In the West today, Union soldiers fight against African slavery even as American politicians force yet another treaty upon Native Americans designed to marginalize Indians. In Missouri, the minor Battle of Dry Wood Creek (also known as the Battle of the Mules) results in Confederate victory. U.S. Col. J.H. Lane, leading some 600 calvary, is…
Near Springfield, Missouri the first major Civil War battle in the western theater wages. At 5 A.M. Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon’s U.S. Army of the West faces off with Confederate Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch’s troops at Wilson Creek, twelve miles southwest of Springfield. By morning’s end, the Confederates emerge victorious in the Battle of Wilson’s…
The Battle of Carthage, also known as the Battle of Dry Fork, takes place in Jasper County, Missouri. In this first “full-scale” battle of the Civil War, some 1,100 experienced federal troops commanded by Colonel Franz Sigel clash with a much larger Confederate force, the Missouri State Guard, numbering over 6,000 (4,000 are armed). The…