The Battle

By the second week of July 1861, Lyon and his troops were camped in Springfield, while Major General Sterling Price drilled his Missouri State Guard soldiers 75 miles to the southwest. Price was joined by Confederate Generals Ben McCulloch and Nicholas Pearce, and they made plans to capture Lyon’s army and regain control of the state. By the end of July, the armies had worked their way closer to a clash, skirmishing at Dug Springs and gaining information about the opposing forces. Although Lyon knew he was outnumbered, he marched his troops out of Springfield on August 9, toward Wilson’s Creek, where the Confederates were camped. His plan called for Colonel Franz Sigel to flank the Southern army from the south, while the rest of his forces attacked from the north. Surprise was necessary for his plan to succeed. In the meantime, the Confederate leaders had also planned a surprise attack on the Federal troops, but rain caused the operation to be cancelled.

Lyon’s strategy did catch the Southerners off guard, driving them back and allowing the Federals to occupy “Bloody Hill.” 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 fiercely in the fields and on the hills bordering Wilson's Creek. Six hours of intense fighting left extremely high casualties on the battlefield. Lyon had ignored the odds, attacking even though his troops were greatly outnumbered. Sigel’s flanking maneuver, initially successful, collapsed when he confused the 3rd Louisiana for Federal troops wearing gray and allowed them to approach within firing range. During the brutal fighting, Lyon, who had already been wounded twice, was killed by a bullet to the chest while leading a countercharge. With their general dead and ammunition running low, the Federal forces under Major Samuel Sturgis retreated to Springfield and later 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. Although the Southerners were victorious, they did not pursue the northern troops.

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. 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.