Military Career
At the outbreak of the war, McCullough joined the Confederate forces under General Thomas Green. He took part in the Battle of Lexington, before being sent by General Sterling Price to recruit in northeastern Missouri with Joseph C. Porter in the spring of 1862.
During the guerrilla campaign in Northeast Missouri in the summer of 1862, McCullough sought unsuccessfully to persuade Colonel Porter to restrict himself to recruiting and not engage the Union forces. According to one of his men, Joseph Mudd (see references), this was because McCullough feared the retaliation Federal forces would inflict upon civilian Southern sympathizers. The observation may accurately reflect McCullough’s character, which is universally praised, but it is colored by the author’s Confederate perspective. Prior to the engagement at Kirksville, McCullough again urged Porter to decline battle and send his raw recruits to Arkansas for training and equipping behind Confederate lines. Porter refused and McCullough proposed that Porter at least wait in the cornfields outside of town, instead of fighting in the village itself. Again, his advice was ignored.
Read more about this topic: Frisby Mc Cullough
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