IN COMMAND IN MISSOURI.
BY JOHN C. FREMONT, MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. A.

At the outbreak of the war, in the spring of '61, being then in England, I offered my services to the Government, and was appointed one of the four major-generals of the regular army. General McClellan and myself were commissioned of even date, ranking next after General Scott. On my arrival I reported to the President, using a few days to arrange in some order the business which had carried me abroad. There was great confusion and indecision in affairs, and the people in power were slow to realize the actuality of war; it was long before they realized its magnitude. Several commands in the East were suggested to me, but I preferred the West, which I knew, and I held the opinion that the possession of the immediate valley of the Mississippi river would control the result of the war. Who held the Mississippi would hold the country by the heart.

A command was agreed upon between President Lincoln, Montgomery Blair, his Postmaster-General, who was a graduate of West Point, and myself, of which the great object was the descent of the Mississippi river. Necessary to this was first the firm possession of the State of Missouri, freed and protected from the secession forces within and around it. In pursuance of this plan "The Western Department" was created, comprehending, with Illionis, the states and territories west of the Mississippi river to the Rocky Mountains, including New Mexico. For reasons not wholly military, the President reserved the State of Kentucky, but assured me that so soon as I had succeeded in raising and organizing an army for the descent of the Mississippi river, he would extend my command over that State and the left bank of the Mississippi.

The President had gone carefully over with me the subject of my intended campaign, and this with the single desire to find out what was best to do and

OFF TO THE WAR