The Battle of Westport, sometimes referred to as the "Gettysburg of the West", was fought on October 23, 1864, in modern Kansas City, Missouri, during the American Civil War. Union forces under Major General Samuel R. Curtis decisively defeated an outnumbered Confederate force under Major General Sterling Price. This engagement was the turning point of Price's Missouri Expedition, forcing his army to retreat. The battle ended the last major Confederate offensive west of the Mississippi River, and for the remainder of the war the United States Army maintained solid control over most of Missouri. This battle was one of the largest to be fought west of the Mississippi River, with over 30,000 men engaged.
The Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, also known as the Engagement at Jenkins' Ferry, was fought on April 30, 1864, at Jenkins' Ferry, southwest of Little Rock, during the American Civil War. Although the battle ended with a Union victory, the Confederates saw it as a strategic success as they claimed to have prevented Frederick Steele from holding southwest Arkansas. Due to the chaotic nature of the battle, casualty figures vary.
The Battle of Prairie D'Ane, also known as the Skirmish at Prairie D'Ane, Battle of Gum Springs or Battle of Moscow, was fought in present-day Nevada County, Arkansas, as part of the Camden Expedition, during the American Civil War. The Camden Expedition was launched by Union forces as part of the Red River Campaign of 1864. U.S. planners envisioned two federal armies converging simultaneously, one force under the command of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks pressing northward up the Red River commencing at Alexandria, Louisiana and the other federal army under the command of Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele driving southwestward from Little Rock, Arkansas. The objective was to press the rebel army of Gen. E. Kirby Smith back upon the rebel stronghold at Shreveport and defeat him. If successful, a somewhat vague second phase envisioned the two federal armies combining into one large force and continuing their offensive with a westward push into Texas.
The Battle of Pleasant Hill occurred on April 9, 1864 and formed part of the Red River Campaign during the American Civil War when Union forces aimed to occupy the Louisiana state capital, Shreveport.
The Colorado Territory was formally created in 1861 shortly before the bombardment of Fort Sumter sparked the American Civil War. Although sentiments were somewhat divided in the early days of the war, Colorado was only marginally a pro-Union territory. Colorado was strategically important to both the Union and Confederacy because of the gold and silver mines there as both sides wanted to use the mineral wealth to help finance the war. The New Mexico Campaign was a military operation conducted by Confederate Brigadier General Henry Sibley to gain control of the Southwest, including the gold fields of Colorado, the mineral-rich territory of Nevada and the ports of California. The campaign was intended as a prelude to an invasion of the Colorado Territory and an attempt to cut the supply lines between California and the rest of the Union. However, the Confederates were defeated at the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico and were forced to retreat back to Texas, effectively ending the New Mexico Campaign.
Galvanized Yankees was a term from the American Civil War denoting former Confederate prisoners of war who swore allegiance to the United States and joined the Union Army. Approximately 5,600 former Confederate soldiers enlisted in the United States Volunteers, organized into six regiments of infantry between January 1864 and November 1866. Of those, more than 250 had begun their service as Union soldiers, were captured in battle, then enlisted in prison to join a regiment of the Confederate States Army. They surrendered to Union forces in December 1864 and were held by the United States as deserters, but were saved from prosecution by being enlisted in the 5th and 6th U.S. Volunteers. An additional 800 former Confederates served in volunteer regiments raised by the states, forming ten companies. Four of those companies saw combat in the Western Theater against the Confederate Army, two served on the western frontier, and one became an independent company of U.S. Volunteers, serving in Minnesota.
The 3rd Illinois Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It fought at such battles as Pea Ridge, Sherman's Yazoo campaign, the battle of Port Gibson, and the siege of Vicksburg.
The 1st Iowa Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
8th Missouri Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry unit from Missouri that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was formed between 6 August and 15 September 1862. The regiment fought at Prairie Grove and Van Buren in 1862. The unit participated in Frederick Steele's expedition to Little Rock in 1863, fighting at Brownsville, Bayou Meto, and Bayou Fourche. From 1863 to 1865, the regiment remained in Arkansas, going on expeditions to suppress Confederate raiders and other occupation duties. The unit was mustered out of service on 20 July 1865. In January 1863, the regiment committed what has become known as the Huntsville Massacre.
