Civil War battle began with theft of mules
The Battle of Drywood Creek on Sept. 1-2, 1861, was not a major conflict of the Civil War, but it has elements that make it well worth recounting in this sesquicentennial year.
It was led up to by great apprehension and misinformation and carried out with a mixture of comedy and ferocity that prompted the late Vernon County historian Patrick Brophy to conclude, "It was more of a skirmish than a battle, but it's our Civil War battle."
It's also known as "The Battle of the Mules" because it started with 75 Confederates reconnoitering Union forces in Kansas and driving away 75 to 200 mules and horses 2-1/2 miles east of Fort Scott, Kan., as the federals held a riverside Sunday morning church service.
The Union regiment commanded by Col. James Montgomery needed the animals for its cavalry and pack train, so 450 troops tracked the Rebels the next day and found 7,500 on Drywood Creek, 1-1/2 miles south of present day Deerfield in southwest Vernon County.
The "Billy Yanks" drove the "Johnny Rebs" across the creek, but after an exchange between Union Capt. Thomas Moonlight's 12-pound cannon and Confederate Gen. Sterling Price's seven big guns, Montgomery saw the Rebels moving to attack the vulnerable "flanks," or sides, of his ranks and withdrew.
Lasting about 90 minutes, the mid-day fight at Hogan's Ford left four men dead and 16 wounded on the Confederate side and five dead and 12 wounded on the Union side.
In his 2008 book, "Fire and Sword: A Missouri County in the Civil War," Brophy said the battle began abruptly. "The inexperienced Missourians were incautious and unwary," wrote Brophy.
"Some were eating apples from orchards along the road or chatting with friends when the Kansans swooped down on them. John 'Crack' Mayfield, John Campbell, Welby Hunton, John Crockett and other Vernon County men were soon taken, though the custom of exchanging prisoners would soon put them back in the war as noted Bushwhackers.
"Montgomery went into the battle line and crossed the creek. Moonlight unlimbered his howitzer and sent a shell whizzing over the Missourians. Hiram Bledsoe's battery replied, but Bledsoe himself fell badly wounded and so many of the cannoneers were struck that their guns were well nigh silenced."
Seeing his numerical advantage, Price advanced, prompting Montgomery to fall back and disengage. "That morning, Price had been reinforced by 2,000 men commanded by Col. Ed 'Stump' Price, his son," Brophy said.
"Price sent back for Henry Guibor's battery, the lines were extended to the right and left and Confederate Gen. Alexander Early Steen was sent down the creek to fall on the enemy's rear or flank."
Arnold Schofield, superintendent of Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Site at Pleasanton, Kan., said the fight on Big Drywood Creek was precipitated by "Redleg" Union Gen. Jim Lane's fear that Price would attack Fort Scott. Schofield said Lane had left Fort Scott before the battle and a secondary objective of Montgomery's was to cover Lane's retreat.
However, he said Fort Scott was unimportant to Price, whose purpose was to move north to Lexington, Mo., and drive the Union out of his home state. "Lane didn't like Fort Scott because it was a pro-Southern town," Schofield said.
"He ordered Lt. Col. Lewis Jewell to burn it if he had to withdraw, but Jewell ignored him. The Battle of Drywood was a Confederate victory because they occupied the field. It's significant in Missouri history, but in the context of the entire war it was a relatively small engagement.
"Lane used it as an excuse to go into Missouri in pursuit of Price, but what he really wanted to do was raise havoc, which he did between late September and December 1861 as the three regiments of Lane's Brigade destroyed Papinsville north of Nevada, burned Osceola to the ground and hit Morristown farther north.
"He was exacting revenge, retribution and retaliation for what Missouri had done to Kansas from 1856 to '60."
In his "Battlefield Dispatches" column for the Fort Scott Tribune, Schofield has cited Moonlight's post-war account of the Battle of Drywood Creek.
Firing "canister" shots of 78 lead balls three-quarters of an inch in diameter, Moonlight maneuvered his horse-drawn cannon through tall grass and thick trees to within 250 yards of the Confederate line. "Our Sharps rifles began to crack lively on every side and until the retreat was ordered, no man thought of his personal safety," Moonlight reported.
"During the fight, I changed position of my gun 12 times and fired 39 shells and canister shots with killing effect as the distance was exactly united to a mountain howitzer but too close for the enemy's longer-ranged guns. It is owing to this alone that we were not cut to pieces.
"We retreated just in time, for the enemy infantry and cavalry were surrounding us on all sides and we lost a number of men ere we could effect our retreat. The rain came down in torrents that evening, rendering it next to impossible to drag along artillery."
During a May 26 interview, Schofield showed the Battles in the Marmaton Valley Wayside Marker near Emery's Truck Plaza on the south side of 54 Highway between Nevada and Fort Scott, which describes the battle.
He said that in the early and mid-19th century, western Missouri and eastern Kansas were the center of the American Frontier. "This was the edge of civilization and violence was part of life," said Schofield, gesturing at the rolling, wooded landscape.
"The Civil War grew out of that."