KELTON, Colonel, Acting Adjutant-General to Commanding General Department of Arizona, Whipple Barracks, Ariz, March 17, 1882

Colonel Kelton to Commanding General Department of Arizona, Whipple Barracks, Ariz.

Sir: In reply to your telegram of the 15th instant, the division commander directs me to say that he thinks you should be the judge of what troops you can spare from Forts Apache and Thomas in the present quiet condition of the Indians on the San Carlos Reservation. But he also thinks if you can afford to take any troops from those posts you should not send them to Grant, but station them on the border, one troop at Huachuca, to replace Wagner’s, of the First Cavalry, and one at Camp Rucker. In a few weeks the troops at Huachuca will be able to get to Willcox Station or any place on the railroad sooner than they would from Grant, and certainly, to keep the peace on the border and satisfy the reasonable wishes of the people of the Territory and carry out the instructions of the Secretary of War, the new camp at Rucker should be as large as you can possibly make it. The division commander, therefore, directs that any troops which you can relieve from Apache and Thomas be sent into camp at Rucker and Huachuca. With the two camps, each of two troops, and one company of infantry and one of Indian scouts, with a camp of observation with some scouts between these posts, and one to the east of Rucker, patrolling the border, the earliest information of Indians entering the Territory would be obtained. In case of any Indians making away from San Carlos Reservation the troops at these camps would he in the best position to intercept them.

Of course these camps should be connected by telegraph or a system of seen signal stations with the general military telegraph system of the department, and that without delay.

The question of transportation will be but little affected by the change of station of troops. The transportation made necessary by the new camp at Rucker will be offset by the less demand for transportation at posts from which the troops at the camp came. But aside from this, should the reduction of your public transportation by one-fifth take place, there is no difficulty to be anticipated about supplying the troops at the new camp by contractors’ transportation. An additional object for getting a command at an early day at or near the permanent site of the new post near Rucker is that a reservation of suitable size, embracing wood for building and fuel, with grass, and a rifle range, may be set aside and surveyed before the occupation of the country by settlers and before the building timber is claimed.

The fact that the troops may be obliged to make a temporary camp near water, instead of occupying at once the site which is selected for the new post, is a matter which should not be taken into consideration as affecting the movement of the troops intended for the new post.

The division commander in presenting these views looks forward to the early abandonment of both Forts Grant and Bowie, especially the former, and the concentration of so much of their garrisons at Rucker and Huachuca as will make each a four-company post—three troops of cavalry and one company of infantry. These large posts will necessarily compel the Mexican Government to build large posts near the northern border, perhaps on the Blackwater and at San Luis Springs.

If, in addition to these posts, the General of the Army recommends a large post in New Mexico, near Deming, their several garrisons will present great obstacles to any formidable raids from Mexico, and should be able to prevent the raiders from doing any considerable damage in Arizona and from escaping.

Very respectfully, &c.,