to allowing unarmed men and camp followers to infest his ranks,
demoralizing them.[15] It was not to be expected, therefore, that
there could ever be much in common between him and Sterling Price. For
a brief period, it is true, the two men did apparently act in fullest
harmony; but it was when the safety of Price's own state, Missouri,
was the thing directly in hand. That was in early August of 1861.
Price put himself and his command subject to McCulloch's orders.[16]
The result was the successful engagement, August 10 at Wilson's Creek,
on Missouri soil. On the fourteenth of the same month, Price reassumed
control of the Missouri State Guard[17] and, from that time on, he and
McCulloch drifted farther and farther apart; but, as their aims were
so entirely different, it was not to be wondered at.

Undoubtedly, all would have been well had McCulloch been disposed to
make the defence of Missouri his only aim. Magnanimity was asked of
him such as the Missouri leaders never so much as contemplated showing
in return. It seems never to have occurred to either Jackson or
Price that coöperation might, perchance, involve such an exchange of
courtesies as would require Price to lend a hand in some project that
McCulloch might devise for the well-being of his own particular

[Footnote 15: _Official Records_, vol. liii, supplement, 721.]

[Footnote 16:--Ibid., 720.]

[Footnote 17:--Ibid., 727.]

charge. The assistance was eventually asked for and refused, refused
upon the ground, familiar in United States history, that it would be
impossible to get the Missouri troops to cross the state line. Of