Having been one of the two people directly involved in the creation of the Missouri State Militia, Abraham Lincoln was positioned to best describe its nature as it pertained to it being militia that could and did freely operate in states other than its own. "It is not strictly either ‘State troops’ or ‘United States troops.’ It is a mixed character.”

There was no more controversy to the Missouri troops clearing out the Prairie du Rocher Confederates than there would have been if a bargeful of U.S. Volunteers had come up from Cairo and done the same thing. In fact, there would more likely have been controversy at the waste in time, resources and expense in sending Volunteer troops up to Prairie du Rocher, when Federal troops were already minutes away directly across the River.