Battle of Wilson's Creek
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The Battle of Wilson's Creek , also known as the Battle of Oak Hills , took place between Union Forces and the Missouri State Guard on August 10, 1861 during the American Civil War near Springfield , Missouri . It was the first major battle west of the Mississippi . The battle gave the nearby town of Battlefield its name . Coordinates: 37 ° 5 ′ 44.11 " N , 93 ° 24 ′ 36.3" W.
Prehistory of the battle
After the outbreak of war in 1861, US President Abraham Lincoln called on the states that had not joined the Confederation to support the Union with 75,000 militiamen. The state of Missouri was asked to provide four regiments. Governor Claiborne F. Jackson , a southern sympathizer, brusquely declined the claim as illegal. Instead, he mobilized units of the pro-southern militia and asked the Confederation for support with weapons and ammunition, which he received in the form of four cannons. With these he intended to occupy the St. Louis arsenal and to capture the weapons stored there.
Lyon was a staunch abolitionist . He planned to equip the paramilitary, radical Republican organization of the Wide Awakes with the weapons deposited in the arsenal . With about 1,200 men, consisting mainly of German immigrants and members of the Wide Awakes, Lyon surrounded the militiamen who were being trained at Camp Jackson just outside St. Louis. The militia surrendered and were taken through St. Louis as prisoners, leading to the St. Louis massacre in which at least 28 people were killed and about a hundred injured. This event widened the gap between supporters of the Union and those sympathetic to the secession , with the Union losing sympathy due to the massacre. Envoys from the city of St. Louis urged President Lincoln to recall Captain Lyon. Lyon, however, had good contacts with Postmaster General Montgomery Blair . Blair got Lyons promoted to Brigadier General . Lyon was given the command of the Army of the West.
In June 1861, Lyon met with Governor Jackson to resolve the mutual differences, but this proved hopeless. Instead, a state of war was established. Lyon marched up the Missouri to take Jefferson City , the capital of Missouri. The National Guard loyal to Jackson evaded the state legislature, closely pursued by the Army of the West in southwest Missouri. After the capture of Jefferson City, an unelected pro-union government installed itself for Missouri.
Before the battle
The Army of the West consisted of eight infantry regiments, two cavalry companies and two artillery batteries of volunteers and eight infantry companies, three cavalry companies and one artillery battery of the regular US Army on July 13, 1861 and had reached Springfield.
In late July 1861, Price reached Cassville, Missouri 60 miles (100 km) southwest of Springfield with the Missouri State Guard and was reinforced by Brigadier Generals Benjamin McCulloch and N. Bart Pearce . McCulloch took command and intended to attack Springfield. However, Lyon left the city on August 1 to take offensive action against the southerners.
The vanguard of both armies fought a skirmish at Dug Springs, Missouri on August 2, with the Union vanguard emerged victorious. However, Lyon realized that the Confederates were twice as strong as his army. Then he evaded to Springfield. McCulloch chased Lyon and on August 6 reached the Wilson's Creek area, ten miles southwest of the city.
Since he was outnumbered, Lyon planned to move to Rolla , Missouri to reinforce and re-equip his troops. In order to delay the Confederate persecution, he wanted to attack the Confederates by surprise.
Colonel Franz Sigel , who was Lyon's deputy, drafted an aggressive plan of operations that saw the Army of the West split into two attack columns. Sigel wanted to carry out a flank maneuver with 1200 men, while the main part of the Union troops under Lyons should attack from the north. Lyon adopted the plan and the Army of the West left Springfield on the rainy night of August 9th. The tactic developed was entirely dependent on the fact that the element of surprise could be used and the surprise attack succeeded.
Interestingly, Confederate General McCulloch himself planned a surprise attack on the city, but rejected it due to the heavy rain.
Course of the battle
At five in the morning on August 10, the Army of the West attacked at first light. The Confederates were completely taken by surprise by this attack. Lyon's forces overran the southerners' camp and took a ridge known as Bloody Hill.
