r, with Colonel Carlin,
and returned to St. Louis.( 2)

[( 1) My official report and others are published in the War Records,
Vol. III.]

[( 2) For the official reports, see the War Records, Vol. III.]

CHAPTER IV
Halleck Relieves Fremont of the Command in Missouri--A Special
State Militia--Brigadier-General of the Missouri Militia--A
Hostile Committee Sent to Washington--The Missouri Quarrel of
1862--In Command of the "Army of the Frontier"--Absent Through
Illness--Battle of Prairie Grove--Compelled to be Inactive--
Transferred to Tennessee--In Command of Thomas's Old Division of
the Fourteenth Corps--Reappointed Major-General--A Hibernian
"Striker."

On November 19, 1861, Major-General H. W. Halleck relieved Major-
General Fremont of the command of the Department of the Mississippi.
On November 21 I was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers,
and reported to General Halleck for duty.

In the spring of 1861 a convention of the State of Missouri had
assembled at St. Louis to consider the question of secession, and
had decided to adhere to the Union. Nevertheless, the governor,
Claiborne Fox Jackson, and the executive officers had joined the
rebellion and fled from the State. The convention reassembled on
July 20, and organized a provisional government. Hamilton R. Gamble
was chosen provisional governor, and intrusted with very large
powers. He was a sterling patriot, a man of ability and of the
highest character in his public and private relations, much too
conservative on the questions of States' rights and slavery to suit
the "radical" loyalists of that time, but possessing probably in
a higher degree than any other citizen of Missouri the confidence
of all classes of Union men in the State.

A SPECIAL STATE MILITIA

One of Governor Gamble's first important public acts was to seek
and obtain from President Lincoln authority to raise a special
force of State militia, to be employed only in defense of the State,
but to be paid, equipped, and supplied in all respects by the United
States. This force was to be organized in conformity with the
militia laws of the State, was to include an adjutant-general, a
quartermaster-general, and three aides-de-camp to the governor,
one major-general and his staff, and a brigadier-general and staff
for each brigade. The number of regiments, aggregate strength and
arms of service were not specified.

By the term