Operations in the Southwest. Shortly after the battle of Bull Run GENERAL H. H. SIBLEY was commissioned to repair to Texas, raise a brigade of troops and proceed to the conquest of New Mexico. With three regiments he set out from San Antonio, and by way of the Rio Grande valley arrived at the scene of his operations after having performed a memorable march. Battles were fought with the Union forces already in possession of the territory at Valverde (February 21, 1862), Glorietta (March 27), and Peratta (April 23), in all of which the Texans displayed their proverbial valor. To hold the country, however, was found to be impracticable and the men of "Sibley's Brigade" returned to take part in other and more important

scenes.

This army consisted of more than one hundred and fifty thousand men, and General George B. McClellan, a man beloved by his whole army, and one of the most skillful military organizers upon the Union side, was placed in command. A number of months elapsed before it began active operations, and in the meanwhile important events were happening in the West.

Missouri had been held in the Union chiefly through the decision and energy of CAPTAIN LYON. The Missouri State

troops, in sympathy with the South, were compelled to retreat to the southwestern part of the State, not without having won a victory over the Federal GENERAL SIGEL, at CARTHAGE (July 5, 1861). Ilere, under their commander, GENERAL STERLING PRICE, they were soon joined by reinforcements from Arkansas, under GENERALS BEN MCCUL

LOCH and N. B. PEARCE. Lyon-now General-advancing with an army, attacked the combined forces at WILSON'S CREEK, near Springfield, Mo. (August 10, 1861), but was killed in the action and his army defeated. That part of the combined Confederate forces consisting of Missourians, then advanced upon LEXINGTON and compelled the Federal COL. MULLIGAN to surrender the place with a great quantity of stores and munitions of war (September 20).

In its preparations to resist invasion, the Confederate Government entrusted the Western defenses of the Confederacy to GENERAL ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, an experienced officer and one of the ablest soldiers of his time. Johnston made such a disposition of his forces as to establish east of the Mississippi a line of defense whose principal points were Columbus, Ky., Forts Henry and Donelson, Tenn., Bowling Green and Cumberland Gap, Ky.; while GENERAL EARL VAN DORN was placed in command west of the Mississippi. Powerful Federal armies were organized under GENERALS H. W. HALLECK and D. C. BUELL. In all, these forces numbered more than two hundred thousand men. The people of the South were slow to realize the necessity of preparing to resist the threatened invasion from the Northwest, and Johnston, with but few men and limited supplies at his disposal, was unable to hold his line intact.

Halleck, from his headquarters at St. Louis, directed a part of his forces, under GENERAL CURTIS, to Southern Missouri to operate against Van Dorn. The remainder were collected at Cairo, Ill., under GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT, and at Paducah, Ky., under GENERAL C. F. SMITH. Buell's forces were assembled at various points in Eastern Kentucky.

To resist Curtis, Van Dorn gathered the forces of Price and McCulloch, and was joined by GENERAL ALBERT PIKE with several regiments of Indians, whom he had succeeded in winning to the cause of the Confederacy in the Indian Territory. The combined forces attacked Curtis at Elkhorn Tavern, near Bentonville, in Northwestern Arkansas, and the battle that took place is known as PEA RIDGE (March

5-8). A part of the attacking forces was routed with the loss of two of the bravest officers on the Confederate sideMCCULLOCH and MCINTOSH. The remainder maintained the action with energy, but with the defeat of their comrades were compelled to fall back.

GENERAL LEONIDAS POLK, in command of Johnston's forces at Columbus, established a camp across the river at BELMONT, MO. General Grant descending the river from Cairo landed and attacked this camp, but reinforcements sent by Polk crossed the river and drove him back to his gunboats (November 7, 1861). Grant's next operations, however, were more successful. Uniting forces with General Smith, he, with the aid of a powerful fleet of gunboats under Commodore Foote, obtained possession of the Confederate strongholds of Fort HENRY (February 6) and FORT DONELSON (February 16).

The loss of Fort Donelson was a severe blow to the South, for with it more than twelve thousand men were forced to lay down their arms (February 16). In its capture General Grant first manifested the indomitable qualities that were destined to make him the greatest general on the Northern side. Meanwhile the Confederate forces in southeastern Kentucky, under GENERALS CRITTENDEN and ZOLLICOFFER, had been defeated by a part of Buell's forces under GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS, near MILL SPRINGS (January 19), General Zollicoffer losing his life in the action. The disasters of Fort Donelson and Mill Springs compelled Johnston to

fall back from Bowling Green and establish a new line of defense.

Upon the capture of Fort Donelson, Grant moved south up the Tennessee River as far as Pittsburg Landing, near the State line of Mississippi. Here Buell was ordered to join him. Johnston determined upon an attack before the two armies could unite, and to that end, by skillful general

ship, concentrated the different divisions of his command under GENERALS Polk, HARDEE and BRECKINRIDGE, at Corinth, Miss., where he was joined by Generals Beauregard and BRAGG.

A part of Johnston's plan was the complete surprise of his antagonist. In this he was successful. Advancing quietly upon his unconscious foe, he fell upon the Federal camps, near SHILOH Church, about two miles from the Tennessee River (April 6), and although he was greatly outnumbered, and the resistance encountered was stubborn in the extreme, he forced the Federals back to the river before the day was over, capturing many prisoners and stores. But the victory was dearly won, for Johnston, while directing his men, received during the course of the day a wound to which in the heat of battle he gave little attention. An artery was severed, and before the extent of his injury was realized he had bled to death. The fall of Johnston largely determined subsequent events in the West.

On the night that the field was won, and while Grant lay under the protection of his gunboats, Buell's army arrived. With this heavy reinforcement the Federals were enabled to renew the engagement the next day, and win back the ground lost. The Confederates, now commanded by Beauregard, fell back to Corinth, where they were joined by reinforcements under Van Dorn and Price, who had crossed the Mississippi from Arkansas after having

lost the battle of Pea Ridge.

Halleck now arrived and assumed command of the Federal forces. Among his subordinate officers, besides Grant and Buell, were Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, Pope, Rosecrans, Logan and McClernand. Beauregard, having but little more than fifty thousand men to encounter the one hundred thousand of his antagonist, deemed it best to withdraw from Corinth upon Halleck's approach.