Wilson's Creek Visitors Can Walk in the Footsteps of Civil War Soldiers

Before dawn on a humid, summer Missouri morning, 5,400 Union soldiers traveled the 10 miles from Springfield and crept to the north and south of twice as many encamped Missouri State Guard and Confederate soldiers. During the six-hour battle that ensued in John Ray's cornfield, more than 2,500 men would be killed and thousands more wounded. The South could claim victory at Wilson's Creek that day, but the drain put on men and supplies made it impossible for them to pursue the Union soldiers.

The Battle of Wilson's Creek, or Oak Hill as the South preferred to call it, would not rank as one of the larger battles of the Civil War. But on August 10, 1861, just four months after the inaugural hostilities at Fort Sumter, Wilson's Creek began the struggle for Missouri that would leave it the third most fought over state in the Union.

The sight of the battle now stands intact as a National Park. A visitor's center provides a 28-minute film about the battle, its precipitating events and the people involved. There is also a dynamic diorama of the strategic battle movements and many historic items on display. A separate Civil War Museum presents a broader view of the conflict, beginning with the border hostilities between Missouri and Kansas up through the end of the War in 1865.

But the focal point of a trip to Wilson's Creek is the battlefield itself. Standing on the front porch of John Ray's house, looking out into the cornfield in which thousands of men were injured and killed in a single morning, transforms the dry recount of a long-ago battle into living history. The battlefield stands in nearly the exact condition it was on the morning of August 10, 1861. A 42-minute audio tour of the battlefield can be purchased or visitors can navigate the five mile drive around the Ray Cornfield, cannon batteries and Bloody Hill with a printed map. Eight stops along the one-way tour road allow visitors to stand where Colonel Franz Sigel, Captain Henry Guibor and others stood and learn more about these points of particular importance. Signs at each location explain the role of the events that occurred there to the day's battle.

Six of the eight stopping points on the driving tour have walking trails providing access to additional locations of interest, such as where Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon became the first Union general to die in battle during the Civil War. Visitors share those trails with riders on horseback, runners and locals out for a walk with their four-legged friends.

Wilson's Creek National Park is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Days and closes at Noon on Christmas Eve. A single entry fee of $5.00 for persons over 16 years old, limited to $10.00 per vehicle, provides access to all of the Park attractions.

SOURCES

http://www.nps.gov/wicr/index.htm

http://www.nps.gov/wicr/historyculture/index.htm

Wilson's Creek Battlefield Tour brochure, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (2008)