most of the engagements.
Besides, they had lost fully four-fifths of the State, and were in
imminent danger of being driven from the restricted foothold they still
retained in the southwestern corner.

The Union State Government, with the conservative, able Hamilton R.
Gamble at the head, was running with tolerable smoothness. Courts were
sitting in most of the Counties to administer justice. Under Halleck's
orders Judges, Sheriffs, Clerks, jurors, parties and witnesses had to
take the oath of allegiance. Gen. Schofield was rapidly organizing his
13,000 Missouri Militia to maintain peace in the State, and incidentally
to keep many of the men enrolled out of the rebel army.

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CHAPTER XVII. PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE.

When he abandoned the strong line of the Osage and took up his position
at Springfield, Gen. Sterling Price, like the Russians against Napoleon,
relied upon his powerful allies, Gens. January, February and March. At
that time the roads in Missouri were merely rough trails, running over
hills and deep-soiled valleys of fertile loam, cut every few miles by
rapid streams. The storms of Winter quickly converted the hills into
icy precipices, the valleys into quagmires, and the streams into raging
torrents. The Winters were never severe enough to give steady cold
weather, and allow operations over a firmly-frozen footing. Rain, sleet
and snow, hard frosts and warm thaws alternated with each other so
frequently as to keep the roads in a condition of what the country
people call a "breakup," when travel is very difficult for the
individual and next to impossible for an army.

When, therefore, at the last of December, Gen. Price returned to
Springfield, in the heart of the rich farming district of southwest
Missouri, and 125 miles or more distant from the Union bases--Rolla and
Sedalia, at the ends of the railroads, he had much reason for believing
he would be left undisturbed for at least two months, which rest he
very much needed to prepare for the strenuous campaign that he knew the
industrious Halleck was organizing against him. He wanted the rest for
many reasons. Yielding to the strong pressure of Missourians, Jefferson
Davis had agreed to appoint Price a Major-General, C. S. A., but upon
the condition that he bring in the Confederate service a full division
of Missouri troops.

294

With his towering influence in Misssouri this would not have been a
difficult thing to do with the who