Report Of The Joint Committee On The Conduct Of The War At The Second Session Thirty Eighth Congress 1865 Classic Reprint

Author : United States; Congress; Joint Comm War
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781330638293
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (382 download)

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Download or read book Supplemental Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 1866, Vol. 2 of 2 written by United States; Congress; Joint Comm War and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-03 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Supplemental Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 1866, Vol. 2 of 2: In Two Volumes; Supplemental to Senate Report, 38th Congress, 2d Session When the necessity of retaining so large a force in that part of the State had ceased with the retreat of Price into Arkansas, I was recalled to St. Louis, after sending the greater part of the forces under my command in advance. I was then ordered to proceed to Commerce, Missouri, and organize a force for operations against New Madrid and Island No.10. I commanded the force thus organized, known as the army of the Mississippi, during the reduction of those places and the subsequent operations around Corinth. On the 21st of March, 1862, I was promoted major general of volunteers. In June, 1862, I was ordered to Washington and placed in command of the army of Virginia, which consisted of three army corps, commanded respectively by Generals Fiemont, Banks, and McDowell. On the 14th of July I was appointed brigadier general in the regular army. At the conclusion of the campaign of the army of Virginia, I was assigned to the command of the department of the northwest, and in January, 1864, to command the military division of the Missouri, which embraced the department of the northwest, the department of the Missouri, and the department of Arkansas, and included the whole region west of the Mississippi river as far west as California and Oregon, and as far south as Texas. In reply to your second question, I submit the following narrative, into which I have incorporated such official reports, letters, and telegrams sent and received by me as are necessary to sustain and explain the statements therein made. In accordance with telegraphic orders from Major General Fremont, who had been assigned to the command of the western department, but who was still in New York, I proceeded from Alton, Illinois, with three infantry regiments, and part of a cavalry regiment, all Illinois troops, to St. Charles, Missouri, and assumed command of the district of north Missouri on the 17th of July, 1861. Several other regiments had entered Missouri by way of Quincy and Hannibal, and were distributed along the line of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad. That the orders issued and the course pursued by me during the months of July, August, and September of that year, for the pacification of northern Missouri, may be fully understood, it will be proper for me to sketch briefly the condition of affairs in the State when first I assumed command. As I still believe that the measures inaugurated in the orders then issued would, if thoroughly carried out, have saved the State of Missouri from much of the suffering, outrage and lawlessness which have characterized its history during the war, and as these measures were overruled and set aside by higher authority than mine, to the detriment, in my opinion, of the Union cause in Missouri, I beg to invite the special attention of the committee to the facts herein stated. The events which swiftly followed the inauguration of President Lincoln, and the capture of Camp Jackson, together with the flight of Governor Jackson and Sterling Price from Jefferson City, and the battle of Booneville, had profoundly affected the public mind in Missouri. While the secessionists in all parts of the State, long prepared for such an issue, were active and confident, the Union citizens, wholly taken by surprise, uncertain what to do or upon whom to rely, fearful for the first time of danger to the government and peril to themselves, were, as a mass, paralyzed and seemingly incapable of thought or action. There is not a doubt that, but for the presence of mind, resolution and boldness of Captain Lyon, in command of St. Louis arsenal, and of F. P. Blair and a few others, Missouri would have been lost temporarily to the government. These few men, bold, energetic, and determined, assembled at night in secret places, with."