About The Battle of Wilson's Creek

The threat to the union in Missouri was particularly acute in 1861. Within months of Abraham Lincoln's election, rival militias had formed in the state. Into this explosive situation stepped Nathaniel Lyon, Union Army Captain and stern abolitionist, who was assigned to the Federal Arsenal in St. Louis. Promoted to Brigadier General, Lyon easily secured the surrender of a pro-Confederate Missouri militia unit just outside the city. This resulted in a riot in the streets of St. Louis between soldiers and civilians, leaving 28 citizens killed or mortally wounded. The battle for Missouri was beginning to boil. In June, Lyon began his campaign to secure Missouri for the Union and drive the newly created pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard out of the state. Tension mounted and the agony of civil war weighed heavily on the people of Missouri.

On a broiling hot August 10, 1861, ten miles southwest of Springfield, the first important battle after Bull Run erupted. The two armies--more than 12,000 Confederates and 5,400 Federals—fought in the fields and on the hills bordering Wilson's Creek. Six hours of intense fighting left extremely high casualties on the battlefield. Blow by blow, bullet by bullet, history proved that green volunteer troops on both sides could fight bravely, proudly, and strongly for the cause in which they believed so deeply. Lyon had ignored the odds, attacking even though his troops were greatly outnumbered. During the brutal fighting he was killed by a bullet to the chest. With their General dead and ammunition running low, the Union Army retreated to Springfield and then to Rolla. Also low on ammunition and exhausted from the day's fighting, the Confederates remained on the battlefield to bury the dead and care for the wounded.

The Union Army lost 24 percent of its command in the battle-killed—wounded, captured or missing—while the Confederate losses totaled 12 percent. On Bloody Hill, where the heaviest fighting took place, there were over 1,700 casualties—20 percent of the men who had fought on the hill.

After the southern victory at Wilson's Creek, Major General Sterling Price led his Missourians north to Lexington, Missouri, and another victory. But by March 1862, a defeat at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, had turned the tide against the Confederacy's hope of holding Missouri. Thousands of Federal soldiers had moved into Missouri and held it for the Union.

Although the Battle of Wilson's Creek was considered a Union defeat, historians believe that it saved Missouri for the Union. Along with the battle of Pea Ridge, it was one of the two most important Civil War battles fought west of the Mississippi.