19
Edward and William Vining, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry
July to December 1864
Price’s Invasion; Battle of Westport
July, 1864 found the Vinings mostly idle in garrison, going out on occasional patrols. The Confederates still had not come back up from Louisiana, so Missouri was quiet. Only one engagement is recorded for the ACDFM Group in July: a skirmish near Dogwood, Missouri on the 7th. We don’t know if Company C was involved.
The BEGHIKL Group in Arkansas, being closer to the events in Louisiana following the failed Red River campaign, were more involved than those stationed in Kansas and Missouri. They are listed in a skirmish at Clarendon (Arkansas?) on July 16, then in August they took part in an expedition from Little Rock, Arkansas to the Little Red River in northeast Arkansas. On August 7 they were involved in fights at Hickory Plain (30 miles northeast of Little Rock) and Bull’s Bayou. From there they continued up the Little Red River, then up the White River to where it meets the Black. There was a skirmish at Jacksonport, where the White and Black Rivers meet, and another the same day at Bull’s Bayou – which means the regiment must have been broken up into at least two sections. I think I have copied a date incorrectly; I have these last two battles occurring on August 26, but my notes also have the entire expedition only lasting until the 16th; don’t know which is correct until I see the original sources again.
As Confederate units continued filtering north from Louisiana, the BEGHIKL Group was involved in another expedition in pursuit of Shelby’s Cavalry (a Division in Price’s army) from August 28 to September 7. We don’t know any details at this time.
Some minor reorganizations took place at the beginning of September. General George Sykes took over command of the District of South Kansas on September 1, including the ACDFM Group of the 3rd Wisconsin. On September 9, the BEGHIKL Group, and 3rd Wisconsin proper, became a part of the 4th Brigade (commanded by General A.J. Ryan), Cavalry Division (Gen J.R. West), VII Corps, Department of Arkansas. According to Fox, the BEGHIKL Group was stationed at Huntersville, Arkansas at this time.
* * *
September 1864 saw the return of regular Confederate forces to Missouri for the first time since April. Despite his many failures, Sterling Price still had dreams of capturing St. Louis, inspiring mass uprisings of the people, and turning the whole state Confederate. Price’s commander, General Kirby-Smith, had no such illusions, but approved the latest Price expedition as a diversionary raid. Price gathered 12,000 men and formed three cavalry divisions under Shelby, Marmaduke and Fagan – although 4000 of his men had no weapons, and 1000 had no horses.
The Confederates crossed from northeast Arkansas into Missouri on September 19, starting what would be the largest invasion of that state during the entire war. General Rosecrans in St. Louis knew of their approach but had no idea which way they might be heading. He had only 10,000 men in the Department of Missouri, and they were mostly small militia units scattered all over the state. He ordered his forces to start concentrating at several strategic sites, and borrowed 4000 men from the Army of the Tennessee to protect St. Louis.
The 3rd Wisconsin was not affected by this invasion for some time, as it started in the southeast corner of the state and moved north. The regiment did have some unrelated actions at this time. On September 25, a detachment of the BEGHIKL Group set out from Huntersville on an expedition to Fort Smith, lasting until October 13. A detachment of the ACDFM Group fought a skirmish at Osage Mission, Kansas on September 26. And detachments of the BEGHIKL Group were involved in skirmishes at Clarksville, Arkansas on September 28 and October 19.
Meanwhile, Price had been stopped halfway to St. Louis. He came across a small fortified Federal outpost at Pilot Knob; he could have just walked around it and continued on to St. Louis, but he decided he wanted to capture the outpost. The Confederate attack by 8000 men on September 27 was easily defeated by only 900 defenders. Price was badly shaken by this failure and abandoned the idea of attacking St. Louis. He turned his army northwest toward Jefferson City but found that place heavily defended – so they skipped that city too, and continued west along the Missouri River toward Lexington.
