ing the Department of Arkansas, the Confed-
erates were badly repulsed on July 4, 1863.
Holmes then retired and Price advanced to
take his place. March 1864 found him steadily
giving ground before a large Union army
under Gen. Frederick Steele, advancing
southward to link up with forces under
Nathaniel P. Banks in Louisiana. Fortunately,
Price received reinforcements from Gen. Ed-
mund Kirby-Smith, the theater commander,
and he brought Steele’s advance to a crawl.
Banks was also defeated along the Red River
and withdrew. The Confederates under Smith
and Price then shadowed the Union with-
drawal to Jenkins’s Ferry on the Saline River,
attacked, and were repulsed again. However,
the defeat of these two Union columns left
Missouri wide open for another invasion, and
Price prevailed upon his superior for another
try. Smith consented, hoping that such a move
might also draw forces from Gen. William
Tecumseh Sherman, then operating with suc-
cess in Georgia.
By September 1864, Price had assembled
an imposing force of 12,000 men and counted
among his subordinates Gen. Jo Shelby, the
talented guerrilla. He intended to march
swiftly upon St. Louis, the capture of which—
Price felt assured—would have Confederate
sympathizers flocking to the colors. However,
his forces were for the most part indifferently
trained conscripts, a third of whom were not
even armed. Neither was Price’s leadership
capable of subduing an equally obdurate
enemy. On September 27, 1864, he launched
his men in a series of fruitless headlong at-
tacks against a Union fort at Pilot Knob, suf-
fering heavy losses. Continuing onward, it be-
came clear that St. Louis was beyond his
capacity to take, and he marched lengthwise
across the state with vengeful Union forces in
pursuit. Price was finally brought to bay at
Westport, where on October 23, 1864, his
army was effectively shattered. Fortunately
for Price, the Union pursuit was ineffective,
and his surviving soldiers recrossed the
Arkansas River that November, skillfully cov-
ered by Shelby’s cavalry. His dream for recon-
quering Missouri was finally abandoned, and
it constituted the last Confederate operation
in the Trans-Mississippi theater.
Price remained with the Trans-Mississippi
Department for the remainder of the war and,
following the collapse of the Confederacy in
April 1865, fled with Shelby and others to Mex-
ico. There he assisted in establishing a colony
for Confederate refugees at the behest of Em-
peror Maximilian. Illness and bad luck forced
him and his family to return impoverished to
Missouri in 1867. Price died there of cholera
on September 29, 1867, a major player in the
Civil War’s western theaters. His abject failure
was certainly caused by military shortcom-
ings, but it also underscored the Confeder-
acy’s limited appeal in the slave-owning bor-
der states that were so essential to its survival.See also
Davis, JeffersonBibliography
Adams, George R. General William S. Harney: Prince
of Dragoons.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
2001; Brookshear, William R. Bloody Hill: The Civil
War Battle of Wilson’s Creek.Washington, DC:
Brassey’s, 1995; Buresh, Lumir F. October 25th and
the Battle of Mine Creek.Kansas City, MO: Lowell
Press, 1977; Cozzens, Peter. The Darkest Days of the
War: Iuka and Corinth.Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1997; Kitchens, Ben E.Rosen-
crans Meets Price: The Battle of Iuka, Mississippi.
Florence, AL: Thornwood, 1987; Monnett, Howard W.
Action Before Westport, 1864. Niwot: University
Press of Colorado, 1995; Piston, William G., and
Richard W. Hatcher. Wilson’s Creek: The Second Bat-
tle of the Civil Warand the Men Who Fought It.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2000; Rolle,
Andrew F. The Lost Cause: The Confederate Exodus
to Mexico.Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1965; Shalhope, Robert E.Sterling Price: Portrait of
a Southerner.Columbia: University of Missouri Press,
1971; Thompson, Joseph C. “The Great-Little Battle of
Pilot Knob.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Kent State
University, 1986; Wakefield, John F., ed. Battle of
Corinth.Florence, AL: Honors Press, 2000.PRICE, STERLING