dragged the wagons through by main force; the baggage, subsistence stores, ammunition, &c., were crossed in two small, leaky boats. Atthis point we bilt a larger and better boat for the use of the detachments of the column still to come up. The head of the column arrived at Las Cruses on August 10. Here I found the advance guard, under Lieutenant-Colonel Eyre, First California Volunteers Cavalry, strengthened by four companies of the Fifth U. S. Infantry, which has been sent down from Fort CRaig. Two companies of regular cavalry had also been sent down to re-enforce Colonel Eyre; but these has been recalled and had started back to Fort Craig on August 9.

Unfortunately Colonel Eyre had been forbidden by Colonel Chivington and Colonel Howe to proceed in the direction of Texas below Las Cruses; otherwise I believe he would have captured the whole of Steele's force of Confederate troops. (See his report* on this subject, marked E.) The energy, enterprise, and resources of Colonel Eyre, as exhibited in his rapid march from Tuscon to the Rio Grande; his crossing of that river, adn his unlooked-for presence directly upon the heels of the retreating rebels, cannot be too highly appreciated. He exhibited some of the finest qualities of a soldier, and had he not been fettered by order from higher authority than himself, he would, with out a doubt, have achieved advantages over the enemy creditable to himself and to the Column from California. But for his timely arrival on the Rio Grande, Las Cruses and Msilla would have both been laid in ashes by the enemy. Hampered as he was by orders, he nevertheless managed to hoist the Stars and Stripes upon Fort Thorn, Fort Fillmore, Mesilla, and Fort Bliss, in Texas. On August 11 General Canby wrote me a very handsome letter, in which he liberaly offered to furnish the column with all the supplies it might need, together with $30,000 subsistence funds. General Wright will be gratified to read it; it is marched F. It will be seen by that letter that the medical supplies and ordnance stores in the Department of New Mexico are so abundant as to preclude the necessity of any more of these stores being purchased or shipped in the Department of the Pacific for any of the troops east of Fort Yuma belonging to the Column from California. On Auguts 11 General canby sent to me another communication, in which he treats of the impracticability of an invasion of Texas from this direction, and in which he speaks of removing the regular troops from New Mexico and of receiving other re-enforcements from California, As the views it sets forth seem to be of great value, I submit it for the perusal of General Wright; it is marked G.

On August 12 General Canby wrote still another letter, in which he authorized me to use my own judgment in regard to the disposition of troops in Arizona and Southern New Mexico; it is marked H. My letter to General Canby, dated August 15, together with General Orders, Nos. 14 and 15, herewith inclosed will inform General Wright of the distribution of the troops along the Rio Grande. These communications are marked I. On August 16 I started with three companies of cavalry for Fort Bliss, in Texas. At the town of Franklin, opposite El Paso, I found a surgeon of the Confederate Army and twenty-five sick and disabled soldiers, whom I made prisoners of war by order of General canby. I also found that a large amount of hospital stores and quartermaster's property, which once had belonged to the United States, was in store-rooms connected with the custom-house at El Paso, in Mexico. These stores I managed to recover; there were twelve wagon loads of them. I

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* See p. 126.

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