With high respect, JEFFERSON DAVIS. 296 Gen. Ben McCulloch thought best to go on to Richmond to explain his course since Wilson's Creek, and also to look after the very tender subject of his rank and powers. He left Gen. James S. Mcintosh in command of his troops. Mcintosh had grievances of his own. He was not being recognized by the Confederate authorities as he thought a man of his abilities and soldierly experience should have been, and he seems to have liked cooperation with Gen. Price very much less even than did Gen. McCulloch. In no very gentlemanly terms he repelled Price's proposition to combine their forces and push forward to the Missouri River. The best that Price could get out of him was the assurance that if the Federals advanced upon him at Springfield he, Mcintosh, would come forward to his assistance. Price had greatly underestimated Gen. Halleck's energy and aggressiveness. Gen. Halleck was the first of our commanders to really rise to the level of the occasion and take a comprehensive grasp upon affairs. Unlike some others, he wasted no time in sounding proclamations or in lengthy letters of advice to the Administration as to the political conduct of the war. He was a soldier, proud of his profession, true to his traditions, and possibly had ambition to be reckoned among the great commanders. He had been noted for high administrative ability, and this trait was well illustrated in his grasp of the situation in Missouri and on the borders of the State. His main communications to the people were orders, plain, practical, and to the point. Whatever he did was on the highest plane of the science of warfare as he understood it. Proper military discipline and subordination were introduced everywhere and a rigid system of accountability. He had troubles with his own men to add to his difficulties with the enemy. We find the most note of this with reference to the Germans. 297 The Missouri Germans were a splendid lot of men, taken as a whole, and had an unusual number of officers who were trained soldiers of considerable military experience. At the head of this class was Gen. Peter J. Osterhaus, who had been a private soldier under Lyon in securing the Arsenal, and had commanded a battalion with high credit to himself at Wilson's Creek. He was now a Colonel commanding a brigade.