Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Booknotes: The Collapse of Price's Raid

New Arrival:
The Collapse of Price's Raid: The Beginning of the End in Civil War Missouri by Mark A. Lause (Univ of Missouri Pr, 2016).

This book picks up where Lause left off in Price's Lost Campaign: The 1864 Invasion of Missouri (2011), with the Confederate Army of Missouri in the center of the state, its hopes of fostering a popular uprising and "liberating" Missouri from Union occupation dashed. The Collapse of Price's Raid follows the failing operation through Boonville, Glasgow and Independence before climaxing at the Battle of Westport and ending with the hurried retreat south through eastern Kansas, Indian Territory, Texas and back to Arkansas. The two volumes comprise a narrative integrating military, social, political and cultural history. I had mixed feelings about the first book [see my review] but was still looking forward to the follow up. Unfortunately, some omissions have carried over. Collapse gets off on the wrong foot by having no maps or illustrations. A bibliography is missing, too, although it's entirely possible the one in the first volume suffices to cover all the sources used in Lause's research. The notes do show a preponderance of primary source research.

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