In this battle Albert Pike used 2,000 Indian allies. They belonged to the "civilized" tribes, and good service was expected from them; but they were unaccustomed to fighting in the open, could not be disciplined, and in the excitement of the struggle it is alleged they so lost their heads that they scalped about as many of the Confederates as Unionists. At any rate, the experiment was a failure, and thereafter they cut no figure in the war. INDECISIVE FIGHTING. The enemy were so badly shaken that they retreated toward the North to reorganize and recruit. Reinforcements from Kansas and Missouri also joined Curtis, who advanced in the direction of Springfield, Missouri, upon learning that Price was making for the same point. Nothing followed, and Curtis returned to Arkansas. He had been at Batesville in that State a few months when he found himself in serious peril. His supplies were nearly exhausted, and it was impossible to renew them in the hostile country by which he was surrounded. An expedition for his relief left Memphis in June, but failed. Supplies from Missouri, however, reached him early in July. Curtis marched to Jacksonport, and afterward established himself at Helena on the Mississippi. In September he was appointed commander of the department of Missouri, which included that State, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory. There were many minor engagements, and the Unionists succeeded in keeping the Confederates from regaining their former foothold in Missouri and north of Arkansas. It may be said that all the fighting in that section produced not the slightest effect on the war as a whole. The best military leaders of the Confederacy advised President Davis to withdraw all his forces beyond the Mississippi and concentrate them in the East, but he rejected their counsel, and his stubbornness greatly weakened the Confederacy. Having given an account of military operations in the West, it now remains to tell of the much more important ones that occurred on the coast and in the East, for they were decisive in their nature, and produced a distinct effect upon the progress of the war for the Union. CONSTRUCTION OF THE MERRIMAC.