John G. Downey to George Wright, U.s. Army, December 9, 1861

Brig. Gen. GEORGE WRIGHT, U.S. Army, Commanding Pacific Division, San Francisco :

SIR: I have the honor of calling your attention to the inclosed copies of communications received by me—one from G. H. Woodman, and the other from Walter Van Dyke, State senator elect from the county of Humboldt, both in relation to Indian hostilities in the counties of Humboldt and Mendocino. I sincerely hope you will be able to increase the command in those localities, and thereby relieve the State from the necessity of calling out troops which would ultimately be a charge to the General Government. Experience has taught us that these expeditions against the Indians, when under the control of the Federal Government, are attended with much less expense and not with the same excesses as when conducted under the authority of the State. Knowing this, I have avoided calling out volunteers for this purpose since I have been in office, and only in one instance have I done: so, and only then when Brig. Gen. E. V. Sumner positively informed me he had no troops for this purpose at his disposal. As there are now plenty of troops who will be inactive during the winter months, I hope you may deem it expedient to dispatch a few companies to the disturbed districts.

[ have the honor to be,

very respectfully, your obedient servant,