[To accompany joint resolution S. R. No. 214.]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred Senate resolution No. 214, "For the further relief of the officers of the Fourth and Fifth Indian Regiments," beg leave to report :

That the papers and other evidence presented to them show that the officers of the Fourth and Fifth Indian Regiments were appointed by the President, through the Secretary of War, December 26, 1862, and ordered to report for duty to Brigadier General James G. Blunt, which they did, and by his direction were kept waiting till it was possible for him to send them to the Indian country, where three Indian regiments were already in service. On the 3d of March, 1863, General Blunt ordered these officers to report, via Fort Scott, Kansas, to Colonel Wm. A. Phillips, commanding in the Indian country. At Fort Scott they were detained several weeks by the commanding officer for a train and escort, so that they did not arrive at Fort Gibson and report to Colonel Phillips till the 20th day of April, 1863. Upon their arrival at Fort Gibson they found no such regiments as the Fourth and Fifth Indian, to which they had been appointed. But the forces there being surrounded by the enemy, and many of the officers of the three Indian regiments being Indians, these new officers were put on duty and performed as much as any officers with that army, while there. On the 15th of September, 1863, these men were mustered out of service from the date of the acceptance of their appointments, and left several hundred miles from their homes, without any pay or transportation. In June, 1864, by joint resolution No. 57, they were paid for the time they were on duty at Fort Gibson only, and that without transportation to their homes. All of the time, from their acceptance to their arrival at Fort Gibson, was at their own expense and without pay; and that very unjustly, as they were all that time under military orders, and liable to punishment for any violation thereof. It is but reasonable and just that the relief be granted them. Therefore it is recommended that the resolution do pass.

The Committee on Claims have had under consideration House bill No. 1963, for the relief of William T. Stotts, and submit the following report:

The Government of the United States has been for some years engaged in the work of improving the Des Moines Rapids in the Mississippi River, by means of a canal around the rapids on the Iowa side of the river. In the construction of this canal more or less private property was necessarily taken or destroyed by the Government. To provide for the payment of damages of this character, Congress, by act approved July 20, 1868, provided for taking and paying for, at its appraised value, "the right of way over any lands lying adjacent to the Des Moines Rapids Canal," and for taking "any earth, quarries, or other material necessary for the prosecution of the improvement."

The claim of Mr. Stotts did not come within the letter of this statute, because he does not claim on account of land taken from him, nor for material, and hence the engineer in charge declined to allow his claim as coming under this statute.

The claim of Mr. Stotts rests upon the following facts, which are established by the evidence submitted. At the time of the commencement,. and during the prosecution of said improvement, claimant was the owner of six and a half acres of land, two miles above the city of Keokuk, along the line of the canal, with a river front of 350 feet, and a steam saw-mill and its necessary appurtenances. He was engaged exclusively in the lumber business, and the river frontage was used by him for the purpose of booming and taking apart his logs, and conveying them to his mill. The canal was so located as not to take any of his land, but while no land was actually taken, the mill was rendered entirely useless by being altogether cut off from the river by the canal, the outer bank of which entirely separated his property from the river.

The claimant applied, under the law above cited, to the engineer in charge, General J. H. Wilson, to be paid his damages, and the latter. summoned a jury of freeholders to assess the same. Three of these jurymen reported in favor of allowing on the claim the sum of $6,500, while three others reported that they did not feel themselves authorized under the statute to assess damages, but did not differ from their colleagues as to the fact that claimant actually suffered damages to the amount named. These facts all appear in the report of General J. H. Wilson, engineer in charge, made to the Judiciary Committee of the House of Represent

atives, and also from the other evidence on file. It also appears that the claimant was compelled to take down his mill and remove it to another locality, being unable to use it profitably after being cut off from his river-front by the canal.

The House bill (H. R. 1963) provides for the payment to the claimant, out of any money appropriated or to be appropriated for the aforesaid improvement, the sum of $4,000, in full compensation of his claim. Your committee report back the bill, with the following amendment, viz: to substitute $2,500 for the amount ($4,000) appropriated by the House bill.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

FEBRUARY 15, 1871.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. BUCKINGHAM made the following

REPORT.

[To accompany bill S. No. 1341.]

The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the claim of J. and C. M. Dailey for goods and provisions furnished the Sioux Indians in Minnesota in the year 1862, would report:

That Benjamin F. Pratt was a licensed Indian trader; that in the year 1861 he formed a copartnership with Messrs. J. and C. M. Dailey, merchants doing business at St. Paul, in the State of Minnesota, under the firm of B. F. Pratt, for the purpose of trading with the annuity Sioux Indians; that in prosecuting their business they built a store at Big Stone Lake, Dakota Territory, in the latter part of the year 1861, and furnished it with goods, and in the year 1862 they built another store at Yellow Medicine, and furnished that with goods.

There were no crops at Big Stone Lake in the year 1861, and in the winter about 2,500 Indians were gathered there and supplied with food by Thomas J. Galbraith, the Government agent.

On the 1st of July, 1862, the Indians began to assemble to receive their annuities at Yellow Medicine, and by the 10th of the month there were about five thousand there; where they remained until about the 19th day of August, when they began a war against the people of the United States, and destroyed the property of the traders.

In consequence of the outbreak, the Government confiscated the annuities due the Indians, and used them to pay for property which they destroyed. Upon the report of commissioners appointed by the Government to ascertain the amount of Sioux depredations, the Messrs. Dailey were paid $14,000 for property destroyed.

As no authority was given for payment of losses sustained by merchandise charged the Indians, the Messrs. Dailey, for themselves and as assignees of B. F. Pratt, now present a claim amounting to $5,000 for goods, wares, and merchandise sold to the Indians at Big Stone Lake. As all the books and accounts at both trading posts were destroyed by the Indians at the time of the outbreak, it is difficult to obtain a correct account of the merchandise which had been charged to them, but Duncan R. Kennedy, a clerk of the firm, who had charge of the business at Big Stone Lake, makes affidavit that about the 10th of June, 1862,