Overview

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 brutalised 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 organisations 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.

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9780826220257

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Reviews

Meticulously examines the entire chain of events, skirmish by skirmish, from both military and historical perspectives. Extensive notes and an index round out this excellent contribution to public and college library Civil War shelves. --Midwest Book Review Lause presents detailed descriptions of the Confederates moving through small Missouri towns such as Pilot Knob, where they looted and brutalized the citizens--the people whom they were supposed to be protecting. --Kansas History Lause does an admirable job chronicling the movements and actions of multiple units during the raid. --Arkansas Review A well-written and cogent narrative of this fascinating fourteen-hundred-mile raid through Missouri and Kansas. His analysis should be required reading for any student of the Civil War's Trans-Mississippi Theater. --Missouri Historical Review 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 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 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 ""A well-written and cogent narrative of this fascinating fourteen-hundred-mile raid through Missouri and Kansas. His analysis should be required reading for any student of the Civil War's Trans-Mississippi Theater.""--Missouri Historical Review ""Lause does an admirable job chronicling the movements and actions of multiple units during the raid.""--Arkansas Review ""Lause presents detailed descriptions of the Confederates moving through small Missouri towns such as Pilot Knob, where they looted and brutalized the citizens--the people whom they were supposed to be protecting.""--Kansas History ""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 ""Meticulously examines the entire chain of events, skirmish by skirmish, from both military and historical perspectives. Extensive notes and an index round out this excellent contribution to public and college library Civil War shelves.""--Midwest Book Review ""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"

Author Information

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 Senior Professor of American History at the University of Cincinnati. His numerous publications include Price's Lost Campaign and The Collapse of Price’s Raid, both published by the University of Missouri Press. Lause resides in Cincinnati with Katherine Allen, his wife of thirty years.

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