250 The American Civil WarPrice, into the secessionist camp. After an
attempt to broker a peace failed, Lyon
assumed the offensive and began driving
Price and pro-Confederate forces from the
state. In his wake. Lyon stirred up all sorts of
guerrilla bands. William Quantrill and
'Bloody Bill' Anderson led the Rebel
bushwhackers. Among their followers were
acclaimed robbers Frank and Jesse James and
Cole and Jim Younger. From Kansas,
pro-Union guerrillas included the diminutive
'Big Jim' Lane and Charles Jennison.
By August 1861, Price had accumulated
8,000 Missourians, augmented by some
5,000 Confederate soldiers under Ben
McCulloch. Before he could attack, though,
Lyon struck first. Unwilling to retreat and
yield all the territory he had secured, Lyon
elected to surprise the enemy at a place
called Wilson's Creek. Initially, his attack on
both flanks made headway, but a
Confederate counterassault drove both back.
The Rebels then focused on the Union
center, where Lyon directed the fight.
Although the Union commander was killed.
his line repelled Price's attacks. When the
smoke cleared, the Confederates had called
off the fight, but the Union forces had lost
20 percent of their men and had been so
badly damaged that they retreated. Price,
whose command suffered slightly fewer
casualties, slowly marched northward,
collecting recruits and pressing all the way to
Lexington, between St Louis and Kansas City.
In St Louis, the recently appointed
commander of the Western Department,
Major-General John C. Fremont, overreacted.
The Republican Party candidate for president
in 1856, Fremont declared martial law,
proclaimed the death penalty for allSterling Price, a Mexican War veteran and an original
opponent of secession in Missouri, soured on the Union
after Frank Blair and others took aggressive action to
block the governor's pro-Confederate policies. He
commanded Missouri's secessionist militia in 1861, led a
Confederate division as a major-general at Pea Ridge in
1862, and directed the last raid into Missouri in 1864.
After suffering a defeat at Westport near Kansas City, he
began his retreat, enduring Union harassment along a
roundabout route back to Arkansas.
guerrillas, and freed all slaves of Confederate
supporters. Although the emancipation
directive caused outrage in the North.
Lincoln privately asked Fremont to modify
his order, to save the General from
embarrassment. With unparalleled temerity.
Fremont refused, and Lincoln had to order it.
Having irritated his commander-in-chief
and many others, Fremont needed a victory
to restore his reputation. He accumulated a
large force, some 38,000. and began a pursuit
of Price. The militia commander fell back, a
good portion of his army melting back into
the countryside to complete the fall harvest.
An order relieving Fremont reached him
before he caught up with Price.
Price's retreat into Arkansas did not quash
Confederate designs on Missouri. In March
1862, Major-General Earl Van Dorn gathered
16.000 men, including some Indian troops,
with Price and McCulloch as division
commanders. His plan was to brush aside
Union opposition and capture St Louis, a
prize that would earn him accolades
throughout the Confederacy. Union
commander Brigadier-General Samuel Curtis,
a tough old West Pointer, had other ideas.
Van Dorn attempted to swing around
Curtis's rear, but Yankee scouts including
'Wild' Bill Hickok spotted the movement.
When the Rebels attacked at Pea Ridge,
Arkansas, they made little headway. The next