Sterling Price Returns: The Southern Counteroffensive to Retake Missouri in 1861: Trans-Mississippi Musings, #3

By Dick Titterington

It’s the summer of 1861 and the Missouri State Guard has just won a fight with Federal volunteers from Missouri in the Battle of Carthage. Having been driven to the extreme southwestern part of Missouri by the Federals, Major General Sterling Price is eager to launch a counter-offensive and retake control of the State of Missouri.
But first Price needs to convince Brigadier General Ben McCulloch to ally his Confederates with Price’s Missouri State Guard. Combined, the Southerners will have the strength to defeat the army being assembled by Federal Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon. The Southern allies march north and meet the Federals just ten miles south of Springfield, Missouri along a stream called Wilson’s Creek.
After the fight at Wilson’s Creek, Sterling Price marches his Missouri State Guard north to try and capture the key Missouri River town of Lexington, Missouri. In response, Major General John Charles Frémont, mobilizes the forces under his command in Missouri to pursue and destroy the Missouri State Guard. Frémont’s army finally catches up with the Missouri State Guard in Springfield later that fall.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trans-Mississippi Musings Press
• Release date: Jul 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781501452680

Dick Titterington

Dick Titterington is theCivilWarMuse, an amateur historian with particular interest in the American Civil War. Dick maintains a website, theCivilWarMuse.com, providing virtual tours of Civil War battlefields with interesting facts about the battle and biographies of key individuals. The virtual tours allow you to travel back in time and personally take walking and auto tours of various battlefields and expeditions. Area maps, waypoints and pictures are provided to orient and guide you through your visit. Dick also has a blog Trans-Mississippi Musings (http://www.transmississippimusings.com/) writing about interesting stories that took place in the Trans-Mississippi theater during the American Civil War, including the Reconstruction era following the war. Dick is currently retired and living in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area after a 26-year career as an Information Technology professional. Dick is a volunteer docent at the Battle of Westport Visitor Center (http://battleofwestport.org/VisitorCenter.htm) in Kansas City, Missouri. Dick volunteers for SPARK (Senior Peers Actively Renewing Knowledge) teaching classes on the Civil War in Missouri. SPARK is an Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI) and a member of the Road Scholar Institute Network (RSIN). SPARK partners with the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Follow Dick on Twitter @theCivilWarMuse

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Prologue

In the previous volume, Border State Contest, events have not gone well for Claiborne Fox Jackson, the newly elected Governor of the State of Missouri. In favor of seceding from the Union, Governor Jackson was content to wait for the people of Missouri to declare themselves for the Confederacy. In his January 1861 inaugural address, Jackson called for a State Convention to decide the issue of secession. But the Convention’s delegates resolved to remain in the Union.

Then in April when the American Civil War started, Jackson was ill-prepared for the juggernaut launched by US Army Captain Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri Congressman Frank Blair. Backed by President Abraham Lincoln, the two of them raised an army of 10,000 Federal volunteers in less than a month. Lincoln made Lyon a Brigadier General of Volunteers. Lyon declared martial law in St. Louis, Missouri and used his volunteer army to surround and capture a body of Missouri State Militia at Camp Jackson.

Nathaniel Lyon

As Lyon’s Federals were preparing the captured state militia for the march back to the St. Louis Arsenal, several shots rang out and chaos ensued. After calm was restored, a couple of dozen people were dead, most of them civilians. People throughout Missouri were outraged by what they considered an act of war against their state by the United States Government. The State Legislature quickly passed legislation to form and equip a new state militia force, the Missouri State Guard. Jackson named former Governor Sterling Price as its commander.

Certain that Governor Jackson was planning to form an alliance with the Confederate States of America, Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon mobilized his army in June to counter this threat. He sent part of his volunteer army into southwestern Missouri under the command of Colonel Franz Sigel. Lyon then took another part of his volunteer force and moved upriver to occupy Jefferson City, the State capital. This forced Governor Jackson and Major General Price to relocate upriver in Boonville.

