expended in its conquest. As a field of military operations it possess not a single element, except in the multiplicity of its defensible positions. The indispensable element, food, cannot be relied on. During the last year, and pending the recent operations, hundreds of thousands of sheep have bee driven off by the Navajoes. Indeed, such were the complaints of the people in this respect that I had determined, as good policy, to encourage private enterprises against that tribe and the Apaches, and to legalize the enslaving of them.

As for the results of the campaign, I have only to say that we have beaten the enemy in every encounter and against large odds; that from being the worst armed my forces are now the best armed in the country. We reached this point last winter in rags and blanketless. The army is now well clad and well supplied in other respects. The entire campaign has been prosecuted without a dollar in the quartermaster's department, Captain Harrison not having yet reached this place. but, sir, I cannot speak encouragingly for the future, my troops having manifested a dogged, irreconcilable detestation of the country and the people. They have endured much, suffered much, and cheerfully; but the prevailing discontent, backed up by the distinguished valor displayed on every field, entitles them to marked consideration and indulgence.

These considerations, in connection with the scant supply of provisions and the disposition of our own citizens in this section to depreciate our currency, may determine me, without waiting for instructions, to move by slow marches down the country, both for the purpose of remounting and recruiting our thinned ranks.

Trusting that the management of this more than difficult campaign, intrusted to me by the Government, may prove satisfactory to the President, I have the honor, general, to be, your obedient servant,

H. H. SIBLEY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.

Numbers 9. Report of Major Charles L. Pyron, Second Texas Cavalry.

SOCORRO, N. MEX., February 27, 1862.

MAJOR: On the morning of the 21st instant I left our camp, opposite Fort Craig, with 180 men of my command, under Captains [James] Walker and [Isaac C.] Stafford, Lieutenant Nicholson, of Captain Coopwood's Spy Company, and Lieutenant [William G.] Jett, Company B, Second Regiment Mounted Volunteers, to reconnoiter the road leading to the river near Valverde. Upon reaching the river I could see the water, with none of the enemy intervening. I immediately dispatched a note to the general commanding, stating the road was clear and the water in sight, and proceeded leisurely to the river to water our horses, they having been over twenty-four hours without water.

When I reached the woods I discovered a body of cavalry, which I supposed to be about four companies, and immediately gave chase, they withdrawing to my left. I followed until reaching the bank of a slough in the bottom, when I found myself in front of a large force of all arms. Immediately me men were formed along the bank, when the action