west with Iowa troops, for detached service and breaking up camps of rebels. I need better arms than the smooth musket. I have one regiment wholly unarmed in camp here, and can get no arms in Saint Louis or Springfield. Can you send me minies and ammunition?

S. A. HURLBUT,

Brigadier-General.

SPRINGFIELD, MO., July 17, 1861.

Colonel HARDING, Jr.,

Saint Louis Arsenal, Mo.:

SIR: I inclose you a copy of a letter to Colonel Townsend on the subject of an order from General Scott, which calls for five companies of the Second Infantry to be withdrawn from the West and sent to Washington. A previous order withdraws the mounted troops, as I am informed, and were it not that some of them were en route to this place they would now be in Washington. This order carried out would not now leave at Fort Leavenoworth a single company. I have companies B and E, Second Infantry, now under orders for Washington; and if all these troops leave me, I can do nothing and must retire, in the absence of other troops to supply their places. In fact, I am badly enough off at the best, and must utterly fail if my regulars all go. At Washington, troops from all the Northern, Middle, and Eastern States are available for the support of the Army in Virginia, and more are understood to be already there than are wanted; and it seems strange that so many troops must go on from the West and strip us of the means of defense. But if it is the intention to give up the West, let it be so; if can only be the victim of imbecility or malice. Scott will cripple us if he can. Cannot your stir up this matter and secure us relief? See Fremont, if he has arrived. The want of supplies has crippled me so that I cannot move, and I do not know when I can. Everything seems to combine against me at this point. Stir up Blair.

Yours, truly,

N. LYON,

Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE WEST,
Springfield, Mo., July 17, 1861.

Lieutenant Colonel E. D. TOWNSEND,

Asst. Adjt. General, Hdqrs. of the Army, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Special Orders, No. 112, from headquarters, under date of July 5, directing the removal from the Department of the West of Companies B, E, F, G, and H, Second Infantry, and of Captain Sweeny, now acting as brigadier-general (by election) of volunteers. The communication reached me yesterday at this place.

I have been drawn to this point by the movements of the rebel forces in this State, and have accumulated such troops as I could make available, including those in Kansas. My aggregate is between 7,000 and 8,000 men, more than half of whom are three months' volunteers, some of whose term of enlistment has just expired; others will claim a discharge within a week or two, and the dissolution of my forces from this necessity, already commenced, will leave me less than 4,000 men, including Companies B and E, involved in your order.

In my immediate vicinity are rebel troops amounting to 30,000 and