HEADQUARTERS COLUMN FROM CALIFORNIA,
Camp on the Rio Grande, Ariz. Ter., August 8, 1862.

Colonel MARSHALL S. HOWE,

Third U. S. Cavalry, Fort Craig, N. Mex.:

COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receitp of your notes of the 25th and 30th ultimo. * They reached me day before yesterday. I should have written to you by an express which I sent direct to Fort Craig with dispatches for General Canby, but I supposed from a previous note from you received at Tucson that you had laready passed on to the country below the Jornada del Muerto. It is not possible for me now to judge how many troops are necessary in the souterhn portion of New Mexico and in the northwestern corner of Texas. Unless some movmeent from this direction into Texas is in contemplation I should suppose, from what I hear, that the troops from California are strong enough to hold the country. The Colorado troops can move up the river the moment you receive this note, even if they have not already gone. As I have authority to draw supplies from Fort Craig, I beg of you the favor to have sent to me a list of the subsistence and quartermaster's stores and of the clothing, camp and garrison equiPAGEnow on hand at that depot. We are greatly in wat of horse and mule shoes, and horseshoe nails. The grat dearth of water on all routese to the Rio Grande from Cook'es Wells compelled me to seek the river at this point-a distance of thirty-five miles without water, a good days' march for the California infantry, just off the desert. It is fifty-five miles from Cooke's Wells to Mesilla, opposite Las Cruces, a march without water, which I feared to encounter with tired troops and jaded animals. I am indebted to you for the information about the trail from Cooke's Wells to Las Cruces, but I was afraid to try it from the absence of infrmation about water. I shall be happy to see you. Pray, who are the Army officers serving in this country? We know no more of the condition of affairs here than we would had we just dropped from the moon.

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

JAMES H. CARLETON,

Brigadier-General.

ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS, Numbers 157.
Fort Walla Walla, August 8, 1862.

Pursuant to Special Orders, Numbers 46, headquarters District of Oregon, the undrsigned hereby assumes command of this post and its dependencies.

JUSTUS STEINBERGER,

Colonel First Washington Territory Infantry.

CAMP LAPWAI, WASH. TER., August 8, 1862.

[Lieutenant FREDERICK MEARS,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, District of Oregon:]

Having been unable to proceed with my command on the 1st proximo, owing to lack of necessary transportation, I proceeded on the 2nd of August for Lapwai, near Lewiston, as directed by Special Orders,

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*Not found.

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