The war was not going well for the Confederacy in 1864. General Price in Arkansas decided to take pressure off Confederates further east by leading his Missouri army on a great raid through its home state. Word reached the guerrillas that summer to disrupt Federal activities as much as possible in order to ready the countryside for Price's arrival. Thus in central and western Missouri, bushwhacking guerrilla raids occurred almost every day through the summer and early fall. Many of these incidents happened in or near Lafayette and Saline counties.