is being made. The settlement on Willow Creek has, perhaps, all that have not been murdered, fled to the stockade at Vernon. Some 200 were congregated there before daylight this morning. I will report you more fully by mail.

I am, Governor, your obedient servant,

B. F. SMITH.

Mr. Pay, the bearer, can inform you more particularly. He is reliable and prudent man.

HDQRS. DIST. OF MINNESOTA, DEPT. OF THE NORTHWEST,
Saint Paul, Minn., August 13, 1864.

His Excellency S. MILLER,

Governor of Minnesota, at Capitol:

SIR: In reply to our official communication of this date, inclosing a dispatch from Colonel B. F. Smith, Minnesota State Militia, giving information of an Indian raid upon the settlements upon the Blue Earth River, you are respectfully informed that orders have been issued to Lieutenant-Colonel Pfaender, commanding Second Sub-District, to use all the force at his command to pursue and destroy the marauders and for the protection of the settlements. He has no doubt dispatched a mounted force from Ford Ridgely for the purpose before this, as intelligence of the outrage was promptly transmitted to him by Colonel Smith from Mankato, and he has standing instructions to act in any emergency without waiting for orders. I have directed Lieutenant Darrow, in command of Company K, Second Minnesota Cavalry, to proceed immediately to Mankato with forty mounted men, including about twenty veterans of Brackett's battalion, and, after consultation with Colonel Smith, to repair to any menaced point and destroy any hostile Indians he may fall in with without mercy, and to act according to his best judgment until further orders reach him from Lieutenant-Colonel Pfaender. The party engaged in the raid have probably avoided any outposts by coming from the Iowa frontier.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. H. SIBLEY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

SOUTH BRANCH OF WATONWAN, August 13, 1864-9 a.m.

Captain R. C. OLIN,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Dist. of Minnesota, Saint Paul:

CAPTAIN: You have probably before the receipt of this learned the particulars of the Indian raid about Vernon, and I shall therefore only give you a sketch of my doings. At 10 a.m. yesterday I received the information through Captain Smith. Took twenty-five men of Company C, and arrived late last evening at this post, being about fifty-four miles, almost too much for the horses, who have not had any grain for some time. Before I started I notified the half-breed scouts at the head of the Redwood. Coming to Lake Hanska, found Captain Smith with a small detachment gone after the Indians, and at midnight one of his men came in here after some re-enforcements, stating that they had six Indians with eight horses cornered at a lake about twenty-five