By this time the Federals were gathering some large cavalry groups together to pursue Price. Curtis (Department of Kansas) started concentrating troops at Kansas City. He brought back James Blunt, who had been off in western Kansas fighting some Cheyenne and Arapaho uprisings. On October 10 the Vinings fell under General Blunt once again, as he took over command of the District of South Kansas. Blunt immediately assembled a division of 2000 men, including the ACDFM Group of 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry, the 2nd Colorado Cavalry, and the 11th, 15th and 16th Kansas Cavalry, and marched to Kansas City. They continued on to Lexington, Missouri, where they were joined by the 5th Kansas Cavalry and the 5th Missouri Militia Cavalry.
On October 19 they were attacked by Shelby’s Division, and Blunt’s small group was pushed back through the town of Lexington. The Union force retreated to the west side of the Little Blue River, where Blunt formed another defensive line. On the same day, a scouting detachment from the ACDFM Group had a minor skirmish with a scouting detachment from Price’s army near Montevallo.
Price’s army reached Blunt’s second defensive line on October 21. Blunt had been reinforced by Curtis, but he still had only about 3000 men facing over 10,000 Confederates. Besides the original units Blunt had brought to Lexington, the Union forces now included parts of the 2nd Arkansas Cavalry, 17th Illinois Cavalry, 3rd and 4th Iowa Cavalry, 7th and 14th Kansas Cavalry, 2nd, 4th, 10th and 13th Missouri Cavalry, some Missouri militia infantry and batteries, and the 9th Wisconsin Light Artillery.
Marmaduke’s Division was in the lead this time, and they attacked Blunt’s force without waiting for the rest of Price’s army. The Federal army held them off successfully for some time until Shelby’s Division arrived; at that point they were outnumbered more than two to one, and were forced to retreat or be surrounded. The Union lost 18 men killed, 83 wounded, and 14 missing in this battle, known as Little Blue.
Blunt’s force retreated through the streets of Independence, Missouri to the Big Blue River, where he formed a third defensive line. They were now joined by General Curtis, who had brought with him a large number of Kansas militia. Curtis took command of the combined army. Price was following closely behind Blunt, and attacked again on October 22 in the Battle of Big Blue (sometimes called the Battle of Bryan’s Ford, or State Line). The Kansas militia did the Union army more harm than good – they were untrained and had never been in a fight. When Shelby’s Division attacked they just scattered, leaving large gaps in the Union line. Curtis was forced to retreat again to avoid having his army cut into isolated pieces. They formed a fourth line at Westport, Missouri.
The Confederates had been defeating the outnumbered Union troops in each engagement and had been pushing them back steadily, but Blunt and Curtis had done what they were supposed to do. By holding Price in this area for four days, they had given Rosecrans enough time to gather up another division of cavalry from the scattered Missouri outposts, under General Pleasanton. This division was now catching up to Price from the east. When he saw he was about to be caught between two armies, Price decided to head back to Arkansas. He sent his supply train south toward Fort Scott, and he sent Marmaduke’s Division out to slow up Pleasanton’s. But before leaving the area, he tried one last time to destroy Curtis’ army at Westport.
The Battle of Westport (sometimes called Big Blue) on October 23, 1864, was the largest battle of the Civil War west of the Mississippi. With the regular armies and large militia groups on both sides, it involved more than 29,000 men. Shelby’s and Fagan’s Divisions attacked Curtis, while Marmaduke was battling Pleasanton. After two hours of heavy fighting, the Confederates at Westport were starting to push the Union line back – but just at that time, Pleasanton broke through Marmaduke’s Division and came up behind Price’s army. Shelby and Fagan were forced to break off in the middle of the battle and retreat, and Blunt’s Division came right after them. Forced to fight their way past Pleasanton’s Division as they were attacked from behind by Blunt, the retreat became a headlong flight. They joined the rest of Price’s army which was now in full retreat, throwing away all their supplies and heavy equipment as they ran, trying only to get away as quickly as possible.
