Qualla: Second Battle of Springfield

Second Battle of Springfield: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Brigadier General Egbert Brown had 1,343 men and a decision to make. On the afternoon of January 7, 1863, riders from the Ozark garrison galloped into Springfield with alarming news: somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 Confederate cavalrymen were riding hard for the city. Brown could destroy the Union Army of the Frontier's entire winter supply depot and retreat, or he could stand and fight. The memory of General Grant's recent, scathing censure of the Union commander who had surrendered the Holly Springs supply depot in Mississippi surely weighed on his mind. Brown chose to fight. By dawn the next morning, civilians and soldiers alike were armed and positioned behind a network of four nearly completed earthen forts and a stockaded college building, each commanding the high ground around Springfield. What followed was one of the Civil War's rarest engagements: an urban, house-to-house battle in the Missouri Ozarks.

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Second Battle of Springfield: Three Columns from Arkansas

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. The Confederate plan was ambitious. On December 31, 1862, Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke led three columns of cavalry out of Pocahontas and Lewisburg, Arkansas, aiming to sever the Union supply line between Rolla and Springfield. His scouts reported that Springfield's massiv...

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Second Battle of Springfield: Streets on Fire

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. To give his artillery clear firing lines, Brown ordered ten homes along South Avenue burned at the last minute. The smoking ruins greeted the Confederates as they advanced from the south on the morning of January 8. Colonel Joseph Orville Shelby took tactical command, launching p...

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Second Battle of Springfield: Sunset Repulse

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. As the January sun sank toward the Ozark hills, Marmaduke ordered one final assault against Fort Number 4. Once more the Union defenders held. Night fell, and the Confederates withdrew down the Ozark Road to the Phelps farm, the site that is now Phelps Grove Park. Of the approxim...

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Second Battle of Springfield: Walking the Battlefield Today

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Unlike most Civil War battlefields, this one lies entirely within a modern city. A series of twelve interpretive markers now trace the course of the fighting through downtown Springfield, designed to be followed as a walking tour. The first marker stands at Park Central Square. A...

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain