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General Barnum that they be allowed their discharges, and new recruits called for, who would be furnished with fresh horses. An order was accordingly issued to that effect, the enlistments being for three months, and most of the old companies of the southern battalion again taking the field.

During the several weeks before the recruited regiment was ready for service, the southern companies performed the duty of escorting trains and guarding "stations," as fortified houses in which families had taken refuge were called ; and this they did because they must, for to neglect it was to consent to their destruction. For the Indian leaders were still inflexible, and would listen to no over tures. Indeed, when sometimes coming near enough in battle to be addressed, the white commanders attempted to reason with them, they instantly challenged them to further combat, and refused to confer with them on the subject of peace.