ABOUT THIS BOOK

As the Civil War was drawing to a close, former Missouri governor Sterling Price led his army on one last desperate campaign to retake his home state for the Confederacy, part of a broader effort to tilt the upcoming 1864 Union elections against Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans. In The Collapse of Price’s Raid: The Beginning of the End in Civil War Missouri, Mark A. Lause examines the complex political and social context of what became known as “Price’s Raid,” the final significant Southern operation west of the Mississippi River.

The success of the Confederates would be measured by how long they could avoid returning south to spend a hungry winter among the picked-over fields of southwestern Arkansas and northeastern Texas. As Price moved from Pilot Knob to Boonville, the Raid brutalized and alienated the people it supposedly wished to liberate. With Union cavalry pushing out of Jefferson City, the Confederates took Boonville, Glasgow, and Sedalia in their stride, and fostered a wave of attacks across northern Missouri by guerrillas and organizations of new recruits. With the Missouri River to their north and the ravaged farmlands to their south, Price’s men continued west.

At Lexington, Confederates began encountering a second Federal army newly raised in Kansas under General Samuel R. Curtis. A running battle from the Little Blue through Independence to the Big Blue marked the first of three days of battle in the area of Kansas City, as the two Federal armies squeezed the Confederate forces between them. Despite a self-congratulatory victory, Union forces failed to capture the very vulnerable army of Price, which escaped down the Kansas line.

The follow-up to Price’s Lost Campaign: The 1864 Invasion of Missouri, Lause’s The Collapse of Price’s Raid is a must-have for any reader interested in the Civil War or in Missouri state history.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Mark A. Lause came naturally to an interest in Price’s raid. He was raised in a blue-collar Missouri community in the path of the 1864 campaign. He later found that the movements of the 1960s posed important questions about the role of the people in changing the institutions and practices of their society. Attempting to understand these issues drew him into the serious professional study of history, where most of his work has focused on pioneering new approaches to understanding the Civil War as “the Second American Revolution.” Today, he is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. His numerous publications include this book’s companion, Price's Lost Campaign: The 1864 Invasion of Missouri. Lause resides in Galesburg, Illinois with Katherine Allen, his wife of forty years.

REVIEWS

“This book is the second half of a well-researched and very detailed reexamination of Price’s invasion. Both general readers and scholars interested in Civil War military operations in the West should find this study useful.”—The Journal of Southern History

“A solid recounting of the 1864 Missouri Campaign. Taken with the companion work, this book is a good examination of Price’s attempt to reclaim his home state for the Confederacy.”—Civil War News

“Lause tells the story well, with some good battle pieces, insightful profiles of several officers, and some good political and military analysis.”—The NYMAS Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Prologue: The Making of a Raid: The Spectre of Quindaro

One: The Raid and the Pursuit

1. Of Liberation and Occupation: Boonville, October 8–13

2. The Railroad: Sedalia to Warrensburg, October 14–18

3. The River: Glasgow and Beyond the Missouri, October 14–17

Two: The Third Army

4. Arrival of the Army of the Border: To Lexington and Beyond, October 17–20

5. From the Little Blue to the Big Blue: The Fight for Independence, October 21

6. The Big Blue and the Reprise: From Independence to the Kansas Line, October 22

Three: October 23

7. Brush Creek: From the Mists

8. Byram’s Ford through Bloody Hill: The Late Morning

9. Across the Prairie to Indian Creek: The Afternoon into the Night

Four. Union Victories

10. Flight and Pursuit: Indian Creek to the Mounds, October 24–25

11. Judgment Day: The Mounds, Trading Post, Mine Creek, Charlot, and the Marmiton, October 25

12. Into the Ozarks: To Newtonia and Beyond, October 26–31

Epilogue: Sins of the Fathers: November’s Decision

Notes

Index

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