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Battle of Boonville
Harper's Weekly: Journal of Civilization

The Battle of Boonville, Missouri

Sketched by Orlando C. Richardson

The Battle of Boonville

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          Above is published a picture of the Battle of Boonville from a sketch by an attentive artist-correspondent. The following account of the fight is from the Herald correspondence:

          At just three minutes before seven a.m., on June 17, the order was given to move. The morning was cloudy, with occasionally a few drops of rain, but before the battle was over the sun shone out clear and bright as ever. As the column ascended the bluff the pickets of the enemy were seen and driven in. After an advance of three fourths of a mile one of the advanced guard rode hastily back to the head of the column and informed General Lyon that the whole body of the State troops was drawn up a few hundred yards in front. General Lyon at once ordered the regulars under Sergeant Griffin to the left, and Captain Schultez's riflemen to the right. Captain Totten's battery was ordered to the front to occupy the road.

          The enemy were drawn up about three hundred yards in advance, on the crest of a hill, or rather a long swell or ridge, over which the road passed the highest point. The Road was occupied by Colonel Marmaduke, with a small body of horsemen and a battalion of infantry. Immediately on his left was a brick house filled with rebel troops, and back of this, toward the river, was a narrow lane, where his left wing was posted. To their rear was a wheat field, and in this miscellaneously scattered small crowds of men, apparently without order or regularity. To his right was another wheat field, separated from an adjacent corn field by a "worm fence," and behind this fence his right wing was posted. Soon as our men were in position Captain Totten unlimbered a twelve-pounder and a six-pounder, and sent a shell from the former into the midst of the men occupying the road. A puff of smoke rising from among them showed that the gunner's aim had been true. The next shell was directed upon the squads of men in the wheat field and caused them a hasty retreat. The fire now became general along the whole line, the regulars on the right, and the German troops on the left, advancing in good order. Our line was formed on a ridge similar to that occupied by the enemy ans parallel to it, separated from the latter by a valley with a gentle descent on either side. To our left was a corn field and on our right a copse or grove of scattered oaks. The regulars advanced in the corn field, to the crest of the ridge, creeping up the latter and firing when opportunity occurred, taking for their motto that of a Irishman at Donnybrook Fair, "When ever you a head hit it." The hollow between the ridges  was full of scattered oaks, and these served as a cover to our men.

          Captains Stone, Cole, and Cavender wee sent to support the right of the regulars, and in this way they all advanced to the fence where the enemy were first posted. The battalion from the Second, supported by Captains Maurice's, Burke's, and Yate's companies, were at the same time doing good work on the right and in twenty minutes from the time Captain Totten fired the first shell the rebels were in full retreat, and our men occupying the line first held by the enemy. The house on the right had been completely riddled by the last shots from the battery, and one shell burst in the very centre of the building, at a time when it was full of soldiers. Several dead bodies of the rebels were found in the wheat field near the first volley from the right wing several saddles were emptied of the riders, and two horses galloped over to our lines. The correspondents of the New York Herald and St. Louis Democrat entered the battle on foot, by the side of the battery, but were very soon mounted, having succeeded in capturing these runaway steeds.

          The number of killed and wounded on the part of the rebels has not and probably will not be accurately ascertained. Out of one company (Captain McCulloch's Cooper County Rifles) thirteen are known to be killed and several wounded. The number of dead already brought into Boonville or taken to friends in the country can not fall much short of fifty, and the wounded now heard of are as many more. On the side of the Union troops there were three killed, then wounded, and one missing.

          We took eighty prisoners, nineteen of whom have been released and the remaining sixty-one put on board the Louisiana.

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