First Battle of Springfield

The First Battle of Springfield was a battle of the American Civil War that took place on October 25, 1861, near Springfield, Missouri. Following the Battle of Wilson's Creek, the Missouri State Guard, a pro-Confederate militia organization, drove north and defeated a Federal (Union) force in the Siege of Lexington. Following the fighting at Lexington, Federal Major General John C. Frémont began a campaign that drove into southern Missouri. The main body of the Missouri State Guard fell back to Neosho, but a body of roughly 1,000 new recruits commanded by Colonel Julian Frazier was at Springfield. On October 24, Frémont sent a force raised as his bodyguard commanded by Major Charles Zagonyi on a scouting mission towards Springfield. After joining a cavalry force known as the Prairie Scouts at Bolivar, Zagonyi moved on towards Springfield on October 25.

This article is about the 1861 battle. For the 1863 battle, see Second Battle of Springfield. For the 1780 American Revolution battle, see Battle of Springfield.

First Battle of Springfield
Part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War
Springfield Battlefield
Date October 25, 1861 (1861-10-25) Location Springfield, Missouri 37°12′12.6″N 93°19′13.8″W Result Federal (Union) victory
Belligerents
United States (Union)	Missouri (Confederate)
Commanders and leaders
Charles Zagonyi	Julian Frazier
Units involved
Frémont's Body Guard Prairie Scouts	Missouri State Guard
Strength
c.300	c.1,000
Springfield Location within Missouri

Having lost the element of surprise in a clash with a small group of Missouri State Guardsmen, Zagonyi detoured his men to the west. At around 4:00 p.m., Zagonyi's men encountered Frazier's command. The Missouri State Guardsmen had taken up a defensive position on a partially wooded ridge. The exact details of the battle are unknown, but Zagonyi's men drove off Frazier's troops before entering Springfield and withdrawing north at around the time darkness fell. Zagonyi's post-battle report was intentionally inaccurate and was designed to inflate the contributions of his own troops at the expense of the Prairie Scouts. The action accomplished very little, and Federal troops occupied Springfield again two days later. Frémont was relieved of command in early November, and his successor called off the campaign and withdrew, allowing the Missouri State Guard to reoccupy Springfield, although they were driven out of Missouri in early 1862.

Prelude

Early in the American Civil War, conflict broke out between United States Federal (Union) forces and state authorities in Missouri. On May 10, 1861, Federal Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon captured a militia encampment sent by Missouri's pro-Confederate governor Claiborne Fox Jackson in the Camp Jackson affair.^[1] Jackson responded by creating a new pro-Confederate militia force, the Missouri State Guard, and named Sterling Price the Guard's commander.^[2] Price, Lyon, and Jackson attended a meeting at the Planter's House Hotel on June 11, at the end of which Lyon declared that a state of open war had begun.^[3] Lyon then began an offensive that took control of the state capital of Jefferson City, and drove the Missouri State Guard from the Missouri River Valley.^[4] For a time Federal operations in Missouri were part of the purview of the Department of the Ohio,^[5] but on July 1 the Department of the West, which included Missouri, was created, and placed under the command of Major General John C. Frémont two days later.^[6][7]

Frémont arrived in Missouri on July 25.^[8] He brought with him a number of foreign-born officers, one of whom was the Hungarian Major Charles Zagonyi, who recruited a cavalry unit intended to serve as a bodyguard for Frémont.^[9] While Frémont focused on events near Cairo, Illinois, Lyon operated in southwestern Missouri. On August 10, Lyon was killed and his army defeated while fighting a mixed Confederate States Army and Missouri State Guard force at the Battle of Wilson's Creek.^[10] While the Confederate forces returned to Arkansas after Wilson's Creek, Price moved his militia north to the Missouri River town of Lexington.^[11] Frémont's response to Price's incursion was ineffective,^[12] and the Siege of Lexington ended with a Federal surrender on September 20.^[13]

In response to the fall of Lexington, Frémont developed an unrealistic offensive plan that involved a thrust all the way down to New Orleans, Louisiana.^[14] His force outnumbered Price about 38,000 men to 18,000 men.^[15] As Federal troops gathered at Georgetown, Missouri, Price fell back, pursued by Frémont's army. On October 20, Price's men reached Neosho, Missouri, while the middle of October saw Frémont reach the Pomme de Terre River. Leading part of Frémont's advance had been Major Frank J. White and his Prairie Scouts,^[16] a cavalry force drawn from two companies of the 3rd Illinois Cavalry Regiment and one from the 23rd Illinois Infantry Regiment.^[17]

Battle

Zagonyi's "death attack" at Springfield, October 25th.

