Col. John M. Harrell, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 10.2, Arkansas
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[195] Union men of Missouri, in which Curtis and Governor Gamble were opposing leaders. As he could not remove Gamble, he had to remove Curtis. General Halleck gave another reason, which throws light on the subsequent campaign in Arkansas, namely: ‘Although Curtis had been repeatedly instructed to push his entire force from the Mississippi river and White river to Little Rock, he had, instead, brought troops from Helena to operate in Missouri from Pilot Knob, and pushed forward his column again into western Arkansas, under a fear of insurrection in the State of Missouri, and fears of threatened movements into that State by General Price.’ Halleck also said, that ‘Those in Missouri who, at the outset, sided with Price and his rebel gang, but were permitted to return and settle down as quiet and peaceable citizens, are now treated as enemies. No worse policy could possibly be adopted.’

In this correspondence, Schofield was sustained in the acrimonious controversy which had arisen between him and Curtis in regard to the Prairie Grove (Ark.) engagement. Schofield had written to Curtis: ‘At Prairie Grove, Blunt and Herron were badly beaten, and owed their escape to a false report of my arrival with reinforcements.’ To this Curtis had replied that he ‘did not see the necessity of Schofield's anticipating the reports of these generals of their own affairs.’ Herron, now put in command of the army of the Frontier, protested against serving under Schofield, and was informed by Stanton that if he should tender his resignation it would be accepted. After recovering from a dangerous illness at Springfield, Mo., he was sent to assist in the attack on Vicksburg.

General Schofield, in a statement of his operations from May 24 to December 10, 1863, says that the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson permitted the return to him of the troops he had sent to Grant to aid in these achievements, and opened the way for active operations in