Numbers 2.

Report of Lieutenant Charles Hobart, First Oregon Cavalry.

HEADQUARTERS,
Camp Lyon, Idaho Ter., July 13, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to report that the expedition consisting of forty- four enlisted men of Companies A, B, and D, First Oregon Cavalry, under my command, left this post on the morning of July 2, 1865. About 11 a. m. we came upon the trail of the stock stolen from Jordan and Reynolds Creeks and followed it to the Malheur River, arriving there on the 7th. The trail was very hard to follow and we experienced great diffuculty in following it. It went in a very circuitous direction and every method had been used by the Indians to blind it. On the day of arriving at the Malheur the scouts in advance incautiously exposed themselves and were seen by a party of three Indians who were gathering berries. They fled to the brush, leaving their horses. On the arrival of the command every effort was made to find the, so that they would be unable to transmit intelligence of our presence tothe main body of the Indians, but they concealed tehmselves so effectually that it was impossible to do so. The train was camped and the command, with the exception of the camp guard, was pushed rapidly forward on the Indian trail, hoping to reach the camp of the Indians and surprise them. On our way up the river three mounted Indians were seen and chased by the advance and their horses captured, the Indians escaping to th brush. We kept on the trail till late inte afternoon, riding ost of the time at a trot or a gallop, passing several recent camps, until the trail became blind, the stock appearing to have been scattered in all directions. The command was then divided into several parties and the country within a circuit of several recent camps, until the trail became blind, the stock appearing to have been parties and the country within a circuit of several miles thoroughly scouted, but without attaining our object. We returned to camp after dark. The next day small parties went out, but could find no traces of the Indian camp. Our camp was on a little flat situated where a small creek joins the Malheur, bounded by the Malheur on the front and left, the creek on the right, and us mountain in the rear. On the opposite side the mountains rose in broke ridges directly from the river. This was the only camp in several miles, there being no water int he mountains and the bunch grass being high up on the divides. About an hour and a half before daylight the picket guard reported Indians near camp. The stock was driven in, the men called to arms, the horses ordered saddled, and the howitzer got into position. While this was being done the Indians, finding themselves detected, opened a heavy fire on the camp from all sides, but heaviest from a bench on the mountain in rear of the camp. A charge of canister was immediately thrown among them and they fell back. It was then reported that ten horses and a number of mules had broken from the men and ran in the direction of the mountain in the rer. A party under Sergeant Wallace and Corporal Walker, of Company B, were instantly sent to charge that hill and recover the stock, the Indians in the rear having fell back, shouting as they did so the party opposite us. In front they commenced a rapid fire, by which Private jones of Company D, First Oregon Cavalry, was wounded int he arm, and prepared to make an attack on the camp, but a few discharges of spherical case and canister caused them to retreat over the mountain. The stock having by this time returned to camp, re- enforcements were pushed forward teo the party of Sergeant Wallace, which was still in pursuit of the Indians.