Fort Larned, Kas.:

For the last few days the Indians along the route have been very
active and hostile; many men have been murdered, hundreds of animals
have been stolen, Fort Dodge has lost every animal. The force can now
do nothing with the Indians. A large and effective cavalry force under
a good commander must be sent here without delay, or the large number
of trains now on the plains will be destroyed or captured.

Upon the receipt of this dispatch I immediately gave orders to the
commanding officer to go out and concentrate our forces north of the
Arkansas, and to protect the trains, but not to go south of the river.
This they accomplished very effectively, and drove all the Indians south
of the Arkansas, killing and capturing a good many. On June 14th, General
Pope wrote a long letter to General U. S. Grant, enclosing my letter to
him, reiterating what I had said, and insisting for very strong reasons
that the Indians should be left entirely to the military; that there
should be no peace commission sent until the military had met these
Indians and brought them to terms, either by fighting or negotiations; and
afterwards for the commission to go there and make such arrangements as
they saw proper. In the mustering out of troops General Ford was relieved
of the command and Major-General John B. Sanborn, a very efficient
officer, was sent to take his place. It was now agreed that after the
failure of the peace commission to accomplish anything with these Indians
that I should make the campaigns south of the Arkansas, and General
Sanborn concentrated his troops and moved to the Arkansas. Before I
reached there I received a communication from Colonel Leavenworth stating
that all the chiefs of the Indians were then on Cow Creek, anxious to meet
him. At the same time, a dispatch came from Washington to General Pope,
stopping Sanborn's movement. General Pope immediately arranged to have an
interview with these Indians, and General Sanborn went there with
instructions to make an agreement with them that they should keep off of
the overland trails, and to arrange a time for a commission to meet them,
later in the year. On August 5th Sanborn agreed with the chiefs of the
Kiowas, Apaches, Comanches, and Arapahoes, on the part of the Government,
to suspend all actions of hostility towards any of the tribes above
mentioned and to remain at peace until the fourth day of October, 1865,
when they were to