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The Battle of Wilson’s Creek with (J.D. Huitt The History Underground)
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The Battle of Wilson’s Creek with (J.D. Huitt The History Underground)
In this episode of American Civil War & UK History, host Daz is joined by J.D. Hewitt, creator and host of the popular History Underground YouTube channel, to discuss the Battle of Wilson’s Creek.
The Battle of Wilson’s Creek, fought on August 10, 1861, was one of the first major battles of the American Civil War west of the Mississippi River. Union forces under Nathaniel Lyon attacked Confederate and Missouri State Guard forces near Springfield, Missouri. The Union was defeated, and Lyon was killed—the first Union general killed in the Civil War.
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To keep up to date with everything of American Civil War and UK history, head over to our website ACW and UKhistory.com. And remember, this podcast has a PowerPoint presentation that goes along with the show. So if you would like to see the PowerPoint presentation, then head over to our YouTube channel at American Civil War and UK History. Cheers. Hello everyone, I'm Daz and welcome to American Civil War and UK History Podcast. This presentation is available as a video on our YouTube channel or as a podcast from wherever you get your podcast from. And if you're watching on YouTube, remember to hit the subscribe button and give us a big thumbs up. And check out our website at www.acwandukhistory.com where you'll find podcasts, blog posts, and links to all of our social media pages. The link is also available in the podcast description. And joining me today is JD Hewitt of The History Underground. Welcome, JD. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, good to good to be on here, man. Okay, so today we are going to be discussing the Battle of Wilson's Creek, which took place in August of 1861. But before we do that, JD, it's your first time on the podcast. Would you mind telling everyone how you first became interested in history? Oh man.
SPEAKER_01I was surrounded by a lot of good people as a young guy who got me interested in history. Chief among them would probably be my grandpa, who was a combat engineer in the 40th Infantry Division in the Korean War and grew up during the Depression. So my brother and I grew up with him telling us stories and talking about his time in the war and his time during the Depression. My other grandpa, he was in the Second World War, uh, was stationed in the Aleutian Islands. He he died when I was uh 12 years old. So I didn't quite get the the stories from him that I did from my other grandfather. But you know, he he told me yeah, you know, the stories uh that you know answered the questions that that a seven, eight, nine-year-old, you know, would would ask. So I have those memories. Uh, and then my dad was really big into history, really big into uh especially the the space race uh during the 1960s um and you know into the the 1970s. So yeah, so that that's kind of what I was just kind of immersed in it from uh from a very young age.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Thanks, mate. Thanks for telling us that. And okay, so let's talk about the Battle of Wilson's Creek. So, okay, JD, so what state is uh the war at this stage? Because again, this is very early by August 1861, and why is Missouri so um crucial to both armies?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so if you look at at Missouri going into the Civil War, that this is a place that is not uh foreign to conflict already. But this is a place that has kind of been at the the center of a lot of conflict going into the Civil War, before the first shots were even fired at Fort Sumter. Uh so the this state is uh created out of conflict. So in 1820, you have the Missouri Compromise, where Missouri enters as a slave state, and Maine enters as a free state to maintain balance of power in Congress and in the uh the Electoral College. Uh so everything you know is kind of hinging uh around you know the issue of slavery. So they're kind of kicking the can down the road uh when Missouri becomes a state. Uh and then in 1854, we have the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the issue of popular sovereignty in Kansas. And uh we we have kind of what you may consider as kind of the pregame show to the Civil War with what is called Bleeding Kansas. So Missouri is very much a part of that. So you have pro-slavery elements that are coming in from all over, but but especially from Missouri. Uh, there's a lot of violence that's going on in Kansas, a lot of partisan warfare. So by the time that the election of 1860 rolls around, uh, Missouri has already been in the thick of it. Uh now in the the election of 1860, uh Missouri went for the Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas. Um if you look at the the state uh itself, it it is a slave state. It's probably not as radical. It doesn't have the radical elements in it, maybe, that you might see in South Carolina. Uh, but it is a slave state that ultimately remains loyal to the Union. So by February of 1861, you've got seven states from the South that have seceded. And in March, delegates from the state of Missouri meet and vote on whether they are going to secede from the Union or not. And ultimately, they reject secession by a vote of 98 to 1. So it's it's an overwhelming majority that that votes to stay loyal to the Union, uh, much to the chagrin of the governor of Missouri at that time, a guy by the name of uh Claiborne Fox Jackson. Uh, this is a man who wants to break away, he wants to join the Confederacy, but the his his state has rejected uh that call. Uh so anyway, April of 1861, uh we have the fall of Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Recently had a chance to go and visit that for the first time. Pretty, pretty amazing place. Uh but after the the fall of Fort Sumter, Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to come in and put down this rebellion, and Missouri refuses that. Uh so they aren't going to send any troops. Largely are wanting to stay neutral in this conflict. But Jackson being more pro-Confederate and still wanting to see the state of Missouri join up with the Confederacy, uh, he sends in some militia to St. Louis in hopes of seizing the federal arsenal there. Um so anyway, um there's uh a thing called the Camp Jackson Affair. Uh Southerners called it the Camp Jackson Massacre that that ends up happening um in May of 1861. Uh just to make a long story short with that, the the commander of the St. Louis Arsenal is a guy that we're going to be talking about quite a bit, uh Nathaniel Lyon, who is vehemently protect uh protective of the arsenal and uh doesn't want to see it taken over by these Confederate militia members. Um St. Louis got a lot of German immigrants who are in this city in in 1861. Uh so Nathaniel Lyon kind of takes the initiative and goes out to what is called Camp Jackson, where these militia members are staged up outside of the city and essentially disbands them and uh takes them prisoner. Uh and Lyon is going to make the mistake of marching them through the city of St. Louis, uh, I believe on Olive Street, if I remember right, but but was taking them to uh the arsenal to uh parole them. Well, this secessionist crowd shows up and they start jeering and they're throwing rocks and they're throwing dirt clods, and uh a bit of a riot breaks out. The troops uh under Lyon are a little bit new and undisciplined, and they fire into this crowd, and they kill 28. Uh, and again, this becomes known as the Camp Jackson affair, the Camp Jackson Massacre. And word of this spreads throughout the state like wildfire, and and it really puts Missouri in a very, very uh precarious position at a uh a touch and go time, you know, here at the beginning of the war.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. Well, I didn't know some of that. That's really interesting, really interesting. And can I just ask about Nathaniel Lyons? So is he uh a a native of uh Missouri when the war uh you know born there or is he stationed there? Um what's his tie with Missouri?