Santa Cruz de la Rosales on March 16, 1848.
For this act Price received a brevet promotion
to brigadier general. However, because his
conquest was accomplished after the peace
treaty with the United States had been signed,
Secretary of War William L. Marcy repri-
manded him and ordered his army back to
New Mexico. This embarrassing interlude
notwithstanding, Price remained popular with
his troops and returned home a hero.
In 1853, Price parleyed his wartime celebrity
into political success when he was twice
elected Missouri’s governor (1853–1857). By
1860, the storm clouds of secession were gath-
ering, and he then served as president of a state
convention summoned to deal with this divi-
sive issue. Like many fellow Missourians, Price
was sympathetic toward the South and slavery
but opposed secessionism. The convention
agreed, voting 89-1 to remain in the Union.
However, a crisis erupted when Gen. Nathaniel
Lyon, the hot-tempered Union commander at
St. Louis, forcibly captured and disarmed
Southern sympathizers at Camp Jackson on
May 10, 1861. This move outraged moderates
like Price, who threw their lot in with the Con-
federacy. Two days later the prosecessionist
Governor Claiborne F. Jackson appointed Price
a major general commanding the militia, or
state guard. Both men entered into negotiations
with Gen. William S. Harney, ostensibly to
arrange to keep Missouri neutral during the un-
folding strife. Harney was subsequently re-
moved from command for this unauthorized
action. His replacement, the impetuous Lyon,
threatened to disarm the state guard by force if
they did not swear loyalty to the Union.
In a last-minute attempt to avoid blood-
shed, Price and other Confederate leaders
met with Lyon at the Planter’s House Hotel in
St. Louis, but the Union commander angrily
stormed out, threatening war. Price, outnum-
bered and badly equipped, fled to the south-
western corner of Missouri with his men to
better train and organize them. He also so-
licited miltary assistance from Confederate
Gen. Ben McCulloch in Arkansas. On August
10, 1861, their combined forced decisively de-
feated Lyon at Wilson’s Creek, killing him.
However, Price quarreled with McCulloch
over how to proceed, and their forces parted.
Unassisted, Price continued on to Lexington
on September 20, 1861, where he captured a
Union garrison of 3,000 men and much equip-
ment. The Union responded to his success by
dispatching Gen. John C. Frémont and 30,000
men. Price, somewhat taken aback that his re-
cent successes did not spark a general Con-
federate uprising, had little recourse but to re-
treat again. Heavily outnumbered, he finally
evacuated the state and set up camp in north-
ern Arkansas. “Old Pap,” however, remained
determined to try again.
In the spring of 1862, Price reunited with
McCulloch and a new leader, Gen. Earl Van
Dorn, for another attempt at conquering Mis-
souri. On March 6–7, the three men fought a
desperate battle with Gen. Samuel R. Curtis at
Pea Ridge, where Price was wounded, McCul-
loch killed, and the rebels scattered. There-
after, Missouri was more or less firmly in the
hands of Unionists. The following April Price
accepted a major general’s commission in the
Confederate regular army, crossed the Missis-
sippi River, and reinforced the army of Pierre
G.T. Beauregard at Corinth, Mississippi. After
some inconclusive maneuvering, Price man-
aged to bring to bay a Union army under Gen.
William S. Rosecrans at Iuka (September 19,
1862) and Corinth (October 3–4, 1862), where
he was worsted on both occasions. Disgusted
with Van Dorn and eager to return home,
Price obtained a leave to visit Richmond to
confer with Confederate President Jefferson
Davis. Davis did not like the blustering Mis-
sourian and questioned his loyalty to the
South. Nonetheless, after much cajoling Davis
assented to allow him to return to the Trans-
Mississippi Department—minus his troops—
and continue his efforts in Missouri. Davis,
upon reflection, also pronounced him “the
vainest man I ever met.”
Price carefully marshaled his forces, and
by the summer of 1862 he was ready to attack
Union positions at Helena, Arkansas. In con-
cert with Gen. Theophilus Holmes, command-PRICE, STERLING