Shortly after my promotion I was ordered to Ironton, Missouri, to command a district in that part of the State, and took the 21st Illinois, my old regiment, with me.  Several other regiments were ordered to the same destination about the same time.  Ironton is on the Iron Mountain railroad, about seventy miles south of St. Louis, and situated among hills rising almost to the dignity of mountains.  When I reached there, about the 8th of August, Colonel B. Gratz Brown —­afterwards Governor of Missouri and in 1872 Vice-Presidential candidate —­was in command.  Some of his troops were ninety days’ men and their time had expired some time before.  The men had no clothing but what they had volunteered in, and much of this was so worn that it would hardly stay on.  General Hardee—­the author of the tactics I did not study—­was at Greenville some twenty-five miles further south, it was said, with five thousand Confederate troops.  Under these circumstances Colonel Brown’s command was very much demoralized.  A squadron of cavalry could have ridden into the valley and captured the entire force.  Brown himself was gladder to see me on that occasion than he ever has been since.  I relieved him and sent all his men home within a day or two, to be mustered out of service.

Within ten days after reading Ironton I was prepared to take the offensive against the enemy at Greenville.  I sent a column east out of the valley we were in, with orders to swing around to the south and west and come into the Greenville road ten miles south of Ironton.  Another column marched on the direct road and went into camp at the point designated for the two columns to meet.  I was to ride out the next morning and take personal command of the movement.  My experience against Harris, in northern Missouri, had inspired me with confidence.  But when the evening train came in, it brought General B. M. Prentiss with orders to take command of the district.  His orders did not relieve me, but I knew that by law I was senior, and at that time even the President did not have the authority to assign a junior to command a senior of the same grade.  I therefore gave General Prentiss the situation of the troops and the general condition of affairs, and started for St. Louis the same day.  The movement against the rebels at Greenville went no further.

From St. Louis I was ordered to Jefferson City, the capital of the State, to take command.  General Sterling Price, of the Confederate army, was thought to be threatening the capital, Lexington, Chillicothe and other comparatively large towns in the central part of Missouri.  I found a good many troops in Jefferson City, but in the greatest confusion, and no one person knew where they all were.  Colonel Mulligan, a gallant man, was in command, but he had not been educated as yet to his new profession and did not know how to maintain discipline.  I found that volunteers had obtained permission from the department