The cannonball bounces: Battle relic remains in courthouse column

The town of Lexington in northwest Missouri wears its Civil War battle scars proudly.

The stately Lafayette County Courthouse on the town square has an inscription pointing to where a cannonball is buried in a column, a relic of the Battle of Lexington fought in September 1861.

Visitors to the Oliver Anderson house, the centerpiece of the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site, can see the holes in the redbrick walls left by musket and cannon fire as the house changed hands three times during the fight.

Lexington will mark its celebrated history with a three-day event on Sept. 16 to 18, the 150th anniversary of what became known as the "Battle of the Hemp Bales." Missouri played an important role in the Civil War -- only Virginia and Tennessee had more battles -- and Lexington is an intriguing stop in a Civil War tour of the state.

John Maki is one of some 500 Civil War re-enactors who will mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Hemp Bales from Sept. 16 to 18 in Lexington. Maki, who works at the Battle of Lexington State Historic site, stands before the Oliver Anderson house, which changed hands three times in the battle. (Tom Uhlenbrock ~ Missouri State Parks)

"We have a lot of pre-Civil War architecture, and the battlefield," said Janae Fuller, resource manager of the state historic site. "We were the fifth largest city in the state in 1855.

"Lexington had a lot going for it with the Missouri River nearby and the Santa Fe Trail going through. Those two things really made it a boom town."

The fertile farmland drew settlers from Southern states, who used slaves to cultivate cash crops like tobacco and hemp and retained their pro-South sentiments.

"Inevitably, that also drew Gen. Sterling Price here, because he had a good base of Southern sympathy," Fuller said.

Battle re-enactment Sunday

Price was a former governor of Missouri who arrived in Lexington with 7,000 members of the pro-southern Missouri State Guard, which was formed to fend off a feared federal invasion of the state. Price knew of the town's Southern leanings, and thought he might gain some recruits.

Price was victorious in the battle to liberate Lexington from Union forces, but did not burn the town before leaving. Today, Lexington is home to four historic districts boasting houses and buildings dating back to the 1830s.

For the 150th anniversary commemoration, the town and the state historic site have planned three days of events, which are listed at www.visitlexingtonmo.com.

There will be a Civil War film festival, tours of antebellum homes and the Oliver Anderson house will be open free to visitors. Shuttle buses will run from the state historic site to parking areas, to town and to the privately owned Big River Ranch. Civil war re-enactors will set up a camp at the ranch, with a battle skirmish and artillery fire on Saturday and a re-enactment of the Battle of the Hemp Bales on Sunday.

"We'll have re-enactors at the Oliver Anderson house explaining the battle charges there," Fuller said. "We will have living historians inside the house. It was used as a hospital and a lot of times women would roll bandages, read to the wounded soldiers and help write letters for them."

Re-enactor John Maki points to bullet holes that remain in the rear wall of the Oliver Anderson house from the Battle of Lexington in September of 1861.

Price scampers out

With artifacts, text and video, the state historic site managed by the Department of Natural Resources tells the story of what happened in the battle.

A body of 2,700 Union soldiers under the command of Col. James A. Mulligan had fortified itself inside the grounds of the Masonic College on the northern end of Lexington. They also had commandeered the Oliver Anderson house as a field hospital.

Price's forces encircled the college, and seized the hospital. Mulligan ordered the house retaken in a bloody countercharge.

The siege of the federal stronghold ended on the third day when the pro-southern state guard took hemp bales from a warehouse, soaked them in water and hid behind them as a rolling barrier. They advanced on the outmanned Union trenches, and Mulligan was forced to surrender after hand-to-hand combat.

The Battle of Lexington served as a high-water mark for Southern forces in Missouri. Federal troops ultimately pushed Price out of Missouri after the battle and retook Lexington, which eventually faded in prominence.

"Poor Sterling just kind of scampered out of the state," said Fuller, the state historic site manager. "Ironically, the population of Lexington today is about the same as it was in 1855, some 5,000 people.

"That shows you what happens when the railroads chose to not come by."

The William Bent house is one of the highlights on the self-guided auto tour to 25 sites associated with the Battle of Westport in Kansas City.

The war is over

Price left Lexington victorious, but with federal forces in pursuit. He fled into Arkansas in 1862, where he transfer red to regular Confederate service.

In 1864, Price returned to Missouri with a grand scheme to take St. Louis or Jefferson City.

With an army of more than 12,000, Price came upon Fort Davidson, a small Union fort defended by 1,400 men at the base of Pilot Knob Mountain in the Arcadia Valley of Southeast Missouri.

Although he outnumbered the enemy by nearly 10-to-1, Price was outfoxed by Union Gen. Thomas Ewing. After fierce fighting, Ewing and his men escaped between two Confederate encampments under the cover of dark. A small detail was left behind to blow up the fort, and prevent Price from gaining the much-needed supplies.

Price's army had up to 1,000 dead or wounded in the Battle of Pilot Knob, compared to just 28 Union soldiers killed. He gave up on his goal of taking St. Louis or Jefferson City, and headed west.

On Oct. 21 to 23, 1864, Price met his Waterloo at the Battle of Westport in what is now the Loose Park area of Kansas City. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis was waiting with 20,000 Kansas State Militia and U.S. volunteers. Union Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, who had been chasing Price across Missouri with 7,000 cavalry, caught up and hit him from the rear.

Price retreated back into Arkansas, and gave up on his goal of bringing Missouri into the Confederacy. Seven months after the Battle of Pilot Knob, the war was over. The South was defeated.

Civil War enthusiasts can re-trace the movements at the Battle of Westport by following a self-guided auto tour that stops at 25 major sites. Each site has a narrative marker. You can begin at Marker One in the historic Westport district, or at the Westport Visitor Center and Museum at 6601 Swope Parkway.