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(No 1) Settle Washita 1.P.M. Dec 18 / 68

    I wrote you from Fort Arbuckle Enclosing Paymaster's Dft - (Maj  [?Cander?] ) on New York for ($200-) Two hundred dollars - which I hope you will receive in time for the holidays and with which I hope you will not hesitate to buy anything you may need or wish for yourself and the children.  We are  waiting for our wagon to come up.  are yet about 35 miles from Fort Cobb, and hope to reach that point to-morrow Evening  Everything was quiet at Cobb, at date of latest information - (the 16th) and nothing had been heard from Gen Sheridan, except through reports received from Indians, reports of a fight between a portion of Sheridan's troops and the Cheyennes & Arapahoes which account about the 27th of Nov has been received from Indians in which about 20 Indians and about the same number of troops were killed   The troops are expected to have gone north, and the hostile Indians South, towards the West end of the Wichita Mountains - Under present orders no movement of troops can be made from this direction and we are compelled to look on while