Among the Delawares, Falleaf held the title of “captain,” a traditional honor that dated back at least to the 1700s. Warriors were under the command of captains, especially in times of war, and did nothing without their consent. (Black Beaver was a captain, too, but his name usually appears without the title.)

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By 1862, Falleaf was approximately 55 years old. He had sharpened his leadership abilities as a guide, army scout, and trapper. In 1858, he was employed as a guide for seven companies of soldiers commanded by Colonel Edwin V. Sumner in a U.S. Army expedition against the Cheyenne. While pursuing the Kiowa and Comanche near Bent’s Fort in 1860, Falleaf’s rifle accidentally discharged, disfiguring his face. The next year, he once again served as a guide, this time for three companies of soldiers under Major John Sedgwick, a future Union general.

Conditions deteriorated for the Unionist Indians in Indian Territory during the fall of 1861, and pro-Union tribal groups began moving to friendlier territory. In December of that year, Creek Chief Opothleyahola led a large group of pro-Union Indians to Kansas, fighting their way northward through the Indian Territory. With him were at least 111 Delaware refugees and James McDaniel, a Cherokee political ally of pro-Union Cherokee Chief John Ross. In January 1862, the Delaware chiefs loaned McDaniel $125 to enable him to remove his family from the pro-Confederate Cherokee Nation to the Delaware Nation until he could return home in safety.

The disruption and violence the Civil War was causing in the Indian Territory concerned William Dole, U.S. commissioner of Indian Affairs, and in January 1862 he requested that Indian agents “engage forthwith all the vigorous and ablebodied Indians in their respective agencies.” Dole set out the provisions to be supplied to the Indian troops: “a blanket, a proper ration of salt, fresh beef or fresh pork, corn or corn meal, and wheat flour be provided each recruit; that one interpreter be hired for every 150 Indians mustered into the service; and that arms be furnished to all who do not prefer to use their own.” Dole hoped to assemble 4,000 Indian soldiers ready for service.

By March 1862, Dole had convinced the War Department to detail two regiments of volunteers and 2,000 loyal Indians from Kansas to accompany thousands of impoverished Indian refugees back to their homes in Indian Territory. On May 2, 1862, Brigadier General James G. Blunt took command of the Department of Kansas. Blunt endorsed Doles’s plan for an “Indian Expedition,” sped up the organization and moved up the departure date. He chose Colonel William Weer of the 10th Kansas Infantry to command the force.

The expedition’s first regiment–the 1st Kansas Indian Home Guards–filled rapidly with loyal Creeks and Seminoles. The second regiment, Colonel John Ritchie’s 2d Kansas Indian Home Guards, took longer. Ritchie had gone south to recruit Osages, but internal feuding between local Indian Affairs personnel retarded recruitment efforts. Also a problem was the multi-tribal makeup of the 2d Indian Home Guards, which was composed of Delaware, Kickapoo, Osage, Shawnee, Seneca, and members of some of the Five Civilized Nations (Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw).

Within one week, Falleaf was actively raising Company D of the 2d Kansas Indian Home Guard, some of whom had already arrived at the Union camp in Leroy, Kansas. With Falleaf’s help, Ritchie recruited the Indians around Big Creek and Five Mile Creek, Kansas, in June 1862. At its height the unit fielded 86 mounted men. None of them would ever be reported killed or wounded in action, although 11 would die of disease and nine would be listed as deserters in the regimental books.

The First Federal Indian Expedition headed south at dawn on June 28. Ritchie’s 2d Home Guard still had only 500 to 600 men, compared to more than 1,000 in the 1st Indian Regiment. About half marched on foot, and half were mounted.

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