Civil War

2006 Civil War Guide

Updated at December 07, 2006 15:31

Skirmishes and Scars of the Show Me State’s Struggle

By Rebecca Smith

Literally a stomping ground during the Civil War, almost every corner of Missouri has a story to tell. From city streets to fields of corn to cemeteries, there are legends and stories of battles, encampments, guerrilla warfare, and the underground railroad. Use this guide to discover those stories.

ARROW ROCK Secessionist Gov. Claiborne Jackson died in Arkansas in 1862 but was interred after the war at Sappington Cemetery outside Arrow Rock.

ATHENS The August 5, 1861, Battle of Athens was the northernmost skirmish west of the Mississippi River. The State Historic Site preserves period homes and a mill. Especially notable is the Thome-Benning House, struck by Southern artillery fire during the battle and now known as the Cannonball House.

BELMONT On November 7, 1861, Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant led a drive to force Confederate troops out of their camp at Belmont and across the Mississippi River to Kentucky. The Confederates regrouped, and Union troops ultimately withdrew in the Battle of Belmont.

BILLINGSVILLE An October 1864 clash between Gen. Sanborn’s Union Army and Gen. J.O. Shelby’s Confederates is commemorated with a bronze plaque at the site of Wilkins Bridge.

BLOOMFIELD Stars and Stripes, the newspaper that keeps service members and their families informed, was first published in Bloomfield in November 1861. A museum is dedicated to the paper.

The Stoddard County Civil War Cemetery has 150 military markers for the soldiers and citizens who died in Stoddard County during the war.

BONNE TERRE Hildebrand’s Cave in St. Francois State Park sheltered outlaws during the war. Sam Hildebrand became notorious for guerilla tactics against the Union. The rugged area made it easy to hide in the Missouri countryside.

BOONVILLE The first battle in Missouri was the First Battle of Boonville. Union Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon caught up with the Missouri State Guard outside Boonville and took control of the town.

1859 Crestmead Plantation Mansion has original furnishings and built-in hiding places to tour. Legend says a fellow Mason sent to execute John Taylor for being a Southern sympathizer realized Taylor was a Mason and didn’t carry out his orders. Taylor was sent to prison in St. Louis, instead.

Cooper County Jail was used as a prison for Southern sympathizers and even held Frank James for a few hours. Until its closing in 1978 by a Federal Court that deemed it cruel and unusual punishment, the 1848 jail was one of the oldest continuously used jails in Missouri.

Thespian Hall, used as a hospital and troop barracks during the Second Battle of Boonville, is the oldest theater still in use west of the Alleghenies.

BUNCETON Built for Civil War Capt. Nathaniel Leonard and his bride, Nadine Nelson, Ravenswood Plantation offers tours of the original furnishings, including George Caleb Bingham portraits.

BURFORDVILLE Burned by Union troops to keep it out of rebel hands, Bollinger Mill, now a State Historic Site, was rebuilt on the original foundation by Solomon Burford. Today, the working mill sits next to Burfordville Covered Bridge, the oldest of Missouri’s four surviving covered bridges.

CAPE GIRARDEAU The city and surrounding areas were home to several conflicts, most notably the April 26, 1863, Battle of Cape Girardeau. The battle site is marked, and the city’s only remaining original fort, Fort D, has been restored and is now a park. The town also is home to Union and Confederate memorials.

The Old Lorimier Cemetery, established in 1820, is the final resting place of soldiers that died in battle and also from smallpox in the Minton House hospital.

The Minton House Hospital was the site of many soldiers’ deaths due to smallpox.

The Common Pleas Courthouse, headquarters for the Union forces, jailed Southern sympathizers and Confederate soldiers in its dungeon.

CARTHAGE The First Battle of Bull Run is called the first land battle of the Civil War, but the Battle of Carthage took place seventeen days earlier on July 5, 1861. An interpretive display stands at the site of the last skirmish in the day-long battle.

The Civil War Museum has an exhibit on Belle Starr, a Confederate spy who reported Union troop positions. The museum has other artifacts from the Battle of Carthage and southwest Missouri.

CENTRALIA Markers describe the September 27, 1864, Centralia Massacre by “Bloody” Bill Anderson.

The Gray Ghost Trail opens May 20. It is a driving tour from Danville through Fulton, Centralia, and Columbia to Kansas City that will highlight points in Centralia related to the massacre, as well as lesser known Civil War sites of “Bloody” Bill Anderson.

