Thank you for your input. I don't disagree at all. General Price had high hopes for three types of irregular southern forces in Missouri when he brought his army of about 12,000 across the Missouri line into SE MO on September 19. He overestimated the contributions of the guerrillas and he overestimated the Order of American Knights (OAK). The OAK was a later edition of the Knights of the Golden Circle that were heavily compromised by infiltration, and the OAK turned out to be more of a scare than a threat. Some OAK may have come through better for the general if he had been able to take St. Louis, but some argue that they were a paper tiger. The most productive of the irregulars, in what they contributed to Price's campaign, were the large, behind-Union-lines Confederate recruiting commands who actually brought hundreds of new recruits to Price's army, mostly out of NE MO. Some of them failed to connect with Price's slow-moving army and had to head out for Arkansas on their own, but some recruiting commands actually came to him. However, their numbers were not great enough to influence his expedition, because most of these men were untrained and poorly armed.

Just curious. Is Major Dale E. Davis a relative, or are the surnames just a coincidence? Several good papers about the war in Missouri came out of Fort Leavenworth.

Bruce