George Wright to James P. Major, June 14, 1861

MAJOR: On receipt of Department Special Orders, No. 93, on the 10th instant, I ordered two companies to proceed to San Francisco, although the order left it discretionary with me whether I would send a second company or not. On the night of the 11th instant I received Department Special Orders, No. 97, and immediately issued instructions in compliance therewith, which you will receive by this mail. Under the circumstances of the case I was compelled to consider the second company, detached by me under Special Orders, No. 93, as one of the seven required by Special Orders, No. 97. I have been com. pelled to withdraw the troops entirely from Forts Cascades, Yamhill, and Townsend, as well as Camps Pickett and Chehalis. I have taken measures for the removal of the public property and the security of the buildings until required again for troops. Since August last fifteen companies have been withdrawn from this district, leaving now only thirteen, many of them much in want of recruits, the companies of the Ninth Infantry, on Puget Sound, being only about half full. I shall send down by the Cortez Captain Wallen, with his company (H), Fourth Infantry, and Lieutenant Fleming, with Company E, Ninth Infantry. The remaining six companies cannot possibly be sent before the return of the Pacific. Although nothing was said in the orders about the medical officers, yet, presuming that their services might be required with the troops, and not being required in this district, I ordered all attached to the abandoned posts to accompany their respective commands. Yesterday I received the order for Surgeon Barnes to repair to New York, hence it becomes necessary to relieve him in his duties at Fort Vancouver, and further in view of the possible want of a medical officer to meet any contingencies which might arise in this quarter, I determined to retain Assistant Surgeons Brown and Ridgely, as you will perceive by my orders transmitted. The whole of the Fourth Infantry remaining in this district having been ordered to San Francisco, I have deemed it proper to order Major Ketchum, of that regiment, to accompany the troops of his post. I did not deem it proper for me to interfere with the headquarters of the Fourth, it having been located at Fort Dalles by orders from Army Headquarters. I would respectfully suggest that the general would take into consideration the propriety of the removal of the Fourth Infantry headquarters to the southern district of the department. The force in this district is so much reduced that an effective campaign against Indians on a scale of any magnitude is out of the question. All that we can do is to afford general protection to the frontier settlements. It will be borne in mind that the Ninth Infantry has 2 officers and 100 picked men on the escort for Lieutenant Mullan’s wagon-road expedition, and an officer with some thirty men as escort for the Boundary Commission, and that an officer with twenty men from the company of dragoons at Fort Dalles is at the Warm Springs Reservation. Although quiet at this moment throughout the district, yet, prudentially, I would recommend that the district commander be authorized to muster into the service of the United States such number of troops as might be absolutely necessary. More than two years since, when Fort Simcoe was abandoned, an ordnance sergeant was left at that post in charge of the ordnance and quartermaster’s property. He is still there, and possibly has a little public property on hand. I would recommend that the sergeant, with his property, be brought in to Fort Dalles and the sergeant then disposed of as the general may deem proper.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,