Liberty was a Civil War engagement fought in Missouri, 1861. It was a Confederate victory.
"General" D.R. Atchison left Lexington on September 15, 1861, and proceeded to Liberty where he met the Missouri State Guard. On the night of September 16-17, his force crossed the Missouri River to the south side and prepared for a fight with Union troops reported to be in the area. At the same time, Union Lt. Col. John Scott led a force of about 600 men from Cameron, on the 15th, towards Liberty. He left his camp in Centreville, at 2:00 am on the 17th. He arrived in Liberty, sent scouts out to find the enemy, and, about 11:00 am, skirmishing began. At noon, Scott marched in the direction of the firing, approached Blue Mills Landing and, at 3:00 am, struck the Confederate pickets. The Union force began to fall back, though, and the Rebels pursued for some distance. The fight lasted for an hour. The Confederates were consolidating influence in northwestern Missouri.
On September 17, 1861, fighting broke out at Blue Mills Landing in Clay County, Missouri, an engagement also remembered as the Battle of Liberty. Troops loyal to the Union sought to stop Missouri State Guards sympathetic to the Southern cause, who were moving in from the northwestern part of the state, from getting across the Missouri River close to where it meets the Blue River. Their goal was to keep these guardsmen from joining Sterling Price's forces at Lexington, but the attempt failed.
After his success at Wilson's Creek that August, Price set his sights on securing Missouri for the Confederacy. Federal soldiers had until then been stationed along the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, watching over its endpoint at St. Joseph. Once those troops departed to confront Price's advancing forces, southern sympathizers from the region moved in, took the town, and looted it.
By 15 September, roughly 3,500 members of the Missouri State Guard, joined by a collection of irregular fighters out of St. Joseph, began marching toward Lexington. That evening Price dispatched Brigadier-General David R. Atchison from Lexington so he could assist this group, largely composed of inexperienced recruits, in getting across the river near Liberty.
Meanwhile, Federal units from the 16th Illinois Infantry and 39th Ohio Infantry, who had been posted at the Platte River railroad bridge in Buchanan County following its destruction during the Platte Bridge Railroad Tragedy, began advancing toward Liberty as well. Simultaneously, Lieutenant-Colonel John Scott set out from Cameron with a modest column consisting of 500 soldiers from the 3rd Iowa Infantry, around 100 men from the Missouri Home Guards, and a single 6-pound smoothbore cannon, also heading for Liberty. Persistent rain and poor road conditions slowed them considerably, allowing them to cover only seven miles that day. The following day, 16 September, found Scott's men camped at Centerville, ten miles north of Liberty, where the sound of distant artillery reached them.
Before dawn broke on 17 September, at two in the morning, Lieutenant-Colonel Scott had his camp packed up and his men on the move. By seven that morning he reached Liberty, only to learn that Southern forces were already fording the Missouri River at Blue Mills Landing. Hoping to pinpoint the enemy's position and gauge their progress across the water, Scott dispatched a party of 20 mounted scouts toward the crossing.
Near what is today the junction of Liberty Landing Road and Old Highway 210, Atchison's rear guard lay concealed, waiting to spring a trap. The scouts rode straight into it, and the encounter cost four of them their lives, with a fifth left gravely injured. Those who survived turned back and made for Liberty. By noon, Scott had committed his whole command to advancing on the landing.
Atchison, a former resident of Liberty, positioned his men among the brush flanking the road that ran through the river bottom toward the crossing. Around three in the afternoon, Scott's column ran into State Guard pickets and found itself caught in a crossfire from both sides.
Scott's gunners managed to loose two canister rounds, causing some casualties among the enemy, but a subsequent volley from the State Guard cut down or dispersed most of the artillery crew. Facing superior numbers, Scott gave the order to retreat toward Liberty, his men dragging the cannon back by hand. Atchison then tried to turn the Federal right flank, sparking an intense clash. Even as they pulled back, Scott's troops kept up their fire, managing to carry off nearly all their wounded, though an ammunition wagon and a caisson had to be left behind. The State Guard chased them for a stretch, but Atchison chose not to press the advantage further.
As darkness approached, Scott's men made their way back into Liberty, arriving roughly an hour after the sun had set. Meanwhile, Atchison and his State Guard troops from the northern part of the state crossed the river to join Price, whose assault on Lexington would prove victorious. Later that night, once the sun had gone down, Union soldiers returned to the battlefield to collect their fallen.
The engagement itself lasted only about an hour, but it ended in a clear and decisive triumph for the pro-Southern Missouri State Guard.
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