Leaving an occupation force in Jefferson City, Lyon continued upriver and routed a small force of Missouri State Guard near Boonville. Governor Jackson ordered Sterling Price to go to Arkansas to get help from the Confederacy. Then Jackson gathered Missouri State Guard units in the region and headed for southwestern Missouri. As they approached Carthage, Missouri, Jackson ran into a brigade of Federals commanded by Colonel Franz Sigel. Sigel began an engagement with the Missouri State Guard, but soon realized he was greatly outnumbered and in danger of being cut off. Sigel then spent the rest of the day in a fighting withdrawal. That night, while Sigel escaped to Sarcoxie, Missouri, the victorious Missouri State Guard spent the night in Carthage.

But even with the victory at Carthage, Governor Jackson had to move his forces to the extreme southwestern corner of Missouri. Adding insult to injury, the Missouri State Convention reconvened in July and removed Jackson as the State’s Governor. Now Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon is planning to concentrate his army in Springfield, Missouri and destroy the secessionist army. But Major General Price has met with Confederate Brigadier General Ben McCulloch, who seems willing to form an alliance with the Missourians. Both Jackson and Price want to use this alliance to reclaim their state from the Federal usurpers, and afterwards join the Confederacy.

Will they succeed?

Chapter 1 – Ben McCulloch

Missouri has been crushed, and all of her forces are falling back from the Federal troops.

Ben McCulloch

Ben McCulloch was born on November 11, 1811 to a prominent Southern family living in Rutherford County, Tennessee. As a young man, McCulloch joined his neighbor, Davy Crockett, when Crockett went to Texas in 1835. McCulloch became embroiled in the Texas Revolution, but a bout of the measles prevented him from accompanying his friend when Crockett went to San Antonio and destiny at The Alamo. [1]

Ben McCulloch

On April 21, 1836, McCulloch was part of Sam Houston’s army when they defeated the Mexicans under Antonio López de Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. After deciding to settle in Texas, McCulloch joined the Texas Rangers where he served with distinction fighting hostile Indians. In 1839, Ben McCulloch ran for and was elected to a seat in the Texas Republic’s House of Representatives. After Texas was admitted to the United States of America as its 28th State, McCulloch was elected to the State’s first State Legislature. [2]

In 1846, McCulloch, now thirty-five years old, raised a company of volunteers from within the Texas Rangers to fight as cavalry in the War with Mexico. His skills and expertise were recognized by General Zachary Taylor who promoted McCulloch to Major as his chief of scouts. Following the war, McCulloch, like so many other Americans, got caught up in the gold rush fever and went to California in 1849. After California was admitted to the Union as a State, Ben McCulloch was elected Sheriff of the capital city of Sacramento. McCulloch returned to Texas in 1852 to receive an appointment as United States Marshall. [3]

Then on February 1, 1861 the Texas State Convention voted to secede from the Union. After Texans ratified the Ordinance of Secession in a statewide vote, the state became part of the Confederate States of America. It was Colonel Ben McCulloch, in command of about 1,000 Texas State Militia, who ordered US Army Major General David E. Twiggs to deliver up all military posts and public property held by or under [his] control. Twiggs, who later resigned his commission from the US Army to join the Confederate Army, signed the order turning over Federal property in Texas to the Confederacy. [4]

On May 13, Ben McCulloch received a commission as a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. The Army’s Adjutant and Inspector General Samuel Cooper explained McCulloch’s new responsibilities in a letter. [5]

Having been appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers in the service of the Confederate States, you are assigned to the command of the district embracing the Indian Territory lying west of Arkansas and south of Kansas. Your field of operations will be to guard that Territory against invasion from Kansas or elsewhere. For this purpose there will be placed at your disposal three regiments of volunteers, viz: one regiment of mounted men from Texas, to serve for a term of eighteen months; one of mounted men from Arkansas, to serve for during the war, and one regiment of foot from Louisiana, to serve for twelve months ... The sum of $25,000 will be placed in your hands for disbursement in the service of your command, and for which you will account to the proper accounting officers of the Treasury Department. [6]

