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 500 Halleck transferred to Washington. [1862 with him Porter's mortar flotilla, and a land force of 3000 men. On the morning of June 28 Farragut's ships, with the aid of a continued bombardment, ran past the Vicksburg batteries, and on July 1 they were joined, north of the city, by the Federal gun-boat and ram flotillas. Farragut now sent a direct appeal to Halleck for help, as he estimated that at this time a force of from 12,000 to 15,000 men would have sufficed to take the works. Day by day, however, the fortifications were growing more formidable; and on the 14th Halleck gave the decisive answer that he could render no aid against Vicksburg. By this time the river was falling so rapidly that Farragut could not remain longer ; and, under orders received from the Navy Department on July 20, he again ran past the Vicksburg batteries, and returned to New Orleans. Meanwhile new conditions had arisen which brought about important changes in the western army. The impending failure of McClellan's campaign against Richmond caused the President on June 26 to order General Pope to Washington to form and command the Army of Virginia; and when, shortly afterwards, McClellan's campaign ended in a retreat to Harrison's Landing, his immediate usefulness was so evidently at an end as to necessitate more courageous as well as more comprehensive military supervision of affairs in the east. To this end the President, on July 11, appointed Halleck to command the whole land forces of the United States as General-in-Chief, with headquarters at Washington. Halleck had committed a great blunder in quitting his western headquarters at St Louis in order to assume personal command in the field; the President's new appointment transferred him to duty in every way better suited to his temperament and qualifications. The inference to be drawn from Halleck's orders and dispatches after he occupied Corinth, is that, first, he meant to send Buell and his army eastward to seize and hold Chattanooga, and thereby relieve, succour, and defend the loyal population of eastern Tennessee a measure which President Lincoln had been strongly urging for nearly a year ; secondly, to keep the bulk of his forces in western Tennessee and northern Alabama in order to restore loyalty and repair railroads ; and thirdly, in the late autumn and winter, when danger from yellow fever was past, to march southward and capture Mobile. But, whatever might in his own mind have been the merits of such a combined plan, it was totally disarranged by the transfer of himself and General Pope to Washington ; while, owing to his own faulty dispositions and orders, its practical execution by his subordinate, General Buell, proved to be, during the remaining half of the year, a mere scattering of troops, a waste of time and labour, affording the enemy the possible chance which fortunately they did not seize of recovering the ground they had lost. During the whole of Halleck's campaign, from Shiloh to Corinth, Grant, though nominally second in command, remained a mere figure-head, since his chief issued orders directly to, and received reports directly from,