HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, Mo., August 3, 1865.

Brigadier General H. H. SIBLEY,

Commanding District of Minnesota, Saint Paul:

GENERAL: You will please reduce the forces and expenditures in Your district to the lowest possible limit consistent with security, mustering out all troops not absolutely needed for defensive purposes. Orders substantially to this effect were sent You some time since, to which no reply has been received. Please acknowledge receipt of this letter and report action. Troops to be mustered out must be sent to the places in the States to which they belong, designated in orders from the office of the Adjutant-General of the Army.

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

JOHN POPE,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE UPPER ARKANSAS,
In the Field, Fort Larned, Kans., August 3, 1865.

Major General G. M. DODGE,

Commanding U. S. Forces, Fort Leavenworth, Kans.:

I have the honor to report that the troops designed for the expedition against the Indians south of the Arkansas are concentrated here, and I am now waiting for the ammunition train from Riley to arrive. When this arrives I shall cross the Arkansas River either at the mouth of Cow Creek or Mulberry Creek and proceed toward, and if necessary to find the hostile Indians to, the [sic] mountains in or near Southern Texas. Since I arrived here I have scouted the country for sixty miles on each side of the Arkansas River and found no Indians and no signs of any. I shall take about fifty days' rations, which is all that I can get transportation for, and shall move with less than 2,000 men and four howitzers. The rains here are the most severe that I ever knew in any country, and I may be delayed crossing streams. The water gets to be three inches deep in our tents on the level prairie, and no place can be selected where it is less for the time being. The buildings at Fort Larned afford no shelter to men or Government stores in these rains. Quartermaster and commissary stores are wet to such a degree as to be spoilt in some cases. The lumber estimated for to roof and repair these buildings should be procured and furnished at once, otherwise it will be impossible to make this a depot of supplies and have the supplies kept in a condition suitable for use. I design now to accompany the expedition, and shall communicate with You from time to time until I abandon for a time all communication.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

JOHN B. SANBORN,

Brevet Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE UPPER ARKANSAS,
In the Field, Fort Larned, Kans., August 3, 1865.

Major-General DODGE,

Commanding U. S. Forces, Fort Leavenworth, Kans.:

The following dispatch has just been received:

MOUTH OF LITTLE ARKANSAS, August 1, 1865.

Bvt. Major General J. B. SANBORN:

GENERAL: Yours of the 30th ultimo is received, and I hasten to reply. You say, "I am pleased to learn of the good prospect you seem to have of securing an interview