upied by
wealthy slave owners, whose sympathies were strong for the Southern
cause. The highlands were occupied by the poorer class, only a few of
whom had owned slaves. Many of this class were strong Union men, and
soldiers in the Union army. During the great struggle of four years many
bloody tragedies had been enacted between the loyal and the rebel
residents, and bitter feelings of revenge still rankled in the breasts
of the survivors. During the whole period of the war the country had
been swept clean, at rapid intervals, by both armies alternately, and
each time new atrocities had been perpetrated, and all the worst
passions of the people rekindled. It had also been a place of refuge for
the worst rebel elements in southern Missouri, when too hardly pressed
by our friend Gen. Sanborn[2] and other Union commanders. At the time of
our arrival the surviving soldiers from both armies were returning to
their homes, also many refugees,--rebels from Texas and Union men from
the North,--most of them to find their families destitute and their
property destroyed.

[Footnote 2: Gen. John B. Sanborn, who was present when this paper was
read.]

"The irregular Confederate troops under Gen. Jeff. Thompson, numbering
some eight thousand men, had not yet surrendered, but were scattered
over the district in a thoroughly demoralized condition, so that the
whole situation was rather peculiar and very bad, and it was a difficult
task to prevent fresh outbreaks, and to restore order and get the people
started anew in the peaceful avocations of life.

"My instructions were to preserve law and order, to organize and arm
companies of home colonists for self-protection, to encourage
agriculture and commerce, and to assist the citizens in restoring civil
government. The men under my command during the early reconstruction
period had certainly no reason to love Arkansas, because they had not
only buried their best friends and comrades within its borders, but had
themselves for months and months experienced there that dreadful
suffering most feared by all soldiers, and for which few receive any
credit,--namely, the inglorious privation of the silent watch,--in the
swamp, in the trenches, in the hospital, on the camp-stretcher, and in
the ambulance,--when tired, sore, sick, thirsty, lonely, and seemingly
forsaken by God and man, unknown and with praise unsung, with no
cheering sound of drum or bugle, no battle flag or cheer in sight or
hea