e policy of scattering the military forces in the department was
abandoned, and a system of concentration adopted. The construction
of the gun-boat fleet, and accompanying mortar-rafts, was vigorously
pushed, and preparations for military work in the ensuing spring went
on in all directions. Our armies were really idle, and we were doing
very little on the Mississippi; but it was easy to see that we were
making ready for the most vigorous activity in the future.

In the latter part of December many refugees from the Southwest began
to arrive in St. Louis. In most cases they were of the poorer class of
the inhabitants of Missouri and Northern Arkansas, and had been driven
from their homes by their wealthier and disloyal neighbors. Their
stories varied little from each other. Known or suspected to be loyal,
they were summarily expelled, generally with the loss of every thing,
save a few articles of necessity. There were many women and children
among them, whose protectors had been driven into the Rebel ranks, or
murdered in cold blood. Many of them died soon after they reached our
lines, and there were large numbers who perished on their way.

Among those who arrived early in January, 1862, was a man from
Northern Arkansas. Born in Pennsylvania, he emigrated to the Southwest
in 1830, and, after a few years' wandering, settled near Fayetteville.
When the war broke out, he had a small farm and a comfortable house,
and his two sons were married and living near him.

In the autumn of '61, his elder son was impressed into the Rebel
service, where he soon died. The younger was ordered to report at
Fayetteville, for duty. Failing to do so on the day specified, he was
shot down in his own house on the following night. His body fell upon
one of his children standing near him, and his blood saturated its
garments.

The day following, the widow, with two small children, was notified
to leave the dwelling, as orders had been issued for its destruction.
Giving her no time to remove any thing, the Rebel soldiers, claiming
to act under military command, fired the house. In this party were two
persons who had been well acquainted with the murdered man. The widow
sought shelter with her husband's parents.

The widow of the elder son went to the same place of refuge. Thus
there were living, under one roof, the old man, his wife, a daughter
of seventeen, and the two widows, one with two, and the other with
three, children. A week after