30 The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War

Fremont that his powers as military commanderwere strictly limited.

Soon after Governor Jackson had taken thefield in behalf of the Confederacy , the state con-vention of Missouri met at Jefferson City , de-clared all the state offices vacant, and inaugurateda new provisional government, with its headquar-ters at St. Louis . After the battle of Wilson’sCreek, McCulloch withdrew his troops to Arkan­ sas , but the indefatigable Price made his presencefelt more keenly than ever in the western countiesof Missouri . Fremont had forces enough to pre-vent his doing any serious mischief, if they hadonly been properly concentrated. He had in all56,000 men, hut they were scattered in smalldetachments in thirteen different places. To acertain extent this scattering was unavoidable, asthere was a vast area to be protected; but Fre-mont showed himself singularly deficient in han-dling the elementary problem of moving troopsfrom places where they were idle to places wherethey were needed. His failure to relieve Lyonwas an instance in point, and a still more flagrantone was forthcoming.

At Lexington, on the Missouri river , Fremonthad stationed Colonel Mulligan, with 2800 menand eight field-pieces, and ordered him to staythere until relieved. Price made up his mind