can without embarrassment be dispensed with. At present the state of Your command and the progress of the campaign will not admit of it. The embarrassments incident to such instructions are well understood, and there is no remedy but to be governed by the necessities of the service. Colonel Cole has been ordered to send one regiment to report to You. This regiment is now operating along the Black Hills. The Fiftieth Wisconsin has been ordered to Fort Rice. A commission has been appointed to treat with the Indians on the Upper Missouri, consisting of Governor Newton Edmunds, Edward B. Taylor, General S. R. Curtis, General H. H. Sibley, Orsan Guerney, and Henry W. Reed, of Iowa.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, Your obedient servant,

JOHN T. SPRAGUE,

Colonel and Chief of Staff.

HDQRS. SECOND DIVISION, FOURTH ARMY CORPS,
Camp Irwin, Tex., August 19, 1865.

Captain ANDREW STEWART,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Central District of Texas:

I have the honor to inform You that constant complaints are being made to these headquarters that depredations of every kind are being perpetrated on the inhabitants in and about Texana by bands of bushwhackers. A few days since I sent two officers of my staff with five mounted men to ascertain the facts and they report that there is a band of from thirty to forty desperadoes encamped about fifteen miles above Texana, and that they go through the country in squads of five and seven robbing and stealing whatever they can lay their hands on. As the citizens express themselves as very anxious to take the oath of allegiance and try in future to be true and loyal to the Government, I think it would be advisable to station one or two regiments at Texana. In case You may think best to send a force to that point they can be supplied by water from Indianola, the Navidad River being navigable to Texana.

Very respectfully, Your obedient servant,

JOSEPH CONRAD,

Brevet Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[AUGUST 19, 1865. -For Connor to Dodge, relating to operations in the Northwest, see Part I, p. 358.]

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE GULF,
New Orleans, August 20, 1865.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

On being furnished with a copy of Your dispatch to General Canby I at once gave orders to commanding officers at Key West and Tortugas to be upon the alert against surprise and stratagem. My impression is that the report originated from the colonization scheme now discussed by rebels in this section, which I have been watching closely. In fact, I have had many of the principal rebel generals in this city under close surveillance for some time past.

P. H. SHERIDAN,

Major-General.