On consultation with Gen’l Jas. H. Lane he thinks an auxiliary Regiment of Indians are necessary to the service and could be used to great advantage in this department. If it meets with your approbation I would like and ask the privilege of Raising such Regt which I think I could do in thirty days. I have made my estimate of the number of men which I think would be furnished by each tribe as follows
| Iowas & Kickapoos | 225 | |
| Delawares | 125 | |
| Potawatomies | 250 | |
| Shawnees, Miamies, & Weas | 100 | |
| Sacks & Foxes | 250 | |
| Senecas & Wyandotts | 125 | |
| 1075 |
This will be laid before you by Genl Lane in person I hope it will meet with your approval and that you will grant the permission to raise the Regt and if necessary I have no doubt but a Brigade of Indians could be organized by embracing the Osages and Loyal Creeks and Cherokees.—Letter of October 10, 1861 [General Files, Delaware, 1855-1861].
[501] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 553.
[502] I am not certain of the exact date of Lane’s departure for Washington. Spring says [Kansas, 279] that he went there in November. When an Indian delegation reached Fort Scott, seeking him, some time about the middle of the month, he had already handed over his command to Colonel James Montgomery and “had gone to Washington” [Cutler to Coffin, September 30, 1862, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 138]. Yet Dole’s letter to General Hunter would convey the impression that Lane was still in Kansas the middle of the month and expected to be there on the twenty-fourth. I am also in doubt as to when Hunter reached his post. He communicated with Agent Cutler from St. Louis, November 20, 1861 [ibid., 1861, p. 44]. Hunter and Lane may very well have met even outside of Kansas and have exchanged views and opinions that would have given a basis for the representations that Lane must have made to Lincoln and Cameron regarding Hunter’s approval of the “Jayhawking Brigade.” McClellan seems to have advised the forward movement in the direction of the Indian Territory; for he says, when writing to Hunter, December 11, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 428]:
Immediately after you were assigned to your present department I requested the Adjutant-General to inform you that it was deemed expedient to organize an expedition under your command to secure the Indian territory west of Arkansas, as well as to make a descent upon Northern Texas, in connection with one to strike at Western Texas from the Gulf. The general was to invite your prompt attention to this subject, and to ask you to indicate the necessary force and means for the undertaking.
It is only fair to say that Lane had always advocated a more southern concentration of forces. He more than any other northern man seems to have appreciated fully the importance of Indian Territory. He continually recommended using Fort Scott as a base for such military operations as had the protection of Kansas as their main object.
[503] Hunter to Thomas, dated Leavenworth, January 15, 1862 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862].
[504] In January, 1862, Hunter deplored the fact that his request had not been acceded to and said,