Christmas 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings! It is this time of year again! The decades just seem to run together. We hope your year was happy, safe and fruitful. Here is our latest news…

Spring break in March took us to Virginia and Hank’s folks. We toured the US Capitol with a staffer from our Congressman, visited Chinatown and became separated half-a-dozen times in the Smithsonian. We managed a romantic getaway (for 2) in mid-week to Strasburg in the Shenandoah Valley.

Rachel is a teenager – turning 13 on June 15. She is in 8th grade at Thomas Jefferson Junior High (interestingly, Jefferson is well-represented in Missouri, not quite as much as Lewis and Clark, though). She stays busy throughout the school year with soccer, band and church youth group. Despite Hank’s tutoring she manages to do well in honors Algebra and shop and make the honor roll. She plays the piano and is playing baritone in the marching band which marched downtown in the MU and local high school homecoming parades and the Christmas parade. She plays in the city’s under-16 soccer league. Hank coached the team this year and Rachel was the leading goal-scorer. Luckily the team had great defense ;)

In July we vacationed at Cape Hatteras on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with Hank’s family. The surfing was good and the food was excellent. We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary there on July 20th.

Jessica turned 9 on October 1. She is in 3rd grade at Rock Bridge Elementary. Her teacher does a great job with Jessica’s energy and temperament. Jessica played ‘up’ a league in soccer, in the 4th-6th grade league in Upward soccer. The field is longer and the action a bit more intense.

Mary’s father, Richard, celebrated his 80th birthday on October 2nd. Friends and relatives congregated for a shindig at the local winery. He is doing well within the limits of Parkinson’s and a small stroke he had in November and with the help of Mary’s mom, Sue. They are always up on the latest Wisconsin Badger and Green Bay Packer sports news.

Hank’s mom, Elise, broke her kneecap in October. After a month in a brace, she is into physical therapy, which sounds good for all of her, not just the knee ;) Hank’s father, Chuck/Charlie/Charles (depending on whose phoning) gets out on the golf course, into the ledgers and onto the church landscape. He and Hank give each other golf lessons during every visit. Eventually, they’ll improve.

Mary works MWF at the University‘s Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders adding numerous publications to her CV. Hank is working at the University computer department providing e-mail to the students, paychecks to the faculty and football for the alumni (well two out of three anyway).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


Mary, Hank, Rachel and Jessica

Springfield re-re-re-taken

After his victory at Lexington, Price leisurely marched his men southward through the mostly pro-Southern tier of Missouri’s western border counties. The march’s lack of resistance gave Union general, and department head, John C. Fremont cause for grief, mostly in the person of his political nemesis, Frank Blair, and the powerful New York newspapers.

Fremont yearned for a smashing military victory. He began moving his 5 divisions of 40,000 men south and west to intercept Price’s 12,000. Hunter’s division went to Versailles; Pope’s to Boonville; Sigel’s to Sedalia; Asboth to Tipton and McKinstry to Syracuse. Senator-General Jim Lane had another 5,000 in western Missouri.

Price had easily pushed Lane’s force aside in his northern movement to Lexington. Since then, Lane had captured supplies, burned Osceola and executed men accused as secessionist traitors while hoping for some measure of revenge to assuage his wounded pride.

The converging northern force had plenty of men to confront Price, but except for the foreign generals Sigel and Asboth, all the others were working to cross-purposes of personal ambition.
Moving ever southward, replacing burned bridges along the way, Fremont’s columns finally converged just south of ruined Osceola and moved toward Springfield where the rump rebel legislature was said to be in session.

On October 24th, Fremont sent his elite ‘Jesse Fremont guard’, commanded by Hungarian Major Charles Zagoni, to capture the assembly. Zagoni lead his 350 men west of Springfied and then in toward the town. Meeting resistance just a quarter mile from the town limits, Zagoni formed ad charged ahead. A solid rank of Confederates fired a volley and then gave way. Zagoni’s men galloped into vacated Springfield, raised their banner at the courthouse and found no evidence of the rump legislature after an eighty-five mile ride and five-minute skirmish. On the anniversary of Balaclava, Zagoni declared his men heirs to the Light Brigade. Two days later Fremont’s main force entered Springfield.