Right from the beginning, McCulloch had to deal with temperamental volunteers and supply problems. The Arkansas Volunteers balked at enlisting for the duration of the war, so McCulloch sought permission to muster them in for twelve months. In addition, only a fraction of the volunteers were armed, and the War Department in Montgomery, Alabama had no arms to send to McCulloch. Although some arms and war supplies had been seized by States following their secession, those States were reluctant to give them up to the Confederate government. The Governors wanted to retain the arms for their State Militias He continued sending urgent messages to the Confederate War Department asking for arms and supplies.[7]

Louis Hébert

It was June when McCulloch’s Brigade set up camp just south of Fort Smith, Arkansas along the Poteau River. Sergeant Will Tunnard was a member of Company K in the Third Louisiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Back in 1859, Tunnard had joined the Pelican Rifles Company in Baton Rouge when it was organized back in 1859 in response to John Brown’s raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. After the war began, the Pelican Rifles mustered in as part of the Third Louisiana Infantry with Colonel Louis Hébert as the regiment’s commander. Tunnard described camp conditions along the Poteau River. [8]

The Poteau is a deep, sluggish stream, with rocky banks, and empties into the Arkansas River above Fort Smith. This stream afforded a fine bathing-place for the men, and its precipitous rocky banks, crowned with huge trees, furnished abundant shade for those disposed to lounge beneath their protecting shelter. The men suffered severely from the heat, day succeeding day, clear and sultry, with scarcely a breath of air to stir the leaves of the trees or cool the suffocating atmosphere ... Drills and parades, a close adherence to issued orders were required and enforced, until the regiment became equal to regulars in the discharge of their various duties ... The measles became epidemic in camp, and several of the regiment died and found soldiers graves. All through the hot and sultry days of June did the regiment remain at Camp Poteau, watching anxiously the incipient stages of the war breaking out in various portions of the land. [9]

A general and his staff reviewing troops in the field.

William Watson was the First Sergeant of Company K in the Third Louisiana Infantry. He had been born in Scotland in 1826 before emigrating at the age of nineteen to the Caribbean where he worked as a civil engineer. Five years later Watson moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he plied his trade as an expert mechanic. Like Will Tunnard, Watson had been a member of the Pelican Rifles when they helped to seize the Federal Arsenal at Baton Rouge. Sergeant Watson described the process he used to requisition food for his company at Camp Poteau. [10]

The practice was this: An orderly sergeant made out a requisition for his company—say for 100 men for one day—flour, 100 lb.; beef, pork, or bacon, 75 lb.; coffee, seven lb.; sugar, 14 lb.; rice or pease, six lb.; candles, six; soap, two lb.; salt, pepper, vinegar, etc. This requisition was signed by the captain, and men were detailed to go to the commissary store to draw these rations. The commissary takes the requisition and calls his assistant, and says to the men, Well, you can get three-quarter ration of flour, half ration of pork, half ration of coffee, and half ration of sugar, and that is all. The men would grumble and say, We only got half rations yesterday. Can’t help it, I am short of provisions, and there are other companies to serve as well as you, and all must get their share. He then sticks the requisition on the file, and his assistant weighs out the rations ... The commissary ... credits himself with full rations issued to 100 men as per requisition ... Thus the commissary had a voucher for and was credited with supplying a full requisition when he had only supplied a small part of it, and he had the rest to sell for his own benefit. [11]

Claiborne Fox Jackson

In June, McCulloch notified the War Department that he was in contact with the state authorities in Missouri. Missouri State Guard Captain Colton Greene was in Fort Smith, Arkansas with a message from Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson. Jackson was preparing for war and Greene was there to ask McCulloch for support from the Confederacy. On June 14 McCulloch sent Greene on to Richmond, Virginia with an endorsement supporting aid to Missouri. McCulloch also wanted to invade Kansas and capture Fort Scott.

