Civil War

Preserving Sacred Ground

Posted at May 28, 2008 11:35

By Larry Wood

According to Tom Higdon, treasurer of the protection
association, the First Battle of Newtonia
on September 30, 1862, is thought to be the
only engagement of the Civil War in which
American Indian units of regimental strength
fought on opposite sides. The Second Battle of
Newtonia on October 28, 1864, is considered
the last significant battle west of the Mississippi.

In the summer of 1862, Confederate leaders
determined to reestablish a presence in
Missouri after having virtually abandoned the
state a few months earlier following the decisive
Battle of Pea Ridge. Col. Jo Shelby and his newly
formed Missouri Brigade marched into southwest
Missouri in early September and drove the
Federal forces from Newtonia on September 13.
On September 27, Col. Douglas Cooper with his
Confederate Indian brigade joined Shelby at his
camp south of Newtonia. Cooper took charge
of overall Confederate operations in southwest
Missouri and sent two officers to set up an outpost
at Newtonia.

Alarmed by the Confederate forays into the
region, Federal officials started concentrating
their forces around Sarcoxie to counter the
Southern activity. On September 29, a Union
scouting party under Col. Edward Lynde went
out from Sarcoxie and skirmished briefly with
the Southern soldiers at Newtonia before falling
back when he realized he was outnumbered.
Reinforcements arrived, and the First Battle of
Newtonia began in earnest the next day.

Shortly after daylight on September 30, the
bolstered Union force drove the Confederate
sentries a mile north of Newtonia and began
shelling the town with artillery from long
distance. The Confederates fell back and took
shelter in a stone barn and behind a stone wall at
the Matthew Ritchey estate at Newtonia. Federal
soldiers kept up their cannonade and continued
advancing until they were within a few hundred
yards of the Rebels’ positions, at which point
the besieged Confederates finally dug in and
repulsed the Union advance with what Colonel
Lynde called “a perfect stream of fire.”

Colonel Cooper arrived with fresh troops and
chased the fleeing Federals for three miles before
dropping back to Newtonia. The arrival of additional
Union reinforcements a few hours later
prompted the Federals to advance on the town
again and renew their cannonading. The lively
exchange of fire between the two sides moved
one Union soldier to describe the battle as “a beautiful
sight, with just enough excitement to give
it a ‘delicious flavor.’ ” The Confederates repulsed
the attack, however, and once again drove
the Federals from the field as darkness fell.

After the Confederate victory at the First
Battle of Newtonia, Colonel Cooper reported his
casualties at twelve killed, sixty-three wounded,
and three missing. Exact figures for the Union
are unknown, though the Federal loss is thought
to be considerably greater.

The Second Battle of Newtonia happened
at the end of the Confederate army’s failed
invasion of Missouri in the fall of 1864 as the
Rebels, with Brigadier General Shelby’s brigade
in advance, were retreating from the state after
their decisive defeat at Westport.

On the afternoon of October 28, Shelby’s
men routed a small Federal detachment stationed
at Newtonia and then went into camp just south
of town, while the rest of the Confederate army
continued farther south. As Shelby’s men were
still settling into camp, General James G. Blunt,
leading the Federal pursuit, arrived on the scene
and deployed his forces in a line across the
prairie facing the rebels. With two intervening
fences, both sides dismounted and started firing
as they marched toward each other.

Despite heavy artillery from the Federals,
the Confederates crossed the first fence and
began pressing Blunt’s outnumbered troops,
who remounted and dropped back. The Rebels,
though, crossed the second fence and continued
their advance. Blunt’s line was about to give way
when Union reinforcements arrived late in the
afternoon, enabling the Federals to make a stand
and repulse the Confederate attack.

The Union cavalry made a halfhearted pursuit
before returning to Newtonia, while the Rebels
retreated south. Both sides claimed victory at the
Second Battle of Newtonia, and the action was a
stalemate in terms of casualties (about a dozen
killed and approximately a hundred wounded
or missing on each side). It is usually considered
a Federal victory, though, since the Confederates
left the battlefield in Union hands.

The Newtonia Battlefields Protection
Association, Inc., was formed in 1994. In 2002,
the group acquired the Ritchey home and
surrounding grounds. Listed on the National
Register of Historic Places in 1978, the 1850s
mansion served as a headquarters and hospital
for the two armies during the battles of
Newtonia and has been the centerpiece of the
preservation effort. In addition to restoring the
Ritchey mansion, the protection group oversees
approximately twenty-five acres, including the
old Newtonia Cemetery, where soldiers killed
during the two battles were buried.

In 2006, Kay Hively, another founding member
of the Newtonia Battlefields Protection
Association, Inc., testified before Congress on
the importance of preserving the battlefields,
and U.S. Congressman Roy Blunt introduced
legislation to authorize a study of the feasibility
of making the Newtonia battlefields part of the
National Park Service. The bill passed in the
House of Representatives, but the 2006 legislative
session ended before it could be acted upon
in the Senate. Representative Blunt introduced
similar legislation again this year, and it was
passed by the House. Although the bill is still in
the Senate, members of the Newtonia protection
group have hopes that the legislation will be
enacted before the end of the year and that the
Newtonia battlefields will become a satellite of
the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield park.

“Where men fought and died for a cause is, in
my view, sacred ground,” Kay says, “and it must
be commemorated in some manner. I hope the
battlefields of Newtonia will be one day placed
under the stewardship of the National Park
Service so they have a better chance of being
well cared for when we who started this preservation
project are gone.”

Tom Higdon visualizes an expanded role
for the Newtonia site, if the legislation passes,
beyond preserving merely the history of the two
battles that were fought there.

“The important role of American Indians in
the Civil War was unique to our area,” he says,
“and we would like to tell the entire story of
their involvement in the conflict.” As a first step
in realizing this goal, the protection association
earlier this year accepted pledges of ten thousand
dollars from the Eastern Shawnee Tribe
of Oklahoma and the Newton County Tourism
Council toward the painting of a mural at the
Ritchey mansion depicting the role of American
Indians in the First Battle of Newtonia.

The Ritchey home is located at 520 Mill Street
at Newtonia. Call 417-592-0531 for more information.
Visit MissouriLife.com for more information
on the American Indians who fought.

December 2007

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