Despite Frmont's heroic dispatches announcing Springfield’s capture as a tonic for Bull Run, Wilson’s Creek, Lexington and Ball’s Bluff, President Lincoln was unimpressed. Price had scampered back into Arkansas, ready for further resistance. On November 2d, the aged David Hunter temporarily replaced Fremont. Hunter, feeling overextended 125 miles from the Rolla railhead, ordered a withdrawal to that point and Sedalia.

Volunteer officers proposed the ‘Lane treatment’ – leave a US flag flying in each town and if it came down their town would be burned at the next opportunity. Fortunately, the regular officers could not accept such harsh medicine. For the fourth time in 1861, citizens of southwest Missouri saw their country change hands but the seesaw state of affairs was gaining traction with the upper echelons in both Washington and Richmond.

Sterling Price

Sterling Price was born in Virginia in 1809. He studied law at Hampden-Sydney and moved with his family to Missouri in 1831.

Price prospered as a tobacco planter and served in the legislature from 1836-1838 and for four more years beginning in 1840 as speaker of the general assembly. In 1844 he was elected to the US Congress, served for 2 years and resigned to become colonel of the Second Regiment, Missouri Mounted Volunteer Cavalry in the war with Mexico. He advanced to Brigadier General and was appointed military governor of Chihuahua. Returning to Missouri he was elected governor in 1852.

A conditional Unionist, he was elected presiding officer of the Missouri State Convention which voted against secession. "Old Pap" threw his lot with the South after Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops.

He was given command of the Missouri State Guard and lead them, first in retreat, then to victory at Wilson's Creek and a successful campaign resulting in the capture of a 3300-man federal force at Lexington. Price's force was then mostly incorporated into the Confederate army and saw action east of the Mississippi. From 1862 on, as a Confederate Major General, he suffered defeats as both a subordinate and a commander at Iuka and Corinth in Mississippi and Helena Arkansas.

His raid across Missouri in 1864 left him in retreat in Texas and Arkansas. He expatriated himself for a brief time in Mexico but returned to Missouri where he died in St. Louis in 1867 from chronic dysentery contracted during the Mexican War.

Nathanial Lyon

Nathanial Lyon was born in Ashford Connecticut in 1818 and graduated 11th in his class from West Point in 1841. Assigned to the 2nd Infantry he fought in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican War. After the war, Lyon participated in the controversial ' Clear Lake Massacre' in California and was reassigned to Fort Riley Kansas where he was accused of hounding an enlisted man to death.

'Bleeding Kansas' turned Lyon into a fanatical abolitionist, writing "It is no longer useful to appeal to reason, but to the sword.". Lyon transferred to St. Louis, used his friendship with the powerful Blair family to gain command of the St. Louis arsenal and captured pro-secessionist Missouri troops at camp Jackson outside of the city. Marching the captives back through the city, fighting broke out and over 100 people were killed or wounded.

Promoted to Brigadier General Lyon was given command of all Union troops in Missouri and began pursuing Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson's forces across the state which he defeated at Boonville and chased southwest past Springfield. Meeting a combined force of Missouri State Guard and regular Confederate forces at Wilson's Creek, Lyon was killed on August 10, 1861. Lyon's quick, perhaps rash, action in the early days of the war neutralized Confederate ambitions in Missouri, allowed Union forces to dominate the state and laid the groundwork for the bloody guerilla war for the next 3½ years.

Lexington - the battle of the hemp bales

After the battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861, General Sterling Price slowly marchs the Missouri State Guard north. At Dry Wood Creek he brushs aside Kansas militia lead by Jims Lane and Montgomery. His destination is Lexington, the wealthy little town on the Missouri River that had served as an embarkation point for border ruffians during the days of bleeding Kansas.

