th which he was very indifferently
provided, and upon the country, which was sterile and sparsely settled.

The only line of advance from Pocahontas which gave promise of important
results, or which, indeed, was practicable, was by Greenville, distant
some fifty-five or sixty miles from Pocahontas, and Frederickton, to
Ironton, and thence along the Iron Mountain Railroad by the most
practicable roads to St. Louis. The country between Pocahontas and
Ironton is rugged and heavily wooded. It is penetrated by few roads,
and, in 1861, by no means abounded in supplies. General Hardee advanced
as far as Greenville, and threatened Ironton.

This latter place, the terminus of the Iron Mountain Railroad, is
ninety-seven miles from St. Louis. It is a place of great natural
strength, and was already, at the time that Hardee advanced toward it,
partially fortified. General Hardee expected when he moved from
Pocahontas to effect a junction with General Pillow at Frederickton, a
small town to the east of north of Greenville, twenty miles from Ironton
and on the line between that place and New Madrid. Pillow's force was
six or eight thousand strong, and the best armed and accoutered of all
the western Confederate commands.

General Pillow could very easily have reached Frederickton from New
Madrid, as soon as Hardee could have gotten to the former place from
Pocahontas, had there been a timely and definite understanding between
them to that effect. And the united strength of the two Generals, with
the addition of some two thousand of the State-guard, which were at hand
under General Jeff. Thompson (as well armed and better organized than
those which had already done such excellent service under Price), would
have enabled them, most probably, to take Ironton. At any rate, by
flanking and threatening to get between that place and St. Louis, they
would certainly have compelled its evacuation, and then, either
defeating the garrison in the open field, or driving it back in disorder
and demoralization upon St. Louis, they would have become masters of the
situation. They would have cut off and destroyed the defeated and routed
army of Lyon, then in full flight for St. Louis.

General Price would have gladly embraced the opportunity of uniting with
them--the whole State would have risen to join them. It is almost
certain, when the number and condition of the Federal troops then in
Missouri are taken into consideration, and the facts that b