Booknotes: Nathaniel Lyon's River Campaign of 1861

New Arrival:

• Nathaniel Lyon's River Campaign of 1861: Securing Missouri for the Union by Kenneth E. Burchett (McFarland, 2025).

Kenneth Burchett's Nathaniel Lyon's River Campaign of 1861 connects two earlier titles, Massacre at St. Louis: The Road to the Camp Jackson Affair and Civil War (2024) and The Battle of Carthage, Missouri: First Trans-Mississippi Conflict (2012), forming a trilogy of sorts that follows the main axis of military and political events leading up to the climactic confrontation at Wilson's Creek.

Beginning where Massacre at St. Louis left off, this study covers the failed attempt to broker a political truce in the state, General Lyon's seizure of the state capital and securing of the Missouri River corridor, and the advance of the Southwest Column (the hope being that the opposing Missouri State Guard would be caught in a vise and destroyed). Numerous military clashes are described in the text, the most noteworthy being the Union victory at Boonville and the Missouri State Guard's crushing of federal forces gathered at Cole Camp in Benton County.

As you'll notice from reading the linked reviews of Burchett's earlier books, I generally like the quality of work, and I fully expect to find more of the same in this one.