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- Position of the armies in the Mississippi Valley
-- General Halleck in command of the Department of Missouri, 179.
-- his rigorous treatment of influential secessionists, 180.
-- fugitive slaves excluded from military camps
-- Pope in Missouri
-- Price's appeal to the Missourians, 181.
-- activity of the Confederates
-- battle on the Blackwater, 182.
-- Halleck declares martial law in St. Louis
-- Price driven out of Missouri, 183.
-- Hunter's operations in Kansas, 184
-- treason in New Mexico, 185.
-- loyalty and disloyalty within its borders
-- General Canby and Colonel Sibley, 186.
-- battle of Valverde
-- Texas Rangers, 187.
-- Sibley's victories in, and final expulsion from New Mexico, 188.
-- Albert Sidney Johnston in the West
-- a Provisional Government in Kentucky, 189.
-- War in Southern Kentucky, 190.
-- battle of Prestonburg, 191.
-- forces of Generals Buell and Zollicoffer in Kentucky, 192.
-- military movements in Eastern Kentucky
-- the Confederates on the Cumberland, 193.
-- battle of Mill Spring, 194.
-- its results
-- death of Zollicoffer, 195.
-- Beauregard sent to the West, 196.
-- the Confederates in Kentucky and Tennessee, 197.
-- their fortifications in those States
-- a naval armament in preparation at St. Louis, 198.
-- Foote's flotilla
-- preparations to break the Confederate line, 199.
-- Thomas's movements toward East Tennessee, 200.
-- expedition against Fort Henry, 201.
-- operations of gun
-- boats on the Tennessee River
-- torpedoes, 202.
-- attack on Fort Henry, 203.
-- capture of the post
-- scene just before the surrender, 204.
-- effects of the fall of Fort Henry, 205.
Foward the close of the autumn of 1861, the attitude of the contending parties, civil and military, in the great basin of the
central Mississippi Valley was exceedingly interesting.
We left the
National army in
Southern Missouri, at the middle of November, dispirited by the removal of their favorite leader, slowly making their way toward
St. Louis under their temporary commander,
General Hunter, while the energetic Confederate leader,
General Price, was advancing, and reoccupying the region which the Nationals abandoned.
1 We left
Southern Kentucky, from the mountains to the
Mississippi River, in possession of the
Confederates.
Polk was holding the western portion, with his Headquarters at
Columbus;
General Buckner, with a strongly intrenched camp at
Bowling Green, was holding the center; and
Generals Zollicoffer and
Marshall and others were keeping watch and ward on its mountain flanks.
Back of these, and between them and the region where the rebellion had no serious opposition, was
Tennessee, firmly held by the
Confederates, excepting in its mountain region, where the most determined loyalty still prevailed.
On the 9th of November, 1861,
General Henry Wager Halleck, who had been called from
California by the
President to take an active part in the war, was appointed to the command of the new Department of Missouri.
2 He had arrived in
Washington on the 5th,
and on the 19th took the command, with
Brigadier-General George W. Cullum, an eminent engineer officer, as his chief of staff, and
Brigadier-General Schuyler Hamilton as assistant chief.
Both officers had been on the staff of
General Scott.
The Headquarters were at
St. Louis.
General Hunter, whom
Halleck superseded, was assigned to the command of the Department of Kansas.
3 General Don Carlos Buell had superseded
General Sherman, and was appointed commander of the Department of the Ohio;
4 and the Department of
Mexico, which included only the territory of
New Mexico, was intrusted to
Colonel E. R. S. Canby.
Such was the arrangement of the military divisions of the territory westward of
the Alleghanies late in 1861.
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180]
General Halleck was then in the prime of life, and he entered upon his duties with zeal and vigor.
He was possessed of large mental and physical energy, and much was expected of him. He carefully considered the plan arranged by,
Fremont for clearing the States of
Kentucky,
Tennessee,
Missouri, and
Arkansas of armed insurgents, and securing the navigation of the
Mississippi by sweeping its banks of obstructions, from
Cairo to New Orleans.
5 Approving of it in general, he pushed on the great enterprise with strong hopes of success.
Halleck's first care was to establish the most perfect discipline in his army, to overawe the secessionists, and to relieve the loyal people of
Missouri of the effects of the dreadful tyranny inflicted by the latter, many of whom were engaged in armed bands in plundering the inhabitants, desolating the property of Union men, and destroying railways and bridges.
Refugees were then crowding into the
Union lines by thousands.
Their miseries cannot be described.
Men, women, and children were stripped, plundered, and made homeless.
Naked and starving, they sought refuge and relief in
