and knowing that you are not unacquainted with our condition, I appeal to you in earnest language, because I am deeply impressed with a sense of the danger which now threatens every settler on the frontier. His life and property are daily at stake.

I rely on your influence because as a commander of this district you have ever appeared solicitous to protect the frontier. As the State troops or militia have been turned over to the Confederacy by the Governor, we of the frontier think we have a right to demand protection from the general commanding the department. I have no doubt Captain Lawhorn's company, formerly stationed at Camp Verde, if ordered back would give great satisfaction to the frontier inhabitants, at least to the loyal portion of them.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. A. LOCKHART.

[Indorsement.]

Respectfully forwarded, for the information of the major-general commanding, with the remark that many verbal representations being made upon this subject, I asked to have them put in writing. Mr. Lockhart was sent down by the citizens to consult with the military authorities upon this subject. He is an intelligent gentleman, and his views and representations worthy of consideration.

A. G. DICKINSON,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT INDIAN TERRITORY,
Fort Towson, C. N., May 11, 1864.

Brigadier General W. R. BOGGS,

Chief of Staff, Trans-Miss., Dept., Camden, Ark.:

GENERAL: I returned from Camden to this district with the design of moving, without a moment's unnecessary delay, upon Fort Smith and Fort Gibson, and relieve the whole of this Territory, then fully believing that Steele's army would be captured or dispersed and Little Rock reached by our forces.

From various unofficial sources, having heard nothing definite, except your note that a battle had been fought and won at Jenkins' Ferry, I am now satisfied that our army did not advance beyond the Saline River. This, of course, bears most essentially upon movements here. Fort Smith, so far as its present force goes, could be taken; so can Fort Gibson, but not held with the river below in the enemy's possession.

I am led to believe by General Smith's very stirring address, dated at Camden, 4th instant, that he still contemplates repossessing the Arkansas Valley. I can only construe the sentence, "Call together your comrades, and, shoulder to shoulder, we will yet free the soil of our beloved country from the invaders' footsteps," to mean this: I shall proceed vigorously, giving my men and horses the rest nature demands, and be ready to move at a moment's notice, and when a few days of rest are had, shall move the Choctaw brigade across the divide on the road leading from Boggy Depot to Fort Smith, in the neighborhood of where Watie's brigade now is, from which position I can move upon either of the places named or repel an invasion