[Missouri Governor Jackson] wants the aid of a force from this quarter to put his forces in action. Captain [Colton] Green will give you all the necessary information in regard to the views and secret movements of the governor of his State.

I think the proposition made by the governor is one of great importance to the Confederate Government, and I hope may meet with your favorable consideration. I will briefly lay before you a plan of operations ... [I propose to] take possession of Fort Scott on the Missouri line, and subjugate that portion of Kansas. I am satisfied that [James H.] Lane has no force yet of any importance, and the occupation of Fort Scott would not only place Kansas in my power, but would give heart and countenance to our friends in Missouri, and accomplish the very object for which I was sent here, preventing a force from the North invading the Indian Territory. All the border counties on the western line of Missouri are with us. We would therefore be able to draw our supplies from them. After strengthening myself at Fort Scott I could, by co-operating with Missouri, take such a position on the Kansas River as I might desire. [12]

Twelve days later, Brigadier General McCulloch received authorization to move north with the intention of capturing Fort Scott, Kansas. But the authorization from Confederate Secretary of War Leroy P. Walker made no mention of providing support to Missouri. Walker was concerned primarily with encouraging the Cherokees into an alliance with the Confederacy. On June 29 McCulloch replied to Walker that he was moving north from Fort Smith to Maysville, Arkansas. He established Camp Jackson, which was located 2 miles from Maysville, Ark., and 7 miles from the northern boundary of the State. By this time, McCulloch knew about the Missouri State Guard defeat at Boonville and their rapid movement south. [13]

Missouri has been crushed, and all of her forces are falling back from the Federal troops in the State. I have authentic information that a force of nearly 3,000 Federal troops are now in Springfield, Mo., and that General Lyon, with 9,000 men, will soon be with them. From reliable information it is the intention to enter this State [Arkansas] and the Indian Territory ... I hope soon to have such a force at my disposal on the northern frontier to drive this force back; at all events to keep them from entering the State ... [I] am determined to march against this force to hold it in check, and, if an opportunity occurs, to strike them a blow in Missouri. I hope that I will be sustained in all the steps that I have deemed it necessary to take.

We are much in need of arms and ammunition. Is it not possible to send me a supply?

From the last accounts such of the State troops of Missouri as are still under the command of the governor and General [James S.] Rains are falling back from the Federal forces toward the southwestern corner of the State. I have sent reliable men to them, with advice to fall back and form a junction with me. [14]

So McCulloch decided to extend his already thin supply lines and move north to the Missouri border. This increased his ability to support Governor Jackson and the Missouri State Guard or to move into Kansas against Fort Scott. McCulloch took his brigade north.

Chapter 2 – Lyon in Boonville

Much confusion attends my train arrangements, and delay is unavoidable. Shall try to get off to-morrow, but am not certain.

Nathaniel Lyon

The first day of summer was just around the corner. A whirlwind of activity over the last six weeks, Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon was now stymied, stuck in Boonville, Missouri. A couple of days ago, Lyon’s command had overwhelmed a small force of poorly trained Missouri State Guardsmen under the command of Colonel John S. Marmaduke. After offering minor resistance, the State Guardsmen withdrew and retreated to southwestern Missouri. Lyon was eager to set out after the fleeing Governor and his State Guardsmen, but became bogged down with administrative items. [15]

Eugene Fitch Ware

Lyon was waiting for the arrival of reinforcements before heading south to Springfield, Missouri. The First Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment arrived in Boonville on June 21, having left Keokuk, Iowa a week earlier. Private Eugene Fitch Ware, Company E, First Iowa, described their first sight of Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon.

