t should
think necessary. They were to be supplied with transportation and
subsistence and Blunt was to "designate the general to command."
Blunt's own appointment was expected to remove all difficulties that
had stood in the way of the Indian Expedition while under the control
of Halleck.[260] On

[Footnote 256: (cont.)

Company H Lo-ga-po-koh 94
Company I Jan-neh (John 100
Company J Lo-ka-la-chi-ha-go 98]

[Footnote 257: Coffin to Dole, May 8, 1862, Indian Office General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1859-1862.]

[Footnote 258: Same to Same, May 13, 1862, Ibid., Land Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1855-1870.]

[Footnote 259: Dole to Coffin, May 20, 1862, Ibid., _Letter
Book_, no. 68, p. 252.]

[Footnote 260: "I visited the War Department today to ascertain what
orders had been forwarded to you and your predecessor relative to the
organization of two thousand Indians as a home guard, which when
so organized would proceed to their homes in the Indian country in
company with a sufficient number of white troops to protect them at
their homes.

"I learn from Adjutant General Thomas that all necessary orders have
been forwarded to enable you to muster these Indian Regiments into the
service as an irregular force; and to send such white force with them
as (cont.)]

May 8 came the order from Adjutant-general Thomas, "Hurry up the
organization and departure of the two Indian regiments,"[261] which
indicated that there was no longer any question as to endorsement by
the Department of War.

As a matter of fact, the need for hurry was occasioned by the activity
of secessionists, Indians and white men, in southwest Missouri, which
would, of itself, suggest the inquiry as to what the Indian allies of
the Confederacy had been about since the Battle of Pea Ridge. Van
Dorn had ordered them to retire towards their own country and, while
incidentally protecting it, afford assistance to their white ally by
harassing the enemy, cutting off his supply trains, and annoying him
generally. The order had been rigidly attended to and the Indians had
done their fair share of the irregular warfare that terrorized and
desolated the border in the late spring of the second year of the war.
Not all of them, regularly enlisted, had participated in it, however;
for General Pike had, with a considerable part of his brigade, gone
away from the border as far as possible and had intrenched himself at
a fort