Lars, you hit upon the heart of the issues in 1862 Trans-Miss. One point to keep in mind was the trustworthiness of Pike and his indians who had a poor showing at Pea Ridge. The army was in desperate need of reorganization and very little resources were available. Hindman had one thought in mind and one only - To equip, train and organize an army that would fight, and right now, not later. The organization of the Missourians is an example of this point. The Missiourians had little time to organize, and in the case of First Newtonia were actually organizing their regiments while the battle was being fought. What meagre resources were available to Hindman had to be made available by any means. If Pike wanted to fight he should have stepped forward instead of acting the fool he did at times. Still, his issues were on point, but that had nothing to do with the issue of putting a force in the field to fight the federal forces that were daily growing stronger. Appeasement wasn't much of an option for Hindman. There were other underlying issues to be sure, but had I been in Hindmans boots I would have done the same thing - 'I need people willing to fight, not argue.'