Excerpt from Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 1863, Vol. 1 of 3
Your committee have been unable to take all the testimony necessary to enable them to present a comprehensive report in relation to the administration of affairs in the department of the west, more particularly while under the command of General John C. Fremont. Compelled to remain in attendance upon Congress during its sessions, they were unable to visit the department in order to take the testimony of witnesses there. And they did not feel willing to call from so great a distance the witnesses whose testimony was necessary to fully elucidate all the facts, as their services were constantly required in the field. Throughout their investigations your committee have strictly adhered to the rule adopted by them from the first, to ask the attendance of those in the military service only when no detriment to the public interests would result from a temporary absence from their commands. When Congress closed its session last summer, many of those who had been most actively engaged in the operations to which your committee desired to direct their attention had been ordered to other parts of the country; some were in Tennessee and Mississippi, some in Arkansas, some in the army of the Potomac and others in the department of the south under General Hunter. Such testimony as was within reach your committee have taken. But they are fully aware that their investigation upon that subject has been far from complete; and they, therefore, present but a brief report, together with such testimony as they have obtained.
When the rebellion commenced Missouri was one of the most turbulent among those States which the rebel leaders sought to gain over to their cause by the connivance and treachery of the State authorities, and by the presence of armed forces to operate upon the fears of the people. The number of federal troops in that region was very small; a great portion of our troops, stationed in the Territories and at our military posts upon the western frontier, had been basely surrendered by Twiggs to the rebels in Texas. St. Louis, the great commercial emporium of the State, was preserved from falling under rebel control only by the prompt and fearless course pursued by General, then Captain, Lyon, who, not waiting for orders or authority, occupied the United States arsenal, when threatened by the traitor governor of the State, and dispersed the rebel troops who were collected under the specious name of State guards, in a camp of instruction near St. Louis.
The difficulty under which our commanders there labored in obtaining supplies of arms, clothing, &c., for volunteers, was far greater than was felt in any other part of the country. Distant from all the principal depots, at a time when the ability of the government was taxed to the utmost to arm and equip the large number of volunteers called into the field, those who were, from time to time, placed in charge of that department were compelled to act under the greatest disadvantages.
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