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that region who had received
Fremont as a liberator, dared not remain, for they expected, what really happened, that
General Price would follow up the receding army, and they would be made to suffer for their loyalty.
Price did follow, with more than fifteen thousand men, in three columns; and all
South-western Missouri below the
Osage was soon delivered into the power of the
Confederates.
When at the point of being deprived of his command,
Fremont sent an order to
General Grant at
Cairo, directing him to make some co-operating movements.
That officer, as we have observed, had taken possession of
Paducah, in Kentucky,
on hearing of the invasion of that State by
General Polk.
He had proceeded to strengthen the position by casting up fortifications there; and by order of
General Fremont, an immense pontoon bridge was thrown across the
Ohio, half a mile below the
town.
1 He also seized and occupied
Smithland, not far from the mouth of the
Cumberland River, and thus closed two important gateways of supply for the
Confederates in the interior of
Kentucky and
Tennessee, from the
Ohio.
When
Fremont's order for co-operation reached
Grant, and was followed the next day by a dispatch,
saying, “
Jeff. Thompson is at
Indian Ford of the
St. Fran901s River, twenty-five miles below
Greenville, with about three thousand men, and
Colonel Carlin has started with a force from
Pilot Knob; send a force from
Cape Girardeau and
Bird's Point, to assist
Carlin in driving
Thompson into
Arkansas,” he was ready to move quickly and effectively.
Grant had already sent
Colonel 
