Today in History:

103 Series I Volume XLI-II Serial 84 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part II

Page 103 Chapter LIII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.- UNION.


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NEW MEXICO,
Santa Fe, N. Mex., July 9, 1864.

Brigadier General LORENZO THOMAS,

Adjutant-General, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: On the 30th ultimo I received paragraph IV of your Special Orders, Numbers 196, current series, and in compliance therewith gave the order for Company H, Eleventh Cavalry Missouri Volunteers, to go to the Department of Arkansas. It was impossible for the company to start at once, as many of its members were off upon the plains after guerrillas. On the 7th instant I received the inclosed indorsement from your officers, which leaves me some discretion about sending this company, and I have countermanded the order, and shall retain it. It is quite impossible to spare a man from this department just at this time. But a short time since a train of wagons belonging to one of our most wealthy and respected citizens, Mr. Manuel Antonio Otero, was attacked by a land of guerrillas between Fort Union and the Arkansas River, and robbed of $10,000 in cash, and of all its mules, some eighty-odd. I at once ordered some cavalry in pursuit, and they are still out on this duty. While trains are coming in with supplies, and citizens trains with goods, this company cannot safely be spared.

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

JAMES H. CALRETON,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.


HEADQUARTERS SECOND SUB-DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA,
For Ridgely, Minn., July 9, 1864.

Captain R. C. OLIN,

Asst. Adjt. General, District of Minnesota, Saint Paul:

CAPTAIN: In accordance with instructions given to the scouts employed in this sub-district, I have received their reports for the month of June, which show that the whole country from ten to forty miles in front of the line has been scoured thoroughly, but that no Indians or signs of any have been discovered expect on the Little Cottonwood, above the crossing of the patrol line, where the tracks of a pony going west and moccasin tracks at places where the rider dismounted were found, and about thirty-five miles west of Camp Cottonwood signs of two Indians, three or four days old. Large numbers of old settlers inside, and a few outside, of the lines have returned to their houses, and new ones are coming in daily, taking up the lands in the neighborhood of the stockades. The garrison of Fairmont and Chanyuska have not ben removed yet for want of transportation, each of the two companies stationed along the line having only one team. Orders have been issued to the commanders on the frontier to secure as large a supply of hay as possible, and I shall take occasion hereafter to report what amount has been secured in this way.

WILLIAM PFAENDER,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding.


HDQRS. DIST. OF MINN., DEPT. OF THE NORTHWEST,
Saint Paul, Minn., July 9, 1864.

Major JOHN CLOWNEY,

Commanding Detachment Fort Wadsworth, en route:

MAJOR: Your two dispatches of 6th instant have been received at these headquarters, and General Sibley is gratified to learn that the


Page 103 Chapter LIII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.- UNION.