The Battle of Mine Creek

"The Battle of Mine Creek" was really a collection of skirmishes and maneuvers that took place during one day as Price retreated south from Marais des Cygnes. The evening of October 24, Price decided to camp his army along a ford in the Marais des Cygnes River near Trading Post. It was a rainy day and conditions were miserable. Not long afterward, the first of several waves of Union forces advanced onto the camp. Price collected his troops and continued southward, directing the advance guard of the retreat riding not on horseback, but in a carriage. Marmaduke's division lead the advance southward while that of Fagan served as a rear guard. In between, a massive wagon train struggled down the Old Military Road. Southern forces left so fast that advancing Union troops came across campfires with meat still cooking on the spits.

Although the previous day had been rainy, the morning of October 25, 1864 started foggy but then became clear and sunny, a perfect fall day in Kansas. As dawn broke, Union forces under Pleasonton's Army of the Border took the mounds overlooking the Marais des Cygnes. Using cavalry as a pursuit force, Pleasonton sent out two brigades to overtake Price. The First Brigade, under the command of Colonel John Philips consisted of three regiments of Missouri State Militia and totaled 1,500 men. The Second Brigade under Lt. Colonel Frederick Benteen included regiments from Iowa, Missouri and two companies from the 7th Indiana. Benteen's brigade had about 1,100 men, making a total of 2,600 Union forces following Price.

General John S. Marmaduke

About 12 miles south of Marais des Cygnes, the road to Fort Scott crossed Mine Creek using a series of fords in the river. Price and the advance units crossed with little trouble. The wagon train, however, took more time. As the wagons slowly made it across of several fords in the creek, Price set up two defensive units. General William Cabell's division was south of the creek. Those of Fagan and Marmaduke were on the northern side, Fagan to the west and Marmaduke to the east. By 11:00 in the morning Price himself was about six miles south of Mine Creek. Meanwhile, Union forces finally caught up with the wagon train still trying to cross. Coming over the slight ridge, the two Union brigades, Philips' from the northwest and Benteen's from the northeast, encountered the Confederate forces struggling to get away. Philips hesitated, not sure that the men of his and Benteen's command were enough to take on the nearly 7,000 troops defending the wagon train. The more aggressive Benteen, however, saw this as a prime opportunity to trap Price's forces. Unwilling to wait for his senior officer to make the command decision, Benteen goaded his troops with bravado and swearing into launching the attack. Philip's men quickly followed suit and within moments, a line of Union cavalry charged down the slight slope to Mine Creek. Then, for reasons still not clear, the advance halted halfway down the slope, much to Benteen's dismay. It took a short while before units of the 10th Missouri and 4th Iowa continued the charge.

Charge at Mine Creek

Marmaduke and Fagan knew they were trapped and scrambled for a way to salvage the situation. Abandoning cavalry fighting protocol, which ordinarily would have had the mounted soldiers dismount to fight with guns on the ground, they ordered their troops to stay mounted and fight the best they could on horseback. Spread along several miles, the Southern cavalry and artillery was formidable but not in any condition to resist an attack.

As Union mounted troops crashed through the Confederate line one of the largest cavalry battles of the Civil War took place, a heated engagement that lasted only about 20 or 30 minutes. The orderly lines dissolved into hand-to-hand combat. Although units from a number of states were involved, much of the fighting was Missourian versus Missourian. Adding to the confusion was the fact that many of Price's troops had scavenged Union uniforms during the raid, making Federal and Confederate nearly indistinguishable. Riding up to regroup what he thought were his own men, Marmaduke quickly found himself prisoner of 20-year old trooper from Iowa named James Dunlavy. Fagan tried to hold out longer but also found the Union advance too strong to resist. One of his brigade leaders, Cabell succumbed to the same confusion over uniforms as had Marmaduke. Cabell became the prisoner of another Iowan, Sergeant Calvary D. Young. When Price found out about the engagement, he quickly mounted his horse and returned to the battle. When he arrived, he realized it was too late to save the situation. Price decided to cut his losses. He had lost an estimated 300-400 men and had 500-1,000 captured, including two of his generals. With so many Missourians in Price's army, the number who deserted back to Missouri will never be known, especially since many would have worn Union uniforms. The Federals, by contrast, had less than 150 killed or wounded. In the aftermath locals of Linn County turned houses and other structures into hospitals for the wounded.

