A visceral encounter with Civil War stories that still echo on blood-stained ground.
The spark for my interest in early American history was ignited long before I traveled Interstate 70 to visit Civil War battle sites in Lexington and Lone Jack. Oddly enough, it began while watching the movie The Patriot. Though this film depicts the American Revolutionary War, it mirrors the horrors of all early American wars—including the Civil War. The Patriot provided an authentic look into the atrocities of battle that left me shell shocked. I watched as, one by one, characters died by gunshot wounds, cannon balls, decapitation, stabbings, and being burned alive. I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t stop watching.
We have very little left to help us remember the 750,000 people that died from the Civil War. There is no iPhone video footage available and no modern cinematography that documented the depths of what occurred. There is no one alive who can convey the trauma of losing loved ones during Civil War battles. There are no soldiers who can now recount what it felt like to watch a bayonet charge toward them—as they were still living and breathing, blood pumping. And without voices crying, pictures lose their pain. Stories lose their sense of terror. Though there are many ways to learn about Civil War history, I decided that standing on the soil where Civil War action had happened would be best. In this process, I wanted to feel personally connected to what is more typically found in a textbook or a museum. I wanted to stand on the same ground. I wanted to see the same hills and views. I wanted to breathe the same air and be in the same place.
DAY 1
THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON
SEPTEMBER 18-20, 1861
My travels began at the battle of Lexington State Historic Site, touring the Anderson home. I pulled up to the welcome center along with my mom and grandma and met our tour guide, Paul Beal, who was kind and well-informed. We started on the porch of the Anderson home, overlooking a bluff packed with trees. Paul explained that in the mid-1800s, there were no trees in the area. Instead of the thick forest in front of me, the Anderson home had once overlooked open rolling hills and had a clear view of the Missouri River, where there were 30 to 35 steamboats that came through in a day, docking and departing.
By July 1861, about 3,500 Union troops had been dispatched to the river port at Lexington. They were commanded by a young Irishman, Colonel James A. Mulligan, who built elaborate entrenchments and ramparts. “Whoever controls the river port controls Missouri and controls the farming up in Missouri, as well as the new lands. So the idea here was to keep that river port out of Confederate hands,” Paul explained.
Oliver Anderson refused to take an oath of loyalty to the federal government and was arrested and imprisoned in St. Louis for several weeks. By the time he was paroled, his house, business, slaves, and money were gone. Oliver traveled back to his home state of Kentucky. Civil War soldiers on the Union side then turned the Anderson home, outside of their entrenchments, into a hospital.
Major General Sterling Price arrived at Lexington on the 12th of September, with about 12,000 Missouri State Guard troops and that number growing daily. While not part of the Confederate army, the State Guard supported the Confederate cause. On the 17th of September, General Price surrounded the federal garrison on College Hill to cut off General Mulligan’s access to both water and the river. General Mulligan’s expected reinforcements never showed, and his troops became increasingly desperate for water. He surrendered on September 20th after State Guard troops soaked hemp bales and used them as movable breastworks to attack.
Normally, the Anderson home, as a hospital that lay outside the Union entrenchments, would have been respected as a neutral site. But the home was in a strategic location and too far from the Union lines to remain untouched. It was attacked repeatedly by both sides.
INSIDE THE HOME
My tour of the Anderson Home began in a large entryway. Immediately, I was impressed by the height of the ceilings, which are 15 feet tall. The grand staircase spirals up, leading to two more floors. Each of the rooms were decorated by period pieces that allowed me to feel as though I were traveling back in time to when the Andersons inhabited the home. Glorious furnishings, such as intricately carved pianos, black-and-white checkered wood floors, and expensive drapery, showed off the wealth of the family.
THE UPSTAIRS
Soon, we made our way up the spiral staircase to the second f loor. This was my favorite part of the tour because it was where a lot of the Civil War action happened. Bullet holes had sprayed the walls of the first room that we walked into, which used to be the master bedroom. Through Paul’s storytelling, I was able to put myself into the battle for a moment:
It’s September 19th. In Missouri style, the weather is hot and humid. The air is thick. Today, the State Guard has overtaken the Anderson home from Union soldiers. The Guard troops station themselves in the master bedroom and point their muskets out the back windows of the house. They fire relentlessly toward the open hill 60 to 70 yards in front of them where the Union encampment lies.
Besieged Union soldiers are dying of thirst in the heat; they can’t breathe through the clouds of gunpowder from their rifles.
