The horses of the 2d cavalry have become so reduced by constant service, exposure, and scarcity of food and grass, that they fail in the pursuit and sometimes perish. The marauders are generally in small parties, and sometimes on foot.
On the night of the 3d of February the animals of residents in the immediate vicinity of Camp Colorado were driven off.
On the night of the 17th of February the mule-yard at Camp Cooper, over which a sentinel was posted, was broken in and the whole herd driven off. Twenty-three of the animals were recovered by a party sent at daylight in pursuit, but the remainder, forty mules and three horses, were not overtaken. The force at the post was so much reduced by scouts then out that the detachment sent under Lieutenant Lowe, adjutant of the regiment, was principally composed of the band.
The following night all the animals from the Indian agency, two or three miles distant from Camp Cooper, were stolen; and Major Thomas, as you will perceive in his report, which is herewith forwarded, is under the impression that the thieves were not Comanches. Bent's Fort, where it is conjectured the stolen animals have been sold, is above Fort Atkinson, on the Arkansas.
On the same evening on which the animals from the Indian agency were stolen, 18th of February, a citizen residing within two miles of Fort Mason was shot, within one hundred yards of his house, by three Indians on foot. The commanding officer did not hear of the attack till next morning, when he endeavored, for three days, to discover the trail of the assassins, but without effect.
I have noticed these cases as the most recent, and to show the audacity of the marauders.
There is but one company at Camp Cooper, which is too small s force, in my opinion, for the position. But, until some of the companies can be withdrawn from the Rio Grande, I see not prospect of reinforcing it, unless the commanding general of the army should think that the two companies of the 1st cavalry at Fort Washita could be used for that purpose.
There are two companies of the 1st cavalry and one of infantry at Fort Arbuckle, and 1 have no means of judging of the importance of the troops at Fort Washita, and am therefore unwilling to remove them. On the Bio Grande there are three companies 2d cavalry, three companies 8th infantry, and three companies 1st artillery; should the quiet of that region be again disturbed, it will be necessary, in my opinion, to send there another company of cavalry.
The troops in the department are posted over a long line of frontier, and yet, from the paucity of their numbers, are unable to protect the settlements.
The best method of preventing the inroads of the Indians is to send a strong body of troops into their country, which would have the effect of recalling them to their women and children; but there is not at this time within the department a force available for the purpose. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE,
Brevet Colonel, Commanding Department,
Colonel L. Thomas,
Adjutant General, Headquarters of the Army,
City of New York, N. Y.