Gov. Jackson had telegraphed orders for the Brigade-Generals commanding the districts into which the State had been divided to concentrate their men with all haste at Boonville and at Lexington, still further up the river, nearly midway between Boonville and Kansas City. The beginnings of an arsenal were made at Boonville, to furnish arms and ammunition.
Gen. Lyon saw the strategic importance of the place, and did not propose to allow any concentration to be made there. He did not, as most Regular officers were prone, wait deliberately for wagons and rations and other supplies, but with a truer instinct of soldiership comprehended that his men could live wherever an enemy could, and leaving a small squad at Jefferson City, immediately started his column for Boonville, sending orders to other columns in Iowa and Kansas to converge toward that place.
Progress up the Missouri River was tedious, as the water was low, and the troops had to frequently disembark in order to allow the boats to go over the shoals. It was reported to Gen. Lyon that about 4,000 Confederates had already concentrated at Boonville.
While Gen. Price was the Commander-in-Chief, several prominent Secessionists were commanders upon the field of the whole or parts of the force. The man, however, who was the most in evidence in the fighting was John Sappington Marmaduke, a native Missourian, born in Saline County in 1833, and therefore 28 years old. He was the son of a farmer, had been at Yale and Harvard, and then graduated from West Point in 1857, standing 30 in a class of 38. He had been on frontier duty with the 7th U. S. until after the firing on Fort Sumter, when he resigned to return to Missouri and raise a regiment for the Southern Confederacy. He was to rise to the rank of Major-General in the Confederate army, achieve much fame for military ability, and be elected, in 1884, Governor of the State.
The column immediately under the command of Gen. Lyon consisted of Totten's Light Battery (F, 2d U. S. Art.); Co. B, 2d U. S.; two companies of Regular recruits; Col. Blair's Missouri regiment and nine companies of Boernstein's Missouri regiment; aggregating somewhere between 1,700 and 2,000 men. On the evening of Sunday, June 16, the boats carrying the command arrived within 15 miles of Boonville, and lay there during the night. The next morning they proceeded up to within about eight miles of the town, when all but one company of Blair's regiment and an artillery detachment disembarked and began a land march upon the enemy's position. The remaining company and the howitzer were sent on with the boats to give the impression that an attack was to be made from the river side.
The people in the country reported to Gen. Lyon that the enemy was fully 4,000 strong, and intended an obstinate defense. He therefore moved forward cautiously, arriving at last at the foot of a gently undulating slope to a crest one mile distant, on which the enemy was stationed, with the ground quite favorable for them. Gen. Lyon formed a line of battle about 300 yards from the crest, with Totten's battery in the rear and nine companies of Boernstein's regiment on the right, under the command of Lieut.-Col. Schaeffer, and the Regulars and Col. Blair's regiment on the left. It was a momentous period, big with Missouri's future.
The engagement opened with Capt. Totten shelling the enemy's position and the well-drilled German infantry advancing with the Regulars, firing as they went. The question was now to be tried as to the value of the much-vaunted Missouri riflemen in conflict with the disciplined Germans. The former had been led to believe that they would repeat the achievements of their forefathers at New Orleans.
Under the lead of Col. Marmaduke, the Confederates stood their ground pluckily for a few minutes, but the steady advance of the Union troops, with the demoralizing effect of the shells, were too much for them. Col. Marmaduke attempted to make an orderly retreat, and at first seemed to succeed, but finally the movement degenerated into a rout, and the Confederates scattered in wild flight, led by their Governor, who, like James II. at the battle of the Boyne, had witnessed the skirmish from a neighboring eminence. The losses on each side were equal—two killed and some eight or nine wounded.