spirits and well supplied. The rebels have been driven out of the country, and the general assures me that Arizona is as well ordered and quiet as any part of California. Brigadier-General Carleton's column, as well as the troops at Fort Yuma, have been principally supplied via the Gulf of California, and thence up the Colorado River to Yuma, but with Carleton's column of 1,500 men in Arizona and eastward, his supplies can be sent from this city to Tucson for one-half what it now costs us, provided we can send them through the Mexican State of Sonora. I have conferred with Mr. Robinson and other influential and leading men' who have been long residents at Guaymas, and I am assured that there will be no difficulty in this matter, and that our army supplies could be landed either at Guaymas or at Lobos, a preferable point, about midway between Guaymas and the mouth of the Colorado, from which there is a good wagon road direct to Tucson, with an abundance of wood, water, and grass at convenient distances. The distance from Lobos to Tucson is much less than from Yuma to Tucson. Under these circumstances it is clearly the interest of the Government to send the supplies that way; but inasmuch as it might be improper for me to do so without being advised that an arrangement to that effect had been made between our Government and that of the Mexican Republic, I deem it proper to submit the subject to the consideration of the War Department. Should the Department decide that I can send the supplies through Sonora I shall be glad to be advised by telegraph, as additional stores must be sent forward within a few weeks. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. WRIGHT, Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, Brig. Gen. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.: GENERAL: Colonel Connor, Third Infantry California Volunteers, with his regiment, has passed the Sierra and is probably now in the vicinity of Carson City, Nev. Ter. Colonel Sims, with headquarters and two companies Second Cavalry California Volunteers, left this city on the 21st instant, and are now advancing on the Overland Mail Route and will join Colonel Connor beyond the mountains. This force, with the addition of one company of cavalry from Fort Churchill, will move forward and establish a post at Ruby Valley and another in the vicinity of Salt Lake, the latter to be the headquarters of Colonel Connor. Supplies for a year are being thrown forward for all the troops on the mail route, including Fort Churchill. In the District of Oregon all is quiet. The headquarters of the First Infantry Washington Territory Volunteers, Colonel Steinberger commanding, have been established at Fort Walla Walla. The Oregon cavalry company at Walla Walla were ordered to move on the 15th of July, on the emigrant road, to meet the approaching emigration and afford them protection through the Indian country. In the District of Humboldt Indian difficulties still continue. The troops have been zealous and indefatigable in their exertions, and more than 400 Indians have been captured and brought into Fort Humboldt and await the action of the superintendent of Indian affairs for their removal to some reservation. The Indian difficulties on Owen's Lake and River and Mono Lake, on the eastern border of this State, have nearly terminated, and it is expected that a permanent peace may be soon established. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. WRIGHT, Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, Commanding. SPECIAL ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS DWARI, Ter, Jus o DISTRICT OF OREGON, Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter., July 25, 1862. * III. Maj. J. F. Curtis, with Companies B, C, and D, of Second California Volunteer Infantry, will proceed to Alcatraz Island, en route to Fort Humboldt, Cal. The assistant quartermaster at this post will furnish the necessary transportation. * * * By order of Brigadier-General Alvord: FREDERICK MEARS, First Lieut., Ninth Infantry, U. S. Army, Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen. SPECIAL ORDERS,} HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON, I. Col. J. Steinberger, First Washington Territory Volunteer Infantry, with Companies A and E, First Washington Territory Volunteer Infantry, will repair by water to Fort Walla Walla, pursuant to instructions of the 21st instant from headquarters Department of the Pacific. The command will leave this post on the 30th instant. II. Companies A and C, of the Fourth California Volunteer Infantry, will proceed by water to Benicia, Cal., leaving Fort Walla Walla after the adjournment of the general court-martial convened at that post per Special Orders, No. 126, of the 21st instant, from department headquarters. * ** * V. A