Centralia Area Historical Society houses a statue of “Bloody” Bill Anderson and a Confederate flag replica in the Civil War room.

CLINTON The Henry County Historical Museum boasts a period doctor’s office complete with the surgical bag and instruments used by Dr. John H. Britts during the Civil War. The military room houses a uniform, Confederate money, and an original “pardon” from President Andrew Johnson, needed after the war by all Confederate-affiliated citizens.

COLE CAMP Museum exhibits tell the story of the Home Guard’s defeat of June 19, 1861, in the Battle of Cole Camp, one of the first of the war.

COLUMBIA The State Historical Society of Missouri possesses paintings by Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham, including his famous Order No. 11.

CUBA Outdoor storyboard murals in Cuba commemorate the Battle of Pilot Knob and the Confederate pursuit of the retreating Union army.

The Crawford County Historical Museum displays Civil War uniforms and weapons.

DANVILLE “Bloody” Bill Anderson rode into Danville on October 14, 1864, to destroy the homes of Union sympathizers. Baker Plantation House still bears scars from bullets and sabers.

DIAMOND Peanut innovator and scientist George Washington Carver, born in 1861, was said to be kidnapped with his slave mother and taken to Arkansas by Confederate raiders. Carver eventually was returned to Diamond, where the plantation owner raised him. The George Washington Carver National Monument is on part of that plantation.

DONIPHAN Maps of Gen. Sterling Price’s battles, stone cannonballs, clay bullets, and Confederate money are on display at the Current River Heritage Museum. Driving tour maps and histories of skirmishes in Ripley County are also available.

DREXEL The Frontier Military Museum includes Civil War uniforms, saddles, and guns.

FAYETTE “Bloody” Bill Anderson’s raid on Fayette was repelled by Union forces barricaded in the courthouse in the Battle of Fayette.

FREDERICKTOWN Union troops led by Col. J.B. Plummer and Col. William P. Carlin successfully pushed Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson and Confederate forces out of Fredericktown in an October 21, 1861, battle. The town cemetery offers a vantage point to view the battlefield.

War Eagle Trail Driving Tour will highlight the 36 battles of the 8th Wisconsin Infantry with “Old Abe” the War Eagle, an actual eagle, as their mascot.

FULTON On July 28, 1862, Confederate troops led by Col. Joseph Porter ambushed the Union Army led by Col. Odon Guitar in Callaway County near Calwood but were forced to retreat. The Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society displays artifacts and the history of the Battle of Moore’s Mill.

GLASGOW A marker describes the October 15, 1864, Battle of Glasgow, during which a Confederate detachment raided Union stores in search of rifles.

HANNIBAL Union forces occupied Hannibal throughout the war, though most residents were Southern sympathizers. The town was a stop on the Underground Railroad; slaves seeking freedom reportedly hid in Mark Twain Cave. Mark Twain himself served briefly in the Confederate Army.

HARRISONVILLE The town became a Union stronghold and command center for enforcement of Order No. 11, which forced thousands of Missourians near the Kansas border from their homes.

HIGGINSVILLE The Confederate Memorial State Historic Site, a 135-acre park, preserves homes used by Confederate veterans, a cemetery, and a 106-year-old chapel. More than 800 Confederate soldiers, including part of William Quantrill of Quantrill’s Raiders, were buried here.

INDEPENDENCE Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke’s troops held back Union forces in a skirmish just west of Independence.

1859 Marshal’s Jail (now a museum) After Union Provost marshals jailed women and children after the battles of Lone Jack and Independence the jail overflowed. A building that housed some of the overflow in Kansas City collapsed and killed several young girls, and historians believe this prompted the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in 1863.

IRONTON The site of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s headquarters, Ironton is home to a Grant memorial statue. The nearby Fort Davidson State Historic Site offers an electronic scale model of the September 1864 Battle of Pilot Knob. One of the largest battles in Missouri, it left a thousand men wounded. The site preserves the Union post of Fort Davidson and the battlefield.

The Iron County Courthouse, built in 1858 and on the National Register of Historic Places, still bears witness to the Civil War with a cannonball mark on its face.

JEFFERSON CITY The capital is home to the Missouri State Museum’s Civil War artifacts and the Cole County Historical Museum.

KANSAS CITY Union Gen. Thomas Ewing signed Order No. 11 in the Pacific House Hotel in Kansas City’s River Marketplace on August 25, 1863. The Order forced nearly 20,000 residents in four western Missouri counties from their homes.

