Letter

Fifth Infantry California Volunteers. Some of those companies are to E.R.S. Canby, May 3, 1862

Fort Yuma, Cal.

Col. E. R. S. CANBY, Commanding Department of New Mexico:

COLONEL: Having no means of getting reliable information from you except by a special express, I send the bearer of this to you for that purpose. He will be able to tell you about this part of the country, and will bring to me any communication you may desire to write. I have a force of light battery (Company A, Third Artillery) of two 12-pounder howitzers and two 6 pounder guns, and fifteen companies of infantry and five companies of cavalry, California Volunteers, well armed and provided for, and the men are as fine material as any in the service. I can move on from Tucson or Fort Breckinridge as soon as I hear from you. Iam ready and anxious to co-operate with you. If necessary I can be followed by still another regiment or more of infantry, to be sent by steam to the mouth of the Colorado. It will afford me pleasure to enter into any plan you may suggest, so my force can be of service to you and to the cause. Let me know your strength, your situation, your purposes; the strength, situation, and probable purposes of Sibley and his troops. Please send an escort with my messenger to get him safely through the Apaches.

l have the honor to be,

very respectfully,

Colonel First California Volunteers, Commanding.
[Indorsement.]
At the time this letter was written it was the intention of General
Carleton to move forward to the Rio Grande five companies of the
Fifth Infantry California Volunteers. Some of those companies are
now serving in Western Arizona.
First Lieut., First Infty. California Vols., Actg. Asst. Adjt. Gen.
[Inclosure B.]
Editor's Notes
From: Operations in Charleston Harbor, S.C., 1861. Location: Fort Yuma, Cal..
Sources
The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 1 View original source ↗