Marais des Cygnes

On October 25, 1864, Confederate and Union forces clashed in Linn County, Kansas, in an engagement remembered as the Battle of Marais des Cygnes, sometimes called the Battle of Trading Post. This fight formed part of Price's Missouri Campaign within the broader American Civil War. Confederate Major-General Sterling Price had led a cavalry force into Missouri in late 1864, hoping to pull Union soldiers away from the war's larger struggles occurring further east. Although his campaign opened with a string of successes, Price's men suffered a setback on October 23 when they were beaten at the Battle of Westport, fought close to Kansas City, Missouri. Following this loss, the Confederates pulled back across the border into Kansas and settled for the night of October 24 along the Marais des Cygnes River. Brigadier General John B. Sanborn's Union cavalry, trailing the retreating Confederates, exchanged fire with Price's rearguard that night but pulled away before the fighting escalated.

During the night, Benteen, a lieutenant colonel, brought additional cavalry to reinforce Sanborn, raising the combined Union force to 3,500 troops. When dawn broke, Sanborn pushed Major General John S. Marmaduke's Confederate rearguard away from its post on the river's northern bank, and in doing so Union soldiers seized cannons, wagons, and prisoners. Marmaduke tried to hold firm at the river crossing, but a Union cavalry regiment swung around his flank and forced him to give up that position. Confederate Brigadier General John B. Clark Jr. then led his 1,200 men in a rearguard stand that gave Price the time he needed to pull his army back and break contact. Even so, part of Price's force was overtaken near Mine Creek that same morning and suffered a severe defeat in what became known as the Battle of Mine Creek. As evening fell, a third clash of the day erupted at the Marmiton River, after which Price ordered his supply train burned so it would no longer hinder the retreat. Price's army suffered yet another loss on October 28 at the Second Battle of Newtonia, and afterward the column withdrew toward Texas by way of Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Of the 12,000 men Price had originally brought into Missouri, only 3,500

Background

When fighting broke out across the country in 1861, Missouri held slaves yet stayed out of the Confederacy because its population was split on the question of secession. Claiborne Fox Jackson, the governor, along with the Missouri State Guard, backed the Confederate cause, while Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon and the Union forces under him remained loyal to the United States and fought against leaving it. Under Major General Sterling Price, the Missouri State Guard won victories over Union forces at Wilson's Creek and at Lexington during 1861. However, once Union reinforcements arrived before the year closed, Price's men found themselves pushed back into the southwestern corner of the state. During this same period, Jackson and part of the legislature cast votes to join the Confederacy, while a separate faction voted against secession, leaving Missouri with two rival governments. Confederate hopes for the state suffered a serious blow in March 1862 when their forces lost the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas, which handed the Union control of Missouri. From that point onward through 1863, Confederate efforts within the state amounted to little more than scattered guerrilla actions and raids.

As September 1864 approached, developments farther east, particularly the Confederate loss in the Atlanta campaign, strengthened Abraham Lincoln's position in that year's presidential race against George B. McClellan. Lincoln favored pressing on with the war, whereas McClellan campaigned on bringing it to a close. By this stage, Confederate prospects for ultimate victory had grown exceedingly slim. Still, west of the Mississippi

Prelude

Price's column arrived at Fredericktown on September 24, and there he learned that Union troops under Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr. held Pilot Knob along with the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad. Unwilling to leave a hostile force positioned behind him as he pushed toward St. Louis, Price dispatched the divisions of Marmaduke and Fagan toward Pilot Knob while Shelby's men operated to the town's north. On September 26, Ewing's soldiers clashed with Fagan's division near Arcadia and then pulled back into Fort Davidson's defenses. The following day Price advanced on the fort and proposed

Battle

Just after one in the morning, word reached Curtis that Sanborn's men had broken contact with the enemy. Determined to keep the pressure on Price, Curtis instructed him to resume the assault once the sun rose. Recognizing that Sanborn's efforts had suffered from a shortage of staff support, Curtis lent him some of his own officers to help coordinate the coming attack, and an artillery battery moved into position around this same hour. Roughly an hour later, Fagan and Shelby pulled their men back, while Marmaduke arranged his division, numbering more than 2,000 men, to cover the retreat. Marmaduke moved the bulk of his force across to the south side of the river but left a thin skirmish line holding two mounds rising 140 feet high. Overnight, a detachment of the 2nd Colorado Cavalry pushed through this thin Confederate line before pulling back again, and a Missouri State Militia unit together with the 4th Iowa Cavalry also crept forward under cover of darkness. Sanborn's ranks grew that night when part of Lieutenant Colonel Frederick W. Benteen's cavalry brigade arrived, though Benteen sent one regiment north to guard a river crossing against any Confederate flanking move. At four in the morning, six 3-inch ordnance rifles belonging to Sanborn began shelling the Confederate position.

