454
Schofield proposed that ten thousand of these men should he sent to Grantinstead. This led to the culmination of long-existing differences betweenCurtis and Schofield, the former of whom represented the Radical or Aboli-tion faction of the Union men of Missouri , while the latter represented theConservative faction, at whose head was Governor Gamble. Curtis desired toretain the 45,000 “effectives” that were in the State in order to dragoon theSouthern sympathizers into submission. Schofield thought that a part of
these men could be betteremployed elsewhere. Curtiswas sustained by the Gov-ernment, and on the 1st ofApril Schofield was, at hisown request, relieved fromduty in Missouri . Curtis’sconduct, however, soonraised such a storm in Mis-souri that the President onthe 10th of March orderedGeneral E. Y. Sumner, fromthe Army of the Potomac, to relieve him. Sumner died on the way to St.Louis , and thereupon the President, on the 13th of May, ordered Schofieldto relieve Curtis.
Schofield at once postponed further operations against Arkansas untilafter the all-important struggle for Vicksburg had been decided, and sentnearly twelve thousand of his men thither and to Tennessee , making morethan thirty thousand men that were sent out of Missouri to reenforce Grantat Vicksburg , a force which gave him the victory there and opened all theWestern waters to the Union fleets and armies.
Even President Davis at last saw that General Holmes was unfit for hisgreat command, and on the 7th of February, 1863, ordered Lieutenant-Gen-eral Edmund Kirby Smith to relieve him, and sent General Price to reportto Smith . The latter assumed command of the Department of the Trans-Mis-sissippi at Alexandria, in Louisiana , on the 7th of March, 1863. Taylor wasleft in command of Louisiana, and Magruder of Texas . Holmes was put incommand of the District of Arkansas . The change resulted in very little, ifany, advantage to the Confederacy, for Smith was even feebler than Holmes,and though attempting to do a great deal more did almost nothing.
General Price reached Little Rock on the 25tli of March and was assignedto the command of Hindman’s division. The state of affairs in Arkansas atthat time is quite accurately depicted in a letter which the Confederate Sec-retary of War addressed to General Smith on the 18th of March. He says:
“ From a variety of sources, many of which I cannot doubt, the most deplorablo accountsreach this department of the disorder, confusion, and demoralization everywhere prevalentboth with the armies and people of that State. The commanding general [Holmes] seems, whileesteemed for his virtues, to have lost the confidence and attachment of all; and the next in com-mand, General Hindman, who is admitted to have shown energy and ability, has rendered him-