Newtonia

Near Newtonia, Missouri, on September 30, 1862, Confederate troops under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper clashed with a Union column led by Brigadier General Frederick Salomon in what became known as the First Battle of Newtonia. Cooper had marched his men into southwestern Missouri and set up camp close to the town. His ranks consisted largely of cavalry under Colonel Joseph O. Shelby, along with a brigade made up of Native Americans. Learning of Cooper's presence, Union Brigadier General James G. Blunt sent a force to cut him off. Salomon, leading Blunt's advance element, arrived near Newtonia on September 29 and launched an assault on Cooper's position the following day. That morning, Cooper's men had already pushed back a Union scouting detachment under Colonel Edward Lynde that had entered the town.

As the day wore on, both armies called up additional troops, and the fighting swung back and forth through much of the afternoon. Just before dusk, Cooper's men launched a full assault on the Union line, forcing Salomon to pull his troops back. Colonel George Hall's militia shielded the withdrawal, but Confederate artillery shells found their mark among the retreating soldiers. The bombardment sparked panic in Salomon's ranks, turning an orderly withdrawal into chaos. Estimates of Union losses vary, with figures given as either 245 or upward of 400, while Confederate losses stood at 78. When Blunt moved his entire division toward Newtonia in early October, Cooper chose to pull out of Missouri altogether. In 2004, a section of the battlefield earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places under the designation First Battle of Newtonia Historic District.

Background

The early decades of the American republic saw a widening rift open between northern and southern states, rooted deeply in the question of slavery. By the time the 1860 presidential contest arrived, slavery had come to define much of southern identity, and its defenders leaned heavily on arguments about states' rights to justify the practice. Industrial growth had pushed the North's population past that of the South, tilting the nation's political balance, and this shift convinced many southerners that breaking away from the Union was the only path left to protect slavery, particularly once Abraham Lincoln won the presidency that year. Lincoln's victory was sharply regional in character, drawing his support almost entirely from northern states while he failed to capture a single electoral vote anywhere in the Deep South. Refusing to accept his win as legitimate, numerous southerners began pushing for secession. South Carolina broke away first, on December 20, and within the opening months of 1861 Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed its lead. On February 4, these departing states banded together to establish the Confederate States of America, choosing Jefferson Davis as their new president.

Down in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, Union troops still held Fort Sumter, a critical military post. Confederate guns opened fire on the fort on the morning of April 12, marking the war's opening shots,

Prelude

The calm proved short-lived. Price dispatched a portion of his men into Missouri to gather supplies and enlist fresh recruits, while Confederate raiders, among them Colonel Joseph C. Porter's command, struck across the state. Bushwhacker bands, William Quantrill's guerrillas included, added to the turmoil. On one occasion Quantrill's irregulars joined forces with Colonel John T. Hughes's regular Confederate troops, and together they crushed a Union garrison at the First Battle of Independence on August 11. Four days later, on August 15, federal soldiers suffered a second setback at the Battle of Lone Jack. This surge in rebel activity proved humiliating for Brigadier General John M. Schofield, then commanding the Department of the Missouri; Curtis took his place, and Schofield found himself demoted to leading the Army of the Frontier.

The heightened Confederate presence in Missouri stemmed largely from Major General Thomas C. Hindman's campaign to rebuild rebel military strength in Arkansas. Though Hindman managed to raise an army from a region with little infrastructure, his heavy-handed methods angered influential Arkansas citizens, leading to his removal in favor of Major General Theophilus H. Holmes. Even so, Hindman kept a field command beneath Holmes and drove a force of 6,000 men into northwestern Arkansas and southwestern Missouri. Colonel Douglas H. Cooper's cavalry took up positions in Missouri, while Hindman's infantry remained behind near Elkhorn

