vancing. Before daylight of the next day Lieutenant Hubbard took position on high blue church and sent back important information. He was with the advance all this day and until noon of the 25th, sending back such information as he could pick up. On the morning of the 26th Lieutenants Hubbard and Neely collected considerable information from different sources in the vicinity of Fort Scott of such importance that the commanding general based his orders for that day upon the information sent in by those two officers. In the meantime all the signal officers were kept busy by the commanding general as aides. On the 1st of November I received a verbal order from General Curtis to furnish a quartermaster's detail for headquarters, and turned over to Lieutenant Fitch, staff quartermaster, fifteen men, under charge of Sergeant Warriner. On the 5th of November Lieutenant Quinby was sent on special duty to Saint louis. A copy of the order is inclosed.* On the 8th day of November the Arkansas River was reached and the chase abandoned. We had nothing now to do but to return home, a distance of 300 miles. The officers and men of the corp shave acquitted themselves well. Lieutenants Roberts and Quinby rendered valuable service to the commanding general as aides, as also did Lieutenant Fitch as quartermaster; the three officers would have been called upon by me to do signal duty had there been any such duty to perform. During the campaign a great many observations and reports were made by the signal officers that were given to the general verbally, and of which we have no record, from the fact that we moved so rapidly, making 822 miles in thirty-nine days, an average of twenty-one miles per day.

No lines of communication could be opened, although we were always ready and anxious to do that kind of work. My thanks are due the officers, sergeants, and men for the alacrity and willingness with which all my orders were obeyed.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ED. I. MEEKER,

Captain, Chief Signal Officer, Department of Kansas.

Lieutenant Colonel W. J. L. NICODEMUS,

In charge of Signal Bureau, Washington, D. C.

HDQRS. SIGNAL DETACHMENT, DEPT. OF KANSAS,
Fort Leavenworth, November 23, 1864.

SIR: In obedience to published instructions, I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the signal detachment, Department of Kansas, during the late campaign, after the rebel Price:

On the 10th of October, learning that it was the intention of the commanding general to take the field in person, I applied for and obtained permission to mount all of my officers and such number of my men as was absolutely needed, and to draw one wagon. This being accomplished, on the 11th of October, with thirty minutes' notice, we started with the headquarters of the commanding general at noon for the front. In the meantime Lieutenant Roberts, acting signal officer, by your order, had been appointed an acting aide-de-camp. At the close of the first day's march, there being no staff quartermaster, Lieutenant J. R. Fitch, Signal Corps, U. S. Army, was appointed by your order staff quartermaster. Passing rapidly through Olathe, Wyandotte, and Kansas City, we first met the enemy on the Little Blue, near Inde-

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*Omitted.

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