The Union army rested for one day, then started in pursuit of Price on October 24. The Vinings in the 3rd Wisconsin were in this pursuit also. On the night of the 24th, Price’s army was camped about 25 miles north of Fort Scott on the Kansas side of the border. The advance guard of the Union army actually came right up next to them at night, but there was such a heavy rainstorm all night that neither side knew the other was there. There was a brief skirmish at dawn when they discovered each other (called Marmiton, or Battle of Charlot; the 3rd Wisconsin was not involved), and the Confederates immediately fled over the Marais des Cygnes River.
Price made it to Mine Creek (Little Osage River), but some of his supply wagons got stuck in the mud while crossing and tipped over, blocking the ford. He formed a defensive line to gain some time to get the wagons across; Fagan’s and Marmaduke’s Divisions were stretched along the north bank of the river just as the first Union troops appeared. The Union advance guard of two brigades charged immediately, without waiting for the rest of the army. This was probably the most dramatic cavalry charge of the war; it was really the only large cavalry battle that looked like the Hollywood movie versions: 2600 men smashed at full gallop into a line of 8000, and there was a furious hand-to-hand fight with pistols and sabers. As each following Union regiment came up the road, they also charged into the middle of the battle. The 3rd Wisconsin was not in the advance units; the Vinings would have been in one of the groups coming in as the battle progressed. As more Union troops kept pouring into the fight, the Confederate divisions were overwhelmed and broken up. They fled across the river and kept going, forgetting about the wagons. Price later reported that his army was all but destroyed here, "retreating in utter confusion and panic." He lost almost all his artillery and supply wagons, and over a thousand men killed or captured – including General Marmaduke.
All of the Kansas militia was released after this battle and returned home. Blunt and Pleasanton marched on to Fort Scott to rest and resupply, then continued on after Price. The Confederate army never recovered from the Mine Creek disaster. They continued to retreat south, pursued by Blunt and Pleasanton. Several times they tried to stop and make a stand, but the Union cavalry rode right through them, breaking them up further and causing more losses in men, horses and equipment. Many of the Confederate troops dropped back to surrender, or deserted and went home. Of the final skirmishes, the Vinings in the 3rd Wisconsin were involved in two: October 28 at Newtonia, and October 29 at Dry Wood. The Newtonia fight involved mostly Blunt’s Division – 2nd Arkansas Cavalry, 2nd Colorado Cavalry, 1st Colorado Battery, 5th, 14th, 15th and 16th Kansas Cavalry, 15th Missouri Cavalry, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry, and several units of Missouri militia. The Dry Wood skirmish involved the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry only. I don’t have any details on either skirmish at this time.
Fox’s history also lists an "Engagement at Hickman’s Mills," Missouri, during October. I don’t find any other reference to that, don’t know where it is, or if it ties into Price’s invasion.
What was left of Price’s army escaped over the Arkansas River on November 7, and the Federal army let them go. Most of the guerilla units in Missouri went with Price for their own safety, putting an end to the guerilla raids that had plagued Missouri and Kansas for four years. It was also the end of most organized Confederate activity in the West – by the time he got back to Arkansas, Price had only 3500 men left out of an army that had once numbered 12,000.
Price’s Raid was the last large operation of the Civil War west of the Mississippi. There would still be continued fighting with the Confederate Indian tribes, mostly under Stand Watie, but the 3rd Wisconsin would not be involved in any of that.
The BEGHIKL Group in Arkansas was not directly involved with Price’s Raid. They took part in an expedition from Lewisburg to Benton on November 2 and 3, which might have related indirectly to the Confederate retreat – I don’t have any details. In November 1864 the BEGHIKL Group, and 3rd Wisconsin headquarters, were stationed at Little Rock. They remained there until April, 1865.
The only event affecting the ACDFM Group in December was that General G.M. Dodge took over command of the Department of Missouri on the 9th – although as far as I can tell right now, the ACDFM Group was still in Department of Kansas at that time. The Vinings had no further action in 1864.
The BEGHIKL Group went out once more, leaving on December 13 for an expedition up the White River to Devall’s Bluff, returning to Little Rock on the 15th. On December 22, General J.J. Reynolds took over command of the Department of Arkansas.
At the same time that the final actions in Missouri were taking place, other members of our family were participating in the last battles in Tennessee.
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