Battle of Liberty

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Operations to Control Missouri
Boonville – Carthage – Wilson's Creek – Dry Wood Creek – 1st Lexington – Liberty – Fredericktown – 1st Springfield

The Battle of Liberty (also known as the Battle of Blue Mills Landing or the Battle of Blue Mills) was a battle of the American Civil War that occurred on September 17, 1861, in Clay County, Missouri in which Union forces unsuccessfully attempted to prevent Confederates from northern Missouri from crossing the Missouri River near the confluence with the Blue River (Missouri) to keep them from reinforcing Sterling Price in the Battle of Lexington I.

After Price's Confederate victory in the Battle of Wilson's Creek in August, Price began an offensive to take Missouri. Union troops had been guarding the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad and its terminus in St. Joseph, Missouri. After Union forces were pulled away to stop Price, Confederate sympathizers from northwestern Missouri seized St. Joseph in the Sacking of St. Joseph.

On September 15, about 3,500 of the Confederate regulars in the form of the Missouri State Guard as well as irregulars from St. Joseph set out for Lexington, Missouri. In the evening David R. Atchison under orders from Price left Lexington to help the recruits cross the river.

Union troops from the Sixteenth Illinois Infranty and the Thiry-nith Ohio which had been guarding the railroad's bridge across the Platte River (Missouri) in Buchanan County, Missouri which had been sabotaged in the Platte Bridge Railroad Tragedy started moving to Liberty, Missouri. At the same time, Union Lt. Col. John Scott led a small force (500 men of the 3rd Iowa Infantry, about 70 of the Missouri Home Guards, and one 6-pound smoothbore cannon) from guarding the railroad at Cameron on September 15, towards Liberty. Heavy rain and bad roads limited his progress to only seven miles that day. On September 16, Scott camped in Centreville (ten miles north of Liberty), where he heard artillery fire in the distance.

Lt. Col. Scott broke camp at 2:00 a.m. on September 17. He arrived in Liberty at 7:00 a.m. and sent scouts out to find the enemy. Skirmishing began about 11:00 a.m. At noon, Scott marched five miles in the direction of the firing, approached Blue Mills Landing on the Missouri River.

Atchison who had lived in Liberty deployed his men in the brush on either side of the Missouri River bottom land road leading to the landing. About 3:00 p.m., Scott's troops struck the Confederate pickets where they were attacked from both sides.

Scott's artillery fired two rounds of canister into the Conferates inflicting heavy damage. However, a fresh volley from the Confederates scattered or killed most of the gun crew. Scott ordered his outnumbered force to fall back to the slowly to the bluffs in Libety, bringing off the gun by hand. Atchison attempted a flanking movement on the Federal right, which resulted in a sharp fight. The Union force continued to withdraw, firing as they retreated, bringing off nearly all the wounded, but abandoning their ammunition wagon and a caisson. The Confederates pursued for some distance, but Atchison did not press the attack. Just before nightfall, Scott's column retired to Liberty, entering the town about an hour after sunset. Atchison and the Confederate troops from northern Missouri crossed the river to reinforce Price in his successful attack on Lexington. After sunset the Union troops retrieved their dead from the field.

Union troops set up a hospital on the campus of William Jewell College in Liberty and buried their dead on the campus.

The fight at Blue Mills Landing lasted for an hour and resulted in 126 casualties (USA 56, CSA 70). Among the latter was the Missouri State Guard's Theodore Duncan, a native of Kentucky, who died on the same day that he had been promoted from captain to colonel. Ten of the sixteen Union field officers fell.

History of Clay and Platte County, Missouri - National Historical Company - 1885, pp. 208-219
U. S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 volumes in 4 series. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1880–1901. Series 1, Volume 3, Part 1, pages 193–195.
National Park Service battle description
3rd Iowa website

Missouri in the Civil War