John Pope to J. C. Kelton, March 30, 1863

Col. J. C. KELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General :

COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of the letter of the Secretary of War, of March 24, to the Secretary of the Interior, in relation to troops for the Upper Missouri.

Jam assembling at Sioux City and Fort Randall 2,000 cavalry and eight companies of infantry, with a battery of mountain howitzers. This force includes the regiment of Nebraska cavalry, which, as I am informed by telegram from the General-in-Chief, has been ordered to report to me at Sioux City, direct from the headquarters of the army. These forces will have assembled by April 15, and by May 10, the earliest moment at which the grass on the plains will subsist the animals, they will move up the Missouri against the hostile Indians. This expedition is designed to be simultaneous and to act in co-operation with a similar expedition, somewhat larger, which will move from the Upper Minnesota in the direction of Devil’s Lake. I had intended to send a third expedition up the Big Sioux to unite with the Minnesota expedition near Devil’s Lake; but the refusal of the Indian Department to take charge of the Indian prisoners captured last September deprives me of the use of so large a force to protect them against the whites in Minnesota, that I am not able to command a sufficient force.

very respectfully, your obedient servant,