We readied the Missouri river opposite Boonville and a ferry-boat came and took us aboard ... There were two men alone at its edge watching our boat come across ... one had blue army pants, a linen coat and a black felt hat; it was Lyon. The other was dressed in citizen’s clothes with an army cap ... he watched us and turned up his face ever and anon to talk with Lyon, who was gazing at us through a field-glass. Some employee of the boat gave out the information, and the news circulated, The man with a hat is Lyon. I wanted to know who the other was, and I finally found out from the pilot: it was Frank P. Blair, a most brave and capable Union man. He soon became a general and one of our idols.[16]

Frank Blair

The very next day, Colonel Frank Blair left Boonville. Commander of the First Missouri Infantry Regiment, Blair also represented Missouri in the House of Representatives. He was headed to Washington, D.C. to attend an Extraordinary Session of the 37th United States Congress scheduled to begin on July 4. His second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel George L. Andrews, assumed command of the First Missouri Infantry in Blair’s absence. [17]

Lyon was going to concentrate his available forces at Springfield, Missouri. Lyon ordered US Army Major Samuel D. Sturgis at Fort Leavenworth to head for Springfield with a column of 2,200 men. Lyon explained his plans to the War Department in a report dated June 22. Lyon also expressed concerns about the State Guard forces linking up with the Confederates under Brigadier General Ben McCulloch.

It is my purpose to order the force under [Major Samuel D.] Sturgis and the volunteers with him from Kansas and Iowa to follow the retreating forces of the State from Lexington in the direction of Springfield, and to follow with all the speed I can, and as soon as I can procure transportation, another body of the State troops under General [Mosby M.] Parsons and Governor Jackson, who are retreating in the same direction through the town of Warsaw ... if these parties should be able to unite with McCulloch and the troops from Arkansas, it will swell his numbers to 10,000 or 12,000 men ... it will be necessary to have an additional force to repel the invading force from Arkansas, and I will therefore ask ... that you will order three regiments from Illinois to march out by the Southwestern Branch of the Pacific Railroad to Springfield. This route has already been secured and guarded, and the passage of troops can be rapid and safe, and when the force is concentrated at Springfield will, I trust, enable me to repel any force which may be brought from Arkansas. [18]

Decisive and impetuous, Lyon wanted to follow immediately after the retreating Missouri State Guard. But Lyon wrestled with the problems of logistics. He couldn’t just hop back aboard the steamboat and take off after the enemy. Taking his army into southwestern Missouri was going to require supplies and the wagons to carry them, lots of wagons. On June 26, Lyon sent a telegram to his Assistant Adjutant-General, Col. Chester Harding, Jr.

Much confusion attends my train arrangements, and delay is unavoidable. Shall try to get off to-morrow, but am not certain. [19]

On June 27, Lyon sent another telegram to Colonel Harding asking him to send food for his army to Hermann, Missouri. Lyon dispatched a steamboat downriver to pick up these provisions.

Provisions wanted. Send at once to Hermann, by first train, four hundred barrels of hard bread, nine bushels of beans, three thousand three hundred and fifty pounds of rice, two thousand pounds of sugar, and six hundred pounds of coffee. The rains are terrible. I cannot get off. Steamer goes down to Hermann to meet provisions. Answer.[20]

Nathaniel Lyon was finally ready to depart from Boonville on July 3. On the day before he left, Lyon sent a telegram with instructions for Colonel Harding in St. Louis.

I hope to move to-morrow, and think it more important just now to go to Springfield. My force in moving from here will be about 2,400 men. Major Sturgis will have about 2,200 men, and you know what force has gone to Springfield from Saint Louis, so that you see what amount of provisions we shall want supplied at that point. Please attend to us as effectually as possible. Our line should be kept open by all means. I must be governed by circumstances at Springfield ... We need here a regular quartermaster and commissary. Cannot something be done for us from Washington?

Departure of General Lyon from Boonville.

Private Ware of the First Iowa described his regiment in the days before they embarked for Springfield.

