meet the Government commissioners at Bluffs Creek about
forty miles south of the Little Arkansas. This agreement did not take in
the South Cheyennes, who had been more mischievous than any of the tribes,
but this tribe kept south of the Arkansas, retaining all the stock they
captured, and none of them were punished for the murders they committed.
It was a business matter on their part to remain at peace only until the
troops moved out of that country and to prevent Sanborn with his organized
forces from going south to their villages and punishing them. The effect
of this agreement was that the Indians continued their depredations
through the following years,--not so much by killing but by
stealing,--until finally they became so hostile that in the campaign
against them by General Sheridan, in 1868, an agreement was made with them
forcing all the tribes to move into the Indian Territory. If General Ford
or General Sanborn had been allowed to go forward and punish these Indians
as they deserved, they would have been able to make not only a peace, but
could have forced them to go on the reservation in the Indian territories,
and thus have saved the murders and crimes that they committed for so many
years afterwards; however, this agreement of Sanborn's allowed the
emigration to go forward over the Arkansas, properly organized and
guarded, and it was not molested during the rest of that year.

To show the conditions on the overland routes up the two forks of the
Platte River at the time, I sent this dispatch:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI.

ST. LOUIS, MO., June 17, 1865.

_Major-General John Pope, Commanding Military Division of the Missouri,
St. Louis_:

GENERAL: There is no doubt but that all, or nearly all, the tribes of
Indians east of the Rocky Mountains from the British Possessions on
the north to the Red River on the south are engaged in open
hostilities against the Government. It is possible that in a few of
the tribes there are some chiefs and warriors who desire to be
friendly, but each day reduces the number of these, and they even are
used by the hostile tribes to deceive us as to their intentions and
keep us quiet. The Crows and Snakes appear to be friendly, but
everything indicates that they too are ready to join in the
hostilities, and the latter (the Snakes) are accused of being
concerned in the depredations west of the mountains. In