Nathan,
Watie's "battalion" was organized and enrolled as of July 12, 1861 for one year. A couple of months later Watie was authorized to expand to a regiment. In July 1862, their enlistments expired. Most but not all re-enlisted in the reorganized 1st Cherokee Mtd Vols. I suspect your Samuel Patton did not re-enlist in Watie's Regt at this time, eventually re-enlisting on Jan. 13, 1863 in (or near) Ft Smith AR. It is unlikely Watie was in or near Ft Smith on this date as Watie had gone south to meet with Cooper and to see his family. Of course, Watie may have on some other date approved the enlistment. He was likely re-enrolled in D.C. Patton's "unlettered" Company, one of the "extra" companies attached to Watie's Regt, at this time.

As of Feb. 3, 1863, Bryan's Battalion was combined with the 'extra' companies of Watie's Regt to form Adair's 2nd Cherokee Mtd Vols. (For clarification, Patton's Company was not added to Bryan's Battalion. These 'extra' companies and Bryan's Battalion were combined to form the 2nd Cherokee Mtd Vols.)

One could supposed he was operating with guerillas during the period between July 1862 and Jan. 1863 or even with Bryan's Battalion though there is no record of this. What I would conclude from the above is that he served with Watie's battalion and 1st Cherokee Mtd Vols from July 1861 to July 1862, his whereabouts unknown until re-enlisting in January 1863 in Patton's Company. Beginning February 3rd, 1863 he was in Adair's 2nd Cherokee Mtd Vols, Co. E, with his last record on June 30, 1863 being absent with leave to bring in 'absentees', which I assume to be those on furlough or AWOL who had not reported back to their companies. If he survived the war, I would assume he remained in Adair's for the duration.

There are several Pattons in the 1st and 2nd Cherokee Mtd Vols. It seems likely those in the same companies together were related. Can you identify any of the other Pattons and whether they were also from Benton County? I would speculate these were Arkansans who were closely tied to their Cherokee neighbors and did not want to be sent east of the Mississippi with other Arkansas troops. There are quite a few Arkansans and Missourians in the Cherokee units.

Ken