The draft and all other laws of the United States have been promptly and fully executed in the department, without difficulty or trouble of any kind whatever.

I desire to bear testimony to the hearty co-operation and zeal of the district commanders in the department in the discharge of the various and perplexing duties which have devolved upon them. General Sully, commanding District of Iowa and the Indian expedition; General Sibley, commanding District of Minnesota, and General T. C. H. Smith, commanding District of Wisconsin, are entitled to my warmest thanks for their valuable services and the cordial good feeling which they have manifested during their entire term of service in this department. To General Sully I particularly desire to invite the favorable consideration of the War Department. His arduous and distinguished services in organizing and conducting the Indian expedition and treating and dispersing the combined tribes of Indians in two considerable bringing the Indians to the necessity of asking peace from the Government, entitle him to peculiar consideration, and make it proper for me to renew the application heretofore transmitted for his promotion. He has earned it fairly, and I trust and believe that the Government will not hesitate to confer it upon him.

To the reports of Generals Sully and Sibley, and to those of their subordinate commanders, I refer for details of the various military operations herein sketched, and for a proper representation of the distinguished conduct of the several officers and of the troops under their command. I cheerfully indorse their recommendations in behalf of the officers and soldiers in question.

I am, general, respectfully, your obedient servant,

JNO. POPE,

Major-General, Commanding.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

Chief of Staff of the Army, Washington, D. C.

[Inclosure.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWEST,
Milwaukee, June 25, 1864.

GOVERNOR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd instant, in relation to the execution of the conscription law in this State, and the question of the use of military force for that purpose. I fully agree with you that military force should not be employed in the loyal States in the execution of this or any other law until al the means for its enforcement usual in times past have been exhausted. Conflicts of authority between the military and civil departments, or between the military forces and the people, are entirely to be deprecated. I am sure you will bear willing testimony to the respect which has been exhibited toward the constituted authorities of this State, and to the care with which, in the discharge of duty in this military department, complications or misunderstandings which might arise from such a cause have been avoided. I have been satisfied from the beginning that in nearly every case the conscription law can be executed by the civil authorities alone, though the people acting under their direction in the legal and usual forms. In the discretion intrusted to me by the Government as to the employment of military force for the execution of this law within this military department, I have steadily declined to permit the use of any of the troops under my command unless I could be convinced that all other legitimate means had