The enlisted men of my command cannot be too highly praised for the patient endurance with which they sustained the privations, toil, and hardships of a campaign of eighty-eight days, in which time they have marched 1,300 miles across barren deserts and over steep and rocky mountains, many of them on foot and nearly barefooted and bleeding from contact with the flinty rocks and the cactus and thorns.

I am under obligations to First Lieutenant Franklin Cook, Fifth U. S. Infantry, and Asst. Surg. L. W. Hayes, for their zealous co-operation during a portion of the campaign.

I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

FRANCIS McCABE,

Captain, First Cavalry New Mexico Volunteers.

Captain ROBERT LUSBY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

AUGUST 4-15, 1864.-Operations in the vicinity of Brazos Santiago, Tex., with skirmish (9th) at Point Isabel.

Report of Colonel Henry M. Day, Ninety-first Illinois Infantry.

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
Brazos Santiago, Tex., August 15, 1864.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report of affairs at this post from August 4, the date of my last report, up to the present time:

Nothing worthy of note occurred until the 9th of August save occasional skirmishing between our cavalry pickets and those of the enemy. On the 9th a fatigue party, consisting of seventy-five men of the Eighty-first Corps d'Afrique Engineers, was sent over to point Isabel, distant about five miles, for the purpose of procuring lumber. At about 12 p. m. they were attacked by a force of about 150 cavalry. The fatigue party had been sent armed as a precaution in case of an attack, and some sharp skirmishing ensued, in which 2 of the enemy were killed and several wounded, without any loss to our side. Captain Jordan, Ninety-first Illinois, who was in command, seeing that he was outnumbered and fearing for the safety of the steamer Hale, which had transported the fatigue party to the Point and was lying at the wharf, withdrew his men to the boat and returned to Brazos. The above facts having been reported, also that there were several small boats at the point which, though in poor condition, could be fitted up and would fall into the hands of the enemy, a detachment of the Ninety-first Illinois and Nineteenth Iowa was sent over for the purpose of routing the rebels and destroying the boats. The detachment was under command of Captain William W. Shepherd, Ninety-first Illinois, and landed without difficulty, the enemy firing a number of shots at so long a distance as to be of no effect. Upon the advance of Captain Shepherd the enemy fled, and as there were no means of pursuit the boats were destroyed and detachment returned.

I have received information from Mr. Pierce, consul at Matamoras, to the following effect: The entire force of the enemy, consisting of about 900 cavalry, have left Brownsville, with the exception of about eighty men who are guarding the place. They are under the immediate command of Ford and are scattered in small camps over the country between this place and Brownsville. They have no artillery