The Second Battle of Independence was fought on October 22, 1864, near Independence, Missouri, as part of Price's Raid during the American Civil War. In late 1864, Major General Sterling Price of the Confederate States Army led a cavalry force into the state of Missouri, hoping to create a popular uprising against Union control, draw Union Army troops from more important areas, and influence the 1864 United States presidential election.
Price was opposed by a combination of Union Army and Kansas State Militia forces positioned near Kansas City and led by Major General Samuel R. Curtis. Union cavalry under Major General Alfred Pleasonton followed Price from the east, working to catch up to the Confederates from the rear. While moving westwards along the Missouri River, Price's men made contact with Curtis's Union troops at the Little Blue River on October 21. After forcing the Union soldiers to retreat in the Battle of Little Blue River, the Confederates occupied the city of Independence, which was 7 miles (11 km) away.
On October 22, part of Price's force pushed Curtis's men across the Big Blue River 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Independence in the Battle of Byram's Ford, while Pleasonton drove back Confederate defenders from the Little Blue. Confederate troops from the divisions of Major General James F. Fagan and Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke resisted Pleasonton's advance.
Two Union brigades forced the Confederates through Independence, capturing two cannons and 300 men. While Pleasonton brought up two fresh brigades, the Confederates regrouped southwest of town. Further Union pressure drove the defenders back, and fighting continued until after dark. By the end of October 22, almost all of the Confederate forces had fallen back across the Big Blue. The next day, Price was defeated in the Battle of Westport, and his men fell back through Kansas, suffering further defeats on the way before reaching Texas.
The Confederates suffered heavy losses during the campaign. The expansion of the town (now city) of Independence into areas that were rural at the time of the battle has resulted in urban development over much of the battlefield, such that meaningful preservation is no longer possible.
Background
When the American Civil War began in April 1861, the state of Missouri did not secede despite allowing slavery, as it was politically divided. Governor of Missouri Claiborne Fox Jackson supported secession and the Confederate States of America, both of which were opposed by Union Army elements under the command of Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon. A combination of Confederate and pro-secession Missouri State Guard forces defeated Lyon at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in August, but were confined to southwestern Missouri by the end of the year. The state also developed two competing governments, one supporting the Union and the other the Confederacy. Control of Missouri passed to the Union in March 1862 after the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas, and Confederate activity in Missouri was largely restricted to raids and guerrilla warfare through the rest of 1862 and into 1863.
By September 1864, it was becoming clear that the Confederacy had little chance of a military victory, and incumbent President of the United States Abraham Lincoln had an edge over George B. McClellan—who supported an immediate peace—in the 1864 United States presidential election. With the dire situation east of the Mississippi River in the Atlanta campaign and Siege of Petersburg, General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, was ordered by Confederate President Jefferson Davis's military advisor General Braxton Bragg to send his infantry across the river to more important areas of the war. Union Navy control of the Mississippi River made this impossible.
Instead, Smith decided to attack, despite having limited resources. Confederate Major General Sterling Price and Confederate Governor of Missouri Thomas Caute Reynolds, who had replaced Jackson in February 1863 after the latter's death, proposed an invasion of Missouri. Smith approved of the plan and placed Price in command of the offensive. The invasion was designed to start a popular uprising against Union control of the state, draw Union troops away from more important theaters of the war, and improve McClellan's chance of defeating Lincoln. Smith's order tasked Price to "make St. Louis the objective point of your movement" and, if "compelled to withdraw from the State", to retreat through Kansas and the Indian Territory, gathering supplies in the process.
Prelude
After entering Missouri on September 19, Price's column advanced north, only to suffer a bloody repulse at the Battle of Pilot Knob on September 27. Having suffered hundreds of casualties at Pilot Knob, Price decided not to attack St. Louis, which had been reinforced by 9,000 Union infantrymen of Major General Andrew Jackson Smith's XVI Corps. Instead, he aimed his command west, towards the state capital of Jefferson City. Encumbered by a slow-moving wagon train, Price's army took long enough to reach Jefferson City that the Union garrison could be reinforced, growing from 1,000 to 7,000 men. These reinforcements were largely two cavalry brigades commanded by Brigadier Generals John McNeil (from Rolla) and John B. Sanborn (from Cuba) as well as some militia units from other parts of the state. Once Price reached Jefferson City in early October, he decided that it was too strong to attack. After giving up on Jefferson City, Price abandoned the idea of an occupation of Missouri and moved west towards Kansas in compliance with Smith's original orders. Moving west along the Missouri River, the Confederates gathered recruits and supplies, won the Battle of Glasgow and captured Sedalia.
Opposing forces
Price's force, named the Army of Missouri, contained about 12,000 or 13,000 cavalrymen and 14 cannons. Several thousand of these men were either not armed or poorly armed, and all of Price's cannons were of light caliber. The Army of Missouri was organized into three divisions, commanded by Brigadier Generals Joseph O. Shelby and John S. Marmaduke and Major General James F. Fagan. Marmaduke's division contained two brigades, commanded by Brigadier General John B. Clark Jr. and Colonel Thomas R. Freeman; Shelby's division had three brigades under Colonels David Shanks (replaced by Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson after Shanks was killed in action), Sidney D. Jackman, and Charles H. Tyler; and Fagan's division contained four brigades commanded by Brigadier General William L. Cabell and Colonels William F. Slemons, Archibald S. Dobbins, and Thomas H. McCray.
