The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

By Annie Heloise Abel, Ph.D.

Professor of History, Smith College

1919

III. THE INDIAN REFUGEES IN SOUTHERN KANSAS

The thing that would most have justified the military employment of
Indians by the United States government, in the winter of 1862, was
the fact that hundreds and thousands of their southern brethren were
then refugees because of their courageous and unswerving devotion to
the American Union. The tale of those refugees, of their wanderings,
their deprivations, their sufferings, and their wrongs, comparable
only to that of the Belgians in the Great European War of 1914, is
one of the saddest to relate, and one of the most disgraceful, in the
history of the War of Secession, in its border phase.

The first in the long procession of refugees were those of the army
of Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la who, after their final defeat by Colonel James
McIntosh in the Battle of Chustenahlah, December 26, 1861, had fled up
the valley of the Verdigris River and had entered Kansas near Walnut
Creek. In scattered lines, with hosts of stragglers, the enfeebled,
the aged, the weary, and the sick, they had crossed the Cherokee Strip
and the Osage Reservation and, heading steadily towards the northeast,
had finally encamped on the outermost edge of the New York Indian
Lands, on Fall River, some sixty odd miles west of Humboldt. Those
lands, never having been accepted as an equivalent for their Wisconsin
holdings by the Iroquois, were not occupied throughout their entire
extent by Indians and only here and there

encroached upon by white intruders, consequently the impoverished
and greatly fatigued travellers encountered no obstacles in settling
themselves down to rest and to wait for a much needed replenishment of
their resources.

Their coming was expected. On their way northward, they had fallen
in, at some stage of the journey, with some buffalo hunters, Sacs and
Foxes of the Mississippi, returning to their reservation, which lay
some distance north of Burlington and chiefly in present Osage County,
Kansas. To them the refugees reported their recent tragic experience.
The Sacs and Foxes were most sympathetic and, after relieving the
necessities of the refugees as best they could, hurried on ahead,
imparting the news, in their turn, to various white people whom they
met. In due course it reached General Denver, still supervising
affairs in Kansas, and William G. Coffin, the southern
superintendent.[165] It was the first time, since his appointment the
spring before, that Coffin had had any prospect of getting in touch
with any considerable number of his charges and he must have welcomed
the chance of now really earning his salary. He ordered all of the
agents under him--and some[166] of them had not previously entered
officially upon their duties--to assemble at Fort Roe, on the
Verdigris, and be prepared to take charge of their

[Footnote 165: These facts were obtained chiefly from a letter, not
strictly accurate as to some of its details, written by Superintendent
Coffin to Dole, January 15, 1862 [Indian Office Special Files, no.
201, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1474 of 1862].]

[Footnote 166: For instance, William P. Davis, who had been appointed
Seminole Agent, despairing of ever reaching his post, had gone into
the army [Dole to John S. Davis of New Albany, Indiana, April 5, 1862,
Indian Office _Letter Book_, no. 68, p. 39]. George C. Snow of
Parke County, Indiana, was appointed in his stead [Dole to Snow,
January 13, 1862, Ibid., no. 67, p. 243].]

several contingents; for the refugees, although chiefly Creeks, were
representative of nearly every one of the non-indigenous tribes of
Indian Territory.

It is not an easy matter to say, with any show of approach to exact
figures, how many the refugees numbered.[167] For weeks and weeks,
they were almost continually coming in and even the very first reports
bear suspicious signs of the exaggeration that became really notorious
as graft and peculation entered more and more into the reckoning.
Apparently, all those who, in ever so slight a degree, handled the
relief funds, except, perhaps, the army men, were interested in
making the numbers appear as large as possible. The larger the need
represented, the larger the sum that might, with propriety, be
demanded and the larger the opportunity for graft. Settlers, traders,
and some government agents were, in this respect, all culpable
together.

