Background
PRICE, Sterling was born in 1809 in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Pugh Williamson and Elizabeth (Williamson) Price.
adventurer farmer governor politician army officer
PRICE, Sterling was born in 1809 in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Pugh Williamson and Elizabeth (Williamson) Price.
Private school, southern university.
He attended Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia in 1826-1827 and studied law under Creed Taylor near Farmville. He was a Presbyterian and a Democrat. He married Martha Head on May 14, 1833.
Price settled on a farm in Keytesville, Chariton County, Missouri, in 1831. He was elected as a Democrat from Chariton County to the state House in 1836,1840, and 1842. In 1844, he was also chosen speaker of that body.
Elected to the U.S. House in 1844, he resigned two years later to fight in the Mexican War. He was named brigadier general of volunteers and also participated in the march on Chihuahua and served as military governor of New Mexico. During his term as governor of Missouri from 1853 to 1857, he was an anti-Benton Democrat.
He was a member of the State Banking Commission from 1857 to 1861. Price was an ardent unionist. Nevertheless, he became president of the Missouri secession convention in 1860.
When the war began, he joined the secessionists and helped to organize the Missouri State Guard, of which he was made major general in June 1861. He defeated federal forces at Wilson’s Creek and Lexington, Missouri, in 1861 before going to Arkansas. He was promoted to brigadier general on March 6, 1862.
He was wounded in the battle of Elkhom but recovered sufficiently to participate in the battles of Shiloh, Iuka, and Corinth later the same year. He also fought at Helena, Alabama, in 1863. Late in 1864, he attempted to retake Missouri for the Confederacy but was turned back at Westport, and at the end of the war he was in Texas with what remained of his command.
Political discrimination against him in Richmond kept him from promotions in rank which he might otherwise have received. Price refused to surrender when the war ended. He traveled to Mexico on an unsuccessful colonization scheme.
In 1866, he returned to Missouri, disillusioned and impoverished.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Member Missouri House of Representatives, 1836-1838, 40-45, speaker, 1840-1844. Member United States House of Representatives from Missouri, 29th Congress, 1845-August 12, 1846.
Married Martha Head, May 14, 1833.