HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, February 9, 1862

Los Angeles, Cal., February 9, 1862.

First California Vol. Infty., Commanding Fort Yuma, Cal.:

MAJOR: Send me word the moment the man returns whom you sent

on a certain mission referred to in your letter of the 17th of January. If you need more wagons, get Mr. Veck to let you have what you absolutely require. I do not want the hay and barley consumed at the post any more than can be helped. Those articles are there for other purposes. Now the water has subsided, report the damage done to hay which you had cut by the troops. If it is gone, is it possible to get more? I know you can get it if anyone can do so. In case I want Yager to get beef for me, how much notice would he want, and what would he let me have it for a pound from Warner’s ranch to Fort Yuma, and while there and on my way up the Colorado? He can name it in three prices to suit the three points. Be sure and have all the boats on the river, large and small, under your control or destroyed. What will Mr. Yager furnish barley for at the different stations on the desert named in your letter of the 17th of January? You have my authority to pay the secret agent whom you have sent to see Mr. Warner, at Tucson, via Sonoita. Give the bearer of this a receipt for the mule he rides. Give him $50 in money. You can get the money without letting anyone know for what object. Have the bearer, Frederick C. Buckner, then set across the river at night, unknown to anyone (as he can at that time be disguised), and let him go on his mission. You must not tell him of the man recommended by Hinton, whom you sent. I have given him a cipher to write, the key of which he will communicate to you. Record it and then label it with his name, and then lock the key up. This will prevent anyone seeing it, and even though they do they would hardly be any the wiser if you recorded only the key and indorsed it with his name. You can ask him questions, but impart no secret to him. He is to be here again in one month. Let him have a good horse or mule that has no Government brand.

I am, major, respectfully, &e.,

JAMES H. CARLETON, Colonel First California Volunteer Infantry, Commanding.