Boonville

On June 17, 1861, a brief clash unfolded near Boonville in Cooper County, Missouri, marking what became known as the First Battle of Boonville. Casualties from the fighting were minimal, yet the engagement carried consequences well beyond what its small scale would suggest. Federal forces emerged victorious, and their success secured lasting Union dominance over the Missouri River while also helping to block attempts to draw Missouri into the Confederacy.

Boonville saw a total of four battles during the Civil War. This piece focuses on the first of these engagements, with the remaining three addressed elsewhere under other battles at Boonville.

Background

When war broke out, Missouri found itself torn, much like other border states, over whether loyalty belonged with Lincoln's Union or with the fledgling Confederacy led by Jefferson Davis. Governor Claiborne F. Jackson favored secession and pushed hard for it, yet the mood across the state leaned toward neutrality at first. A convention chosen by voters declined to adopt a secession ordinance, dashing the outcome Jackson had counted on.

That defeat, however, failed to stop those pushing for secession. A group among them took control of the modest Federal armory at Liberty, Missouri, with an eye toward later seizing the far larger weapons cache held at the St. Louis Arsenal. Captain Nathaniel Lyon, a vigorous young officer, stepped in and blocked this scheme for the time being. Joining forces with Congressman Frank Blair of Missouri along with German immigrants in St. Louis opposed to slavery, Lyon worked to keep the arsenal in Union hands. To accomplish this, he combined U.S. Army Regulars with Missouri Volunteers enrolled under Federal authority, most of them of German descent, and used this force to surround and capture the Missouri Volunteer Militia. That militia had gathered at Camp Jackson just outside St. Louis on May 10, 1861, supposedly for nothing more than a routine yearly drill.

Trouble followed when Lyon made the ill considered choice to parade his captives through St. Louis streets, sparking a violent and deadly riot. That same night, the Missouri General Assembly met in emergency session and rushed through legislation establishing the pro secession Missouri State Guard. The measures also handed Governor Jackson sweeping, almost unchecked authority to do whatever seemed necessary to fend off what was termed invasion by Federal troops and to put down insurrection among Missouri Unionists serving in Federal ranks. This newly formed State Guard began building itself across the state through nine separate military districts, drawing initially on the independent companies that had made up the old MVM before the Camp Jackson affair. Guard officials also faced the task of organizing the swarms of volunteers pouring into Jefferson City, all eager to defend the capital against a Federal assault that Jackson's followers were convinced was about to happen.

A failed truce

Efforts to bridge the divide between the opposing camps produced a loose arrangement between General William S. Harney, who commanded the Western Department of the U.S. Army, and Major General Sterling Price of the Missouri State Guard. Under this understanding, both men pledged to keep peace within the territory their respective forces held, to safeguard civilians and their belongings, and to steer clear of anything likely to provoke fighting. Harney, informally, consented to keeping Federal troops largely confined to the St. Louis area. For his part, Price called off the gathering of State Guard volunteers in Jefferson City, redirecting would-be soldiers instead toward regional commanders spread

The battle

Though barely more than a skirmish in scale, this engagement ranked among the war's earliest notable land clashes and carried severe implications for Confederate ambitions in Missouri.

Around 7 am, having come ashore, Lyon's men began their advance along the Rocheport Road in the direction of Boonville. Positioned on a ridge above the bluff sat roughly 500 members of Marmaduke's State Guard, a force full of enthusiasm but poorly outfitted. Their artillery was absent entirely, having remained with Parsons back at Tipton. For reasons that remain puzzling, Governor Jackson watched the scene unfold from about a mile off, choosing to keep his one genuinely disciplined unit, the veteran Washington Blues militia company from St. Louis (commonly called "Captain Kelly's Company"), out of the fight altogether.

As Lyon's force neared the bluffs, it ran into State Guard pickets, prompting Lyon to send skirmishers ahead while maintaining a rapid advance. Sharpshooters holed up in the William Adams house were soon driven out by Union artillery under Captain Totten (Company F, 2nd U.S. Lt Artillery), and Federal infantry then closed the distance with the guardsmen's line, unleashing several volleys that sent them reeling backward. All of this transpired in scarcely twenty minutes. Though some guardsmen tried to regroup and hold their ground, this effort fell apart once a Union company outflanked their position, aided by howitzer fire from the steamer Augustus McDowell on the river. Just as Marmaduke had anticipated, the retreat swiftly degenerated into full flight. Guardsmen streamed back through Camp Bacon and into Boonville itself; a number headed straight home, while others accompanied the Governor toward the state's southwestern corner. By 11 am, Boonville belonged to Lyon.

Given how quickly the fight ended and how hastily the State Guard fled, the engagement came to be known as "The Boonville Races."

Other battles at Boonville

Boonville's role in the Civil War did not end with the fighting on June 17. The town later witnessed three more clashes, each of minor significance in the broader conflict.

On September 13, 1861, Colonel William Breckenridge "Bill" Brown of the Missouri State Guard struck at a group of 140 pro-Union Boonville Home Guardsmen commanded by Captain Joseph A. Eppstein. Brown's 800 men caught their opponents at breakfast, hoping to gain the advantage of surprise. Rainy weather had forced the Confederates to cover their flags in black sheathing, and the Home Guard interpreted this as a signal that no prisoners would be taken. Believing they faced a stark choice between "victory or death," the defenders fought with such determination that they routed Brown's force and killed the colonel himself. This clash became known as the Second Battle of Boonville.

Two years later, on October 11, 1863, the town saw further combat as part of Shelby's Great Raid. General Joseph Shelby directed his troops against Union forces stationed in Boonville, and fighting broke out within the city itself. The arrival of Federal reinforcements the following day forced Shelby's men to pull back toward the west, bringing the Third Battle of Boonville to a close.

A fourth engagement occurred exactly one year later, on October 11, 1864. By this point, soldiers from General Sterling Price's Army of Missouri had taken control of the town, and Unionist forces moved to challenge their occupation. The resulting skirmish ended in a victory for Price's men, yet their hold on Boonville proved brief, since they withdrew from the city just one day afterward.