When daylight broke, the 4th Iowa Cavalry pushed forward on the Union right, taking advantage of the broken terrain for cover. Union gunners aimed their fire at the mounds using a fifteen-degree elevation, yet their shots sailed past the Confederate defenders on the high ground; several rounds instead struck the camp behind them, hastening its abandonment. The Confederates stationed there shot poorly, allowing the Iowa troopers to seize one of the mounds with little difficulty. Meanwhile, the 6th and 8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry Regiments struck the opposite end of the line, again facing weak and inaccurate defensive fire, though rugged ground slowed both sides equally. Worried about being cut off from Marmaduke's main body across the river, the Confederate officer opposing the two militia regiments chose to give up the mound entirely. His men slipped away so completely that Union forces did not realize the position had been vacated until afterward. Historian Kyle Sinisi observed that losses during this phase of combat "appear to have been almost nonexistent." With the Confederate line north of the river now broken, Sanborn pushed the 3rd Iowa Cavalry Regiment, the 10th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, and the 2nd Arkansas Cavalry Regiment forward to widen the gap.

Leading the chase, the 2nd Arkansas Cavalry helped Union troops seize 100 Confederate prisoners along with two cannons and several wagons north of the river, including near the Trading Post settlement. The abandoned camp yielded large stores of equipment, personal belongings, and half-cooked meals, along with the partly butchered remains of livestock. South of the crossing, Marmaduke had stationed troops backed by three guns from Hynson's Texas Battery, and this force briefly checked the Union advance since too few soldiers had yet reached the field to challenge the Confederate position outright. Two felled trees and a handful of men under Colonel Thomas R. Freeman further blocked the river crossing. Sanborn then sent the 7th Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia across the river upstream of the Confederate defenders, successfully flanking their line and clearing a path over the water. As that militia unit cleared the way from the side, the 2nd Arkansas pushed across the river as well. A stream feeding into the Marais des Cygnes, called Big Sugar Creek, created yet another obstacle to the advance. Though another crossing point on the Marais des Cygnes existed that would have avoided this obstruction, Sanborn had no knowledge of it.

Acting as a rearguard, Clark positioned his brigade directly in the path of the advancing Federals. Sanborn's troops spotted this line after fighting their way through dense woods near the river. In response, Sanborn arranged two Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia units as skirmishers out front, with the 2nd Arkansas Cavalry, 2nd Colorado Cavalry, and two more militia units for

Aftermath

That same morning, the men under Philips and Benteen ran into a portion of Price's force where the roads crossed Mine Creek. Union soldiers pressed the attack without delay, and what followed, the Battle of Mine Creek, grew into one of the war's largest engagements fought entirely by horsemen. The outcome favored the Union decisively: the Confederates lost several cannons and roughly 600 soldiers were taken prisoner, Marmaduke among them. Shelby's division took on rearguard duties, clashing with Union forces that evening in what became known as the Battle of Marmiton River. Price's command had, by the close of October 25, been battered and demoralized to such a degree that historian Albert E. Castel would later call it little more than an armed mob. Under cover of darkness, Price set fire to the bulk of his supply wagons near Deerfield, Missouri, ridding himself of a burden he could no longer haul. The retreating Confederates reached Newtonia, Missouri by October 28, only to be beaten there by Blunt's and Sanborn's commands in what became the Second Battle of Newtonia. From that point, Price's army began falling apart, pulling back through Arkansas before continuing into the Indian Territory and on to Texas. What had been intended as the final large-scale Confederate push in the Trans-Mississippi Theater ended in outright failure. Of the 12,000 troops Price had commanded at the campaign's start, only about 3,500 remained under him by December.