D.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NEW MEXICO,
Santa Fe, N. Mex., March 11, 1864-9 p.m.

Lieutenant Colonel NELSON H. DAVIS, U. S. Army,

Assistant Inspector-General, Tucson, Ariz. Ter.:

COLONEL: Your letter of the 1st instant has just come to hand. I am much concerned at the condition of affairs in Western Arizona. This I can see you must do at once: Send an express and turn back, or stop at Drum Barracks, the three last companies of the First Cavalry to await orders at that point. They cannot forward to starve on the desert or at Tucson. As soon as we can get supplies they can be sent for, if necessary, to come by the shorter (the Whipple) route. This will relieve you of some embarrassment. In another letter written to-day you will see what I will try to have done about funds. Mean time, as soon as possible, you shall have some money from here. Your acts have all been judicious and are approved. If you cannot overcome the dilemma of supplies, want of coin, want of credit, &c., the troops must come away; there is no help for it, both from Tucson and Fort Whipple. Fort Whipple must be at an accessible point. It must be supplied from Tucson or via Fort Mojave, or you must reduce the garrison at once to a single company and get all the rest away. I cannot help much here, except with money, until we get supplies from the States. If the troops can get bread, meat, and salt, they must hold on. I will send you some sugar and coffee by Cremony. By the next mail your communication will be fully considered. Mean time send the troops in if you can do no better.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES H. CARLETON,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWEST,
Milwaukee, Wis., March 20, 1864.

Major General H. W. HALLECK:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, and in reply to transmit a copy of my instructions to Generals Sully and Sibley concerning operations in the Indian country during the coming season.* From these instructions you will perceive that General Sully is directed to establish a post, if possible, this season on the Yellowstone River, at or near the trading post of Fort Alexander, which is between 20 and 30 miles below the mouth of Big Horn. Although the Yellowstone is sometimes navigable above Fort Alexander, yet that post may be considered the head of practicable navigation. In relation to the post which you suggest on Powder River, I shall write General Sully, but I think it doubtful, unless circumstances are more favorable than can now be reasonably expected, whether it will be possible this season to establish such a post and arrange for its supply with the means in this department.

All information and every indication from the upper plains render it almost certain that the powerful band of Yanktonais and other bands of Dakota Sioux have effected a combination with the Uncpapa, Blackfeet, Sans Arcs, and other smaller bands of Teton

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*Of March 15; see p. 622.

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