DEPARTMENT OF NEW MEXICO,

Santa Fe, N. Mex., August 22, 1864.

COMMANDING OFFICER,

Fort Sumner, N. Mex.:

SIR: Inclosed herewith please find copy of letter to Captain E. H. Bergmann, First New Mexico Cavalry, commanding Fort Bascom. Should the commanding officer from that post require held from you, a contingency contemplated in that letter, send to him as much as you can spare. The general suggests that in this event whether it would not be well to send 100 or more picked Apaches and Navajoes to help whip the Comanches, their hereditary enemies. The chief quartermaster will direct that a set of blacksmith's tools, complete, and some iron, be sent to Fort Sumner for the use of the Navajoes. Tell them to go to work at once and make adobes to build the shop. You select the site near the post, and have the shop made long enough to have a forge in each end. It should not be too wide, on account of the difficulty of getting vigas of the proper length. You will furnish the vigas in case the Navajoes cannot get them by going to some place up the river. You will also furnish the window casing and doors. Have a board of officers go through the fields and make a careful examination to ascertain the probable per cent. of corn which is injured. It is hoped that not so much of it has been destroyed as you feared.

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

BEN. C. CUTLER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Inclosure.]

DEPARTMENT OF NEW MEXICO,

Santa Fe, N. Mex., August 22, 1864.

Captain EDWARD H. BERGMANN,

First New Mexico Cavalry, Commanding Fort Bascom, N. Mex.:

CAPTAIN: The general commanding the department directs that you take fifty rank and file and one officer, have them well mounted, and march without delay to Fort Union. Leave careful instructions with Captain Deus about continuing the building of your post. You will leave behind the mechanics and men who will be most essential to that purpose. You will caution Captain Deus about having a lookout party down the river to let him know whether any demonstration is about to be made against him by any large party of Comanches, and, if so, to send word to Fort Sumner in case those demonstrations are of an unmistakably hostile character, so as to get help from that post. The Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyennes are attacking trains between the Cimarron and the frontier of Missouri, and some men have been killed by them upon the Cimarron. You will have thirty infantry added to your force at Fort Union, and remain at our near the Upper Cimarron Springs, Cold Spring, or Cedar Bluffs, according to how you find the best grazing. Each of the three points is a favorable place where Indians lie in wait to attack passing trains, and the purpose for which you are sent is to see that these trains are properly guarded until those points are safely passed. With the thirty infantry you can have your camp secure while you are making scouts and are escorting with your cavalry.

Major Joseph Updegraff, U. S. Army, with fifty infantry and fifty cavalry, will be at or near the Lower Cimarron Springs. Should he need assistance from your party he will send to you for it. If you need