As the advance neared Springfield, Missouri, the Body Guard unit led the offensive. Late on October 24, Zagonyi and the Body Guard left camp to move towards Springfield. Reaching Bolivar the next day, Zagonyi joined forces with the Prairie Scouts, although White was sick and followed in a carriage. Defending Springfield was a collection of new Missouri State Guard recruits commanded by Colonel Julian Frazier. The historian Louis Gerteis state that Frazier had an effective force of about 1,000 badly armed and trained men,^[18] although Zagonyi believed he faced 2,000 to 2,200 enemy soldiers.^[19] Zagonyi led about 300 men in his movement.^[20] While still 8 miles (13 km) away from Springfield, the Federals ran into a small party of Missouri State Guardsmen, one of whom escaped back to Springfield to sound the alarm. With the element of surprise now lost for an attack from the north, Zagonyi swung his troops to approach Springfield from the west. Unaware that Zagyoni had changed course, White later arrived from the north and was captured.^[18]

At around 4:00 p.m., the Federal cavalry encountered Frazier's position, which was on partially wooded ridge.^[18] To the north of the Missouri State Guard position was a road, to the south was a lane with fences along the sides, and in front of it was Crane Creek. Zagonyi aligned his men for a charge and, according to the historian Robert E. Miller, Zagonyi told his men that any who did not want to participate in the attack would be excused. Miller also states that Zagonyi gave "Fremont and the Union" as a watchword,^[21] although the historian Stephen Z. Starr does not believe Zagonyi's claim to have used this battle cry.^[22]

Writing of the ensuing engagement, Starr states that "The truth of what happened in Springfield on this October day is lost beyond recovery",^[23] and Miller notes that Zagonyi's account of the action was intentionally inaccurate to glorify his troops at the expense of the Prairie Scouts.^[24] Gerteis describes the sequence of the battle as Zagonyi's men, accompanied by Captain Patrick Naughton and the Prairie Scouts, destroying a fence to make a path for their charge while under Missouri State Guard fire, with the attack driving Frazier's cavalry into Springfield and Frazier's infantry into some woods. Gerteis then has Zagonyi's men pursuing Guardsmen through the streets of Springfield, with Zagonyi gathering his scattered men before dark, deciding that he did not have enough men to hold the city, and then withdrawing back north.^[25] Miller's account of the battle has two companies charging with Zagonyi through a gap in the fence, while another company commanded by a Captain Foley had to tear down a portion of the fence to attack. Miller then has Foley repulsed in a charge, Zagonyi's column driving off Frazier's cavalry but then being repulsed by his infantry, and a third charge driving off the Guardsmen. Under Miller's account, the Guardsmen fled toward Neosho, with Zagonyi's men entering Springfield, but withdrawing north towards Bolivar at dark, having abandoned his wounded.^[26] The historians Phillip W. Steele and Steve Cottrell describe the battle as an unsuccessful charge by Zagonyi followed by a second successful one, and then the Federals chasing the Guardsmen through both Springfield and the surrounding rural areas.^[27]

Zagonyi claimed after the battle that the Prairie Scouts had not participated in the charge, but the official report of the Prairie Scouts states that two companies of that unit fought under Captain Charles Fairbanks near the Missouri State Guard's rear and made three flanking attacks against Frazier's line. Evidence also points to Naughton's company fighting with Foley, and Foley reported that a portion of the Prairie Scouts fought with his command instead of Zagonyi's two companies because of a misunderstanding.^[28] Zagonyi's report also claimed that he had raised a United States flag in Springfield, but Miller notes that there is evidence that suggests this is inaccurate.^[29]

