Jim,

According to Price's Operational Report (41-1-627), he says that his Army of Missouri entered Missouri on September 19, 1864, with nearly 12,000 troops of which 8,000 were armed.

If the 4,000 or so new recruits gained in Missouri (later most became Tyler's Brigade of Marmaduke's division) are added, we now have a total of 16,000 men on the rolls of Price's army. Price's losses at Pilot Knob (800), Little Blue (200), Westport (1,500), and Mine Creek (1,200) are estimated to total 3,700. Three brigades (reduced by casualties, sickness and desertions) of Cabell's and Marmaduke's divisions left Price at Cain Hill for northeast Arkansas, totaling then perhaps only 3,000 men, as Cabell's and Marmaduke's divisions had suffered most of the previous battle casualties (recall that Cabell and Marmaduke had both been captured at Mine Creek). So Price could have had 16,000 - 3,700 - 3,000 = 9,300 men as he approached the Arkansas River, of which perhaps only 6,000 were from Price's original Army of Missouri. Shortly after crossing the Arkansas River, Price furloughed the remaining two brigades of Cabell's division, and they left for southern Arkansas. Price's army was then down to only four brigades: those of Thompson, Jackman, Clark and Tyler, plus Wood's battalion.

The only reference (41-4-505) I could find in the Official Records giving the size of Price's army approaching the Arkansas River on November 6, 1864, was made by two deserters as being 10,000 men, and this total was referenced by MG Herron (after arriving from Little Rock) at Ft. Smith on 11-10-64.

Even if Price had only 9,000 men still in his army as he retreated down the Sallisaw on 11-6-1864, the combined armies on the move would still have been the largest military operation to have occurred in Indian Territory during the Civil War. Perhaps because no battle was fought, this major event has been largely ignored (or missed) in Oklahoma history.