is by far the best road if it is put in repair. This road is washed out along the track of the nigh wheels. The gully thus formed should be filled with stones, and these should be covered with earth. The lefthand road has one short turn that cannot be straightened. Here the coupling poles and tongues of wagons are liable to become broken, thus rendering it indispensably necessary that the right-hand road should be fixed at once. The working party may be mustered "on extra duty, quartermaster's department laborers." Two or three wells should at once be dug at Sackett's Wells. Have this done by the same party. The curbing of the well at Indian Well is broken near the top. The pieces of plank of which this curbing is formed, each piece being about four or five feet in length, are decayed, and some of them have fallen in. I have ordered Captain Moore, assistant quartermaster, U. S. Army, to forward to you 600 feet of plank for the repair of this well. Two wagons with this plank and some barley leave Camp Drum to-day. They are to deliver the plank at Indian Well, and then proceed on to Fort Yuma. The before-mentioned party had better proceed with them as far as the scene of its labors. Send the necessary tools, nails, buckets, and ropes, &c., for repairing and cleaning out the wells from Carriso Creek to that point, inclusive. Major Rigg will cause all wells. beyond Indian Well to be repaired and cleaned out. Send ten empty barrels to Indian Well, to be left there as water barrels. Order all troops and parties which pass your post to cross the desert to send on ahead to have these filled, if it should be necessary that this should be done, from the number of men and animals in such party, and when that party leaves those wells to have some water left in each barrel that it may not fall to pieces. I understand that Mr. George Williams, who lives at San Felipe, says he will deliver at Carriso Creek, and at Sackett's Wells, and at Indian Well some hay, if required. I wish you to contract with him, or any other responsible party, to put at once fifteen tons of hay at each of those places, if it can be done at what the Overland Mail Company last paid for hay delivered at those points. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES H. CARLETON,

Colonel First California Volunteers, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS CAMP WRIGHT,

Oak Grove, San Diego County, Cal., March 16, 1862.

Lieut. B. C. CUTLER,

Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen., Southern Dist. of California, Los Angeles: I have the honor to report the receipt of a letter (no date) from Maj. E. A. Rigg, First Infantry California Volunteers, commanding at Fort Yuma, in which, after referring to certain movements of the enemy which he has no doubt communicated to the colonel commanding the district, he says: "I wish you would forward on without delay Captain Mead's company of cavalry. I will have barley and rations for them at Indian Well on the 16th instant, four days from this post, to meet his command. What I now require is cavalry." The colonel commanding will not fail to notice that this must have been written after Major Rigg was apprised that the balance of Company A, First Cavalry California Volunteers, was en route to his post. I have kept here the ambulance and three of the teams that accompanied the battalion under Major Coult, the first presuming that it was intended to remain here and the

teams until the three belonging to this post return from San Diego, in case I should be required to re-enforce Fort Yuma at short notice.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. R. WEST,

Lieutenant-Colonel First Infantry California Volunteers, Comdg.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,
Camp Drum, near New San Pedro, Cal.,

Lieut. Col. J. R. WEST,

Sunday Evening, March 16, 1862.

First Infantry California Vols., Comdg. at Camp Wright, Cal.: COLONEL: Order Captain Greene's company to march to Fort Yuma without delay. It will not take tents, but will take 10,000 rounds of ammunition and rations only sufficient for the march. The transportation can be the transportation of your camp, if none of the wagons recently sent hence with forage and subsistence have reached you. It they have come to hand, send only enough of the latter to get the company through. All of the wagons are much needed here, and great reductions must be made in everything except ammunition and food and forage, so as to have as few move with the troops as possible. Look closely to this.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES H. CARLETON,

Colonel First Cavalry California Volunteers, Commanding. NOTE.-No one but Captain Greene need know the destination of this company.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, Camp Drum, near New San Pedro, Cal, March 16, 1862-7 p. m. Maj. E. A. RIGG,

