Fremont's Hundred days in Missouri

              
 
 
12 
 
 
 
battery of artillery. On his arrival, he will assume com- 
mand of all troops at that place. 
                                J. C. FREMONT, 
                         Major General Commanding. 
 
 
 
To Colonel JEFF. C. DAVIS, 
        Colonel Commanding at Jefferson City. 
   Now, let us examine what was done. Pope's 
reinforcements did not arrive; General Sturgis 
did come to a point near the river on the oppo- 
site side from Lexington; and I have the testi- 
mony of Colonel Mulligan himself that if he 
had actually come within sight with his forces 
on the opposite side of the river, Price had got 
so tired of fighting, the defence had been so 
persistent and unyielding, that he would have 
retired, notwithstanding his force of twenty 
thousand men, with eight brigadier generals, 
besieging one colonel of the Union forces. But 
the evidence is, that Sturgis came down to a 
point within a few miles of the river, and learn- 
ing that the ferry-boats had been destroyed, 
and that, therefore, it was impossible for him 
to cross the river, and learning from a contra- 
band-for they were permitted then to come 
within our lines and give information as to 
rebel movements-that Price's force was twenty 
to twenty-five thousand, deeming that he had 
not a force sufficient to meet them, as he had 
not, he retired. Fremont, however, supposed 
that, by four days after his order to him, he 
would have reached Lexington ; and on the 
18th-two days before Lexington fell--he sent 
orders to him at that point. 
   Jefferson C. Davis, upon the reception of 
General Fremont's orders, embarked as soon 
as possible-for it takes time-his available 
force upon some steamboats; and they pro- 
ceeded up the river to a place called Glasgow, 
where, learning that the rebels had erected bat- 
teries, they landed for the purpose of storming 
them before proceeding under their fire; and 
in the darkness of the night they fired into each 
other, and being thrown into confusion, they 
did not get to Lexington in time to reinforce 
Colonel Mulligan. 
   These three forces from different directions, 
then, set out under the orders of General Fre- 
mont to reinforce the gallant defenders of Lex- 
ington, and he failed in accomplishing that 
purpose because the elements seemed to be 
against him, and not because he did not seek 
in every possible way to succor that besieged 
garrison. His dispatches to his secret agents 
are not, of course, published; but a reply from 
one of them, Charles Noyes, says that Sturgis 
was expected to reach Lexington the Wednes- 
day night before the surrender, and General 
Lane the Thursday night before. Fate seemed 
to prevent these reinforcements, not the inac- 
tivity or indifference of Fremont. 
  Now, to appreciate the difficulties General 
Fremont had to contend with in bringing any 
considerable number of men to any one point, 
you must remember the extended frontier, and 
the large number of posts he had to defend. 
Troops were stationed, and had to be, not only 
 
 
 
at St. Louis and Cairo, but all through north 
Missouri, at Lexington, at Jefferson City, at 
Rolla, at Ironton, at Cape Girardeau, at Bird's 
Point, at Fort Holt, opposite Cairo, at Norfolk, 
at Mound City, at Paducah, and many other 
points. Judge Blair testifies how difficult it 
was for him, here, at the capital, and with the 
influence wielded by a member of the Cabinet, 
to obtain any attention to Western interests, or 
compliance with Western requisitions. But Fre- 
mont, with troops constantly ordered away from 
him, with a plentiful lack of guns, with credit 
impaired, if not ruined, by the possibility of 
his removal, (and since then these creditors 
have seen their claims delayed for months, till 
examined by a board of commissioners, and 
even still unpaid.) was expected to organize 
victory, and triumph over every adverse circum- 
stance. 
   But let us look further, and see what was the 
condition of affairs when Price marchhed upon 
Lexington. Why, sir, at the very time when 
Price, with from fifteen to twenty thousand 
men, was threatening Lexington, McCulloch 
was threatening Rolla and Jefferson City, Har- 
dee was threatening Ironton, in southeast, Mis- 
souri, and Polk and Pillow, with a number of 
troops, estimated at twenty to twenty-six thou- 
sand, were down at Columbus, threatening our 
inferior forces at Cairo; and in addition to that, 
there were the forces of Jeff. Thompson, Martin 
Green, and other guerrilla bands; and there 
were organized bands of rebels in every county 
in the State. The State was heaving and 
seething with insurrection under his feet, and 
he had to restore it to its loyalty. All this Fre- 
mont had to encounter, with nearly eighty 
thousand rebels threatening all these exposed 
points, with the disloyalists at their homes, and 
with an inadequate force to meet the enemy. 
Sir, a responsibility was thrown upon him 
which I would not to-day take upon my shoul- 
ders for the best office in the gift of the Ameri- 
can people or of the world. 
        THE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 
  While he was struggling nobly to perform 
his duty, from every side came the poisoned 
arrows of calumny, and the ex parte testimony 
of the investigating committee of this House, 
charging him with connivance with contractors 
to plunder the Treasury. I regret to have to 
allude to their course, for every member of the 
committee, I believe and hope, is my personal 
friend. 
  Sir, I have learned to look with some dis- 
trust upon ex parte testimony. I recollect that 
when my friend from Ohio, [Mr. SHERMAN,] 
who now occupies a seat at the other end of 
the Capitol, was at the head of a committee sit- 
ting in judment upon the then Secretary of 
the Navy, Mr. Toucey, they wrote to Secretary 
Toucey, as I found in re-reading their report 
recently, that they were going to examine into 
the live oak contract, and other matters, and