Unionists win battle of Athens, Missouri
- In
Missouri, US General Nathaniel Lyon pulls out of Dug Springs as he
receives reports that Confederate troops are advancing in large
numbers. A skirmish occurs at Kirksville, Missouri, and
small battle at Athens (pronounce Aythens), Missouri. The Battle of Athens occurs
in northeast Missouri near
southeast Iowa along the Des Moines River across from Croton, Iowa. Colonel
Martin Green's force of about 2,000 secessionist 2nd Division Missouri
State Guardsmen with three cannons tries to capture Athens from about 500 Unionist
1st Northeast Missouri Home Guard commanded by Col. David Moore.
Moore calls out his regiment at 5am when pickets warn of the secessionists'
advance. With many men home visiting family without orders and after moving his
sick over the river to Iowa, Moore is left with 333 men to fight 2,000. Green's
much larger force surrounds Athens on three sides, with the river to the
Unionists’ backs. Lieut. Col. Charles S. Callihan commanding the Union left
flank faces Major Shacklett's cavalry and James Kniesley's three gun battery.
The Unionists have no artillery, but Kniesley's guns are not much better, only a
6-pounder, a 9-pounder, and a hollowed log, a few solid shot and improvised
canister. They have no impact in the battle except to spook a cavalry scout’s horse.
The first cannon shot flies over the Unionists and the Des Moines River into
the Croton, Iowa, rail depot. The second shoots through the Benning home and into
the river. The log cannon blows apart on the first firing. The 2,000 poorly
equipped, untrained, and untested secessionist State Guardsmen advance,
generally firing their shotguns and squirrel rifles, while Moore’s 333 men are
much better armed with Springfield rifled muskets and bayonets. Captain
Hackney's Home Guard drives the State Guard away from Stallion Branch while US
Lt. Col. Callihan’s men flee for the river with one of the Home Guards cavalry
units at the sight of Major Shacklett's large force advancing. The others hold
their positions, and the advance falters in a cornfield. After Shacklett is
wounded in the neck, his men fall back. Seeing this, Moore fixes bayonets and
countercharges, sending the State Guardsmen into a headlong retreat including
Kniesley’s artillery. The Iowa militia watches from across the river and fire a
few shots from long range with no effect. The Unionist Home Guardsmen win. Moore
has three dead and twenty wounded. Missouri State Guard losses are unknown, but
Moore captures twenty men, most of them wounded. Moore estimates 31 Missouri
State Guard killed and wounded, and captures 450 horses with bridles and
saddles, hundreds of arms, and a wagon load of long knives. The defeat demoralizes
secessionist state guard efforts in Northeast Missouri. The Union victory has
the distinction of being the most northerly of Civil War Battles fought west of
the Mississippi, and also of being the only such battle fought along the Iowa
border./1861
- The
USS Vincennes/Jamestown under Commander Charles Green
captures and burns the Confederate
prize bark Alvarado, a
blockade runner, off the coast of Fernandina, Florida./1861
- Off the coast of Puerto Rico, the
Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis captures the large American
brig Santa Clara./1861
- In
Washington, President Lincoln approves
a Congressional resolution to observe a day of public humiliation,
fasting, and prayer and also approves the new income tax of 3 per cent on
income exceeding $800 per year and other taxes./1861
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