No two companies were uniformed alike. Each company had a different shape of clothes and in different colors; some had jackets and some, like our company, had long-tailed coats, but of different styles and colors. We had enlisted in April and it was now July; the uniforms were in bad condition, torn and ragged. In addition to this, many uniforms had been completely worn out and the boys had bought what they could get, or had got new things from home, or in their stead clothes from home already partially worn. It was a motley crew. General Lyon could not supply us ... We did not associate much with the other soldiers outside of our regiment. The latter had come from St. Louis, the source of supply, and were much better dressed than we were, and better armed and accoutered than we. Where we beat them was on drill and fiber. [21]

It took a couple of weeks, but finally Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon was on the move south. By the time he arrived in Springfield, Lyon knew he would have a force of around 7,000 to take care of the Missouri State Guard and prevent an incursion from Arkansas by the Confederates. Lyon was certain he could secure Missouri’s place in the Union.

Regional map of the Wilson’s Creek campaign.

(Link to larger image)

Chapter 3 – McCulloch Enters Missouri

Shoulders grew sore under the burden of supporting knapsacks; limbs wearied from the painful march, and feet grew swollen and blistered as the troops marched along the dusty road.

Will Tunnard

After the Missouri State Guard defeat at the Battle of Boonville, Major General Sterling Price decided to evacuate Lexington, Missouri. With his escort, Price went on ahead to secure an interview with Brigadier General Ben McCulloch. Both Governor Jackson and Price knew an alliance with McCulloch’s Confederates greatly increased their odds of success against Lyon’s Federals. So his destination was Fort Smith, and along the way Price was joined by additional volunteers to the Southern cause. Price reached a place called Cowskin Prairie in McDonald County, Missouri on July 1. Here he ordered his men into camp. The force amounted to around 1,200 but most of them had no arms. [22]

Sterling Price

After arriving at Cowskin Prairie, Price learned there was a brigade of Arkansas State Militia under the command of Brigadier General N. Bart Pearce encamped about 12 miles away near Maysville, Arkansas. Price hurried on to Maysville to discover McCulloch was on his way to Maysville. Price was able to obtain a loan of over six hundred muskets from Pearce, so Price returned to Cowskin Prairie with the arms. [23]

N. Bart Pearce

Although Secretary of War Walker had concurred initially with Ben McCulloch’s planned movement into Missouri, he was having second thoughts. Maybe Walker worried an invasion by Confederate troops would galvanize the people of Missouri against the Confederacy. But Walker left the decision to McCulloch’s best judgment. Walker set this tone in a July 4 message he sent to McCulloch.

The position of Missouri as a Southern State still in the Union requires, as you will readily perceive, much prudence and circumspection, and it should only be when necessity and propriety unite that active and direct assistance should be afforded by crossing the boundary and entering the State before communicating with this Department.

In the progress of events it might be possible that the most effective co-operation would be for you to penetrate Kansas, whether through the Indian nation or Missouri to be determined by the special facts that may arise or the circumstances which may exist, of which, from the remoteness of the position, it would be impossible for this Department to receive information in time to give you specific and definite instructions. [24]

By the time he received Walker’s message, McCulloch had already decided to move his command to Maysville, Arkansas. The Confederates started for Maysville on June 30 and found the trip a difficult one. McCulloch’s supply line grew longer as they marched further north. Sergeant Will Tunnard described how they were not used to marching long distances over rough ground. [25]

Knapsacks for the first time were strapped on shoulders all unused to the burden ... amid the wildest enthusiasm the men commenced the march. What a day of severe experience it was, all who participated therein will remember. Shoulders grew sore under the burden of supporting knapsacks; limbs wearied from the painful march, and feet grew swollen and blistered as the troops marched along the dusty road. Knapsacks were recklessly thrown by the roadside or relieved of a large portion of their contents, under the intolerable agony of that first march of only nine miles. Each morning the detachment was aroused at 1 a.m., and taking a hasty meal, consisting of crackers and a cup of coffee, resumed the march. The country was rocky, and the road hard and precipitous. [26]

Blistered Feet.