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if if I remember correctly, he's originally from Connecticut, and he's uh what he lacks in stature, he he makes up in uh, I guess you could say uh uh aggressiveness. So he is very much an abolitionist. He stands about five foot five, he's got sandy red hair, and and he hates slavery, and he hates this secession movement. And um he he's we're we're gonna we're gonna kind of see you know how this aggressive nature can be uh both good and bad for him. Uh but no, he he is uh stationed out there uh by the the U.S. government and is is placed in charge of uh protecting this arsenal. Uh as a matter of fact, after the the Camp Jackson affair, uh the state legislature is going to pass something called the military bill. It's gonna be on May 11th. And um what this is going to do, this military bill, is it puts Missouri's state government on a war footing and authorizes them to raise a state militia. Now, this is for the Confederate side, uh authorizes them to raise a state militia under the command of a Mexican-American War veteran, uh hero of the Mexican-American War by the name of Sterling Price. So in Missouri at that time, there were about a hundred thousand white men between the ages of 18 and 45. So, so this this militia group, this Missouri State Guard that they are raising, has the potential to, you know, really be a large force. And if the Confederates gain a foothold in Missouri, uh it it could be very bad for the United States.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Thanks for that. Okay, let's look at the Union commanders that are gonna be involved in this battle, the main ones. And of course, you know, in the middle there is a quite famous one that people might recognize if they're uh Eastern Theater fan. But um, tell us about uh all three of these guys and uh the their army, if you wouldn't mind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, sure. So so in command of the Army of the West, the Union Army of the West, uh, there you see Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon. So we we've talked about him a little bit already. And uh again, this is a super aggressive guy. Uh as a matter of fact, on June 11th, um Jackson is wanting to, the Governor Jackson uh is trying to strike a deal with Lyon. Uh what he wants is to confine all of the federal troops to St. Louis and have all pro-union militias throughout the state disbanded. And uh he so he and um so Lyon Jackson and and Price are all meeting together in St. Louis and Nathaniel Lyon just like flips his lid and and he he stands up and he he points at everyone in the room and he says, rather than concede uh to the state of Missouri one single instant the right to dictate to my government in any matter, however unimportant, uh, he says, I would see you and you and you and every man, woman, and child in the state dead and buried. This means war. In an hour, one of my officers will call for you and conduct you out of the lines. Uh so he he's uh uh kind of a take no prisoners kind of guy. Again, he's he's very, very uh aggressive. Uh the the other two that you see there, uh Franz Siegel. So this is a German immigrant. Uh this is a guy coming into the Civil War who already has some combat experience. Uh he had been a part of the uh the revolutions in like Prussia and what it was present-day Germany uh prior to immigrating to the United States. So he he's gonna bring some uh what is perceived at the time as some some valuable experience to uh to the table. Uh and then also uh so he he's gonna be commanding uh one of the brigades, Siegel. I believe he's 2nd Brigade. Uh and then also commanding one of the brigades, and kind of second command is gonna be Major Sam Sturgis, who, if people have studied the Indian Wars, uh probably are are familiar with with that name. But um but yeah, I I think Nathaniel Lyon kind of sees Missouri as being a a crucial piece on on the chessboard that that has to be protected at uh all costs.
SPEAKER_00Okay, let's take a look at the Confederate commanders uh just uh for a moment. So I know you have mentioned Sterling Price, and again, he's very active when it comes to the Western uh sorry, the Trans-Mississippi Theater as we go through the war, isn't he? But just it just give us a sense of these guys that are uh within the structure of the Confederate command.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sure. So so the structure of the Confederate command is gonna be a little bit complicated in a way. It's it's kind of these separate elements who are are supposed to be working together. So if if we look at Sterling Price first, so Sterling Price is in command of the Missouri State Guard. And after the incident in St. Louis, where you know Nathaniel Lyon says this means war, well, the governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and Sterling Price uh move up to uh Jefferson City, which is the capital of Missouri. And Missouri is a very, very kind of complicated place uh when it comes to the Civil War. It it is a border state, it's a slave state that remains loyal to the Union. But when you look at kind of the makeup of uh Missouri pre-Civil War and, well, even during the Civil War, it's not a simple matter of, oh, the the northern part is pro-Union and the southern part is pro-Confederate. It's it's very, very convoluted. So there's a there's a band of more pro-slavery elements that go up right along the Missouri River, uh, which is for people who maybe are unfamiliar with the geography of Missouri, it's kind of like two-thirds of the way up in the state, running basically in an east-west direction. Uh, but but that river bottom area is where you have a lot more slavery in the state. So there's more pro-slavery elements. Uh, and then you get down like the southwest part of the state where you know you don't have like these big hemp farms or or anything like that. It's more pro-union. Uh down in the southeast part of the state, you might get into some more slavery there because there's more um there's more cotton. So anyway, Sterling Price is going up with Claiborne Fox Jackson to uh to Jefferson City. Nathaniel Lyons sends out three columns all over the state and and they're pursuing these Confederates. Uh, this is all before Bull Run, mind you. Uh so so this is you we kind of think of Bull Run or Manassas being the very first battle of the Civil War. Uh this is all happening before that even takes place. So Sterling Price, uh again, it's not the main topic that we're talking about today, so I won't get into it, but there's a place um not too far from Jefferson City uh called Boonesville, where Sterling Price is defeated. There's minimal casualties there, and and he gets chased down to the southwest part of the state. And there's there's going to be uh a battle at a place called Carthage, and um he's going to go up against Franz Siegel's element there. So it's going to be Sterling Price and Franz Siegel. Um, but Siegel is outnumbered. There's like 6,000 Confederates under Sterling Price, and Siegel has about 1,100 men, so they they're forced to withdraw. Um that that's on July 5th when when that happens. Okay, so anyway, Sterling Price, even though he has had a victory at the Battle of Carthage in the southwest part of the state, he sees the writing on the wall and sees like these union forces that that are converging and he he needs help. Uh, and that's where Ben McCulloch is going to come in. Uh so Ben McCulloch is with the uh Confederate States of America that you see there. Uh so he's going to be bringing a bunch of troops from Arkansas up across the border to join with Sterling Price. Uh also with him uh is going to be Nicholas Bartlett Pierce, uh, who is going to be in command of the uh of the Arkansas State Guard. So basically they're they're militia members. Uh so you have uh with the Confederates, you have three elements who are kind of cooperating with one another um in order to try and and take Missouri for the Confederacy. And it's gonna be a little bit of a dysfunctional group, too, because McCulloch and Price, for reasons that we don't know for sure, do not like each other.
