Major-General Halleck, Fremont’s successor, appeared among us on November 18th, 1861.[80] He was already famous as the author of “Elements of Military Art and Science.” He was forty-six years old, in the prime of life, in perfect health, and full of vigor. As he peered at us out of his large black eyes underneath dark heavy eyebrows, and a high, massive forehead, he looked wondrous wise. His soldierly bearing, without ostentation, gave us confidence in him as a safe and able leader; nor did he as an administrator disappoint our expectations. He seemed intuitively and clearly to grasp the situation. He took right hold of his work and did it with a will. He soon brought order out of chaos. To lighten his burden and to secure greater thoroughness in administration, together with promptness and effectiveness in military movements, Kansas was separated from his department and put under the command of Major-General Hunter. First of all, without neglecting for a moment the movements of the army of Price in the State, he began to disentangle the military snarl in and about St. Louis. One after another, the different divisions of Fremont’s army were returning from their bootless campaign. There was great confusion. All seemed to be at cross-purposes. Each subordinate commander, uncertain as to his duty, was anxiously awaiting orders. But General Halleck, amid the din of conflicting interests from various quarters demanding his immediate attention, never for a moment lost his head. With a masterful hand he reduced to system what, at first blush, seemed an inextricable mass of antagonistic interests. In a comparatively short time every imperative call upon him had been fully met, every subordinate officer had found his place, learned his duties and was efficiently doing them. The internal affairs of his department were at last running as smoothly as the most critical could reasonably expect. As soon as General Halleck had put things to rights in his military household, he broke up the different secret rendezvous in St. Louis, where the secessionists met to plot against the government, where they stowed their war material, and clandestinely drilled that they might be prepared for open conflict, which they still hoped would soon be precipitated. He did this important work with such downright thoroughness, that so far as could be seen he put an end to these secret rebel gatherings. He also determined to sustain with all the power at his command the enactments of the sovereign Convention, now the only legislative body of the State. During the preceding month the Convention had once more reassembled in St. Louis and enacted weighty laws to safeguard loyal Missouri. Among other important measures, it prescribed an oath of allegiance to the United States to be taken by all municipal and State officers under pain of deposition.