Suddenly, things get worse. The Union’s Colonel From top: The living room contains furniture from one of the post-Civil War home owners, Tilton Davis. All of the furniture in the home is original to the Civil War time period. The ornate carved furniture pieces in the upstairs bedrooms were bought as a wedding gift for the wife of Tilton Davis. Davis raised his family in this home for fifty years, his daughter staying in the bedroom below. Mulligan realizes that his hospital is being used by the Guards. The Colonel is concerned that the State Guard might be torturing Union casualties at the hospital. Colonel Mulligan orders 99 soldiers to overtake the home. Only 25 of them make it up the hill alive.
While some Guardsmen jump off of balconies, three are captured and executed by the staircase on the first level of the home. The Union company charges the stairs with no mercy—they shoot, stab, and kill, forcing their way to the second floor of the home. A bugler on the Union side, Major George Henry Palmer, refuses to fight in the hospital. Miraculously, he talks the troops down and restores military order within the home. No one is sure to this day how he did so. Major Palmer was rewarded with the congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at Lexington that day.
Major Palmer’s peace efforts only last so long, though. Under General Price’s command, the State Guard attacks once more and reclaims the Anderson home.
THE OPERATING ROOM
We walked through the upstairs foyer and into a large bedroom. This room had been transformed into an operating room during the Civil War. There were two makeshift beds for patients in the corner and an operating table in the center of the room with tools and bottles of medicine.
Paul continued to explain that although the total death rate of the Civil War as a whole is estimated at 750,000, 250,000 of these deaths were due to bad water and food— salmonella—and 250,000 more were due to blood poisoning. Doctors had no idea that while they were frantically trying to save lives by cutting limbs and sewing wounds closed, they were spreading disease, and consequentially, taking lives as well.
Our tour ended on the back lawn of the home with a view of four-inch-wide holes in the brick made from artillery fire. We thanked Paul and were left to take in the stories of Lexington and walk around outside of the home.
THE BATTLEFIELD AT LEXINGTON
While the inside of the home held secrets, the outside area held some as well. I drove my family from the Anderson home to visit the battlefield but walked the path up to the Lexington battleground by myself to reflect.
If it weren’t marked by a stone wall and a historical marker, no one would know what happened on the hills behind the Anderson home. It looks like a typical open Missouri landscape, but I couldn’t unsee what really happened. I saw the 99 men from the Union Irish brigade cresting the hill and 74 of them falling dead. I saw the pale, chapped mouths of the dehydrated Union soldiers. I saw the chaos, the terror, and the violence.
Sitting beside three small graves to the left of the battlefield entrance, I took a minute to reflect. My heart broke when I touched the shredded, faded American flag at the foot of the graves. I’m planning to visit Lexington again—I’m determined to go back and replace that flag.
Travel to the Lexington State Historic Site: 1101 Delaware Street, Lexington, MO 64067.
DAY 2
THE BATTLE OF LONE JACK
AUGUST 15-17, 1862
The drive to Lone Jack with my mom, dad, and French bulldog Boone Lewis was short and sweet. I wasn’t expecting much since it’s in a small town. Upon arrival, I saw a beautiful cemetery shaded by large Osage Orange trees, a gazebo, and a small museum a few hundred yards ahead of me. I walked over to the cemetery to try to decipher some of its history.
THE CEMETERY
To my surprise, the cemetery was barren of Civil War graves except for three small stones and a large, towering memorial, which briefly addressed the sacrifice of the men whose lives were lost. Though the Battle of Lone Jack was fought on the very ground that I stood on, there wasn’t any outdoor evidence of the battle, aside from the circular museum that laid ahead of me—or so I thought.
My family and I surveyed the area carefully. I took a look around the space, snapped some pictures, and then turned for a moment to soak it all in. Directly in front of me was the Lone Jack Museum. I thought, I bet troops fought on the ground where I stand now. I quickly dismissed the thought. Fun guess, I thought, but there’s no guarantee that actually happened. I took one last look around and felt extremely sad and heavy, especially when standing in the presence of just three Civil War graves. Nonetheless, that’s all that appeared to be there.
Just then, Don Pedigo, a volunteer at the Lone Jack Historical Society’s museum, pushed open the museum’s front door and introduced himself. To my surprise, he asked if we would be interested in him pointing out some unmarked Civil War graves. Still searching for the silent history of this battlefield, I couldn’t say “yes” fast enough.
THE UNMARKED MASS GRAVES
Don led my mom and me inside the entrance to the cemetery, where I had just come from. As Don explained where the graves were and more details about the battle itself, I was astonished, realizing that I had been right about two things. First, there had been a profound, heavy energy surrounding me for a reason. I had unknowingly been standing on the unmarked mass graves of more than 100 Civil War soldiers. Second, the land that the museum now sits on was in fact where the soldiers beneath my feet fought and took their last breath.
