Clark's Mill

Near Vera Cruz, Missouri, on November 7, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed at what became known as the Battle of Clark's Mill, one episode among many in the American Civil War. At the time, Confederate Colonels Colton Greene and John Q. Burbridge had been busy recruiting men in the Gainesville area. Meanwhile, Captain Hiram E. Barstow of the Union army held a detachment stationed at Clark's Mill, close to Vera Cruz, and word reached him of Confederate raiding activity near Gainesville. Acting on these reports, he dispatched patrols in the direction of both Gainesville and Rockbridge, joining the Rockbridge-bound group himself. Before that patrol could reach its destination, however, it ran into Confederate troops, forcing Barstow to retreat back toward Clark's Mill. Confederate forces then converged on the position from several directions at once, and following roughly five hours of fighting, they had Barstow's men completely encircled. As darkness approached, the Confederates proposed terms for surrender, which Barstow agreed to. The captured Union troops were subsequently paroled, and their blockhouse was torn down; once the fighting ended, both sides departed the area. The following day, a Union force moved out from Ozark in response.

Background

When the Civil War began, control of Missouri hung in the balance. Its population split into two camps, some favoring the Confederacy and others holding fast to the federal government known as the Union. In August 1861, combined Confederate and Missouri State Guard forces, the latter a pro-Confederate militia raised within the state, overcame Union troops at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. This pro-Confederate militia pushed as far as the Missouri River before the year ended, only to find itself pushed back into the southwestern corner of the state. During this period Missouri found itself claimed by rival administrations, one loyal to the Union and another representing the Confederacy, though the latter never managed to govern the state's territory in practice.

The following March brought another clash, this time at Pea Ridge in northern Arkansas, where Confederate and Missouri State Guard troops suffered defeat in the early days of the month. This outcome effectively settled Missouri's fate in favor of the Union. Following the fighting there, the Missouri State Guard was largely absorbed into the regular Confederate army, and both armies pulled their soldiers away from the Ozarks. John M. Schofield, who oversaw Union forces in the region, came to regard the area as a backwater with little military significance. That assessment did not hold for long. As the year wore on, renewed Confederate activity revealed how mistaken this judgment had been. Guerrilla fighters kept up their resistance, and Confederate Major General Thomas C. Hindman also marched a portion of his army from Arkansas into southwestern Missouri. Hindman's regular troops eventually pulled back in early October, shortly after the First Battle of Newtonia, yet irregular fighters continued to hold a presence throughout the Ozarks.

Battle

Colonel Colton Greene and Colonel John Q. Burbridge had each raised bodies of Confederate soldiers, and their commands were active near Gainesville. Burbridge's men would eventually form the 4th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, and Greene's became the 3rd Missouri Cavalry Regiment. Roughly 30 miles (48 km) to the north sat a Union garrison stationed at Clark's Mill, close to Vera Cruz, led by Captain Hiram E. Barstow. Estimates of this garrison's size vary: historian Louis Gerteis puts it near 100, split about evenly between the 10th Illinois Cavalry Regiment and militiamen drawn from the 2nd Missouri Militia Cavalry, whereas historian Bruce Nichols suggests closer to 200. Barstow himself, writing afterward, put his numbers at about 110. He had already received word of Confederate movement nearby, though earlier alarms had proven groundless. On the morning of November 7, rumors of Confederate raiding at Gainesville prompted him to dispatch twenty men there, while he took a comparable detachment toward Rockbridge.

About 5 miles (8 km) short of Rockbridge, Barstow's men ran into Confederate forces. By his own account, the skirmish left nine Confederates dead and produced four Union casualties, two of them fatal. Recognizing that his men were badly outnumbered and that Confederate columns were closing in from several directions, Barstow pulled back toward Clark's Mill. Most of his soldiers carried only pistols, though the

Aftermath

According to what Barstow claimed afterward, the Union side suffered seven killed and two wounded, and he believed 34 Confederates had died in the fighting, with additional men wounded on their side. Burbridge, for his part, admitted to four Confederate wounded. Other accounts differ substantially: Nichols puts Union losses at four killed and roughly 150 taken prisoner, Kennedy counts 119 Union casualties total, 113 of them captured, and McGhee estimates about 150 Union soldiers were seized.

Once the fighting ended, Barstow traveled to Marshfield, and the Confederates pulled back from the Clark's Mill vicinity, retreating up Bryant Creek. The following day, additional men from the 14th Missouri State Militia Cavalry launched a retaliatory strike, marching from Ozark into Douglas County and continuing on toward Dubuque, Arkansas. Along this route they killed or captured roughly 30 Confederate soldiers.