The Battle of Wilson's Creek was a pivotal early engagement in the Civil War for the strategically important Border State of Missouri, resulting in a decisive Confederate victory that solidified their control over the region and marked the first general officer killed in combat.
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When the Civil War began with the first shots fired on Fort Sumter, the Border State of
Missouri had already seen its fair share of conflict during the “Bleeding Kansas”
border war between the abolitionists “Free-Staters” of Kansas and the pro-slavery “Jayhawkers”
of Missouri from 1854 to 1861.
Now, Missouri is caught in its own state of civil war, as half of its population supports
secession and the South, while the other half supports the Union.
Missouri had been admitted into the Union in 1820 as a slave state in accordance with
the Missouri Compromise.
With the state’s heavy pro-slavery population sympathetic to the Confederate cause, President
Lincoln makes the objective of securing control over the Border State of Missouri a top priority
for the Union Army.
On April 20th, 1861, a large company of secessionists from Clay County in the Missouri State Militia,
led by Colonel Henry Lewis Routt, and a Jackson County militia company captained by John H.
Murray of Independence, about 200 men in all, force their way into the Liberty Arsenal,
seizing armaments and munitions from the Federal supply depot.
This leaves the St. Louis Arsenal as the only other Federal installation in the entire state.
Soon, Union Army Captain Nathaniel Lyon, an ardent abolitionist with a fiery determination
to keep Missouri in the Union, begins raising Federal regiments of volunteers, consisting
mainly of pro-Union German immigrants, for three months service.
The next major incident in Missouri occurs on May 10th, 1861, in the city of St. Louis.
That morning, Captain Lyon marches into the city with his regiments to capture a garrison
of secessionists from the Missouri State Militia being raised at a drill field known as “Camp
Jackson.”
The Federals capture the secessionists and march them through the city, putting them
under guard outside the St. Louis Arsenal.
The militiamen are paroled under the agreement to not take up further arms against the Union.
However, an angry mob of civilians begin swarming around the German volunteers, shouting ethnic
slurs and throwing rocks at the troops.
Things soon escalate out of control when Captain Lyon is knocked unconscious by a buck from
his horse, and the German troops become nervous.
When someone in the angry mob fires a pistol, the Union soldiers fire into the crowd.
The Camp Jackson Affair, or “Camp Jackson Massacre” as it is called in outraged Southern
newspapers, leaves 28 civilians dead, including two teenaged children, and an infant still
in its mother’s arms.
Lyon pushes on, leaving the dead and the wounded behind as riots break out in St. Louis the
next day.
In response to the Camp Jackson Affair, the Missouri General Assembly authorizes the formation
of the Missouri State Guard, a militia army led by Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and
Brigadier General Sterling Price.
Its purpose is to protect Missouri from invasion.
However, its ranks draw heavily from the region in northern Missouri dubbed “Little Dixie”
for its strong pro-Southern sentiments.
By mid-May, divisions of Missouri State Guardsmen are organizing across the state.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel Lyon is promoted to Brigadier General and placed in command of all Federal
forces in the State of Missouri.
On June 11th, General Lyon meets with Governor Jackson and General Price to resolve the disagreements
peacefully.
However, the talks soon turn into arguments, with Lyon angrily threatening Price and Jackson.
Ultimately the talks lead to the collapse of the Price-Harney Truce that had held for
a month.
Price and Governor Jackson flee for Jefferson City, and the next day, the Governor calls
for 50,000 volunteers to defend Missouri from the Union Army.
Thousands of additional men soon answer the proclamation and enlist in their local districts
and divisions of the state, greatly bolstering the Missouri State Guard’s numbers.
Wasting no time, Lyon splits his Army of the West, and sends a column under Colonel Franz
Sigel, a prominent German-American officer, to Rolla in order to secure the rail and telegraph
lines.
Meanwhile, the remainder of Lyon’s army travels up the Missouri River by steamboat
- a first in the Civil War.
Four days later, Lyon’s troops occupy the state capital, and he installs a new, pro-Union
governor.
But exiled Governor Jackson has escaped upriver with some four hundred State Guardsmen to
the fairgrounds outside Boonville.
Here, these two armies will engage in their first battle.
But Sterling Price has fallen ill, and the inexperienced Governor Jackson takes command.
The First Battle of Boonville on June 17th ends in disaster for the Missouri State Guard.
General Lyon’s well-drilled artillerists quickly send the State Guardsmen into a panicked
retreat in what will be dubbed the “Boonville Races” by Northern press.
Jackson’s Missouri State Guard forces flee south toward Lamar, merging along the way
with two more divisions from Lexington.
Price, having regained his strength, rides further south in the hopes of finding aid
from the only people he knows can provide it: the Confederates.
In just thirty days, Lyon’s aggressive actions have secured Union control over Missouri’s
rivers and railroads, and he has cut off Price’s army from northern Missouri and “Little
Dixie.”
