headquarters of the Department of the Missouri be retransferred to Saint Louis. Will your please give me as early a decision on these suggestions as possible, in order that in any contingency I may make arrangements for the freight trains across the plains.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN. POPE,

Major-General, Commanding.

SAINT LOUIS, MO., February 8, 1865-2 p. m.

Governor FLETCHER, Jefferson City, Mo.:

Dispatch received. Have applied to War Department for authority you ask.

JOHN. POPE,

Major-General.

SAINT LOUIS, February 8, 1865-11. 40 a. m.

Major-General DODGE, Fort Leavenworth:

Please return me by mail the papers from General Connor which I handed you. Let me know by telegraph what you think of his proposed plan. I have authority to take and officer the two regiments of rebels at Rock Island. It will take some time to have them ready to send you. Meantime use any or all the troops in Kansas to open and keep open the Overland route, which is the all-important with us now. The troops you use for that purpose can soon be replaced by these two rebel regiments.

JOHN. POPE,

Major-General.

FORT LEAVENWORTH, February 8, 1865-2. 45 p. m.

Major-General POPE, Saint Louis, Mo.:

Dispatch received. I find that there are two separate routes to Salt Lake from Julesburg west. The telegraph route by way of Fort Laramie and the mail route by way of Cache la Poudre, Bridger's Pass, &c. Both of the routes have troops stationed along them, making two weak lines instead of one strong one. All stages go guarded from station to station, and am told that they are running regularly. General Connor's plan to station eight or ten men at each state station will not work now, as it would only be a bait to the Indians. I think our troops should be kept at the forts and guards furnished the stages from one Fort to another as strong as the case may require. We have no telegraph to Riley, and between Fort Larned and Fort Lyon the Indians are trouble-some. I will move troops from Laramie route to the Brigadier route, leaving a small garrison at Laramie and one or two others on telegraph line to protect it. The troops reported stationed at Riley are guarding the New Mexico route, and I cannot draw as many troops from there as I wish. If any troops could be spared from Sioux City or the Missouri River I think it would be well to have them strike across to Columbus and Fort Kearny. As soon as I get answers to my dispatches I will post you fully as to condition of matters on Platte route.

G. M. DODGE,

Major-General.