HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON,
Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter., September 13, 1862.

COMMANDING OFFICER AT FORT WALLA WALLA, WASH. TER.:

SIR: Your letter of the 8th instant is received stating that application for relief is frequently made to you by emigrants arriving from the east of the Rocky Mountains, who are destitute of provisions, and you request instructions for your guidance in such cases, I cannot find anything in the Regulations on the subject, but in cases of such suffering and destitution among those arriving this autumn with that emigration, you are authorized to order the issue of such articles of subsistence to them for a limited period as may be necessary. I shall desire you to use your discretion in each case as to the necessary, having instituted such investigation of each case as to satisfy you of the existence of real destitution.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. ALVORD,

Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, Commanding District.

[SEPTEMBER 14, 1862. - For Canby to Adjutant-General of the Army, transmitting report from Carleton of September 9, see Vol. IX, p. 695.]

COOKE'S WELLS, CAL., September 14, 1862.

Major RICHARD C. DRUM,

Assistant Adjutant-General, U. S. Army,

Hdqrs. Department of the Pacific, San Francisco, Cal.:

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that I arrived here this morning at 12. 30. All things so far safe and right. I halted at my camp, some four to six miles northwest of Indian Well, until 4 p. m. of the 11th instant. The cavalry escort requested of Colonel bowie arrived in the night of the 10th instant. Since the overflow of the Colorado the whole face of this country has completely changed, and one who has traveled it before could hardly recognize it. I am perfectly satisfied that a plan was matured to attack this train, but the precautions taken so far have prevented anything of the kind. The desert is swarming with greasers, &c., and as there is plenty of water everywhere there would be no difficulty in forming a rendezvous at almost any point. I shall resume my march at noon to-day, and exepct to reach Fort Yuma to-morrow morning. I will notify you of the day when I shall leave that post. The further I progress the worse I find has been the management of this road, and it is only surprising that many of the vedettes have not deserted. The first desertion has yet to be chronicled. Two men (Connelly and Getchell) of Company D, Second Cavalry California Volunteers, Captain McLaughlin, stationed at Camp Wright, Cal., guarding quartermaster's and commissary stores, are supposed to have deserted a few days since. The vedette is hourly expected.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM G. MORRIS,

Captain and Assistant Quartermaster, U. S. Army.