SPEAKER_00We heard that before, we've heard that many times for in the Confederacy. Uh yes, very much so. Definitely. Um so I want to ask, um, you know, so they're gonna bring these armies together. Like you said, this is very early on. So um what what do these look like, these armies, compared to the Confederate compared to the Union Army? What kind of state are they both in? Um, you know, I mean, like arms and stuff like that. Are they well armed? Are they, you know, tell us about that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sure. So for the the Union Army of the West, under Nathaniel Lyon, uh all combined with their four brigades, you're looking at about fifty, four hundred men somewhere in in that neighborhood. Uh, if you take all of the Confederates and and you throw them together, uh, the these three different elements that that are converging in southwest Missouri, uh, approximately 11,000 to 12,000 men. So that's going to be about 7,000 State Guardsmen from the state of Missouri and about 5,000 guys total from Arkansas. That's the Confederate regulars and also these militia guys. Uh for the Missouri State Guards, these guys are in rough shape. Uh, a lot of them are entering the battle with old smooth bore muskets. Uh, a lot of them are showing up with just their hunting rifles. They're not in uniform, they're just in civilian clothing. Okay, they're just showing up to fight. Um what we'll see here in the battle that even on the Union side, it it's not it's not 1863 Gettysburg where everybody is in uniform and everybody's wearing blue and you know is equipped the same. Uh, you have like the first Iowa regiment is gonna be showing up and they're gonna be in gray uniforms. Uh so so yeah, there it's what what we're getting ready to see here is is a clash between two armies who are are still kind of trying to to figure things out. Um, so yeah.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Yeah, and and that's a again, you see that like you said, I know you mentioned Manassas, but you get that at Manassas with the uniforms too, don't you? Yes, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And this is I mean, Wilson's Creek is going to be happening about 11 days uh after after Manassas. Um but but yeah, is it's going to be you know a critical battle in in the early part of the war. Uh yeah you asked earlier, I think, about like the importance of Missouri or why uh Missouri is important. Um it's kind of funny. I was I was watching a uh an emerging Civil War live stream the other day with Chris Maori uh from the the channel Vlogging Through History, and somebody asked the question uh which state did he think was more important for the Union, which border state was more important for the Union, Kentucky or Missouri? And and he he saw that I was in the chat and he's like, Oh, JD's gonna he he he's not gonna like this, but I'm gonna say Kentucky. Uh I I would say I would say Missouri. Um, Kentucky is a little bit closer to where some of the larger battles are going to be taking place. It's a little bit closer, of course, geographically to the capitals. But if you look at the United States going in this era, um this is a a country that is looking westward. Uh in 1862, we're gonna have the Homestead Act that passes, we're gonna have the Transcontinental Railroad Act that passes. If Missouri is taken off of the chessboard for the Union, that is devastating to the United States' you know, westward movement. Uh we we've got you know the Missouri River, uh a lot of the wagon trains that that head west, they they go right through Missouri. And if uh if that can go to the Confederates, that's gonna be huge for them as well. Uh plus you taking if the Confederates take Missouri, that isolates Kansas in a way. Uh you've also got the Mississippi River uh the that they can have access to. So yeah, big big stakes uh going going into this battle.
