George Wright to Lorenzo Thomas, December 19, 1861

Brig. Gen. LORENZO THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: On the 17th instant I had the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegraphic dispatch of the 16th. I am now busily engaged in throwing forward supplies to Fort Yuma preparatory to a forward movement. Activity prevails in every department. I shall in a few days move the Fifth Infantry California Volunteers, Colonel Bowie, now encamped near Sacramento, to the southern district, to take the place of the troops designated for the expedition. My communications of the 9th and 10th instant, together with the returns which will be forwarded by the steamer of the 21st, will give you the strength of my command. Owing to the continued Indian disturbances in the northwestern portion of the State I have found it necessary to create the District of Humboldt, and have ordered Col. Francis J. Lippitt, of the Second Infantry California Volunteers, to proceed to Fort Humboldt with the staff and two companies of his regiment and assume command of the district. With a commander on the spot, the troops at Forts Ter-Waw, Gaston, Seward, and Bragg will act in concert, and quiet will be maintained. I have ordered a battalion of two companies of the Second Infantry California Volunteers, under com. mand of Lieutenant-Colonel Olney, of that regiment, to take post at Santa Barbara, Cal. This I deem necessary to preserve quiet in that quarter. The remaining company of Lippitt’s regiment I have placed on Alcatraz Island, under Major Burton, for instruction in heavy artillery. In view of a possibility of a hostile force threatening this city I have desired the chief engineer, Colonel De Russy, to submit to me a plan for temporary defensive works. I shall then throw up field-works to command the approaches, but we may be somewhat embarrassed for the want of a sufficient number of heavy guns. The forts at Fort

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Point and on Alzatraz Island have in position about one-half of the guns required for their complete armament. I deem it of importance that the balance of the armament for these forts should be sent out as soon as practicable.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,