Forest Hill, Elmwood, and Union cemeteries are all final resting places to many Civil War dead from both sides, including Gen. J.O. Shelby.

Westport is known as “The Gettysburg of the West,” where the October 23, 1864, Battle of Westport ended with three thousand casualties.

Westport Historical Society Museum is in the antebellum Harris-Kearney House.

Wornall House Museum was headquarters and field hospital to both Union and Confederate armies.

KEARNEY Union soldiers tortured Jesse James’s stepfather and harassed his mother at their farm here. The act led James to vow revenge. James is buried in nearby Mount Olivet Cemetery.

KEYTESVILLE Gen. Sterling Price’s hometown pays homage to the Confederate leader and governor with a museum and monument.

KIRKSVILLE Two battles in early August 1862 helped establish Union control of northeast Missouri. Led by Col. John McNeil, Union troops pursued Col. Joseph C. Porter and his Confederate Missouri Brigade to Kirksville, where Porter and his men hid in homes, stores, and fields. In a three-hour battle, the Union secured the town and captured many of Porter’s men.

Truman State University’s Pickler Memorial Library has letters written by brothers Samuel and Clark Zeigler while they were in Arkansas with the Union Army.

LEXINGTON Confederate forces captured a Union garrison during the Battle of Lexington September 18 to 20, 1861. The State Historic Site preserves the battlefield and the 1853 Anderson House.

LIBERTY A battle near here on September 17, 1861, resulted in 126 casualties and helped the Confederates consolidate northwest Missouri.

Clay County Veteran’s Memorial contains more than 440 names of veterans, including Civil War soldiers.

LONE JACK The Civil War Battlefield, Museum, and Cemetery depict the Battle of Lone Jack August 16, 1862.

MARSHALL A marker describes the Battle of Marshall, the final confrontation of Confederate Col. Joseph O. Shelby’s daring 1863 raid.

MEMPHIS The William Downing House (now a museum), was a Union headquarters. Soldiers rode their horses through the ten-foot doors.

MEXICO After Ulysses S. Grant joined the Union army, he was stationed at Mexico, Missouri, in July 1861, where he commanded the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

MOBERLY The Oakland Cemetery pays tribute to both sides with statuary of both Union and Confederate soldiers surrounded by respective graves. The cemetery is also home to one of the few full-size statues of Abraham Lincoln west of the Mississippi River.

NEOSHO Southern sympathizer Gov. Claiborne Jackson and the ousted Missouri legislature made a provisional capital at Neosho. On October 30, 1861, the group held the Secession Convention at Neosho to pass a bill calling for Missouri secession.

NEVADA Known as the Bushwhacker Capital during the Civil War, Nevada is home to the Bushwhacker Museum and Bushwhacker Jail; both house permanent exhibits of the area’s Civil War involvement.

NEW MADRID Island No. 10 was a Confederate stronghold in defense of the Mississippi River. Nearby New Madrid was a weak spot. On March 3, 1862, Union troops led by Brig. Gen. John Pope laid siege to the city. Unable to hold the island and the town, Confederate forces deserted New Madrid on March 14. The Union continued its push, eventually forcing surrender of Island No. 10 on April 8 to open the Mississippi all the way to Fort Pillow, Tennessee. The victory was essential to the Union’s naval strategy.

The Hunter-Dawson State Historic Site, once the headquarters for Union Gen. John Pope, still holds about eighty percent of the original furnishings.

The New Madrid Historical Museum has letters, clothing, equipment, and weaponry.

NEWTONIA The First Battle of Newtonia, September 30, 1862, ended with a hasty Union retreat. During the Second Battle, Union troops chased Gen. Sterling Price out of Missouri on October 28, 1864.

Old Newtonia Cemetery contains two hundred unreadable gravestones, possibly Civil War veterans. Second-in-command at the Second Battle of Newtonia, 1st Lt. Robert Christian, is positively identified. Oral history claims Union soldiers buried in the cemetery were moved to the National Cemetery in Springfield.

The Ritchey Mansion House, built with bricks made by slaves, was headquarters and hospital at different times to both Union and Confederate troops.

OTTERVILLE The 1861 earthen embankments and trenches are thought to have been built in anticipation of a battle that never happened.