Lexington contains a Masonic college, large houses, a columned courthouse and sturdy bank filled with gold. It also bases a Union force of about 2800 men lead by Colonel James A. Mulligan.

Alerted to Price's advance, Mulligan was ordered from Jefferson City by John C. Fremont, head of the Department of the West. Mulligan moved slowly west searching for Price's vanguard. After 9 days, he arrived in Lexington and was joined by Colonel Thomas A. Marshall with a regiment of Illinois cavalry and 350 Missouri militia. Other forces commanded by John Pope and Samuel Sturgis are on the way.

On September 11, Price's lead regiments appears in front of Lexington. After being chased southwest across Missouri, winning a skirmish at Carthage and the battle of Wilson's Creek and marching north, the Missouri State Guard is a veteran, disciplined, if not a crack, force of 12,000.

Price camps on the fairgrounds, deploys the Guard's 16 artillery pieces and exchanges rounds with Mulligan's 5 cannon. As more Guard regiments arrive, the federal position is slowly surrounded. Mulligan, already low on food, depends on the river for his water supply.

On the 18th, Price's extends a skirmish line along the river bank, cutting the Union troops off from the water and completely encircling them. Their entrenchments on the college's high ground are yet formidable.

Price's men capture a three-story hospital building . Realizing it provides an excellent view into his position, Mulligan launches a counter-attack and retakes it. A Confederate counter-counter-attack secures the position for good and denies the federals their desparately needed water supply in the scorching weather.

On the 19th, Price tightens his lines and continues a slow exchange of artillery. The heat and lack of water in the defending camp are his allies.

The well-protected US position must be approached across open fields. Discovering a warehouse full of large hemp bales in the town on the 20th, Price has them carted to the river, soaked and then brought to the front line. Soon a long movable breastwork moves is levered toward the Union line from the west. The slow, steady advance is sometimes interrupted as a cannon ball sends a hemp bale tumbling, but the soaked bales stop a bullet and refuse to burn. A brief, hand-to-hand attack from the defenses fails to halt the Guard's advance.

Hungry, and now thirsty, a number of defenders show the white flag. Mulligan refuses to acknowledge them. Finally, he calls for a vote of his officers - they vote 4-2 to surrender.

On September 20, the Union forces stack arms and march out of their trenches. Prics allows them to keep their side arms, personal property and horses. Price hosts Mulligan and his officers at a champagne dinner that evening, and toasts their valor.

Price captures 1000 horses, 100 wagons, 5 cannon and 3000 muskets which aid in supplying his troops. Pope and Sturgis, in separate columns are less than 15 miles away and unaware of Mulligan's predicament.

Price's Missouri State Guard lost about 100 killed and wounded; in addition to the captured, Mulligan counted 160 battle losses.

On the heels of the debacle in the east at Bull Run, and the Confederate victory and death of General Lyon at Wilson's Creek, the battle of Lexington and the loss of some 3300 men was another blow to the Union cause.


End note: The Lexington courthouse still contains an artillery shell fragment in it's portico.

End note: Col. Mulligan was exchanged in October, returned to Chicago and received as a hero. Given command of the 23rd Illinois and charge of Camp Douglas, a prisoner-of-war camp, he reformed the poor management system at the camp and granted the prisoners much more humane treatment than had his predecessor.

In June 1962, he and his regiment moved to Maryland for field service and played a small role at Antietam. Ordered to western Virginia they spent two years warding off guerilla raids, ambushes, and night attacks.

In July 1864 the 23rd moved into the Valley of Virginia. They helped turn back Confederate General Jubal Early's attack on Washington. Fighting under General Philip Sheridan, the 23rd met Early's troops at Winchester.

Here Colonel Mulligan was shot from his horse, and when his men offered to carry him from the field, he rebuked, "Lay me down and save the flag!" He was captured where he fell and died two days later in Confederate hands. The position of his fatal wounding is now marked on the battlefield.

