The Battle of Wilson's Creek, also known as the Battle of Oak Hills, was the first major battle of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. It was fought on August 10, 1861, near Springfield, Missouri.
In August, Confederates under Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch and Missouri State Guard troops under Maj. Gen. Sterling Price approached Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon's Army of the West, camped at Springfield. On August 10, Lyon, in two columns commanded by himself and Col. Franz Sigel, attacked the Confederates on Wilson Creek about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Springfield. Confederate cavalry received the first blow and retreated from the high ground. Confederate infantry attacked the Union forces three times during the day, but failed to break through. Eventually, Sigel's column was driven back to Springfield, allowing the Confederates to consolidate their forces against Lyon's main column. When Lyon was killed, Major Samuel D. Sturgis assumed command of the Union forces. When Sturgis realized that his men were exhausted and lacking ammunition, he ordered a retreat to Springfield. The battle was reckoned as a Confederate victory, but the Confederates were too disorganized and ill-equipped to pursue the retreating Union forces.
Although the state remained in the Union for the remainder of the war, the battle effectively gave the Confederates control of southwestern Missouri. The victory at Wilson's Creek also allowed Price to lead the Missouri State Guard north in a campaign culminating at the siege of Lexington, Missouri.
At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, the state of Missouri was a politically divided border state. Permitting slavery, the state had long-standing cultural and economic ties to the Southern United States, although these had declined in the years leading up to the outbreak of war. While the state's newly-elected Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson did not openly support seceding from the United States and joining the Confederate States of America, he harbored pro-Confederate sympathies. The outgoing governor had appealed to the state to maintain "armed neutrality" during the conflict. On April 20, a secessionist mob seized the arsenal in Liberty, Missouri, increasing Union concerns in the state. Unionist activities in the state increased as well.
Under an 1858 state law governing the militia, Jackson called out the Missouri Volunteer Militia (MVM) for mustering and training. Those companies from the St. Louis area encamped at Lindell's Grove, creating a camp they named Camp Jackson. These militia numbered close to 900 men under the command of Brigadier General Daniel M. Frost and were mostly pro-secession and pro-Confederate. Jackson had secretly obtained two cannons from the Confederate government, and Jackson and Frost intended to use the militia to capture the St. Louis Arsenal. Captain Nathaniel Lyon of the United States Army was aware of these developments and was concerned the militia would move on the arsenal. In late April, Lyon had mustered five regiments of Home Guard into Union service; four of the five regiments were predominantly German. He received further authorization April 30 to raise another five regiments as a reserve under the command of Thomas W. Sweeny. These troops were given arms by the federal government but were not formally mustered into the United States Army; this was considered an extraordinary measure. Lyon kept aware of the activities of the militia camp; he is alleged to have scouted in the camp in a carriage while disguised as an old blind woman. On the morning of May 10, Lyon led his troops in converging columns against Camp Jackson. With Lyon's armed men around the camp, Frost surrendered the militia encampment to Lyon under protest. Lyon paraded his prisoners through the St. Louis streets. Crowds expressed anti-German and pro-Confederate sentiments. A drunk fired a shot at the soldiers after an altercation, and further firing followed. Some of the German troops opened fire on the crowd. Three prisoners, two soldiers, and twenty-eight civilians were killed, with roughly seventy-five more civilians wounded. This became known as the Camp Jackson affair.
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.
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