JERICHO, MO., October 21, 1863-6 a.m.

Brigadier-General McNEIL:

I am in pursuit of the rebels (300 strong); am 24 miles behind them. I have 400 men and two howitzers.

J. J. GRAVELY,

Colonel Eighth Missouri State Militia Cavalry.

CAMP ON GROVE CREEK,

Five miles south of Carthage, Mo., October 21, 1863-4 p.m.

General McNEIL:

I am in receipt, within the last hour, of your several dispatches of yesterday. On being advised by you on the 19th that you were strong enough without me, I sent a scouting party to the line south of Pineville, and waited here. It reports Shelby's main force as having passed west of Pineville Sunday night, going due south.

I am sending back unserviceable cavalry, and will go on at once with the rest of my command, direct through Neosho toward Huntsville. I have sent to Springfield to have rations and horseshoes and some artillery ammunition sent me. I must have rations after to-morrow. If they are at Cassville, the commanding officer there, on reading this, will send all he can spare to me, on the direct road from Neosho toward Huntsville, a day's march from Neosho, say 25 miles,invoiced to Captain Theodore S. Case, acting commissary of subsistence and assistant quartermaster.

I am, very respectfully, yours,

THOMAS EWING, JR.,

Brigadier-General.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWEST,
Milwaukee, Wis., October 21, 1863.

Colonel J. C. KELTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I have the honor to transmit, inclosed, copy of a letter from General Sully,* and to invite the attention of the General-in-chief to several very important matters contained therein. It will be noticed that General Sully confirms the report hitherto made from these headquarters of the termination of Indian hostilities east of the Missouri, except the danger arising from small roving parties of three or four Indians, who may penetrate into the settlements this winter, to steal. Any operations against hostile Indians in the spring will be confined to the region south of the Missouri, and to the extreme headwaters of that river. I desire particularly to invite the attention of the General-in-Chief to General Sully's report of the deplorable condition of the Sioux and Winnebago Reservation, lately established on the on the Missouri River, 75 miles above Fort Randall. My object in asking the attention of the General-in-Chief to this matter will be apparent when I state that Indian Superintendent Thompson, of Minnesota, who removed these Indians from that State, and who now has charge of them, has applied to me for an escort for a train to haul supplies for these Indians from Minnesota. Why it is arranged to buy in Minnesota, and haul provisions over the uninhabited regions south and west of the Minnesota River to the Upper Missouri, rather than from Sioux City, on the Missouri itself, so much nearer to the reservation, I will not undertake to

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*Not found.

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