OCTOBER 22, 1864:
The Second Battle of
Independence, Missouri:
After driving the Federals away from the Little Blue
River, General Sterling Price C.S.A. seizes Independence, Missouri. The
scattered Union troops from the Little Blue River engage in urban warfare with
Price’s men, firing from garrets, from behind fence posts, and up and down the
streets of the town. Outnumbered, they cannot dislodge Price, who bivouacs his
8,500 men in an easily defended railroad cut overnight.
As the Confederates
hunker down they can hear the arrival of a large force, some 10,000 Union
cavalrymen, who, when dawn breaks, attack Price’s men. The Confederates put up
a determined fight. Much of the all-day battle rages through modern downtown
Independence in the area of the current-day United Nations Peace Park and near
the Harry S Truman Railroad Depot. Price’s men eventually withdraw from
Independence, leaving the town a ruin.
One of the Confederates killed in the
battle is George M. Todd, one of Quantrill’s Raiders, who, during the First
Battle of Independence (August 11, 1862), summarily executed two Union
prisoners.
