Thompson reported that he had lost 20 killed, 27 wounded, and 15 prisoners, but that he "had mowed down the enemy as with a scythe;" that "they acknowledge a loss of 400 killed and wounded," etc, etc. He admitted he had lost one cannon by its being disabled so that it could not be brought from the field. He said that his "dragoons" had stampeded in a shameful way, but that his infantry had behaved very well. Later, he reported from New Madrid that his command was "very much demoralized." Gen. Polk seems to have been much depressed by the news of Thompson's defeat, because he ordered an abandonment of the post at New Madrid and the bringing over of the men and guns to his "Gibraltar" at Columbus. Gen. Grant, though probably disappointed at the failure of his plans to capture Thompson's force, was careful to write complimentary letters to all the commanders, recognizing their good services in the expedition. 262 The fight at Fredericktown quieted things pretty effectually in southeastern Missouri, and ended for a long while the project of capturing St Louis by the New Madrid route. Gen. Grant was preparing some startling things to occupy the attention of Johnston, Polk and Pillow in quite another quarter. 263 CHAPTER XI. GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND. Henry Wager Halleck, who succeeded Gen. Fremont in command of the Department of Missouri, Nov. 9, 1861, had been pointed to as a brilliantly shining example of what West Point could produce. He was born in 1819 near Utica, N. Y., of a very good family, and had graduated July 1, 1839, from West Point, third in a class of which Isaac I. Stevens, afterward to conclude a brilliant career by dying a Major-General on the field of battle, was the head. Other conspicuous members of the class were Maj.-Gens. James B. Ricketts, E. O. C. Ord, H. J. Hunt, and E. R. S. Can-by, of the Union army, and A. R. Lawton, a Confederate Brigadier-General. Halleck was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers, and during the Mexican War received a couple of the brevets so easily won in that conflict. With his attainments and cast of mind, he made an admirable staff officer for Commodore Shubrick and Gens. Mason and Riley in their administration of California while the territory was being reduced to an American possession. He became a Captain in his Corps in 1852, but the opportunities in California were so tempting, that he resigned to enter the practice of the law and embark in various business enterprises of railroad building and quicksilver mining. He was unusually successful in all these, becoming Director-General of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Company, President of a railroad, and a member of a leading law firm. He kept up his military connection by accepting the commission of Major-General commanding the California Militia. 264