Missouri State Guard - History

History

Recruits for the Missouri State Guard began to quickly assemble in Jefferson City in mid-May. However, after an agreement, the Price–Harney Truce on May 20 between Price and the Federal department commander William S. Harney, the movement of Guardsmen to the state capitol was halted. The State Guard continued to mobilized in their home districts. On May 30, Harney was relieved and Nathaniel Lyon took command of the department. On June 11, a meeting to resolve some disagreements resulted in the collapse of the truce. Price and Jackson fled St. Louis for Jefferson City. The next day Governor Jackson called for 50,000 volunteers to defend Missouri from the Union army; thousands of additional men answered the proclamation and enlisted in their respective districts/divisions.

The embryonic Missouri State Guard suffered a serious initial setback in a skirmish at Boonville on June 17 and began a retreat toward extreme southwestern Missouri. Two days later the Guard's path was cleared when a local MSG infantry and cavalry battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Walter S. O'Kane decisively defeated and captured the Benton County Home Guard at Cole Camp. Another victory on July 7 at the Battle of Carthage bought time for Price to begin training and organizing his raw recruits, many who had reported for military duty carrying only farm implements or antiquated hunting weapons. MSG organization and training was conducted at Cowskin Prairie, a former livestock auction site in southwest Missouri. A key figure in efforts to impose order on the embryonic organization was Adjutant General Lewis Henry Little, a native of Maryland and career Army officer.

Price, along with Confederate regulars and members of the Arkansas State Troops, defeated a smaller Union force under Nathaniel Lyon at Wilson's Creek on August 10, killing Lyon and driving back his army. Price, with 10,000 men, defeated a 600 man battalion of Kansas volunteer cavalry lead by Senator James Lane at Big Dry Wood Creek on September 1–2, and then captured 3,600 Federal troops in the First Battle of Lexington (Battle of the Hemp Bales) in mid-month. As Frémont's Union army finally advanced toward Springfield, the Guard withdrew. A bold dash by Major Charles Zagonyi's mounted vanguard routed local MSG troops waiting in ambush on October 25, 1861, at the First Battle of Springfield. Fremont's offensive was subsequently recalled before engaging the main southern force when Fremont was relieved from command by order of President Lincoln.

Shortly afterwards, a session of exiled elements of the Missouri legislature convened in the southwest Missouri town of Neosho and claimed to have passed an Ordinance of Secession on October 30, with the Governor-in-Exile Jackson signing on October 31, 1861. While the vote was not endorsed by a state-wide plebiscite, the Confederate Congress officially admitted Missouri at the 12th Confederate State on November 28, 1861.

While in winter camp, Price began enrolling many of his men into the regular Confederate service. Two brigades of the MSG participated in the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern), where Brig. Gen. William Y. Slack, the former commander of the 4th Division, was mortally wounded.

On March 17, 1862, Price merged the Missouri State Guard into the Confederate Army of the West. Later, former Missouri State Guard troops would make up the core of Price's Army of Missouri, which participated in Price's Raid in 1864 in an attempt to capture the state. A small number of Guard units remained independent until the end of the war in 1865, seeing action in several engagements in the Trans-Mississippi Theater under generals Mosby M. Parsons and James S. Rains.