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"Headquarters Department of New Mexico, "Santa Fe, N. M., June 26, 1863. "Colonel: I send you this note by Mr. Groom, whom you know. I have written to General Clark that if, upon consultation with yourself and Captain Pishon and Mr. Groom, it shall seem expedient to go to the new gold fields via Zuni, you are authorized to employ Mr. Groom as a guide, at a reasonable compensation. In the event of a decision among you to go that way, starting across the country directly from Fort Craig to the Whipple route, you are authorized to employ some good person as guide until that road is struck. This latter person's services will be continued throughout the journey to and from the gold fields. After the Whipple road is struck, he can act as a spy and herder, etc. In case it is concluded to go via Fort West and Tucson and the Pima villages, you are authorized to employ Mr. Groom as packer, at a reasonable compensation.

"Great care should be taken to fit out this party down to the minutest detail. Some medicines should be taken along, some lint, bandages, a field torniquet, etc., etc. The wagons should be minutely inspected, the boxes looked at, and extra linchpins, hame-strings, buckskins for mending harness, rope for packing, two lanterns made secure from breakage, (in case a man is wounded by night,) axle-grease and auger, saw, some wrought nails, &c., &c.

"I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"JAMES H. CARLETON, "Brigadier-General, Commanding.

"Colonel Edwin A. Rigg,

"Commanding at Fort Craig, N. M.

"Note:-In case the party goes by Fort Wingate, provisions for the trip can be got there. "Official:

66

"J. H. C.

"Erastus W. Wood,

Captain 1st Vet. Inf. C. V.
"A. A. A. General."

"Headquarters Department of New Mexico. "Santa Fe, N. M., August 1, 1863. "General: Enclosed herewith please find the last advices from Chihuahua, Mexico, received at these headquarters. Mr. Creel's letter, dated July 15, 1863, you will find to give the true feeling of the Mexican people in Chihuahua.

"The extraordinary developments of gold and silver in Arizona, which I write to you about in another letter by this mail, are but one example of the gold and silver in Chihuahua, Sonora and Sinaloa, which states the French want, and which we should never permit them to have. "Respectfully, I am, general,

"JAMES H. CARLETON, "Brigadier-General, Commanding.

"Brigadier-General Lorenzo Thomas,

Adjutant-General U. S. A., Washington,
D. C.

"Official:

"Erastus W. Wood,

"Captain 1st Vet. Inf. C. V.
"A. A. A. General."

"Headquarters Department New Mexico.
"Santa Fe, N. M., August 2, 1863.

"General: On the 21st of last June I wrote to you a letter, enclosing copies of several com

munications in relation to extraordinary discoveries of gold and silver in Arizona Territory, particularly at a point or region lying southwestwardly from the San Francisco mountains, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I now herewith enclose two other communications from Mr. Benedict and a man named Jack Swilling, both reliable men, on the same subject. These communications speak for themselves.

"There cannot be a doubt, from these and from other reliable sources that all that is said of these discoveries is true.

"You will see by the last return of the troops in this department that the effective strength is less than three thousand men. Of these, nearly eleven hundred are in active operations in a campaign against the Navaho Indians, and many of the remainder are constantly employed in active operations against the Apaches, who are scattered through the country in small bands, committing murders and robberies almost daily. The cavalry force in this country is entirely inadequate to pursue successfully these lawless savages. There were seven companies of the 1st cavalry California volunteers, which, last winter, General Wright wrote should be sent one by one across the desert, to New Mexico, as fast as they were raised. Of these, none have come, nor do I hear of their coming. Even if they started soon, it would be winter before they would arrive. I beg respectfully to urge upon the War Department, the absolute necessity of sending to this department, at the earliest practicable moment, one full regiment of cavalry. The forage here this year is more abundant than ever, and when our stores now en route arrive,

we shall have an abundance of everything for their wants.

"As soon as the surveyor general, Clark, returns and makes an official report on the richness and extent of the new gold fields, it will be absolutely necessary to post troops in that section of the country; indeed, the capital of Arizona will be sure to be established there. All of the people of Tucson, our teamsters, and employees generally, who could possibly get away, have already left for that region. These troops, together with those we need here, additional to what we have, will fall below the mark of what are required. There will be many desertions. It is therefore incumbent on the War Department to take timely measures, so that troops to come may reach here before the grass is dry on the prairies or the winter sets in.

"The subject of these new discoveries demands the immediate and serious attention of the government.

"I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"JAMES H. CARLETON, "Brigadier-General, Commanding.

"Brigadier-General Lorenzo Thomas,

Adjutant-General of the Army, Washington, D. C.

"Official:

"Erastus W. Wood,

"Captain 1st Vet. Inf. C. V.
"A. A. A. General."

"Headquarters Department of New Mexico. "Santa Fe, N. M., September 6, 1863. "General: I enclose herewith the copy of a letter from Captain A. H. French, first cavalry

California volunteers, himself an old practical miner. From all points I hear news confirmatory of the theory that from the head of the Gila northwestwardly to the Colorado River, near Fort Mohave, there is a region of country of unequalled wealth in the precious metals. I soon expect to hear of the return of Surveyor General Clark, and the party I sent with him to the new Eldorado, when the government will then be officially as well as reliably informed, by an eye-witness, of the wealth so much written about.

"I am, general, respectfully, &c.,

"JAMES H. CARLETON, "Brigadier-General, Commanding.

"Brigadier-General Lorenzo Thomas,

Adjutant-General U. S. A., Washington,
D. C.

"Official:

"Erastus W. Wood,

"Captain 1st Vet. Inf. C. V.
"A. A. A. General."

"Headquarters Department of New Mexico. "Santa Fe, N. M., September 13, 1863. "General: I have the honor herewith to enclose, for the information of the War Department, copies of letters received from Samuel J. Jones, Charles O. Brown, and King S. Woolsey, in relation to the new gold fields southwest from the San Francisco mountains, about which I have so frequently written you. Brown and Woolsey are men whose statements are to be credited. Jones simply transmits Brown's letter.

"Surveyor General Clarke, and the officer and men I sent with him, have not yet returned.

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