| Show WILSON CREEK PARKA PARK-A bill pending in Congress provides for the establishment of I military park l on the site of the battlefield oC Wilson Creek in southwestern Missouri The site will cover 480 acres In Greene and Christian counties about thirteen miles southeast of Springfield I Is described ns a place of great natural beauty The Chicago Tribune says Thu battle fought at Arllson Creek August Au-gust 10 181 was practically the culminating culminat-ing battle of n campaign which saved Missouri to tho Union Although fought by raw soldier with crude weapons yet It was BO bloody that of the 1GOW troops engaKed 1w0 runfcdiHatrs and 100 Union ists were killed or wounded among tho dead being Gen Lyon The armies there outraged afterward furnished to the Union < cause ten jMaJorfiPinMals 1 suwl thirteen I Ullga len and to the Confederates six Ill I-ll n general oincerK lost of whom saw their first real lighting at WUson Crck Asldo from the Importance of the lialilu tho park 11 1 designed to commemorate there Is now no memorial huillellcld park west oC the Mltlt > lppl river Neither the battle nor the hero whole who-le l the Union forces there and died In the final crisis of the day havo received re-ceived Just consideration In history I was one of the great battles or the war though the numbers engaged did not l compare with thoao that fought on I other fields I Gen Nathaniel l Lyon had been the I great support of Frank Blair In organizing organ-izing a home guard saving the arsenal at Su Louis and later meeting and C driving the Confederates back and had I the State cleared all organized opposition oppo-sition to Federal rule save In the southwest south-west corner In his acts he had shown the very highest soldierly qualities of courage organization and the adoption I of means lo ends Many think that but for his early death he w6ulU have become I be-come the commander of the Union I armies He was a West Point grad ule lUll fonchl I 11 th Florida wnv had won promotions and wounds In MeXiCO for he had fought from Vcra Cruz to the Mexican capitol and was wounded the City of Mex at the very tales of I ico He was stationed in Kansas In the I thero In the fifties and I i I old stormy days fiftes I know as well n any man tho conflict I I I of opinion which was drawing the na lion apart and the means expected to I be employed by both sides He had I I I military Instincts very like those l of I I Gen Grant When a foe appeared It I was his naturo to strike at It ad so lie set his forces In motion and drove i Price and his command out of east l I i era and northern Missouri He followed him to Springfield Then hearing that I Price had defeated Slgcl and made 0 I who was junction with McCullough advancing with a heavy force of Arkansas Arkan-sas troops Lyon recalled Slgel and awaited McCullochs approach When I McCullough reached Wilson Creek Lyon believing a battle even with bnltc Jon bclclng I I defeat would be better than a retreat without a trial determined to risk 0 I I battle and so marched out In the night and assailed the army of McCulloch at dawn The balllc Uml followed was a I fearful one Lyon had rOOO raw troops McCulloch 10000 But Lyon was with I his little army and had some superb ltte I officers under him The battle raged for hours Three times were the troops I under Lyon broken and rolled back and I I three times the dauntless man rallied i them Before the last charge he had I j been twice wounded and hiS j I horse killed I under him but he i j led the charge until killed by j a shot through tho breast A Confederate I Con-federate soldier said after the war 1 I would not have been In Lyonss place for 1000 a minute for eight hOUR on I that day After Lyons death the battle bat-tle raged for yet a couple of hours when thjt Union troops retreated but McCuUocha forces were too much spent 1 and demoralized lo follow and Missouri I I was saved to the Union When Gen Lyons papers were examined with the I rest was found a lll the substance of which was All 1 am and have I owe to the United Stales Government which educated me and to it I bequeath my earthly estale lie was one of Americas foremost soldiers and died at the head of his army in a uesperale assault upon an army twice as great as his own Surely I the battlefield of Wilson Creek is a sacred sa-cred place I |
