to ask that my successor may be appointed and ordered to relieve me as soon as practicable.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

A. S. JOHNSTON,

Colonel Second Cavalry, Brevet Brigadier-General.

[First indorsement.]

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

May 3, 1861.

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War.

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

[Second indorsement.]

MAY 3, 1861.

Accepted.

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC,
San Francisco, April 13, 1861.

Captain C. S. LOVELL,

Sixth Infantry, Commanding Fort Humboldt, Cal.:

SIR: Your letter of March 24 [23*] has been submitted to the general commanding. He is pleased to hear that the reported depredations by the Indians have been greatly exaggerated, and therefore that there is better prospect of complete protection form the guides and troops now at your disposal. your orders to Lieutenant Lynn are approved-the duty imposed on you by the general in the prompt pursuit of the actual depredators in each case and their punishment, but no indiscriminate slaughther of the guilty with the innocent. Knowing that killing women and children by the troops in retaliation for injuries inflicted by the Indian bands would not be resorted to by the officers or soldiers of the Army he gave no orders in the case. It may be frequently the case that two, three, or four men will form a suffient party, if led by competent guide, and it was on this account that he gave four or five to each detachment.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. W. MACKALL,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

FORT BRAGG, CAL., April 15, 1861.

Major W. W. MACKALL,

Assistant Adjutant-General, U. S. Army, San Francisco, Cal.:

SIR: I have the honor to report that, in consequence of complaints made by the citizens of Long Valley against Indians in that neighborhood, I have ordered the detachment now in Round Valley to take a position on Eel River and equidistant from Found, Long, and Eden Valleys. The sergeant in command has been directed to dislodge the Indians in that vicinity, giving protection generally to the citizens and their property. This arrangement enables me to supply the detachment more readily, as it brings in nearer to this post and on the left bank of Eel River, thus avoiding the almost insuperable difficulty of

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* See p. 6.

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