SPEAKER_00Some fantastic points there, and I I do agree with you actually. Um okay, let's talk about um the Confederates are gonna try and and and um McCulloch and Sterling Price are gonna concentrate near Springfield, aren't they? So tell us tell us the idea behind why they want to concentrate into Springfield.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sure. So uh there's there's a couple different reasons. Uh for one, I mean, like so many you know, conflicts in the Civil War, uh, you know, you're you're looking at roads, railroads, and and rivers. All right, that's that's what people are trying to get control of. Uh at this period of time, there's a telegraph line that runs from St. Louis at Jefferson Barracks, and it goes all the way down. If if you were to drive Route 66 today, uh there's there's a road that goes right by along the telegraph line that goes all the way down to Springfield, and then it's gonna kind of turn a little bit to the south southwest, uh, and then it's gonna go down into Arkansas and then connect all the way to Fort Smith. Uh so for the Confederates, what this is like the the primary artery that that brings them up into Springfield. Uh also if you get into Springfield, there's a railroad hub uh that's right there. So the rail line uh runs through through Springfield. Uh so anyway, it's it's kind of that that road hub network that if you can get it, uh it's it's going to help you. But what's going to be bringing the um the troops out of Arkansas, the Confederate troops out of Arkansas, is is going to be what's called the wire road. Uh sometimes it's called the telegraph road. As a matter of fact, if you go to St. Louis today, up by Jefferson Barracks, there's still a telegraph road today. And many people probably don't know that that's where the old telegraph line ran.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. That's so cool. Um, okay, so what about the Union Army? What sort of uh where are they coming from and where are they you know positioning themselves before the battle?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so they're going to be uh coming they're they're converging on the the city of Springfield. Uh they're they're kind of coming along that that telegraph road. Uh there's a union base at a town called Rolla, which if you were to drive it today, it's right there along Route 66. Um, driving distance or driving time, which is how in the United States we measure everything, is how long it takes you to get there. Uh, it's about two hours from Springfield and about one and a half hours from St. Louis. So it's almost almost at the midpoint uh between Springfield and St. Louis. Uh so the new commander of all Union forces in Missouri is a guy by the name of John C. Fremont. And he actually orders Lyon to fall back to the Northeast and come back to Rolla. Uh Lyon, his objective is he wants to knock Price out before he can link up with Benjamin McCulloch. Uh, because he knows that once this this Confederate army converges and gets together, it's it's going to be a little bit tougher nut to crack. So he wants to knock out Sterling Price as soon as he can. Um so he essentially kind of ignores, or you could even say, disobeys Fremont's order to fall back to Rolla. And um where they are going to end up catching up with the Confederates or where they're going to clash, is there as you see on your map, is about approximately nine to ten miles southwest of Springfield. Uh, they're along a place called uh Wilson's Creek.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. So okay, we do get to August 10th, 1861, um, and the two armies are going to meet each other. So take us through the battle, please, JD. Sure. Just quickly, a big shout out to American Battlefield Trust for this fantastic map.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, they they do great work. I've I've been a huge beneficiary of their of their maps and um, you know, all the all the different things that they do. As a matter of fact, there's some ground here uh at Wilson's Creek that has been preserved by the American Battlefield Trust. And I think they have another small portion that they're they're working on getting. Uh, but yeah, so August 9th, uh you you have Nathaniel Lyon. He is right there outside of Springfield. He's outnumbered. He knows that he's outnumbered, and he's a little bit hesitant to fall back to the Northeast, to Rolla, uh, because what he is afraid of is that if he withdraws, the Confederate cavalry um can come in and they can cut him off. They can get in between him and Rolla. And at that point, he's going to be forced into a battle on a ground that's not of his choosing. Uh, he also hates the idea of abandoning the Unionists who are in this area. Uh so his plan is on the night of August 9th, uh he is going to make a bold, bold move. Now, this man is, again, outnumbered, as we've already mentioned. He's got about 5,400 guys. Uh, Confederates have between 11,000 and 12,000. So he's he's outnumbered about two to one. And what he is going to do uh at the urging of Franz Siegel is he's gonna split his army. So Franz Siegel is going to take his brigade, and they are going to march and make a big circle and come around the Confederate encampment from the south. Nathaniel Lyon and the other three brigades are going to approach from the north, and basically they're gonna catch him in like a hammer and an anvil. Uh Lion is going to push from the north. Uh, Siegel and his smaller element is going to be there from the south, and they're basically going to cause just chaos and disruption and uh take out the the Confederates there who are encamped along Wilson's Creek. Oddly enough, um McCulloch was planning on attacking Springfield uh doing a night march on August 9th, but it rained. And the Missouri State Guard, a lot of those guys didn't have cartridge boxes to keep their powder dry. So he ends up delaying his plan, and he's like, okay, we'll we'll just we'll just hunker down here. We'll wait till the rain is over. Um Lion's not doing that. He they they make a night march and uh about 4 30 in the morning, they're they're gonna be rolling up close to the encampment here at Wilson's Creek.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And uh, you know, like this, because obviously I know you said some of these guys have been involved in engagements before, but for some people they probably haven't. So I wonder what that was like um being involved that first time and you know shooting each other when when the battle actually takes place, you know. Um is there any sort of like source material you've ever come across when you've researched this battle that you know has that kind of tone to it?
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, the this it's gonna be it's gonna be a lot of just kind of figuring things out, and and we'll kind of get into it as we we go through the battle here, uh that that there's going to be um there's going to be what what a friend of mine calls some tuition payments uh in in this battle, where there are going to be some big lessons learned um that they are going to take forward. Um so so yeah, so Lion uh moves in. This is again it's early morning hours of August 10th. Uh through the the battlefield, you have the wire road. Uh so the the Confederates are encamped at different positions along the the wire road here and along Wilson's Creek. Again, this is a army that is you know moving with horses and things like that, so they have to have a lot water, they have to have forage. Uh August in Missouri, if if anyone has ever experienced August in Missouri, it is it is horrible. Uh it is hot, it is humid, um, it is just a miserable place. And and in this area in southwest Missouri, you're you're looking at you're you're in the Ozark Mountains. Um there's a lot of rolling hills and um ravines and and different things like that. So it's it's gonna be um some interesting terrain that that's also going to play a big part in the battle. Uh but anyway, Lion is gonna come in and at about 4.30 in the morning, uh 4 to 4.30 in the morning, they're gonna come across a few guys, a few Confederates uh from Cawthorne's cavalry uh who are out uh doing some foraging, uh, on unauthorized