these officers I issued 50 Springfield rifle-muskets, caliber 69, model 1842, and the necessary accouterments, with 40 rounds of ammunition to each man, and had the detachment ready to move at 8 p. m. of the 9th instant. At 10 p. m., in compliance with verbal orders received from you, I marched the detachment to the Fourteenth street depot of the Pacific Railroad, with the exception of a few men who were too sick to travel; these I left at Schofield Barracks. On arriving at the Pacific Railroad depot, my detachment was put on board the cars, with two companies of the Second Regiment Missouri Artillery, Lieutenant-Colonel [N.] Cole, for that regiment, assuming command of the entire force and we left for Jefferson City at 11.30 p. m., arriving at 7 a.m . of the 10th instant. After staying at Jefferson City about four hours, an drawing a supply of rations and necessary cooking utensils, also getting a detail of one assistant surgeon to take care of the sick and a lieutenant to assist in commanding the detachment of convalescents, Lieutenant-Colonel Cole was ordered to proceed, with his command and one piece of the First Kansas Battery, to California, Moniteau County, Missouri, and assume command of that post, taking arms for the Thirty-fifth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, Colonel Hickox commanding. The entire command remained at California until the afternoon o f the 11th instant, at which time Lieutenant-Colonel Cole was ordered to make a reconnaissance with the locomotive and necessary cars to Tipton, which he did, taking with him one piece of artillery, with men sufficient to man the gun, and 25 picked men from Captain Curran's company, to act as sharpshooters on the train; also 85 mounted men from Lieutenant-Colonel [J. D.] Brutsche's command of provisional troops, to act as flankers along the railroad. Whilst he was absent I received a large supply of commissary stores from Jefferson City; also dispatches from Lieutenant-Colonel Lazear, then in pursuit of the enemy from Tipton toward Boonville, with 1,100 men. These dispatches I forwarded, by telegraph, to Brigadier-General Totten, at Jefferson City, and in reply received an order to get all the cavalry, together that I could, and furnish them with ammunition and five days' rations of bread and meat, ordering them to report, without delay, to Lieutenant-Colonel Cole, at Tipton. This I did, sending the balance of Lieutenant-Colonel Brutsche's command, amounting to 175 men, a nd 75 men from the Thirty-fifth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, under the command of Colonel Hickox, making an aggregate of 375 mounted men and one piece of artillery. With this force, Lieutenant-Colonel Cole, of the Second Missouri Artillery, started from Tipton on the night of the 11th, in pursuit of the enemy, toward Boonville, with instructions to join Lieutenant-Colonel Lazear's command, if possible.

On the 12th instant, I received an order from Brigadier General James Totten to hold my command in readiness to move, and to get 100 of the Thirty-fifth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia ready to move to Tipton, to relieve a company of the Second Regiment Missouri Artillery that I had sent to that place in pursuance of orders received from him on the morning of the 12th. On the same day I received an order from the general commanding to assume command of four companies of the First Missouri State Militia, on their arrival at California with 60,000 rations for the army of Generals Brown and Ewing, and to proceed with my entire command to La Mine bridge, and report by messenger to commanding officers of troops in that vicinity, and supply them with subsistence. In compliance with special order issued to Captain [J.] Dietrich, then in command of a battalion of First Missouri State Militia, guarding subsistence stores from Jefferson City to California, at 5 p. m. of