Department of the Missouri

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Department of the Missouri was a division of the United States Army that functioned through the American Civil War and the Indian Wars afterwards.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Civil War

The department was formed following the reorganization and breakup the Department of the West on November 9, 1861, after Abraham Lincoln fired John C. Frémont when he would not rescind his order emancipating the slaves of Missouri and imposing martial law on the state. David Hunter served briefly as the last commander Department of the West.

It included Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and Kentucky west of the Cumberland River and later Kansas. Its first general was Henry W. Halleck.

[edit] Indian Wars

In 1865 at the end of the war it was renamed the Division of Missouri (however widespread usage continued to call it the Department of the Missouri). The headquarters was first located in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and later moved to St. Louis and Chicago under successive commanders. The division would oversee all the famous incidents and battles of the Indian wars, including the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Components of it which evolved in various reorganizations ultimately included:

  • Department of Dakota - Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and parts of Idaho and South Dakota and the Yellowstone portion of Wyoming.
  • Department of the Missouri - Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Indian Territory, and Territory of Oklahoma
  • Department of the Platte - Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming (except Yellowstone), Territory of Utah
  • Department of Texas (originally part of the Department of the Gulf) - Texas

[edit] Commanders

[edit] Civil War

[edit] Indian Wars (overall for the Division)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865, by E.B. Long With Barbara Long 1985 De Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-80255-4, page 138


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