Price's Raid - Background

Background

After three years of bloody and inconclusive fighting, Confederate authorities were becoming desperate as the U.S. presidential election approached in the fall of 1864. Although the fortunes of war had largely favored the South prior to 1863, events were now starting to favor the Union. Ulysses S. Grant had Robert E. Lee pinned down in the Siege of Petersburg; Jubal A. Early had been driven back from the outskirts of Washington, D.C., while Philip Sheridan was now pursuing him in the Shenandoah Valley; and William T. Sherman had captured Atlanta. With foreign recognition for the Confederacy not forthcoming, Southerners realized that President Abraham Lincoln's reelection would be disastrous for their cause.

Earlier that summer, the Confederacy ordered Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, commander in the Trans-Mississippi theater, to send a corps under Richard Taylor across the Mississippi River to assist in the defense of Atlanta and Mobile. Such a crossing, by ferries or pontoon bridge, was deemed impossible because of Union gunboat patrols on the river, and Taylor was assigned to other duties.

Inspired by preparations to divert Union attention from Taylor's crossing, Smith came up with another plan. He would re-capture Missouri for the Confederacy, hoping it would help turn Northern opinion against Lincoln. He ordered Sterling Price to invade Missouri, advancing on St. Louis. Price was to capture St. Louis and its warehouses with military supplies. If the city was too heavily defended, he should go west and capture Jefferson City, the capital. This would strike a psychological blow and provide justification for the inclusion in Confederate flag of a star for Missouri. Price would then cross into Kansas and turn south through the Indian Territory, "sweeping that country of its mules, horses, cattle, and military supplies".