Although repulsed, the men of Lieutenant Gilbert's party behaved nobly, and he fell gallantly himself at the head of his men. I deeply regret his fall and will avenge it if possible. The Indians are said to be about seventy in number. It is closing dark, and I cannot be more explicit for want of time.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

F. McCABE,

Captain, First New Mexico Cavalry, Commanding Detachment.

Captain B. C. CUTLER,

Assistant Adjutant-General,&c.

FORT SUMNER, N. MEX., November 4, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit, for the information of the general commanding, a report of my operations in the field since August 6, 1864, at which date I was detailed to pursue a band of Apache Indians that had murdered several Mexicans in the vicinity of Chaperito, and driven off several thousand sheep and a few horses and burros, and had a day or two afterward defeated a small party of Navajos near Alamo, Gordo, who, under their brave chief, Delgadito, made a gallant but unsuccessful attempt to recover the plundered stock. My instructions from Colonel C. Carson, First Cavalry New Mexico Volunteers, acting superintendent of Indians at the Navajo Reservation, were to proceed to Fort Stanton, N. Mex., and obtain all necessary supplies, and thence to Tularosa to hire a competent guide and a few citizens as spies, &c., and from thence to Dog Canon, at which place I would most likely find the Apaches. I left this post on the 6th of August, and reached Fort Stanton on the 11th, about noon. The remainder of the day was spent in shoeing the horses and mules of my command. At Fort Stanton I learned that the band of Apaches I was in pursuit of had encountered a train belonging to Charles Parker, near Gallinas Mountain, and after a brief fight, in which the wagon-master and one of his hands were wounded, they succeeded in driving off more than fifty of his mules, and that Lieutenant H. W. Gilbert, First Cavalry New Mexico Volunteers, had been sent with a small party in pursuit of them.

On the morning of the 12th, as I was ready to start to Tularosa, Lieutenant Gilbert arrived with information that he had suddenly overtaken the Indians at a point in the Oscura Mountains, and that the Apache rancheria was near that point, but that his party was not large enough to attack them; he had returned for re-enforcements. As I had the fullest confidence in Colonel Carson's judgment and knowledge of Indian habits I was anxious to carry out his instructions; but as the lieutenant's information was positive I felt that my proper course under the circumstances was to proceed with him at once to where he had seen the Apaches. Before leaving the post I hired a guide named Flores to accompany me, but by the time I was ready to start he was drunk and refused to go. I confined him in the guard-house and started without a guide. Had this man remained sober and faithful to his engagement I have no doubt, from his knowledge of the Apache habits and of the mountains, but I would have overtaken the band before they could reach their hiding places in the Sacramento Mountains; but although he acted in a manner grossly culpable and deserved severe punishment he was released by the commanding officer in a few days afterward and employed by him to follow my trail too late to be of any service.