Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/491

 i86i] Fr&mont commands in the West. 459 life and property insecure. It led, however, to no important battles or decisive campaigns, and was contemptuously known under the general designation of " bushwhacking." The adhesion of Missouri was of even greater importance to the North than to the South a fact thoroughly appreciated by President Lincoln, whose own State, Illinois, was only divided from that of Missouri by the Mississippi river. On July 1, 1861, the President appointed John C. Fremont a Major-General of the United States Army, and assigned to him the command of the Western Department, consisting of the State of Illinois, and all the States and Territories between the Mississippi river and the Rocky Mountains. The entire West hailed the appoint- ment with gratification. His name had become a household word, through the reports of his journeys of exploration in the Rocky Mountains, and the part he had played in the conquest and admission of California to the Union, while his local reputation broadened into national fame and representative value through his nomination in 1856 as the Republican candidate for the Presidency of the United States. The skill, courage and qualities of leadership he had displayed in former difficulties seemed to point him out as the fitting man to organise the enthusiasm and resources of the great West, in men and materials, into a military force large and compact enough to force its course down the Mississippi river against all obstacles by its own size and inherent energy. One of the first acts of General Scott had been to send a detachment of Illinois troops to occupy Cairo, a city at the southernmost point of the State, which, by its position at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, was the military key to the entire Mississippi valley, and controlled the whole interior system of river navigation. It was natural, therefore, that Cairo rapidly became a great and busy military station both for the army and the river-gunboat service. The high hopes entertained by the general public of the abilities and usefulness of Fremont were doomed to meet, from the first, a chilling disappointment. He loitered more than three weeks in the east, before proceeding to his headquarters in St Louis ; and when he reached that place on July 25, difficulties, which his presence might have averted, had already become serious. Cairo seemed to be threatened from the south; the danger to Captain Lyon in the south-west was almost beyond remedy; and there was pressing need for prompt and capable administra- tion at every point, in the forwarding of troops and supplies. It was soon found that Fremont lacked the faculty of organisation on a large scale, and, more important still, that of winning the confidence and directing the energy of local authorities and leaders. In addition, the death of Lyon deprived him of assistance which his own limited military acquirements and experience could not replace. In following the fugitive governor, Lyon had taken post at Springfield CH. XIV.