.MTAwNA.NjU4MjE

Camp oct (?) 10th Cavalry- Troop "K" - Near Fort Lyon, I. T. 22nd February 1869

My Dear General, we left Fort Lyon the 11th of last November, and arrived here on the 19th inst -. with the exception of a few horses turned over to us by the 5th Cavalry, we are now literally, actually dismounted - More than fifty of this battalion are frost-bitten, many severely, and some that must be discharged. It will require an entire refit of horses and equipments to enable us to take the field. The loss (?) of animals is due entirely to Penrose (captain 3rd Infantry) who in spite of earnest representations amounting almost to protests, took the field without a grain of forage, and this, too, when he knew how reduced our horses were in strength, and that it was the only thing