HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WESTERN ARIZONA, Capt. WILLIAM MCCLEAVE, First Cavalry California Volunteers, Tucson, Ariz. Ter.: CAPTAIN: A train of five wagons will be sent to-morrow to arrive at Tubac to move Companies A and E, First Cavalry California Volunteers, to El Reventon. On arriving there Company E, First Cavalry California Volunteers, will garrison that place until further orders. Lieut. C. P. Nichols has already received instructions in regard to this. In compliance with General Orders, No. 10, from headquarters Column from California, dated 17th instant, you will, after having posted Company E at El Reventon, move with your company and company property to this place, so as to arrive here on or before the 29th instant, using for your transportation the five wagons sent out and leaving one wagon for a post team at El Reventon. Bring from Tubac subsistence for your company up to the 31st instant. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, D. FERGUSSON, Major, First Cavalry California Volunteers, Commanding. Col. FRANCIS J. LIPPITT, HEADQUARTERS, Fort Bragg, July 22, 1862. Commanding District of Humboldt, Fort Humboldt, Cal.: SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt by express of your communications of the 16th instant. I am exceedingly obliged to the commanding colonel for the information given in regard to being relieved from this post. I very much desire a change of post. My men have been stationed here nearly nine months and have not received a dollar's pay nor seen one day's service except garrison duty. The colonel will very readily conclude that it requires considerable exertion on the part of the officers to keep the command in proper discipline under such disagreeable circumstances, yet the conduct of the men has been excellent. They have given good attention to cleanliness, drill, and discipline, far better than could have been expected while subjected to such monotonous duties. But four desertions have occurred, and they were bad and almost worthless men. My command is very proficient in company, skirmish, and bayonet drill. They execute the skirmish by bugle calls very correctly, and in the care and cleanliness of arms and accouterments I do not think they are excelled by any company in the service. I have put everything in condition as far as possible to turn over the command and property without delay. Invoices and receipts of property have been made, and only require dates and signatures to complete the business. I sincerely hope the company to relieve us will come at an early day. The descriptive list required in your circular of the 15th instant will be forwarded at an early day. In regard to the reservation, &c., I respectfully submit the following: First. The Mendocino Indian Reservation comprises four distinct farms or stations: First. Headquarters (so called), one-half mile south from this post; number of 200 Second. Cullabool farm, two miles south of post; number of Indians. Total Indians upon the reservation...... 150 100 550 1,000 A very large proportion of the above are peaceable and well disposed. They are under the immediate control and direction of agents and employés of the reservation and require very little, if any, military protection. One company is amply sufficient for that purpose. Second. Settlements, &c.: The principal settlement near this post is at the Noyo Mills, one mile distant. It employs from sixty to seventy hands at all times, and consequently is amply sufficient for its own protection. Mendocino City, ten miles south, is the next nearest settlement and needs no protection other than its own citizens can afford. One company is all-sufficient for any exigency which can possibly arise between the whites and Indians of this section. Third. Distances, roads, &c.: I have no method of ascertaining the exact distances called for. The following approximation is probably as nearly correct as can be obtained without actual measurement, viz: From Fort Bragg to Whipple's, trail good, especially at low tide, when, by following the ocean beach, some six miles of sand hills can be avoided. Two rivers, both easily forded at low tide, intersect this part of the route. DISTANCES, ETC. Miles. From Whipple's to Beall's Ranch (good upland trail). From Beall's Ranch to Usal (narrow mountainous trail, very rough, but passable for pack trains)......... 8 18 From Usal to Bear Harbor (very rough and mountainous, but passable at all seasons) 22 From Bear Harbor to Shelter Cove... 828 Good trail (at low tide by the beach two miles); by the upland trail (rough and mountainous) additional distance... 4 From Shelter Cove to Upper Mattole (good upland trail). 30 The whole distance can be made in from five to six days by pack trains (quicker in summer than winter), and by an express rider in from three and a half to four days. Good grass and fresh water are abundant at convenient distances along the entire route. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. B. MOORE, Captain, Third California Volunteer Infantry, Commanding Post. ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS, Fort Walla Walla, July 22, 1862. I. In compliance with Special Orders, No. 35, headquarters District of Oregon, Company F, First Cavalry Oregon Volunteers, under command of Maj. J. S. Rinearson, First Cavalry Oregon Volunteers, will hold itself in readiness to proceed on the 1st proximo to the Lapwai, near Lewiston, and establish a camp thereat. The acting commissary of subsistence will supply the command with rations for the month of August (thirty-one days), and the acting assistant quartermaster will furnish the necessary transportation. The command will remain in the field until November 1, 1862. . * By order of Lieutenant-Colonel Maury: HENRY MCCANN, First Lieutenant, Fourth California Volunteers, Post Adjutant. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WESTERN ARIZONA, Lieut. Col. E. A. RIGG, First Infantry California Volunteers, Commanding Battalion en route to the Rio Grande: COLONEL: According to instructions from the general commanding the Column from California, I send by two wagons, to go with your command, to-day 3,000 pounds of flour and 1,500 pounds of panocha for the people of Pinos Altos. I have also ordered 1,500 pounds of pemmican, according to General Carleton's instructions, to be turned over by Lieutenant Phelan, acting commissary of subsistence of Colonel West's command, to go with the flour and panocha. It will be necessary to send forward an escort to Pinos Altos with the provisions. Will you see that Lieutenant Phelan turns over the pemmican and that the provisions arrive safely at their destination. The following are General Carleton's orders in the case: Major FERGUSSON, TUCSON, July 22, 1862. First Cav. Cal. Vols., Comdg. Dist. of Western Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. Ter.: MAJOR: Send to Pinos Altos, for the relief of the people herein described as famishing at that point for want of food, the following subsistence stores: 3,000 pounds of Sonora flour, 1,500 pounds of