First Infantry California Vols., Comdg. at Fort Yuma, Cal.: MAJOR: I have just received your note and Mr. Jones' statement. Mead's company for lack of forage had been ordered to Camp Carleton. It is fortunate you did not get it-the horses are so miserable forty-five of them have since been condemned. I have just sent word to Fergusson to send Captain Pishon's company to you, and if possible to get it through the San Gorgonio Pass. It is possible, though hardly probable, that Hunter may not have destroyed White's wheat and mill. If White could have gotten together the Pimas, Hunter with such a force would have had a warm reception. McCleave is too good a soldier to have been taken. I think you will find him all right. Now, if Hunter has come over and destroyed that flour and any of the hay, there is the greater reason why McCleave and Pishon and Calloway take the trail by Tinaja Alta, and falling suddenly upon Hunter destroy him. Troops will not be expected by that route. Do this if possible, but keep spies at least 100 miles in advance. If you find that the Texans at Gila City have been playing the spy, hang them. I do not believe that Sibley will send any 2,000 men to Tucson. I would not be surprised if he had been whipped at Craig. It was right, in case he moved on Craig, to send Hunter out toward California to give notice of any advance from this quarter which would cut him off from Texas. You are on the

ground, and can make any demonstration on Hunter which can be done with the three companies I have named, but no more troops must go in advance of Fort Yuma until further orders. I have just ordered West to send you Greene's company (G), First Infantry California Volunteers. Keep me advised of everything of importance which transpires around you. All this will not prevent you from carrying out my orders about the desert this side of Yuma. Of what you do in advance you must be the judge. But you must make no doubtful demonstration; you must be sure of success.

I am, major, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES H. CARLETON,

Colonel First Infantry California Volunteers, Commanding. NOTE.-You yourself must not leave Fort Yuma. Do not be stampeded. Let everything you do be the result of deliberate calculation. Keep your own counsel.

J. H. C.

HDQRS. FIRST REGIMENT CAVALRY OREGON VOLS.,
Portland, Oreg., March 16, 1862.

[Brig. Gen. G. WRIGHT:]

GENERAL: Yours of the 24th ultimo, notifying me of your authority to modify instructions given to me by the War Department, under date 24th September last, is received, and, as you have ordered, I have directed the organization of the six companies only which you mention. To do so two companies, which are being recruited, will be transferred to others not yet filled. Lieutenant-Colonel Maury has two full companies at Jacksonville and two more in process of organization in that part of the State. I have another full company at Salem. The others are being recruited at Oregon City, The Dalles, and these headquarters. I think a sufficient number of men are recruited to complete the organization of the six companies allowed, and have therefore ordered recruiting to be stopped until complete returns are rendered. As soon as these returns can be obtained I will forward them as you have directed. I hope to be able to do so by the first of next month. I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, T. R. CORNELIUS,

Colonel First Regiment Cavalry Oregon Volunteers.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,

Col. GEORGE W. BOWIE,

Los Angeles, Cal., March 17, 1862.

Fifth Infantry California Vols., Comdg. at Camp Latham, Cal.: COLONEL: I inclose herewith the copy of a letter which Mr. S. A. Bishop, of Fort Tejon, informs me he received from a Mr. W. A. Greenly, at Owen's Lake Valley. This letter represents that some serious difficulties may be apprehended between the white people and the Indians of that valley. You will at once order Lieutenant-Colonel Evans, Second Cavalry California Volunteers, to proceed via Fort Tejon, the Tejon Reservation, and Walker's Basin to Owen's Lake to inquire into the truth of all the matters set forth in this letter which relate to the difficulties just named. Lieutenant-Colonel Evans will have for an escort Captain

Winne, Lieutenant French, and Lieutenant Oliver, and forty men picked from the three companies of cavalry at Camp Latham, and he will leave Camp Latham for the scene of these apprehended difficulties Wednesday morning, the 19th instant. The party will have forty days' rations and 100 rounds of ammunition per man. Beef can be bought upon the road, and barley at Fort Tejon and at Walker's Basin. I have heard that the white men went into Owen's Lake Valley and took their stock onto the fields of grass which is cultivated by those Indians, the root of the grass being used by them as an article of food, and that, on the Indians remonstrating with them, they persisted in keeping their stock in these fields. The Indians in Owen's Lake Valley are known to be an inoffensive, gentle race. Up to this time they have never been hostile to the whites. They live mostly on the larvæ of a fly which lays its eggs upon the water of the lake. These are driven ashore by the winds and gathered in large quantities for food. The Indians there depend on this article and on the grass roots for their subsistence. So you can judge that a people who require the use of no other weapons than such as are necessary to procure these supplies are not very dangerous as an enemy. It was the intention of the Government at one time to make that region of country a reservation for all the Indians in Southern California. Since the Washoe and Coso mines have been discovered, people have gone into this valley with stock, to be convenient to the mines for the sale of beef, &c., and the poor Indians are doubtless at a loss to know how to live, having their fields turned into pastures whether they are willing or not willing. It is very possible, therefore, that the whites are to blame, and it is also probable that in strict justice they should be compelled to move away and leave the valley to its rightful owners. Another consideration must be taken into account. The whites there may desire to have a military post in that vicinity, as well to protect them as to be a market for their beef. The question will be as to the necessity for such a post. If it shall prove on inquiry that a military post should be established there, as Lieutenant-Colonel Evans is now the only available cavalry field officer in the district who could be sent to establish it, it would be well for him to have an eye to a site, say for a two-company cavalry post, while he is on the duty ordered in this letter. Lieutenant Frink will furnish Colonel Evans with three of the wagons and teams which he has just received at San Pedro for transportation. Lieutenant-Colonel Evans will make a written report of his labors, to be sent to General Wright, to whom I forward a copy of this letter.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES H. CARLETON,

