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The Second Battle of Springfield was a battle in the American Civil War fought January 8, 1863, in Springfield, Missouri. It is sometimes known as The Battle of Springfield. (The First Battle of Springfield was fought on October 21, 1861, and there was also the better-known Battle of Wilson's Creek, fought nearby on August 10, 1861.) Fighting was urban and house-to-house, which was rare in the war.
Of the approximately 2,000 Union troops and 2,000 Confederate troops present, almost 100 were killed or later died from their wounds, and 300 to 400 were wounded. The absence of Porter's column, delayed by a skirmish at Hartville, had greatly impeded Marmaduke's efforts, and the Confederate raiders soon returned to Arkansas. Springfield continued to remain an important supply and medical center for the Union army in the West.
Among the Confederate dead was Spencer McCoy, son of Kansas City, Missouri founder John C. McCoy.
Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon's Army of the West was camped at Springfield, Missouri, with Confederate troops under the commands of Brig. Gen. Benjamin McCulloch approaching. On August 9, both sides formulated plans to attack the other. About 5:00 a.m. on August 10, Lyon, in two columns commanded by himself and Col. Franz Sigel, attacked the Confederates on Wilson's Creek about 12 miles southwest of Springfield. Rebel cavalry received the first blow and fell back away from Bloody Hill. Confederate forces soon rushed up and stabilized their positions.
The Confederates attacked the Union forces three times that day but failed to break through the Union line. Lyon was killed during the battle and Major Samuel D. Sturgis replaced him. Meanwhile, the Confederates had routed Sigel's column, south of Skegg's Branch. Following the third Confederate attack, which ended at 11:00 a.m., the Confederates withdrew. Sturgis realized, however, that his men were exhausted and his ammunition was low, so he ordered a retreat to Springfield. The Confederates were too disorganized and ill-equipped to pursue. This Confederate victory buoyed southern sympathizers in Missouri and served as a springboard for a bold thrust north that carried Price and his Missouri State Guard as far as Lexington. In late October, a rump convention, convened by Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, met in Neosho and passed an ordinance of secession. Wilson's Creek, the most significant 1861 battle in Missouri, gave the Confederates control of southwestern Missouri.
Marmaduke was on duty in the New Mexico Territory in the spring of 1861 when he received news that Missouri had seceded from the Union. He hastened home and met with his father (an avid Unionist). Even though the news was false, Marmaduke finally decided to resign from the U.S. Army, effective April 1861. Pro-secession Missouri Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, Marmaduke's uncle, soon appointed him as the colonel of the First Regiment of Rifles, a unit from Saline County, in the Missouri State Guard. Governor Jackson departed Jefferson City in June, along with State Guard commander Major General Sterling Price, to recruit more troops. Marmaduke and his regiment met them at Boonville. Within a short time, Price and Jackson left, leaving Marmaduke in charge of a small force of militiamen. Marmaduke realized his troops were in no way prepared for combat, but Governor Jackson ordered him to make a stand. Union General Nathaniel Lyon's 1,700 well-trained and equipped soldiers easily routed Marmaduke's untrained and poorly armed force at the Battle of Boonville on June 17, a skirmish mockingly dubbed by Unionists "the Boonville Races," since Marmaduke's recruits broke and ran after just 20 minutes of battle.
Disgusted by the situation, Marmaduke resigned his commission in the Missouri State Guard and traveled to Richmond, Virginia, where he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the regular Confederate States Army. The Confederate War Department ordered him to report for duty in Arkansas, where he soon was elected the Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st Arkansas Battalion. He served on the staff of Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee, a former West Point instructor of infantry tactics. Marmaduke's former Mormon War commander, Albert Sidney Johnston, asked him to join his staff in early 1862.
Marmaduke was wounded in action at the Battle of Shiloh as Colonel of the 3rd Confederate Infantry, incapacitating him for several months. In November 1862, the War Department confirmed Marmaduke's promotion to brigadier general. His first battle as a brigade commander was at the Battle of Prairie Grove. In April 1863, Marmaduke departed Arkansas with 5,000 men and ten artillery pieces and entered now Union held Missouri. However, he was repulsed at the Battle of Cape Girardeau and forced to return to Helena, Arkansas.
Controversy soon followed Marmaduke. In September 1863, he accused his immediate superior officer, Maj. Gen. Lucius M. "Marsh" Walker, of cowardice in action for not being present with his men on the battlefield. Walker, slighted by the insult, challenged Marmaduke to a duel, which resulted in Walker's death on September 6.
Marmaduke later commanded a cavalry division in the Trans-Mississippi Department, serving in the Red River Campaign and Price's Raid into Missouri, where he was captured at the Battle of Mine Creek during the retreat from the Battle of Westport. While still a prisoner of war at Johnson's Island in Ohio, Marmaduke was promoted to major general in March 1865. He was released after the war ended.
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