late absence of a month, and the replies to numerous letters and despatches, just received by Mr. Sanford, all of which require my immediate attention, will render it absolutely impossible for me to leave here at this time to meet you at Frontera, to re-organize the scientific corps of the boundary commission. I shall be glad, therefore, if you will meet me at this place, which is in the centre of our present operations, when I will unite with you in carrying out the instructions of the Department of the Interior. I remain, very truly, your obedient servant, Lieut. Col. J. D. GRAHAM, JOHN R. BARTLETT, Commissioner. Chief Astronomer and Head of Scientific Corps of the U. S. Boundary Commission, Frontera, Texas. NOTE. This letter was not sent to me by express, but was sent by a wagon train, which came down from the Copper Mines to Frontera for provisions, under charge of Mr. Myer, the late quartermaster, who handed it to me a little before sunset on the 8th of July, at Frontera, after Lieutenant Whipple had joined me there. J. D. GRAHAM. No. 73. [BY EXPRESS.] Colonel Graham to Lieutenant Whipple. FRONTERA OBSERVATORY, Six miles above El Paso, June 26, 1851. SIR: I arrived here on the 24th instant with the surveying and other instruments provided for the work, on the part of the United States, of running and marking the line of boundary under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Understanding that Mr. Bartlett, the United States commissioner, is probably on his way here, and as I shall be obliged to remain here for several days to see the instruments unpacked and properly stored, our first meeting will be here. As I consider your presence here very important before I take further steps, I request that you will repair to this place with as little delay as practicable, and report to me. I shall be glad if you will bring with you a list of the party now acting under your direction, and also an account- -as near as it may be made without more than a day's detention-of all the instruments and other public property now in your possession, including wagons, harness, horses, mules, and camp equipage. Please have your party properly provided for in your camp during your absence. In great haste, I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. D. GRAHAM, Lieut. Col., Head of the Scientific Corps, &c., &c. First Lieut. A. W. WHIPPLE, U. S. Corps Topographical Engineers, near Cool Spring, New Mexico. No. 74. Colonel Graham to Lieutenant Whipple. MY DEAR SIR: Understanding that Mr. Bartlett is not now with you, I must request you to present my profound respects to General Garcia Condé, the Mexican commissioner, and his suite, particularly including Mr. Salazar, whom I think I had the pleasure to know in the city of Mexico. I hope soon to have the pleasure of making my respects in person to those gentlemen. I remain, very sincerely, yours, Lieut. A. W. WHIPPLE, &c., &c., &c. Cool Spring, New Mexico. J. D. GRAHAM. No. 75. Lieutenant Whipple to Colonel Graham. STATION 11, June 29, 1851. COLONEL: Your orders of the 26th instant reached me late last evening. I will hasten to carry them into effect. It is necessary for me to return to my camp, beyond the Mimbres, to obtain the lists you require, and provide for the subsistence of the party. I will then, with as little delay as practicable, report to you at Frontera observatory. I remain, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieut. Col. J. D. GRAHAM, Topographical Engineers, Head of the Scientific Corps, Frontera Observatory, Texas. No. 76. Lieutenant Whipple to Colonel Graham. STATION 11, June 29, 1851. COLONEL: I am happy to learn that you have arrived safely and with good instruments. It will give me great pleasure to present your respects to General Garcia Condé and his suite, and I shall particularly include my friend Mr. Salazar, whom I expect to find at my camp, near Cool Spring. I have heard him speak of his pleasure in meeting with you in the city of Mexico. I am obliged to you for having taken the trouble of bringing the commission you speak of. May I ask the favor of presenting my compliments to Mr. Chandler, Mr. Gray, &c. I will despatch one of the escort this day with your letter to Mr. Bartlett, at Cantonment Dawson (Santa Rita del Cobre.) I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieut. Col. GRAHAM, Head of Scientific Corps United States A. W. WHIPPLE. Boundary Commission, &c., &c., &c., Frontera. No. 77. Colonel Graham to Colonel Abert, Chief Topographical Engineer. FRONTERA, ON THE RIO GRANDE, Six miles above El Paso del Norte, Texas, June 30, 1851. SIR: I have the honor to report to you that my command from the corps of topographical engineers attached to the commission for running and marking the boundary between the United States and Mexico, consists, at present, of First Lieutenant A. W. Whipple, now on the line, and Second Lieutenant Wm. F. Smith, present at this place. Lieutenant Whipple has been attached to this duty since the commission, on the part of the United States, was first organized. Lieutenant Smith, who reported to me at San Antonio, on the 10th of May, is the only officer of the corps that has been added to this command since I was detailed to take charge of it, and he now stands in the place of Second Lieutenant and Brevet Captain Hardcastle, of the corps, who was relieved from my command by the Department of the Interior, in December last, and directed to remain on the Pacific. The order of the bureau, of the 3d March last, addressed to Lieut. Col. Johnston, which directed that Lieutenant Michler should report to me for this service, was not served upon Lieutenant M. The commanding general of the 8th military department would not allow this to be done, inasmuch as that officer had been assigned to duty under the orders of the commanding general of that department; and it required an order from the general headquarters of the army to relieve him. The matter was referred to Washington by General Harney; but before the orders of the War Department, of April 29, reached San Antonio, Lieutenant Michler had left that place and proceeded to the north on a sick leave. I would be very glad if two