foraging. Uh another thing that that kind of plays into this is McCulloch hadn't put out pickets the night before. Uh they just kind of, when their plans got canceled to march on Springfield, they forgot to put out pickets. So the Union guys uh under Nathaniel Lyon are going to bump into these guys, and they're going to end up being the early warning system for the Confederates. So they go back and tell the uh their commander, a guy by the name of Cawthorn, uh, with the Confederate cavalry under the Missouri State Guard uh what's going on. And about 300 of these cavalry guys come up to investigate. And shortly before five o'clock in the morning, so maybe around 10 till 5, uh or what did I did I just say 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock? But anyway, about 10 minutes till 5 in the morning, uh the the Union is going to fire off their first shots at these Confederate cavalry guys. And um, and then it's it's completely on. Uh so what these cavalry guys are going to be doing is kind of trading space for time, uh, very similar to what you see in Gettysburg with Reynolds cavalry, where they're just kind of trying to hold off the the Confederates uh as they are approaching. So linesmen are approaching from the north, Confederate cavalry is is holding them off, and and they start falling back to a place called Bloody Hill.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah. So tell us about Bloody Hill. Why has it got that name? Well, well, it's gonna be obvious. I'll go back to that. But you know, I mean, uh, tell us about how it gets its name.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so Bloody Hill is the primary terrain feature on the the Wilson's Creek battlefield. So it's the high ground on the northern end of the battlefield. And this is where most of the fighting and most of the dying is going to take place. Uh now, something that's kind of interesting is that if you go south, so if you start at the short farm at the very northern end of the battlefield, and you start working your way south, well, then you're gonna fall uh along Bloody Hill. Wilson's Creek runs north and south uh uh through the battlefield. Uh Bloody Hill is gonna be just to the west of Wilson's Creek. Uh that ground is going to fall off, and then you get into some low ground. And that's where the primary Confederate encampment is going to be. That's where McCulloch his headquarters is going to be. That's where Sterling Price's headquarters is going to be. When the battle kicks off, there's a runner who starts moving south to inform Sterling Price of what's going on. He gets to Sterling Price's headquarters. Uh Benjamin McCulloch is actually there as well. And and he says, hey, there's a bunch of union guys up there, and some fighting has started. And they they don't really believe him. They they think that that he's just, you know, they're they're just getting skittish, and it was maybe some guys that were shooting at something, uh, but but they don't believe the the that a battle has ensued. And from that position, they couldn't even hear the the gunfire and the cannons. Uh now you would think that being on high ground um and only being maybe a mile away that you'd be able to hear that. But this area uh has what what are called acoustic shadows. So so there are spots where you can get and like you you literally can't hear a gunshot. So I've uh you know got a lot of experience in in this part of the the country, uh turkey hunting. And I I've experienced this phenomenon with these acoustic shadows myself, where you'll hear a turkey gobble, and you're like, oh well man, he he sounds like he was a mile away. Like you could barely hear him. And then, you know, maybe you move a little bit and call, and then all of a sudden this turkey's right on top of you. And he was actually a lot closer. But from where he was gobbling, it it blocked the sound to where you you couldn't hear him and made him sound a lot further. So anyway, that's gonna be uh a big factor in in this battle right here. Um, so anyway, the the first action at Bloody Hill is going to involve uh from Nathaniel Lyon, the 1st and 2nd Missouri Regiment, and also a battalion under a guy named Joseph Plummer. Uh so he's got about 300 regulars who hadn't been assigned yet, so they just call it Plummer's Battalion. So Lyon is going to, while the 1st and 2nd Missouri is engaging with the cavalry, he's going to send Plummer's battalion to the east across Wilson's Creek, and then move down to the south to try and outflank the Confederates. And uh what they don't know is that Benjamin McCulloch, by this time they've kind of realized what's going on. Benjamin McCulloch is kind of anticipating this move, and he's gonna send the uh the 3rd Louisiana Regiment and the 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles over on the east side of Wilson's Creek and move north. And uh the Confederates get to the key terrain feature first. Uh, this is gonna be in a place called Ray's Cornfield. Uh, it's right there along the wire road. Uh, there was a guy by the name of Joseph Ray who had a stop there where the stagecoaches would stop along the wire road. Uh, they would also have mail transfer there. And he he has this cornfield. Uh, every every good Civil War battlefield either has a cornfield or a peach orchard or a wheat field. Um, and and this is no exception. So we got a cornfield here. But essentially, uh, Confederates get there first. Uh, the 2nd Louisiana is going to line up along the eastern fence of the cornfield, and the 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles are going to be lining up along the southern end. Um, and if you go there today and stand there where they are and then go out into the cornfield, if if you are Plummer's men entering the cornfield, you you can't see those guys at all. And basically, they they walk into a trap and and just get slaughtered. Uh what they were, I got ahead of myself a little bit. As Plummer is moving south, he sees a Confederate battery called Pulaski's Battery that is hitting the men from the uh Missouri regiments in the flank uh on the other side of Wilson's Creek. So he's heading for them to try and take them out and then just walks right into this trap and gets slaughtered.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Okay, so again, they they tried quite a few different attacks, aren't they, Confederates? Um, but they have failed to break the Union line, as you said. Yeah. Um okay, so what what next? What are they gonna try next to try and break the Union lines?
SPEAKER_01Well, the thing that the Confederates have against them, uh again, it's heat, um, which both sides have to deal with, but the the Union forces underly and have the high ground. So they've got this key terrain feature. And if you go there today and you stand at the bottom of the hill where the Confederates are looking up, I mean it's it's a pretty formidable looking hill that they have to climb. And it's all wide open. Uh, there's there's scrub brush, and there are these ravines. Uh, again, these are the Missouri State Guard, these are very, very inexperienced troops as well. Uh, so so those all all those factors are kind of converging, and uh it's it's kind of this unstoppable force meeting this immovable object there on Blood. Uh also if you look at how the terrain lies, Bloody Hill falls off to the south, and it also kind of falls off to the east, and then you you get Wilson's Creek there. And it almost kind of naturally funnels the Confederates into one area, uh, more to the eastern side of Blood. And uh the the Union, uh, there's a guy by the name of Toton. Uh his he's gonna have his battery set up there, and they're just gonna rip these guys apart with with canister fire. So it's the these two forces that that just can't move on each other. Uh the Confederates have more, but they they have more people, but they they don't have the dominant terrain.