Lyon has also effectively scattered the rebellious elements of the Missouri State Legislature.
But the general is not content.
He wants to destroy this army that has dared to defy him.
An ambitious Colonel Franz Sigel is all too willing to oblige.
Having already seized Rolla and Springfield, Sigel moves west, hoping to cut off the Missouri
State Guard’s retreat.
But thanks to their earlier rendezvous with Price, the Missouri State Guard now outnumbers
Sigel four-to-one.
At the Battle of Carthage, or Battle of Dry Fork, on July 5th, Sigel is forced into an
embarrassing retreat east to Springfield, where his army merges with Lyon’s advancing
column a week later.
The Missouri State Guard continues south to Cowskin Prairie, where Price begins to mold
them into a well-trained, well-disciplined army.
Meanwhile, in the northern region of Arkansas, five thousand troops of the Confederate Army
under Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch encamp just a few miles from Price’s Missourians
across the border.
A former Texas Ranger, McCulloch doubts the fighting spirit and abilities of Price and
his rag-tag Missouri State Guardsmen.
But a Confederate Missouri is enticing - the rivers and rails can open new supply lines.
It offers a greater control over the future Oklahoma Territory, and possibly even Kansas.
It also provides a good wall of defense for the State of Arkansas.
At Cassville on July 29th, McCulloch successfully merges with Price’s army, and together with
the Arkansans of Brigadier General Nicholas B. Pearce, they form the Western Army, twelve
thousand strong.
But Lyon has his own band of dedicated fighters, with more coming as he marches to Springfield
to meet Sigel.
At the core of his army is six hundred professional soldiers led by West Point officers, known
as Regulars.
They don’t count on the volunteers to fight when the shooting starts.
But many in Lyon’s two Kansas volunteer regiments have seen plenty of combat in the
1850s border war of Bleeding Kansas.
However, by mid-summer, the three month enlistment periods for Lyon’s troops were nearing an
end.
The men could go home and rightfully say they did their duty, and many did.
Lyon’s Army of the West shrinks to less than six thousand men.
Those who stay soon wonder if they made the right choice.
In his trek through Missouri to find Price and the Missouri State Guard, Lyon’s men
cover more ground that summer than most armies do in the entire war.
In one thirty-hour span, they march fifty miles, going without sleep, marching along
dusty roads, with few trees to give relief from the scorching sun.
When they aren’t on the march, they encamp at Springfield, a city whose people are staunchly
pro-Union.
July passes into August without any major action, and for the first time, those close
to Lyon see something in him they had never seen before: doubt.
The latest intelligence relayed by telegraph, another first in warfare, suggests that he
is badly outnumbered.
He had recently been demoted as Union commander in Missouri, replaced by politically-connected
and popular Brigadier General John C. Fremont, who now wants some of Lyon’s Regulars for
the fight in the East.
And with the embarrassing Union defeat at the Battle of Bull Run in Virginia, the pressure
for a decisive victory is weighed upon Lyon.
Meanwhile, the Confederate Western Army has learned to adapt to conditions where supply
lines are few and far between.
They live off the land and march on their stomachs, and it is twelve thousand empty
bellies that lead them into a valley ten miles southwest of Springfield.
Crops and livestock are plentiful, corn, oates, wheat, sweet potatoes, just to name a few.
There are 250 hogs here, and a hundred head of cattle.
A meandering water source also provides relief for the men and animals during this dry, hot
August.
But for the people living around Wilson’s Creek, the land and their lives will never
be the same.
John and Roxanna Ray’s farm has 440 acres in the valley surrounding Wilson’s Creek.
Though slaveholders, like many in southwestern Missouri, the Rays are decidedly pro-Union,
and as the area’s U.S. postmaster, John Ray’s farm straddles the Wire Road, a major
highway across southwest Missouri.
Down the road, Joseph Sharp is living a nightmare.
He is one of wealthiest farmers in the area, with a thousand acres of farmland and three
slaves to work it.
Now he and his fellow farmers have become unwilling hosts to twelve thousand Rebels
and militiamen.
Many Southerners worry this peaceful valley will lull the Confederates and Missouri State
Guardsmen into complacency and seal their doom.
General Lyon knows he is outnumbered at least two to one, and believes an attack on Springfield
is only a matter of time.
He begins sending requests to General Fremont for reinforcements, and though he has fifty
thousand fresh soldiers at his command, Fremont sends none.
It becomes increasingly clear that if Lyon does not pull back to his supply base in Rolla,
he risks his whole Army of the West.
Lyon fears retreating.
The Southerners’ large mounted force could surround or cut off his long lines of men
on foot, and abandoning the region’s pro-Union civilians to the Confederates doesn’t sit
well with him.
Also, leaving without a fight doesn’t suit the General’s character.
