FEBRUARY 24 - 29, 1864. - Scout from Camp Mimbres, N. Mex.

Abstract from Record of Events on return of the Department of New Mexico for February, 1864.*

February 24. - The commanding officer and 21 infantry at Camp Mimbres left that post on a scout.

February 27. - Had a fight with the Indians.

February 29. - Returned; none of the party injured; killed 13 Indians, including the chief of the Mangas tribe; captured from the Indians a Mexican woman who had been in captivity fifteen years.

FEBRUARY 27, 1864. - Affair near Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Report of Captain Abijah Johns, Third Missouri State Militia Cavalry.

PATTERSON, February 28, 1864.

COLONEL: My scout in from below Poplar Bluff. Captured and burned rebel train, destroying a great many shotguns and rifles and corn. Killed 2 jayhawkers; had 1 man slightly wounded in finger.

JOHNS,

Captain.

Colonel RICHARD G. WOODSON,

Pilott Knob, Mo.

FEBRUARY 29 - MARCH 13, 1864. - Expedition from Rolla, Mo., to Batesville, Ark.

Report of Colonel William D. Wood, Eleventh Missouri Cavalry.

HDQRS. ELEVENTH CAVALRY, MISSOURI VOLUNTEERS,
Camp Steele, March 15, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report, for the information of the colonel commanding the district, that, in obedience to Special Orders, Numbers 40, headquarters Department of the Missouri, I ordered Squadrons A and M to proceed from Saint Louis to Rolla on the morning of the 15th ultimo, per Pacific Railroad, where I and my staff joined them on the 17th, and was joined on the 18th by Squadrons B, C, E, and G, commanded by Major L. W. Brown, which had for some time been serving in District of Southwest Missouri. As this detachment was in need of many supplies, both of ordnance and camp and garrison equipage, I deemed it advisable to remain there a few days till the necessary supplies could be obtained. Meanwhile I turned the occasion to account by putting my command in a more efficient state of discipline and drill, and by sending a quantity of forage to Houston. On the afternoon of the 29th ultimo I ordered tents struck and moved 5 miles south of Rolla, and camped on Little Beaver. On March 1, I moved 13 miles and camped by the side of a fine spring. Roads were bad and teams heavily loaded. On the morn

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

* See also p. 122.

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