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Now I understand that Fran Siegel's column is gonna be defeated and uh during the battle. So, you know, that that's gonna start playing the Confederates' flight favor, isn't it? So tell us a little bit about that, if you wouldn't mind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, sure. So so while all of this is going on, um Franz Siegel has has circled around and has approached from the south at about 5 a.m. They open fire. Initially, Siegel has some remarkable success. Uh now his regiment is mainly made up of German immigrants. Um, and and they're going to push, they're gonna move across Wilson's Creek. So as Lyon is trying to move to the south, Siegel is trying to move to the north, scatters the Confederates uh initially, and works his way up. And under his command, you're gonna have a couple regiments, the the 3rd Missouri and the 5th Missouri. Uh, you've also got some dragoons and you've got a couple of uh uh cavalry regiments. He is going to make it all the way up to the wire road. So the Battle of Wilson's Creek, uh Wilson's Creek runs north-south. The wire road kind of runs from southwest to northeast. So they're gonna cross and they're gonna get astride the the southwest portion of the wire road. And they're getting their artillery up there and they're providing some some fire. He can't hear the the gunfire that's happening over on Bloody Hill. Again, we got this acoustic shadow that's going on. So you have these two subsidies. Separate elements who are not able to communicate and coordinate with one another. And what what ends up happening, long story short, is uh Fran Siegel does not arrange his men very well along the wire road. He's got his his artillery out in front of him. Uh he he doesn't deploy you know the the Missouri regiments well. And from where he is standing, astride the wire road, looking to the northeast, if you again you can go there today, there's a little pull-off. Um the ground drops off right in front of him. So you you can walk out maybe I would guess 40 to 60 yards and and then the ground falls off. Well, Siegel gets there and he looks out. Now the third Louisiana has has taken out uh Plummer's battalion. Benjamin McCulloch pulls them after that threat is eliminated and moves them down the wire road to now go up against Fran Siegel. So Siegel looks out and he sees the third Louisiana coming right down the road towards them. And uh he mistakenly thinks, and everybody mistakenly thinks, that it's the first Iowa. They think that um that Lion has has pushed all the way through, and now you have the first Iowa regiment as like this advanced element that is meeting them because the first Iowa wore gray uniforms. So they're just watching these guys walk down the road and they're not engaging them at all. And um he's gonna send out a corporal by the name of Charles Tote. So Siegel's gonna send out a guy by the name of Charles Tote to greet who he thinks is General Lyon. So this corporal gets out there by himself. And the closer he gets to the Louisiana troops, uh, he he starts to kind of question what's going on and then realizes, oh, crud, that's not the first Iowa. This is, you know, these are Louisiana troops that that are moving in on him. Uh so he sees Benjamin McCulloch. Benjamin McCulloch is leading from the front, uh, which is gonna get him killed in a later battle. Uh he shoulders his rifle, gets Benjamin McCulloch in his sights, and just as he is about to squeeze the trigger, uh, well, there's a another Confederate soldier that that shoots him down. Um and now Siegel is completely blind because his scout has been shot. Third Louisiana is coming up. They kind of get into this dead zone. And when they pop over, they start cutting down on Siegel's men. Some of Siegel's men start to fire back. Uh the commanders of the 3rd Missouri, commander of the 5th Missouri, and Fran Siegel all start shouting at their men, don't shoot, don't shoot. That's the first Iowa. And um they're they're trying to, you know, try and get things under control. And and basically the Confederates completely route them, and Siegel's men just get just get scattered. So so this this hammer and anvil thing is has been eliminated um, you know, uh about mid-morning. That that's that's gone, because because Siegel's men have completely scattered.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And then something huge is going to also happen on the other part of the battlefield. Um, and Nathaniel Lyon is going to be wounded during the battle, isn't he? And this is because, as you said, he's a very aggressive commander. So is he leading from the front when all this takes place? And tell us about how he gets wounded and what happens from that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sure. So so about mid-morning, um, you have Chris's men who are advancing north up bloody hill. Um Lion at this point has lost the initiative. Okay, so he's outnumbered. So any success for him is going to be completely hinged on, to borrow a term from a future war, like a blitzkrieg type maneuver where he just completely overwhelms him. When they get stopped on Bloody Hill, he he's got the terrain advantage, but but the initiative is lost. And there's um there's a gap that forms in the lines between the 1st Kansas Regiment and the 1st Missouri Regiment. So the first Iowa is called up to kind of fill that spot, but then the first Missouri is falling back, and the lines become entangled, and then they all have to fall back. But a few companies from the first Iowa get left behind. So they're kind of stranded out there. This is where Nathaniel Lyon is going to enter into the fray. Uh now, again, aggressive guy leading from the front. Uh, he gets out there, he thinks that he sees Sterling Price. Uh, so he pulls out his revolver and is gonna go after him, which is completely reckless uh and and completely, to be honest, irresponsible for an army commander to be doing this charge uh, you know, in the middle of this battle. So one of his advisors convinces him that he probably shouldn't be doing that. So the Union still has this problem with this unfilled gap in the line. So Lyon orders the second Kansas to come in and fill this void, and he gets at the front of the column for the 2nd Kansas. And uh he he looks back and he says, Come on, my brave boys, I will lead you forward. And about that time, there's a volley that gets fired from the Missouri State troopers. There's a bullet that's gonna hit a lion in the left side in the chest, it's gonna go through both lungs, it's gonna clip his aorta, and then it's gonna exit just below his right shoulder blade. Uh, so that that knocks him down, of course. And he he has an aide there by the name of Albert Lehman. And um there there's a couple of different things, there's a couple different accounts. One account says um that he his last words are I am killed. Um, and then there's another account that says that his last words were Lehman, I am going. And right there on the battlefield in August of 1861, Nathaniel Lyon is going to be the very first Union general to be killed during the Civil War.
SPEAKER_00What c what kind of effect does that have on his men at that point? Has he built up a relationship or is it too early?
SPEAKER_01Uh it's it's probably uh a little bit too early, in my opinion. Uh, I mean, some people might look at that and and disagree. Now, the the union does hold their own. Uh, command is gonna get shifted to Sam Sturgis. Uh, they gotta go find him and let him know that that he is now in in command of the army. Um at about 11 a.m., there's gonna be one final Confederate surge up Bloh that that is going to fail. And at this point, both sides are wore out. It's it's hot, uh, they're starting to run low on ammunition. So Price and McCulloch actually opt to kind of pull back a little bit. And and throughout this whole thing, uh, we kind of make it sound like it's just constant fighting and fire. It it actually the the fighting kind of ebbs and flows, like there's there's really intense action and then it dies away for a little bit. And then there's intense action and then it dies away a little bit. Uh, but but these men are exhausted. Uh for the Union, their their ammo is low as well. Uh so Sturgis is going to order a withdrawal from the field. So by 12 30 the in the afternoon, this the whole thing is over.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah. And and so is that why it's considered a Confederate victory then, because the Union leave the field?
