On May 10, 1838, at the Cherokee Agency in Charleston, Tennessee, Major General Winfield Scott warned the Cherokees that troops already occupied many positions in the country they were to abandon and that thousands more were approaching from every quarter, making resistance and escape hopeless. He told them that the regular and militia troops were their friends, urged them to receive and trust them as such, and ordered them to obey when told they could remain no longer in the country. The Cherokee were given until May 23, 1838, to remove voluntarily, but few left before the deadline, and from his headquarters in present-day Charleston Scott delivered this warning in anticipation of that deadline.