parties, and I hope so to conduct matters at their village as to secure these men without trouble or ill-feeling. I shall promise them a fair trial before a court. Captain Gillette reports that their agent denies in toto that the murders were committed by Pawnees, and was somewhat indignant that they should be suspected.

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

R. R. LIVINGSTON,

Colonel First Nebraska Veteran Volunteer Cavalry, Commanding Sub-District.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS EAST SUB-DISTRICT OF THE PLAINS,
Fort Kearny, Nebr. Ter., June 1, 1865.

B. F. LUSHBAUGH, Esq.,

Agent of the Pawnee Indians, Genoa, Nebr. Ter.:

SIR: In view of the late atrocities on the Little Blue, and the strong testimony of many witnesses fixing the crime on the Pawnees, I have been directed by the commanding general to go to their village for purposes I will make known to you on my arrival. I have the honor to request that you will not permit any of the bands, or the members thereof who are Pawnees, to absent themselves from their village until I see them. My mission is one of great delicacy, and requires secrecy, which I trust you will observe in such wise as not to cause alarm among the Indians under your control. I would respectfully state that I have been loath to believe the Pawnees capable of the crimes alleged against them, and even now exonerate the chiefs and the bands generally of participating in them, but the testimony is such as demands action, and I fear some of their young men, actuated either by revenge for the deaths of a few of their men unintentionally killed by our troops last fall, through a mistake or by a desire for plunder, have, without the knowledge of their chiefs or principal men, been guilty as alleged in the sworn testimony brought before me. I have none but the kindliest feelings toward these untutored sons of the prairie, and beg to assure you that my intentions under my instructions are actuated only from a desire to protect the white inhabitants of the country from a recurrence of similar barbarities, and at the same time aid and co-operate with you in preventing a repetition of such crimes on the part of the perpetrators, whom I feel assured will not be upheld in their actions by either the chiefs of the tribe or yourself.

Trusting your good judgment will aid me so far as to accord my request, and with sentiments of the highest regard, I am, sir, very respectfully, your very obedient servant,

R. R. LIVINGSTON,

Colonel First Regiment Nebraska Veteran Cavalry, Commanding Sub-District.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF NEW MEXICO, Numbers 17.
Franklin, Tex., June 2, 1865.

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II. From the precarious condition of affairs in the portion of this military department which lies south of the Jornade del Muerto, and including Fort McRae, and the possibility of trouble from organized or marauding bands of men from the direction of Texas; from the suffering, and in many instances starving condition of a portion of the citi-