Hollywood stole Gen. Sterling Price’s line: ‘I’ll be back!’
Thanks to the Missouri State Guard defeating the Union at the Battle of the Hemp Bales, Lexington, Missouri, was almost back to normal.
The Guard’s commander, Gen. Sterling Price, had paroled all captured Yankee soldiers, returned most of the confiscated money to the banks and renewed faith in the State to be able to protect its citizens against a perceived foe.
Price’s campaign had been so successful, he could have rolled on to other Union-held targets, but decided to return to Arkansas through Missouri, collecting recruits and supplies in order to return, in an effort to take back his state.
As Price headed south from his honorable well deserved triumph, he came face to face with the deplorable side of war.
Driving towards Lexington three weeks earlier, the Guard camped outside Osceola, Missouri, a thriving, trading “southern” town on the Osage River.
While the militia was engaged at Lexington, Jim Lane and his merciless Jayhawks slipped behind Price's army and annihilated Osceola. The mob, with drunken exuberance, executed a few civilians by firing squad, then fire bombed the entire town, leaving only three buildings standing.
Price must have been outraged. Did he consider turning his army West and chasing Lane into Kansas, no doubt, but the General was a calculating man. He thought it better to return later with a much greater force.
Area farmers were incensed, too. Price created a recruiting camp at the confluence of the Sac and Osage Rivers, two miles outside Osceola, and hundreds signed on in anger.
By late 1861, the war was changing quickly for Price and the Confederacy. On Nov. 25, the Missouri State Guard was inducted into the Confederate Army with Price being made commanding General. This should mean better supplies with coordinated military movements, but the orders now came from Richmond, Virginia.
Price was ordered to support and engage in several battles: Pea Ridge, Luka, Corinth and Helena while always advocating for a major campaign back to Missouri.
It wasn’t until September of 1864, three years after Lexington, did Price receive permission to unleash his revenge on the Missouri occupiers. Elsewhere, the Confederacy was in desperate shape: Lee, under siege in Petersburg, Virginia; Sherman driving through Georgia; Hood isolated in Tennessee.
All Southern ports were now blocked and foreign intervention was a lost dream.
Everyone had felt the effects of this terrible war. Unless the South could win a few battles proving the war would continue, Lincoln would be reelected in '64, and the politicians who advocated for a negotiated peace would fall silent.
Innovation had changed the balance of power in the war. Not only did the North have a distinct advantage in population and manufacturing capacity, but also in creativity and how combatants now fought.
During the Civil War, more patents were issued than in any other 4 year period. Plato, “necessity is the mother of invention,” assuredly applies. Think of just the advancement in weaponry, they went from using a smooth-barreled musket to the Gatling gun, wooden ships to submarines and solid cannon balls to hand grenades. Even President Lincoln got involved, becoming the only head-of-state to write and hold a patent for a device to lift boats.
Getting these innovations onto the battlefield was a different fight. As for the Gatling gun that President Lincoln liked, it drew controversy. Many Generals felt the gun would be "uncontrollable" in battle. Like many of us, they were reluctant to any change, even though, if properly deployed, it could have been “a game changer.”
Price was ready to march from Arkansas north on September 19th of '64. He didn’t have what he had hoped for in returning to his home state, maybe 12-15 thousand soldiers, far less than the 50K. Now late in the war, some called this campaign a last-ditch effort. Men were ill-supplied and motivated. Hundreds marched without shoes or proper weapons, yet into Missouri they went.
Price’s initial target was St. Louis, the Union stronghold, no doubt recalling the Camp Jackson riots of 61’. He knew if St. Louis fell, sentiment about re-electing Lincoln might change, along with northern strategy in the rest of the Trans-Mississippi. Seemed like an act of desperation to me, but “Hale Marie’s” has worked.
As the Army crossed into Missouri, skirmishes badgered them intermittently.
Their first major obstacle was Pilot Knob, which held a contingent of Union troops in Fort Donaldson, a small installation surrounded by substantial hills. Reminded me of Harpers Ferry, WVA, where 12,000 Union troops were taken prisoner, perfect for artillery supremacy.
After forcing all Union Troops back into Fort Donaldson, there were now 1,400 within the earthen works commanded by our old friend General Thomas Ewing. You remember Ewing, people in Jackson, Bates, Vernon and Cass Counties in Missouri sure do, he’s the General that issued infamous Order # 11.
Forcing all citizens living in those counties out,… “evacuate now.” Then burned their homestead to the ground in response to Quantrill’s murderous raid on Lawrence, Kansas.
Price should have gone around Pilot Knob; he battled there for two days only to let Ewing and his troops slip away in the night.
The Confederates wasted men and ammunition they could not afford. That mistake came to change their overall strategy for the expedition.
Days later, at Union, Missouri, I have stood at the mill site where Price met with his Generals and decided to turn West, giving up on St. Louis because of the time and ammunition squandered on Thomas Ewing’s fortification.
It’s here that Price and his most ambitious campaign started to fall apart. The General was too proud a man to turn back, but he should have. It would lead to the largest battle fought West of the Mississippi, which would not go well for our state’s homegrown General.
————————————-
Bob Ford’s History will appear in each edition of the Weekender, Midweek and Corner Post. You can find more of Bob’s work on his website bobfordshistory.com and videos on YouTube, TikTok and Clapper.
