The Battle of Byram's Ford, also known as the Battle of Big Blue River and the Battle of the Blue, was fought on October 22 and 23, 1864, in Jackson County, Missouri during Price's Missouri Expedition, a campaign of the American Civil War. With the Confederacy on the verge of collapse, Confederate Major General Sterling Price conducted an invasion of Missouri in the fall of 1864. When Union forces led Price to abandon his objective of capturing St. Louis, he turned west.
On October 22, Price's army found itself caught between two Union forces, commanded by Major Generals James G. Blunt and Alfred Pleasonton. Part of Price's force conducted a delaying action against Pleasonton in the Second Battle of Independence, while the division of Brigadier General Joseph O. Shelby broke Blunt's line at Byram's Ford on the Big Blue River by crossing at an unguarded ford above the Union defenses. The Union defenders were forced to retreat to the Kansas state line, and the 2nd Kansas State Militia Infantry Regiment was caught at the Mockbee Farm and overwhelmed. Meanwhile, Pleasonton's men pushed Price's rear guard across the Big Blue in the Second Battle of Independence.
On October 23, Pleasonton attacked Confederate forces under Major General John S. Marmaduke at Byram's Ford and forced them back to a height known as Potato Hill. Pleasonton broke through Marmaduke's position, and the rest of the Confederate army was defeated at the concurrent Battle of Westport. While Price's wagon train escaped from Union Brigadier General John McNeil and his brigade, the Confederate army withdrew southwards in disorder. After suffering further defeats along the way, Price's army reached Texas by December, having lost over two-thirds of its men. The Confederates also lost equipment and supplies, while the Union war effort was only minimally hampered; the campaign was the last major operation west of the Mississippi River. Part of the battlefield is preserved in the Big Blue Battlefield Park, and a portion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Byram's Ford Historic District.
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 allied 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, the Confederacy had essentially no chance of a military victory, and incumbent U.S. resident Abraham Lincoln had an edge over George B. McClellan – who supported ending the war– in the 1864 United States presidential election. With the situation east of the Mississippi River collapsing, General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, was ordered to send his infantry across the river to more important areas of the war. This movement proved to be impossible, as a large-scale crossing of the Mississippi was prevented by Union Navy control of the river. Instead, Smith decided to attack the Union forces within his area of responsibility, despite having limited resources. Confederate Major General Sterling Price and Thomas Caute Reynolds, who had replaced Jackson as the head of the Confederate government of Missouri 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. It was hoped that the invasion would 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.
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 the city of St. Louis, which was defended by 9,000 Union infantrymen. Instead, he aimed his command west, towards the state capital of Jefferson City. Encumbered by a slow-moving wagon train, Price's army took so long to reach Jefferson City that the Union was able to reinforce the garrison from 1,000 men to 7,000. Once Price reached Jefferson City in early October, he decided that it was too strong to attack, and continued moving west along the Missouri River. During this movement, the Confederates gathered recruits and supplies, as well as winning the Battle of Glasgow and capturing Sedalia.
Opposing forces
Confederate
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 Major General James F. Fagan and Brigadier Generals Joseph O. Shelby and John S. Marmaduke. 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; 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 Marmaduke's division contained two brigades, commanded by Brigadier General John B. Clark Jr. and Colonel Thomas R. Freeman.
Union
Missouri was defended by the Union Department of the Missouri, under the command of Major General William S. Rosecrans. The department initially consisted of about 10,000 men, many of whom were militia and were scattered across the state in a system of districts and subdistricts. In September, part of the XVI Corps under the command of Major General Andrew Jackson Smith arrived in St. Louis to reinforce Rosecrans. Smith's troops were initially tasked with railroad repair, rather than active military operations. On October 6, in Jefferson City, a Union cavalry division was organized and placed under the command of Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Of the division's four brigades, one was part of Smith's command and had not yet reached Jefferson City. Composed of a mixture of Union Army troops and Missouri militia and supported by four cannons, Pleasonton's brigades were commanded by Brigadier Generals Egbert Brown, John McNeil and John B. Sanborn, and Colonel Edward F. Winslow. Sanborn temporarily commanded the formation until Pleasonton took full command on October 20.
Union troops in Kansas under the command of Major General Samuel R. Curtis were withdrawn from fighting the Cheyenne and the Kansas State Militia was mobilized. One of the officers withdrawn from the Cheyenne conflict was Major General James G. Blunt, who was appointed commander of the District of South Kansas on October 10 and ordered to collect available cavalry and move towards Kansas City. Within a week, Blunt had reached Hickman Mills, Missouri, where he reorganized his force into a division of three brigades. Two of the brigades were formed of Union Army troops, and the third contained Kansas militiamen. Colonels Charles R. "Doc" Jennison and Thomas Moonlight commanded the two brigades of Union Army troops, while Colonel Charles W. Blair commanded the brigade containing the militia (a single Union Army unit was included in Blair's brigade). Jennison's brigade was supported by five cannons, Moonlight's by four, and Blair's by eight. The inclusion of the militia proved problematic for Blunt, as the militiamen attempted to adhere to their former command structure, including viewing militia officer William Fishback as their proper commander instead of Blair. Curtis was hampered by state politics in his attempts to mobilize the Kansas State Militia, but a total of 15,000 men were eventually mustered. While the Kansas State Militia remained under Curtis's authority, George W. Dietzler, a major general in the organization, served as its general-in-chief. The Kansas State Militia used a brigade organization, but little detail about the exact breakdown is provided in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion.
