HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI, June 3, 1865-6 p. m.

Lieutenant-General GRANT:

Following dispatch from General Dodge just received:

FORT LEAVENWORTH, June 3, 1865.

Major-General POPE:

General Moonlight with one column of cavalry and pack-mules, left for Powder River May 10. He reports that the Cheyennes seem to be breaking up into small parties. Two hundred lodges are trying to make their way south by the mountains. Troops are after this party. The Sioux, except 230 lodges, are in Black Hills; want to come in and treat. Little Thunder and Spotted Tail are at Laramie; do not deny that they have engaged in the troubles; say they were forced to it by Cheyennes. The Sioux all seem anxious to treat. Connor is evidently making every effort to carry out your instructions.

G. M. DODGE,
Major-General.

JOHN. POPE,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI, Saint Louis, Mo., June 3, 1865.

Colonel T. S. BOWERS,
Asst. Adjt. General, Hdqrs. of the Army, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a dispatch from the Adjutant-General of the Army directing that the regiments recruited from rebel prisoners and deserters be mustered out of service as soon as their places can be supplied by other troops. There are in this division the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and four companies of the Sixth U. S. Volunteers thus recruited. They are stationed along the overland routes across the plains, and at remote stations in the Indian country from Saint Paul to the Rocky Mountains. I cannot now replace them, as I have no infantry regiments in this division which can be spared from their present stations. The muster out of troops whose terms expire by September 30 takes from the Department of the Missouri along 8,854 men; among these five regiments now on the plains. General Reynolds reports in detail the forces he has in Department of Arkansas and the force he needs. Since his report General Sheridan has taken from his command a division of 5,000 men to garrison Shreveport, La. I transmit inclosed a copy of General Reynolds' report, from which it will be seen precisely how he stands in Arkansas. * Of course, as time passes the number of troops in Missouri and Arkansas can be gradually reduced. I trust that in Missouri we will be able in a few weeks to get along with four or five regiments only, and by autumn with less still. If it is desired to muster out all these rebel regiments now on the plains and at remote stations in the Indian country, other regiments should be sent as soon as possible to replace them, as it will take the whole summer to reach and relive them. I am using all the troops I can get on the plains to put down Indian hostilities and suppress the bands of lawless robbers and thieves which are more and more every day beginning to infest the frontier, and plunder as far as they can trains and emigrants. We will have for some time much danger from this source on the plains. The disloyal and vagrant elements set loose by the termination of the war are thronging toward the mining regions of ColorMontana, and wherever they

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*See Reynolds to Adjutant-General of the Army, May 31, p. 699, copy of which was also furnished by Reynolds to Pope.

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