. If supplies were not furnished him, he gathered them from the
surrounding country, giving vouchers carefully based on the prevailing
market rates. If no wagons or teams were at hand, he impressed them and
gave vouchers.

245

As unassertive and modest as Grant seemed to be, he had a remarkable
faculty for bringing in everybody near him and securing from them prompt
and energetic obedience to his orders.

Among Gen. Grant's subordinates was our old acquaintance, Capt. J. B.
Plummer, who had done such good work at Wilson's Creek and who was now
in command of the 11th Mo. There was also Col. W. P. Carlin, a Captain
in the Regular Army, whom the Governor of Illinois had wisely made
Colonel of the 88th 111. Carlin, a graduate of West Point in the class
of 1850, was a somewhat austere, highstrung man, wrapped up in his
profession, an excellent soldier, and feverishly anxious to do his duty
and justify his promotion to the important position he held.

Like all Regulars he was jealously sensitive about his rank, and one
of his first performances was insistence that he outranked Col. C. E.
Hovey, of the 33d Ill., and should therefore have command of the post.
Hovey, who had been Principal of the Normal Institute before becoming
a Colonel, felt that his position had been quite as high as that of a
Captain in the Regular Army, and his men, who entered warmly into the
dispute, could hardly understand how the Colonel of the 38th Ill. could
outrank the Colonel of the 33d, and though they at last gave way, there
was some bitterness of feeling.

246

Though Gen. Grant had only about 14,000 men all told, he kept Johnston,
Polk and Thompson, with their 30,000, so well employed guarding points
that he threatened, or might take without threatening, that their
superiority was neutralized and they were kept on the defensive.

Burning with desire to do something, M. Jeff Thompson, who, in spite of
his gasconade, was really a brave, enterprising man, and a good deal of
a soldier, started out from Columbus early in October with some 2,000
men, expecting to be joined by other forces on the way, capture Ironton
and Frederick-town, open up the road for Pillow's columns to St. Lous,
and to co-operate with Gen. Price.

He went down the river in boats to New Madrid and there began a march
across the country toward Bloomfield, which was to become the base of
so many of his subsequent operations. Leaving his infantry under the
command o