BY JOHN C. FR15MONT, MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. A.
"7 the outbreak of the war, in the spring of ’61, being then in England, I
A offered my services to the Government, and was appointed one of thefour major-generals of the regular army. General McClellan and myself werecommissioned of even date, ranking next after General Scott. On my arrivalI reported to the President, using a few days to arrange in some order thebusiness which had carried me abroad. There was great confusion and indeci-sion in affairs, and the people in power were slow to realize the actuality ofwar; it was long before they realized its magnitude. Several commands in theEast were suggested to me, but I preferred the West, which I knew, and I heldthe opinion that the possession of the immediate valley of the Mississippi river would control the result of the war. Who held the Mississippi wouldhold the country by the heart.
A. command was agreed upon between President Lincoln, MontgomeryBlair , his Postmaster-General, who was a graduate of West Point, andmyself, of which the great object was the descent of the Mississippi river.Necessary to this was first the firm possession of the State of Missouri , freedand protected from the secession forces within and around it. In pursuanceof this plan “The Western Department” was created, comprehending, withIllinois, the states and territories west of the Mississippi river to the RockyMountains, including New Mexico . For reasons not wholly military, thePresident reserved the State of Kentucky , but assured me that so soon as Ihad succeeded in raising and organizing an army for the descent of theMississippi river, he would extend my command over that State and the leftbank of the Mississippi .
The President had gone carefully over with me the subject of my intendedcampaign, and this with the single desire to find out what was best to do and
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