HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF KANSAS,
Fort Leavenworth, January 13, 1865.

Colonel THOMAS MOONLIGHT,

Commanding District of Colorado:

COLONEL: I clip a scrap from the Intelligencer of the 7th, which is probably a part of the occasion of General Halleck's order concerning an investigation of the conduct of Colonel Covington. I suppose a commission of officers better be ordered, and have so telegraphed you. I have also attached Fort Lyon to your command, so as to accommodate the matter. If the colonel did attack that camp, knowing it to be under the instructions of the commander at Lyon, or the Indian agent, he committed a grave error, and may have very much embarrassed our Indian affairs. But I have written General Halleck that such reports must be taken with great allowance. I desire that a fair and full exposure of the facts be made. Major McNutt is absent, and I cannot therefore get his order the ordnance officer to issue, and he must act upon your order, in view of the necessity, and he will be justified. I suppose the destitution of the Indians more than anything else makes them desperate. I am trying to procure more troops to send out on the plains, but make but poor headway so far. You must do the best you can with your force to keep the lines open and protection of the settlements, and I will be busy trying to support you.

Very truly, yours,

S. R. CURTIS,

Major-General.

[Inclosure.]

The massacre of Indians in Colorado.

A letter from Major Colley, U. S. Indian agent, is as follows:

DECEMBER 20, 1865.

I was in hopes our Indian troubles were over. I had 250 lodges near this place under my protection and that of For Lyon. All the chiefs and their families were in camp and doing all they could to protect the whites and keep the peace, when Colonel Covington marched from Denver, surprised the village, killed one-half of them, all the women and children, and then returned to Denver. Few if any white men can now live if an Indian can kill them. Fort Lyon is on the direct road from the States to Santa Fe, and the commerce of the plains is millions each year. Covington took 600 ponies, which were loaded down with plunder, on his return.

KEARNY, January 13, 1865.

Colonel MOONLIGHT,

Denver:

Troops are concentrating at Fort Cottonwood; but fifteen dismounted remain at Julesburg. General Mitchell is, or will be, at Cottonwood.

F. A. McDONALD,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.