ompany of whites and fifty Cherokee Indians had reached Tahlequah and
had gone into camp two and one-half miles to the southward.[360] He
was then not far from Park Hill, the residence of Chief Ross. All the
way down he had been on the watch for news; but the only forces he
could hear of were some Indian, who were believed to be friendly to
the Union although ostensibly still serving the Confederacy. It was a
time of crisis both with them and with him; for their leaders had just
been summoned by Colonel Cooper, now in undisputed command north
of the Canadian, to report immediately for duty at Fort Davis, his
headquarters. Whatever was to be done would have to be done quickly.
There was no time to lose and Greeno decided the matter for all
concerned by resorting to what turned out to be a very clever
expedient. He made the commissioned men all prisoners of war[361] and
then turned his attention to the Principal Chief, who was likewise in
a dilemma, he having received a despatch from Cooper ordering him,
under authority of treaty provisions and "in the name of President
Davis, Confederate States of America, to issue a proclamation calling
on all Cherokee Indians over 18 and under 35 to come forward and
assist in protecting the country from invasion."[362] Greeno thought
the matter over and concluded there was nothing for him to do but to
capture Ross also and to release him, subsequently, on parole. These
things he did and there were many people who thought, both then and
long

[Footnote 360: Greeno to Weer, July 15, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 473; Carruth and Martin to Coffin, July 19, 1862,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1862, 158-160.]

[Footnote 361: Greeno to Weer, July 17, 1862, _Official Records_,
vol. xiii, 161-162.]

[Footnote 362: _Official Records_, vol. xiii, 473.]

afterwards, that the whole affair had been arranged for beforehand and
that victor and victim had been in collusion with each other all the
way through.

Up to this point the Indian Expedition can be said to have met with
more than a fair measure of success; but its troubles were now to
begin or rather to assert themselves; for most of them had been
present since the very beginning. Fundamental to everything else was
the fact that it was summer-time and summer-time, too, in a prairie
region. Troops from the north, from Wisconsin and from Ohio, were
not acclimated and they found the heat of June and July almost
insufferab