After the Cherokees refused to emigrate, the Army and civilian volunteers began a brutal roundup on May 26, 1838, capturing men and women in their homes, farmers in their fields, and children at play, often giving them no time to gather belongings before marching them away with only the clothes on their backs. By mid-July 1838, 13,870 people were confined in stockades under deplorable conditions during a severe drought, and the Army’s attempt to transport 3,000 Cherokees by water proved disastrous. Fearing the toll of travel during the “sickly season,” Cherokee leaders secured permission to direct their own removal and delay the overland journey until fall. Between August 28 and November 7, 1838, twelve detachments of about one thousand each left by land and one smaller detachment by water, with nine of the land detachments departing their ancestral homeland at Blythe’s Ferry. Crossing the river was slow, and many people camped for as long as six weeks in fields and forests east of the ferry before continuing west, where they endured long days on foot, harsh winter weather, and the Army’s failure to provide promised support in their new land. No accurate record exists of the deaths caused by Cherokee Removal, but physician Elizur Butler, who attended the emigrating Cherokees, estimated that about 1,500 died in Army water transport, 2,000 died in the stockades, and 700 died on the trail, for a total of 4,200—more than one-fourth of the 16,542 Cherokees counted in the 1835 Census; some scholars place the deaths as high as 8,000 when the aftermath is included.