subaltern and twenty men of Oregon cavalry will be ordered to the Umatilla Indian Agency and relieve the detachment of Fourth California Volunteer Infantry now there, who will return to Fort Walla Walla. By order of Brigadier-General Alvord: ** FREDERICK MEARS, First Lieut., Ninth Infantry, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. GENERAL ORDERS,) HDQRS. COLUMN FROM CALIFORNIA, No. 12. Apache Pass, Overland Mail Station, I. A post will be established in this pass, which will be known as Fort Bowie. II. This post will be garrisoned by Company G, Fifth Infantry, increased to 100 men by a detachment from Company A, Fifth Infantry California Volunteers. Maj. T. A. Coult, Fifth Infantry California Volunteers, until further orders, is assigned to the command of Fort Bowie. Surg. David Wooster, Fifth Infantry California Volunteers, is also assigned to duty at that post. III. Col. Joseph R. West, First Infantry California Volunteers, as he passes Fort Bowie on his way to the Rio Grande, will furnish for the infantry portion of the garrison 120 rounds of ammunition per man. Lieutenant-Colonel Rigg, First Infantry California Volunteers, will see that the command is furnished with twenty days' rations of subsistence and a sufficient number of tents, including one hospital tent. Should Colonel Rigg not have an adequate number, they will be furnished from the supply train under command of Capt. William McCleave, First Cavalry California Volunteers, which will leave Tucson, Ariz. Ter., on the 2d proximo. From this train the commander of Fort Bowie will draw 10,000 rounds of musket ammunition and sixty days' rations of subsistence. Passing detachments will keep the command at Fort Bowie supplied with fresh beef until the arrival of the beef contractor, who will make arrangements to leave at that post sixty days' rations of fresh beef on the hoof, with two first-rate men to herd them. IV. The commanding officer at Fort Bowie will establish that post at the best point in the Apache Pass for the protection of travelers and passing trains. If this point, from the nature of the ground, cannot be found near the spring, a small redoubt on the most commanding position will be at once erected near that spring, and be occupied night and day by a picket guard strong enough to hold it. V. The commander at Fort Bowie will cause the Apache Indians to be attacked whenever and wherever he may find them near his post, unless they bear flags of truce. For this purpose he is at liberty to send out from time to time detachments from his post of such strength and to such points as the good of the service may require. He will, whenever necessary, cause all trains and expressmen to be escorted through the pass and well out into the open country on either hand, To effect all this a great deal is necessarily left to his judgment, caution, vigilance, and energy. VI. A detachment of cavalry will be added to the garrison of the post, and will come from the east with the first return train. By command of Brigadier-General Carleton: BEN. C. CUTLER, First Lieut., First Infty. California Vols., Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, Hon. J. G. DOWNEY, Los Angeles, Cal. : DEAR SIR: Mr. M. Morrison has presented to me the petition signed by Your Excellency and many other citizens and residents of the county of Los Angeles, asking for the establishment of a military post on the Colorado River at or near Fort Mojave. I need not assure Your Excellency that I feel a deep interest in the prosperity of the hardy pioneers who have done so much to develop the resources of the country, and that it will always afford me pleasure to afford them all the protection in my power. But at this moment I have no troops disposable for the establishment of permanent posts. The various columns I now have in the field, and the Indian wars actually being waged, have left me with few troops to meet any sudden emergency, and prudential considerations demand that what force I have remaining should not be removed far from the coast. With great respect, your most obedient servant, CIRCULAR.] G. WRIGHT, Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, Commanding. HEADQUARTERS COLUMN FROM CALIFORNIA, The following information of the watering places hence to the Miembres River is left at the station of the Rio de Sauz for the information of commanders of detachments of this column, viz: To the Cienega de Sauz, say, twelve miles, grass, water, and shrubs for fuel; here rest one day. From the cienega to Leitzendorfer's Wells, good road; distance, say, twenty-five miles; wood, grass, water only enough for fifty men, unless it has rained. From Leitzendorfer's Wells to Soldier's Farewell is a good road; distance, say, twenty-one miles; grass, shrubs for fuel, probably plenty of water in a