HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, Mo., August 22, 1865.

Bvt. Major General W. L. ELLIOTT:

GENERAL: The assistant adjutant-general will deliver to You the order assigning You to the command of the District of Kansas. * You will please proceed without delay to Your command and enter upon the performance of Your duties. The first thing I desire You to do is to reduce greatly the number of troops and the expenditures in that district. I desire You to break up all posts in Your district except the following, which will be garrisoned as herein stated, viz: Fort Leavenworth, three companies Thirteenth U. S. Infantry, with headquarters of that regiment, and one company of cavalry; Fort Riley, five companies Thirteenth U. S. Infantry and one company of cavalry; Cow Creek, two companies of infantry; Fort Larned, three companies of infantry and one of cavalry. A post at or near Cimarron Crossing of the Arkansas River, one company infantry and one company cavalry. A post at or near Aubrey Crossing of Arkansas River, one company of cavalry and one company of infantry; Fort Lyon, two companies of cavalry and one company of infantry. It is possible that You may need one or two small posts on the route to Fort Kearny or on the Smoky Hill Fork. You can determine this when You have looked over the ground. There will be assigned to Your district the following troops, which must be made to answer, all necessities of Your command: One battalion (eight companies) Thirteenth U. S. Infantry; one regiment of volunteer infantry, to be selected by yourself from the regiments now on duty in Kansas. It is suggested that one of the regiments of U. S. Volunteers or the Forty-eighth Wisconsin will be the best troops. You will also select a cavalry regiment in the same manner, retaining in Your district seven companies and turning over the remaining five companies to Brevet Major-General Upton, commanding District of Colorado. These troops should be selected from those regiments having the longest periods to serve. All other troops in Your district should be sent at once to Fort Leavenworth to be mustered out of service. Consult with the depot quartermaster and commissary at Fort Leavenworth about the best disposition to be made of the public stores in Your district, which are believed (especially at Fort Riley and Fort Larned) to be largely in excess of the necessities of Your command. Supplies for one year for the force herein designated should be retained and distributed. After giving orders, and assuring yourself that they will be immediately executed, to break up all other posts than those herein mentioned, You will please proceed with as little delay as practicable to visit Riley, Larned, and Lyon, and have the garrisons and supplies reduced to what is herein stated. On Your way to Lyon You will locate the post near the Cimarron Crossing, and also near Aubrey Crossing of the Arkansas, and at once move the garrisons of those posts to the points selected, and have them commence to build quarters and prepare for winter. You will find Brevet Major-General Sanborn with a considerable force in the vicinity of Fort Larned. He has just concluded an arrangement, or rather has made a written agreement, with the chiefs and head men of the Comanches, Kiowas, Arapahoes, and Plains Apaches for a complete cessation of hostilities, and for a grand council to make a permanent peace, to be held on the Arkansas River, forty miles below the mouth of Little Arkansas, on the 4th of October next. It will probably be well to keep about 500 cavalry of this command encamped on the Arkansas near Fort Larned until a treaty is

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* See paragraph V, August 22, p. 1201.

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