HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, October 16, 1861

Los Angeles, October 16, 1861.

Lieut. Col. JOSEPH R. WEST, First California Infantry, en route to Fort Yuma:

COLONEL: You are ordered with three companies of the First Infantry California Volunteers to march to Fort Yuma to relieve the present garrison there. It is important to the interest of the service that you reach there with the least possible delay. Besides, promptness in executing orders must be the cardinal point in all movements of the First Infantry. You must know that Fort Yuma ina strategie point of view is an outpost to all of Southern California. It is on the line whence must come the only troops which can possibly menace the State from Texas or Arizona overland. If you use circumspection you can never be surprised there. If you are not surprised your force properly managed, with the desert as an auxiliary, will never be whipped, to say the least. You will seize all the ferryboats, large and small, upon the

river Colorado. All the crossing of the river must be done at one point under the guns of the fort. All persons passing into Sonora or to Arizona from California must take the oath of allegiance before they pass; so must all coming into California by the route overland via Yuma. Do not hesitate to hold in confinement any person or persons in that vicinity, or who may attempt to pass to or from California, who are avowed enemies of the Government, or who will not subscribe to the oath of allegiance. Keep an exact record of name, place of residence, age, occupation, and whence he came and whither he is to go, of each person passing the river to or from California. You will assume control of the steamers on the river, if in your judgment such control is vital to your safety or to the interests of your Government. You will promptly report to the officer in command near Warner’s ranch and to myself should you be menaced by an enemy in force. You will

make any, and if necessary every, sacrifice to destroy that enemy before he reaches this edge of the desert, calling on all the troops at Camp Wright to assist you by a timely advance should it be necessary to this end. Keep your command well supplied, in a high state of discipline and drill, and I have no fears but that the country will have good reports of your conduct. Lam your friend and well-wisher, JAMES H. CARLETON, Colonel First California Volunteers, Commanding.