A Winter Indian Campaign

Gen. Crook, Commandcr of tlie Department of the Platte, with headquarters at Oniaha, says the Chicago Times, has f or several mouths past foreshadowed an Iudian war by the Sioux and other tribes the coming winter. In order to be properly prepared for the occasion, j he has, during the pnst threo months, oollected upward of three hundred packjacks, -witlv Mexican drivers. Thia oew army of transportation has been in daily drill at Fort Ruseell, in Wyoming Territory, and has been a subject of niuch specnlation, not onïy arnong citizens, but in military circles, as to the peculiar ! service in which thoy wero to be j ployed, but the reticence, if not j lutè refusal, of Gen. Crook to give any information on the subject, has caused many coniectures, chief among which was that the animáis and their drivers j were to be employed during tho -winter months transporting subsistenee to the military camp at present in the Black Hills, in command of Capt. Pollock. A j coiTespondent has unearthed the secret mission that this aew transportation i army is to be engaged in. As soon as the looked-for Indian outbreak or war commences, these paek-animals, being swift of foot, and less cumbersome tlmn i aimy-wagon transportation, are to be pickctl with supplies lor a large body ot cavalry that will be sent to chastise the j Indians; pad pack-aiiimai, as soon as the pack load has been used, is to be killed, the object of killing them being to prevent them falling into possession of the Indians. The cavalry are thbn to keep up a rapid pursuit of the Indians, and, when they can no longer obtain food, they are to kill a sufficient number of cavalry horses to itirnisli them with sustenance, the pursuit to be kept up ' until the warlike Indians are overtaken and thoroughly whipped. Gen. Crook made a brüliant record in Arizona as an Indian-ftghter. Possessing a thorough ! knowledge of Indian character, he prefers to conduct a campaign against the red-skins in the winter months, when their facüities for snbI sisting off the game of tho moniitains and prairies is very limited, and when grass for their ponies cantiot be had in sufficient quantities to make a I successfnl or rapid retreat from the cav! alry. The three companies of cavalry at ' present in tho Black Hills are to be taken from there, and will form part of the army that is to tako the var:path ag-.iiiHt Tnilians.