Bryan Howerton and Alan Pitts,

The main reason I wanted to draw attention to Captain Hawkins' militia was to locate:

1) Station: Deen, Cherokee Nation
........Date: December 31, 1861

2) Camp Weightman, "... Now stationed at Camp Weightman, Washington County, Arkansas." ..The date that Major J.W. Whitfield wrote those words is not clear, but was probably about December 5, 1861.

The above may seem trivial to some, but the smallest details are important to me. ..Few understand that my purpose is to help develop the history of Oklahoma. ... I knew all along that this research effort would cost me more than I can afford, but the ends justify the means.

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To address your comment.... "Just curious -- when you ask about legal descriptions, are we talking about a court document? Where else have you been able to locate legal descriptions of Confederate camps?"

I was born and raised in southern Oklahoma where "oil leases and the location oil leases" are very important in everyday life for some. We think in terms of "legal descriptions" vs. e.g. "from the bend of the creek to the black oak tree." I have many relatives who can recite the exact legal description of every physical features within a several-county radius.

... I must relate an experience I had in the Paducah, McCracken County KY courthouse. I kept finding incomplete legal descriptions of plots of land, so I asked a lawyer (who had been there all day with his aide) if the township number on all records meant "North" or "South". He quickly responded that he should know but he didn't.

One section of volume II of my book is entitled "Appendix P. Some Military Posts and Hideouts in Indian Territory." ..After I locate where a place is located, the first thing I do is to find its legal description, because that is what Oklahomans understand. And yes, Confederate records do not show legal descriptions.

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If you will send me your e-mail addresses, I will send you the four pages from my book that addresses Captain Hawkins' militia.

Thank you for tolerating my questions and short-sightedness.

Patti, prochette@juno.com