led in my intentions."

He proposed to return to his old Pocahontas plan, "relieve Gen.
Beauregard by marching my army upon the Federals at New Madrid or Cape
Girardeau, and thence on to St. Louis." He would turn his cavalry loose
on Gen. Curtis's long line of communications, and send Gen. Pike with
his Indians to harry southwestern Missouri and Kansas.

The Confederate War Department did not think highly of this, but shortly
transferred him and his troops east of the Mississippi.

Gen. Price was also transferred east of the Mississippi, with the
Missouri troops he had taken into the Confederate army, and his farewell
to the Missouri State troops is worth reproducing as a specimen of the
heated rhetoric customary in those days:

Headquarters Missouri State Guard,

Des Arc, Ark., April 8, 1862. (General Orders No. 79.)

Soldiers of the State Guard: I command you no longer. I have
this day resigned the commission which your patient
endurance, your devoted patriotism and your dauntless
bravery have made so honorable. I have done this that I may
the better serve you, our State and our country--that I may
the sooner lead you back to the fertile prairies, the rich
woodlands and majestic streams of our beloved Missouri--that
I may the more certainly restore you to your once happy
homes and to the loved ones there.

Five thousand of those who have fought side by side with us
under the Grizzly Bears of Missouri have followed me into
the Confederate camp. They appeal to you, as I do, by all
the tender memories of the past, not to leave us now, but to
go with us wherever the path of duty may lead, till we shall
have conquered a peace and won our independence by brilliant
deeds upon new fields of battle.

340

Soldiers of the State Guards! Veterans of six pitched
battles and nearly 20 skirmishes! Conquerors in them all!
Tour country, with Its "ruined hearths and shrines," calls
upon you to rally once more In her defense, and rescue her
forever from the terrible thraldom which threatens her. I
know that she will not call In vain. The Insolent and
barbarous hordes which have dared to Invade our soil and to
desecrate our homes have Just met with a signal overthrow
beyond the Mississippi Now Is the time to end this unhappy
war. If every man will but do his duty, his own roof will