would not expire before they could be used to answer the exigency for which they were required. In conformity therewith, and with instructions subsequently received, I sent off fourteen regiments of infantry and four regiments of cavalry. The troops left in the department were immediately equipped, mounted, and fitted for active service throughout the State. They were taken away from the towns and placed in the field, with orders to go into the brush and hunt down and exterminate all bands of guerrillas and marauders. I also, upon consultation with His Excellency Governor Fletcher, called for thirty-one companies of Missouri Volunteer Militia, and placed over them tried and experienced officers who had served in the field, and who bore good reputations for bravery and good discipline. These companies were stationed in the counties infested by guerrilla bands, and before spring most of the guerrillas and marauders were either killed, captured, or driven beyond the State. Late in the spring the bands of guerrillas who had left the State with Price commenced returning. They were, however, so vigorously met and universally broken up that they either fled the State or surrendered.

Upon assuming command of the department I issued instructions to my district commanders directing them that all aid an encouragement possible should be given the people of the State toward reviving civil law and re-establishing civil courts throughout the State; that where there were loyal civil officers and courts the military authorities should attend to their strict military duties, leaving all civil and local police matters to civil officers and courts, and to aid the civil authorities under their direction in the maintenance of order or the enforcement of their proper authority when called upon to do so. This had an excellent effect. It awakened new energy in the people and made them realize their own power and strength for self-government and protection. I was soon enabled to withdraw the greater portion of my troops for active operations elsewhere in the department. Civil courts began to be re-established and civil officers to assert and enforce their authority, so that to-day the State is fully organized under loyal civil rule, and the troops in the State are merely guarding our depots until they can be concentrated or abandoned. The Missouri State Militia has all been mustered out and disbanded, including the thirty-one companies of volunteer militia called out by me, and who were paid by the State for their services, the United States Government having been only to the expense of furnishing them arms, ammunition, clothing, and subsistence. When I assumed command I found all the military prisons filled with soldiers, political prisoners, men and women, charged with various offenses, and many under no charges. Added to these were a large number of conscripts who had escaped from Price's army, been arrested and imprisoned. Our numerous military courts were overburdened with cases. I at once inaugurated a system of thorough prison inspection, visited the prisons myself, and made thorough personal examinations; discharged a large number of soldiers and citizens held without charges, and who were entitled to release; had all others brought speedily to trial; had all those held as conscripts rigidly and rapidly examined, and their cases properly disposed of; prohibited the arrest and imprisonment thereafter of any person except upon proper charges. I reorganized the provost-marshal's department under more perfect system and limited powers, and discharged all citizens connected with that bureau, replacing them with officers and enlisted men.

Colonel J. H. Baker, the efficient chief of this department, performed his duties with signal ability, and under his able supervision his bureau