Nathaniel Lyon

A Long and Bloody Conflict: Military Operations in Missouri and Kansas, Part I

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.

Terry Beckenbaugh
U. S. Air Force Command and Staff College

By Ian Spurgeon, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Washington, D.C.

The Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861, was the first major engagement of the Civil War west of the Mississippi River. It pitted a smaller but aggressive Union army against a numerically superior force of Confederate soldiers and pro-secessionist Missouri State Guard for the future of Missouri. Despite surprising the Confederates that morning, the federals withdrew by mid-day in the face of repeated Southern counterattacks. The Southern victory bolstered Confederate sentiment in Missouri and set the stage for a bold campaign in September by the Missouri State Guard against federal forces further to the north.

By Ian Spurgeon, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Washington, D.C.

Franz Sigel is one of the best known foreign-born Union generals of the Civil War. Sigel drew German immigrants into the Republican fold, largely through a strong antislavery sentiment within their community. He is largely remembered as a poor field commander during the Civil War who could not be dismissed easily due to his popularity within the large, pro-Union German immigrant population.

By Terry Beckenbaugh, U. S. Air Force Command and Staff College

The Battle of Boonville on June 17, 1861, was one of the earliest battles of the Civil War. With the federal victory, the Union gained control of the Missouri River Valley and forced the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard (MSG) into the southwestern corner of the state, cutting the latter off from recruits north of the Missouri River. The Battle of Boonville persuaded Confederate forces in northwest Arkansas to come to the aid of the MSG at the subsequent Battle of Wilson’s Creek and drove Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and his government closer to secession.

By Christopher Phillips, University of Cincinnati

Throughout his career, Union General Nathaniel Lyon exhibited a violent, hair-trigger temper and proved a contentious and nearly unpromotable subordinate, challenging authority at all levels. He is best known for his role in preserving Union control of Missouri in the early parts of the war, a cause for which he gave his life.

By Christopher Phillips, University of Cincinnati

When the elected governor and clandestine secessionist Claiborne Fox Jackson and pro-secession legislators were driven from Jefferson City by a federal foray under Nathaniel Lyon, the state's renewed constitutional convention declared the governor’s seat vacant and on August 1, 1861, chose Hamilton R. Gamble as the state’s provisional governor. As a wartime governor, Gamble found himself and his government caught between pressures of loyalty and disloyalty, national and state authority, military and civil imperatives, and unionist factions in his home state.

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