First Battle of Newtonia

1862 battle of the American Civil War

The First Battle of Newtonia was fought on September 30, 1862, between Confederate soldiers commanded by Colonel Douglas H. Cooper and a Union column commanded by Brigadier General Frederick Salomon near Newtonia, Missouri, during the American Civil War. Cooper's force had moved into southwestern Missouri, and encamped near the town of Newtonia. The Confederate column was composed mostly of cavalry led by Colonel Joseph O. Shelby and a brigade of Native Americans. A Union force commanded by Brigadier General James G. Blunt moved to intercept Cooper's force. Blunt's advance force, led by Salomon, reached the vicinity of Newtonia on September 29, and attacked Cooper's position on September 30. A Union probing force commanded by Colonel Edward Lynde was driven out of Newtonia by Cooper's forces on the morning of the 30th. Both sides brought up further reinforcements, and seesaw fighting took place during much of the afternoon. Shortly before nightfall, Cooper's Confederates made an all out attack against the Union line; this led Salomon to withdraw from the field. Militia commanded by Colonel George Hall covered the Union retreat, although Confederate artillery fire struck the retreating forces. This panicked some of Salomon's men, and the retreat turned into a disorderly rout. Union casualties are variously reported as either 245 or over 400, and Confederate casualties were 78. Blunt's full division began advancing towards Newtonia in early October, leading Cooper to abandon Missouri. A portion of the battlefield was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 as the First Battle of Newtonia Historic District.

As the United States matured during the early 19th century, a large cultural divide developed between the northern states and the southern states over the issue of slavery. By the time of the 1860 United States Presidential Election, slavery had become one of the defining features of southern culture, with the ideology of states' rights being used to defend the institution. With the population of the industrializing North coming to exceed that of the South, the balance of power began to shift, and many southerners decided that secession was the only way to preserve slavery, especially after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Lincoln's candidacy was regionally successful, as much of his support was from the northern states, while he received no electoral votes from the Deep South. Many southerners rejected the legitimacy of Lincoln's election, and promoted secession. On December 20, the state of South Carolina seceded, and the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed suit in early 1861. On February 4, the seceding states formed the Confederate States of America; Jefferson Davis became the nascent nation's president. In Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, the important military installation of Fort Sumter was still held by a Union Army garrison. On the morning of April 12, the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, beginning the American Civil War. The fort surrendered on April 13. Shortly after Fort Sumter was attacked, Lincoln requested that the states remaining in the Union provide 75,000 volunteers for the war effort. In the coming weeks, the states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas joined the Confederacy. A Union army commanded by Brigadier General Irvin McDowell moved south into Virginia and attacked two Confederate armies commanded by Brigadier Generals P. G. T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston on July 21. In the ensuing First Battle of Bull Run, the Union army was routed. Meanwhile, the population of the state of Missouri was badly divided. While Governor Claiborne F. Jackson and the Missouri State Guard, a militia organization, supported the Confederacy, Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, commander of the St. Louis Arsenal, supported the Union. Lyon drove Jackson and the Missouri State Guard, which was commanded by Major General Sterling Price, into southwestern Missouri, where they were joined by Brigadier General Ben McCulloch's Confederate force. Lyon attacked Price and McCulloch's combined camp on August 10 in the Battle of Wilson's Creek; Lyon was killed and his army defeated. Price then moved north with the Missouri State Guard in a campaign that culminated in the capture of Lexington in September. However, Union forces concentrated against Price, who then retreated back into southwestern Missouri. In February 1862, Union Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis advanced against Price's position, causing the Confederates to abandon Missouri and enter Arkansas. In March, Price, McCulloch, and Major General Earl Van Dorn joined forces. Under the command of Van Dorn, the Confederates attacked Curtis at the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 7 and 8 but were repulsed. Pea Ridge and another Union victory at the Battle of Island Number Ten led the Union high command to feel secure enough to proclaim that "[there was] no Rebel flag now flying in Missouri".

This state of affairs did not last long. Price sent some of his troops into Missouri to obtain supplies and recruit new volunteers. The state was also raided by Confederate forces including the command of Colonel Joseph C. Porter, and was plagued by guerrilla attacks from bushwhackers including William Quantrill. At one point Quantrill's guerrillas combined with a regular Confederate force commanded by Colonel John T. Hughes. This combined force defeated a Union force at the First Battle of Independence on August 11. Union forces suffered another defeat on August 15, at the Battle of Lone Jack. The resurgence in Confederate activity was an embarrassment to the commander of the Union's Department of the Missouri, Brigadier General John M. Schofield, who was replaced by Curtis and relegated to the command of the Army of the Frontier. This period of increased Confederate activity in Missouri was related to Major General Thomas C. Hindman's efforts to rebuild Confederate strength in Arkansas. While Hindman was successful in forging an army in an underdeveloped region, his methods were unpopular with prominent Arkansas civilians and he was replaced by Major General Theophilus H. Holmes. Hindman retained a field command under Holmes and pushed a 6,000 man force into northwestern Arkansas and the southwestern portion of Missouri. Cavalry forces under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper were positioned in Missouri, with Hindman's infantry component still in Arkansas near Elkhorn Tavern under the command of James S. Rains, a brigadier general in the Missouri State Guard. Hindman himself had been recalled to Little Rock, Arkansas, by Holmes. Cooper's force included the cavalry of Colonel Joseph O. Shelby's Iron Brigade, and a brigade of Confederate sympathizing Native Americans. A Union force commanded by Brigadier General James G. Blunt and spearheaded by Brigadier General Frederick Salomon began moving south to confront the Confederates. Cooper sent a scouting force to the Newtonia area on September 27. Commanded by Colonel Trezevant C. Hawpe, it was composed of the 31st Texas Cavalry Regiment and the 1st Cherokee Battalion. Hawpe determined that Newtonia, which was a communications hub, would be a good encampment and had his troops begin operating a grist mill to produce flour. After receiving Hawpe's appraisal of Newtonia's potential as a military base, Cooper ordered him to remain in Newtonia and reinforced him with Captain Joseph Bledsoe's Missouri Battery. The historian Shelby Foote stated that the total strength of the Union column was 4,000 men, although other sources place the overall strength at 4,500.

