Uncomfortable Indian War Connections to Price's Raid

On this date in 1864, Sterling Price's Confederate army was camped five miles south of Pineville, Missouri, near the Arkansas line, over which it would retreat the next day before heading to Indian Territory. The soldiers and guerrillas in his force would not return to Missouri until the war was over.

Price had risen to fame in the Mexican War, during which he ruthlessly suppressed the Taos Revolt against Indian and Hispanic forces.

His Union opponents in the Civil War had later connections to the Indian wars. US Major General Samuel Curtis was victor of the Battle of Westport (today a pleasant part of Kansas City) against Price on Oct. 23, 1864. Curtis also has some responsibility for the Sand Creek Massacre of Indians in Colorado the next month (even though he wasn't there), due to his harsh orders to a subordinate, Col. John Chivington, who bears primary blame. 

In early 1862, Curtis had defeated a Confederate army including Price and an Indian cavalry force at the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas, and Chivington played a key role in defeating the Confederate invasion of New Mexico at the Battle of Glorieta Pass. 

Curtis' chief subordinate in the 1864 campaign against Price, James Blunt, was accused of corruption in his dealings with Indians after the war. In 1863, Curtis' son Zarah was killed when serving under Blunt, by Quantrill's Confederate guerrilla raiders. In 1862, Blunt was fighting alongside Frank Herron, a major character in The Last Circle of Ulysses Grant.

US Major General Alfred Pleasonton's cavalry (dispatched by Rosecrans) was harrying Price from the rear at Westport, and he was then in independent command at the Battle of Mine Creek as the Confederates retreated south. In both of these Union victories, Pleasonton's subordinate Lt. Col. Frederick Benteen played a key role. 

Pleasonton had served earlier in the Army of the Potomac. It seems to me his record there is unduly criticized, but one move he made which undoubtedly worked out well was the June 29, 1863, promotion of George Armstrong Custer from captain to brigadier general. This was just before the Battle of Gettysburg, in which, as in subsequent Army of the Potomac battles, the new young general would play a major and positive role.

 After the Civil War, though, as colonel of the 7th Cavalry, Custer's record was much less stellar. Some blamed (and still blame) Benteen for failing to rescue him in 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn, but I don't think the criticism justified.