HDQRS. DIST. OF MINNESOTA, DEPT. OF THE NORTHWEST,
Saint Paul, Minn., August 31, 1864.

Major General JOHN POPE,

Commanding Department of the Northwest, Milwaukee, Wis.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to report that rumors from two different quarters corroborative of each other have reached me that four enlisted men and eight horses were missing from a scouting party of the Second Minnesota Cavalry on Sunday, and it is feared the men have been killed and the horses captured, the other men of the detachment having discovered nine Indians with ponies near Manannah where the alleged occurrence took place. I shall probably have detailed information from that quarter to-morrow and from Fort Abercrombie the following morning. There is great alarm now existing along the frontier, and it has extended to the north of the Minnesota, where hitherto matters have been going along quietly. The two companies additional of Hatch's Independent Battalion are now full and should be ordered on duty in this district at once. They can be temporarily armed as infantry and this district at once. They can be temporarily armed as infantry and dispatched to the border to repel the attempts of the savages or at least to allay the panic which threatens to become general and cause a stampede of the settlers. Inclosed please find a letter,* or rather a copy verbatim et literatim of one addressed by mr. Tanner, formerly a missionary among the Chippewas, and his family of that blood. There may be no particular importance in his assertions and revelations, but in the present unsettled state of our Indian affairs there can be no impropriety in availing ourselves of all sources of information and giving to them such credit as may be due them. The letter is written to General Mitchell, a prominent citizen of Saint Could.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. H. SIBLEY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. DIST. OF MINN., DEPT OF THE NORTHWEST,
Saint Paul, Minn., August 31, 1864.

Lieutenant-Colonel PFAENDER,

Commanding Second Sub-District, Fort Ridgely:

COLONEL: Your dispatch of 29th instant, has been received at these headquarters, in which you announce no further indications of Indians along the line. Reports from private sources by way of Forest City and Saint Cloud to the effect that four enlisted men and several Government horses are missing from a scouting party near Manannah and several Indians seen in the immediate vicinity are quite rife, and General Sibley awaits with no little anxiety later intelligence from the alleged scene of action. These rumors of Indians are so often set afloat without any other foundation that the fears of the inventors that the Government clings to the hope that no such occurrence as that related has taken place, but the whole circumstances are so particularly detailed and the number of Indians mounted (nine) so minutely given, that he has grave apprehensions that some other outrages of the kind perpetrated on the Blue Earth may have been committed on the north of the Minnesota. General Sibley will expect full details from you of any such unhappy occurrence.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. C. OLIN,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

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*See inclosure in Pope to Dana, September 9, Part III, p. 126.

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