There was no possibility of mistake, however, intentional or
otherwise, about the destitution of the refugees. It was inconceivably
horrible. The winter weather of late December and early January had
been most inclement and the Indians had trudged through it, over
snow-covered, rocky, trailless places and desolate prairie, nigh three
hundred miles. When they started out, they were not any too well
provided with clothing; for they had departed in a hurry, and, before
they got to Fall River, not a few of them were absolutely naked. They
had practically no tents, no bed-coverings, and no provisions. Dr.
A.B. Campbell, a surgeon sent out by General Hunter,[168] had reached
them

[Footnote 167: Compare the statistics given in the following:
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1861, p. 151; 1862,
pp. 137, 157; Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern
Superintendency_, C 1525 of 1862; General Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, C 1602 of 1862.]

[Footnote 168: The army furnished the first relief that reached them.
In its issue (cont.)]

towards the end of January and their condition was then so bad, so
wretched that it was impossible for him to depict it. Prairie grasses
were "their only protection from the snow" upon which they were
lying "and from the wind and weather scraps and rags stretched upon
switches." Ho-go-bo-foh-yah, the second Creek chief, was ill with a
fever and "his tent (to give it that name) was no larger than a small
blanket stretched over a switch ridge pole, two feet from the ground,
and did not reach it by a foot from the ground on either side of
him." Campbell further said that the refugees were greatly in need of
medical assistance. They were suffering "with inflammatory diseases
of the chest, throat, and eyes." Many had "their toes frozen off,"
others, "their feet wounded." But few had "either shoes or moccasins."
Dead horses were lying around in every direction and the sanitary
conditions were so bad that the food was contaminated and the
newly-arriving refugees became sick as soon as they ate.[169]

Other details of their destitution were furnished by Coffin's son
who was acting as his clerk and who was among the first to attempt
alleviation of their misery.[170] As far as relief went, however, the
supply was so out of proportion to the demand that there was never
any time that spring when it could be said that they were fairly
comfortable and their ordinary wants satisfied. Campbell frankly
admitted that he "selected the nakedest of the naked" and doled out to
them the few articles he

[Footnote 168: (cont.) of January 18, 1862, the _Daily
Conservative_ has this to say: "The Kansas Seventh has been ordered
to move to Humboldt, Allen Co. to give relief to Refugees encamped on
Fall River. Lt. Col. Chas. T. Clark, 1st Battalion, Kansas Tenth, is
now at Humboldt and well acquainted with the conditions."]

[Footnote 169: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
pp. 151-152.]

[Footnote 170: O.S. Coffin to William G. Coffin, January 26, 1862,
Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, _Southern Superintendency_,
C 1506 of 1862.]

had. When all was gone, how pitiful it must have been for him to see
the "hundreds of anxious faces" for whom there was nothing! Captain
Turner, from Hunter's commissary department, had similar experiences.
According to him, the refugees were "in want of every necessary of
life." That was his report the eleventh of February.[171] On the
fifteenth of February, the army stopped giving supplies altogether
and the refugees were thrown back entirely upon the extremely limited
resources of the southern superintendency.

Dole[172] had had warning from Hunter[173] that such would have to
be the case and had done his best to be prepared for the emergency.
Secretary Smith authorized expenditure for relief in advance of
congressional appropriation, but that simply increased the moral
obligation to practice economy and, with hundreds of loyal Indians on
the brink of starvation,[174] it was no

[Footnote 171: Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862,
pp. 152-154.]

[Footnote 172: Dole had an interview with the Indians immediately upon
his arrival in Kansas [Moore, _Rebellion Record_, vol. iv, 59-60,
Doc. 21].]

[Footnote 173: Hunter to Dole, February 6, 1862, forwarded by Edward
Wolcott to Mix, February 10, 1862 [Indian Office General Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, W 513 and D 576 of 1862;
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862, p. 150].]

