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AFTERMATH
The Battle of Wilson's Creek, or Oak Hills, as federals and
Confederates, respectively, called it, was the first major battle of the
war after Bull Run. Unlike the battle in Virginia, in which casualties
were light when compared to the number of troops involved, the fight at
Wilson's Creek was bloodier than anyone could have imagined. In the
brief six and a half hours of fighting, Lyon's Army of the West suffered
285 killed, 873 wounded, and 186 missing, or 1,317 out of 5,400 men
involved (a 24.5 percent casualty rate), while McCulloch's Western Army
incurred 277 dead and 945 wounded, or 1,222 losses of more than 10,200
men (a 12 percent casualty rate). Both in total numbers and as a
percentage of the force engaged, Lyon's losses were greater than those
of any battle in the Mexican War, while McCulloch's were higher than all
but three battles in that war. Taken together, the 16 percent casualty
rate was one of the highest of the Civil War. When viewed in light of
the fact that the battle was fought between forces consisting
overwhelmingly of untried recruits, of which nearly half were armed with
no more than shotguns or hunting rifles and of which several thousand
were completely unarmed and never took part in the battle, the
statistics are particularly telling. As one participant aptly remembered
the battle, it was one "mighty mean-fowl fight."
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NICHOLAS BOUQUET OF THE FIRST IOWA WAS A RECIPIENT OF THE MEDAL OF
HONOR. THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN CIRCA 1905. (NPS)
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News of Wilson's Creek and of Lyon's death made headlines across
the country, evoking conflicting responses. Despite the initial banner
of the New York Times, which proclaimed the battle a "Great National
Victory in Missouri," the actual results soon made for somber reading
among Unionists.
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News of Wilson's Creek and of Lyon's death made headlines across the
country, evoking conflicting responses. Despite the initial banner of
the New York Times, which proclaimed the battle a "Great National
Victory in Missouri," the actual results soon made for somber reading
among Unionists. Barton Bates wrote to his father, Edward, attorney
general for the Lincoln administration, that "General Lyon's death cost
us much popular strength throughout the state." Many were discontented
by what they perceived to have been Frémont's wanton sacrifice of
Lyon, while others questioned Lyon's rash strategy. Prosouthern
Missourians rejoiced at the news. "Lyon, the king of the beasts, the
Camp Jackson HERO, the murderer of innocent women and children and
as I believe under the displeasure of God," wrote one such embittered
Missourian, "has met his just reward."
The victorious Missouri State Guard remained in Springfield, while
McCulloch and Pearce returned to Arkansas, the breach between the State
Guard and Confederate commanders having widened in the days immediately
following the battle. In September, Price marched his force northward,
intending to retake the Missouri River and his home. On September 20,
with exiled governor Jackson in attendance, Price—his ranks swelled
to twenty thousand troops—captured a three-thousand man Union
garrison under Colonel James A. Mulligan at Lexington. Together, the
victories at Wilson's Creek and Lexington marked the high-water mark of
secessionist hopes in Missouri. With nearly thirty-eight thousand troops
massing on his flanks, Price could not remain in Lexington and retreated
to Cassville. Protected by Price's force, in October a rump assembly of
the state legislature met at Neosho and passed an act delivering
Missouri into the Confederacy, which eventually admitted it as its
twelfth state. Jackson had achieved his long-sought secession, but the
gesture was meaningless. Without control of the seat of power and with
the federal government firmly controlling St. Louis, the state would
remain in Union hands. Sterling Price ultimately left the state,
fighting with his State Guard in Arkansas at Pea Ridge (where McCulloch
was killed) and serving with the Confederate army in northern
Mississippi. In 1864, he led a massive armed cavalry raid back to the
state, in hopes of diverting federals from Georgia and redeeming his
home state from Union hands. Instead, a combined federal campaign drove
Price once again from the state's borders. With the exception of that
and separate cavalry raids by John S. Marmaduke, Jo Shelby, and M. Jeff
Thompson, Price's retreat from Lexington in the fall of 1861 marked the
last real show of Confederate force in Missouri.
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THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON, MISSOURI WAS FOUGHT SEPTEMBER 18-20. (HW)
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In October 1861, Frémont found himself plagued by the fallout
from Wilson's Creek. Continuing as department commander, the Pathfinder
received vehement criticism for his abandonment of Lyon. Though Frank
Blair initially lay blame for Lyon's defeat and death on "red tape and
Quartermasters Department," he soon led the storm of protest against
Frémont. He would ultimately appear before Congress's Joint
Committee on the Conduct of the War and excoriate his family's former
friend. By that time, the Pathfinder had left Missouri after angering
Lincoln with a premature emancipation proclamation in the state. On
November 2, Frémont received the order for his removal by courier
as he led troops in pursuit of Price following the battle at Lexington.
He gave up his command at Springfield, the scene of Lyon's death.
Perhaps most dramatic were the effects of Lyon's campaign and
Wilson's Creek on the Missouri populace. By polarizing the state, Lyon
and Blair provided guerrilla bands with a cause célèbre
for which they subjected large areas of Missouri to three years of
rampant bushwhacking, sniping, hit-and-run raiding, arson, and murder.
The truest demonstration of the improbable oxymoron civil war was
nowhere more apparent than in Missouri, its brutal guerrilla war
unsurpassed in its fury and scope in the entire national conflict.
Pro-Confederates such as William Quantrill, "Bloody" Bill Anderson,
Jesse and Frank James, and George Todd gained notoriety by unleashing
bloodthirsty attacks on Unionist residents, while pro-Union Jayhawkers
like James H. Lane, James Montgomery, and Charles Jennison led
retaliatory raids that often equaled their rivals in their destructive
fury. More than any other state, Missouri suffered the horror of
internecine warfare that, almost as Lyon had predicted at the Planters'
House, touched every man, woman, and child living there in some way
during the next three years and beyond. The Battle of Wilson's Creek
offered the first unleashing of that coming fury.
(click on image for a PDF version)
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Wilson's Creek
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Back cover: The Death of Lyon, Kurz and Allison lithograph
(NPS collection).
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