With this excellent material there was a large per cent that ranged from worthless to actually criminal. Many adventurers from the European armies had hastened to this country to sell their swords to the best advantage, and many black sheep, who had been forced out of their armies, sought in our troubles and our ignorance of military matters an opportunity for their own exaltation and profit. Halleck dealt with all with a firm, unsparing hand. He began to weed out the worthless officers and to court-martial the rascals. Company, battalion and regimental organizations which he found too mutinous and disorderly for hopeful management, he either disarmed and set to hard labor or discharged from the service.
The raids of the vengeful Kansans across the Missouri borders gave him excessive annoyance, and he issued orders that all Kansas parties entering the State should be arrested and disarmed. That he might have more complete control of them, however, he recommended that the Department of Kansas be merged with his command, and as this was in had mony with Gen. Hunter's ideas, it was subsequently done. In the meanwhile he had to look out for the Mississippi River and the highly important point of, Cairo. He started to construct a fleet of gunboats to help control the river and assist the Army in its operations.
His next neighbor to the eastward was Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Department of the Ohio, which extended from the Cumberland River to the Allegheny Mountains. Gen. Buell's complete cooperation was necessary to the management of affairs in the Mississippi Valley, but this seems to have been difficult to secure. Buell had his own ideas, and they frequently did not harmonize with those of Gen. Halleck. Halleck recommended that Buell's Department be put under his own command, which was also done later.
Bridge-burning and other outrages by straggling bands claiming to be Confederates seriously disturbed the peace, embarrassed operations, and worried the Commanding General. Halleck reported that within 10 days prior to Jan. 1, 1862, these bridge-burners had destroyed $150,000 worth of railroad property and that they had concocted a plan to burn, simultaneously, every railroad bridge in the State, and set fire to the city of St. Louis in a number of places. In his comprehensive order advising summary and severe punishment against these marauders he took careful guards against such being made the pretext for any private vengeance or official malice, and instituted Military Commissions of not less than three responsible officers, acting under the solemnity of an oath, and making written reports of their proceedings. This order brought down a storm of abuse from the Secessionist and semi-Secessionist press, which Halleck calmly disregarded.