Missouri State Guard

In response to Lyon’s capture of Camp Jackson on May 10, 1861, the Missouri Legislature created the Missouri State Guard from the Missouri State Militia. The Guard is to ‘defend the state, maintain public tranquility, suppress riot, rebellion or insurrection, or repel invasion’ in the early stages of the Civil War. Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson openly professes that the Guard will aid his pro-secessionist aim of withdrawing Missouri from the Union.

The ‘Military Bill’ creates nine military districts based on Congressional districts. Each district is to organize, train and arm a division of troops. Overall command was given to popular former Governor Sterling Price. On June 12, Jackson issues a call for 50,000 to join the Guard and thousands do.

However, Lyon seizes the initiative, pushes Price and Jackson out of the capital, Jefferson City, and west to Boonville. Giving his adversaries little time to organize, Lyon defeats the Guard at Boonville on June 17, forcing it into the far southwest corner of the state. A small victory over Colonel Franz Sigel’s Union Missouri troops at Carthage gives the Guard some breathing room and precious time for training at Cowskin Prairie. Most men wear their own clothing and carry their own arms mostly shotguns and muskets; of the 9,000 men present only about 5,000 are armed.

Lyon moves south, joins with Sigel and takes Springfield. Meanwhile, a Confederate brigade under Brigadier General Ben McCulloch and a division of the Arkansas State Guard under Brigadier General Nathan Bart Pierce move from Arkansas and join Price with McCulloch assuming overall command.

After the victory at Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861, McCulloch and Pierce return to Arkansas. The federal defeat brings new recruits into the Guard and Price moves north with 10,000 troops.

Brushing aside Kansas jayhawkers under Senator Jim Lane at Big Dry Wood Creek on September 1, 1861, Price moves to the Missouri River. At the rich, frontier trading town of Lexington on September 20, he captures 3,600 Federal troops in the ‘Battle of the Hemp Bales’.
The federal Department of the West’s commander, John C. Fremont, finally begins to move some of his 25,000 men toward Price who withdraws back into southwest Missouri at Neosho. Hearing that Fremont is removed from command and his army is in winter quarters, the Guard moves north to encamp at Osceola and Price enrolls his troops into regular Confederate service. Despite many of the men’s reluctance, Price organizes a 2,500-man Confederate brigade.

Fremont’s replacement, Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis, leaves his quarters and moves against Price. The combined Guard and Confederate Missourians withdraw into Arkansas and reunite with McCulloch’s force under the overall command of Major General Earl Van Dorn. At the battle of Elkhorn Tavern (Pea Ridge) on March 6-8, 1862, McCulloch is killed, the Confederates defeated and forced to retreat farther into Arkansas.

Eventually most Guardsmen join the Confederate service and Price leads them east of the Mississippi. The Guard continues for the duration of the war, but reaches in zenith in the first 12 months of the conflict. 15,000 men served in the Missouri State Guard during the Civil War.

Wilson's Creek - postscript

The Confederate tactical triumph at Wilson’s Creek, General Nathaniel Lyon Lyon’s death and the subsequent Union withdrawal to Rolla, coupled with the federal fiasco at 1st Manassas in the east, forced the North into a more serious attitude towards planning, supplying and fighting the war.

The Union reinforced Missouri with soldiers and weapons during the ensuing fall and winter; the Confederacy rested on its post-battle laurels and applied scarce resources in other places. The exiled pro-Confederate state government voted to secede and sent delegates to Richmond, but Missouri remained firmly in the Union.

Many of the soldiers at Wilson's Creek ‘saw the elephant’ for the first time. The regulars, who typically look down on volunteer soldiers, found the volunteers at Wilson's Creek battling courageously, if unskillfully. Well-directed cannon fire proved decisive at key moments. Cavalry was less useful in the stand-up fighting – the infantry of both sides determined the outcome. Green soldiers lead by inexperienced officers fought for six bloody hours. Wilson’s Creek recorded some of the highest casualty rates of the Civil War. Nearly 1 in 4 Union troops and 1 in 8 Confederates were casualties.

