The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 203

Missouri's Confederate Capital in Marshall, Texas

Missouri recruits. He mentioned the appointment of a new tem-
porary Confederate senator from Missouri, Colonel W. P. John-
son, and said that he did not think Price would have been tempted
by this temporary senatorial appointment.17
Politics were not forgotten, although both the governor and
his constituents were a long way from home, and Reynolds' let-
ters are full of often bitter comment on the political bickering
among the Missourians. Shortly before Reynolds had arrived
in Marshall, he had directed that an attempt be made to com-
pile a register of voters, and instructions were issued to com-
manding officers on how to prepare these registers, copies of
which were to be maintianed in the secretary of state's office."8
In spite of Reynolds' earlier qualms about his reception as
governor the tone of the letters of General Price and others
was invariably polite and respectful and the salutation was always
"Your Excellency" or "Governor." In the summer of 1864, how-
ever, with plans being laid for Sterling Price's invasion in force
of Missouri, an acrimonious tone crept into some of the letters.
Confederate Congressman Thomas L. Snead from Missouri wrote
to General Price that he hoped an election for the Missouri Legis-
lature could be held in the army that winter so that Governor
Reynolds would not hold uncontrolled legislative and executive
power indefinitely.19 A month later the judge advocate of Price's
army, Trusten Polk, wrote Snead that Governor Reynolds planned
to accompany the army to Missouri and that he anticipated serious
trouble from Reynolds' exaggerated sense of power and responsi-
bility toward the people of Missouri.20 Price began his campaign
against Missouri in October, 1864, and Governor Reynolds left
Marshall, joining General Joseph O. Shelby's headquarters at
Pocahontas, Arkansas, as a volunteer aide-de-camp.21 The primary
objective of this expedition was St. Louis, and unquestionably in
the minds of many Missourians one of the secondary objectives was
to install Governor Reynolds in Jefferson City, but the campaign
17Reynolds to Price, December 4, 1863, Oficial Records, Series I, Vol. LIII, 918.
l1The Caddo Gazette (Shreveport), August 29, 1863.
9Snead to Price, July 2o, 1864, Oficial Records, Series I, Vol. XLI, Pt. 2, 1o18.
20Polk to Snead, August 11, 1864, ibid., lo6o-lo61.
21John N. Edwards, Shelby and His Men or the War in the West (Cincinnati,
1867), 383.

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