At the close of the war, General William Tecumseh Sherman was placed at the head of the Peace Commission which had been sent to the border to take counsel with the Indians.

It had become necessary to put an end to the hostility of the red man immediately either by treaty or by force.
His raids on the settlers could be endured no longer.
The purpose of the party which Sherman headed was to confer with the greatest of the hostile chiefs.

Treaties were to be agreed upon if possible.

If negotiations for peace failed, the council would at least act as a stay of hostilities.

The army was rapidly reorganizing, and it would soon be possible to mobilize enough troops to put down the Indians in case they refused to come to terms peaceably.
The camp of the Kiowas and Comanches--the first Indians with whom Sherman meant to deal--was about three hundred miles southwest of Leavenworth, in the great buffalo range, and in the midst of the trackless Plains.
By ambulance and on horseback, with wagons to carry the supplies, the party set out for its first objective--Council Springs on the Arkansas River, about sixty miles beyond old Fort Zarrah.
I was chosen as one of the scouts or dispatch carriers to accompany the party.