in dispute as to what constitutes the military post of Fort Smith, by saying that certain troops were in the Department of Arkansas. I only meant that they were in territory claimed as the department of Arkansas by Generals Thayer and Steele. You say, if I get no telegram informing me of a favorable termination of the question of department lines at Washington before your letter of the 18th ultimo reached me I should remove my headquarters to Fort Gibson. I have as yet received no such telegram; but before proceeding to remove headquarters to Fort Gibson I desire to submit several matters for your consideration, and await further orders.

Fort Smith is certainly the best point from which to superintend all operations in my district; and as there appears to be no issue in regard to the military post of Fort Smith proper, and over which the Department of Arkansas does not claim to have any control, it seems important that we should retain its advantages. We have no collision here now in the management of our local affairs. All of the police duty in and about Fort Smith is done by the other command (in Deparment of Arkansas). By a mutual agreement the post commander furnishes details of white soldiers from their command to do all fatigue duty in quartermaster and commissary depot, and I furnish details of colored soldiers from the Eleventh Colored to work on the fortifications; while the depot quartermaster, with all the shops, mechanics, material, corrals, public buildings, and transportation, are under my control, yet I have directed Captain Durbin to afford the troops left here, but reporting in the other department, all the accommodations they require to promote the interest of the public service, and all their applications come through my headquarters.

The troops under my control here are the Eleventh Colored (five companies), two sections of the Second Kansas Battery, and three companies of cavalry, which, in conjunction with the Thirteenth Kansas, a part of the Sixth Kansas, and a section of the Third Kansas Battery (reporting in the other department), are sufficient for defensive purposes and protecting our depot of supplies. The control of these shops and quartermaster depot is of the utmost importance to us in keeping in repair our transportation. I am also procuring large amounts of corn about 50 miles down the river, without which our mules and horses would soon become entirely unserviceable. I am now sending some corn for animals to Fort Gibson and Mackey's Salt-Works. Telegraphic communication with your headquarters and other points is also another consideration of importance. To give up all these advantages, unless we are compelled to, would be voluntarily weakening ourselves; at least it appears so to me. If I remove my headquarters from here it will be equivalent to surrendering the whole thing, as I cannot avail myself of the advantages alluded to unless I retain my headquarters here.

If, however, they should take this post from us, then I would urge the propriety of removing the headquarters to Scullyville, which is about 18 miles southwest from here, in the Choctaw Nation (the old agency), and 3 miles from the Arkansas River, where it makes a bend southward. This place is quite well provided with accommodations for quarters and storage, and is supplied with an abundance of excellent water (of which Fort Gibson is very deficient in the summer season). It would be near telegraph communication and near a point on the river to which supplies could be shipped, and in every respect possesses every advantage over any other point in