PALMYRA Brig. Gen. John McNeil commanded a firing squad to execute ten Confederate prisoners in retaliation for the abduction of a former Union soldier and alleged spy. Known as the Palmyra Massacre, the executions earned McNeil the nickname “The Butcher of Palmyra;” his actions were criticized in newspapers around the world. Afterward, enlistments and reenlistments in the Confederate Army increased. A granite monument is a memorial.

PEA RIDGE, ARKANSAS Just over the Missouri border, nearly 6,000 soldiers, most Confederate, died in the March 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge. Missouri soldiers fought on both sides in this decisive battle that saved Missouri for the Union. The 4,300-acre Pea Ridge National Military Park offers a driving tour of one of the best preserved battlefields in the country.

REPUBLIC Union Gen. Nathaniel Lyon died in the August 10, 1861, Battle of Wilson’s Creek, the first major engagement west of the Mississippi River. Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield near Republic offers extensive displays.

General Sweeny’s Civil War Museum traces the war in the Trans-Mississippi West and displays over 5,000 artifacts collected over the lifetime by a descendant of Union Gen. Thomas W. Sweeny for whom the museum is named.

ROLLA The end of the line for the southwest branch of the Pacific Railroad, Rolla was the staging point for Union troops and supplies heading west. After the Union defeat at Wilson’s Creek, the army fell back to Rolla and established Fort Wyman.

SALISBURY The Chariton County Historical Society and Museum houses Civil War artifacts.

SPRINGFIELD A series of twelve markers in Springfield describes Union Maj. John Zagonyi’s successful charge of the city on October 25, 1861, and Confederate Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke’s unsuccessful attack on January 8, 1863.

The Springfield National Cemetery began as a burial place for men who died in the battle of Wilson’s Creek. It contains Civil War memorials as well as a stone wall that originally separated it from a Confederate cemetery. After a federal decision in 1911, the two cemeteries became one.

The History Museum for Springfield-Greene County has a hands-on exhibit for kids and a display of artifacts from the war.

ST. JOSEPH The Union used the Pony Express to communicate with allies in California.

ST. LOUIS

Bellefontaine Cemetery: Union and Confederate officers are buried here.

Calvary Cemetery: Union Generals and Dred Scott, the slave who sought freedom in Missouri courts are buried here.

Camp Jackson: This camp is on what is today St. Louis University campus.

Old Courthouse: This building is part of the Jefferson National Expansion.

Eads Boatyard: Bridge builder, inventor, and Union Capt. James. B. Eads built the first ironclad warships used by Union forces. Bellerive Park offers a river view similar to the Eads Boatyard in 1861.

Jefferson Barracks: The first permanent military base west of the Mississippi River, Jefferson Barracks served as a Union training camp. Several museum buildings, including a laborer’s house, stables, and ammunition storage facilities, contain exhibits

White Haven: Julia Dent Grant’s childhood home and her home with Ulysses S. Grant early in their marriage is preserved as Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. The property includes five buildings and exhibits.

Grant’s Trail: A six-mile trail runs through southern St. Louis and takes hikers and bicyclists past White Haven and Grant’s Farm.

Missouri History Museum: Located in Forest Park, the museum houses an exhibit about the Civil War experience in St. Louis and the slave Dred Scott. Several Civil War memorials dot the park.

Olin Library, Washington University: A broad collection of nineteenth-century American historical prints covering slavery, the Civil War, emancipation, and reconstruction from 1840-1890 is on permanent display in the library’s special collections.

Riverfront Trail: The eleven-mile paved, recreational greenway passes the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing, one of 64 Underground Railroad sites listed on the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

Lincoln Shields Recreational Area: A memorial containing names of Confederate soldiers who died in the Alton prison smallpox epidemic across the river in Alton, Illinois, stands at this area in West Alton. Named for a duel that never took place between Abraham Lincoln and James Shields, the area overlooks an island now underwater, at one time called Smallpox Island for the soldiers buried there.

WAYNESVILLE The Old Stagecoach Stop, now a museum, served as the hospital and infirmary for Post Waynesville. Exhibits of an operating room and surgical instruments are on display.

WEST PLAINS The town was raided repeatedly by foraging Union and Confederate troops. Paintings and news articles of Civil War actions are on display at the Harlin Museum.

WESTON The only road into Weston during the Civil War, Leavenworth Military Road is today East Bluff Road, a hiking and biking trail that extends three miles from Route 45 into Weston. Fort Leavenworth soldiers were ferried across the river daily.

Weston Historical Museum has a collection of Civil War artifacts.

April 2006

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