annie Heloise Abel

The main portion of the Indian Expedition auxiliary white force had all this time been more or less busy, dealing with bushwhackers and the like, in the Cherokee Neutral Lands and in the adjoining counties of Missouri. When Blunt took command of the Department of Kansas, Colonel Frederick Salomon[²⁸⁶] of the Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry was in charge at Fort Scott and the troops there or reporting there were, besides eight companies of his own regiment, a part of the Second Ohio Cavalry under Colonel Charles Doubleday, of the Tenth Kansas Infantry under Colonel William F. Cloud, and the Second Indiana Battery.[²⁸⁷] Blunt's first thought was to have Daubleday[²⁸⁸] lead the Indian Expedition, the auxiliary white force of which was to be selected from the regiments at Fort Scott. Doubleday accordingly made his plans, rendezvoused his men, and arranged that the mouth of Shoal Creek should be a rallying point and temporary headquarters;[²⁸⁹] but events were already in train for Colonel

Footnote 286: [(return)]

Salomon was born in Prussia in 1826 [Rosengarten, The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States, 150]. He had distinguished himself in some of the fighting that had taken place in Missouri in the opening months of the war and, when the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry, composed solely of German-Americans, had been recruited, he was called to its command [Love, Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion, 578].

Footnote 287: [(return)]

Official Records, vol. xiii, 371-372, 377.

Footnote 288: [(return)]

for an account of Doubleday's movements in April that very probably gained him the place, see Britton, Civil War on the Border, vol. i, 296.

Footnote 289: [(return)]

Official Records, vol. xiii, 397, 408.

Weer to supersede him and for his own assignment to the Second Brigade of the expedition.

Previous to his supersedure by Weer, Doubleday conceived that it might be possible to reach Fort Gibson with ease,[²⁹⁰] provided the attempt to do so should be undertaken before the various independent secessionist commands could unite to resist.[²⁹¹] That they were planning to unite there was every indication.[²⁹²] Doubleday[²⁹³] was especially desirous of heading off Stand Watie who was still hovering around in the neighborhood of his recent adventures, and was believed now to have an encampment on Cowskin Prairie near Grand River. Accordingly, on the morning of June 6, Doubleday started out, with artillery and a thousand men, and, going southward from Spring River, reached the Grand about sundown.[²⁹⁴] Watie was three miles away and, Doubleday continuing the pursuit, the two forces came to an engagement. It was indecisive,[²⁹⁵] however, and Watie slipped away under

Footnote 290: [(return)]

Doubleday to Moonlight, May 25, 1862, Official Records, vol. xiii, 397.

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Doubleday to Blunt, June 1, 1862, ibid., 408.