Review - "Nathaniel Lyon's River Campaign of 1861: Securing Missouri for the Union" by Kenneth Burchett

[Nathaniel Lyon's River Campaign of 1861: Securing Missouri for the Union by Kenneth E. Burchett (McFarland, 2025). Softcover, 4 maps, photos, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:x,219/277. ISBN:978-1-4766-9626-3. $39.95]

A number of solid overview-level explorations of political and military events in Missouri from the secession crisis period through the Battle of Wilson's Creek have been published. Revisiting that well-trodden ground (up to, but not including, Wilson's Creek) at length while also offering up some fresh perspectives and additional details are three interconnected volumes from Kenneth Burchett. Rearranged in chronological order rather than order of release, they are Massacre at St. Louis: The Road to the Camp Jackson Affair and Civil War (2024), Nathaniel Lyon's River Campaign of 1861: Securing Missouri for the Union (2025), and The Battle of Carthage, Missouri: First Trans-Mississippi Conflict (2012).

Picking up where Massacre at St. Louis left off, the middle volume in Burchett's 1861 Missouri trilogy sets the stage with a fairly conventional picture of the political situation in the state between that seminal event and the outbreak of general hostilities. The ongoing political influence the powerful Blair family exerted on the policy decisions and personnel appointments of the Lincoln administration, which looked on events from distant Missouri with considerable apprehension in Washington, is duly addressed, as are the Price-Harney Agreement (a failed peace initiative) and the infamous Planter House Hotel meeting. The last represented the final attempt at defusing an increasingly volatile situation. The meeting broke down spectacularly, inaugurating open war between the state and federal governments.

In recounting the above, Burchett also clearly shows that the shocking amount of bloodshed spilled during the aftermath of the Camp Jackson surrender did not end the cycle of violence between soldiers and civilians. By documenting ongoing incidences of street violence in St. Louis, and clashes elsewhere, that are outside those typically covered in the general histories, Burchett adds to our understanding of this precarious period that soon boiled over into open conflict between federal volunteers and the new state militia army (the Missouri State Guard). As was the case with Kentucky, it was clear that Missouri neutrality, however seriously that stance was contemplated by parties involved in governance, was never going to be a workable state strategy of weathering the storm of Civil War.

As the book's title implies, General Nathaniel Lyon's aggressive move to seize control of the Missouri River, one part of a three-pronged offensive designed to isolate, surround, and crush the Missouri State Guard before it had time to organize and grow into a dangerous adversary, is its centerpiece. As other chroniclers have done, Burchett credits Lyon for his boldness and decisiveness in conducting what might seem from the outside to have been a risky ad-hoc riverine thrust deep into the heart of "Little Dixie," the part of the state with the most secession sympathizers. That single-minded aggression paid off in spades, though, as the state capital was quickly seized without a fight, leaving the gathering state opposition off balance and struggling to keep up with the rapid tempo of operations.

As Burchett explains, the speed and efficiency of Lyon's offensive placed Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson in a profound quandary with little time to consider his available options. With the State Guard's commanding general, Sterling Price, sick and away recuperating, Jackson, a complete military novice, assumed the leadership of state troops. The question of what to do weighed heavily in the governor's mind. Jackson desperately needed a military victory to bolster his wavering position. However, taking a stand at either Boonville or upriver at Lexington was a risky proposition as it involved pitting his untrained, badly under-equipped, and majority unarmed forces against Lyon's well-drilled and well-armed Home Guards and volunteers. The other major option, declining battle for the immediate future in favor of a concentration of forces in the southwest corner of the state, arguably offered better military prospects but risked the collapse of popular morale among his strongest base of supporters on both sides of the Missouri River line.

As Burchett recounts, the decision to meet the enemy at Boonville proved foolhardy, and Guard forces were utterly routed by Lyon's men after a brief firefight and subsequent running skirmish. Paul Rorvig's 1992 Missouri Historical Review journal article is widely regarded as the best account of the June 17, 1861 Battle of Boonville, and Burchett's coverage is of similar descriptive depth and interpretation to that and other more recent secondary histories of the fight. Boonville still lacks a really top-level battle map, and the one in this book, borrowed from another source, simply offers readers a general picture of the fighting area between Rocheport (where Lyon landed) and Boonville. The other two major prongs of Lyon's offensive, east out of Kansas and southwest overland and by rail from St. Louis, are also addressed in the narrative, albeit more briefly. Additionally, all of this conventional fighting in the field occurred amid a backdrop of continued rear-area violence, and threats of violence, within Union-controlled St. Louis.

Burchett's study fully conveys the strategic significance of Lyon's successful land-naval campaign, which seized control of the Missouri River's entire course across the state's midsection. This signal achievement effectively isolated the pro-secession supporters of the northern and southern halves of the state from each other. The only thing that slowed Lyon's further advance against the now fleeing State Guard was the need to stockpile supplies. During their incursions into Missouri, Union forces also grabbed control of the state's limited rail net. That, combined with the river offensive, placed Missouri's water and railroad transportation networks out of the reach of Jackson's supporters. Although challenged at various times, that logistical stranglehold established during the first half of 1861 was maintained throughout the rest of the war. As the book's subtitle asserts, Lyon's campaign (regardless of how it ended for him at Wilson's Creek) had indeed played an essential part in securing Missouri for the Union.

Of course, divided communities existed in towns and counties across the state, their relations ranging from wary co-existence to open hostility directed toward each other. While mentioning a number of other similar situations, Burchett devotes several chapters to Benton County, which had a large, fervently pro-Union German population that was deeply opposed by most of the native-born population, both sides forming home guard companies. In addition to possessing the potential for instigating localized outbreaks of violence, these forces were also tied to the events of Lyon's campaign. Indeed, the pro-Union Home Guard forces of Benton County that were assembled at Cole Camp sat directly astride the retreat path of Governor Jackson's growing State Guard army of followers. Burchett's book details the successful surprise attack by local pro-secession forces on the carelessly policed Union home guard encampment. Supported by two solid maps, this account is more expansive than most others found in the 1861 Missouri Campaign literature. In addition to breaking up Union support in the county, the victory cleared the way for Jackson to link up with other gathering state forces and potentially with Confederate Army allies poised across the border in Arkansas and Indian Territory.

Complaints are not of the deal-breaker variety. The book could have used a few more good maps, and the volume's frequent content repetition, along with its occasional small errors and contradictory passages, might have been massaged out through another editorial pass. For those who value bookshelf symmetry, it is also perhaps worthy of mention that this middle volume of the "trilogy," which was produced in the smaller of the two trim sizes offered by the publisher, does not match the taller and wider physical dimensions of the other two.

The volume concludes with a brief overview of events in Missouri over the remaining balance of 1861, a period that included passage of the secession ordinance at Neosho, the establishment of a new pro-Union provisional state government at Jefferson City, and the post-Wilson's Creek revival of secessionist military fortunes (capped by the successful siege and surrender of Union forces at Lexington). From that epilogue there is no indication that Burchett plans to continue his line of books to include a new history of the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Applying perspectives from both sides, Burchett's Missouri trilogy offers an abundance of freshly presented details and insights on the volatile military and political situation that existed in Missouri beginning with the secession crisis and extending well into the events of the summer of 1861 that ultimately decided the state's fate within the Union.