Most of the volunteer regiments are low-numbered, filled with the most enthusiastic of those enlisting early in the conflict. Some of these regiments, the 1st Kansas, 3rd Arkansas, 1st Missouri and 3rd Louisiana, will form a veteran backbone for nearby operations over the next 3½ years and meet on future fields of battle.

The Union order of battle reveals names familiar to the Civil War buff: Sigel, Schofield, Osterhaus, Sturgis, Granger, Gilbert, Herron, Stanley, and Steele went on to Union high command.

Lyon’s plan was innovative and bold. Like Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville two years later, he found himself outnumbered more than two to one with an aggressive, offensive-minded opponent. His choices were to attack or withdraw. He did both – with difficult tactics. He divided his forces into two columns - using one to hold the enemy in place and the other to sweep around his flank.

The Confederates were initially surprised but soon recovered and, mixing Missouri militia and Confederate volunteer troops, withstood the flank attack and Lyon’s assault. Sigel's flanking force was routed, Lyon was killed and the Yankee Army began to withdraw to Rolla the next day.

Order of Battle - Wilson's Creek - 10 August 1861

UNION - Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon

1st Brigade - Maj. Samuel D. Sturgis
1st U.S. Infantry
2d Missouri Infantry Battalion
Company I, 2d Kansas Mounted Infantry
Company D, 1st U.S. Cavalry
Company F, 2d U.S. Artillery

2d Brigade -Col. Franz Sigel
3d Missouri Infantry
5th Missouri Infantry
Company I, 1st U.S. Cavalry
Company C, 2d U.S. Dragoons
Backoff 's Battery

3d Brigade - Lt. Col. George L. Andrews
1st Missouri Infantry
2d U.S. Infantry
Du Bois' Battery

4th Brigade -Col. George W. Deitzler
1st Kansas Infantry
2d Kansas Infantry
1st Iowa Infantry
Home Guards


CONFEDERATE - Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch

Pearce's Brigade - Brig. Gen. N. Bart Pearce
1st Arkansas Cavalry
Carroll's Cavalry
3d Arkansas Infantry
4th Arkansas Infantry
5th Arkansas Infantry
Woodruff's Battery
Reid's Battery

McCulloch's Brigade - Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch
3d Louisiana Infantry
Arkansas Infantry
1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles
2d Arkansas Mounted Rifles
South Kansas-Texas Mounted Regiment

MISSOURI STATE GUARD - Maj. Gen. Sterling Price

2d Division-Brig. Gen. James S. Rains

Infantry Brigade - Col. Richard H. Weightman
1st Missouri State Guard Infantry
2d Missouri State Guard Infantry
3d Missouri State Guard Infantry
4th Missouri State Guard Infantry

Cavalry Brigade - Col. Cawthorn
Peyton's Cavalry
McCowan's Cavalry
Hunter's Cavalry
Bledsoe's Battery

3d Division -Brig. Gen. Charles Clark
Burbridge's Infantry
Major's Cavalry

4th Division - Brig. Gen. William Y. Slack
Hughes Infantry
Thornton's Infantry
Rives' Cavalry

6th Division - Brig. Gen. Monroe M. Parsons Kelly's Infantry
Brown's Cavalry
Guibor's Battery

7th Division - Brig. Gen. J.H. McBrideWingo's Infantry
Foster's Infantry
Campbell's Cavalry

Wilson’s Creek

After the battle of Carthage, Union General Nathaniel Lyon’s troops join Colonel Franz Sigel at Springfield. The combined forces contain seven volunteer regiments from Missouri, Kansas and Iowa, several companies of regular infantry and cavalry and 3 batteries totaling 6,000 men. However, the men are 140 miles from the Rolla railhead depot, running low on supplies and many of the volunteers 90-day enlistments are running out. General John C. Fremont, ‘Pathfinder of the West’ and former Presidential candidate, takes command of the Department of the West with headquarters in St. Louis but his attention is focused on the Ohio and the Mississippi and not southwest Missouri.

