resented that he was
there merely as a Senator and a member of the Senate Military Committee,
which latter he was not. To the President and War Department he
represented that he and Hunter were in brotherly sympathy and
confidence, and planning a movement of mighty importance. The "sympathy"
and "confidence" part were believed so completely, that the War
Department did not take the trouble to communicate with Hunter in regard
to the details of the proposed movement.

277

To his friends and to the press he talked magniloquently about a grand
"Southern expedition" to be made up of 8,000 or 10,000 Kansas troops,
4,000 Indians, seven regiments of cavalry, three batteries of artillery,
and four regiments of infantry from Minnesota and Wisconsin, which he
would command. It would move from Kansas down into Texas, and there
meet an expedition coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. The War Department
seems to have been impressed with the feasibility of this, and began
ordering troops, officers and supplies to Fort Leavenworth to report to
"Brig.-Gen. James H. Lane."

Lane's enemies as well as his friends in Kansas heartily approved of
this, as it would take him away from Kansas, and the Kansas Legislature
united in a request to have him appointed a Major-General, as that would
vacate his seat in the Senate.

General-in-Chief McClellan "invited" Gen. Hunter's attention to the
proposed expedition, and suggested that he prepare for it and report
what might be necessary. Gen. Hunter replied that he had had no official
information as to the expedition, and gently complained that the War
Department seemed entirely unmindful of the Commander of the Department,
and had consistently ignored him. As to the expedition, he regarded it
as impracticable. It was 440 miles from Leavenworth to the nearest point
in Texas, and the road was over a wild, barren country, which would
require an immense train of supplies for the troops. He had in the
Department only about 3,000 men, entirely too few to successfully defend
Fort Leavenworth and its valuable supplies against a raid such as Price
and McCulloch were continually threatening. He said he knew no such
person as "Brig.-Gen. J. H. Lane," to whom so many came with orders
to report. He also said that Lane himself now saw that he had raised
expectations which he could not fulfill, and that he was seeking to
pick a quarrel with the Department Commander to give him an excuse for
dropping the whole