them to the hill and out of the houses. Have you preferred any other special location? Being nearer to that force and acquainted with the ground, the citizens often refer to me. The main force, whether mounted or not, I think should be at the hill.

S. R. CURTIS,

Major-General.

PAOLA, KANS., July 2, 1864.

Major-General CURTIS,

Fort Leavenworth, Kans.:

I have given no instructions changing the location of the camp at Lawrence. The last information I had the height was occupied.

THO. J. McKEAN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding District.

SAINT PAUL, MINN., July 2, 1864.

Brigadier General JOHN A. RAWLINS,

Chief of Staff, &c.:

GENERAL: In obedience to Special Orders, Numbers 32, headquarters Armies of the United States, I left Colonel Harbor, Va., June 12, and arrived at Milwaukee, Wis., June 17. On putting myself in communication with Major-General Pope, I found that the troops supposed to be in his department in camp had been disposed of, as you will find in copy of Major-General Pope's letter to me of June 18.* On that day I wrote you a short statement of the facts contained in that letter, requesting orders to be sent me to Saint Paul, as to whether I should carry out the above-named order Numbers 32, literally, and proceed to follow the Indian expeditions and inspect the troops and posts. I then proceeded to Davenport, and to this place, with the view, principally, of carrying out the private verbal orders given me by the lieutenant-general as to the Indian war. You will that Major-General Pope says:

It is impossible, for the present, to spare any part of this small without exposing the whole frontier to attacks from Indians, and causing the depopulation of all the frontier settlements of Minnesota and Dakota, as well as exposing unprotected the whole of the great emigration to the Idaho mines.

From these remarks (not made, I amy here observe, in response to anything falling from me as to the purposes of the lieutenant-general) it is to be inferred that General Pope looks upon the Indian war as having an actual existence, and being a serious affair. In conversation with Brigadier-General Sibley, commanding the District of Minnesota, he also insisted very strongly upon the absolute necessity of keeping in the department a sufficient number of troops to garrison the frontier posts, as well as enough to be thrown into expeditions into the Indian country. I have not from any other source heard opinions to the same effects, but on the contrary, in numerous conversations held with citizens of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and in two cases with influential residents of Nebraska and Dakota, the opinion has been freely expressed, and in very strong language, that "the whole thing was a humbug;" that the line of posts would be amply sufficient, garrisoned by, say, a regiment of cavalry, to repel any attempted

---------------

*See Vol. XXXIV, Part IV, p. 449.

---------------