glaringly sacrificed by McCulloch's too literal interpretation of his official instructions, in the strict observance of which he was keeping close to the Indian boundary.

President Davis had personally no great liking for

Price and certainly none for his peculiar method of fighting. Some people thought him greatly prejudiced¹⁸ against Price and, in the first instance, perhaps, on nothing more substantial than the fact that Price was not a Westpointer.¹⁹ It would be nearer the truth to say that Davis gauged the western situation pretty accurately and knew where the source of trouble lay. That he did gauge the situation and that accurately is indicated by a suggestion of his, made in early December, for sending out Colonel Henry Heth of Virginia to command the Arkansas and Missouri divisions in combination.²⁰ Heth had no local attachments in the region and "had not been connected with any of the troops on that line of operations."²¹ Unfortunately, for subsequent events his nomination²² was not confirmed.

Two days later, December 5, 1861, General McCulloch was granted²³ permission to proceed to Richmond, there to explain in person, as he had long wanted to do, all matters in controversy between him and Price. On the third of January, 1862, the Confederate Congress called²⁴ for information on the subject, doubtless under pressure of political importunity. The upshot of it all was, the organization of the Trans-Mississippi District of Department No. 2 and the appointment of Earl Van Dorn as major-general to command it. Whether or no, he was the choice²⁵ of General A.S. Johnston, department commander, his appointment bid fair, at the

Footnote 18: (return)

Official Records, vol. liii, supplement, 816-817.

Footnote 19: (return)

Ibid., 762.

Footnote 20: (return)

—Ibid., vol. viii, 725.

Footnote 21: (return)

—Ibid., 701.

Footnote 22: (return)

Wright, General Officers of the Confederate Army, 33, 67.

Footnote 23: (return)

Official Records, vol. viii, 702.

Footnote 24: (return)

Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States, vol. i, 637.

Footnote 25: (return)

Formby, American Civil War, 129.

time it was made, to put an end to all local disputes and to give Missouri the attention she craved. The ordnance department of the Confederacy had awakened to a sense of the value of the lead mines²⁶ at Granby and Van Dorn was instructed especially to protect them.²⁷ His appointment, moreover, anticipated an early encounter with the Federals in Missouri. In preparation for the struggle that all knew was impending, it was of transcendent importance that one mind and one interest should control, absolutely.

The Trans-Mississippi District would appear to have been constituted and its limits to have been defined without adequate reference to existing arrangements. The limits were, "That part of the State of Louisiana north of Red River, the Indian Territory west of Arkansas, and the States of Arkansas and Missouri, excepting therefrom the tract of country east of the Saint Francis, bordering on the Mississippi River, from the mouth of the Saint Francis to Scott County, Missouri...."²⁸ Van Dorn, in assuming command of the district, January 29, 1862, issued orders in such form that Indian Territory was listed last among the limits²⁹ and it was a previous arrangement affecting Indian Territory that was most ignored in the whole scheme of organization.

It will be remembered that, in November of the preceding year, the Department of Indian Territory had been created and Brigadier-general Albert Pike assigned to the same.³⁰ His authority was not