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, yeah. So so the Union fails to destroy or scatter the the Confederate army. Uh their general is dead, uh so that so that plays a factor as well. And yeah, they are the ones who leave the field, and oftentimes victory is judged by who holds the field at the end of the day. Yes, definitely.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, can I ask? So obviously, because of this being so early, obviously, in the war, what's Washington's reaction to this uh defeat for the Union Army at this early stage?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh this has sometimes been called the bull run of the West. So so right here at the very front end of this conflict, the the first two battles that the Union has fought against the Confederates, they've lost. So this is going to have a a jarring effect. Um also the losses that are sustained at at Wilson's Creek are stunning. So so for the Union, uh out of you know their 5,400 troops, they have about just over 1,200 casualties. Uh Confederates are gonna have just uh just short of 1,100 casualties. Um at the time, this was one of the bloodiest battles in American history, right here. Now, by the end of the Civil War, it's not even gonna make the top 20 or 25, depending on you know what el what conflicts you you call a battle and what's part of a larger battle. Um but but yeah, this is this is completely jarring to uh Washington and to the American people. It would be like for us if if there was some sort of war conflict that we were involved in today, and uh in one day uh your your country is in a battle that has two or three times the number of casualties uh as what there was on D-Day. Uh you you can imagine how shocking that would be to the American people. Um very very similar effect here. Yeah. And what they don't know here is that it's it's it's about to get much worse uh, you know, as this as this war rolls on. Oh yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so now Sterling Price is not going to lead Missouri, is he? Because he's got had this victory, and he's gonna what what directly leads uh from this to the siege of Lexington, Missouri later on?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so at this point, um Sterling Price wants to get back up to that Missouri River basin. Uh the nickname of it was Little Dixie. So so this is where you have most of your pro-slavery elements in Missouri's population. So so this is where he can probably be more successful in in recruiting for the State Guard. Uh, so so he really is fixated on Missouri, uh, rightfully so. I forgot to mention earlier he was a former governor of the state of Missouri. So uh he and the Missouri State Guard are going to head up to Lexington. Uh Benjamin McCulloch is not going to go with him, though. Uh he's gonna basically be like, okay, you're you're basically you're basically on your own up there. Uh he's going to actually win at at the Battle of Lexington, but then the Union is going to send in reinforcements to Missouri. And uh the end result, in short, for Sterling Price is he and the Missouri State Guard are going to get pushed out of the state of Missouri and uh down into Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Okay, so a big question: why is Wilson's Creek often overlooked compared to Eastern Theater battles, despite again its importance?
SPEAKER_01Um, like I said, at the time it's one of the bloodiest battles in American history, but by the end of the Civil War, it'sn't it doesn't even crack the top 20 or 25. And I I think that as far as people's interests, we tend to be more drawn to the the battles, uh whether this is morbid or not. We tend to be drawn to the the battles that resulted in more bloodshed. Okay, so that's gonna be Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Shiloh, um, Vicksburg, and things like that. Also, the the Trans-Mississippi Theater is just kind of I think seen as far removed from for lack of a better term, the the big show. So in the Eastern Theater, you know, Virginia and Pennsylvania and Maryland and everything like that, there's a lot at stake there because you have the two capitals with Washington, D.C. and Richmond. So I think there's a perception that there's more at stake out there than what there is maybe in the trans-Mississippi theater. Um, I I think another thing that that kind of plays into how this battle gets overlooked is Missouri during the Civil War is super complicated. It is it is very complex, uh, and it's not really clean and neat. Uh, it's it's a lot of partisan warfare, it's a lot of bushwhackers who are killing each other. And and I I think that that Wilson's Creek ends up kind of falling into you know this element of just not really understanding Missouri during during the Civil War.
SPEAKER_00I I would say though that recently in the last few years, and you might agree with me, you might not, but the Western Theater and the and the Transmissive Theater has got a lot more um, you know, it's got more popular, people are researching it more. Maybe I I don't know why, uh maybe people are visiting more, maybe as well. Well, would you say that that is the case?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would say so. I I know that just like on my YouTube channel, um, I've had I was able to go to Wilson's Creek uh and and shoot a few videos there. And uh prior to that, I had lots of people saying, Hey, when are you gonna go to Wilson's Creek? I would love to see you at Wilson's Creek. Um, so I I think that you know Gettysburg gets a ton of attention. Um Chickamauga probably gets a lot of attention, uh, you know, Vicksburg and things like that. And I think that once people kind of get to a spot where where they've got their heads wrapped around those battles, then they start looking elsewhere and they're like, oh, okay, what else happened? Uh and again, this is early in the war when you know people are still kind of figuring things out. Uh the this battle looks way different than anything that you see in 1864 or 1865. Uh so I think that that this that studying this battle um kind of opens things up for people to get more of a broad understanding. So maybe that's where the appeal is. But but I don't I yeah, I don't disagree with you. I think it's it's gotten more um more the that it deserves in recent years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, excellent. And what about, as you said, you just said you obviously uh visit the battlefield. Um how accessible is it for people to get there or visit the battlefield? It it's amazing.
SPEAKER_01Um so the the battlefield itself, what we're looking at right here is the Ray House, uh, which served as a hospital during the the battle. Uh, this is also where Nathaniel Lyon, uh where his body is is going to be brought. Um the battlefield is exceptionally well preserved. Uh when when you walk the battlefield, you you are really kind of looking at it very similar to how it was in 1861. It's it's not built up. Um the the Park Service has an amazing little museum there, uh, and has all kinds of trails and roads. So regardless of you know what your degree of mobility uh is, um, you know, if you are somebody who's very mobile and you like to hike, you can get out and hike. You can you know see all kinds of things. Uh, if you are someone who is, you know, got some challenges or some limitations with your mobility, man, the the road system there is excellent. And you can see all of the things that I just talked about, uh, pretty much. Uh at certain times during the year, uh they'll open up the the Ray house here and and you can go out go inside. It was said that Joseph Ray watched the entire battle from his front porch uh of this house. So you can go up on the front porch and you can see things uh pretty much how how he saw them. But it's it's one of the the battlefields that that I like to say uh the term that I I like to use is it's still it's still wild. Um so it's not you know built up, there's not a McDonald's right in the middle of it or anything like that. It's a great place to visit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And uh have you got a personal attachment to this battlefield yourself? Um, and is it that far from where you are?
