The organization of the Choctaw and Chickasaw units is beyond confusing. First my disclaimer.... the records are so confusing, anything is possible and nothing is completely reliable. Also, more men died of illness than combat but at any time a man was as risk of being shot by renegades, outlaws, personal enemies, enemy scouts, or by accident.

To add to the confusion, the records of the 1st Choctaw & Chickasaw Mounted Rifles (Cooper's) and the 1st Choctaw Mounted Rifles (Sampson Folsom's) are mixed up on Fold3.com.

The service record for Capt Reason Jones shows he was in Col. Sampson Folsom's 1st Choctaw Regiment. He may have previously been a member of the 1st Choctaw Battalion under Lt Col. Battice.

At the time of the Battle of Bayou Menard (July 27, 1862), the 1st Choctaw & Chickasaw Mtd Rifles was undergoing reorganization, their one year enlistments having expired. The newly organized 1st Choctaw MR (Folsom's) was sent to Ft Davis and whatever men of the 1st C&C MR were available. It has been speculated that the Choctaw captain killed at Bayou Menard was Iskatini Homa (1st co. C, 2nd Co. K, 1st C&C Mtd Rifles) who was replaced by Sampson Loring. Solomon R. Jones was previously adjutant of the 1st C&C Mtd Rifles, then 1st Lt. 2nd co. K, then captain of 2nd co. E, and promoted to major in Oct. 1862.

The other captain killed at Bayou Menard may have been Jefferson Hicks of Drew's 1st Cherokee Mtd Rifles -- all but about 80 men of Drew's Regt defected joining the 2nd and 3rd Indian Home Guard (US) in the weeks before the Battle of Bayou Menard. The colonel killed was Lt. Col. Thomas Fox Taylor of Watie's 1st Cherokee Mtd Volunteers (an ancestor of mine) who was captured and turned over to the Pins (Cherokee) who murdered him.

Edward Folsom, 1st co. E of the 1st C&C MR, says that Taylor was commanding about 100 Choctaw. He states that "his captain" was killed. This was not Lemuel Reynolds of 1st co. E. There is no service record of Edward Folsom's new company after the reorganization. (He may have later transferred to Col. Simpson N. Folsom's 2nd Choctaw Regt.) He mentions Tom Ellis and Cyrus Folsom who are both on the rosters of the 1st Choctaw MR, not the 1st C&C MR. It appears these 100 Choctaw and a few Cherokee were the only troops available to scout toward Tahlequah. Edward Folsom said all the Cherokee were killed.

Ken