Washington. And early in November he was transferred to West
Virginia just as he was about to attack with what seemed to him
every prospect of success. He had not succeeded. But he had done
good work in fortifying St. Louis; in ordering gunboats, tugs,
and mortar-boats; in producing some kind of system out of utter
confusion,; in trusting good men like Lyon; and in sending the
then unknown Ulysses Grant to take command at Cairo, the
excellent strategic base where the Ohio joins the Mississippi.

The most determined fighting that took place during Fremont's
command was brought on by Lyon, who attacked Ben McCulloch at
Wilson's Creek, in southwest Missouri, on the tenth of August.
Though McCulloch had ten thousand, against not much over five,
Lyon was so set on driving the Confederates away from such an
important lead-bearing region that he risked an attack, hoping by
surprise, skillful maneuvers, and the help of his regulars to
shake the enemy's hold, even if he could not thoroughly defeat
him. Disheartened by his repeated failure to get reinforcements,
and very anxious about the fate of his flanking column under
Sigel, whose attack from the rear was defeated, he expressed his
forebodings to his staff. But the light of battle shone bright as
ever in his eyes; he was killed leading a magnificent charge; and
when, after his death, his little army drew off in good order,
the Confederates, by their own account, "were glad to see him
go."

On the twentieth of September the Confederates under Sterling
Price won a barren victory by taking Lexington, Missouri, where
Colonel James Mulligan made a gallant defense. That was the last
Confederate foothold on the Missouri; and it could not be