The capture of Sedalia occurred during the American Civil War when a Confederate force captured the Union garrison of Sedalia, Missouri, on October 15, 1864. Confederate Major General Sterling Price, who was a former Governor of Missouri and had commanded the Missouri State Guard in the early days of the war, had launched an invasion into the state of Missouri on August 29. He hoped to distract the Union from more important areas and cause a popular uprising against Union control of the state. Price had to abandon his goal of capturing St. Louis after a bloody repulse at the Battle of Fort Davidson and moved into the pro-Confederate region of Little Dixie in central Missouri.
Many recruits in the region joined the Confederates in the region, and Price soon needed supplies and weapons for these men. He sent side raids to Glasgow and Sedalia. One of these involved sending a 1,200-man brigade led by Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson of the Missouri State Guard towards Sedalia. Despite learning of Union movements in the area, Thompson attacked the town, which was primarily defended by militia. The initial Confederate attack quickly dispersed most of the defenders, although some held out until Thompson brought up the rest of his force. Many of the militiamen were captured. After paroling or releasing their prisoners and plundering the town, the Confederates left to rejoin Price's main force. On October 23, Price was defeated at the Battle of Westport near Kansas City. The Confederates then retreated, suffering defeats at the battles of Mine Creek and Second Newtonia later in October, before eventually entering Texas.
Prelude
At the outset of the American Civil War in 1861, the state of Missouri was a slave state. Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson supported secession, and formed the pro-secession Missouri State Guard, a militia unit. Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon of the Union Army evicted Jackson and the pro-secession portion of the state legislature from the state capital of Jefferson City. The Missouri State Guard won several battles, but Union forces had the secessionists restricted to the southwestern portion of the state by the end of the year. Jackson and the secessionists formed the Confederate government of Missouri, which would function as a government-in-exile for much of its existence, moving from place to place before settling in Marshall, Texas; Missouri now had two competing governments. The Union gained control of Missouri in March 1862 after the Battle of Pea Ridge, and the state was then plagued by guerrilla warfare throughout 1862 and 1863.
Price's Raid
By the beginning of September 1864, events east of the Mississippi River, 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 a war-ending armistice that would preserve slavery. 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 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. Major General Sterling Price and the Confederate Governor of Missouri Thomas Caute Reynolds suggested that an invasion of Missouri would be an effective offensive; Smith approved the plan and appointed Price to command the offensive. Price was a former governor of Missouri, had served in the Mexican-American War, and had commanded the Missouri State Guard in 1861 before entering Confederate service. Price expected that the campaign would create a popular uprising against Union control of Missouri, divert Union troops away from principal theaters of combat (many of the Union troops previously defending Missouri had been transferred out of the state, leaving the Missouri State Militia as the state's primary defensive force), and aid McClellan's chance of defeating Lincoln. On September 19, Price's column of about 12,000 to 13,000 men entered the state.