and are encouraged and entertained by the inhabitants in that vicinity, you are, therefore, instructed to proceed to said neighborhood with the wagons placed in your charge, destroy every house and farm, &c., owned by secessionists, together with their property that cannot be made available to the army; kill every bushwhacker you find; bring away the women and children to this place, with provisions enough to support them, and report to these headquarters upon your return.

WM. WEER,

Colonel, Commanding Division.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA TERRITORY,
Omaha City, Nebr., April 4, 1863.

Major H. Z. CURTIS,

Asst. Adj. General, Dept. of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo.:

SIR: I have the honor to forward the following report of an affair with the Indians on the Sweetwater, just received by telegraph from Lieutenant Colonel William O. Collins, Fort Laramie:

FORT LARAMIE, April 4, 1863.

Captain ENO,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

Sweetwater Station attacked last night by about 20 Indians; driven off. One man seriously wounded. No property destroyed except some wagon harness.

WM. O. COLLINS,

Lieutenant-Colonel Sixth Ohio Cavalry.

The detachment at Sweetwater Bridge consists of 26 men, of Company L, Sixth Ohio Cavalry, and is stationed at that point for the purpose of protecting the telegraph line.

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

FRANK ENO,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWEST,
Milwaukee, Wis., April 4, 1863.

Colonel J. C. KELTON,

Asst. Adjt. General, Hdqrs. of the Army, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report, for the information of the General-in-Chief, that I have received letters from General Cook, informing me that scouts and runners, whom he sent up the Missouri some weeks since, have returned and report that the Indians having been informed of the proposed movements against them from the Missouri and Minnesota, have moved off toward Devil's Lake, with the purpose of taking refuge in the British possessions on the Lower Red River. From the account sent by General Cook, it seems that the fact of the expedition moving against them as soon as the spring opens was communicated to the Indians by white traders from the Selkirk settlements, who invited them, in view of their danger, to move into the British possessions, assuring them of protection and assistance in the way of arms and ammunition. I do not doubt that much of this information is true, and that the Indians, if they find themselves unable to resist, will retreat north beyond our frontier. How much assistance they will receive, or how much encouragement will be given them at the British post and agencies I do not know, but it seems now probable that the expeditions