183

LIST OF MAPS.

PAGE

WESTERN TENNESSEE, facing 1

FIELD OF OPERATIONS IN MISSOURI AND NORTHERN ARKANSAS, 3

THE LINE FROM COLUMBUS TO BOWLING GREEN, 25

FORT HENRY, 29

FORT DONELSON, 35

NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NUMBER TEN, 73

THE FIELD OF SHILOH, 125

THE APPROACH TO CORINTH, 185

[Illustration: Western Tennessee.]

FROM FORT HENRY TO CORINTH.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY.

Missouri did not join the Southern States in their secession from the
Union. A convention called to consider the question passed resolutions
opposed to the movement. But the legislature convened by Governor
Jackson gave him dictatorial power, authorized him especially to
organize the military power of the State, and put into his hands three
millions of dollars, diverted from the funds to which they had been
appropriated, to complete the armament. The governor divided the State
into nine military districts, appointed a brigadier-general to each, and
appointed Sterling Price major-general.

The convention reassembled in July, 1861, and, by action subject to
disapproval or affirmance of the popular vote, deposed the governor,
lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, and legislature, and appointed
a new executive. This action was approved by a vote of the people.
Jackson, assuming to be an ambulatory government as he chased about with
forces alternately advancing and fleeing, undertook, by his separate
act, to detach Missouri from the Union and annex it to the Confederacy.

This clash of action stimulated and intensified a real division of
feeling, which existed in every county. A sputtering warfare broke out
all over the State. Armed predatory parties, rebel and national, calling
themselves squadrons, battalions, regiments, springing up as if from the
ground, whirled into conflict and vanished. When a band of men without
uniform, wearing their ordinary dress and carrying their own arms,
dispersed over the country, the separate members could not be
distinguished from other farmers or villagers; and a train, being merely
a collecti