Kansas 2nd Light Artillery (Union)

First Newtonia

This battle pitted Brig. Gen. James Blunt against Col. J.O. Shelby. Confederate forces numbered 4,000; Union forces numbered about 6,500. It was one of the very few Civil War encounters in which Native Americans fought on both sides. Southern forces had Choctaw, Cherokee, and Chickasaw soldiers, while other Cherokee soldiers fought with the North.READ MORE

Westport

The Battle of Westport, fought October 21-23, was the largest battle west of the Mississippi River and the decisive battle of Confederate Gen. Stirling Price's 1864 Missouri campaign. Directions guide the visitor to the first of twenty-five narrative markers on a 32-mile, self-guided automobile tour and a self-guided walking tour of Byram's Ford and the Big Blue Battlefield. Each marker provides directions to the next stop on the tour. A written brochure is available from the Battle of Westport Visitor Cen…READ MORE

Mine Creek

About six miles south of Trading Post, Kansas, where the Marais de Cygnes cavalry engagement had occurred earlier in the day, the Union brigades of Col. Frederick Benteen and Col. John Phillips, of Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton's Provisional Cavalry Division, overtook a retreating Confederate cavalry column from Maj. Gen Sterling Price's Army of Missouri crossing Mine Creek. The rebels, stalled by their 500-wagon supply train crossing the rain-swollen ford, formed a line of about 7,000 men on the north side…READ MORE