Missouri Civil War Battles — Part 8 Battle of Blue Mills Landing — September 17, 1861: Missouri State Guard ambushes Union troops near Liberty, opening the way to reinforce Price at Lexington. Blue Mills Landing is the kind of Missouri fight people don’t expect — not a grand battlefield, but a river-bottom trap where the…

Missouri Civil War Battles — Part 7 Battle of Wilson’s Creek — August 10, 1861: A major Confederate and Missouri State Guard victory near Springfield that claimed Gen. Nathaniel Lyon. Wilson’s Creek is the moment Missouri’s war stops feeling like scattered clashes and starts feeling like a full-scale collision. On August 10, 1861, just outside…

Missouri Civil War Battles — Part 6 Battle of Athens — August 5, 1861: David Moore’s Home Guards repelled Martin Green’s pro-Southern force in northeast Missouri. Most people think Missouri’s Civil War story starts and ends in the southwest — but Athens proved the border counties were just as combustible. On August 5, 1861, a…