An account of the battle of Wilson's Creek, or Oak Hills, fought between the…

The first major battle west of the Mississippi River, Wilson's Creek reshaped the fate of Missouri and the entire Civil War. On August 10, 1861, Union forces under the determined General Nathaniel Lyon clashed with Confederate troops commanded by Generals McCulloch and Price in the rolling hills of Greene County. The result was a bloody stalemate that cost Lyon his life, making him the first Union general killed in combat during the war. This 1883 account, compiled from authentic sources by R. I. Holcombe, offers a contemporary view of the battle that convinced Missouri's pro-Confederate governor to seize independence from the Union, while the state itself remained technically loyal. Written just two decades after the guns fell silent, this document captures the chaos, heroism, and terrible uncertainty of a young war that had not yet learned its own brutality. For historians and readers seeking to understand the Civil War's western front, Holcombe's work provides an invaluable window into the conflict that defined a nation.