Cavalry, from post Fort Kearny, Nebr. Ter., on the 12th ultimo, to meet me at Columbus, to which place I proceeded by stage, arriving there the 17th ultimo. On my arrival there I found that Lieutenant Murphy could not cross the Platte River, owing to its swollen condition and the danger of any attempt to swim it in its then rapid and turbulent state. Determined to proceed, I directed on the 19th ultimo that the best swimmers should ride their horses, and that those who could not swim should seize the tails of their animals and, driving them, in permit the horses to tow them across the deepest channels. The ammunition was crossed in a little skiff hauled by hand from Columbus. In this manner I succeeded in crossing the command without accident. One man was drowned in the early part of the day by attempting to ride over the river at a point nearly one mile distant from that selected for the crossing. On the 20th I proceeded to Pawnee Indian Agency, distant from Columbus twenty-two miles in a northwesterly course, up the north bank of the Loup River, where I arrived on the 20th of June, and proceeded at once to investigate the alleged complicity of the Pawnee Indians in the massacre on Little Blue River, which occurred on the 18th of May last. I had brought with me the survivors of the party attacked, together with the teamster who drive their wagon, in the expectation that they would be able to identify any guilty parties or any of the mules stolen from the wagon.

Mr. B. F. Lushbaugh, U. S. agent of the Pawnee Indians, afforded me every facility in the prosecution of this duty. The chiefs and principal men of the tribe met me in council and were loud in their protestations of innocence. They offered to adopt any course I might suggest to them, and gave every assurance of most friendly feelings toward their white friends. I caused the whole tribe to be paraded, and, in company with the men who had been attacked in the affair on the Little Blue on the 18th of May last, proceeded to leisurely examine every man of the Pawnee Nation. The party I depended on the identify the guilty Indians were specially cautioned to make a patient and careful examination of every Indian, and the result was that after every one of them had been thoroughly examined no one of them was recognized, although many of the soldiers who were in the affair of the 18th of May on Little Blue River repeatedly asserted they would recognize some of the Indians who attacked them under any circumstances. The stock of the tribe having been examined, no portion of it was recognized as belonging to the wagon accompanying the detachment of troops from Fort Leavenworth who were attacked. I am satisfied from the frank, open manner in which the chiefs met me and their cheerful alacrity to carry out any suggestions of mine tending to discover the culprits I was in search of that the Pawnees are guiltless of any participation in the murder of the men on Little Blue River 18th of May last. Having convinis I ordered Captain Z. Jackson to detail Lieutenant Nosler and thirty-six mounted men to report to Lieutenant Murphy, First Nebraska Veteran Cavalry, and proceed with me toward the Niobrara. Leaving Pawnee Village, at 9 a. m. the 21st of June I marched up the Loup River, intending to join Captain David, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, and his command at a point due north of Fort Kearny. Following the valley of the North Fork of Loup River I joined Captain David on the evening of the 23rd of June, about 7 p. m. at a point indicated on the accompanying map,* a little west of a line passing through Fort Kearny. The following day I organized the combined force into two battalions of 120 men each, placing the first under command of

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*Not found.

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