PAOLA, March 24, 1864

Lieutenant Colonel GEORGE H. HOYT,

Olathe, Kans.:

I send you a copy of the return of Company D, Eleventh Kansas, at Aubrey, by to-morrow's mail. Make such disposition of the forces under your command as will best secure the country against the enemy and protect the lives and property of the citizens.

GEO. S. HAMPTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

OMAHA, NEBR. TER., March 24, 1864

Captain JOHN WILLIAMS,

Asst. Adjt. General, Department of Kansas:

CAPTAIN: I have just had an interview with John Hunter, of Fort Laramie, in regard to the Sioux Indians and their intentions with regard to the Government and emigration across the plains. This man Hunter belongs to the Sioux tribe, having married a Sioux squaw. I think him honest and intelligent. Citizens here how know say that he is reliable. He says that the only cause of dissatisfaction with all the tribes in the region originates from a dislike to the agent in charge of Indian matters in that country. He says further that he is satisfied that almost any person except that agent could make a treaty with them that would be religiously lived up to.

The agent of whom they complain is John Loree, said to be appointed from Indiana. I have conversed with at least two other persons who make the same statements with regard to the Indian agent. If a treaty could be made with them I have no doubt that it would be the cheapest and best way the Government could find to prevent trouble on the plains.

I am, captain, your very obedient servant,

ROBT. B. MITCHELL,

Brigadier-General

HDQRS. DIST. OF MINN., DEPT. OF THE NORTHWEST,

Saint Paul, Minn., March 24, 1864

Major General JOHN POPE,

Milwaukee:

GENERAL: I have the honor to state that I have received your instructions of 15th instant to General Sully and myself, specifying the programme of military operations for the ensuing season. I beg leave to call your attention to two points in which your orders to me are imperative, but which it may be physically impossible to comply with, and I therefore respectfully request that some discretion may be allowed me. One is the location of the post on James River, which I understood you to state verbally might be on the head of the Coteau, if a sufficiency of timber could not be found on the James River directly west from that point for the uses of a military station of the magnitude contemplated by you. The other is the requirement that the four companies of infantry designed as a component part of the garrison at Devil's Lake shall necessarily rendezvous at Fort Abercrombie as the point of departure. It may