Bryan,

I don't even want to try and discuss both Magruder and Price in the same post.

We've seen many debates on this board regarding the difference between price's popularity and his actual military skill. I'll save Price for later.

As to "Prince" John Magruder, what a character. Certainly all of the readers and posters of this thread can look up bios of Magruder on the internet. But, just to save you the trouble, and to give some background information, here are a couple bios you might enjoy:

Prince John Magruder: His Life and Campaigns. by Paul D. Casdorph
(book reviews]
Civil War History, June, 1997 by Chesson, Michael B.
Perhaps the most charming drunk in a war with thousands of commissioned alcoholics, John Bankhead Magruder has at last found a biographer worthy of him. This splendid, illustrated, full-length study describes his childhood and his education at the University of Virginia and West Point; his unremarkable career in the old army, admission to the North Carolina bar is in a style worthy of William T. Sherman, and Mexican War laurels; and his unhappy marriage and troubled personal life. Rounding off the portrait, the author recreates Prince John's lisp, colorful uniforms..................

http://www.txsuv.org/Lea/magruder.htm
..... While commanding Confederate forces at Yorktown, Virginia, Magruder completely deceived George B. McClellan as to his strength and caused the Union commander weeks of needless delay. Lack of aggressiveness during the Seven Days Battles cost him the favor of Robert E. Lee, however, and he was soon reassigned to the command of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. ...................From his headquarters in Houston, Magruder ably administered his department and was generally popular with the citizens of the region, despite occasional clashes with the governor, especially over the enforcement of conscription laws. His greatest success was his brilliant performance in the Battle of Galveston (top) on January 1, 1863, and the consequent, if temporary dispersal of the Union blockading fleet. ...................
After the war Magruder offered his sword to the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, but after the collapse of the imperial forces he returned to Texas to make his home in Houston, where he died on February 19, 1871. According to John N. Edwards, with whom he traveled Mexico, "Magruder was a born soldier...He would fight all day and dance all night. He wrote love songs and sang them, and won an heiress rich beyond comparison." Magruder spoke with a lisp. He was six feet tall and "in full regimentals," and was said to have been "the handsomest soldier in the Confederacy." He married Esther Henrietta von Kapff on May 18, 1831. For the first nineteen years he saw his family in Baltimore only on occasional furloughs. After 1850 his wife visited him only twice, 1854-55 and 1856. Many thought he was single. He is buried in Galveston, the scene of his greatest military success, in that city's Episcopal Cemetery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: John N. Edwards, Shelby's Expedition to Mexico (Kansas City Times]