The Battle of Dry Wood Creek, also known as the Battle of the Mules, was fought on September 2, 1861, in Vernon County, Missouri, during the American Civil War. After his victory at the Battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10, Sterling Price and the Missouri State Guard moved further north into Missouri. A force of Union troops under James H. Lane moved from Fort Scott, Kansas to attempt an interception of Price's army, and set an ambush along Dry Wood Creek. Price's Missouri State Guard troops outnumbered Lane's Kansas troops, and after a two hour skirmish forced Lane to retreat to Fort Scott. In their retreat, Lane's troops abandoned their supplies and mules to the Missourians. Price followed up his victory by continuing his northward march, culminating in another victory at the siege of Lexington, September 13 to 20, before returning south shortly afterwards.
After the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, Missouri was considered to be a border state, as slavery was legal within the state, but it did not vote to secede. Governor of Missouri Claiborne F. Jackson supported the Confederate States of America, and began to use militia to support the Confederate cause in Missouri by marching towards the arsenal in St. Louis. Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, commander of the Union forces in St. Louis, acted quickly and forced Jackson's militia to surrender in the Camp Jackson affair. After the debacle at Camp Jackson, Jackson formed a new organization named the Missouri State Guard and appointed Sterling Price to command it. Lyon moved to confront Price's new force, defeating it at the Battle of Boonville. Price and the Missouri State Guard retreated to the vicinity of Springfield in southwestern Missouri, where it was joined by a Confederate States Army force commanded by Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch. On August 10, Lyon decided to attack the combined forces of Price and McCulloch while they were encamped along Wilsons Creek, despite being outnumbered by the Confederates and Missourians by a factor of over two-to-one. In the ensuing Battle of Wilson's Creek, the Union forces were defeated and Lyon was killed.
After Wilson's Creek, the Union army retreated to Rolla, Missouri. McCulloch and his forces withdrew to Arkansas, and Price's Missouri State Guard occupied Springfield. John C. Fremont arrived to take control of Union forces in the state, and James H. Lane took command of several Kansas regiments stationed at Fort Scott. Meanwhile, Price began to advance north with a force estimated to number at either 6,000 or 10,000 men. In response to Price's incursion, Fremont declared Missouri to be subject to martial law.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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