General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West by Albert E. Castel

Despite enjoying vast numerical superiority, Price's badly organized attack suffered monstrous casualties-nearly a tenth of his overall strength-and failed to take the fort. Louis he may have taken it with little struggle, but he decided to assault a 1,200-man garrison at Fort Davidson in Pilot Knob, Missouri on Sept. Price experienced initial successes against the surprised Yankees, but the Union commander of the Department of Missouri, William S.

Thousands lacked weapons, tents, shoes, or other essentials. While stronger numerically than the scattered Union garrisons in the state, nearly a quarter of his force were deserters who had been apprehended and reconscripted. Presidential elections and open the way for an armistice and Southern independence.Ĭonfederate General Sterling Price was sent with 12,000 troops into Missouri on September 19, 1864. This coup would hopefully contribute to the defeat of Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming U.S. Louis and Jefferson City with the goal of installing a Confederate governor. Noticing that the border state of Missouri, which harbored many Confederate sympathizers but had never officially seceded, was lightly defended at the time, Confederate General Kirby Smith conceived a plan for a fast but powerful raid into Missouri, seizing St. Lee's Confederate army was under siege in Petersburg, Virginia. Sherman was devastating the southern heartland on his 'March to the Sea,' and Robert E. By the end of the summer in 1864, the tide of the American Civil War had turned against the southern Confederacy.

General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West by Albert E. Castel