“These bricks,” Don said, pointing to three bricks which were placed to mark a 90 degree angle on each side of the grave, “these mark the mass graves of the Union and Confederate dead at Lone Jack.” Don pointed out two mass graves, explaining that they start inside the gated cemetery and expand 20 feet farther outside its limits. Between the two graves—one Union and one Confederate—soldiers’ bodies were stacked in two 90-foot long layers. Outside of the cemetery gates, another mass grave was identified with approximately 20 bodies in it. “This last mass grave outside the cemetery was dug awhile after the Battle of Lone Jack was over,” Don explained. “The Confederates buried their soldiers that ended up dying from post-battle wounds or illness there.”
Don said that the mass graves, which were discovered in 2006, were found with the help of Ground Penetrating Radar technology, which is able to detect disturbances to soil underground. These graves had just been marked a few years ago, in 2020.
To commemorate the deaths of the soldiers at the battle, the Lone Jack Historical Society has been putting on commemoration and memorial service events since 1867. The event “has been passed down through parts of three centuries and includes color bearers, wreath laying, speeches, and a gun salute in the cemetery on the Saturday closest to the battle anniversary of August 16th,” says Alinda Miller, president of The Lone Jack Historical Society.
THE MUSEUM
Don then led my mom and me into the museum. He was kind enough to provide us with a tour of the exhibits and share more of the history of the Battle of Lone Jack with us.
On August 15th, 1862, Union Major Emory S. Foster led his troops toward the city of Lone Jack to stage an attack on Confederate forces who were camped nearby. Union General Fitz Henry Warren, who was to bring 500 men from Clinton, disregarded orders to meet in Lone Jack, leaving Major Foster’s 800 men without backup.
Late in the night on August 15th, Major Foster launched his surprise attack on the Confederates. The battle sounds that ensued alerted other generals nearby, including Confederate Colonel Gideon Thompson and Captain Caleb Winfrey, who then collected forces to defend against the Union attack. Chaos ensued, and both sides scattered. Confederate and Union troops eventually reconvened and planned their next attacks.
Early the next morning on the 16th, Confederate Colonel Jeremiah Vardaman Cockrell took about 1,600 men—all poorly armed and still regrouping from the attack the night before—and planned an attack on Union soldiers, while Major Foster continued to secure the town of Lone Jack and set up base at the Cave Hotel in town. The Union placed artillery along the street and prepared for battle. One Confederate, Colonel Jackman, then took matters into his own hands, ordering his men to initiate an attack upon the Union forces. The Union side, already having position, was ready for the Confederate attack, and Colonel Jackman’s plan failed miserably. The Union shot Confederate soldiers like they were sitting ducks upon the open street.
But at different times, both sides seemed to be winning. The possession of the cannons on the street was lost and regained and lost again. Sometimes, the combat was hand-to-hand, and the town of Lone Jack was almost completely destroyed.
Both sides took many casualties throughout the bloody battle. Of Major Foster’s 800 troops who had come to Lone Jack, only about 400 returned to Lexington. After Union Major Foster was severely wounded, Captain Milton H. Brawner took over and ordered the men to retreat. The Union was forced to leave their dead along the streets of Lone Jack beside the Cave Hotel engulfed in flames. Despite the Confederate victory, they retreated south quickly after burying their dead, aware of their weakened position. Never again would the Confederates in Missouri have the strategic upper hand over the Union that they held that summer.
Walking around and viewing the exhibits at the museum was enthralling. While it is located in a small town, this museum is no small potatoes. It is filled with hand-crafted dioramas, a human-sized model of Order #11, and display cases full of artifacts that were found in excavations near the museum. Dozens of Civil War era spoons, buttons, and bullets sat just inches away from me.
Though Lone Jack was a smaller battle, it had a great impact on me. Perhaps it was the surprise of the hidden graves, the humble museum volunteer who was explaining the history in ways that made it come to life, or the palpable love that the small town of Lone Jack continues to have for the history of the Battle of Lone Jack.
As I left the Lone Jack Battlefield Museum, I felt my mission to explore the Civil War in Missouri was just beginning. I had visited only two battlefields, and there is still so much left to learn and discover. My quest to Lexington and Lone Jack reminded me of a quote by George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
If we could ask all those soldiers now how we could honor their sacrifices, I might guess they would say: Remember. Learn the history that we lived, so that no one ever has to live it again.
Travel to the Battle of Lone Jack soldiers cemetery and the Lone Jack Battlefield Museum: 301 South Bynum Road, Lone Jack, MO 64070.
