FORT WRIGHT, Round Valley, November 24, 1863.

Major E. SPARROW PURDY,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Department of the Pacific:

MAJOR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 13th instant, relating to Indian affairs in Round Valley, and respectfully state, for the information of the general commanding the department, that if either citizens or soldiers have in any way interefered with Indians or Indian agents in this valley I have no knowledge of the fact, nor have any of the agents made any complaint of that nature to me in the last three months, and never against any of my troops. My men have never been permitted to vist or be seen on or near the reservation, and to my certain knowledge the Indian agents have no just cause of complaint against any man under me or on the part of citizens. I have not at any time allowed or permitted then to interfere with the Indian Department. Whenever any citizen was reported to me for such intereference he was arrested and punished forthwith, but for over two months the agent here has made no coplaint to me against any one, until the party was entierely out of harm's way and out of my reach. I have been told by citizens in the valley that nearly all the Indians that were brought in here from the Sacramento last summer have left the reservation and returned to the Sacramento Valley. This was not then nor since reported to me by the agent, nor has he ever requested me to keep them on the reserve, nor has he ever informed me that he had any reason to suppose that the Indians were leaving or would leave, and, unless he reports such matters to me, I have no other mode of knowing what is going on, as the post is two miles from the reservation headquarters, and neither officers nor soldiers are permitted to visit it. I cannot know these matters unless the agent reports them. I very respectfully call the attention of the general commanding to the factthat the present force at this post is entirely inadequate for the necessities of the public service. I have but eleven to twelve men for duty, and if I should send aaway Indians, or on any other service, from the post, it would leave the post, it would leave the post and public property without a guard, and when the men are off guard they are working hard constructing buildings for the winter. I therefore very respectfully request that a re-enforcement of one company, if practicable, be sent to this post. I will use all possible efforts to comply strictly with your letter of the 13th instant.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. D. DOUGLAS,

Captain, Second Infantry California Volunteers, Commanding Post.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC,
San Francisco, November 25, 1863.

Captain THOMAS O. SELFRIDGE,

Commanding U. S. Navy-Yard, Mare Island, Cal.:

CAPTAIN: Inclosed herewith is a copy of a telegraph dispatch which I have this day received from Brigadier General B. Alvord, commanding the District of Oregon. * I would most earnestly recommend that a steamer [be sent] to the sound to look after our interests in that quarter.

With great respect, I am, captain, your obedient servant,

G. WRIGHT,

Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, Commanding.

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*Embodied in Alvord to Wright, November 20, p. 677.

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