camp were melting away faster than hew ones were coming in.

Sterling Price had other troubles. He was not a favorite in Richmond.
Jefferson Davis was a man never doubtful as to the correctness of his
own ideas, and he was most certain of those relating to military men
and affairs. He had had extraordinary opportunities for familiarizing
himself with all the fighting men, and possible fighting men, in the
country. He graduated from West Point in 1828, 23d in a class of 33;
none of whom, besides himself, became prominent. He had served seven
years as a Lieutenant in the Regular Army on frontier duty, and as
Colonel of a regiment in the Mexican War, where he achieved flattering
distinction. He had been four years Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Military Affairs, and four years Secretary of War. It must be admitted
that his judgment with regard to officers was very often correct; yet
he was a man of strong likes and dislikes. His reputation was that of
"having the most quarrels and the fewest fights of any man in the Army."

290

Undoubtedly his partialities drew several men into the Confederate army
who would otherwise have remained loyal, and his antipathies retained
some men in the Union army who would otherwise have gone South. His
reasons for disliking Price are obscure, further than that Price was a
civilian, who had had no Regular Army training or experience, and that
he believed Price to be in conspiracy to set up a Trans-Mississippi
Confederacy. But little evidence of such intention is to be found
anywhere, yet that little was sufficient for a man of Davis's jealous,
suspicious nature. Repeatedly, at the mere mention of Price's name, he
flew into an undignified passion and denounced him unsparingly.

Price's men were carrying havoc as far as they could reach. Nov. 19 they
burned the important little town of Warsaw, the County seat of Benton
County and a Union stronghold. In 1860 the people of Benton County had
cast but 74 votes for Lincoln and but 100 for Breckinridge, while they
gave Bell and Everett 306 votes and Douglas 574. Dec 16 Platte City,
County seat of Piatt County, was nearly destroyed by them. This was
another Union community, and a large majority of the people were
Bell-and-Everett Unionists or Douglas Democrats. Dec. 20 a concerted
foray of guerrillas and bushwhackers burnt the bridges and otherwise
crippled nearly 100 miles of Northern Railroad. But Halleck's splendid
systematizing had be