Numbers 2.

Report of Lieutenant Colonel James N. Olney, Second California Infantry.

HDQRS. NORTHERN DIVISION, HUMBOLDT, MIL. DIST.

Fort Gaston, September 13, 1862

LIEUTENANT: I have the honor to inclose for the information of the colonel commanding copies of the official reports of scouts made by the detachments under command of Captain Theller* and Lieutenant Noyes, in pursuance of Special Orders, Numbers 3, issued from these headquarters on the 5th instant; also official report of a scout by a detachment under Sergeant Collins, of Company F, per order of Captain Douglas, who was in command of this post during my absence with Lieutenant Morton's detachment. These several reports will, I trust, serve to convince the colonel commanding that the various parties zealously and perseveringly endeavored to accomplish the object of the movement, and that it was principally owing to the all but inaccessible nature of the region traversed that caused the plan to fail of success. From the information I had gathered in various ways, I was firm in the belief that the detachment I accompanied would encounter the band either at the source of Prosper Creek or at the heads of the Three Creeks, and in order to give no notice of our approach I moved in the most cautious manner, principally by night, avoiding all trails and overcoming obstacles in the way of frightfully steep ascents and descents, and all but impervious thickets and forests, presenting difficulties to progress of which no pen can give a just idea. Thoroughly examining the supposed localities of the ranches, we discovered but one which seemed to have rencently been occupied. This was situated near the banks of a small branch and in the midst of the brush. After a most careful scouting we could discover no traces of which course the Indians took in leaving this ranch. The report of Lieutenant Morton gives all further particulars of the party I accompanied. Captain Theller was equally unsuccessful, and after vainly waiting a c the arrival at the rendezvous of Lieutenant Noyes, our two detachments (our provisional and animals nearly exhausted) returned by different routes to this post, carefully searching, but without success, for Indian signs. At the post I received the most unwelcome intelligence of the disaster that had befallen the party under Lieutenant Noyes. His report and that of the party who afterward proceeded to the scene of the attack serves to give a correct idea of the perilous position of the detachment and the utter impossibility of forcing the Indians from their strong intrenchments, short of sacrificing the greater portion of the command in the attempt to scale the height on which the enemy was posted. I say uselessly, because if some few had succeeded in reaching the summit the nature of the ground upon the other side was such that the savages could have at once eluded pursuit in the dense brush of the ravine. There was no possible way of turning the position, and nothing was left but to retire to the timber a few hundred yards distant, which was done coolly, the men trning and firing whenever a glimpse of the Indians could be caught, Lieutenant Noyes being the last to entire the cover. These facts I gathered at different times from several men of the detachment, and after a thorough investigation of the whole matter I have the pleasure of reporting to the colonel commanding that, however mortifying the result, I am entirely convinced that no censure can be attached to the lieutenant

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*Not found.

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