Price regrouped his troops and continued southward along the road. He decided not to take Fort Scott, crossing back into Missouri just north of town. During the next several days Price retreated along the Kansas-Missouri border with Union forces close behind. Price faced a final defeat at Newtonia, Missouri on October 26. Even so, Price was able limp back to the safety of Arkansas in early November.

General Jo Shelby

Although often described as a Union victory, the battle at Mine Creek defied neat classification as a clear "win" or "loss" for either side. Union forces failed to completely stop or capture Price at Mine Creek, allowing him to escape back south. At Mine Creek, however, Price lost a significant percentage of his wagon train, a large number of his men, and several of his officers. Unable to defend his position, Price was forced to continue his retreat, his grand Missouri campaign a failure.

The Years After

Although Mine Creek was one of a series of battles in a failed regional campaign, many of the participants built on their wartime activities in the later years of the their life. Private Dunlavy and Sergeant Young both received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their efforts. Perhaps the most visible career was that of Benteen. In 1876, he became famous (or infamous) as the commander of the surviving portion of General George Armstrong Custer's ill-fated 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Alfred Pleasonton never regained his reputation as a cavalry leader but did have the honor of having a new community in Linn County named after him. The name of the community, however, received a different spelling: Pleasanton. After the war, many of the officers returned to the region. Missourians John Clark and John Marmaduke went on to serve that state as congressman and governor, respectively. Shelby also returned to Missouri after the war. After a brief attempt to establish a colony for former Confederates in Mexico, Price returned to St. Louis where he died in 1867.

Meanwhile in Kansas, war gave way to the more pressing needs of developing agriculture in the prairie state. The farmsteads that Price crossed returned to agricultural use. Several families applied to the Federal Government's Price Raid Commission for compensation on damages incurred during the 1864 raid. By the 1870s, the tracks of the Missouri River, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad replaced the old Military Road as the main route along the Kansas-Missouri border. In 1923, the Old Military Road became U.S. Highway 69.

In the years that followed, relics of Price's raid and the battle of Mine Creek occasionally surfaced. Sometimes a plow uncovered a bone or skull from one of the victims. Reunions took place as well. The 20th anniversary in 1884, for example, included a large pavilion where Pleasonton, Benteen, Philips and other surviving Union officers recounted their events. By the Turn of the Century, a local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic hosted annual encampments on the site. In the 1930s, there were even plans for the War Department to place a surplus cannon at the battlefield site but little came of the effort. By 1940, however, there was a marker at the intersection of highways 51 and 69. To the north, the site of the Battle of Westport, became a rose garden and public park.

Lieutenant Colonel Frederick W. Benteen

During the twentieth century, however, popular memory in Linn County centered on the Marais des Cygnes incident. They connected with the story of Free-soilers massacred by Border Ruffians. They proudly recounted the visit of Free-soil icon John Brown. Locals focused their preservation efforts on the stone house that had been constructed on the site of Brown's "fort" after the event. In 1941 a local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars donated the site to the state of Kansas. In 1964, after a three-year restoration effort, the Kansas State Historical Society opened the structures as a museum. Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek (which has also gone by several other names including the Battle of Round Mound, the Battle of the Osage, the Battle of Trading Post, and the Battle of the Marais des Cygnes) were important but were secondary in the community's memory.

Efforts to turn the Mine Creek site into a park emerged with the battle's centennial celebration in 1964. That year, the state established a roadside park and monument where Highway 69 crossed Mine Creek. It took another ten years to turn the location of the actual battle into a park. In 1974, the Kansas legislature authorized the state to purchase a 120-acre parcel at the site. Four years later, the state authorized the purchase of an additional 160 acres. That same year, local historian Lumir Buresh published the only full-length book on the Battle of Mine Creek. These acquisitions protected only a part of the original battlefield. Yet local landowners were not always willing to sell or donate their land to the state. To overcome this obstacle, a private organization, the Friends of Mine Creek, organized to provide a non-profit entity to which these land owners could sell. Doing so allowed portions of the battlefield to be acquired without forcing the landowner to sell to the state.

Acquiring the land was only the first step to creating a battlefield park at Mine Creek. The next challenge was to develop the site. Initial development at the site was limited. In the early 1990s, interest in further developing the site resulted in the creation of a committee that included representatives from the Linn County Historical Society, the Friends of Mine Creek, the National Park Service, the Kansas State Historical Society, the Linn County Commission, the Civil War Round Table of Kansas City, the Linn County Economic Development Committee, and other state and local political figures. This committee started the planning process for a visitors center and further development and interpretation. In 1999, the Kansas State Historical Society officially dedicated the visitors center at Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Park.

