Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[156] in any contest which might be forced upon them, unaided by any military force whatever. He referred to a report of the intention of the Federal authorities to disarm those of the citizens of Missouri who did not agree in opinion with the Administration at Washington, and put arms in the hands of those who in some localities of the State were supposed to sympathize with the views of the Federal Government; and he added: “The purpose of such a movement could not be misunderstood, and it would not only be a palpable violation of the agreement referred to, and an equally plain violation of our constitutional rights, but a gross indignity to the citizens of this State, which would be resisted to the last extremity.” In the conclusion of his address he wrote: “The people of Missouri cannot be forced, under the terrours of a military invasion, into a position not of their own free choice. A million of such people as the citizens of Missouri were never yet subjugated, and if attempted, let no apprehension be entertained of the result.”

On the 13th of June, 1861, Gov. Jackson issued his proclamation calling for fifty thousand volunteers. Price appointed nine brigadier-generals. These preparations were large on paper; but the brigadiers had no actual force at their command; and even, if men were not lacking, arms and ammunition were; and as for military training and discipline, there had been for years no military organization, and not even a militia muster in Missouri. It was thus poorly prepared for the contest that the State of Missouri, separated from her confederates and alone, showed a heroism almost unexampled in history in spurning the plea of “helplessness,” and confronting the entire power of the North, at a time indeed when Northern newspapers were declaring that she was but as a mouse under the lion's paw.

The first development of the campaign on the part of Gen. Price was to issue orders to the several brigadiers just appointed, to organize their forces as rapidly as possible, and push them forward to Booneville and Lexington. His ulterior design was, having collected at Lexington volunteers from the whole region accessible to it, to march down to the extreme southwest part of the State where subsistence was abundant; where opportunity might be had to organize his army; and where he expected to be joined by Confederate forces from Arkansas under the command of Brig.-Gen. McCulloch.

No serious thought was entertained of giving battle at Booneville. About eighteen hundred Missourians were assembled in camp near there; and not more than one-third of them were armed. They had not a piece of artillery; and their small arms were generally of a very imperfect kind, including single-barrelled shot-guns and rifles. On the 20th of June, Gen. Lyon, with a well-appointed Federal force about three thousand strong, debarked near Booneville. The six hundred armed Missourians,