It was July 2 when McCulloch arrived in Maysville, ahead of his brigade. When he discovered that Sterling Price was just 12 miles away, McCulloch rode over to meet with him. During this meeting, McCulloch agreed to enter Missouri and support Price. When McCulloch returned to Camp Jackson near Maysville, he spoke with Bart Pearce, who agreed to accompany him into Missouri. McCulloch wrote a letter to Secretary of War Walker to let him know he had entered Missouri. [27]

I started from [Camp Jackson] on the 4th instant with [Colonel Thomas J.] Churchill’s regiment of mounted riflemen and 1,200 men of General Pearce’s brigade, under the command of the general. General Price, of Missouri, had reached a position in the [south]western corner of his State with 1,700 men. The general offered to march with me to the aid of the governor of his State, and joined my command as we passed his camp on the first day’s march. [28]

McCulloch learned that Missouri Governor Claiborne F. Jackson was on his way to Lamar, Missouri with a large force of Missouri State Guard. He also discovered that Federal forces from Fort Leavenworth and Boonville were chasing Jackson. In addition, a large Federal force was in the area of Springfield, threatening to cut off the retreat. Having decided to support Governor Jackson, McCulloch now knew he must move quickly. Leaving his infantry and artillery behind, McCulloch took his cavalry and headed north with Sterling Price. [29]

From authentic information I had learned that the governor of Missouri had formed a junction with General [James S.] Rains and was endeavoring to make his way to General Price’s camp, and also that every effort was being made by the Northern troops to cut him off. A force of 2,400 well-drilled troops were marching north towards Carthage against him; a force of 3,600 were marching south, rapidly gaining upon him. Rumors were also afloat that a force was marching from the northeast, under General Lyon, and still another was marching against him from Kansas. Under these circumstances I knew there was no time to be lost, and if the forces marching against the governor could concentrate upon him, his force of disorganized, undisciplined men would probably be cut to pieces, and Missouri fall entirely under the control of the North ... if the governor was to be rescued by my command, it was necessary to move with more celerity than the infantry and artillery could march. I therefore moved on with about 3,000 cavalry, leaving the infantry and artillery in camp 28 miles north of [Camp Jackson]. [30]

Price was successful in gaining an alliance with the Confederates. Now he was moving north to link up with Governor Jackson and the rest of his Missouri State Guard. Price knew they could defeat the Federals, drive them from the state, and regain the State capital, Jefferson City.

Chapter 4 – Federal Garrison Captured at Neosho

I allowed them ten minutes to decide. At the end of the time the captain in command made an unconditional surrender of the company, laying down their arms and side-arms.

James McIntosh

Colonel Franz Sigel arrived in Springfield, Missouri in command of about 1,200 Federal volunteers. The Federals had left St. Louis on June 15 traveled by train to Rolla, and then marched down the Wire Road to Springfield. Sigel received intelligence that Major General Sterling Price was encamped southwest of Springfield with about 1,000 men and Missouri Governor Jackson was heading towards Lamar with a large force of Missouri State Guard. Sigel decided to move towards Price, arriving in Sarcoxie on June 28. Sigel planned to attack and defeat Price before turning north to intercept Governor Jackson. But when Sigel reached Neosho, he received further reports that Price had moved further south and was no longer within striking distance. Sigel ordered Rifle Company B, Third Missouri Infantry under the command of Captain Joseph Conrad to garrison Neosho for the protection of the Union-loving people against bands of secessionists. [31]

James M. McIntosh

As McCulloch and Price approached within 12 miles of Neosho, they learned of the Federal garrison in town. McCulloch sent two cavalry detachments, one of about 600 under the command of Colonel Thomas J. Churchill and one of about 500 under the command of Captain James McIntosh, to ride ahead and capture the Federals. They planned to enter into Neosho from two different directions and surround the Federals. But the force

Reviews for Sterling Price Returns

[Ronnie Rife · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great account of the early campaigns to control Missouri during the Civil War.