Sterling Price

Sterling Price (born Sept. 20, 1809, Prince Edward County, Va., U.S.—died Sept. 29, 1867, St. Louis, Mo.) was an antebellum governor of Missouri, and Confederate general during the U.S. Civil War.

After attending Hampden-Sydney College (1826–27), Price studied law. In 1831 he moved with his family from Virginia to Missouri, where he entered public life. He served in the state legislature from 1836 to 1838 and again from 1840 to 1844, the latter period as speaker of the House.

In 1844 Price won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but he failed to win renomination and resigned on Aug. 26, 1846, to enlist as a colonel in the Missouri infantry. He rose to the rank of brigadier general during the Mexican War and was appointed military governor of Chihuahua.

He returned to Missouri after the war and in 1852 was elected governor. A conditional Union supporter, he did not initially advocate secession as the sectional conflict intensified. But in June 1861, having been given command of the state militia, he organized a small army of 5,000 pro-Confederate troops in southwestern Missouri. A subsequent victory over Union forces at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek established Price as a military commander, and in April 1862 he and his troops were officially incorporated into the Confederate Army.

But from the summer of 1862 to the end of the Civil War, Price suffered a series of defeats. The collapse of the Confederacy found him in retreat on the plains of Texas, and he exiled himself to Mexico for a short time. Following the defeat and execution of Emperor Maximilian, however, Price returned to Missouri.