tank. There is said to be a hole with a little bad water in it some 600 yards south of station at Soldier's Farewell. At Burro Mountain, three or four miles from Soldier's Farewell (northeast), is said to be water plenty. Indians bad here. If it has rained there will be a plenty of water in holes, but calculation must be made so as to go through on this information, save that little dependence can be placed on finding much water at Leitzendorfer's Wells. To Cow Springs from Soldier's Farewell is sixteen miles; here is water and grass plenty, but no wood. To Miembres River, say, eighteen miles; here is grass, water, wood in abundance; here rest. Total, ninety-two miles. By order of General Carleton: BEN. C. CUTLER, First Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, San Francisco, Cal., July 28, 1862. Brig. Gen. BENJAMIN ALVORD, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding District of Oregon, Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter.: GENERAL: The disposition of the force in the District of Oregon for the protection of the overland emigration and remote settlements, as also your instructions to the several commanders, receive the approval of the general commanding the department. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. C. DRUM, Assistant Adjutant-General. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON, Hon. WILLIAM PICKERING, Governor of Washington Territory, Olympia, Wash. Ter.: GOVERNOR: I have received your letter of the 18th instant and must thank you very sincerely for the kind expressions it contains and the congratulations you offer upon my recent promotion. I assure you that my long residence in this country leads me to take a deep interest in the welfare and prosperity of the Territory and in the defense of its frontier. I look with special concern to the incoming emigration, and the moment I arrived I turned my attention to taking steps for its protection. I inclose herewith for your information a copy of my orders issued on the 8th instant, the day after I assumed command.* I have heard this morning that Lieutenant-Colonel Maury's command of three companies of Oregon cavalry probably started to-day from Fort Walla Walla upon the emigrant road. Salmon Falls, half way between Fort Boisé and Fort Hall, is the great haunt of the Snake Indians at this season for the purpose of fishing, and Colonel Maury's command will remain encamped in that vicinity as long as possible, not leaving there until it is necessary in order to return to Fort Walla Walla by the 1st of November. Mr. Crawford, of Oregon, with a guard of seventy-five men enrolled for the journey by order of the War Department, left Omaha early in June and writes Major Francis that he intends "bring. ing up the rear of the emigration." I have given no order to Colonel Maury about "bringing up the rear of the emigration," for that phrase with us is rather unsavory and unsatisfactory, as in the fall of 1860 a commander who supposed he brought up the rear of the emigration had the sorrow and mortification to hear of a massacre in his rear. By staying out and not returning until the 1st of November the command will do its best before the winter sets in. Colonel Maury is ordered if opportunity occurs to arrest and punish those Snake Indians who committed the murders of 1860. The command of Major Rinearson, which has gone to the vicinity of Lewiston, will have an important and delicate duty to perform in the preservation of peace by protecting the Nez Percé Indians from outrages by the whites. Those Indians are of superior character; have always been warmly our friends, but they are now rudely dispossessed of their lands on the reservation secured to them by a sacred treaty; their women treated with outrage by the miners; liquor is sold to them by lawless whites, and great danger apprehended of collision. I learn that Senator Nesmith has pushed through the Senate a measure appropriating $50,000 to enable the Indian Department to take steps to extinguish the Indian title. I hope and trust Colonel Wallace will get it through the House. From this statement you will see that I have taken such measures as lay in my power to preserve the peace. The multitude of whites pervading that region may possibly hold the Indians in check. Please be good enough to show this letter to Mr. Hale, the superintendent of Indian affairs, who will doubtless be interested to know what has been done. With best wishes, I remain, with high respect, your obedient servant, BÉNJ. ALVORD, Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding District. ORDERS, HEADQUARTERS, Fort Walla Walla, July 28, 1862. The undersigned hereby assumes command of this post. C. W. C. ROWELL, Captain, Fourth Infantry California Volunteers. "See Special Orders, No. 35, p. 9. |