CHAP. XXV.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.---CONFEDERATE. 981

them shall arrive. A light wagon, carrying breadstuffs for twenty days, should go with the detachment. Au order for an additional supply at Fort Washita is inclosed; also an order on Major Haynes for forage money and on Captain Lear for ammunition.

Respectfully,

B. C. NEWTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS, &c.,
Camp on Mulberry, November 4, 1862.

[General ROANE:]

GENERAL: If the officer has started with his party to execute the order of yesterday for the arrest of Brigadier-General Pike, you will send a courier to overtake and stop him. You will send a competent and reliable field officer, one who is brave and determined, and who will execute your orders faithfully, with an additional detail of 200 select men, well armed and mounted, and give him the instructions contained in the letter to you from these headquarters of yesterday, a copy of which is herein inclosed, to be given him for his governance. He should take at least 30 rounds of ammunition. He should provide himself with good guides, and should send out scouts rapidly in advance of him to discover and report to him where Brigadier-General Pike may be found, but without making the object known. I inclose orders to be sent to Major Haynes, Captain Lear, and Captain Mayers, to provide for the increase in the number of the party you are to send.

Respectfully,

B. C. NEWTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

ABBEVILLE, MISS., November 14, 1862.

Major General EARL VAN DORN,

Commanding, &c., near Abbeville:

GENERAL: I have read the letter of General Pike of July 31, 1862, and, so far as I remember, the following is a statement of the facts connected with the complaint made by him:*

While you were in command of the Trans-Mississippi District, you resolved to concentrate all of your forces within reach to oppose the enemy who had driven General Price from Springfield, and advanced into Ar-kansas. Among the forces of your command assembled by you for this purpose, were some from the Indian country, under command of General Pike. After the battle of Elkhorn, the army was in great need of all sorts of supplies, and some which were on their way to the Indians west of Fort Smith were, by your order, appropriated to other troops of your command.

Your letter of instructions to General Pike when you were about moving from Van Buren toward Jacksonport is on record in your office, and is a proper reply to the complaint made on account of that matter.

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

DABNEY H. MAURY,

Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

* See p.861. General Maury's letter covered an extract beginning with the word. "The beginning of mischief@ and ending with "and carried them also across Mississippi."