Battle of Baxter Springs | |||||||
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Part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Confederate States | United States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
William C. Quantrill William T. Anderson | James G. Blunt | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
400 mounted guerrillas. | 96 infantry 200 cavalry 1 mountain howitzer [2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 killed, 2 wounded [3] | 103 soldiers killed, 18 wounded, 10 civilians killed [4] |
The Battle of Baxter Springs, more commonly known as the Baxter Springs Massacre, was a minor battle of the American Civil War fought on October 6, 1863, near the present-day town of Baxter Springs, Kansas.
In late 1863, Quantrill's Raiders, a large band of pro-Confederate bushwhackers led by William Quantrill, was traveling south through Kansas along the Texas Road to winter in Texas. Numbering about 400, this group captured and killed two Union teamsters who had come from a small Federal Army post called Fort Baxter (frequently referred to as Fort Blair). [5] The bushwhackers assaulted the fort but were repulsed, eventually retreating to the prairie, where they attacked a separate Union column, leaving only a few survivors.
Quantrill decided to attack Fort Baxter and divided his force into two columns, one under him and the other commanded by a subordinate, David Poole. Poole and his men proceeded down the Texas Road, where they encountered Union soldiers, most of whom were African Americans. They chased and attacked the Union troops, killing some before the soldiers reached the earth-and-log Fort Baxter. The garrison there consisted of about 25 cavalry and 65–70 infantry of the United States Colored Troops. [6]
Poole's column attacked the fort, but the garrison fought them off. [5] First Lieutenant James Burton Pond received the Medal of Honor for leading the defense of the fort. The citation for his Medal of Honor reads:
The American flag remained standing over the fort thanks to the bravery of the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry, who helped rally the federal soldiers. [6]
Moving out onto the prairie, Quantrill's column encountered a Union detachment escorting Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, who was moving his command headquarters south from Fort Scott, Kansas to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Quantrill's men greatly outnumbered the Union forces.
Wearing Federal uniforms and thereby taking the Federals by surprise, Quantrill's column killed most of the detachment, including many who attempted to surrender. [2] Among the dead was a military band, Maj. Henry Z. Curtis (son of Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis), and Johnny Fry (first official westbound rider of the Pony Express), a total of 103 men. [5] Also killed was James R. O'Neill, an artist-correspondent for Leslie's Weekly . [7] When a few men escaped to Fort Baxter, soldiers went out to search for survivors; there were few, but Blunt was among them.
After the massacre of Blunt's troops, Quantrill sent a demand ordering Pond to surrender the fort. Pond refused the surrender. Quantrill's subordinate, William T. Anderson, known as "Bloody Bill," wanted to attack the fort again, but Quantrill refused, and the guerrillas left for Texas.
Blunt was removed from command for failing to protect his column, but he was soon restored. Union supporters called the killings a massacre; the conflict at Baxter Springs was characteristic of the vicious Kansas–Missouri border warfare. Fort Baxter was temporarily reinforced, but by the end of 1863, the Union Army pulled its troops back to Fort Scott, which was better fortified. Before abandoning the fort, U.S. forces demolished it and removed everything usable to prevent use by the enemy. [5] Quantrill and Anderson would continue to disagree on conducting warfare on the Kansas–Missouri border. In 1864, the two split their forces, limiting the bushwhackers' use to fighting in Missouri only.
Baxter Springs later developed as the first "cow town" in Kansas, a way station for cattle drives to markets and railroads further north. By 1875, it had a population estimated at 5,000. [5]
Quantrill's Raiders were the best-known of the pro-Confederate partisan guerrillas who fought in the American Civil War. Their leader was William Quantrill and they included Jesse James and his brother Frank.
William Clarke Quantrill was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War.
The Lawrence Massacre was an attack during the American Civil War (1861–65) by Quantrill's Raiders, a Confederate guerrilla group led by William Quantrill, on the Unionist town of Lawrence, Kansas, killing around 150 unarmed men and boys.
William T. Anderson, known by the nickname "Bloody Bill" Anderson, was a soldier who was one of the deadliest and most notorious Confederate guerrilla leaders in the American Civil War. Anderson led a band of volunteer partisan raiders who targeted Union loyalists and federal soldiers in the states of Missouri and Kansas.
The First Battle of Independence was a minor engagement of the American Civil War, occurring on August 11, 1862, in the city of Independence, located in Jackson County, Missouri. Its result was a Confederate victory, continuing the Southern domination of the Jackson County area for a few days while the recruiters completed their work.
James G.Blunt was an American physician and abolitionist who rose to the rank of major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was defeated by Quantrill's Raiders at the Battle of Baxter Springs in Kansas in 1863, but is considered to have served well the next year as a division commander during Price's Raid in Missouri.