[Footnote 174: Agent G.C. Snow reported, February 13, 1862, on the
utter destitution of the Seminoles [Indian Office General
Files, _Seminole_, 1858-1869] and, on the same day, Coffin
[Ibid., _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862, C 1526] to
the same effect about the refugees as a whole. They were coming in,
he said, about twenty to sixty a day. The "destitution, misery and
suffering amongst them is beyond the power of any pen to portray, it
must be seen to be realised--there are now here over two thousand men,
women, and children entirely barefooted and more than that number that
have not rags enough to hide their nakedness, many have died and they
are constantly dying. I should think at a rough guess that from 12 to
15 hundred dead Ponies are laying around in the camp and in the river.
On this account so soon as the weather gets a little warm, a removal
of this camp will be indespensable, there are perhaps now two thousand
Ponies living, they are very poor and many of them must die before
grass comes which we expect here from the first to the 10th of March.
We are issuing a little corn to (cont.)]

time for economy. The inadequacy of the Indian service and the
inefficiency of the Federal never showed up more plainly, to the utter
discredit of the nation, than at this period and in this connection.

Besides getting permission from Secretary Smith to go ahead and supply
the more pressing needs of the refugees, Dole accomplished another
thing greatly to their interest. He secured from the staff of General
Lane a special agent, Dr. William Kile of Illinois,[175] who
had formerly been a business partner of his own[176] and, like
Superintendent Coffin, his more or less intimate friend. Kile's
particular duty as special agent was to be the purchasing of supplies
for the refugees[177] and he at once visited their encampment in order
the better to determine their requirements. His investigations more
than corroborated the earlier accounts of their sufferings and
privations and his appointment under the circumstances seemed fully
justified, notwithstanding that on the surface of things it appeared
very suggestive of a near approach to nepotism, and of nepotism Dole,
Coffin, and many others were unquestionably guilty. They worked into
the service just as many of their own relatives and friends as they
conveniently and safely could. The official pickings were considered
by them as their proper perquisites. "'Twas ever thus" in American
politics, city, county, state, and national.

The Indian encampment upon the occasion of

[Footnote 174: (cont.) the Indians and they are feeding them a
little...." See also Moore, _Rebellion Record_, vol. iv, 30.]

[Footnote 175: Dole was from Illinois also, from Edgar County; Coffin
was from Indiana [Indian Office Miscellaneous Records, no. 8, p.
432].]

[Footnote 176: _Daily Conservative_, February 8, 1862.]

[Footnote 177: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, D 576 of 1862; _Letter Book_, no. 67, pp.
450-452.]

Kile's[178] visit was no longer on Fall River. Gradually, since first
discovered, the main body of the refugees had moved forward within the
New York Indian Lands to the Verdigris River and had halted in the
neighborhood of Fort Roe, where the government agents had received
them; but smaller or larger groups, chiefly of the sick and their
friends, were scattered all along the way from Walnut Creek.[179] Some
of the very belated exiles were as far westward as the Arkansas, over
a hundred miles distant. Obviously, the thing to do first was to get
them all together in one place. There were reasons why the Verdigris
Valley was a most desirable location for the refugees. Only a very few
white people were settled there and, as they were intruders and had
not a shadow of legal claim to the land upon which they had squatted,
any objections that they might make to the presence of the Indians
could be ignored.[180]

For a few days, therefore, all efforts were directed, at large
expense, towards converting the Verdigris Valley, in the vicinity of
Fort Roe, into a concentration camp; but no precautions were taken
against allowing unhygienic conditions to arise. The Indians
themselves were much diseased. They had few opportunities for personal
cleanliness and less ambition. Some of the food doled out to them was
stuff that the army had condemned and rejected as unfit for use. They
were emaciated, sick, discouraged. Finally, with

[Footnote 178: Indian Office Land Files, 1855-1870, _Southern
Superintendency_, K 107 of 1862.]

[Footnote 179: Some had wandered to the Cottonwood and were camped
there in great destitution. Their chief food was hominy [_Daily
Conservative_, February 14, 1862].]

