Wednesday, January 9, 2013
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The Battle of Springfield may be two hours away and 150 years in the past, but local historians and Civil War enthusiasts maintain it deserves a special place in the heart of Northwest Arkansans.
About 50 Missourians gathered at noon Tuesday at Springfield’s Park Center Square to hear a brief retelling of the battle, which is often overshadowed by the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, 15 miles to the southwest.
The battle occurred when Confederate Brig. Gen. John Marmaduke led more than1,800 soldiers in an effort to attack Springfield, which was then being used by the Union Army as a supply depot and hospital area. Civil War scholars generally agree that part of Marmaduke’s motivation was to draw Union soldiers out of Northwest Arkansas, where they were actively disrupting Confederate supply lines.
William Piston, professor of history at Missouri State University Springfield and co-author of a book about the history of Springfield, said that, while the battle has been largely forgotten in the shadow of larger battles such as Gettysburg, it’s important to understand the impact of Springfield to those who fought it and lived through it.
“We tend to have an artificial view of the war because of these huge battles,” Piston said. “To most people involved in the war, the war was a matter of local battles. To people in the area, this was the Civil War.”
Paul Dolle of Rogers, president of the Northwest Arkansas Civil War Roundtable and a Civil War re-enactor since1987, said that both Union and Confederate soldiers were drawn from Northwest Arkansas, and personal vendettas and emotions were often as motivating as military allegiances for troops from the area.
“Thirteen regiments from Arkansas served in the Union Army,” said Dolle. “You can see the interest that Arkansas Confederates would have in disrupting those guys personally.”
In contrast to the majority of battles fought during the Civil War, the Battle of Springfield involved house-to-house, street-to-street fighting.
“The fighting didn’t destroy a great deal in terms of literally wiping things off the map like a tornado,” Piston said. But Union forces, preparing to defend the city, did burn down between six and 10 houses to clear a “field of fire,” so that artillery would have clear shots at the invading forces. Union Brig. Gen. Egbert Brown, who was in charge of the garrison unit occupying Springfield, also roused and armed about 400 wounded Union soldiers from the encampment’s hospital to help defend the area. Those soldiers became known as the “Quinine Brigade.”
After Springfield Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Seifried read a proclamation commemorating the battle, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Foundation member Jim Cox unveiled one of about a dozen new plaques around the city which describe the event of the battle and the damage done to localstructures of the day.
The Union forces repelled Marmaduke’s attack, and the defeated general returned to northern Arkansas.
Piston said that although the Battle of Springfield may have faded in the memories of contemporary residents of the Ozarks, it remains important to consider the battle’s local impact.
“It’s very much below the radar,” Piston said. “You can’t claim it was a huge event, but it did get noticed, and for Missouri and Arkansas, it was a very big deal.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/09/2013