Missouri State Guard General Sterling Price has camped one large and four small divisions of the Guard southwest of Springfield along the Telegraph Road (none locally as the Wire Road) and is reinforced by Confederate General Ben McCulloch with nine regiments of infantry and cavalry from Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas and 2 batteries of artillery. Hoping to capture Springfield and drive Lyon out of southwest Missouri, the southern forces number 12,000. McCulloch’s arrival instills a greater level of discipline in the Guard who have pretty much been chased across the state from the capital at Jefferson City.

On August 1st, Lyon advances out of Springfield and the armies skirmish at Dug Springs the next day. Lyon returns to Springfield. McCulloch slowly follows and camps in the valley of Wilson’s Creek.

Outnumbered and over-extended, Lyon decides to launch a quick strike to confuse the Confederates and then withdraw to the railhead at Rolla. McCulloch hopes to surround and destroy Lyon’s force. On August 9th, both sides draw up attack plans.

Lyon strikes first on August 10th, sending Sigel, with 1200 men, east and south in a turning movement through the rainy night to catch the Confederate forces in the rear while his main force attacks the Confederate front.

Lyon’s force overruns the Confederate camp at the Ray House, but Sigel’s attack fails as his men allow blue-clad Confederates too close and are routed, leaving Lyon’s men to fight alone.

Momentum shifts to the numerically superior Confederates. Three attacks fail to break the Union line on Oak Hill (now known as Bloody Hill), but Lyon is killed early in the battle.

The tired Confederates halt their attacks and Lyon’s successor, Major Samuel D. Sturgis decides to withdraw his exhausted men. 1300 Union and 1200 Confederates are casualties on the field of battle, including Lyon, left behind at the Ray House. General Price send the corpse to Union forces in Springfield under a flag of truce.

Sturgis withdraws to Rolla and McCulloch takes Springfield. Lyon’s body is *again* left behind but is buried by a union sympathizer – the wife of a former local Congressman. The victory allows Price and the Missouri State Guard to regain control of southwest Missouri and eventually advance as far north as Liberty; but lack of serious pursuit to Rolla costs the Confederates the fruits of victory.

the battle of Carthage

As Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson’s men retreat south from Boonville they are joined by Sterling Price’s troops at Lamar. Other recruits join the column which grows to 6,000, poorly drilled and armed, if at all. Ironically, Jackson's southward retreat is through more pro-Union territory than in northern Missouri.

Union general Nathaniel Lyon’s smaller force is unable to keep up after the battle of Boonville, but Colonel Franz Sigel’s well-drilled and fully-armed division of volunteers and 8 cannon, move from St. Louis to Jefferson City, then southwest to Springfield and west in an attempt to cut of Jackson’s withdrawal. Along the way he places detachments at Mount Vernon, Grand Falls and Neosho.

Sigel camps at Carthage and Jackson plans to attack the smaller, but better armed, Union force. On the morning of July 5, Jackson leads his men forward. Deploying 10 miles north of Carthage, both sides open with artillery.

One of Jackson’s artillerymen, Lieutenant W. P. Barlow, later wrote in his memoir:

The affair at Carthage hardly rose to the dignity of a respectable skirmish, but it was impressive and grand to us then. I remember feeling the beauty of the scene as our mules maliciously wheeled the pieces into battery, and we looked down from our slight ridge and saw the bright guns of the federal battery and their finely uniformed infantry deploying on the green prairie about 800 yards distant. Both sides formed in silence and stood looking at each other. As soon as we were ready [battery chief] Guibor galloped over to Gen. Parsons’ and asked permission to open the fight. It was given. I carefully pointed the right piece, Guibor nodded his head, bang she went, and the first shot we ever saw fired in earnest - the first gun for Missouri - went flying through the air.

