[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].]
[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.)]
[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.]
[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 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.]
[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.]
[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.]
[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 to coöperate 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.]]
[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].]