At Plum Creek, Nebr. Ter., thirty-five miles west of this post, Captain T. J. Majors, Company C, First Nebraska Cavalry Veteran Volunteers, and three companies First Regiment Nebraska Cavalry Veteran Volunteers, numbering 105 men present and one piece artillery.

At Mullahla's Station, distant fifteen miles west from Plum Creek, Captain H. H. Ribble's company (I), First Regiment Cavalry, Nebraska Veteran Volunteers, numbering twenty-three men present.

At Midway Station, distant fifteen miles west from Mullahla's Station, Captain John R. Porter's company, Nebraska militia, numbering forty-nine men present.

At Gillman's Station, distant fifteen miles west from Midway Station, Captain Charles F. Porter's company (A), Battalion Nebraska Veteran Cavalry, numbering forty men present.

At Fort Cottonwood, Nebr. Ter., distant fifteen miles from Gillman's Station, Colonel S. W. Summers, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, commanding, one company Seventh Iowa Cavalry Volunteers, one company Battalion Nebraska Veteran Cavalry, and six pieces of artillery, numbering 100 men present.

At O'Fallon's Bluffs, Nebr. Ter., distant thirty-five miles west from Cottonwood, Captain John Wilcox's, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, numbering seventy-nine men present.

At Alkali Station, Nebr. Ter., distant thirty-five miles west from O'Fallon's Bluffs, Captain E. B. Murphy's company, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, numbering seventy-three men present.

At Beauvais Station, distant twenty-five miles west from Alkali Station, Second Lieutenant Merrill S. Tuttle, Company A, Battalion Nebraska Cavalry, numbering twenty-five men present.

At Julesburg, Colo. Ter., distant twenty-five miles west from Beauvais Station, Captain N. J. O'Brien's company, Seventh Iowa Cavalry Volunteers, and two pieces artillery, numbering sixty-seven men present.

The posts of Fort Kearny and Fort Cottonwood being the only military posts heretofore existing on this long line of communication between the Missouri River and the States and Territories west of it previous to this time, the supplies at these posts having been to a great extent exhausted by the troops composing the expedition which started from here under command of Major General S. R. Curtis on the 28th August, a large proportion of which were troops from Kansas, and the season of the year being far advanced at the time I assumed command, I found myself in a great measure thrown on my own resources in supplying these numerous posts with quarters, defenses, hay, and fuel. The public transportation being altogether inadequate to the wants of the command, fuel and logs for building purposes having to be hauled in some instances seventy-five miles, I instructed my post commandants to press the empty tams of freighters returning from the west to assist them in erecting defenses, hauling fuel, building logs; and hay, and also directed them to press mowing machines into public service, and without delay put up such amount of hay as would be required for winter consumption.

I would state for the information of the general commanding that the instructions authorizing the pressing of teams and moving machines were such as would prevent any damage to citizen owners, having directed commandants to exercise sound discretion and prevent as much as possible any injury to citizens of the United States, and in every instance where owners of teams or mowing machines made it manifest that they would be sufferers by being detained on public work, their