[Footnote 180: For an account of the controversy over the settlement
of the New York Indian Lands, see Abel, _Indian Reservations in
Kansas and the Extinguishment of their Title_, 13-14.]

the February thaw, came a situation that soon proved intolerable. The
"stench arising from dead ponies, about two hundred of which were
in the stream and throughout the camp,"[181] unburied, made removal
imperatively necessary.

The Neosho Valley around about Leroy presented itself as a likely
place, very convenient for the distributing agents, and was next
selected. Its advantages and disadvantages seemed about equal and had
all been anticipated and commented upon by Captain Turner.[182] It
was near the source of supplies--and that was an item very much to
be considered, since transportation charges, extraordinarily high in
normal times were just now exorbitant, and the relief funds very, very
limited. No appropriation by Congress had yet been made although one
had been applied for.[183] The great disadvantage of the location was
the presence of white settlers and they objected, as well they might,
to the near proximity of the inevitable disease and filth and,
strangely enough, more than anything else, to the destruction of the
timber, which they had so carefully husbanded. The concentration on
the Neosho had not been fully accomplished when the pressure from the
citizens became so great that Superintendent Coffin felt obliged to
plan for yet another removal. Again the sympathy of the Sacs and
Foxes of Mississippi manifested itself and most opportunely. Their
reservation

[Footnote 181: Annual Report of Superintendent Coffin, October 15,
1862, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862, p. 136.
Compare with Coffin's account given in a letter to Dole, February 13,
1862.]

[Footnote 182: February 11, 1862, Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
_Report_, 1862, p. 153; Indian Office Special Files, no. 201,
_Southern Superintendency_, D 576 of 1862.]

[Footnote 183: _Congressional Globe_, 37th congress, second
session, part I, pp. 815, 849. Dole's letter to Smith, January 31,
1862, describing the destitution of the refugees, was read in the
Senate, February 14, 1862, in support of joint resolution S. no. 49,
for their relief.]

lay about twenty-five miles to the northward and they generously
offered it as an asylum.[184] But the Indians balked. They were
homesick, disgusted with official mismanagement[185] and indecision,
and determined to go no farther. They complained bitterly of the
treatment that they had received at the hands of Superintendent Coffin
and of Agent Cutler and, in a stirring appeal[186] to President
Lincoln, set forth their injuries, their grievances, and
their incontestable claim upon a presumably just and merciful
government.[187]

The Indians were not alone in their rebellious attitude. There was
mutiny seething, or something very like it, within the ranks of the
agents.[188] E.H. Carruth

[Footnote 184: Coffin to Dole, March 28, 1862 [Indian Office Special
Files, no. 201, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1565 of 1862].]

[Footnote 185: Mismanagement there most certainly had been. In no
other way can the fact that there was absolutely no amelioration in
their condition be accounted for. Many documents that will be cited in
other connections prove this point and Collamore's letter is of itself
conclusive. George W. Collamore, known best by his courtesy title of
"General," went to Kansas in the critical years before the war under
circumstances, well and interestingly narrated in Stearns' _Life and
Public Services of George Luther Stearns_, 106-108. He had been
agent for the New England Relief Society in the year of the great
drouth, 1860-1861 [_Daily Conservative_, October 26, 1861] and
had had much to do with Lane, in whose interests he labored, and who
had planned to make him a brigadier under himself as major-general
[Stearns, 246, 251]. He became quartermaster-general of Kansas
[_Daily Conservative_, March 27, 1862] and in that capacity made,
in the company of the Reverend Evan Jones, a visit of inspection to
the refugee encampment. His discoveries were depressing [Ibid.,
April 10, 1862]. His report to the government [Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, C 1602 of 1862] is
printed almost _verbatim_ in Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
_Report_, 1862, 155-158.]

