HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF COLORADO,
Denver, August 17, 1864.

Brigadier General JAMES H. CARLETON,

Commanding Department of New Mexico, Santa Fe, N. Mex.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your communication of 8th instant, notifying me of the force sent to the Cimarron Crossing; also copy of your letter to Lieutenant Colonel William McMullen, dated Santa Fe, August 1, 1864, in reference to the same matter. I transmit herewith copy of letter from Lieutenant George L. Shoup, First Cavalry of Colorado, dated Pueblo, Colo. Ter., August 13, 1864, relative to a party of guerrillas who have been committing depredations in this Territory.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. M. CHIVINGTON,

Colonel First Cavalry of Colorado, Commanding District.

[Inclosure.]

PUEBLO, COLO. TER., August 13, 1864.

Lieutenant J. S. MAYNARD,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, Dist. of Colorado:

SIR: I have the honor to inform you that the detachment of Company H, left at Beaver Creek, arrived here about noon to-day with three more of the robbers. They were taken this morning at Mr. Conley's ranch, on Beaver Creek, where they came in for breakfast. They were arrested by Mr. C.[onley] and others just as they sat down to eat. I have questioned them apart, and find that their several versions correspond in the following: We left Texas on or about the 11th of April, under James Reynolds, to go into Colorado to recruit for the Confederate army, by order of (or permission of) General Cooper. They were twenty-two strong. On the Cimarron road they robbed a train, from which they took about $1,800 in specie and about the same in greenbacks. They then returned to Fort Belknap, Tex., to dispose of their mules and send their money home. The mules were divided equally. Thirteen of their party then refused to come up here with Reynolds. The prisoners think that the thirteen men went into New Mexico to plunder there. They state also that a party of fifty or sixty men started about the same time they did last June (12th) to come into Colorado on a similar mission to that of theirs. They have not heard from them since; say they may have gone into New Mexico. They think the roads into New Mexico will be lined with guerrillas. They say that no money was cached on the Cimarron or elsewhere by them. When told that Holderman reported that they had hid money there they gave him the lie, saying that everything was divided equally and their several portions sent home. Much more of interest can be told you by them or by me on my return. They say that Holderman was on picket at the time their party was attacked by the citizens of the mountains. Lieutenant Chase has just arrived from twenty miles up the river; says he has two of the band corralled in a large bottom covered with all kinds of verdure. He had not men enough to watch all the avenues of escape and search at the same time; he therefore placed men on guard until more men can go up. We are determined to catch all of the rascals. I have all the roads and trails leading south so well guarded that I think it impossible for them to escape us. A man who is driving a herd of cattle to Denver for Thomas Pollock says: "While coming thorough the Moscow Pass a man came to me mounted on fine horse;

48 R R-VOL XLI, PT II