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(Opening Campaign for Missouri)

Opening Campaign for Missouri

When the Civil War began in 1861, Missouri's allegiance was of vital concern to Lincoln. The State's strategic position on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and its abundant manpower and natural resources made it vital that she remain loyal. Many Missourians desired neutrality, but many, including the governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, held strong Southern sympathies and planned to cooperate with the Confederacy in its bid for independence, even wanting to join the Confederacy.

When President Lincoln called for troops to put down the rebellion, Missouri was asked to supply four regiments. Governor Jackson refused the request and ordered State military units to muster at Camp Jackson outside Saint Louis and prepare to seize the U.S. Arsenal in that city. He didn't reckon on the resourcefulness of the arsenal's commander, Captain Nathaniel Lyon.

Learning Governor Jackson's intentions, Lyon had most of the weapons moved secretly to Illinois. On May 10 he marched 7,000 men out to Camp Jackson and forced the surrender of the mostly unarmed pro-secession men there. In June, after a futile meeting with Governor Jackson to resolve their differences, Lyon (now a brigadier general) led an army up the Missouri River and captured the state capital, Jefferson City.  Jackson had pulled the State Guard (ill-armed and poorly trained) back rather than lose a battle there.  After an unsuccessful stand at BOONVILLE a few miles upstream, Governor Jackson retreated to southwest Missouri with elements of the State Guard.

After installing a pro-Union state government and picking up reinforcements, Lyon moved toward southwest Missouri.  He skirmished at CARTHAGE in early July, and by mid-month was encamped at Springfield with about 6,000 soldiers, mainly Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas infantry with a few Regulars and three batteries of artillery.

Meanwhile, 75 miles southwest of Springfield, Major General Sterling Price, commanding the Missouri State Guard, had been busy drilling his 5,000 men. By the end of July, when troops under Generals Ben McCulloch and N. Bart Pearce rendezvoused with Price, the total Confederate force exceeded 12,000 men. On July 31, after devising plans to capture Lyon's army and regain control of the state, Price, McCulloch, and Pearce marched northeast to attack the Federals. Lyon, hoping to surprise the Confederates, marched from Springfield on August 1. The next day the Union troops mauled the Southern vanguard at Dug Springs. Lyon, discovering he was outnumbered, ordered a withdrawal to Springfield. The Confederates followed and by August 6 were encamped near Wilson's Creek.

Lyon had been bold so far and it had worked; he had to keep going or potentially lose everything he'd secured so far.  The battle at WILSON'S CREEK was the bloodiest in the war so far, and it ended up with Lyon dead and his army retreating quickly.  Not everything unraveled for the Union; Lyon had protected northern and eastern Missouri, and the Confederates had a lot of ground to cover to get back into the center of the state.

After reorganizing (and arming many of his men for the first time), Price moved north.  He dealt with a Union cavalry probe at DRY WOOD CREEK at the beginning of September, and spent the middle of the month capturing the Union garrison at Lexington.  His goal was Jefferson City, the state capitol and a great prestige prize: if he could put Governor Jackson in the capitol for a vote on secession it would carry far more weight than a government in exile.

So Price moved east, but Lincoln knew the importance of Missouri as well, and had sent reinforcements and a new general, John Charles Fremont (former Republican presidential candidate, and married to the daughter of a former Missouri Senator).  Fremont's forces were too strong for Price, who didn't risk any battles (though Confederate forces brushed off a Union raid from Kansas at LIBERTY).

As September turned into October, Fremont could push the Confederates back with his main army and still operate elsewhere.  At FREDERICKTOWN the Union sealed control of the southeastern part of the state, which would only need garrisons against raiders and guerrillas for the rest of the war.  The Union main force went back into southwestern Missouri, fighting a small action at SPRINGFIELD before pulling back for the winter to Rolla and Sedalia.

The Confederates had control over a bare quarter of Missouri, and not the part they wanted, the heartland of pro-slavery interests along the Missouri itself.  Another Border State had been held in the Union, largely through the early efforts of Nathaniel Lyon and the unpreparedness of the secessionists. 

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(Opening Campaign for Missouri)