The Confederate forces at Newtonia included the 1st Cherokee Battalion, the 1st Choctaw Regiment, the 1st Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles, Colonel A. M. Alexander's 34th Texas Cavalry Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Beal G. Jeans' Missouri Cavalry Regiment, Hawpe's 31st Texas Cavalry Regiment, the 5th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, Colonel James G. Stevens' 22nd Texas Cavalry Regiment, Bledsoe's Battery, and Captain Sylvanus Howell's Texas Battery. Estimates of Confederate strength vary. Foote gives the total Confederate strength as 5,500 men: composed of 2,500 cavalrymen and 3,000 "Indians and guerrillas". The historian Daniel O'Flaherty provides a range compatible with Foote's estimate, the historian Larry Wood gives a range of 4,000 to 7,000, and other sources provide a range of 6,000 to 7,000.

On September 29, Salomon sent out three scouting forces: one to Neosho, one to Granby, and one to Newtonia. While the patrol to Neosho participated in a small action, the men sent to Granby saw no Confederate soldiers. The force headed for Newtonia consisted of 150 men from the 9th Kansas Cavalry, in four companies, commanded by Colonel Edward Lynde of the same unit, and including the regiment's two mountain howitzers. Lynde's men drove Confederate skirmishers back towards Newtonia, and determined that a strong enemy force occupied the town. Hawpe, still commanding the Confederates in Newtonia, reported the Union probe to Cooper, who sent Jean's regiment and the 5th Missouri Cavalry to Newtonia. Cooper had also been informed that Granby had been occupied by Union forces, so he ordered the 22nd Texas Cavalry there. Lynde reached Newtonia and found it held by the Confederates. After realizing that his mountain howitzers lacked the range to shell Newtonia, Lynde ordered a retreat. Two Confederate soldiers were captured, and informed the Union commander that Newtonia was occupied in strength. Meanwhile, Cooper and Shelby's two regiments arrived in Newtonia after the Union retreat; the retreating Union force was not pursued. Cooper then returned to the main Confederate camp. The two reinforcing regiments remained in Newtonia overnight, but were sent back to the main Confederate camp early the next morning. The 22nd Texas Cavalry arrived after the Union patrol had left Granby; the Texans occupied the abandoned town. Salomon noted the sounds of combat coming from the Newtonia area, and sent two companies of the 9th Wisconsin Infantry to support Lynde.

The detachment from the 9th Wisconsin Infantry, joined by two more companies of the regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Jacobi, was reinforced by 45 men of the 6th Kansas Cavalry, 50 men from the 3rd Indian Home Guard, and three guns of the 25th Ohio Battery; the group reached the Newtonia area around 07:00 on September 30. An attempt to cut off the Confederate skirmish line by the men of the 6th Kansas Cavalry failed, and Jacobi's force lost the element of surprise. After some hard fighting, the detachment was joined by Lynde's probing force, who had returned to the Newtonia area. On October 28, 1864, the Second Battle of Newtonia was fought near the site of the 1862 battle. In the 1864 battle, a Union army commanded by Blunt attacked and defeated a Confederate army led by Price. The Confederates had been retreating southwards after being defeated at the battles of Westport in Missouri, and Mine Creek in Kansas.

The First Battle of Newtonia Historic District preserves of the battlefield; the district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The separately listed Mathew H. Ritchey House is located within the district. The site contains the Ritchey barn and barnyard site, a Civil War era cemetery, the Newtonia Branch stream, the historic Neosho Road, and the battlefield itself. While much of the land in the district is privately owned, the Newtonia Battlefields Protection Association has ownership of At least nine Union soldiers are buried in the cemetery, although not all of them are related to the First Battle of Newtonia. More war related burials had previously been located there, as many of the military burials were exhumed and moved to the Springfield National Cemetery in 1869. The Mathew H. Ritchey House is notable for having served as a headquarters building for both sides during the two battles of Newtonia and was used as a field hospital after the fighting. The American Battlefield Protection Program has suggested that it may be possible to enlarge the area of the historic district. However, the same study determined that the site did not meet the inclusion criteria for becoming an official unit of the National Park Service, as the cultural features at Newtonia were deemed too similar to those preserved in other National Park Service sites. The Ritchey House and 25 acres of the battlefields including the Old Newtonia Cemetery were added to Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in 2022 by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, despite National Park Service opposition due to the lack of connection, need for protection, or enhancement of public enjoyment.