Francis J Lippitt to R. Drum, U.s. Army, August 10, 1862

MAJOR:

Major Curtis arrived here on the 7th instant with Companies Band O, Second Infantry California Volunteers. Company D had been landed at Fort Bragg. The steamer that carries this will undoubtedly take down Captain Moore’s company of Third Infantry California Volunteers, stationed there, as they have long been ready to embark. Port Baker is at such a distance that it will require eight days to bring

Captain Ketcham’s company here. It will be ready to embark in the next steamer, as will also Captain Johns” company. The latter company would have been ready by this steamer but for the recent attacks by the Indians on the settlements near Redwood Creek, which made it impossible to call in the detachment of twenty men of that company at Elk Camp under Lieutenant Anderson, as I had intended to do. The three companies from the north arrived here much reduced. Company C has only sixty men, having lost thirty by desertion on the march from Fort Colville. Company D lost forty men in the same way, having only forty left. Company B numbers fifty-nine, including a detachment of nineteen men left at Umpqua, and expected here in the next steamer. Lieutenant Staples, Third Infantry California Volunteers, has returned from his pursuit of the five men under sentence who had deserted, as reported in my last letter. He succeeded in finding and bringing back three of them, Kelly, Smithy, and Brennan. Company E, Second Cavalry California Volunteers, left here for Red Bluff on the Sth instant. They would have left on the 4th but the mule train did not arrive here till the evening of that day. Lieutenant Daley is in command. Unfortunately, a few days before, Captain Akey had a personal difficulty with a citizen at Eureka, who most grossly insulted him, the result of which was that the captain was bound over in the sum of $1,500 to appear and answer for an assault before the court of sessions here on the second Monday of this month. Proceedings have been taken within a day or two by which his appearance is postponed to the second Monday of October next. Captain Akey will therefore proceed by this steamer to join his company by the way of San Francisco, and will probably arrive at Red Bluff before his company reaches there. Of course, in order to save his bondsmen and his honor, Captain Akey will be obliged to appear before the court here on the second Monday of October, even if he should have to resign in order to do so. I trust that the convenience of the service will allow such arrangements to be made as will enable him to fulfill his obligation. Instead of twelve surplus saddles, Captain Akey found he had only five to*turn over. Seven more will be absolutely necessary for express purposes. No citizen can now be hired to carry dispatches at any price unless we furnish him an escort, and if we must send an escort, we may as well send it without the citizen and save the expense. Our need of regular expresses is so urgent that I shall probably have to order the purchase of seven more saddles without waiting to hear from below. On the 4th instant Lieutenant Fairfield returned here with a detachment of Company K, Second Infantry California Volunteers, and forty Indian prisoners, most of them bucks. The whole number of Indians now at this post is 462. At Fort Baker, where twelve more warriors of Las-Sic’s band have just come in, 212; total, 674. On the night of the 6th instant a party of about thirty Indians attacked a Mr. Dumphreys on the trail four miles from Fort Gaston. A shower of bullets pierced his clothes, his saddle, and his mule. He escaped through the dense undergrowth to Fort Gaston. Colonel Olney immediately sent out small detachments in every direction, some scouring the woods while others were lying in ambush. They returned the next day, having found only the tracks of the Indians, which they traced into the thicket, where they were lost. Lieutenant Swasey having been verbally informed by you that a leave of fifteen days to my adjutant, Lieutenant Hanna, would be approved by the department commander, he goes down by my permission on this steamer, without waiting for the reply to his written application, as his services can be better spared for the next fifteen days than at any other time.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,