Aftermath

Zagonyi admitted to a loss of 15 killed, 27 wounded, and 10 missing in action. A postwar secondhand account written by Confederate officer William Preston Johnston claimed that Frazier had lost only two or three men.^[23] Miller notes the existence of a Federal claim that the Missouri State Guard had lost at least 116 men.^[26] Steele and Cottrell state that the Body Guards suffered 53 casualties and the Prairie Scouts 31.^[27] Zagonyi's official report claimed that at least 106 guardsmen were dead, with 27 captured and more wounded; the report also stated that 45 horses had been killed or incapacitated during the action, that the men's weapons had been "seriously damaged" by enemy fire, and that the Federal troops' uniforms and spare clothes had been "so riddled with bullets as to be useless".^[30] Preservationist Frances E. Kennedy places Federal losses at 85 and Frazier's loss at 133.^[31] The fight had accomplished very little,^[25][32] but it was celebrated in the Federal press and known as "Zagonyi's death-attack". George Boker wrote a poem about it, and Frémont compared the action to the Charge of the Light Brigade.^[33] Federal troops occupied Springfield two days after the battle.^[25]

Previously, Frémont had upset the Federal government with the impolitic Frémont Emancipation,^[34] and political troubles dogged his campaign. Accusations of contractor graft during the mobilization of his army, opposition from supporters of Francis Preston Blair Jr., and a negative report from Adjutant General of the U.S. Army Lorenzo Thomas made the situation worse for Frémont.^[35] He was relieved of command in early November,^[25] and replaced by Major General David Hunter. Hunter called off Frémont's offensive and withdrew from Springfield, allowing Price to reoccupy the city. About a week after taking command, Hunter was reassigned to Kansas and replaced by Major General Henry W. Halleck.^[36] A Federal offensive in early 1862 drove Price out of Missouri, and the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862 secured Federal control of Missouri.^[37] Frémont and Zagonyi were assigned east to what is now West Virginia, and fought in Jackson's Valley campaign. Zagonyi left active military service in late June 1862.^[38] In the city of Springfield's Zagonyi Park is a 1931 monument commemorating the charge, although the accuracy of the text on the monument has been challenged.^[39]

Notes

1. Kennedy 1998, pp. 19–20.
2. Parrish 2001, p. 17.
3. Parrish 2001, pp. 21–22.
4. Kennedy 1998, p. 20.
5. Parrish 2001, p. 27.
6. Brooksher 2000, pp. 110–111.
7. Miller 1982, p. 175.
8. Parrish 2001, p. 28.
9. Miller 1982, pp. 177–178.
10. Parrish 2001, pp. 28–29.
11. Parrish 2001, p. 34.
12. Gerteis 2012, p. 108.
13. Parrish 2001, p. 35.
14. Gerteis 2012, pp. 116–117.
15. Parrish 2001, p. 38.
16. Gerteis 2012, p. 117.
17. Miller 1982, p. 179, fn.20.
18. Gerteis 2012, p. 118.
19. Starr 1985, p. 37.
20. Miller 1982, p. 179.
21. Miller 1982, pp. 180–181.
22. Starr 1985, pp. 38–39.
23. Starr 1985, p. 38.
24. Miller 1982, p. 182.
25. Gerteis 2012, p. 119.
26. Miller 1982, p. 181.
27. Steele & Cottrell 1993, p. 37.
28. Miller 1982, p. 183.
29. Miller 1982, pp. 184–185.
30. Official Records 1881, pp. 251–252.
31. Kennedy 1998, p. 25.
32. Miller 1982, p. 186.
33. Miller 1982, p. 186, incl. fn.45.
34. Parrish 2001, pp. 36–37.
35. Parrish 2001, pp. 39–40.
36. Parrish 2001, p. 41.
37. Parrish 2001, pp. 45–46.
38. Miller 1982, pp. 189–191.
39. "Marker Number Seventeen: Zagonyi's Charge". Springfield-Greene County Library District. Retrieved 14 August 2023.

References

• Brooksher, William Riley (2000) [1995]. Bloody Hill: The Civil War Battle of Wilson's Creek. Lincoln, Nebraska: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-57488-205-6.
• Gerteis, Louis S. (2012). The Civil War in Missouri. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-1972-5.
• Kennedy, Frances H., ed. (1998). The Civil War Battlefield Guide (2nd ed.). Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-74012-5.
• Miller, Robert E. (1982). "Zagonyi". Missouri Historical Review. 76 (2): 174–192.
• Parrish, William E. (2001) [1973]. A History of Missouri. Vol. III: 1860 to 1875. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1376-6.
• Starr, Stephen Z. (1985). The Union Cavalry in the Civil War. Vol. III: The War in the West, 1861–1865. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-1209-7.
• Steele, Phillip W.; Cottrell, Steve (1993). Civil War in the Ozarks. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican. ISBN 0-88289-988-0.
• The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Vol. 3. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1881. OCLC 262466842.