IN COMMAND IN MISSOURI.

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to be advancing on other points in considerable strength. I again asked theSecretary of War for Groesbeck’s 39th Ohio regiment, and to order fromthe governors of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin their disposable force.I informed him that we were badly in want of field artillery and that fewsmall-arms had arrived. I also asked the President to read my dispatches.

Dissensions in the camp of the enemy prevented them from using theirsuccess, and I made and pushed forward as rapidly as possible dispositionsfor the defense of the city and State. I reenforced Rolla , which was thereceiving-place for troops destined for the South-west. The plan of defenseadopted was to fortify Girardeau and the termini of the railroads at Iron-ton, Rolla, and Jefferson City, with St. Louis as a base; holding these placeswith sufficient garrisons and leaving the army free for operations in the field.These points I connected by telegraph lines centering at headquarters. St.Louis was the base and center of operations and depot of reserves. Sixthousand men, working night and day, were employed upon the fortifications,which commanded the city itself, as well as the surrounding country, upon aline of about ten miles. All the railroads entering the city I connected atone depot, more cars were added, and on twenty-four hours’ notice 10,000men could have been moved upon them from any one point to the oppositeside of the State.

The officer who had been sent within the Confederate lines had returned,bringing important information concerning the position of the enemy,together with the rough maps required, indicating, among other points, thepositions of Ports Henry and Donelson, then in course of construction. Isent him back immediately to make examinations of the Tennessee and Cum-berland with reference to the use of those rivers by gun-boats, and also towatch the enemy’s moves toward the Cairo district.

In answer to my appeal to the loyal governors for troops, regiment afterregiment arrived at St. Louis from the whole North-west, but they wereentirely without tents or camp equipage. The chief quartermaster of mydepartment was an officer of the regular army, Major McKinstry, experienced,able, and energetic. But there were no supplies on hand, of any kind, to meetthe necessities of the troops arriving without notice, and entirely unpro-vided. In this exigency he made requisition on the head of his departmentin Washington, but was informed in reply that the department could notmeet the requisitions that were being made by the Army of the Potomac;that the preservation of the capital was deemed of more importance than theState of Missouri ; that their entire time and attention was devoted to meet-ing requisitions made upon them; that General Fremont had full power,and that he, as Fremont’s chief quartermaster, must use his own judgmentand do the best he could toward meeting the wants of the department.

In July, at Washington, the subject of mortar-boats for the Mississippi expedition had been discussed between General M. C. Meigs, Gustavus Y.Fox, afterward the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and myself, and hadbeen referred to me for decision, as having in charge military operationson the Mississippi . On the 31st of July the Secretary of War directed