Following victories at Carthage and Wilson's Creek in the summer of 1861, the Confederate-allied Missouri State Guard achieved its greatest success when it advanced on Lexington in September. Former Missouri governor General Sterling Price and his men laid siege for three days against a Union garrison under the command of Colonel James Mulligan. An ingenious mobile breastwork of hemp bales soaked in water, designed to absorb hot shot, enabled the Confederates to close in on September 20 and force surrender. Civil War historian Larry Wood delivers a thorough account of the battle that briefly consolidated Confederate control in the region. Larry Wood is a retired public school teacher and freelance writer specializing in the history of the Ozarks region. His magazine articles have appeared in publications like America's Civil War, Blue and Gray, Gateway Heritage, History Magazine, Kansas Heritage, Missouri Historical Review, Missouri Life, Ozarks Mountaineer, Ozarks Reader, Show Me the Ozarks, True West, and Wild West. His previous books include The Civil War on the Lower Kansas-Missouri Border, The Civil War Story of Bloody Bill Anderson, Other Noted Guerrillas of the Civil War in Missouri, Ozarks Gunfights and Other Notorious Incidents, and two historical novels entitled Call Me Charlie: A Novel of a Quantrill Raider and Showdown at Baxter Springs. Wood and his wife, G.G., live in Joplin, Missouri.