The Confederacy ordered Gen. E. Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, to send his infantry across the Mississippi River to reinforce beleaguered Southern troops in the east.

Were Price able to seize his primary objective, with its huge arsenal and warehouses filled with supplies, Union successes in Georgia and Virginia might yet be offset, leading to a loss for Lincoln and snatching a Southern victory from the jaws of defeat.

[3] Hundreds of Price's men were barefoot, and most had no personal equipment such as canteens or cartridge boxes; many carried jugs for water, and stuffed ammunition in shirt and pants pockets.

From there Price was then to continue onward to the west, cross into Kansas and head south through the Indian Territory, "sweeping that country of its mules, horses, cattle, and military supplies".

Advancing into Missouri, they chose to attack the Union garrison located at Ft. Davidson near Pilot Knob, where Price lost more than 1000 men and invaluable time engaging a target of little real significance.

As he made his way west, Price acquired an ever-expanding wagon train loaded down with looted and captured property and materiel, as well a large herd of horses and cattle.

Price's first true test against this new Union force came at Lexington, where he drove elements of Curtis' army back toward the Little Blue River and the nearby city of Independence.

This brought on the Battle of Westport, also referred to as the "Gettysburg of the West", which saw Price's complete defeat and forced him to retreat southward through Kansas toward the Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma).

With the failure of this colony a year or so later and the overthrow and execution of Maximilian by the legitimist government of Benito Juárez, Price, Shelby and most of their men chose to return to the United States.

This requires an inferior power to effectively utilize regular and irregular forces in concert (such as was done by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong against the French and Americans during the Vietnam War) to defeat a superior army.

This in turn allowed Union generals to ultimately concentrate a force large enough to trap and defeat Price at Westport, effectively ending his campaign and leading to the demise of the Army of Missouri.