pemmican, and 1,500 pounds panocha (Mexican sugar). Respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES H. CARLETON, Brigadier-General, U. S. Army. In case the people have left Pinos Altos, the subsistence will go on with the command. William Marks is the name of the person who applied for relief for the people at Pinos Altos. I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Major, First Cavalry California Volunteers, Commanding. OGILBY'S, Twenty-one Miles East of Placerville, July 23, 1862–8.30 p. m. Maj. R. C. DRUM: Am encamped here to-night and progressing finely. P. EWD. CONNOR. SPECIAL ORDERS, } HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON, Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter., July 23, 1862. I. Pursuant to instructions from the headquarters of the Department of the Pacific, dated the 11th of July, First Lieut. W. B. Hughes, Ninth Infantry, is relieved from duty as acting assistant adjutant-general at these headquarters, and will repair to Fort Walla Walla, where he will perform the duties of acting assistant quartermaster and commissary at that post. * By order of Brigadier-General Alvord: WM. B. HUGHES, First Lieut., Ninth Infantry, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. FORT BAKER, CAL., July 24, 1862. First Lieut. JOHN HANNA, Jr., Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen., Humboldt Mil. Dist., Fort Humboldt, Cal.: SIR: I have the honor to report the return of the scout sent out from this post on the 15th instant. The detachment under the command of Sergeant Jones, Company A, Third Infantry California Volunteers, marched to Fort Seward, Eel River, by the way of Larrabee Valley. From Fort Seward took an easterly direction about ten miles, and there surprised and captured 2 squaws and 1 child, July 19. The squaws were liberated and directed to find their friends and bring them into camp, where they would be well treated. The camp was then moved about three miles to the northward. The command remained at this point two days, the Indians coming in and delivering themselves up to the number of 112 (36 bucks, 50 squaws, 26 children). There could have been more Indians obtained could the command have waited longer, but the provisions giving out they were compelled to return to the fort, arriving here at 10 o'clock a. m. I am crippled in my movements for want of mules. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, THOS. E. KETCHAM, Captain, Third Infantry California Volunteers, Commanding Post. General L. THOMAS, HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.: GENERAL: This communication I shall forward to you through the headquarters of the Department of the Pacific, and its object is to urge the importance of reviving the Department of Oregon, as established in General Orders, No. 10, from the Adjutant-General's Office, dated 13th of September, 1858. I would respectfully represent that every reason which could then be urged for the measure still exists, with the additional consideration that during the existence of the civil war there must necessarily be constant apprehension that at any moment we may be plunged into a foreign war. In that case this region is the most exposed and vulnerable, as it is the most remote of all our Territories. Fortunately the large emigration now pouring into it across the plains and from California is adding to its population good material for armies in case of trouble. But the occupation of new gold fields in the easterly portion of Washington Territory will only increase the chances of Indian difficulties. I only repeat an argument often urged by those in command in their dispatches to the War Department from this quarter, that the length of time required for communication between this point and San Francisco is too great for the proper regulation there of military affairs in this quarter. I understand that during the last year of the existence of the two distinct Departments of Oregon and California authority existed for the senior commander to concentrate troops upon any emergency. I can see no obstacle to the existence of such a regulation, leaving otherwise the two departments in their full independence, and ready to perform the most efficient service. This provis ion was only a substitute for a still better arrangement, such as existed in 1850, when there was a major-general commanding the Pacific Division, embracing the two departments then called Depart ment No. 10 (California), and No. 11 (Oregon). The general orders of 13th of September, 1858, establishing the boundaries of the old Department of Oregon, very properly left the valleys of Rogue River and Umpqua in the Department of California, those valleys being supplied from San Francisco, and more intimately connected with it by mail and commerce. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, BENJ. ALVORD, Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding District. GENERAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON, I. First Lieut. W. B. Hughes, Ninth Infantry, having, pursuant to instructions from the headquarters Department of the Pacific, been ordered to Fort Walla Walla to perform the duties of acting assistant quartermaster and commissary at that post, First Lieut. Frederick Mears, Ninth Infantry, is directed to perform the duties of acting assistant adjutant-general at these headquarters. II. All communications for this office will hereafter be addressed to the acting assistant adjutant-general, headquarters District of Oregon. BENJ. ALVORD, Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding District. SPECIAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON, Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter., July 24, 1862. Maj. J. F. Curtis, Second Infantry California Volunteers, with Companies B, C, and D, of that regiment, will, pursuant to instructions from the headquarters Department of the Pacific, dated the 12th ultimo, proceed to Fort Humboldt, Cal. The assistant quartermaster of this post will furnish the necessary transportation in the first steamship which can go into the harbor of Humboldt. If carried by through stress of weather they will be landed at Alcatraz Island. By order of Brigadier-General Alvord: FREDERICK MEARS, First Lieut., Ninth Infantry, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, Brig. Gen. LORENZO THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.: GENERAL: My latest advices from General Carleton's command are dated on the 6th instant. He was still at Tucson, Ariz., preparing to move east on Mesilla and the Rio Grande. The great drought in that country had caused an uncommon scarcity of water, but as the rainy season was commencing when the general wrote, he hoped to get off by the middle of July. The weather in Arizona is very hot, and the passage of our wagons over the hot sands of the deserts has caused them to shrink and require constant repairing. Thus far the movement of the Column from California has been successful in every particular. We have lost no men or public property. Our troops are in fine health and |