Colonel First California Volunteers, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,

Maj. D. FERGUSSON,

Camp Drum, Cal., March 17, 1862.

First Cavalry California Vols., Comdg. at Camp Carleton, Cal.: MAJOR: This will be handed to you by Mr. J. W. Jones. Mr. Jones will inform you of the reasons why it is necessary for Captain Pishon to move as quickly as possible; to carry rations in the haversacks of the men, to carry barley in sacks, to use pack-mules if they can be had, and to go the route through the San Gorgonio Pass, if possible. Mr.

Jones will pilot him over the road. No one must know of the intelligence which Mr. Jones communicates to you except Captain Pishon and yourself.

I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
BEN. C. CUTLER,

First Lieut., First Infty. California Vols., Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,

Maj. E. A. RIGG,

Camp Drum, Cal., March 17, 1862.

First Infantry California Vols., Commanding at Fort Yuma, Cal.: MAJOR: This letter will be handed to you by Mr. J. W. Jones, who will make known to you the views of the colonel commanding in relation to the disposition of McCleave's and Pishon's companies of cavalry, and Calloway's company of infantry, increased to 100 strong. This movement has for its object the capture of the secession forces in and about Tucson, Ariz. Ter., and the colonel directs me to remind you that time is now everything; that a bold and rapid movement is the only thing which will accomplish the object had in view, and that whatever is done, must be done without delay. The colonel commanding is informed that Mr. J. W. Jones, of Fort Yuma, has about 5,000 pounds of good corn which he will sell at 5 cents per pound. You are at liberty to buy it, and 20,000 pounds more of corn or barley, if you can get it. You are also at liberty to buy Mr. Jones' mules, say not to exceed twenty, at a fair price. He says that some six of them are worth $200 apiece; the remainder $125 apiece. You may need these mules for McCleave's expedition against Tucson. Work quick, night and day, and you are bound, all of you, to get immense credit. If you can, destroy or capture Hunter and his men and send me their flag. The colonel commanding desires that you have as little barley consumed at your post as possible. If Hunter is taken, his horses should be brought down as far as Grinnel's on that good grass. McCleave's and Pishon's horses, in this event, will be kept at the Pima Villages, the troops having intrenched themselves, and the prisoners marched down to Fort Yuma by a guard of infantry and but few mounted men. This will get the horses fat and in good condition for any work which you may hereafter turn up east of the Pima Villages, and prevent your barley from being eaten up. The colonel commanding.directs that Assistant Surgeon McKee accompany the command on the trail. Since writing to you about the pemmican, it is decided by the colonel commanding that you cannot wait for it. Mr. Jones will tell you about taking rations, and about getting supplies at Tucson, if the party is successful; if not successful, and they cannot purchase beef, they will not starve as long as they have horses and mules. But above all things, do not break everything down by carrying unnecessary baggage and prisoners. On all of these points consult with Mr. Jones, who has been over the country; figure closely, but figure quick. Be sure that every mounted man has an empty sack for barley, and that the infantry company take intrenching tools.

In conclusion, the colonel commanding directs me to say to you that if the infantry pass up the road by where the copper-mine road turns off, a day in advance of the time when the cavalry turns off to go toward the copper mine, the enemy's spies will report on the advance of the infantry and not wait to report on the advance of the cavalry.