The start of 1862 witnessed the federals in their most precarious position of the war in Missouri. Sterling Price’s Missouri State Guard (MSG) controlled the interior of the state – including large sections of the strategically vital Missouri River Valley. Guerrillas ran rampant through the interior as well. It was up to the newly-installed commander of the Department of the Missouri, Major General Henry W. Halleck to restore the Union’s fortunes in the states. Halleck was not idle over the holiday season of 1861, as he instructed Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis, commander of the recently-formed Federal Army of the Southwest, on his plans for the upcoming campaign season.
Although the conflict in Virginia has commanded the lion’s share of attention and scholarship, Missouri and Kansas witnessed a tremendous amount of fighting during the American Civil War. Only two states, Virginia and Tennessee, had more actions fought on their soil during the Civil War than Missouri. Missouri was a strategically vital state for President Abraham Lincoln and the federal government’s war effort, and a case can be made that the Civil War started on the Missouri-Kansas border in the 1850s, during “Bleeding Kansas.” Missouri was split in its sentiments, and many Missourians fought on both sides of the war. By contrast, Kansans overwhelmingly fought for the Union.
Why do Little Dixie battle flags still flap in some Missouri cemeteries? What on earth is a jayhawker? Or a bushwhacker? Why does the name “Quantrill,” for some Missourians, evoke a legacy almost equal to that of the raging abolitionist John Brown on the Kansas side? The history behind all of this speaks to divisions that persist in the Kansas City area.
During his retreat from the loss to Confederate Major General Sterling Price at Lexington, Major General James Gillpatrick Blunt stops on October 20 and 21 to make a stand on the west banks of the Little Blue River.
During his retreat from a loss to Confederate General Sterling Price at Lexington, Missouri the day before, Union General James G. Blunt stopped and made a stand on the west banks of the Little Blue River.
Today the town of Newtonia, Missouri counts only about 200 residents in its population, but during the Civil War, it was the site of two notable battles.
As Confederate Major General Sterling Price retreated into Kansas following his loss at the Battle of Westport, two cavalry brigades from the division of Union Major General Alfred Pleasonton overtook the Confederates as they crossed Mine Creek.
On the same day of the devastating Battle of Mine Creek, to the northwest, Confederate Major General Sterling Price was again overtaken by Union cavalry under command of Brigadier General John McNeil at a river crossing.
As a part of his great cavalry raid, Confederate Major General Sterling Price attacked Union Major General James G. Blunt at Byram's Ford on the Big Blue River.
Samuel Ryan Curtis was the most successful federal general west of the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. He is primarily remembered as the victor at the battles of Pea Ridge and Westport. But Curtis was far more than just a general; he played a key role in the opening and exploitation of the American West as an engineer, politician, railroad advocate, and soldier.