[Footnote 186: Coffin's letter to Dole of April 21, 1862 [Indian
Office General Files, _Wichita_, 1862-1871, C 1601 of 1862] seems
to cast doubt upon the genuineness of some of the signatures attached
to this appeal and charges Agent Carruth with having been concerned in
making the Indians discontented.]

[Footnote 187: Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la and other prominent refugees
addressed their complaints to Dole, March 29, 1862 [Indian Office Land
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1855-1870, O 43 of 1862] and
two days later to President Lincoln, some strong partisan, supposed by
Coffin to be Carruth, acting as scribe.]

[Footnote 188: On the way to the Catholic Mission, whither he was
going in order (cont.)]

who had been so closely associated with Lane in the concoction of the
first plan for the recovery of Indian Territory, was now figuring as
the promoter of a rising sentiment against Coffin and his minions, who
were getting to be pretty numerous. The removal to the Sac and Fox
reservation would mean the getting into closer and closer touch with
Perry Fuller,[189] the contractor, whose dealings in connection with
the Indian refugees were to become matter, later on, of a notoriety
truly disgraceful. Mistrust of Coffin was yet, however, very vague in
expression and the chief difficulty in effecting the removal from the
Neosho lay, therefore, in the disgruntled state of the refugees,
which was due, in part, to their unalleviated misery and, in part, to
domestic

[Footnote 188: (cont.) to cooeperate with Agent Elder in negotiating
with the Osages, Coffin heard of "a sneaking conspiracy" that was "on
foot at Iola for the purpose of prejudicing the Indians against us
[himself and Dole, perhaps, or possibly himself and the agents]."
The plotters, so Coffin reported, "sent over the Verdigris for E.H.
Carruth who" was "deep in the plot," which was a scheme to induce the
Indians to lodge complaint against the distributers of relief. One of
the conspirators was a man who had studied law under Lane and who had
wanted a position under Kile. Lane had used his influence in the man's
behalf and the refusal of Coffin to assign him to a position was
supposed to be the cause of all the trouble. Coffin learned that
his enemies had even gone so far as to plan vacancies in the Indian
service and to fill them. They had "instructed Lane, Pomeroy, and
Conway accordingly," leaving graciously to Lane the choice of
superintendent. A Mr. Smith, correspondent of the Cincinnati
_Gazette_ was their accredited secretary [Coffin to Dole,
April 2, 1862, Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, C 1571 of 1862].

Further particulars of the disaffection came to Coffin's ears before
long and he recounted them to Dole in a letter of April 9, 1862
[Ibid., General Files, _Southern Superintendency_,
1859-1862].]

[Footnote 189: Perry Fuller had been in Kansas since 1854 [U.S.
House _Reports_, 34th congress, first session, no. 200, p. 8 of
"Testimony"]. The first time that his name is intimately used in the
correspondence, relative to the affairs of the refugees, is in a
letter from Kile to Dole, March 29, 1862 [Indian Office Consolidated
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, K 113 of 1862, which also
makes mention of the great unwillingness of the Indians to move to the
Sac and Fox reservation.]]

tribal discord. There was a quarrel among them over leadership, the
election of Ock-tah-har-sas Harjo as principal chief having
aroused strong antagonistic feeling among the friends of
Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la.[190] Moreover, dissatisfaction against their agent
steadily increased and they asked for the substitution of Carruth; but
he, being satisfied with his assignment to the Wichitas,[191] had no
wish to change.[192]

[Footnote 190: Carruth gave particulars of this matter to Dole, April
20, 1862 [Indian Office General Files, _Wichita_, 1862-1871, C
1601 of 1862].]

[Footnote 191: Dole to Carruth, March 18, 1862 [Indian Office
_Letter Book_, no. 67, pp. 493-494].]

[Footnote 192: Carruth to Dole, April 10, 1862 [Ibid.,
General Files, _Wichita_, 1862-1871, C 1588 of 1862; _Letters
Registered_, vol. 58].]