FORT WASHITA, July 31, 1862.

Major General T. C. HINDMAN,

Commanding Trans-Mississippi District:

GENERAL: Upon receiving, at Boggy Depot, on the 22d of July, instant, your order to send my best battery, with a squadron or company of cavalry, to Colonel Charles A. Carroll, at Fort Smith, I was very willing, as I had resigned, to see you take the last available gun and the last armed man from Arkansas out of the Indian country,. and I accordingly sent orders to Captain West, who was a day's march ahead of me to proceed, with his and Howell's half companies, to Fort Smith, and gave the same order to Captain Corley's company, from Helena, which overtook me at Boggy, just after I received your order. The day after, I reflected that the order to send my best battery implied that I had more than one available and that I would still be allowed to retain the worst battery for myself and, as I had but one, I thought it but just to you to suppose that you did not mean to take the only battery in the Indian country and present it to Colonel Carroll. I therefore sent orders to Captains West and Corley to return and take the road by Perryville to the Canadian, which they did; and when I learned that I was relieved of the command here, I informed both captains that I had no further orders to give them, and that they could either obey my first order, and go to Fort Smith, or report to Colonel Cooper for orders, as they might think proper.

In view of Colonel Cooper's urgent clamor for artillery, I thought it safest to let the only six guns available go as far, anyhow, as the Canadian, in the direction of Fort Gibson, from which place you could, if you wished, still direct them to Fort Smith. The remaining guns-a bronze 6-pounder and howitzer and twelve Parrott guns-are at Fort McCulloch, in charge of a few recruits, and without horses. I declined a second advance of my private funds to purchase horses when Woodruff's battery left here. General Van Dorn has the caissons of the Parrot guns, and most of the harness, also, was appropriated at Fort Smith.

I am, very respectfully, yours,

ALBERT PIKE.