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Sterling Price, 1809-1867
Born Prince Edward County, Virginia
A Virginian by birth, Sterling Price is remembered foremost for his service to the Confederacy in the West and his defense of his adopted state of Missouri. Price was a veteran of the Mexican American War and his popularity easily won him the Missouri governorship, serving from 1853 to 1857. In 1861, Price, initially opposed to secession, sided quickly with the Confederacy after Union forces seized the state militia's Camp Jackson at St. Louis. Price served throughout the war, reaching the rank of major general, and saw action in Missouri, Mississippi, and Arkansas, including the battles of Wilson's Creek, Iuka, and Pea Ridge, respectively. But a series of reverses in the western theater minimized his effectiveness and ultimately forced him and his depleted army into Texas. At war's end, rather than surrender his broken army, he led what was left of it into Mexico.
Unidentified artist, c 1862 |