except the ordinary police duties in Missouri, Kansas, and among the Indian tribes in the Western Territories.

The effective troops in the department at that time consisted of 14,248 infantry, 15,509 cavalry, and thirteen batteries of artillery, distributed as follows, viz: The Army of the Frontier distributed along the southern border of Missouri and Kansas, and in the Indian Territory as far south as Fort Gibson, 5,011 infantry, 3,826 cavalry, and four batteries of artillery. Troops doing police duty in Missouri, 5,657 infantry, 9,200 cavalry, and six batteries. In Kansas, 3,506 infantry, 1,343 cavalry, and two batteries. In Nebraska, 392 cavalry. In Colorado, 74 infantry, 748 cavalry, and one battery.

In addition to the above, the Governor of Missouri had commenced the organization of nine regiments of militia, styled "provisional regiments," intended for continuous active service. A portion of this militia had been in active service for a considerable length of time, but not under the orders of the department commander, and not acting in concert with the United States troops. At my suggestion, the Governor placed these nine regiments under my command; whereupon the War Department gave me authority to supply them with everything necessary to their efficiency, and they became a real addition to the effective force in the department, making my entire force 36,816 men effective.

With a view to the commencement of active operations as soon as practicable, I reorganized the Army of the Frontier, uniting all the cavalry and adding to it, forming a division of cavalry 6,000 strong, with a proper proportion of artillery, under Brigadier General J. W. Davidson, and forming the infantry into a single division, with three batteries, under Major General F. J. Herron, intending to send the infantry and artillery by water to a new base on the river, and let the cavalry march overland, as soon as General Grant's operations should enable me to commence an aggressive movement.

This reorganization had but commenced, when, on the 2nd day of June, I received a dispatch from the General-in-Chief, directing me to send all the force I could spare to the aid of General Grant at Vicksburg. Accordingly I immediately dispatched eight regiments of infantry and three batteries, under Major-General Herron, and subsequently sent in the same direction three more regiments of infantry, in all 8,000 men. Also the enable Brigadier General [A.] Asboth, commanding at Columbus, to meet an expected attack, I sent him from New Madrid, on the 30th of july, 1,300 men, and to Major-General Rosecrans, commanding Department of the Cumberland, a regiment of cavalry and two regiments of infantry, 2,400 men, making a total of forces transferred from my department of 11,700 men and three batteries.

This great reduction of the force before considered necessary for defensive purposes, left me very weak in Missouri and Kansas, and, occurring at the season favorable for guerrillas operations, exposed these States to the depredations of guerrillas, from which they continued to suffer more or less until the success of my main force in Arkansas, and that of the detachments operating in Missouri and Kansas, rendered it impossible for them to longer exist in these States.

The capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson by the force under Generals Grant and Banks on the 4th and 8th of July, respectively, opened the way for active operations in Arkansas, and enabled General Grant to return to me the troops I had sent him. I inclose herewith copies of correspondence with General Grant on that subject, which, together with orders from the General-in-Chief, resulted in his sending (including the force already at Helena) a force of about 8,000 infantry and five batteries, to form, with troops to be sent from Missouri, an