110 The American Civil WarA confused savage battle ensued along the
banks of Wilson's Creek. Lyon's men
managed to hold their ground, in the face of
nearly three-to-one odds, until Lyon was
fatally wounded. The combination of Lyon's
death and depleted ammunition forced the
federals to retreat. Eventually they fell back
over 100 miles (160km) to Rolla, a railroad
town that linked them to St Louis.
Union and Confederate forces both
suffered roughly 1,300 casualties in this
battle. In the weeks that followed,
Confederates marched into the Missouri
River valley, and they captured Lexington,
Missouri, in mid-September. Thus, for a few
months, Price's militia controlled half the
state. The Confederate commander, however,
soon discovered that he lacked the
manpower to hold such a vast region, and in
October he withdrew again to the southwest
corner of Missouri. Although they had lost
the key battle, the Federals ironically
managed to hold on to Missouri, although
their grip was tenuous and remained so until
the next year. Throughout the war, Missouri
was the battleground for continual and
vicious guerrilla warfare.
Union advances in Kentucky
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, while both
presidents attempted to steer armies around
the state, secessionist Governor Beriah
Magoffin also repudiated Lincoln's request
for troops. Still, he allowed the Unionist
legislature to exercise a degree of power
throughout the summer. Nonetheless,
recruiting for both sides went on in the state
until Confederate fears over possible Union
occupation of the region along the
Mississippi River forced the Confederates to
seize Columbus, Kentucky. Major-General
Leonidas Polk was ordered to seize the
strategic town, positioned on a high bluff
overlooking the Mississippi River. Although
he was prompted to strike because of the
town's military importance, the political
consequences were monumental. Declaring
that the Confederacy had invaded the
George B. McClellan commander of the Army of the
Potomac and generai-in-chief of the Union army from
5 November 1861 to 11 March 1862 was an advocate
of fighting a limited war. He impressed this attrtude on
the commanders whom he appointed to commands in
the west, including Don Carlos Buell and Henry Wager
Halleck. (Ann Ronan Picture Library)Bluegrass state, Kentucky's Union authorities
pledged their support for the Union and
forced Magoffin to resign. Federal forces
under Major-General Ulysses S. Grant
immediately occupied Paducah, Kentucky,
near the mouth of the Tennessee River and
connected to Columbus by railroad.
Although the Union held only a thin strip of
Kentucky's border, its strategic significance
far outweighed its small size.
As in Missouri, Union and Confederate
authorities moved quickly to shore up strategic
points in the state, federal forces immediately
took Louisville, the largest city, and Frankfurt,
the Kentucky capital. Major-General Robert
Anderson commanded Louisville until he was
replaced in September by Major-General
William T. Sherman. As Union politicians
contemplated how best to occupy the region
they now held militarily, significant changes
were occurring in military personnel.
In early November, Major-General George
B. McClellan replaced General Winfield Scott