It will thus appear, I trust, that the resources of this Government are adequate to its ends, and assured to the friendly Indians. We have our agents actively engaged in the manufacture of ammunition and in the purchase of arms, and when your regiment has been reported organized in ten companies, ranging from 64 to 100 men each, and enrolled for twelve months, if possible, it will be received into the Confederate service, and supplied with arms and ammunition. Such will be the course pursued also in relation to the two other regiments I have indicated. The arms we are purchasing for the Indians are rifles, and they will be forwarded to Fort Smith. Respectfully, L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War. _Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 574-575. [238] _Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 572-574. [239] --_Ibid._, 583. [240] See McCulloch to Walker, May 28, 1861, _ibid._, 587; also same to same, June 12, 1861, _ibid._, 590-591. [241] --_Ibid._, 591-592; also vol. xiii, 495. [242] General Files, _Cherokee, 1859-1865_, C515; _Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 596-597 and vol. xiii, 495-497. [243] _Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 590-591. [244] HEADQUARTERS MCCULLOCH'S BRIGADE, Fort Smith, Ark., June 22, 1861. HON. L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War: Sir: I have the honor to transmit the inclosed copy of a communication from John Ross, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. Under all the circumstances of the case I do not think it advisable to march into the Cherokee country at this time unless there is some urgent necessity for it. If the views expressed in my communication to you of the 14th instant are carried out, it will, I am satisfied, force the conviction on the Cherokees that they have but one course to pursue--that is, to join the Confederacy. The Choctaw and Chickasaw regiment will be kept on the south of them; Arkansas will be to the east; and with my force on the western border of Missouri no force will be able to march into the Cherokee Nation, and surrounded as they will be by Southern troops, they will have but one alternative at all events. From my position to the north of them, in any event, I will have a controlling power over them. I am satisfied from my interview with John Ross and from his communication that he is only waiting for some favorable opportunity to put himself with the North. His neutrality is only a pretext to await the issue of events. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, BEN. MCCULLOCH, Brigadier-General Commanding. _Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 595-596. [245] See Pike to Toombs, May 20, 1861 [_Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 580-581].