All I can say is, that what I have done has been done conscientiously, to the best of my ability, and in what I conceived to be for the best interests of the whole country.
At the date when this report begins, the situation of the contending forces was about as follows: The Mississippi River was strongly garrisoned by Federal troops, from St.

Louis, Missouri, to its mouth.
The line of the Arkansas was also held, thus giving us armed possession of all west of the Mississippi, north of that stream.

A few points in Southern Louisiana, not remote from the river, were held by us, together with a small garrison at and near the mouth of the Rio Grande.

All the balance of the vast territory of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas was in the almost undisputed possession of the enemy, with an army of probably not less than eighty thousand effective men, that could have been brought into the field had there been sufficient opposition to have brought them out.

The let-alone policy had demoralized this force so that probably but little more than one-half of it was ever present in garrison at any one time.