Jamie, it's no doubt true the CSA would have run into more Comanche than Souix. But in 1864 the Souix found the frontier pretty empty of any kind of soldiers, and went on the war path. I have a book somewhere (we just moved) called The Indian War of 1864, by Captain Eugene Ware. He was assigned to cover the trail from St. Louis toward Oregon, primarily along the Platte. I'm not sure he had any galvanized Yankees along or not. The duty was very hard, chasing up and down the trail, mostly just missing Indians. One of the saddest chapters concerned a young trooper who got so discouraged he went down by the Platte one evening and shot himself to death with his 1860 Army revolver. As I recall, Captain Ware was very moved by this untimely and unnecessary death, in a time of so much death. Stan