Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Missouri State Guard was established on the 11th of May 1861, when the Missouri General Assembly passed the Military Bill. The final version of the act was approved on the 14th of May, authorizing Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson to reorganize the existing militia into the Guard.
The Missouri State Guard was not a formation of the Confederate States Army. It was a state military force that fought alongside Confederate troops and at various times served under Confederate officers. On the 17th of March 1862, Price formally merged it into the Confederate Army of the West.
Sterling Price, a popular former governor of Missouri, was the first to be commissioned Major General and serve as field commander of the Missouri State Guard. Adjutant General Lewis Henry Little, a Maryland native and career Army officer, played a key role in training and organizing the force.
In 2007, leading authorities estimated that at least 34,000 and probably close to 40,000 Missourians served in the Guard at some point. Peak strength reached between 23,000 and 28,000 men in September 1861.
The Guard fought at Wilson's Creek on the 10th of August 1861, Big Dry Wood Creek on the 1st-the 2nd of September 1861, and the First Battle of Lexington, also called the Battle of the Hemp Bales, in mid-September 1861. Two brigades also participated in the Battle of Pea Ridge, where Brigadier General William Y. Slack was mortally wounded.
The Military Bill specified English as the language for all spoken commands in order to exclude ethnic Germans, who were predominantly Unionist in their political orientation. The German United States Reserve Corps regiments in St. Louis were also prohibited from operating outside the Guard's authority for the same reason.