that the force there is insufficient to maintain that advanced position and keep undisturbed the line of communication, and that the force asked for by General Blunt is not too large, with what he has, to take possession of Fort Smith and the country behind it.

I need very much two mountain howitzers, which I wish you would direct Colonel Callender to send to the ordnance officer at Fort Leavenworth. There are none in my district, unless the militia regiments have them, those belonging to Colonel Lynde's regiment (Ninth Kansas) having been taken from it, you may recollect, and given to Colonel Phillips' regiment last winter.

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

THOMAS EWING, Jr.,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE BORDER,
Kansas City, Mo., June 17, 1863.

Colonel C. W. MARSH,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Saint Louis, Mo.:

SIR: I send below a statement asked for by you of the forces in this district and their stations. I can give only the names of the companies of the Sixth, Ninth, and Twelfth Kansas, and the number of companies of the First and Fourth Missouri State Militia. I applied at General Blunt's headquarters for a copy of the last tri-monthly return for the District of Kansas, but failed to get it. I suppose Captain [Horace G.] Loring, to whom I applied, forgot to send it here, as he promised to do.

Sixth Kansas Cavalry, Companies A and H, stationed at Westport, Mo.; Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company A, Paola, Miami County, Kansas; Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company F, Trading Post, Linn County, Kansas; Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company D, Butler, Bates County, Missouri; Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company E, Coldwater, Miami County, Kansas; Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company H, Fort Leavenworth, Kans. (escorts); Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company I, Fort Riley, Kans.; Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company K, Aubrey, Johnson County, Kansas; Twelfth Kansas Infantry, Companies D and K, Kansas City, Mo.; Twelfth Kansas Infantry, Companies A, G, and I, Fort Leavenworth, Kans.; Twelfth Kansas Infantry, Companies H and C, Fort Larned, Kans.; First Regiment Missouri State Militia, four companies, Lexington, Mo.; First Regiment Missouri State Militia, one company, Waynesburg, Mo.; First Regiment Missouri State Militia, three companies, Germantown, Henry County, Missouri; First Regiment Missouri State Militia, three companies, Taberville, Saint Clair County, Missouri, and Fourth Regiment Missouri State Militia, two companies, Warrensburg, Mo. Cavalry: Sixth Kansas, two companies; Ninth Kansas, seven companies; First Missouri State Militia, eleven companies; Fourth Missouri State Militia, two companies. Total cavalry, twenty-two companies. Total infantry: Twelfth Kansas, seven companies.

There is a force at Independence of the Twenty-fifth Missouri Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Van Horn, which General Blunt ordered there from Liberty on the 15th instant, and which I can relieve as soon as the Eleventh reaches here, if necessary.

In addition to the above enlisted men, there are six companies, numbering about 40 men each, of citizens of Kansas; part of the companies organized under militia laws of the State, and part who are merely