Colonel Willis as Scout and Protector.

In June, 1865, two or three settlers coming from the border of the
Indian Country along the Texas and Arizona line, into Santa Fe, planned
to hunt and kill all the game on the reservation without consulting the
Indians. This occasioned trouble and one white man was killed. General
Carleton, in command of all the Southwestern country, stationed at Santa
Fe, heard about the killing, and without attempting to understand the
position the Indians held, or in any way to find out the cause of
trouble, sent an order to Colonel Willis, who was stationed at Fort
Union, to take his 300 California Volunteers to this reservation and to
"Clean out the Indians." His order was imperative. It did not say for
him to endeavor to find out the cause of the death of this white man,
but to go at once into their camp and to massacre, confiscate anything
of value, and have no mercy on the Redskins, who had slaughtered a white
man who was "only hunting" on the Indian reservation.

When Colonel Willis got this order he said to me that he knew absolutely
nothing about the Indian mode of warfare, and that he was fearful of
getting his soldiers all killed, and he wished that Kit Carson would go
with him, but that he would not ask him to do so because he knew that
Carson would disapprove of the orders he had from Colonel Carleton.

President Polk appointed Kit Carson to a second lieutenancy and his
official duty was to conduct the fifty soldiers under his command
through the country of the Comanches, but for some reason the Senate
refused to confirm the appointment, and he consequently had no
connection with the regular army.

When Colonel Willis had his soldiers all in trim and was about to leave