[2] 
63 
No. 2. 
Head Quarters, Western Department, 
Louisville, Kentucky , July 26, 1823. 
Geneiiai: You will repair to the Missouri, and assume the com- 
mand assigned you by my Department order of this date. 
The immediate object of this command, is to support the detach- 
ment under Tol. Leavenworth, and to give a timeh" check to the 
hostile spirit which has recently manifested itself among the Indians 
of the Upper Missouri, and, at the same time, to arrest or punish the 
Ricaras, and other warriors, by whom thirty-three of our citizens 
have been killed and wounded. 
Six companies of the 1st infantry, under Col. Chambers, are this 
day instructed to join you at St. Louis, to act under your orders; 
to which will be added, should it be advisable, four companies of the 
7th infantry. These will be directed to be held in readiness, subject 
to your orders, to join you at such time and place as you may find 
it necessary to direct. 
Should the information, which may reach you at or beyond St, 
Louis, in your judgment suggest the propriety of your being sup- 
ported by an additional force, you will, in this event, make applica- 
tion to the Governoi- of the State of Missoui-i, for a few companies, 
or, if necessary, a battalion of volunteer mounted riflemen. But it 
is not expected that this force will be required without satisfactory 
evidence should meet you, of some new act of hostility on the part 
of the Indians belo7v the Kicaras Villages, 
Yi)U will order, from St. Louis to Fort Atkinson, a supply of sub- 
sistence and ordnance stores, which, added to those now at that 
jjost, shall be sufficient for the regular troops destined for that post, 
during a period of nine months, from the 15th October next, at 
which time the first infantry should reach that post. And should it 
become necessary to obtain volunteers, you will, in that event, order 
up additional supplies, sufficient for such additional force during the 
time for which they may be employed — which should be for nine 
months, unless sooner discharged. And you will order the purchase 
of whatever subsistence may be necessary (to supply any deficiency 
that may be found in the Subsistence Department at St. Louis) to 
enable you to carry these measures into effect. 
In the discharge of these duties, you will exercise a sound discre- 
tion, governing your movements and measures by tho facts and cir- 
cumstances that may be disclosed to you as you proceed, and by the 
instructions heretofore addressed to you, and in obedience to the 
-'general regulations of the Army." 