In more recent years, the natural history of the region has also received attention. The most important aspect of this has been the creation of the 7,500-acre Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge. Here, visitors can experience the marshy lands that host the trumpeter swans that originally gave the river its name. As a result, a combination of federal, state, local, and private efforts have worked to make the eastern border of Kansas an educational experience for locals and visitors alike.

Additional Sources:

www.cwbattlefields.com
www.oldgloryprints.com
www.kshs.org
www.generalsandbrevets.com
www.minecreek.org
www.civilwarhistory.com
www.arlingtoncemetery.net
www.mortkunstler.com
www.worldhistory.com
www.nps.gov
www.civilwarphotos.net
www.soldatini.org
www.whistlepik.com
www.fourwindsstudio.com
history.sandiego.edu

The battle of Mine Creek, fought on October 25, 1864, was one of several battles fought between C.S. General Sterling Price and an array of Union foes during Price's ill-fated Missouri and Kansas Campaign of 1864. Reeling from his defeat at the Battle of Westport, in Missouri, General Price and his broken Army of Missouri began a retreat south to friendly Confederate lands when the Union cavalry, under the command of U.S. Colonels Frederick Benteen and John Philips, caught up with Price's lines on the north side of the Mine Creek. What proceeded was the greatest mounted cavalry charge of the Civil War.

As Benteen's and Philip's 2,600 strong army reached Price's 7,000 strong Confederate army, the Union commanders realized that there would be no time to un-mount from their horses and so ordered the charge into the Confederate's lines. Although the Confederates out-numbered the Federal cavalry by nearly 3 to 1, the Southerners were not prepared for the massive charge, and the Confederate lines soon evaporated. 500 Southerners were captured, but General Price managed to escape with the bulk of his Army of Missouri. The Battle of Mine Creek has also been called one of the shortest battles of the Civil War, lasting only 30 minutes.

Here are the recommended holiday mailing dates for military mail this year:

For military mail addressed TO APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:

Parcel Post - November 13
Space Available - November 27
Parcel Airlift - December 4
Priority Mail, First Class cards and letters - Mailing date is December 11 to all locations
- EXCEPT for locations starting with ZIP 093. For all locations starting with ZIP 093 the mailing date is December 6.
Express Mail - December 20 to locations where Express Mail service is available. Check with your local post office to determine which APO/FPO addresses can receive Express Mail. Note: This service is not available to ships.

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For military mail FROM APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:

Space Available - November 20
Parcel Airlift - December 4
Priority Mail, First Class cards and letters - December 11
Express Mail - December 18 from APO/FPO addresses where Express Mail can be accepted. Check with your local military post office to determine if they can accept Express Mail. Note: This service is not available from ships.

Thanks for the information StayAtHomeMother

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004

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October 28, 2004

The Frog's "Blackboard"

Read: Psalm 119:33-40

Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way. —Psalm 119:37

Bible In One Year: Jeremiah 15-17; 2 Timothy 2

As a young boy, one of my favorite pastimes was hunting frogs along the banks of a pond near our home. I was unaware of their unique visual powers that enabled them to elude me so easily. Later I learned that the frog's optical field is like a blackboard wiped clean, and that the only images it receives are objects that directly concern him. These little amphibians are never distracted by unimportant things, but are aware only of essentials and whatever may be dangerous to them.

In the Christian life we frequently become preoccupied with the vain things of the world. We allow our lives to become so cluttered with materialistic and insignificant concerns that we lose perspective of the things that endure. In our text the psalmist asked God for help in fixing his attention on what is good and lasting (Psalm 119:37).

The words of the Lord should not depart from our eyes, but must be kept in our heart always (Proverbs 4:21). Then our field of vision will be wiped clean of unnecessary things, and we will see clearly what God wants us to do.

Have you become distracted by sin so that you can no longer discern what is really important? Then take a lesson from the frog's "blackboard" and center your gaze on Christ and His will for your life. —Mart De Haan

O God, You know my wayward heart,
So prone to choose an earthly part;
From vain affections set me free,
That I may always look to Thee. —Anon.

The more attracted we are to Christ, the less we'll be distracted by the world.

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