subsequent
conduct of the war in the Trans-Mississippi States. The consequence of
another such victory as that of "Oak Hill" gained in the heart of the
State, as by their combined forces might very readily have been done, at
the time when Price was forced to retreat, would have been of
incalculable value to the Confederacy. But the fate, which throughout
the contest, rendered Southern prowess unavailing, had already commenced
to rule. At the date of the battle of "Oak Hill," General Hardee was
advancing through Southeastern Missouri with about thirty-five hundred
effective men.

His base was the little village of Pocahontas, situated, nearly upon the
Missouri and Arkansas border, and at the head of navigation upon the Big
Black river. Here General Hardee had collected all the Arkansas troops
which were available for service upon that line, amounting to perhaps
six or seven thousand men. Various causes contributed to reduce his
effective total to about one half of that number. All of the troops were
indifferently armed, some were entirely unarmed. The sickness always
incidental to a first experience of camp life, in the infantry, had
prostrated hundreds. Change of diet and of habits, and the monotony of
the camp are sufficient of themselves, and rarely fail to induce
diseases among raw troops, but a scourge broke out among the troops
collected at Pocahontas which confounded all, at least of the
non-medical observers. This was nothing more than measles, but in an
intensely aggravated and very dangerous form. It was hard to believe
that there was such a proportion of adult men who had escaped a malady
generally thought one of the affections of childhood. It was so
virulent, at the time and place of which I write, and in so many
instances fatal, that many confidently believed it to be a different
disease from the ordinary measles, although the Surgeons pronounced it
the same. It was called "black measles," and was certainly a most
malignant type of the disease. I have been since informed that it raged
with equal fury and with the same characteristics among the volunteers
just called into the field in many other localities. Its victims at
Pocahontas were counted by the scores.

As the Big Black river is navigable for small craft at all seasons,
General Hardee had no difficulty in supplying the troops stationed at
Pocahontas, but after leaving that point he was compelled to depend for
supplies upon wheel transportation, wi