Countering Price was the Department of Missouri, which was commanded by Major General William S. Rosecrans. Many of the department's 10,000 men were militia, who were scattered throughout the state in a variety of local districts and subdistricts. In September, Rosecrans was reinforced at St. Louis by part of the XVI Corps, under the command of Smith. A Union cavalry division was formed on October 6, in Jefferson City under the command of Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Pleasonton's command consisted of four brigades, although one of them (part of Smith's corps) was not in the area at the time. The four brigades were composed of a mixture of Union Army troops and Missouri militia and were supported by 12 cannons; they were commanded by Brigadier Generals Egbert Brown, McNeil, and Sanborn and Colonel Edward F. Winslow.
Sanborn temporarily commanded the formation until Pleasonton took full command on October 20. On the other side of the state, the Union Army of the Border was formed under the command of Major General Samuel R. Curtis, the commander of the Department of Kansas; it consisted of a combination of Union Army soldiers and men from the Kansas State Militia. The Army of the Border was divided into two wings: one commanded by Major General George W. Dietzler and the other by Major General James G. Blunt. While Blunt's non-militia soldiers moved east towards Price, political forces in Kansas prevented the militiamen from traveling further into Missouri than the Big Blue River.
Many of the militia officers were politicians allied to competing factions in the 1864 Kansas gubernatorial election, and allegations that the militia mobilization was intended to affect the election were common.
Lexington and Little Blue River
On October 18, Blunt occupied the town of Lexington, Missouri, hoping to act in conjunction with Sanborn, but Sanborn was too far away, and Price's army was only 20 miles (32 km) to the east. Blunt decided to hold the town and resist Price, who attacked with Shelby's division on October 19, resulting in the Second Battle of Lexington. Shelby's men were not able to dislodge the Union defenders, but the Confederates captured the town after Marmaduke's and Fagan's divisions were committed to the fray. The morning after the battle, Blunt halted his retreat at the Little Blue River. He advocated for a stand at the river, but he could not be reinforced at that position because of the restrictions on the movement of the Kansas State Militia. Curtis ordered Blunt to fall back to the main Union position at Independence, Missouri; only a single regiment and four cannons were left at the Little Blue as a rear guard. This force totaled about 400 or 600 men.
On the morning of October 21, Clark's Confederate brigade attacked the Union rear guard and forced its way across the river, opening the Battle of Little Blue River. Seesaw fighting followed while Blunt received permission to return his troops to the Little Blue River line and Price brought up Shelby's division. The two sides formed strengthened lines, and Shelby continued the attack. Confederate threats to the Union left flank forced troops to be drawn from the center to support the threatened parts of the line. This weakening of the center of the line exposed it to Confederate attack. A little after 14:00, the Union troops began retreating from the field, falling back to Independence. Late that evening, Blunt ordered Independence abandoned and withdrew his men to the Big Blue, 6 miles (9.7 km) to the west. By nightfall, Curtis's and Blunt's men were on the west side of the Big Blue, and Price had occupied Independence.
Battle
From the Little Blue to Independence
On October 22, Price made a feinting attack against the north part of the Big Blue River line, while Shelby's division attacked in force further south, bringing on the Battle of Byram's Ford. The attack forced the Union line back towards the town of Westport, and Price moved much of his army across the Big Blue. Fagan's division with 4,500 men was left at Independence as a rear guard, and Marmaduke's division with 2,500 men was between Fagan and Shelby. Before Pleasonton took over command from Sanborn on October 20, his cavalrymen had made little progress. Rosecrans and Smith had been following the cavalry with infantry, but with Pleasonton in charge, the cavalry moved much quicker and reached Lexington a day ahead of the infantry. Knowing that Price would eventually have to turn south to return to Confederate territory, Rosecrans wanted Smith and Pleasonton to move south and cut off the path the Confederates would have to take in a retreat. Instead, Pleasonton had gotten far enough ahead of Rosecrans that his 7,000 cavalrymen were already almost to the Confederate line. On the morning of October 22, Rosecrans changed his plans to allow Pleasonton to pursue Price directly. Smith's infantry had already begun the turn south, and had to countermarch north.
Contact between the two sides was made at 05:00 at the Little Blue. At the river crossing were Confederate pickets from Slemons's brigade. The detachment was under the command of Colonel John C. Wright. The 13th Missouri Cavalry Regiment and 17th Illinois Cavalry Regiment of McNeil's brigade forced Wright's command back, but were delayed in crossing because of a burned bridge. An artillery battery was across the river by 10:00. McNeil's brigade spent two hours pushing Slemons's brigade and Hughey's Arkansas Battery, which was armed with Parrott rifles, before them. The Union cavalry had gone roughly 3 miles (4.8 km) of the roughly 7 miles (11 km) to Independence by 13:30. Price and Fagan were informed of the action, and Cabell's brigade was sent to support Slemons's and Wright's rear guard action. Cabell's men moved to the front, and Slemons and Wright fell to the rear and out of the action. Price's wagon train had not yet been able to fully cross the Big Blue, and Cabell had to hold out at Independence long enough to allow the train to cross, as Price was stuck between two Union forces.