which the campaign was to be conducted. Two persons were found (Mr. Louis Scholl and Mr. Grove Rundell) who had been employed as guides with similar expeditions into that country in the years of 1859 and 1860. From them I learned that the natural route of travel into the Harney Lake country - in fact, into any part of the country lying south of the Blue Mountains - was by the road traveled by Captain Wallen in 1859 and Major Steen and Captain Smith in 1860, by the valley of Crooked River. This led me to adopt that as the route of travel. A through knowledge of the country acquired during the summer's operations assures me that it was a judicious selection. On the arrival of the expedition at Cross Hollows April 26 orders and transportation were dispatched to move Lieutenant Waymire's detachment from the South Fork, to join the expedition at Trout Creek during a temporary halt in contemplation at that place. This detachment did not arrive until the 7th of May, joining at Cedar Springs. Meanwhile Lieutenant Watsons' detachment at Warm Springs had been moved across the Des Chutes River and joined the expedition at Trout Creek on the 2nd of May. Lieutenant Waymire's party was sent over to the Warm Springs immediately on his arrival to take the place of the troops under Lieutenant Watson. This exchange was made in consideration of the hard service performed by Lieutenant Waymire's men in the early spring, and the jaded condition of his cavalry horses and the necessity of an effective force to guard the depot. The re-enforcements by Lieutenant Watson's detachment increased the effective force of the expedition to an aggregate of 146 officers and men. At Trout Creek the command was joined by a party of ten Warm Springs Indians and a few days after by eleven more, making twenty-one in all, who agreed to accompany the command through the campaign to serve as scouts and spies.

On the 27th of April, at Antelope Springs, a letter from the general commanding was received by express from fort Dalles informing me that Captain Currey, commanding an expedition from Fort Walla Walla, had been advised to march at once to the vicinity of Lake Harney, unless important claims should draw his attention elsewhere, and that he had been instructed, "You must order Captain Drake to effect a junction with you whenever you think it advisable; " and Special Orders, No. 70, headquarters District of Oregon, dated May 6, 1864, ordering a junction of the two expeditions at Lake Harney, was received May 10, at Cottonwood Creek. Under these orders and instructions, and with this arrangement of the troops under my command, the expedition moved forward from Cottonwood Creek May 11 and entered the Indian country a few days afterward. A depot of supplies was established on a small tributary of Crooked River, five miles above the forks of the river and about three miles south of the South Fork, at the foot of a timbered ridge extending from the head of Crooked River to its mouth, on the south side. The distance from Fort Dalles to the depot, known as Camp Maury, is 175 miles by our journals. Owing to bad roads and other causes some delays took place during the march to Camp Maury, and the locality selected for the depot was not reached until the 18th of May. The manner in which Indian depredations had been committed during the previous winter on the white settlements on John Day's River and the Canyon City road raised the presumption that a small party of marauding Indians inhabited the country about the head of Crooked River. This presumption was sustained by the opinion of our guide, who from previous experience in the district of country in question had acquited some knowledge, not only of the country itself, but of the Indians who inhabited it.