Battle

On the morning of September 29, Salomon dispatched three separate scouting parties, directing them toward Neosho, Granby, and Newtonia respectively. The Neosho patrol became involved in minor fighting, while the group headed to Granby encountered no Confederate troops at all. Toward Newtonia rode a detachment of 150 men drawn from four companies of the 9th Kansas Cavalry, under Colonel Edward Lynde of that regiment, bringing along the unit's pair of mountain howitzers. Lynde pushed Confederate skirmishers back in the direction of the town and confirmed that a sizable Confederate force held it. Hawpe, who remained in command there, passed word of this Union movement to Cooper, prompting him to dispatch Jean's regiment along with the 5th Missouri Cavalry toward Newtonia. Cooper had also received word that Granby was in Union hands, so he ordered the 22nd Texas Cavalry to march there as well. When Lynde's column reached Newtonia, they found Confederates firmly in possession of it. Realizing his howitzers could not reach the town from his position, Lynde called for a withdrawal. Two captured Confederate soldiers confirmed to the Union officer that the town held a substantial garrison. Before long, Cooper arrived at Newtonia along with Shelby's two regiments, but by then the Union troops had already pulled back, and no pursuit followed. Cooper subsequently rode back to the main Confederate encampment, and although the two reinforcing regiments spent the night in Newtonia, they too returned to camp the following morning. As for the 22nd Texas Cavalry, it reached Granby only after the Union scouts had departed, and the Texans simply took over the empty town. Hearing gunfire from the direction of Newtonia, Salomon dispatched two companies from the 9th Wisconsin Infantry to back up Lynde.

This detachment from the 9th Wisconsin gained two more companies from the same regiment, all under Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Jacobi, and was further strengthened by 45 troopers of the 6th Kansas Cavalry, 50 soldiers of the 3rd Indian Home Guard, and three artillery pieces belonging to the 25th Ohio Battery. This combined force arrived near Newtonia around seven in the morning on September 30. A move by the 6th Kansas Cavalry meant to trap the Confederate skirmish line did not succeed, costing Jacobi's men any advantage of surprise. Fierce fighting ensued, and eventually Lynde's earlier probing force rejoined the action after doubling back. Hawpe, on seeing the engagement begin, alerted Cooper to the advancing Union troops. In response, Confederate forces, namely the 31st Texas Cavalry, the 1st Cherokee Battalion, and Bledsoe's artillery, established defensive ground near the farm belonging to Mathew H. Ritchey. Both sides' cannons traded fire in a standoff that only broke once the Union guns moved near enough to the Confederate line to sharpen their aim. Meanwhile, several Wisconsin infantrymen took cover among houses at the edge of town and began picking off the crews serving Bledsoe's guns. Catching the sound of combat from Newtonia, Cooper ordered the 34th Texas Cavalry forward to bolster Hawpe.

Confederate troops of the 31st Texas Cavalry, who had been sheltering behind a stone wall, abandoned that cover to charge the Union position, but canister fire from Union cannons broke the assault almost immediately. The Union artillery then turned its full attention to Bledsoe's battery. After roughly half an hour, the Confederate guns began running short of ammunition, and once Union officers noticed the slackening fire, they ordered the 9th Wisconsin to charge. Bledsoe pulled his pieces back some distance, though their mere presence, even silent, was enough to dissuade a small body of

Aftermath

Casualty figures from the fighting told an uneven story. The Confederate side counted 78 men killed, wounded, or missing, while accounts of Union losses ranged widely, with figures cited at either 245 or more than 400. Among Confederate units, the 5th Missouri Cavalry bore the heaviest toll, losing four killed and eleven wounded. Fifteen Confederate officers fell as casualties, and each of two units, the 1st Choctaw Regiment and the 1st Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles, lost one officer killed. Salomon never submitted a formal accounting of his own losses. He did mention, though, that the fighting in the morning had proven costlier for his men than what came later in the day. Four companies belonging to the 9th Wisconsin Infantry reportedly took especially heavy losses, and these were the same companies that had fought under Lynde earlier that morning.

Even with Salomon's force beaten back, Confederate control of the ground near Newtonia remained shaky. His command had made up only the leading edge of Blunt's larger force. On October 2, the rest of Blunt's division arrived in the area, marching in from Fort Scott, Kansas, while Totten's division came up from Springfield. Facing this buildup, Cooper concluded by October 4 that Newtonia and the surrounding part of southwestern Missouri could not be held. Shelby's cavalry drew the assignment of holding Newtonia as a rear guard, but he could not stay long, pulling back once word reached him that Union forces threatened to cut off his escape route. After Shelby withdrew, Union troops moved into Newtonia following a short artillery bombardment of the town. Native American units fighting for the Confederacy pulled back into Indian Territory, while the rest of the Confederate force retreated toward northwestern Arkansas. Even as these troops withdrew from Missouri, another Confederate force struck a small Union garrison at Clark's Mill near Vera Cruz, compelling its surrender in what became known as the Battle of Clark's Mill.

More than two years later, on October 28, 1864, a second engagement took place close to the same ground, known as the Second Battle of Newtonia. This time Blunt commanded the Union side and won a victory over a Confederate army under Price. Price's men had been falling back southward after suffering defeats at Westport, in Missouri, and Mine Creek, in Kansas.