dead Indians were found killed by exploding shells. After a thorough examination of the camping-ground, and by judging from the amount of lodge poles burnt, I should judge the camp to have numbered 1,400 lodges. I would report that after the work of destruction commenced the Indians carried a white flag on the bluff close to the camp. As I could not interpret the meaning at this particular time, I did not feel called upon to report the fact to you until I had accomplished the object and carried out Order Numbers 62.

I have the honor to be, most respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. N. McLAREN,

Colonel Second Minnesota Cavalry.

Captain JOHN H. PELL,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Numbers 13. Report of Major C. Powell Adams, Independent Battalion Minnesota Cavalry.

HEADQUARTERS FORT ABERCROMBIE,
August 26, 1864.

SIR: About 4 o'clock on the afternoon of the 23rd instant four men on their way up from Georgetown with two teams were attacked by a party of ambushed Sioux Indians at Lewiston, twenty-eighth miles below here, and 3 of them killed, 2 instantly and the other mortally wounded, so that he died early next morning. Information reached me about 7.30 o'clock the same evening of these murders. I immediately ordered out twenty men each from A and B companies, with one day's rations, under Captain Mix and Lieutenant Miner, and taking command of the detachment in person I was under way for the scene of the outrage within thirty minutes from the arrival of the messenger. I proceed to a point within three or four miles of Lewiston and halted to await the coming of daylight. As soon as it was sufficiently light I pushed rapidly forward, and in a few minutes' ride reached the half-breed train one mile this side of the point where the attack was made, and found one of the murdered men lying in his wagon just as he had fallen, by the name of M. Lusta, and also the man Dean, who was then in the agonies of death, and in fact, died before we had finished burying Lusta. Sending the teams to the fort with Dean's body under an escort, I moved rapidly down the road and soon found the body of the other murdered man, named Brisse, lying immediately by the road side, horribly mutilated. The scalp, whiskers, and ears, and a part of the under lip gone, the head cut half off and the left hand severed at the wrist. The body was perfectly nude. While burying this body I made a thorough reconnaissance of the immediate vicinity, and my Scout Quinn soon discovered the point where the red devils recrossed the river. Preparations were immediately made to cross the river in pursuit. The crossing was accomplished after much hard labor. The trail was fresh and distinct, and I pressed the pursuit wit the greatest possible energy. The trail lead a little south of west across the plain to the nearest timber on the Cheyenne, some twelve miles distant, and then followed the river up a number of miles, when it crossed at a point where it was impossible for cavalry to cross without a bridge, nearer than the old crossing, some eight miles above. By this time the sun was almost down, the horses very much jaded, and the men out of provisions, and I was compelled by the very force of circumstances - circumstances against