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To Refight Civil War Battle This Week At Lexington, Mo.BC[Lexington, Mo.* UP) —' They're going to refight the Civil War—or at least one of its strangest conflicts— this week in a campaign to restore a Jiistoncal battle site, thousands of spectators will line Missouri River bluffs to watch the Blue and the Gray clash on the site of the original Lexington engagement.In that 1801 battle, Maj. Gen. Sterling Price’s Confederate troops defeated Col. James A. Mulligan’s Union forces after a siege of several days.The battle produced two oddities:1. The Union troops' own horses wiped drink them into surrender.2. Hie Southerners introduced bales of hemp as movable breast--work.About 700 Wentworth Military Acedemy cadets, N (tional Guardsmen and various ROTC units will take pert in Thursday’s re-enactment.It will be the 75th anniversary of Wentworth Military Academy and the beginning of a campaign to re-ire the battle site.Here's the historical background:Lexington, about 30 miles northeast of Kansas City, was Southern in sympathy and a key Missouri River port at the time. Mulligan and his 2,750 Union troops were supposed to hold the town.On hearing Price's army was advancing toward Lexington, Mulligan’s men dug extensive entrenchments on bluffs commanding’ the Tiver.Anv.aS’5Hhen Price's 12,000 Missouri state guardsmen arrived, they settled down for a siege. Price's snipers guarded water wells and springs outside the entrenchments. !0Then an Sept. 18, 1861, Pnce be- ^gan firing on the entrenchments.There were artillery exchanges and skirmishes on the second day, but the main event occured behind Mulligan's lines: because of the heavy drain on cisterns by the 700 cavalry horses, they ran dry—and men and horses were without water.On Sept. 20, Price came up with his secret-weapon—bales of hemp, a tough fiber plant.Price’s men constructed a movable breastwork of the hemp bales. They rolled them up the hill toward tha entrenchments and advanced their artillery under this cover.Mulligan surrendered.Local Businessmen Consider Wage BillA special meeting of the Great Bend retailers and service leaders to discuss the wage and hour law bill which is under consideration by the CongreEs was held Tuesday
Newspaper Details
Great Bend Daily Tribune
Great Bend, Kansas, US
Wed, May 11, 1955
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Louis B.
USA 14 Sep 2018
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