HEADQUARTERS HUMBOLDT MILITARY DISTRICT,
Fort Humboldt, January 12, 1862.

Major R. C. DRUM, U. S. Army,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Department of the Pacific:

MAJOR: We landed here on the 9th instant in a drenching rain. I found the fort filled with the two companies from Fort Seward-one of the Second California Volunteer Cavalry, the other of the Third California Volunteer Infantry, Major McGarry, Second California Volunteer Cavalry, commanding, having been driven here by the want of provisions, as has been already reported to you. As the ground about here was eveywhere in a state of partial inundation, it was impossible to put my own two companies into tents, so I directed Quartermaster Swasey to hire bu8ildings enough at Bucksport (about a quarter of a mile hence) to furnish shelter for the troops and for his stores. Finding room at the fort for myself and my staff, I established the command at Bucksport as a temporary post under Captain Douglas, and continued Major McGarry in command at the fort. For particulars in respect to the hire of the buildings and the state of the public property at this post I beg leave to refer to Mr. Swasey's report by this express to Colonel Babbitt. The horses of the cavalry company are at present entirely unfit for service, being exhausted by continued short forage at Fort Seward, and the great fatigue of reaching here over a route almost impassable from the recent freshets. Some twenty of them, it is thought, will have to be condemned; the remainder may be sufficiently recruited in a month to be fit for service. If this should not be the case, I may have to send the company into the field dismounted. From all accounts the state of the roads (or rather trails) and of the creeks is such that it will take thirty days at least of dry wheather to make active operations possible. I have some seven applications already for new posts, and many more it seems are coming in. With the few troops I have, if I establish any new ones it will be only in cases of urgent necessity. The state of things in this district may be summed up in a few words: There are several, perhaps many, thousands of Indians scattered through the forests and mountain gulches with which the whole country is covered. These Indians, or some among them, are coing depredations on the whites, stealing or killing their stock and occasionally murdering them-sometimes for vengeance, sometimes for the sake of getting their arms or clothing. There are white men that associate with them, living with squaws, that are constnatly furnishing them with arms and ammunition, and sometimes encourage and join them in their depredations and attacks upon the citizens. These Indians are not divided inot any considerable tribes with responsible chiefs, but are made up of numberless rancherias or villages, in many cases speaking totally different languages. There are so many of them, they are so scattered about, and so hard to find, that to bring them all in by sending from time to time small pairtes or independent detachments after them, it would take about as long as it would to bring in all the coyotes or squirrels. On the other hand, there are many whites that are cosntantly killing Indians, often making up parties for that purpose, and as they generally find them in their rancherias, they kill as many of the women and children, perhaps, as bucks. Individuals and parties are, moreover, constantly engaged in kidnaping Indian childred, frequently attacking the rancherias, and killing the parent sfor no other purpose. This is said to be a very lucrative business, the kidnaped children bringing good prices, in some instances, Mr. Hanson tells me, hundreds of dollars apiece. In deciding what is to be done, the question of which are the aggressors in this