Page:The American Indian as slaveholder and secessionist (Volume 1).djvu/104

98 the disposition of his force and the objects of his mission, allowed himself to be unduly influenced in his judgment by men of local predilections. It was upon their advice and upon the urgent pleadings of Matthew Leeper, Indian agent on the Leased District, that he exercised his discretionary power as to the disposal of troops, without listening to his military subordinates or having viewed the locality for himself. In the interests of these local petitioners, he even enlarged upon Mitchell's recommendation and concluded to leave two companies at Fort Cobb as one was deemed altogether inadequate to the protection of so isolated