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[501] detached from it. Holmes occupied the south of Arkansas with the two corps of Price and Marmaduke, the first comprising two divisions of infantry, the second three divisions, one of which was cavalry—say, about ten thousand men.

Kirby Smith's headquarters at Shreveport were well supplied and well fortified, but numerous staffs and a numerous administration gave an exaggerated importance to it, as they said in the Southern army.

We have shown why Banks had so suddenly joined in Halleck's plans, and with what concern, foreign to military questions, he was about to undertake this expedition so often deferred. Politics and speculation had triumphed over all his objections. The campaign was opening under the most untoward conditions, without any plainly-defined object, without a chief to conduct it, without the possibility of Banks and Steele communicating with each other or of acting in concert in their movements. But before resuming our narrative we must say a few words regarding the isolated exploits which marked the first ten weeks of the year in the vast regions situated between the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Rocky Mountains.

In New Mexico, finally abandoned by the Southerners, the Federals had, as before the war, no other adversaries than the Indian tribes that did not yet recognize their authority. Other Indians who had submitted claimed their protection. Among these were the Apaches, who had been gathered around Fort Sumner. These were attacked on the 4th of January by the Navajoes. The little garrison hastened to their assistance, and easily mastered the savages, who were armed with only bows and arrows. The latter lost about sixty warriors. Two days after, Colonel Kit Carson, well known for his experience in Indian wars, left Fort Canby with four hundred men to punish these savages. He penetrated into the deep valleys or cañons which were their abode, and where careful farming—a rare thing among Indians—secured them valuable resources, and dispersed them, bringing the greater part of their families to the territory protected by the Federal forts.

We have no incident to mention regarding the coast of Texas since the occupation of the principal points on this coast by the troops of the Thirteenth corps, of which McClernand, relieved

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