Fork of Cheyenne River, with sufficient grass and excellent wood and water; thence to the North Cheyenne, camping one night on Pine Creek, where Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry, with an escort, overtook my command. From here moved to the Little Missouri River, down which I continued for three days, finding almost no grass until the last day, when I camped, with large quantities of the best kind. On the Cheyenne and Little Missouri River the water was good; at all other places where we camped it was very poor. Along the valleys of the Little Missouri River fresh trails of a number of small parties of Indians and older of larger ones were seen.

After spending a day in resting and feeding my animals I moved westward August 26 to Box Elder Creek; thence up and to the head of one of its branches, finding little grass but sufficient water standing in holes. From this camp I attempted to reach Powder River on the 28th, but after a march of about thirty miles over a road partly excellent, mostly very hilly and rough, I found myself confronted by an impassable strip of country some miles in width intervening between my column and the river. Under a precipice and 100 feet below lay a rugged barren, traversed in every direction by deep ravines and gulches impracticable for horsemen, with no apparent trail or passage through it. Night and a storm were close at hand, and I moved my right in search of water, and finding a small hole containing insufficient for my men on the head of O'Fallon's Creek, camped, without water or grass for the animals. Next day, by cutting a road through ravines and along the sides of hills and stationing men with ropes to each of the wagons, I was enabled to get the train along three miles, and leaving it with a guard drove the mules down to the river for water. The troops got through and were camped on the banks of the Powder River, where the train was brought in the next day.

On the 30th I sent Lieutenant Hoagland, Second Missouri Light Artillery, with my best guide and twenty men, to Tongue River and Panther Mountains, in search of your command and the base of supplies to be established there, as yn your letter of instruction of July 4, and as marked on your map sent to me by special messenger and received on the Loup. They returned September 1, after an absence of three days, and reported that they had traveled fifty miles directly west, over a country impassable with my trains, crossing thirty-five miles from my camp on Powder River the bed of a stream nearly as large as the Powder River, with an equally valley, and fifteen miles farther west ascended the side of a mountain, passed round it to the west side into the valley of a smaller stream, all of these agreeing precisely with Tongue River, Panther Mountains, and Rosebud Creek as laid down on your map. They reported Tongue River where they struck it to contain an abundance of water, but not running, but they thought it to be running at some distance above. In the valleys and on Panther Mountains they found barely enough to forage their own horses. They found no base of supplies nor indications of any one having been there before them. Immediately on their return the command was put on less than half rations. Late in the afternoon a band of about 300 Indians attacked our horse guards, who were grazing the horses about two miles from camp, and succeeded in running off twelve horses. Parties were immediately sent in pursuit, who followed them until after dark, and the Indians dispersing in every direction among the hills they returned. In the running fight my loss was 4 killed and 2 wounded (since died). The Indian loss was much greater. Having for several days observed a large column of smoke