General McCulloch having been ordered by the Confederate authorities to take command of the district of country embracing the Indian Territory, with headquarters at Fort Smith, addressed[562] a communication to John Ross again assuring him of his intention to respect the neutrality of the Cherokee people, except that all those members of the tribe who should so desire must be permitted to enlist in the Confederate army, without interference or molestation, for purposes of defense in case of an invasion from the North. To this Ross replied,[563] reasserting the determination of the Cherokees to maintain a strict neutrality between the contending parties. He refused his consent to any organization or enlistment of Cherokee troops into the Confederate service, for the reason, first, it would be a palpable violation of the Cherokee position of neutrality, and, second, it would place in their midst organized companies not authorized by the Cherokee laws, but in violation of treaty, and which would soon become effective instruments in stirring up domestic strife and creating internal difficulties among the Cherokee people. General McCulloch in his letter had assumed that his proposition for permitting enlistments of Cherokees of Confederate sympathies was in accordance with the views expressed to him by Ross in an interview occurring some eight or ten days previous, wherein the latter had observed that in case of an invasion from the North he himself would lead the Cherokees to repel it. Ross, in his reply above alluded to, takes occasion to assure McCulloch that the latter had misapprehended his language. It was only in case of a foreign invasion that he had offered to lead his men in repelling it. He had not signified any purpose as to an invasion by either the Northern or Southern forces, because he had not apprehended and could not give his consent to any.