I desire an immediate answer, either authorizing or refusing to authorize me to exercise this power.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. HALLECK.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, November 26, 1861.

Major General GEORGE B. McCLELLAN,

Commanding the Army, Washington, D. C.:

My telegram of the 20th, asking for written authority of the President to enforce martial law in this department, is still unanswered. It is absolutely necessary to enable me to procure evidence required by commission of investigation. If this authority be refused I shall not exercise it, no matter how much the public service may suffer.

H. W. HALLECK,

Major-General.

SAINT LOUIS, December 10, 1861.

Major General GEORGE B. McCLELLAN,

General-in -Chief of the Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: Since my last (Numbers 4*) I have very little to report. By latest advices Major Bowen, with re-enforcements, had driven Turner as far south as Texas County. I sent particular directions not to venture too far, lest he might be cut off. A number of prisoners of war, among them several of Price's officers, have been taken in the vicinity of Sedalia. It is rumored that the expedition to Marshall and Waverly has been successful, but I can get no official information, although I have repeatedly asked for it by telegraph. Persons here from Saint Joseph say that General Prentiss' column, in Clinton, Platte, Clay, and Ray Counties, is scattering the insurgents, but I can get no information whatever from him, either as to the strength or disposition of his forces.

It was my intention, on learning that the expedition sent north from Sedalia was successful, to co-operate with General Prentiss by pushing forward a force to Lexington about the time he reached the other side of the river, and thus scatter or capture the large band of insurgents in that place. But as these commanders seem determined to keep me in ignorance of all their movements I can form no effective plan of co-operation. Everything here is in such total disorganization and there is such a general lack of discipline that officers systematically neglect to answer either telegrams or letters of instruction.

For this reason I am unable to get reports from many parts of the department, although repeated orders to that effect have been sent. I hope in time to establish a more stringent system of discipline and accountability.

We have many regiments here ready to take the field, but they have no arms, and the arms of some of those sent out are totally worthless. It is roughly estimated that 30,000 troops in this department are without efficient arms. I learn indirectly that several thousand have within the last few days been sent to Cairo. Why this should be done without giving me any notice is certainly very unaccountable. Moreover, in

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* See p. 408.

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