Franz Sigel, eager to prove himself and his Germans, comes up with a solution: he proposes
dividing Lyon’s outnumbered army and attacking the Southern force from two directions.
The armies would march at night, and launch a surprise attack at dawn on Saturday, August
10th, leaving their opponent reeling and hopefully buying time to safely move to Rolla.
The plan would be brilliant if successful, but disastrous if it fails.
Coincidentally, McCulloch and Price had given orders for their army to attack Lyon on the
same day, but heavy rainstorms interfered.
Unlike Lyon’s men, most of the Southerners lack cartridge boxes for their paper-wrapped
ammunition.
The march is postponed to keep gunpowder dry, but in a crucial oversight, Price and McCulloch
do not post sentries along the camp’s edge; if a surprise attack comes, they will have
little warning.
As Southerners sleep, Northerners march.
In the early morning hours of August 10th, 1861, the stage is set for the Civil War’s
first major battle of the Trans-Mississippi Theater.
Throughout the predawn hours of Saturday, August 10th, 1861, the Federal columns under
Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon continue their march towards the Confederate and Missouri
State Guard camps.
Surprise is essential to the Union attack plan.
At dawn, Federal 6- and 12-pounder howitzers from Captain James Totten’s Company F, 2nd
U.S. Artillery, situated north of a rise known as Oak Hill, open fire on the Rebel camp.
This was the opening barrage of the battle.
Further to the south, Colonel Franz Sigel deploys his Second Brigade’s 1,200 men onto
a ridge overlooking the Sharp Farm.
Upon hearing the opening barrage of Lyon’s attack north of Oak Hill, Sigel orders Backof’s
Battery of Missouri Light Artillery, commanded by Lieutenant Edward Schuetzenbach, to open
fire on the 1,800 Southerners camped on the Sharp Farm.
The opening barrage from Backof’s Battery rattles the sleeping Southerners, who quickly
flee from the area.
With the Rebels cleared from their camp, Sigel proceeds to move his Second Brigade off the
ridge and into the Sharp stubble field.
When about 800 Southerners attempt to make a stand, Sigel’s artillerymen open fire
again, and after about 30 minutes, the Southerners withdraw.
Back beyond Oak Hill, Brigadier General Lyon’s three other brigades are beginning a drive
to capture the hill.
Colonel James Cawthorn’s Cavalry Brigade from Brigadier General James S. Rains’ Second
Division of the Missouri State Guard, which is headquartered around Gibson’s Mill, receives
the brunt of the Federal attack.
At about 5:30 AM, Colonel DeWitt C. Hunter and his 300 Missouri State Guard cavalrymen
form a line of battle on the unnamed northern spur of Oak Hill in order to oppose Lyon’s
advance.
Hunter’s outnumbered Guardsmen are quickly driven off, and Lyon pushes his brigades onto
the crest of Oak Hill.
The fighting will become so intense on Oak Hill that it will receive a new nickname - “Bloody
Hill.”
When a Missouri State Guard runner arrives at Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch’s
headquarters, located on the property of the Winn Farm, around 5:45 AM, the exhausted runner
frantically informs the general that Union forces have driven Cawthorn’s Brigade from
their camp.
General McCulloch, who is in the midst of eating breakfast when the runner arrives,
calmly replies that he will inspect the field after he is finished eating.
McCulloch initially does not believe the report from Cawthorn’s messenger due to a “Cry
Wolf” effect: weeks earlier, Cawthorn and his nervous cavalrymen had fired into the
woods near their camp when they believed they had heard Federals nearing, only to find they
had been spooked by nearby deer.
There is another reason why McCulloch initially doesn’t belive the report: the general’s
headquarters is situated in an “acoustic shadow” - meaning that sound reverberates
differently from this position, and he is unable to hear the opening barrage when it
is fired.
It is only after a second messenger arrives and confirms the first’s report that Brigadier
General McCulloch springs into action, riding to Edward’s Cabin where Brigadier General
Sterling Price is headquartered, to confer with his Missouri State Guard counterpart.
Generals McCulloch and Price soon formulate a plan to counter the Federal attacks to the
north and south.
The two generals’ quick response to the Union attack will help them reorganize the
routed Southerners retreating from their camps for an efficient counterattack.
Meanwhile, Brigadier General Lyon’s three brigades have been forming into line of battle
on the crest of Bloody Hill.
Totten’s Battery is also unlimbered and firing down into the Southern camps to the
south.
As the Southerners retreat and rally on Brigadier General McCulloch, one Arkansas battery of
6-pounder smoothbore howitzers - the Pulaksi Light Artillery - unlimbers to the east of
Wilson’s Creek near the Winn House, where they distract Totten’s guns with heavy counter-battery
fire.
The fire from the Pulaski Light Artillery keeps the Federal advance from Bloody Hill
in check.
