Key Individuals Included:

The governor, Claiborne Jackson, feigning neutrality while conspiring with the Confederacy, and who had rejected an offer by then President Lincoln for troops to be called up to support the Union effort to stifle inroads by the Confederate states Generals  such as Sterling Price, a Mexican American war hero and previous governor. His anti-slavery sentiment was overridden by his stronger belief in states’ rights. Governor Jackson appointed Price as the general over the Missouri State Guard. The Union had hard-nosed and experienced General Nathaniel Lyon, who was killed early during the battle, and replaced by Colonel Franz Sigel, a German immigrant, who proved later to be a much better recruiter of German speaking immigrants to the Union than  he was a military leader. All these people, events, and places began to formulate who would walk away from the field a victor in August 1861. Experience would play a major role.

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  Conflict had already manifested itself in May, when fearing hostilities, union troops forced the surrender of the Missouri Volunteer Militia. Protest escalated as the prisoners were marched through the streets of St. Louis, resulting in the killing of innocent civilians. There was a June meeting between many of the key players from both sides that was intended to quell the hostilities, and maintain neutrality. However, strong opposing views were expressed, hands were tipped, and wheels set in motion that obviated any chance of piece through neutrality. 

  Soldiers from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and several other places participated in the battle resulting in almost 600 deaths total on both sides, over two thousand wounded, and another 200 or so missing.

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  To some, apparently, such as the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, the battle in Missouri didn’t seem to matter as much to him as what lead up to the battle. In President Davis’s “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, “ volume one, Davis pens twelve pages [ 416-428] of writing about the cause of the Missouri conflict, without ever mentioning the battle name. (Davis, 1881)  In volume two of the same writing, on page 50, President Davis speaks of the Wilson’s Creek battle, without mentioning the battle name,  “Detached conflicts with the enemy had been fought by the small forces under Generals Price and McCulloch, but no definite result had followed.” In 1881, it appears President Davis wanted to explain “causes” rather than victories, and losses.

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  However, to a family in Muscatine, Iowa, the second battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, was the most important thing in their lives at the time. The son of Harrison Norman, a grocer, who, according to the 1860 census, lived in Ohio, but was in 1861 in Iowa, had an 18 year old son named Shelby Norman, who, just months earlier, before the August battle, enlisted in the First Iowa Infantry, Company A. In the Iowa Adjutant report, Norman was described as one of the first to enlist in Iowa at the onset of the war. The Adjutant describes Norman as a “fair haired boy” who was the first Iowa soldier killed in the Civil War, at Wilson’s Creek, shot in the head and dying instantly. 

  After the war, a Grand Army of the Republic [GAR] hall was opened in Muscatine, Iowa, and was named for Shelby Norman.  Also, after the war, the state of Iowa erected a Civil War Soldiers monument on the grounds at the state capitol, where an infantry soldier stands in bronze represented as Shelby Norman. 

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  The First [1st] Iowa Infantry was one of the first regiments raised in Iowa after President Lincoln called for troops after the shelling of Fort Sumter. With an excess of 950 men in the regiment, their only fight was at Wilson’s Creek. The regiment was a ninety day regiment which mustered out of service just days after the August 1861 battle. The 1st Iowa’s reported  loss in human life at Wilson’s Creek was 13 killed, 14 wounded and 4 missing. 

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  After the August  battle at Wilson’s Creek, Dr. Orsino A. Williams, of the Missouri State Guard wrote a letter to his brother-in law. Dr. Williams seems to be quit a character. In his letter, he seems to be very irate for being connected to a war that was just a few battles old at the time. Dr. Williams writes in his letter, a copy of which was furnished for this writing by the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City, “Springfield Mo. Dear John--- I suppose ere this you have had correct information in regard to the fight. So, I will say nothing of it. I am not in good health nor in very good spirits. I can see no end to this infernal war. My appointment may send me to any part of the state so I do not know when I will see you---or Springhill. I want you to get my business in as good a shape as you can—if possible to collect---let no one loose---tell Dr. Sheuman if he does not pay that bank debt if ever I get back I will start a boot factory in his posterior extremity. So enough about business matters. I saw all the boys not long ago they were all in good health. Did not know or care where they were going---Springfield presents rather a gloomy appearance, every house nearly has been converted into a hospital. The wounded are generally doing well. There has been a great many amputations, I have taken off a good many legs and arms---until I am sick and tired.” Williams closes the letter, “give my love to Mary & the little ones, respects to enquiring friends and tell my enemies to go to hell.” (Williams, 1861) It is reported that Dr. Williams was arrested at one point during the war and taken to California, Missouri. It is also reported that Dr. Williams was a surgeon with General Joe Shelby.