War!
Fort Sumter, South Carolina, was fired upon on April 12, 1861, ushering in the official start of the Civil War. The first action in Missouri occurred just eight days later when the Liberty Arsenal in Clay County was seized by Confederate sympathizers. By May, the Confederate-leaning Missouri State Guard considered federal forces within the state to be hostile, and the Civil War began in earnest in Missouri.
The War in Western Missouri
From July through September 1861, a series of battles (Carthage, Wilson’s Creek, Lexington, and others) were fought in Missouri and largely won by the Confederates. However, these victories were not enough to prevent Missouri from officially remaining, in the Federal perspective, a Union state, and the Battle of Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas on March 6-8, 1862, effectively ended Missouri’s bid to join the Confederacy.
Although the Confederacy failed to take Missouri, many citizens, particularly along the Missouri River and in western Missouri, were southern in feeling and culture. These citizens resented federal power and the heavy-handed measures used by Union troops to maintain control in the state. As a result, western Missouri, and particularly Jackson County, plummeted into a vicious guerrilla conflict that continued throughout the war. The Confederate partisans achieved success at Independence and Lone Jack in August 1862, but they lacked infrastructure and supply to maintain their successes.
The Partisan War
By 1863, the Civil War in Jackson County was reduced to small-scale skirmishes between federal Missouri State Militia troops and Confederate partisans and guerrillas. The town of Sibley was burned in June 1863, by federal troops as a result of the partisan conflict. After the burning of Lawrence, Kansas, on August 21, 1863, General Thomas Ewing, Jr. issued the infamous Order Number 11 resulting in a great deal of hardship for citizens in Jackson, Cass, Bates, and Vernon Counties. The town of Sibley was not spared the hardship of this era, and local citizens suffered greatly.
I believe I wrote you every body, man, woman and child had to leave the border counties. These counties are entirely depopulated except for Bushwhackers and Scouts of Federal Troops and Kansas Jayhawkers driving off stock and hauling off grain which the citizens had not time to get away and dare not go back for
(excerpt from letter to George A. Steele from his mother Emily H. Steele, September 20, 1863).
In 1864, Major General Sterling Price led his army back into Missouri to once again attempt to take the state for the Confederacy. This culminated in Price’s defeat at the Battle of Westport in late October 1864.
Timeline
(events in the Six Mile District, Jackson County)
1861
April 12, 1861: Confederates fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina
April 20, 1861: Liberty arsenal seized by southern sympathizers.
April 22, 1861: Governor Claiborne Jackson calls for muster of militia (Missouri State Guard)
May 10, 1861: Camp Jackson near St. Louis is captured by federals; Missouri State Guard put under command of Sterling Price
June 11, 1861: General Nathaniel Lyon declares war against Jackson and Price, and Civil War begins in earnest in Missouri
June 17, 1861: Skirmish at Rock Creek; Confederate Colonel Holloway killed by friendly fire
July 5, 1861: Battle of Carthage
July 24, 1861: Skirmish at Blue Mills on the Little Blue River
August 10, 1861: Battle of Wilson’s Creek
September 17, 1861: Battle at Liberty and Blue Mills
September 18-20, 1861: Battle of Lexington
September 23, 1861: Osceola burned by Lane and “Kansas Jayhawks”
November 11, 1861: Skirmish on Little Blue
1862
March 6-8, 1862: Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas
April 12, 1862: Skirmish on Little Blue River
June 2, 1862: Skirmish on Little Blue River
June 18, 1862: Skirmish at Hambright Station
August 11, 1862: Battle of Independence
August 16, 1862: Battle of Lone Jack
October 6, 1862: Skirmish at Sibley’s Landing/Big Hill
1863
March 30, 1863: Hijacking and Massacre of the Steamer “Sam Gaty”, at Sibley’s Landing
June 23, 1863: Burning of Sibley in response to Sam Gaty incident
August 21, 1863: Burning of Lawrence, KS
August 25, 1863: Order #11 Issued
July 6, 1864: Skirmish at Little Blue River
October 21, 1864: Battle of Little Blue
1865
March 11, 1865: Skirmish at Little Blue River
April 1865: War Ends