page_324 < previous page page_324 next page > Page 324 The explanation of Phillips's whole proceeding during the month of February is to be found in his genuine friendship for the Indian, which eventually profited him much, it is true, but, from this time henceforth, was lifelong. He stood in somewhat of a contrast to Blunt, whom General Steele thought unprincipled933 and who in Southern parlance was "an old land speculator,"934 and to Curtis, who was soon to show himself, as far as the Indians were concerned, in his true colors. While Phillips was absent from Fort Gibson, Curtis arrived there. He was making a reconnoissance of his command and, as he passed over one reservation after another, he doubtless coveted the Indian land for white settlement and justified to himself a scheme of forfeiture as a way of penalizing the red men for their defection.935 Phillips was not encouraged to repeat his peace mission. Blunt's journey to Washington had results, complimentary and gratifying to his vanity because publicly vindicatory. On the twenty-seventh of February he was restored to his old command or, to be exact, ordered "to resume command of so much of the District of the Frontier as is included within the boundaries of the Department of Kansas."936 His headquarters were at Fort Smith and immediately began the controversy between him and Thayer, although scornfully unacknowledged by Thayer, as to the status of Fort Smith. Thayer refused to admit that there could be any issue937 between them for the law in the case was clear. What Blunt and Curtis really wanted was to get hold of the 933 F. Steele to S. Breck, March 27, 1864, Official Records, vol. xxxiv, part ii, 751. 934 T. M. Scott to Maxey, April 12, 1864, ibid., part iii, 762. 935 This matter is very much generalized here for the reason that it properly belongs in the volume on reconstruction that is yet to come. 936 February 23, 1864, Official Records, vol. xxxiv, part ii, 408. 937 John M. Thayer to Charles A. Dana, March 15, 1864, ibid., 617. Â < previous page page_324 next page >