The two forces skirmish along Dry Fork Creek and Buck Branch and then Spring River as Sigel is slowly forced back eventually into the town itself. Jackson sends a large body of unarmed troops toward the Yankee far left. Sigel, seeing the threat, fearing a turning movement, and unaware the troops are all unarmed, orders a retreat.

The Confederates slowly pursue and Sigel returns to Carthage . That night he retreats to Sarcoxie.

Lacking better news, Jackson claims a victory though he lost 200 men compared to Sigel’s 50. As Barlow recalled years later:

I well remember that we all thought this contemptible little skirmish a great battle and a great victory, and when our last shot was sent rolling over the prairie, about a half mile beyond Carthage, after dark, and the pursuit ceased, we were very glad the awful battle was ended, and went into camp thoroughly tired out. Our reward was the following in Gen. Parsons' official report: ".....and also Capt. Guibor and Lieut. Barlow of the artillery. I might recount several instances of personal valor of the two last mentioned officers which came under my own observation, but it is sufficient to say that by their prowess the artillery of my division won a position on the field."

After an experience of real fighting in real battles this high praise will sound ludicrous by the old soldier, but the general was in earnest, and we accepted the compliment as well earned, honestly feeling that we had participated in a decisive engagement, with perhaps, a mental reservation that we were heroes on a small scale.

the battle of Boonville

Leaving Jefferson City, Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and Missouri State Guard General, and former governor, Sterling Price move toward the river town of Boonville, 30 miles north and west. Price falls ill and continues on to Lexington. State Guard Colonel John S. Marmaduke takes over at Boonville and State Guard General Mosby S. Parsons is in position at Tipton 15 miles south of Boonville and 15 miles west of Jeff City. Jackson is eager to fight, but Marmaduke, knowing the men camped at the old state fair grounds are poorly armed, is more reticent.

Union General Nathaniel Lyon leaves a small detachment at the capital, embarks a company of regulars, 2 volunteer regiments and battery of artillery on the river steamers Yatan, McDonald and City of Louisiana, and lands 1700 men eight miles downriver from Boonville on June 17. Observing the landing, Jackson orders Parson’s men to Boonville but it’s too late.

Little more than a skirmish, the ensuing action has far-reaching consequences for Jackson’s hopes of a Confederate Missouri.

Leaving 100 men guarding the steamers, Lyon moves rapidly toward Boonville. Bluff-top pickets are easily brushed aside on the cloudy, showery morning. Marmaduke deploys 500 Missouri State Guard on the next ridge. Lyon arranges his men and artillery and advances through fields of corn and wheat. The cannon fire on a brick house full of troops and then on one MSG strong point after another, routing them in turn. Lyon’s regular company's discipline takes over. They close in and fire several volleys, causing the Guard to retreat in confusion. An attempt to rally fails as the Guard’s line is easily outflanked. After 20 minutes the battle is over, retreat quickly turns into rout (gaining the nickname of ‘the Boonville races’) and Lyon occupies the town by noon as the sun breaks out clear and bright.

The battle at Boonville kills perhaps a dozen men and wounds 20 to 30. Eighty State Guardsmen are captured. The political results are much greater. Price cannot hold Lexington and also moves south.

The heart and soul of Missouri’s pro-Confederate forces is ejected from the richest, most populous and pro-Southern area of the state. Jackson and his cohort are pushed south, demoralized, unsupplied and dejected, into virtual exile. The area is now secure Union territory, occupied by substantial forces with Nathaniel Lyon, a no-nonsense leader, at their head.


Endnote: New research is being conducted at the battle site.

Missouri 1861 - the Lyon and the Fox

By February 1861, 7 Deep South states had seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. President Buchanan’s administration was in its last lame-duck days. The upper South, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri, tottered between North and South, union or rebellion.

