After S. G. Spann was authorized to raise Indian troops in April 1863, he soon established a recruiting camp in Mobile, Alabama and Newton County, Mississippi. Spann placed recruiting advertisements in the "Mobile Advertiser and Register". The advertisements appeared in the newspaper for most of the summer of 1863. Spann's organization was known as Spann's Independent Scouts. It was soon re-organized as the 18th Battalion, Alabama Cavalry. The unit helped with Gideon J. Pillow's conscription efforts in the fall of 1863. Spann was the commander of U.C.V. Camp Dabney H. Maury which was based in Newton, Mississippi. Spann lived in Meridian, Mississippi at the time he wrote about the deeds of the Choctaw during the Civil War.