At first it looked as if the Union Army might achieve a crushing victory, but those hopes were dashed when the Confederate artillery of the Pulaski Arkansas Battery intervened, giving the Price infantry time to take cover and take to the southern slope of the hill in lines.
Sigel's plan was initially successful and his flank destroyed the Missouri cavalry, but Sigel was completely surprised by a Confederate counterattack at Sharp Farm. At this early stage of the Civil War, the warring armies' uniforms were not yet standardized, so McCulloch's Confederate force wore uniforms very similar to Sigel's units. Sigel therefore considered the advancing Confederates to be reinforced by the Union Army. He therefore forbade opening fire on this advancing army. He only realized his mistake when it was far too late.
Sigel's flank was completely devastated by the counterattack and Sigel's people fled the battlefield.
With the collapse of Sigel's flank, the Missouri Confederate Army got the upper hand in battle. General Lyon was already dead by this point (he was the first Union general to fall during the Civil War). Lyon was fatally wounded by a heartbeat at 9:30 am on Bloody Hill, just as he was about to urge his people to attack. Major Samuel D. Sturgis took command. The bulk of the Army of the West was still in a defendable position at the top of the hill, but supplies were lacking and soldiers' morale sank. By 11 a.m. the Union troops had already been attacked three times by Confederate troops. The ammunition threatened to run out and the soldiers were exhausted. So Major Sturgis decided to evade.
After the battle
The losses on both sides were about the same. Although the Confederates dominated the field, they were unable to track the Army of the West on their march to Rolla. This part of Lyon's or Sigel's plan worked. After the battle, Colonel Sigel temporarily took over command of the Army of the West in place of the slain Brigadier General Lyon. His troop strength after the battle was 3,000 infantry , 300 cavalry and 13 guns. He stated the remaining Confederate troop strength after the battle to be at least 20,000. The Confederates remained in Missouri, but were no longer strong enough to take the politically important cities of the state. Missouri therefore remained under Union control.
See also
- John McAllister Schofield , Missouri Infantry, Chief of Staff of General Lyon
- Peter Joseph Osterhaus , Missouri Infantry, Major
literature
- United States War Department: The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Govt. Print. Off., Washington 1880-1901
- Shelby Foote : The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol. 1 ( Fort Sumter to Perryville ), New York 1986, ISBN 0-394-74623-6
- James M. McPherson : Battle Cry of Freedom , New York 2003, ISBN 0-19-516895-X
- James M. McPherson: Die for Freedom , Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-86647-267-9
- James M. McPherson (Editor): The Atlas of the Civil War , Philadelphia 2005, ISBN 0-7624-2356-0
Web links
- Official Records of the Battle of Wilson's Creek
- Wilson's Creek National Battlefield
- Free online book - Battle of Wilson's Creek
- The Campaign and Battle of Wilson's Creek
- The Battle of Wilson's Creek / National Park Service's Online Books'
Individual evidence
- ^ Order of Battle. National Park Service, August 19, 2015, accessed August 19, 2015 (Union strength).
- ^ Order of Battle. National Park Service, Aug. 19, 2015, accessed Aug. 19, 2015 (Confederate strength).
- ^ Order of Battle. National Park Service, Aug. 19, 2015, accessed Aug. 19, 2015 (Union losses).
- ^ Order of Battle. National Park Service, Aug. 19, 2015, accessed Aug. 19, 2015 (Confederate losses).
- ↑ State quotas. Cornell University Library, February 23, 2018, accessed June 13, 2018 (Official Records, Series III, Volume 1, p. 69).
- ^ Shelby Foote: The Civil War, a Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville. 1986, p. 53.
- ↑ Capture of the pro-secessionists. Cornell University Library, February 23, 2018, accessed June 13, 2018 (English, Official Records, Series I, Volume 3, pp. 7ff).
- ^ Colonel Sigel's battle report. Cornell University Library, February 23, 2018, accessed June 13, 2018 (Official Records, Series I, Volume 3, pp. 85f).