dd managed to get news to General
Connor and he sent two or three companies of his command to the rescue.
They were absent while he fought his battle on Tongue River. They drove
off the Indians, and relieved the train, which reached Montana in safety.

Early in September I reached Fort Connor--before General Cole and Colonel
Walker had concentrated there--and gave instructions under the direction
of the authorities at Washington, forwarded to me by General Pope, to
withdraw all the troops to Fort Laramie, and stop all their operations
against the Indians, and endeavor to bring them in for a consultation,
and, if possible, to make an agreement as to the cessation of all
hostilities. This was a fatal mistake. When I received this dispatch from
General Pope, on August 31st, I sent the following message to him:

HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES.

FORT LARAMIE, DAKOTA TERRITORY, August 31, 1865.

_Major-General John Pope, St. Louis, Mo._:

I consider the Indian matters here of so much importance, and knowing
no one can judge of them so well as when he is on the ground, that I
desire to make a proposition to the Government. If the Government will
allow me to keep General Connor in the field with not to exceed 2,000
men of his present force, leaving the forces you have designated to
garrison posts on the plains. I will settle these Indian difficulties
before spring satisfactorily to the Government, and bring about a
peace that will be lasting. I may do it in a month or two; or it may
be longer. The additional expense to the Government will be the pay of
that number of troops for the time detained. All the stores, forage,
etc., to support them are here and _en route_. As soon as we settle
with them we can send these troops in and take 2,000 more from our
posts in addition and muster them out. General Connor left Powder
River with sixty days' supplies, and I am satisfied if we will allow
him he will settle the matter before he returns. Should he come back
by our orders without settling the matter, the entire Indian tribes
will be down on our lines, and we will have our hands full, and more
too. The forces for Utah I will soon have on the road, and when Connor
gets back he can go right there.

G. M. DODGE,

_Major-General_.

General Connor, after getting news of the position of Cole's and Walker's
forces, moved back with his forces to