Unknown to Colonel, October 28, 1861
COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 30th ultimo, also an extract from Special Orders, No. 160, of the same date from the Headquarters of the Army. On the 17th instant five companies of the Second Infantry California Volunteers left this place on the steamer for Oregon for the purpose of relieving the regular troops at the most remote stations in that district. To-morrow five companies of the Fourth Infantry California Volunteers will embark for Cregon and relieve the troops at Fort Dalles and the garrisons in the district west of the Cascade Mountains. After the withdrawal of the regular troops from the District of Oregon, there will remain, under the present arrangement, ten companies of volunteer infantry and one company of regulars (Third Artillery). The company of the Third Artillery now at Fort Vancouver will occupy San Juan Island and the volunteer infantry will occupy all the posts in the district now garrisoned by the regulars with the exception of Fort Cascades. No more troops will be sent to Oregon for the present, and I have suspended the enrollment of the volunteer company of cavalry at Fort Dalles, as the recent call made by the War Department for a regiment of cavalry to be raised in Oregon will, it is presumed, be ample for any emergency likely to arise in that country. The District of ` Southern California is under the command of Colonel Carleton. He has ten companies of infantry and five of cavalry and should it be necessary an additional force can be thrown into that country with promptness. On the steamer which will leave here on the 1st proximo there will embark at San Pedro the headquarters, staff, band, and six companies of the Fourth Infantry, one company of the Ninth Infantry, and two companies of the First Cavalry, the whole under command of from Fort Yuma will reach San Diego in season to embark on the steamer leaving here on the 21st of November. J shall send forward the regular troops to New York with the utmost dispatch as fast as they reach the coast, without regard to regiments.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
San Francisco, Cal., October 28, 1861.
COLONEL: I beg leave, most respectfully, but earnestly, to request
that the General-in-Chief may be pleased to reconsider the second paragraph of Special Orders, No, 160, current series.* I have served on the
valleys of the Columbia River, or in pursuing the savage foe in the
mountain fastnesses on the eastern borders of Oregon and Washingten. Under these circumstances I appeal with confidence to the General-in-Chief, and pray that I may be ordered to service in the field.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,