The Kiowas and Comanches were giving trouble along the old Santa Fe trail and among the settlements of western Kansas.

The Ninth Kansas were sent to tame them and to protect immigrants and settlers.
This was work that I well understood.

We had a lively summer, for the Indians kept things stirring, but after a summer of hard fighting we made them understand that the Great White Chief was a power that the Indians had better not irritate.

November, '63, I returned with the command to Leavenworth.

I had money in my pockets, for my pay had been $150 a month, and I was able to lay in an abundant supply of provisions for my family.
On the twenty-third day of December my mother passed away.