page_title: Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Regiment
section_title: Service history
hierarchical_section_title: Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Regiment / Service history
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Price's Missouri Raid of 1864
context_page_description: Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Originally raised as Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Battalion, the unit consisted of men recruited in Missouri by Lieutenant Colonel Alonzo W. Slayback during Price's Raid in 1864. The battalion's first action was at the Battle of Pilot Knob on September 27; it later participated in actions at Sedalia, Lexington, and the Little Blue River. On October 22, the unit was used to find an alternate river crossing during the Battle of the Big Blue River. Slayback's unit then saw action at the Battle of Westport on October 23, the Battle of Marmiton River on October 25, and the Second Battle of Newtonia on October 28. The battalion was briefly furloughed in Arkansas before rejoining Major General Sterling Price in Texas in December. Probably around February 1865, the battalion reached official regimental strength after additional recruits were added to it.
  On June 2, the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department surrendered.
context_section_description: By the beginning of September 1864, events in the eastern United States, especially the Confederate defeat in the Atlanta campaign, gave Abraham Lincoln, who supported continuing the war, an edge in the 1864 United States Presidential Election over George B. McClellan, who promoted ending the war.  At this point, the Confederacy had very little chance of winning the war.  Meanwhile, in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, the Confederates had defeated Union attackers in the Red River campaign in Louisiana in March through May.  As events east of the Mississippi River turned against the Confederates, General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, was ordered to transfer the infantry under his command to the fighting in the Eastern and Western Theaters.  However, this proved to be impossible, as the Union Navy controlled the Mississippi River, preventing a large scale crossing.  Despite having limited resources for an offensive, Smith decided that an attack designed to divert Union troops from the principal theaters of combat would have the same effect as the proposed transfer of troops.  Price and Confederate Governor of Missouri Thomas Caute Reynolds suggested that an invasion into Missouri would be an effective offensive; Smith approved the plan and appointed Price to command the offensive.  Price expected that the offensive would create a popular uprising against Union control of Missouri, divert Union troops away from principal theaters of combat (many of the Union troops defending Missouri had been transferred out of the state, leaving the Missouri State Militia to be the state's primary defensive force), and aid McClellan's chance of defeating Lincoln; on September 19, Price's column entered the state.
  On September 27, 1864, Slayback's unit made a minor assault against the defenses of Fort Davidson during the Battle of Pilot Knob; the unit suffered light casualties.  That night, Slayback sent a note to the Union garrison commander Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr. suggesting that Ewing's African American soldiers would be massacred in events similar to the Fort Pillow Massacre if the fort fell.  Slayback's unit was then positioned north of the fort in order to detect any potential Union movement.  That night, the Union garrison retreated without being detected by Slayback's force and blew up the fort's magazine.  On October 2, while stationed at Union, Missouri, Slayback's unit, now known as Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Battalion, was assigned to Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson's brigade of Shelby's division.  While the Confederates were moving through Missouri, a Union force was reported to have left Jefferson City; Slayback's battalion was detached on October 13 to scout the approach of this force.  By the next day, Slayback's battalion had reached Longwood, where it was joined by other Confederate units.
  On October 15, Slayback's battalion, along with Collins' Missouri Battery, the 5th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, and Elliott's Missouri Cavalry Regiment, raided the town of Sedalia under Thompson's command.  A Union garrison defended improvised fortifications, but a cavalry charge quickly overran the positions.  After Collins' artillery opened fired, the remaining defenders were completely dispersed; the town was then looted.  Slayback's unit performed guard duty after the fighting, as it was in a better state of organization than the other regiments that had participated in the skirmish.  The battalion next fought at the Second Battle of Lexington on October 19, in which the unit attacked and defeated a Union force.  On October 21, the battalion was part of a Confederate force that forced a crossing of the Little Blue River.  On October 22, during the Battle of the Big Blue River, Shelby ordered the 5th Missouri Cavalry and Slayback's battalion to search for a secondary crossing of the river, as Byram's Ford, the primary crossing, was strongly defended.  Slayback's battalion quickly found an alternate ford, and crossed the river, hitting Colonel Charles R. Jennison's brigade in the flank.  
caption: Map illustrating the route of Price's Raid
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