1864
The final full year of combat in Missouri mirrored the previous two 12-month cycles. From January through August small skirmishes and guerilla activity unsettled the state. It appeared that Missouri would be spared any major conflicts, but in late summer Confederate Gen. Price was ordered to lead a raid on the state. Price's initial goal was St. Louis, but he delayed at Pilot Knob to attack a small contingent of Union soldiers led by Gen. Thomas Ewing, Jr. The federals barricaded themselves inside Fort Davidson, an earthwork fortification in the Arcadia Valley. Expecting a quick victory, Price's army was hurt badly in a series of headlong assaults on Sept. 27. Remarkably, the federals escaped by making a forced march to Leasburg and Rolla. The delay cost Price an opportunity to attack St. Louis, so he turned west to install a Confederate governor in Jefferson City.

The Confederate raiders discovered that the capitol was stoutly defended, and after their losses at Fort Davidson they decided an attack was unwise. The 10,000-man raid advanced into the most pro-Confederate portion of the state, the western Missouri River valley. Price divided his army and they fanned out across west central Missouri moving toward Kansas. This portion of the raid was marked by victories over small Federal detachments at Sedalia and Warrensburg. After some significant fighting, the Confederate raiders captured a federal supply depot and steamboat at Glasgow on Oct. 15.

The Federals mounted a vigorous pursuit from the east led by Gen. William Rosecrans. In Kansas, generals Curtis and Blunt rallied the militia in defense of the Sunflower State. Without realizing it Price was slowly being squeezed between two Union armies.

The Confederates finally collided with Blunt's Kansas militiamen at Lexington on Oct. 19, but Shelby's Iron Brigade forced Blunt to retreat. The two armies clashed again at the Little Blue River on Oct. 21 and in the main square of Independence the next day.

Each time Blunt was compelled to fall back. The Kansans tried to establish a defensive line along the Big Blue River at Byram's Ford on Oct. 22, but the result was the same. The Union retreated to the town of Westport. The Confederates moved south of Westport and awaited the federals next move. On the morning of Oct. 23, Blunt and Curtis' forces attacked. After severe fighting at close range the southern line gave way only to be saved by a series of stubborn rearguard actions by Gen. Shelby's men. Price decided to head for Indian Territory and save his large, ponderous wagon train.

While Gen. Shelby and Price were pushing westward, generals James Fagan and Marmaduke were struggling to fight a strong rearguard action against Rosecran's Federals advancing from the east. The southerners fought a significant delaying action on Oct. 23 at Byram's Ford on the Big Blue River where the previous day Price's portion of the army had forged across the river. They had no better luck than Shelby and Price at Westport, and were forced to join the Southern retreat.

A small pause by the federal pursuers allowed Price to gain a modest advantage in his retreat. Unwilling to follow the advice of his subordinates, Price refused to burn his wagons, and use the time gained to make good his escape. Instead, the slow moving Confederate rear guard was attacked at the small village of Trading Post, on Oct. 25, just across the Missouri border into Kansas.

Later that afternoon, the steep crossing of Mine Creek slowed the bulk of Price's army. Attacked by federal cavalry just north of the Mine Creek crossing, Price's army could not halt the charge, and his army disintegrated only to be saved by Shelby's Iron Brigade.

Once reorganized, Price burned the bulk of his wagons and struggled through Missouri. Shelby's troopers stopped the federal pursuit with a running fight at Newtonia on Oct. 28. The Confederates limped back into Arkansas and Texas, defeated and demoralized.