graduates of the Military Academy, of the present year, could be detailed for this service and ordered out, by way of Santa Fé, to report to me on this line. The great extent of this boundary renders at least four assistants from the corps very necessary, to insure the desired progress in surveying and marking it. Civil engineers of the necessary qualifications cannot be obtained in this part of the country, and they could not be engaged at the north except at very high salaries—more, indeed, than the appropriation will bear. I arrived at the military post of El Paso, with my party and all the instruments which I had caused to be constructed for this service, on the 24th of this month, with the advance of Captain S. G. French's military escort and government train of wagons. This was the earliest possible day I could have arrived there; for it is the only military escort or government train that has come out to this frontier post since I was detailed for this service. Major Backus, 3d infantry, and Capt. Sitgreaves, topographical engineers, who left Washington early in the winter, had both been detained at San Antonio awaiting an opportunity to go to El Paso. They availed themselves of the same escort, and reached El Paso at the same time with myself and party. I am happy to state that my party arrived in good health, and the instruments, including chronometers and barometers, (the most delicate of all the transport,) arrived in good order. My total time from San Antonio to El Paso was thirty-seven days. The number of actual marching days was twenty-nine. 2 My instrument return, for the quarter ending this day, will be immediately made out and forwarded to you. In case a mail route should` not be established between San Antonio and El Paso, a circumstance which will be known to you at Washington, I would recommend that communications to me should be forwarded via Independence and Santa Fé, and that the commanding officer at the latter post be requested to forward them, by the express, to this place. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. D. GRAHAM, Brevet Lieut. Col., Head of the Scientific Corps, &c., St. Colonel J. J. ABERT, Chief of Topographical Engineers, Washington, D. C. No. 78. Colonel Graham to the Secretary of the Interior. FRONTERA, (WHITE'S RANCHO,) ON THE RIO GRANDE, Six miles above El Paso del Norte, July 1, 1851. · SIR: I have the honor to report to the department, that I arrived at the military post of El Paso, with my party and my small train of wagons, loaded with instruments, provisions and camp equipage, on the 24th ultimo, with the advance of Captain S. G. French's military escort and army wagon train. This is the first military escort or army wagon train that has reached El Paso since I was detailed for duty on the United States and Mexican boundary commission, and it is the first opportunity, since that period, by which the instruments for this service could have been transported here in security. I left San Antonio on the 19th of May, and overtook Captain French's train on the 7th of June at Camanche Spring, 80 miles on this side of the point where we crossed the Pecos river. After this we marched generally with that train, until we reached the valley of the Rio Grande, when we came on and arrived two days in advance of it. I left San Antonio on the 19th of May, and my total time to El Paso was 37 days. The number of marching days was 29, having halted on the way as many as eight days in the aggregate to repair wagons and rest and graze the animals. The officers and men of my party all arrived in good health and without any accident whatever. My first object on arriving was to secure a safe and convenient place to store the instruments, &c., as it was necessary I should lose no time in unloading the five wagons hired from the quartermaster's department, in order to turn them over to Capt. S. G. French, United States army, in time for him to get them ready for his return trip to San Antonio, in compliance with my agreement with Major Babbitt. The supplies brought up by Captain French filled all the storehouses at the garrison belonging to the quartermaster's department, and we could find no accommodation there. I found, however, that ample storage was afforded at this rancho, which is hired from Mr. White for the use of the commission. On the 25th of June my party and the wagons were all unloaded, and their contents stored, and I am happy to inform the department that all the instruments reached here in safety, after a journey of eight hundred miles overland, a portion of the route being along very hilly and rough rocky roads. I have this day turned over to Captain French the five wagons and twenty-nine mules, together with the harness and other gear delivered to me at San Antonio by Major Babbitt. One of the mules furnished by him was left on the route so diseased that he could not proceed, and probably died on the plains. Understanding at El Paso that Mr. Bartlett, United States commissioner, was expected there from the Copper Mines in a few days, I sent an express to him on the 26th, informing him that under this information I would await his arrival here. So soon as my express returns I shall proceed to join Mr. Bartlett, should he not design coming here. In the mean time I have been busily engaged in preparations necessary for the field, which must be perfected here. Mr. W. T. Smith's train, with the supplies for the commission, under the contract with Ponce de Leon, was reported to me yesterday as being near San Elizario. Mr. Smith had exhibited to me the contract* for this transportation, and requested, before we left him on the route, to be informed where he should halt his wagons to deliver these stores. There being ample storage at this place already under the hire of the commission, I directed Lieutenant Tillinghast to proceed below and order the wagons to unload here, as he and Lieutenant Burnside, the officers detailed as quartermasters and commissaries to the commission, will have to take an account of the articles as they are delivered, in order to enable them to settle for the transportation, and to make their returns to the depart * See Appendix No. 79. |