being made with energy,when I was ordered immediately to Little Rock by Major General (now Lieutenant General) T. H. Holmes, who had been assigned to the command of the Trans-Mississippi Department, including my district, and had arrived at Little Rock shortly before my departure. He considered an advance by me as likely to open the campaign prematurely, and also desired my services in command of the troops below, to meet a supposed advance of the enemy from Hudson. I obeyed the order with forebodings of disaster, which were afterward most unfortunately realized.

As embodying the subsequent history of the campaign of 1862 in Southwestern Missouri, and Northwestern Arkansas, I respectfully refer to Colonel Cooper's report of the battle of Newtonia, a brilliant victory, in which the Indian troops displayed great bravery; also his report of the battle of Maysville, in which his command was disastrously defeated; also my reports of the battle of Prairie Grove, the Van Buren affair; and General Marmaduke's expedition into Missouri, and the letter of General Holmes, dated January 1, 1863, inclosing a memoir by me upon these events; all of which papers are on file in the Adjutant-General's Department.

General Holmes assumed command of the Trans-Mississippi Department on August 20.* My command of the Trans-Mississippi District, therefore, continued seventy days. I have already mentioned the most important of my acts in the endeavor to create an army. How far I succeeded may be judged by these facts:

In Arkansas there were raised and organized under my orders thirteen regiments and one battalion of infantry, two regiments and one battalion of cavalry, and four batteries-all war troops-besides upward of 5,000 irregulars of the independent companies, and not including the Arkansas troops drawn from the Indian country.

From Missouri there were raised and organized under my orders five regiments of infantry, seven regiments of cavalry, and three batteries-all war troops-exclusive of numerous guerrilla parties remaining in that State.

The records of the Adjutant-General's Department show that there were only twenty-nine Arkansas regiments and six Missouri regiments of infantry and cavalry included in the Confederate service up to June 1, 1862. By my efforts the number of Arkansas regiments was increased over one-half and the number of Missouri regiments was trebled, the former being raised to forty-five and the latter to eighteen.

In addition, I drew from Texas twenty-one regiments of infantry and dismounted cavalry, four regiments of cavalry, and three batteries, raising the number of Texan regiments in my district to twenty-eighth with five batteries.

It is proper to state that the organization of several regiments of Arkansians and Missourians above referred to was not perfected until after General Holmes' arrival; but it was as fully my work as that of the others.

It is also true that several of the Texas regiments had not arrived when he assumed command, but they would have come irrespective of that under the arrangements already made.

The arms that could be obtained in my district were greatly below the number necessary for the troops. General Beauregard sent me 350 shot-guns and sporting rifles and 700 muskets. I endeavored to

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*Major-General Holmes assumed command July 30, 1862, and divided his department into districts August 20, 1862.

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