To the Big Blue River
Late on October 16, Curtis made the decision to move his forces into Missouri and ordered Blunt to move east to Warrensburg; if Blunt did not find Price, he had the option to continue on to Lexington. Blair's brigade was sent to Kansas City. The lead portion of Blunt's column reached Lexington on October 18, with hopes of cooperating with Sanborn. Instead, Sanborn's men were too far away for cooperation, and Price was only 20 miles (32 km) east at Waverly. Blunt also learned that he could not expect reinforcements from Curtis, as political authorities in Kansas would not permit the Kansas State Militia to move further east than the Big Blue River. Price attacked Blunt with Shelby's division at Lexington on October 19, bringing on the Second Battle of Lexington. The Union soldiers put up a strong enough defense that Price was forced to commit more troops, and Blunt fell back in the evening.
The day after the fight at Lexington, Blunt fell back to the Little Blue River. He wanted to make a stand there, but Curtis ordered his troops back to Independence due to the restrictions on the movement of the Kansas State Militia. A single regiment and four cannons were left at the Little Blue as a rear guard. Confederate troops attacked the rear guard on October 21, bringing on the Battle of Little Blue River. Eventually, Confederate pressure on the Union center led these Union troops to retreat back to Independence. Late that evening, the Union troops abandoned Independence and took up positions behind the Big Blue 6 miles (9.7 km) to the west, while the Confederates occupied Independence. Pleasonton's division, which had converged on Price's army as it moved along the Missouri, was encamped 6 miles (10 km) to the east of the Little Blue.
Price was now caught between the positions of Curtis and Pleasonton. He formed a plan to conduct a feint attack on the northern part of the Union line at the Big Blue, while forcing his way across the river with a stronger attack further to the south. Delaying actions would hold off Pleasonton's men while the Confederate wagon train crossed the Big Blue. Curtis, who was hampered by significantly inaccurate maps, had divided his army into two wings. Deitzler commanded the left wing, which consisted of detached brigade, but his control was only nominal, and Blair made most of the decisions. Despite being detached, Blair's men served as more of a brigade under Blunt's command than a separate wing of the army. Blunt commanded the right wing, which included the brigades of Ford, Moonlight, and Jennison. The 2nd Colorado Cavalry Regiment was sent across the river to act as skirmishers. As not all of the Kansas State Militia was fully mobilized, and the strength of those units that had arrived at Kansas City had been reduced greatly due to men lagging behind on the march, Curtis had around 5,000 men in his force, which was known as the Army of the Border. Aside from a ford at the extreme end of the Union line near the Missouri River which Curtis did not expect Price to use due to the depth of water there, the Union line was much stronger on its north end. Twelve cannons supported the position. Curtis relied on the rough terrain around the Big Blue to limit Price to crossing at the fords. The Union line stretched 15 miles (24 km) from the Missouri to Hickman Mills.
Battle
October 22: Shelby crosses the Big Blue
Fight for Byram's Ford
At around 08:00, fighting began when Shelby drove Union skirmishers back across the Big Blue. About an hour later, Jackman's brigade of about 1,500 men feinted against the north portion of the Union line, although Curtis did not fall for the ruse, as he believed the fighting was too dilatory to represent a primary attack. When Union officers on the north part of the line reported seeing minimal Confederate activity on the road to Kansas City, Curtis became more convinced that the northern Confederate threat was not a primary attack, and concerned about a potential flanking attack to the south. He then gave Blunt, along with Melvin S. Grant – who commanded two Kansas State Militia regiments positioned to the south near Hickman Mills – orders to watch for Confederate movements and to send reports back every half hour. At 11:00, men of the 2nd Colorado Cavalry reported that Confederate forces were moving for the southern fords, and the dust clouds kicked up by the moving troops were sighted by the occupants of a Union signal tower further north.
Also at around 11:00, Shelby decided to attempt to force a crossing of the Big Blue at Byram's Ford, which was in the southern portion of the Union line. Byram's Ford had been occupied by Jennison's brigade since around 09:00, defensive works being prepared by one of Grant's militia regiments the night before. Felled trees and other obstructions blocked the ford, but only the brush on the Union side of the river had been cleared, meaning that the Confederates had cover, but not that element of Jennison's brigade which was in the immediate vicinity of the ford. Jennison's approximately 1,200 men were largely positioned on high ground to the west of the ford, with only a strong skirmish line and five mountain howitzers defending the ford itself.