SAUK RIVER CAMP

Here at the confluence of the Sauk (Sac) and Osage rivers, from October through December, 1861, Major General Sterling Price of the Missouri State Guard maintained a recruitment camp. Of the 12,000 men gathered here, 8,000 went with Price into the Confederate States Army, 2,000 remained with the MSG under Brigadier General M. M. Parsons, and 2,000 went home to protect their families, many to fight in bitter guerrilla warfare.

In March, 1862, Price’s two brigades fought at Pea Ridge, Ark. The next month they crossed the river to Mississippi. After fighting at Iuka, Corinth, Port Gibson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River, they were captured at Vicksburg, in July, 1863. They were exchanged in September and consolidated into a single brigade, receiving in May, 1864, the thanks of the Confederate Congress for their "fidelity to the cause of Southern independence." They afterwards fought in the Atlanta campaign and at Franklin, Tenn., where they participated in the largest, bloodiest charge of the war. They ended the war at Fort Blakely, Ala., in May, 1865, with only some 300 survivors under arms.

These Missourians fought more than a dozen battles in seven states, spending 37 of their 40 months of service outside Missouri. No men served more valiantly, endured more hardship, or sacrificed more for their cause. In discipline and combat effectiveness they had few peers and no superiors. They were the South’s finest.

Prior to October 1861, most of these men foughtas the Missouri State Guard, Missouri’s Army, and under this flag, seeing victories at Carthage, Oak Hills, Lexington Hills, Lexington and Drywood.

From this body of men, fifteen Generals were produced for the Confederate States of America.

John S. Bowen, John Clark, John Clark, Jr., Francis M. Cockrell, Basil Duke, Daniel Frost, Martin Green, Henry Little, James Major, John S. Marmaduke, M. M. Parsons, Sterling Price, James Rains, Jo Shelby and William Slack

"…the finest body of Soldiers ever gazed upon."

"I have never seen in battle their equals"

"…Missouri troops of the Army of the West were not surpassed by any troops in the World."

November 2003
Colonel John T. Coffee Camp 1934
Sons of Confederate Veterans