Today in History:

234 Series I Volume XLVIII-II Serial 102 - Powder River Expedition Part II

Page 234 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LX.


HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, April 28, 1865 - 4. 30 p. m.

Colonel T. M. VINCENT,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington:

The Sixth U. S. Volunteers had best be ordered to Fort Leavenworth.

JOHN POPE,

Major-General.


HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, April 28, 1865 - 2 p. m.

General BUSSEY,

Fort Smith:

Your dispatch of yesterday received. * If you have not communicated the facts to General Reynolds do so. My advised from red River indicate the retreat of Kirby Smith to Texas.

JOHN POPE,

Major-General.


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, April 28, 1865.

Major General JOHN POPE,

Commanding Mil. Div. of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo.:

GENERAL: The large number of men returning from Kirby's Smith; s army that succeed in reaching Missouri, without any check south of my lines, renders it necessary, in my opinion, that we should place on the southern border of the department more cavalry, and for this purpose I would suggest that four or five regiments of cavalry be obtain from Department of the Cumberland or some other point east.

It is evident that we cannot expect the State to do much in South Missouri, they have not the men or the means, and the concentration of so large a force of rebels in North Arkansas, without any means of concentrating rapidly a force against them, leaves is subject to raids that will be a great detriment to our efforts to quiet the State.

I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. M. DODGE,

Major-General, Commanding.

[Indorsement.]


HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, April 29, 1865.

Respectfully referred to the General-in-Chief of the Army, with the request that General Dodge's application be complied with.

If quiet can be kept in Missouri for a month or two, all concern for the State can be safely dismissed, and it is very important that these returning soldiers, who will be bushwhackers and outlaws, be intercepted before they get into Missouri.

JOHN POPE,

Major-General.

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* See Part I, p. 202.

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Page 234 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LX.