HEADQUARTERS,
Fort Walla Walla, October 26, 1862--10 p. m.

Brigadier General BENJAMIN ALVORD,

Commanding District of Oregon, Camp Lapwai, Wash. Ter.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 25th instant, 9 p. m. In compliance with your directions I have await the arrival of Mr. Hale and accompany him to Fort Lapwai, unless other wise directed by you. Company A, First Washington Territory Infantry, will be moved immediately after the arrival of Colonel Maury's command as indicated in District Special Orders, Numbers 77. It was my intention to dispatch also a detachment, say thirty men, of Company E, First Oregon Cavalry, to Lapwait, as suggested by you in conversation on your recent visit here. I will be glad to know your wishes in this respect and if recent events since your arrival at Camp Lapwai will make any change advisable. Forage has been distributed on the road to Lewiston, and a rapid march can be made hence and returning. Lieutenant-Colonel Maury is expected on the 28th instant.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JUSTUS STEINBERGER,

Colonel First Washington Territory Infantry, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC,
San Francisco, October 27, 1862.

Brigadier General L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I have served on the Pacific Coast for ten years, the last year in command of this department. My duties have called me to nearly every section of this great country; from the sunny plains of the south to the farthest bounds of our possessions in the north. I have been called, either to battle with our savage foes, or to aid in the preservation of this beautiful land from the horrors of civil war. During this long period I have had ample opportunity of judging of the character of the people and the value to the Union of these remote possessions of the United States. Previous to the war with Mexico but little comparatively was known of this country; a few of our most adventurous people had found their way across the continent and taken up their abode either in Oregon or California; but when peace was restored, and we acquired California, and coeval with that event the discovery of gold mines, extensive and almost fabulous in richness, caused a large influx of population. It was not alone from the States of our Union that the people came; every quarter of the globe, as well as the isles of the ocean, contributed to swell the number. It will thus be seen that this country was overrun and occupied by people bringing with them and retaining all their home prejudices, and ill calculated to establish a colonel of loyal citizens eager to promote the prosperity of the country. Time and contact have done much to harmonize and smooth down the discordant elements of this incongruous population, yet the outbreak of a formidable rebellion in our land had a tendency to revive those sectional sympathies and attachments, which have prompted men to glory in the fact not that they are Americans but that they are from such of such a State, to which their paramount allegiance is due.

Happily the number of men who thus ignore the authority of the Federal Government and declare their fealty to the State from which they came is small compared with thatare Americans,