The 6th Kansas Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 2nd Regiment Colorado Cavalry was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 2nd Missouri Cavalry Regiment, also known officially as Merrill's Horse, was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was one of only a handful of Missouri regiments to be officially named as well as numbered.
Benjamin Franklin Gordon, commonly known as B. Frank Gordon, was a Confederate States Army colonel during the American Civil War. Gordon had been a private and bugler for a Missouri regiment serving in the U.S. Army during the Mexican–American War. Gordon served in the Confederate Army under Brigadier General Joseph O. "Jo" Shelby in Missouri and Arkansas in the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department throughout the war. On May 16, 1865, with the war coming to an end, General E. Kirby Smith, as the Confederate commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, assigned Gordon to duty as a brigadier general. The Confederate government took no action on the appointment and Confederate President Jefferson Davis did not officially appoint and nominate Gordon to the rank of brigadier general because the Confederate Senate last met on March 18, 1865, and Davis was captured by Union troops on May 10, 1865. Although he was only aged 40 at his death, Gordon survived the war by little more than a year.
The 10th Regiment Missouri Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was organized on November 10, 1862 and was assigned to the brigade of Brigadier General Mosby M. Parsons. The regiment fought at the Battle of Prairie Grove, where both the regiment's colonel and lieutenant colonel were killed. The regiment fought at the Battle of Helena on July 4, 1863, where it suffered heavy casualties. Beginning in late 1863, the 12th Missouri Infantry Regiment was attached to the regiment; the men of the 12th Missouri Infantry were officially merged into the regiment in late 1864. The regiment fought at the battles of Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry in April. On June 8, 1865, the men of the regiment were paroled and sent back to Missouri.
The 1st Missouri Volunteer Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment with three battalions that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865.
The Battle of Camp Davies was a skirmish during the American Civil War on November 22, 1863, near a Union Army camp about six miles south of Corinth, Mississippi. A 70-man detachment of the 1st Regiment Alabama Cavalry (Union), commanded by Major Francis L. Cramer, drove off a 150-man Confederate force of the 16th Battalion, Mississippi Cavalry State Troops, commanded by Major Thomas W. Ham, and killed at least 4 Confederate soldiers, while suffering two severely wounded troopers. This action is the only engagement recorded as occurring at or near Camp Davies in major sources on American Civil War battles. Other similar engagements in the vicinity of Corinth in 1863 may have occurred near Camp Davies.
7th Missouri Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry unit from Missouri that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was formed on 20 February 1862 by merging Bishop's Cavalry Battalion with some unattached cavalry companies. The regiment fought at Independence, Lone Jack, Prairie Grove and Van Buren in 1862. The unit participated in Frederick Steele's expedition to Little Rock in 1863, fighting at Brownsville, Ashley's Mills, and Bayou Fourche. In 1864, the regiment went on the Camden Expedition and fought at Mount Elba and Marks' Mills. The remaining soldiers were consolidated with the 1st Missouri Volunteer Cavalry Regiment on 22 February 1865.
The Battle of Egypt Station was an engagement in Mississippi that took place during a successful Union cavalry raid during the American Civil War. A 3,500-man Union cavalry division under Brigadier General Benjamin Grierson defeated Confederate troops led by Franklin Gardner and Samuel J. Gholson. Grierson's raiding cavalry left Memphis, Tennessee on 21 December and first demolished a Confederate supply depot at Verona. Moving south while wrecking bridges and track along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, the Union raiders encountered the Confederate defenders at Egypt Station. After their victory, Grierson's cavalry headed southwest to Vicksburg which it reached on January 5, 1865. The raiders destroyed a large amount of Confederate supplies and also damaged the Mississippi Central Railroad. Some of the men captured by Grierson's raiders proved to be former Union soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Confederacy rather than languish in prison camps. When John Bell Hood's army retreated into northern Mississippi after the Battle of Nashville, it was unable to obtain supplies because Grierson's raiders had damaged the railroad so badly.
The 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion, also known as Pindall's Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion, was a unit that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The battalion was formed in late 1862, in compliance with an earlier authorization by the Confederate States Congress for each brigade to have an associated battalion of sharpshooters. When first formed, the men had no unique qualifications to serve as sharpshooters and were drawn from a defunct artillery battery, a partisan rangers unit, and infantrymen. The unit's first major battle was the Battle of Prairie Grove in December 1862.
United States of America 
CSA (Confederacy) 