been this side of San Francisco for years. Repeated calls have been made during the last twelve months upon the Secretary of the Navy to move in this matter, and he steadily declines. Therefore, if necessary, I recommend that a bill be introduced into Congress requiring the building of such a vessel. We are so remote, and will have in any emergency so few defenses, that the very best and most powerful vessel with all the modern ordnance and improvements should be sent, for she may have to act single-handed.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. ALVORD,

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

(Letters of same date and purport to Honorable J. W. Nesmith, Senator from Oregon; Honorable J. R. McBride, House of Representatives, and Honorable George E. Cole, Delegate from Washington Territory.)

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, October 22, 1863.

Brigadier General GEORGE WRIGHT,

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

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 28th ultimo, reporting your tour of inspection through the eastern part of California, the Territory of Nevada, &c. The quartermaster-general has been furnished with an extract of your letter relating to the accident which happened to Major R. W. Kirkham, quartermaster, U. S. Army.

I am, sir, &c.,

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF NEW MEXICO, Numbers 27.
Santa Fe, N. Mex., October 23, 1863.

I. All of the Territory of Arizona lying north of the Gila River and west of the Colorado, except that portion occupied by Fort Mojave, which post at present is garrisoned and supplied from the Department of the Pacific, is hereby created into a new military district to be known as the District of Northern Arizona.

II. The recent discovery of gold near the San Francisco Mountains, within the District of Northern Arizona, and the flocking thither of many citizens of the United states, both from the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of the country, and the coming in the that point of many of the people from the Republic of Mexico, rneders it necessary that a small military force should be sent to these new gold fields to protect the miners from the Indians, and likewise to preserve order and give security to life and property in that region until the civil officers of Arizona now en route from the East, shall arrive within that Territory, and shall establish and set in motion the machinery of a civil government, and organize courts for the administration of justice.

III. The rules for the preservation of order in the District of Northern Arizona while the Territory remains under martial law were set forth in a proclamation at Tucson on the 8th of June, 1862. *

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*See Part I, p. 96.

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