Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, located near Republic, Missouri, preserves the site of the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Fought on August 10, 1861, the battle was the first major American Civil War engagement west of the Mississippi River. In the battle, a Confederate army commanded by Benjamin McCulloch and Sterling Price defeated a smaller Union army commanded by Nathaniel Lyon. However, the Confederates were unable to hold much of Missouri, and a Confederate defeat at the Battle of Pea Ridge effectively solidified Union control of the state. Major features include a five-mile automobile tour loop, the restored 1852 Ray House, and "Bloody Hill", the site of the final stage of the battle. The site is located near Republic in southwestern Missouri just southwest of the city of Springfield. It has been a unit of the National Park Service since 1960, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
In early 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for the state of Missouri to enlist four regiments to fight against the Confederate States of America. However, then-Missouri governor Claiborne F. Jackson, a supporter of the Confederate States of America, refused to distribute the call and prepared, instead, to use the Missouri State Guard to seize a United States government arsenal in St. Louis, Missouri. In response, Union general Nathaniel Lyon moved aggressively against the pro-Confederate Guard, driving the force away from St. Louis and removing Jackson from official government leadership. The Missouri State Guard, now commanded by Sterling Price, fell back towards the city of Springfield in southwestern Missouri, followed by Lyon and his Union army.
Meanwhile, Price had been reinforced by a small Confederate army under the command of Benjamin McCulloch. On August 10, Lyon decided to attack Price and McCulloch's combined forces while the Confederate were encamped along the banks of Wilson's Creek. Lyon split his outnumbered forces into wings commanded by himself and Col. Franz Sigel in order to attack the Confederate camp from both the front and the rear. Sigel's force was soon driven from the field, allowing Price and McCulloch to combine their forces against Lyon's column, which had taken position on Bloody Hill. Lyon was killed, and the Union forces retreated from the field. It was the first major military engagement in the American Civil War to take place west of the Mississippi river.
After the battle, Price and McCulloch strongly disagreed over command issues. Price would move towards Kansas, fearing a counterstroke from Union troops there, leaving McCulloch with an army that soon dwindled after terms of enlistments expired and some of the remaining troops were reassigned elsewhere. Price followed up Wilson's Creek with a strike northwards towards the Missouri River, and was victorious at the Siege of Lexington. However, news that Union troops were marching to intercept his army led Price to retreat back towards Springfield. In March of the next year, Price and McCulloch would command wings of a Confederate army under the command of Earl Van Dorn at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas. The Confederate army was defeated and McCulloch was killed. The defeat at Pea Ridge ended any serious Confederate chance of holding a position in Missouri.
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.
This page covers Wilson's Creek – Siegel's Route. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside historic sites, land records, and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
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