ancestors of two federally recognized Seminole tribes in Florida today. Van Dorn served with the recruiting service in 1850 and 1851. From 1852 to 1855 Van Dorn was stationed at the East Pascagoula Branch Military Asylum in Mississippi, serving as secretary then treasurer of the post. He spent the remainder of 1855 stationed at New Orleans, Louisiana, briefly on recruiting service again, and later garrisoned again at Jefferson Barracks. He was promoted to captain in the 2nd Cavalry on March 3, 1855. Van Dorn and the 2nd were on frontier duty at Fort Belknap and Camp Cooper, Texas, in 1855 and 1856, scouting in northern Texas in 1856, and fought a minor skirmish with Comanche on July 1, 1856. He was assigned to Camp Colorado, Texas, in 1856 to 1857, scouting duty again in 1857, returned to Camp Colorado in 1857 to 1858, and finally stationed in 1858 at Fort Chadbourne located in Coke County, Texas. Van Dorn saw further action against Native Americans: separately against the Seminole, many of whom had been removed to Indian Territory. There he also fought against the Comanche, who attacked new Native American settlements there that the US had promised to protect. He was wounded four separate times while in Indian Territory, including seriously when he commanded an expedition against the Comanche and took two arrows (one in his left arm and another in his right side, damaging his stomach and lung) at the Battle of Wichita Village on October 1, 1858. Not expected to live, Van Dorn recovered in five weeks. Van Dorn led six companies of cavalry and a company of scouts recruited from the Brazos Reservation in a spring campaign against the Comanche in 1859. He located the camp of Buffalo Hump in Kansas (in a valley he erroneously identified as the Nescutunga (or Nessentunga), and defeated them on May 13, 1859. His forces killed 49 persons, wounded five and capturing 32 Comanche women. He served at Fort Mason, Texas, in 1859 and 1860. While at Fort Mason, Van Dorn was promoted to the rank of major on June 28, 1860. He was on a leave of absence from the U.S. Army for the rest of 1860 and into 1861. Civil War service As the Civil War began, Van Dorn enlisted in the Confederate cause. He resigned his U.S. Army commission, which was accepted effective January 31, 1861. He was appointed