my present escort could successfully contend with, and at the same time protect a train of 300 wagons, and that from the most reliable information I could get it was their intention to make that attack at some point north of Fort Gibson, C. N. I dispatched four messengers at different times, and from different points, urgently asking for re- enforcements; but I am fully satisfied two of said messengers were captured by the enemy.

On the night of September 18 [17], at 12 o'clock, while encamped at a point seventy miles north of Fort Gibson, C. N., I received orders from the commanding officer there, Colonel S. H. Wattles, to move with all possible haste fifteen miles south to the station on Cabin Creek, and there await further orders from him. He dispatched also that the rebels were 1,200 or 1,500 strong, with infantry, nd moving, as he thought, with the intention of attacking the train. He also informed me that, in addition to 140 Indian troops he had ordered to join me, he had ordered Major J. A. Foreman, Third Indian Regiment, with six companies and a section of mountain howitzers to my assistance, and would meet me at the station on Cabin Creek. I immediately moved the train as ordered, arriving at the station on Cabin Creek at 9 a. m. on the 19th [18th] of September. At this point I was joined by Lieutenant B. H. Whitlow, Third Indian Regiment, with 140 Cherokees and Creeks, and the force at the station under Lieutenant Palmer, Second Indian Regiment, numbering 170 Cherokees, increasing my escort at that place to 610 men, whites and Indians. It was impossible here to obtain information as to the position and force of the enemy. On the afternoon of the same day of my arrival at Cabin Creek Station I moved south of the station three miles with twenty five Second Kansas Cavalry, under command of Captain Patrick Cosgrove, Second Kansas Cavalry, for the purpose of ascertaining the position and force of the enemy, and found them at this distance from the station strongly posted in a deep hollow on the prairie, but could not form an approximate idea of their strength. My pickets were doubled and the train formed in a quarter circle on a good point near the stockades, preparatory to an attack.

At 12 o'clock on the night of the 19th [18th] of September my pickets were driven in, nd the enemy reported advancing in force. My lines were immediately formed, and the train ordered to be parked in close order in rear of the stockade. At 1 o'clock in the morning [19th] the enemy opened with artillery and small- arms, and moved upon my lines wit a yell. At this time it was reported that the enemy were 600 or 800 strong, and they were in close proximity before their lines could be seen, and I was not informed that they had any artillery until it was opened upon my lines. The enemy's lines were formed in a quarter circle, covering my right and left flank, and the nearest estimate I could form of their numbers was between 2,000 and 2,500 men, with from four to six pieces of artillery, some of them rifled guns. The enemy formed in two lines, with mounted men in the first and dismounted men in the second, a few paces in rear of the first line. Two pieces of their artillery were posted in our immediate front and two pieces opposite my right flank, making a cross- fire on my lines and the train. At the first fire of the enemy the teamsters and wagon- masters, with but very few exceptions, stampeded, taking with them one or more mules out of each wagon, leaving their teams, and going in the direction of Fort Scott, Kans. This rendered it impossible to move any part of the train. The enemy was held in check with about 400 of my men from 1 o'clock to 7.30 a. m., when they advanced upon my lines, planting their artillery within 100 yards of my position; and our forces were compelled to fall back in