HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF COLORADO,
Denver, Colo., January 25, 1864.

Lieutenant G. H. HARDIN,

First Cav. of Colorado, Commanding Co. G, Camp Wild, Colo.:

SIR: The colonel commanding directs me to inform you that the weather now having moderated, you will without delay proceed with Company G, First Cavalry of Colorado, to the scene of the late Indian depredations.

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

GEO. H. STILWELL,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF COLORADO,
Denver, Colo., January 25, 1864.

Captain G. L. SANBORN,

Company H, First Cav. of Colorado, Camp Wild, Colo.:

SIR: The colonel commanding directs me to inform you that you will without delay proceed with your company down the Platte, in obedience to your orders already received.

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

GEO. H. STILWELL,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

HDQRS. DIST. OF MINN., DEPT. OF THE NORTHWEST,
saint Paul, Minn., January 25, 1864.

Major General JOHN POPE,

Milwaukee:

GENERAL: I have waited for the reports of the agents dispatched by me, under your authority, to open communication with the upper bands of Dakota or Sioux Indians, before indicating a programme of military operations for the coming spring and summer. I have had the honor to furnish you from time to time with a statement of the condition of the Indians so far as that could be ascertained. No report has yet been received from Father Andre, who left Pembine several weeks since to visit the distant camps with a view to present to those not implicated in the massacres of 1862 the terms upon which peace would be vouchsafed to them by the Government.

The arrival of Red River half-breeds at Fort Abercrombie from Devil's Lake and the upper Cheyenne River, wit the intelligence that the upper bands are encamped at points hundreds of miles apart, some within the British Possessions on the Assiniboine River, and most of the others on the James River, except two small camps of Sissetons at or near Devil's Lake, leads me to believe that the Red River half-breeds have succeeded in deterring them from submitting to the Government by representations that in such case they would be taken from their own country and placed upon an island in the ocean. It is for the interest of these half-breeds that non-intercourse between the Americans and the Sioux Indians should continue, as the trade with the latter is thereby secured to the British settlements exclusively. In fact, as I have already reported to you, the hostile Indians are directly aided and abetted by Her Majesty's subjects to