Today in History:

694 Series I Volume XIII- Serial 19 - Missouri - Arkansas Campaign

Page 694 MO.,ARK.,KANS., IND. T., AND DEPT. N. W. Chapter XXV.

Volunteers (Fletcher's), Twenty-ninth Volunteers (Cavender's) form the nucleus of the First Brigade.

The Fifth Regiment Infantry Volunteers, Twenty-fourth Regiment (Boyd's), Twenty-third Iowa (Dewey's, temporarily Harding's) Regiment form a nucleus of the Second Brigade.

II. The senior officer present with each of the brigades will for the present be considered in command of it, and will at once dispatch a staff officer to these headquarters with requisitions for all supplies, including ammunition, arms, tents, wagons and mules, spades, axes, hatchets, and clothing necessary to fit it completely for the field.

III. The following-named cavalry regiments, viz: First Wisconsin, Twelfth Missouri States Militia, and Thirteenth Illinois will be brigaded under the command of the senior calvary officer serving with them, who will also send a staff officer to these headquarters with requisitions for supplies, as above.

The section if light artillery belonging to Second Missouri Volunteer Artillery will be attacked to the cavalry brigade.

JAMES A. GREASON,

Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.


HEADQUARTERS CAMP RELEASE, September 30, 1862.

Major General JOHN POPE,
Commanding Department of the Northwest, Saint Paul:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt, per Captain Atchison, your aide-de-camp, of your dispatch of 23rd instant, in which you give the assurance of protecting the rear of this column and furnishing proper supplies, both of which are not only important, but indispensable. The work of the military commission still continues, and new as the proceedings are of course secret, it is impossible now to state how many will be convicted. The camp would be in a starving state but for the potatoes found in the Indian fields; but I learn that a small provision train will reach me to-morrow, not sufficient, however, to justify a farther advance into the Indian country. Little Crow and his adherents are making their escape as speedily as possible.

Intelligence just received of a reliable character states that he had already reached a point 120 miles distant from this camp, so that a pursuit with infantry alone is out of the question. Unless a full supply of provisions and forage, with 500 mounted men at least, can be sent on at once, the campaign may be considered as closed for this autumn. The grass is already so dry as to afford insufficient nourishment to the horses and cattle, so that grain cannot be dispensed with, and there is none except unshelled corn on this side of Fort Ridgely.

Having been suffering from ill-health for several days, I shall probably report myself in person to you at Saint Paul very soon, in which case I shall devolve the command temporarily on Colonel Crooks, of the Sixth Regiment. This corps is absolutely at a stand for the reasons stated, to wit, want of necessary provisions and forage, so that my presence can well be dispensed with after the proceedings of the military commission have been closed, and the friendly Indians and half-


Page 694 MO.,ARK.,KANS., IND. T., AND DEPT. N. W. Chapter XXV.