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First Division Army of the Frontier

On the return of the troops of the expedition under General Blunt from Fort Scott to Lone Jack, and the pursuit of the enemy from that place into Southwest Missouri, there was some reorganization at Fort Scott of the Kansas forces before moving south again about the first of September, down through the western counties of Missouri, and the new organization of the Kansas forces was called the First Division Army of the Frontier, and was divided into three brigades, as follows:

First Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General F. Salomon, consisted of the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry; Second Ohio Cavalry; Ninth Kansas Cavalry; Second Indian Regiment Home Guards; Major Blair’s Second Kansas Battery; Captain Stockton’s Battery, manned by a detachment from the Second Ohio Cavalry.

Second Brigade commanded by Colonel William Weer, Tenth Kansas Volunteers, consisted of the Tenth Kansas Infantry; Sixth Kansas Cavalry; Third Indian Regiment Home Guards; Allen’s First Kansas Battery and two twelve pounder howitzers attached to the Sixth Kansas. (Page 85) 

Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel William F. Cloud, Second Kansas Volunteers, consisted of the Second Kansas Cavalry; First Indian Regiment Home Guards, and Captain Rabb’s Second Indiana Battery.

All the information received through scouts, spies and prisoners by General James Totten, commanding the District of Southwest Missouri, at Springfield, and General Blunt, commanding the Department of Kansas, convinced them that General Hindman, commanding the Southern forces in Arkansas and Indian Territory, was making extensive preparations for an aggressive campaign into Missouri at the earliest practicable moment; that he was then concentrating in Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas and along the line of the Indian Territory large forces, estimated as high as fifty thousand men, from Arkansas, Texas, Missouri and the Indian country; that the Missouri Southern forces were already in Southwest Missouri and the Indian and Texas forces under Cooper on the Missouri and Arkansas line in easy supporting distance of each other, and that as the supplies necessary for supporting an army in the field south of Missouri had become exhausted, these forces had become desperate, ragged and hungry, and that he would certainly make a desperate effort to invade Missouri and march to the Missouri River, where he proposed to winter his army, and where he believed that he would receive large accessions to his army in recruits and abundant supplies to maintain it; that the state was considered the granary for the Southern Army west of the Mississippi and could furnish it lead from the Granby Mines to make small arms ammunition to an unlimited extent.

As the Southern Army had been driven out of the state the latter part of the winter, the people of Southwest Missouri had raised good crops of corn, wheat, oats, and apples in their orchards, all of which made a tempting prize for the Confederate leaders to get possession of in their desperate straits, but which was not to be yielded up by the (Page 86)  Federal forces without a struggle that would tax their re sources to the utmost degree.

While General Blunt was reorganizing his forces and remounting his cavalry at Fort Scott, after his return from the Lone Jack Expedition, General Hindman met the re treating Missouri Southern forces of Cockrell, Shelby and Coffee from Lone Jack, in Benton county, Arkansas, and after a conference with these Southern leaders, determined to push these troops, re-enforced by several regiments of Choctaws and Chickasaws, back into Southwest Missouri before the Federal forces under General Blunt could advance south again. In this movement of General Hindman he was able to occupy with Texans, Indians and Missouri Southern forces Neosho, Newtonia and Pineville and to requisition the mills of Newton and McDonald counties and set them in operation making flour and meal for his troops who were employed in hauling in wheat and corn taken from the citizens of that section.

Generals Blunt and Totten were maintaining communication with each other and had arranged for co-operation of their forces to meet and drive back the forces of Hindman before they advanced farther into the state. General Blunt had made such progress in the reorganization and refitting of his troops at Fort Scott that he was able the last of August to order the Second Brigade under Colonel Weer, except the Third Indian Regiment under Colonel Phillips, operating from his camp on the west side of Spring River near the mouth of Shoal Creek, to Carthage, and to keep himself advised of the movements of the enemy in front and on his flanks, particularly if they should attempt to pass around either flank.

The Brigades of General Salomon and Colonel Cloud, except the Indian Regiments near Baxter Springs, were to go forward in a few days and take up positions in co operation with the troops of General Totten at and near (Page 87)  Mt. Vernon, under General Brown, to prevent Confederate detachments from passing north at any point west of Springfield.

Southwest Missouri was becoming an armed camp of belligerent forces, and as soon as the Confederate forces concentrated in considerable strength, it was the design of Generals Schofield and Blunt to move against them and test their ability to hold the ground they were occupying in southwest Missouri, as it was believed that their strength had been greatly exaggerated according to in formation derived from prisoners taken and questioned and from other sources.

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Source: The Union Indian Brigade in the Civil War, By Wiley Britton, published 1922, Franklin Hudson Publishing Co., Kansas City, Missouri.
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