Lippitt to C. D. Douglas, April 4, 1862

Capt. C. D. DOUGLAS, Second Infantry California Vols., Comdg. at Fort Anderson:

CAPTAIN: Your dispatch of this date is the first official report received of any engagement with the Indians. The particulars will be forwarded to department headquarters by the first steamer. The colonel commanding regrets that he has no men to send you at present. Captain Akey is on a scout with all the men that can be spared from the post. But the eleven men of your command now at Riley’s will be relieved immediately by a detachment of Company E, Second Cavalry California Volunteers. Until further orders you will furnish escorts from your post to Fort Gaston and to Riley’s for all trains with Goyernment supplies, all military expresses, all U. S. mail riders, and so far as practicable for private trains. If the Indian killed was positively identified by the hospital steward as a Hoopa Indian, you will instruct Lieutenant Johnson to prepare his affidavit to the fact, to be signed by him and sworn to before a commissioned officer, and then forwarded immediately to these headquarters. So far as possible you will take care to keep always one-half of your effective men at the post.

By order of Colonel Lippitt: