FORT LARAMIE, August 29, 1865.

Major General JOHN POPE,

Saint Louis, Mo.:

Your dispatch about troops, commanders, &c., received. By your last dispatch you assign to General Connor's old district 3,200 infantry and 3,000 cavalry. On the 1st of November there will be only 1,500 infantry in the command. This includes Fifth U. S. Volunteers, on march from Fort Riley. Do you want me to make up the number from cavalry? I have already ordered in, in accordance with your instructions of August 1 (including those whose term of service expires between now and November 1) enough to reduce the force in Nebraska, Colorado, and Utah to the number you designate in to-day's dispatch, and in that force to be retained I do not count troops with General Connor. In Utah we have only 400 men. There are four companies with General Connor that will make it 600 when they return. To make up the balance I shall have to send cavalry. In counting the troops I take every men belonging to the regiments that are present in my command. Those left in New York, Washington, and I don't suppose we will ever see. I learn from regimental commanders that they have unofficially learned that most of them have been mustered out. Please answer about infantry. The regiments that we will have are the Fifth and Sixth U. S. Volunteers and 280 men of Veteran Battalion Third California Infantry.

G. M. DODGE,

Major-General.

SAINT LOUIS, MO., September 2, 1865.

Major-General DODGE:

I have rearranged district west of Leavenworth. Elliott in command of Kansas, Upton of Colorado, Wheaton of Nebraska, including that portion of Dakota west of Nebraska, headquarters at Fort Laramie, and Connor of Utah. As soon as Connor returns from his expedition send him to Utah. Whole force in Utah, one infantry and one cavalry regiment. No more force than this must be sent to Utah under any circumstances. To Wheaton I have designated two regiments of infantry and one of cavalry; to Upton one regiment of infantry and five companies of cavalry; to Elliott one regiment of infantry and seven companies of cavalry. These forces are to be selected by the district commander from the troops in his district or those with Connor and Sanborn; every other man to be sent back to Leavenworth for muster out immediately. These officers are ordered to go to their districts and report by letter to your for duty. Each of them is furnished with detailed letter of instructions from me designating posts to be occupied in each district, and its garrison. I send copies of these instructions to your headquarters at Leavenworth, and have ordered each district commander who may see you on his way out to show his copy to you. Should enforce these instructions without delay. The pressure upon me about expenses on the plains is tremendous. Whether reasonable or not, the demands of the Government must be complied with. See that corn for the winter is safely stored for two companies of cavalry at Kearny, Julesburg, Cottonwood, Laramie, and Platte Bridge. There will be two companies of cavalry, and no more, at each of these posts, and corn must be saved for them from supplies now on the plains. I send Connor's instructions to Laramie, to be forwarded to him in Utah in case he has left. He must positively not interfere again in contracts or disbursements with the proper staff