SPEAKER_01So the the personal attachment would come in the fact that um you know it's just in in my home state where where I grew up. Uh so uh anybody who has a little bit of a home state or hometown connection, they're gonna have a little bit more of an affinity for the for the things that that took place there. Um personally, I didn't have any ancestors who who fought in this battle. Uh, all of mine jumped in a little bit later in the war. Now, one of my ancestors, uh, so he'd be my great-great-great-grandfather, um, whose name was um William Henry Woodruff. He was with the 10th Missouri Cavalry, and he would actually be fighting against Sterling Price when Sterling Price makes his raid in Missouri in 1864. So so the so there's a little bit of a loose connection there. My ancestor did fight against Sterling Price, but just not at Wilson's Creek.
SPEAKER_00Well, fantastic. And I really appreciate you telling us about the battle. It's been uh amazing to learn more about it. I mean, I'll do a little bit about it, but I don't know a lot more now. And uh again, thank you so much for that. But let's change uh the subject a little bit and let's talk about you, young man, because you have built yourself a uh a little empire here, haven't you? You you know, you deserve a big round of applause because you know, I mean, uh, you know, you really have built something fantastic, and you know, um, so tell us about how it starts started.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh what some people may not know, or maybe they do, is that that my background is a high school hits history teacher, and uh I also have a background in in television and video production. Um, so I don't know, it's kind of a weird combination, but that all helped though, didn't it? Yeah, I yeah, so so I honestly kind of just brought those two things together. Uh, I can't even take credit for the idea of having a YouTube channel. Uh that that was my students' idea. So I'd shown them, I I'd shot some video at a at a museum and just showed it in class, and it was me, you know, just with my phone, and I was kind of holding it out and talking and pointing and saying, Okay, that's what this is, this is what this is, and then turning it around and then kind of doing just like a little tour. And after it was finished, they were like, Hey, that was really good. Um, that was pretty interesting. And they said, You should you should start a YouTube channel showing some of these places that you go. And uh, I I told them that was a stupid idea and that nobody would ever watch that. Um, they they kept pushing me. And uh I thought, okay, well, maybe I can you know put some stuff up on YouTube, and if other teachers can use it as like a virtual field trip, or if anybody takes interest in it, then whatever. I I do I knew zero about YouTube, I knew nothing about it when I uploaded my first video. Um, all what I did know is that my students were a bunch of YouTube junkies. So I thought, well, if I can put some stuff on a platform that That they're spending a lot of time on, maybe it'll do some good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and the thing is, it's it's just so fantastic, it really is. And uh, you know, uh I didn't know that obviously it was down to your students, but um and uh when I started I didn't know anything either, so uh I was in a similar sort of situation. I don't have a clue how to edit or anything at that time. Yeah, um you you learn very quickly, don't you? But the quality of your your um videos is just second to none. It really is. I mean it it literally is just yourself, is it? You know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I have um in if the only thing on my videos that you'll see that don't have my fingerprints on it is if you see a map animation. Uh there's a guy by the name of Sander von Kamen. He has a channel called Sander VK History, and and I work with him to create my map animations just because I'm so busy that like I I have almost no bandwidth left. So uh if I want to add a map animation to a video about a battle or something like that, uh I I collaborate with him and and he creates those. But yeah, the rest of it, I I do all the research, I go out myself, I edit myself. Yeah, it's I'm kind of I'm pretty much a one-man band.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. I will say, young man, amazing. Um and again, guys, remember uh as uh JD said, he's got two videos on Wilson's Creek, so go and watch them, please, and go and watch his other stuff. And uh lately you've uh been putting stuff out um from uh well all over the place, like you said, Fort Sumter. Um I saw watch Saint the other day uh when he was in uh Berlin and uh the place where Hitler uh Hitler's uh bunker was it? Yeah, that was fantastic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so yeah, so we I'm I'm also a partner at the Gettysburg Museum of History, and um in our collection we have a swatch of fabric from the couch that was in the Fuhrer bunker where Hitler, I I won't I'll I'll be careful of the words I use or else YouTube will uh gig your video here. But where where Hitler met his end, let's say it that way. Um, and that swatch of fabric has a blood stain on it. Um so we had that DNA tested, and the um the the results from that DNA test were were very, very fascinating and uh helps us to learn some new things, also helps to bust some myths about about Hitler, and then yeah, we filmed a whole bunch of other stuff while we were in Berlin as well.
SPEAKER_00And again, you know, that's how I bumped into you in Munich Airport, I would imagine. Is that the same for the time?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I was coming home from that trip.
SPEAKER_00Yes, wow, that's so fantastic. Now we ran into each other in Munich, yeah. I know that was crazy, and I couldn't believe it. And uh it's just fantastic, and uh yeah, so um again, I know what you're saying about the uh the YouTube algorithms, it could be a pain in the backside. Um, but anyway, JD, it's been an absolute pleasure, my friend. Thank you so much for because again, I know you're so busy, um, but you've given up your time to come and talk to me and tell everyone about the Battle of Wilson's Creek, and I just appreciate you for doing that. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, yeah. No, I appreciate you asking me. I appreciate the things that you're doing. I'm I'm a huge fan of anybody who is uh taking their their passion of history and and dumping it upstream of culture uh and you know helping others to learn. So, yeah, that's so thank you. Amen to that. And all that is left to say, my friend, is cheers.
