In late July 1862, Hindman was relived of his command of the Trans-Mississippi Department and replaced by General Theophilus H. Holmes. The latter had recieved much criticism for "apathy" at Malvern Hill (57) and had been transfered to the Trans-Mississippi Department. One Civil War Historian labeled this department, by 1863, as "the junkyard of the Confederate army[for generals from the eastern theatre]" until the arrival of Edmund Kirby Smith.(58) Hindman, before being replaced, had ordered all Missouri State Guards into the Confederate army. This action prompted General Sterling Price to advise the the Confederate secretary of war, George Randolph, that thirty prominent Missourians, including Coffee, should be the men to organize Missouri troops for Confederate service.(59)
Hindman had placed Shelby in command of a brigade comprised of three regiments of calvary, his own and the regiments of Coffee and Upton Hays. Shelby called his command the "Iron Brigade." It went into bivouac south of Newtonia. The men were threadbare, on short rations and their horses were unshod.(60) Notwithstanding these privations, the Iron Brigade fought on and won the first battle near the end of September. Engagements followed at Cross Hollow, Cane Hill and Prairie Grove. All the while, Coffee continued to be inactive, presumably awaiting the court-martial which convened and tried him in the spring of 1863. Coffee won acquital for the charge of drunkenness and returned to recruiting for the Confederate cause in southern Missouri.(61)
From his camp in Diamond Grove in Southwest Missouri. Major T.R. Livingston, on May 28, 1863, sent a dispatch to Price which illustrated Coffee's importance to the Confederate cause:
Colonel Coffee has joined me with a small force of unorganized troops, and will co-operate with me.... It is currently reported here that Colonel Coffee will soon be restored to the command of his regiment; if such should be the case, we hope that he will be allowed to operate in this section of the country. His knowledge of the country, and the unbounded confidence of the people in him, demand that this should be the field of his operations.(62)
Coffee continued recruiting troughout the summer, often leading raids designed to create havoc in southern Missouri. His forays caused Union Colonel Edwin C. Catherwood to move his troops from Springfield, chase Coffee's band and defeat him near Pineville, in McDonald County, on August 12. Catherwood won a decisive victory, killing 60 to 70 of Coffee's men.(63) This affair foretold the almost complete Confederate loss of control of Missouri except in the extreme southwest corner. Thus, a plan, designed by Shelby to draw Federals from their control of the Arkansas Valley and Central Missouri, won the approval of Missouri's Confederate governer, Thomas C. Reynolds.
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