The Lost Army

by Thomas Wallace Knox

CHAPTER XII. BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK.—DEATH OF GENERAL LYON.

Here is a description of the battlefield of the tenth of August, 1861, by a gentleman who was there on that occasion, and afterward visited the spot when he could do so without danger from shells and bullets.

As you go south from Springfield there is a comparatively level country for several miles, but in approaching the creek which gives the name to the battlefield you find a more broken region. The valley of the creek is bordered by low hills, and at the time of the fight these hills were covered with scrub-oaks, which were generally known to the natives as “black-jacks.” These trees are so thickly scattered in many places that it is impossible to see for any distance, and on the day of the battle they masked the movements of the opposing armies from each other and led to several surprises.

The Fayetteville road going south crosses the creek at a ford and then runs almost parallel to the course of the stream for nearly a mile. On this part of the road and along the creek the main body of the Confederates was encamped, and the camp extended up a tributary of Wilson's Creek known as Skegg's Branch. Between Skegg's Branch and its junction with Wilson's Creek is a steep hill, perhaps a hundred feet high, its sides seamed with ravines and its top broken with rocks in many places, so that wagons and artillery cannot be freely moved about.

This was known as Oak Hill at the time of the battle, and has since been called Bloody Hill by the Confederates in memory of the slaughter that took place there. It was the scene of the principal fighting of the day and of the death of General Lyon.

During the war it often happened that engagements were called by different names by the opposing forces. Thus the battle now known as that of Shiloh was originally called the battle of Pittsburg Landing by the Northern side and Shiloh by the South. The battle of Pea Ridge was so named by the Northerners, but it was known as Elkhorn Tavern by the South. In the same way the battle of Wilson's Creek, as the North knew it, was the battle of Oak Hill to the South. In fact, it had three names, as General Price in his official report called it the battle of Springfield.

Oak Hill, or Bloody Hill, was covered with low bushes in addition to the scrub-oaks already mentioned, but the underbrush was not thick, and did not particularly interfere with movements of troops or individuals, though it caused the lines of the soldiers to be considerably broken, and furnished a complete screen to men lying down. The rebels were camped at the foot of the hill, and its summit afforded a good view of the greater part of the Confederate position.

General Lyon reached the farther slope of the hill before his approach was discovered. His advance was first made known to the Missourians, who were camped in that vicinity, and whose commander had sent out a picket about daylight. The first encounter was between Captain Plummer's battalion of regulars and Colonel Hunter's Missouri regiment, the latter falling back as their commander saw the strength of the forces opposed to him. General Lyon advanced as rapidly as possible, and soon had possession of the crest of the hill.

The whole force of General Lyon which he had on the field on that terrible morning was about five thousand five hundred men, of whom one thousand two hundred were with General Sigel and three thousand three hundred under his own personal direction. General Sigel's forces have been enumerated. Those of General Lyon were Captain Plummer's regulars, the batteries of Captains Totten and Dubois—ten guns in all, Steel's battalion of three hundred regulars, Osterhaus's battalion of volunteer infantry, and the volunteer regiments of the First Missouri, First Iowa and First and Second Kansas. According to their own figures the Confederates were ten thousand one hundred seventy-five strong, about half of them belonging to the Missouri state guard and the other half to the forces that had been sent from Arkansas and Louisiana to aid the Missourians in recapturing the state from the national government.