Price's Missouri Expedition, also known as Price's Raid or Price's Missouri Raid, was an unsuccessful Confederate cavalry raid through Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. Led by Confederate Major General Sterling Price, the campaign aimed to recapture Missouri and renew the Confederate initiative in the larger conflict.
The 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment was a volunteer cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare common during the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, American Civil War and other conflicts in which there were large areas of contested land and few governmental resources to control these tracts. This was particularly prevalent in rural areas during the Civil War where there were sharp divisions between those favoring the Union and Confederacy in the conflict. The perpetrators of the attacks were called bushwhackers. The term "bushwhacking" is still in use today to describe ambushes done with the aim of attrition.
The trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War was the scene of the major military operations west of the Mississippi River. The area is often thought of as excluding the states and territories bordering the Pacific Ocean, which formed the Pacific coast theater of the American Civil War (1861–1865).
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, Kansas was the newest U.S. state, admitted just months earlier in January. The state had formally rejected slavery by popular vote and vowed to fight on the side of the Union, though ideological divisions with neighboring Missouri, a slave state, had led to violent conflict in previous years and persisted for the duration of the war.
During the American Civil War, most of what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma was designated as the Indian Territory. It served as an unorganized region that had been set aside specifically for Native American tribes and was occupied mostly by tribes which had been removed from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. As part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater, the Indian Territory was the scene of numerous skirmishes and seven officially recognized battles involving both Native American units allied with the Confederate States of America and Native Americans loyal to the United States government, as well as other Union and Confederate troops.
Fort Baxter, also known as Fort Blair, was a small US Army post located in the southeast corner of Kansas near present-day Baxter Springs. This area was known as the Cherokee Strip. It was one of a few Kansas forts attacked by Confederate forces during the American Civil War. At one point the Confederate government claimed authority over the Neutral Lands. Both Union and Confederate troops operated in the area, as did guerrilla forces and militias prevalent in the Kansas-Missouri border area.
In early May 1863 a temporary camp, Camp Hooker, was established at the site of what later became Baxter Springs, Kansas. This area was located in what was known as the Cherokee Strip (Kansas). In late May while the camp commander, Col. James M. Williams, was in Fort Scott, the troops moved the camp three blocks to the east to what is now Washington School Hill. The new camp, Camp Ben Butler (named after Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, was in a highly defendable position. It occupied a plateau that covered more than two square blocks. Only a small area to the south allowed easy access to camp. In fact, much of the surrounding area was practically impenetrable by men or horses.
Camp Hunter was established in June 1862 or a bit earlier at what is now Baxter Springs, Kansas. It was established by Union troops. At the same time Indian Home Guard regiments established a camp nearby on Little Five Mile Creek.
In June 1862 two Union camps were established in the vicinity of what is today Baxter Springs, Kansas. One was Camp Hunter, located in what is now the center of the town. The other was the Indian Home Guard Camp, located at Little Five Mile Creek, 1½ miles southeast of Camp Hunter.
During the Civil War, Coldwater Grove existed 131⁄2 miles east of Paola, Kansas, in Miami County. It straddled the Kansas-Missouri border, being partly in both states. About June 1863 a Union military post was established on the Kansas side of the community and the post was put under the command of Lt. Col. Charles S. Clark. Clark also commanded four nearby posts.
Fort McKean is a fort located inside Kansas along the Kansas-Missouri border. On November 14, 1862, Company C of the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry, led by Lieut. James B. Pond, established a camp at Morris Mills on Drywood Creek. It was fifteen miles southeast of Fort Scott. Sometime later this camp was given the name of Fort McKean. The post was probably on the Fort Scott-Fort Gibson Military Road, and many, including Pond, thought the post was inside Missouri. Throughout its history, Fort McKean was a small post, ranging in strength from 20 to 60 men. It is unknown what buildings or defenses were erected there.
James R. O'Neill was a war artist and correspondent for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper during the American Civil War. He covered the Battle of Honey Springs in July 1863, and his sketch of the action was published to a nationwide audience. Less than three months later, however, O'Neill was killed in the Battle of Baxter Springs. He is believed to be the only newsman to be killed in action during the American Civil War.
The skirmish near Brooklyn, Kansas was a skirmish of the American Civil War on August 21, 1863, between Quantrill's Raiders and pursuing Union forces immediately after the Lawrence massacre. James Henry Lane led a small group of survivors of the massacre in pursuit of Quantrill's men, and were joined by a force of about 200 Union Army cavalrymen, commanded by Major Preston B. Plumb. Lane's and Plumb's men fought with Quantrill's Raiders to the south of the town of Brooklyn, Kansas, which the raiders had burned. The Confederates began to panic, but a charge led by George Todd halted the Union pursuit. Quantrill's men escaped across the state line into Missouri and then scattered; a few were later caught and executed.