but a few thousand troops at his disposal
to defend a territory of immense extent, and vulnerable at a hundred
points.

At that time the Trans-Mississippi Confederate States were included in
the same Department with the States of Tennessee, Alabama, and
Mississippi. Missouri on the Western side of the Mississippi, and
Kentucky on the Eastern--respectively the Northernmost of the Western
and Middle Slaveholding States--were debatable ground, and were already
occupied, the former by both, the latter by one of the contending
forces.

General Johnson assumed command about the latter part of August, or
first of September, 1861, and at once commenced his vast labor with a
vigor and wisdom which were neither appreciated by his countrymen, nor
were fruitful of happy results until after his glorious death. Missouri
had become the theater of military operations some months previously.
The people had partially responded to the proclamation of Governor
Jackson, issued June 12, 1861, which called on them to resist the
military authorities appointed in the State by President Lincoln.

Smarting under a sense of the aggressions and the insolence of these
officials, believing that they were the victims of intolerable injustice
and flagrant faithlessness, the Missouri rebels were eager to take the
field, and irregular organizations, partisan, and "State-guard" were
formed in various sections of the State. Several skirmishes, the most
important of which were "Booneville" and "Carthage," occurred between
these organizations and the Federal troops, before any troops regularly
in the Confederate service were sent into the State. After winning the
battle of "Carthage," and forcing Siegel to retreat until he affected a
junction with Lyon, General Price was compelled, in his turn, to retreat
before the then concentrated Federal army of Missouri.

On the 7th of August, Generals Price and McCullough, commanding
respectively such portions of the Missouri State-guard as could be
concentrated at that time, and the Confederate troops destined for
service in the extreme West, making an aggregate, between them, of some
six thousand effective men, established themselves in the vicinity of
Springfield, a small town in Southwestern Missouri, confronting the
Federal army which had pushed on to that point in pursuit of Price. On
the 9th of August, the battle, called by the one side "Oak Hill," and by
the other "Wilson's Creek," was fought. The Federal a