Missouri governor Claiborne Fox Jackson was a southern sympathizer. He argued for secession at the State Convention convened in Jefferson City and chaired by former governor Sterling Price. Missourians tended toward moderate Unionist views and did not support war against the Confederacy. The powerful Blair family, lead by congressman Frank and postmaster-general-designate Montgomery, supported a Republican organization opposing secession known as the ‘Wide-Awakes’ who managed to arm themselves with weapons from Illinois. On March 21, the convention voted 98-1 against secession.

In St. Louis sat the Arsenal, containing 60,000 muskets, 45 tons of gunpowder and 1½ million cartridges, the largest supply of arms and ammunition in the West – invaluable to Union and Confederate alike. The arsenal was commanded by General William S. Harney and supervised by Major Peter Hagner. Into this fractious, albeit balanced situation, was transferred Captain Nathaniel Lyon.

Lyon’s reputation was one of a stern disciplinarian, outspoken political radical, Blair ally, and hothead. Lyon, wishing to secure Missouri for the Union, hoped to muster the Wide-Awakes into federal service and arm them from the arsenal. Hagner denied this request. After Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4th, Lyon implored Frank Blair to exert his influence and have Lyon appointed the Arsenal’s commander. Blair did so and also arranged to have Harney called east for ‘consultations’. One week after Fort Sumter, on April 21, Lyon armed the Wide Awakes, sent all but 10,000 muskets across the river into Illinois and prepared to neutralize the Confederate Missouri State Guard encampment at Camp Jackson.

On May 10, Lyon surrounded the CSA Camp and bloodlessly disarmed the 700 men. Refusing to take the oath of allegiance, Lyon marched the prisoners through the streets of St. Louis before paroling them. The captured men’s public humiliation provoked pro-Southern civilians into throwing insults, fruits and cobblestones at Lyon’s, mostly German, forces. Then shots rang out, killing 3 of Lyon’s men. A return volley killed 25 men, women and children and wounded another one hundred. Scattered rioting and violence continue for 2 days and another seven civilians died.

Returning to St. Louis on May 12, Harney hoped to calm the situation. He met with Price on May 23rd and they issued a truce, reading in part:

“General Price, having by commission full authority over the militia of the State of Missouri, undertakes, with the sanction of the governor of the State, already declared, to direct the whole power of the State officers to maintain order within the State among the people thereof, and General Harney publicly declares that, this object being thus assured, he can have no occasion, as he has no wish, to make military movements, which might otherwise create excitements and jealousies which he most earnestly desires to avoid”

The truce stabilized the political situation but did not calm Lyon. On May 30, Blair had Harney dismissed and replaced by Lyon, now promoted to General. On June 11, Governor Jackson, suffering from stomach cancer, and Price and their staff met with Blair and Lyon and several aides. Jackson offered Lyon a position of Unionist neutrality in exchange for Lyon’s forces leaving the state.

After a day of fruitless discussion, Lyon’s temper got the best of him. He leapt to his feet and ranted, “Rather than concede to the State of Missouri the right to demand that my government shall not enlist troops within her limits, or bring troops into the State whenever it pleases, or move troops at its own will into, out of, or through the State; rather than concede to the State of Missouri for one single instant the right to dictate to my government in any matter, however unimportant, I would see you, and you, and you, and you and every man, woman and child in the State, dead and buried. This means war. In an hour one of my officers will call for you and conduct you out of my lines.”

Jackson returned to Jefferson City where he reminded Missourians to “obey all the constitutional requirements of the Federal Government" but there was "no obligation whatever to obey the unconstitutional edicts of the military despotism" and its "wicked minions," in other words, General Nathaniel Lyon.

Lyon moved his forces toward the capital and Jackson and Price retreated to Boonville. Lyon occupied Jefferson City on May 14, assembled a new State Convention and formed a pro-Union State Government under Governor Hamilton R. Gamble. The 'other' Governor Jackson and his associates and sympathizers retreated west and south.