This also helps buy time for General Price’s infantry to form a line of battle on the southern
slope of the hill.
The first Southern counterattack on Bloody Hill begins at approximately 6:30 AM.
Brigadier General McBride’s Seventh Division of Missouri State Guardsmen forms its line
of battle and charges uphill.
Federal troops from Major Samuel D. Sturgis’ First Brigade and Lieutenant Colonel George
L. Andrews’ Third Brigade are deployed in line of battle on the western part of Bloody
Hill.
Due to the rough terrain, the two lead regiments - the 1st and 2nd Missouri - have become split
by a ravine in the hill.
When the first Southern attack rushes uphill, the Missourians are unable to lay down an
effective volley.
Instead, fighting becomes piecemeal on both sides of the ravine.
Eventually, however, the Southern counterattack falters, and they fall back down the hill.
Sturgis reinforces his right flank with the 2nd Kansas, while the Regulars from Major
Frederick Steele’s 2nd U.S. Infantry help bolster the left flank.
At about 7:15 - 7:30, a second Rebel attack is launched up the hill.
This one is equally bloody, marked by close-quarters bayonet and hand-to-hand combat.
This, too, however, is eventually repulsed.
Bloody Hill’s nickname is becoming evidently clear as bodies pile up on the southern slope
of the rise.
With Southern reinforcements continued to stream into the fight at Bloody Hill, many
of the Federals, Lyon included, were all asking the same question: “Where are Sigel’s
men?”
Further south, Colonel Franz Sigel was moving his Second Brigade further north, when suddenly,
at 8:00 AM, he halts his advance at the Sharp House.
Sigel deploys his troops on either side of the Wire Road, and waits.
Around 8:30 AM, a group of gray-clad soldiers move south down the Wire Road toward Sigel’s
position.
With early reports informing Sigel of the Federal advance on Oak Hill, Sigel assumes
that these soldiers are the gray-uniformed Kansas Grayhounds of the 1st Iowa, part of
Lyon’s force.
He is mistaken - they are soldiers of the Confederate 3rd Louisiana Infantry Regiment,
supported by Missouri State Guard and Arkansas troops.
The Southerners, aided by two artillery batteries, pour a deadly fire onto the Union ranks.
Sigel’s Germans are rattled by the heavy musket fire, and soon men begin streaming
off the field.
This turns into a complete rout, with Sigel leading the column in full retreat.
The defeat of Sigel’s Second Brigade marks a major turning point in the battle, as the
Southerners can now focus all their attention on Lyon’s understrength brigades on Bloody
Hill.
The situation on Bloody Hill is rapidly deteriorating by the minute.
Brigadier General Lyon desperately tries to rally his men, but to no avail.
Wounded twice already he has had his horse shot from under him, and he now roams the
battlefield.
After being encouraged by Major Sturgis to try to rally his men one last time, General
Lyon moves to the front lines to inspire the troops.
Just then, at 9:30 AM, a bullet strikes him while he is positioning his troops.
His last words are reported as either being, “I am going,” as if he is finally allowed
to rest, or, “I am killed?” as if he is surprised to have been fatally shot.
Regardless, the Civil War has taken the life of its first general officer killed in combat.
After General Lyon is killed, Major Sturgis assumes command of the Union forces.
Realizing that the Pulaski Light Artillery is pinning Totten’s Battery, he orders Regulars
from the 1st U.S. Infantry to cross Wilson’s Creek and attack the battery.
However, as the Regulars are making their way through the Ray Farm cornfield, they are
engaged by Confederates of the 3rd Louisiana and 3rd Arkansas Infantry Battalion - having
just arrived from the south.
Bloody combat ensues from 10:00 - 10:30 in the Ray Cornfield, with the Confederates laying
down devastating volleys from the split rail fence beyond the corn.
The Regulars are sitting ducks as they are picked off by Rebel volleys.
Eventually, the Federals retreat back across Wilson’s Creek.
At 10:30, the Confederates and Missouri State Guardsmen under Generals Price and McCulloch
rally for one final assault up Bloody Hill.
The Confederates and Missouri State Guard troops give off a screeching “Rebel Yell”
- one of the first of the Civil War - and storm up the slopes of the hill.
Smashing into what was left of the Federal lines, the Southerners clash with the Federals
in brutal, bloody melee combat.
Finally, realizing their position is lost, Major Sturgis orders a retreat.
By 11:00 AM, the Southerners have captured Bloody Hill at long last.
The shattered Union forces from the Army of the West begin a general retreat toward Springfield.
The Battle of Wilson’s Creek, AKA Battle of Oak Hills, is finally over.
The Union defeat is so devastating that Northern newspapers soon dub it the “Bull Run of
the West.”
The sun has not yet fully reached its peak, and already, the second major battle of the
Civil War has ended in a decisive Confederate and Missouri State Guard victory.
