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Missouri, and one which weakened the Confederacy during all of its briefexistence. It was indeed the consummation of Blair’s statesmanlike scheme tomake it impossible for Missouri to secede, or out of her great resources tocontribute liberally of men and material to the South, as she would have donecould her people have had their own way. It was also the most brilliantachievement of Lyon’s well-conceived campaign. The capture of CampJackson had disarmed the State, and completed the conquest of St.Louis and all the adjacent counties. The advance upon Jefferson City hadput the State government to flight and taken away from the Governor theprestige which sustains established and acknowledged authority. The dis-persion of the volunteers that were flocking to Boonville to fight under Price for Missouri and the South extended Lyon’s conquest at once to the bordersof Iowa, closed all the avenues by which the Southern men of North Missouri could get to Price and Jackson, made the Missouri River a Federal highwayfrom its source to its mouth, and put an end to Price ’s hope of holding therich and friendly counties in the vicinity of Lexington till the Confederacycould send an army to his support, and arms and supplies for the men whomhe was concentrating there.
Price had, indeed, no alternative now but to retreat in all haste to thesouth-western part of the State, so as to organize his army within supportingdistance of the force which McCulloch was assembling in western Arkansas for the protection of that State and the Indian Territory. He accordinglyordered Brigadier-General James S. Rains to take command of the militia atand near Lexington, and to move southward so as to effect a junction withthe Governor in the vicinity of Lamar, toward which place the latter wasretreating with Generals M. M. Parsons and John B. Clark and what wasleft of their commands. General Price himself, accompanied by his staff anda small escort, hastened rapidly toward Arkansas in order to bring McCullochto the rescue of both the Governor and Rains . On the way he was joined,almost daily, by squads or companies, and by the time he reached CowskinPrairie, in the extreme south-western corner of the State, he had collectedabout 1200 men.
On the 3d of July Rains reached Lamar, near which place the Governorand his followers were already encamped. The combined force amounted toabout 6000 men, of whom 4000 were armed, and they had seven pieces ofartillery. Halting until the 5th in order to rest and organize, they pushed onthat morning toward Carthage , having heard that a Federal force had occu-pied that place, which lay in their line of retreat. They had marched but afew miles when, as they were passing through the open prairie, they descried,some three miles away, on the declivity of a hill over which they had them-selves to pass, a long line of soldiers with glistening bayonets and brightguns. These were part of the force which Lyon, on marching against Jeffer-son City , had sent under General Sweeny and Colonel Sigel to the south-westto intercept the Governor’s retreat toward Arkansas . Sigel, in executingthis plan, had first attempted to intercept Price . Failing in that, he hadnow, with more boldness than discretion, thrown himself, with about 1100