Ambush at Moore’s Mill - A bloody 1862 battle brought the Civil War to the countryside of Callaway County

The Battle of Moore’s Mill historical marker stands near the site of the July 28, 1862, engagement in Callaway County. The roadside marker and interpretive displays preserve the story of one of central Missouri’s significant Civil War clashes. Photo by Jeremy P. Ämick.

Col. Odon Guitar commanded Union forces at the Battle of Moore’s Mill on July 28, 1862. A Columbia attorney and Mexican War veteran, Guitar later received promotion to brigadier general for his Civil War service. Courtesy of the Museum of Missouri Military History.

Travelers following State Route JJ through the countryside southeast of Calwood might easily pass the place without realizing that one of central Missouri’s fiercest Civil War engagements unfolded among the fields and timber nearby.

Roadside markers and interpretive displays now stand along Route JJ, approximately six-tenths of a mile south of its junction with State Route Z. They explain a landscape considerably different from the one hundreds of soldiers encountered on July 28, 1862.

These displays are situated near the ground where Union cavalrymen under Col. Odon Guitar collided with the forces of Confederate recruiter Col. Joseph C. Porter in what became known as the Battle of Moore’s Mill.

The battle was part of a larger struggle being waged across Missouri, becoming a war that often placed neighbor against neighbor and transformed otherwise quiet country roads, farms and creek bottoms into killing grounds.

Although Missouri remained in the Union, history reveals loyalties within the state were deeply divided. By the summer of 1862, Confederate recruiters were moving through northern and central Missouri attempting to raise men for Southern service.

Among the most successful was Joseph C. Porter, who traveled through northeastern Missouri gathering recruits while attempting to avoid the increasingly determined Union forces sent against him.

Union authorities recognized the danger. If Porter could gather a substantial command and move his recruits south across the Missouri River, they could strengthen Confederate forces elsewhere. Colonel Odon Guitar was among the officers tasked with preventing that from happening.

Guitar was no stranger to military service. Born August 31, 1825, in Richmond, Kentucky, he moved with his family to Missouri and attended the State University in Columbia. When war with Mexico erupted in 1846, he left his studies and enlisted in Doniphan’s First Missouri Mounted Volunteers.

After returning from the Mexican War, Guitar became a lawyer and entered politics. By the time Missouri was confronted with secession in 1861, he was firmly committed to preserving the Union. His resolve would soon be tested in the countryside of Callaway County.

On July 27, 1862, Guitar received information that Porter and other Confederate leaders were at Brown’s Spring, approximately 11 miles north of Fulton, with a force estimated at somewhere between 600 and 900 men. Guitar responded quickly.

In his later official report, he recalled leaving Jefferson City with 100 selected cavalrymen from his own regiment and a section of the Third Indiana Battery consisting of 32 men. After crossing the Missouri River, his command moved toward Fulton, where additional troops joined the pursuit.

By the following day, Guitar's combined force numbered approximately 733 men. Porter's actual fighting strength appears to have been considerably smaller than Union officers initially feared. Modern historical and archaeological research places his force in the neighborhood of 260 men, although contemporary and later accounts vary.

Whatever the exact number, Porter had one distinct advantage: he could choose where to fight.
       
On Monday, July 28, Porter's men entered the vicinity of Moore's Mill near Auxvasse Creek. The landscape was different from the open agricultural countryside motorists see today. Contemporary descriptions and later battlefield research indicate portions of the area were heavily timbered.

Porter positioned much of his force east of Moore’s Mill-Galbreath Mill Road. His men dismounted and waited under cover while Guitar's troops were closing in. The first clash came near the road, roughly one-eighth of a mile south of the present interpretive displays. Porter had effectively drawn the Union column into an ambush and gunfire erupted.  

A sustained battle unfolded. The Confederates poured fire into the approaching Union troops while Guitar's men attempted to establish their position. Artillery became particularly important. The Union cannon fired into Porter's concealed lines, while Confederate marksmen concentrated on the gun crews.

The fighting grew vicious. One Confederate recollection later described the men fighting directly in front of the Union artillery. Perry Brown was struck by grapeshot and killed, illustrating the devastating effect of artillery at such close range.

Yet Porter's men continued to resist. For several hours, gunfire rolled through the countryside around Moore's Mill. The accounts that appeared almost immediately afterward reveal how confused the battle remained even to those attempting to report it.

The Missouri Statesman in Columbia published an account on August 8 under the headline “Further Particulars of the Battle of Moore’s Mill.” The newspaper reported casualties among both Union and Confederate troops and attempted to sort through conflicting information arriving from the battlefield.

Even determining whether Guitar himself had survived became a matter of rumor. The newspaper noted that some members of the Seventh Missouri State Militia believed Guitar had been killed. According to the report, a Confederate soldier from the county who had participated in the battle claimed he had seen Guitar fall and believed him dead.

But the newspaper cautioned readers against accepting the story since there was compelling evidence to the contrary. Guitar had reportedly written a dispatch in his own hand at approximately 2 o'clock on Wednesday night following the battle.

“Nor was he wounded at Moore's Mill,” the newspaper reported.

The St. Louis Republic repeated similar reports on August 10 while also publishing what it carefully described as a partial list of Confederate killed and wounded.

Civil War casualty figures, particularly those involving irregular forces and hastily assembled Confederate recruits, were notoriously difficult to establish. Men scattered after battles, wounded soldiers were carried to nearby homes, bodies were buried locally, and commanders sometimes had little opportunity to compile reliable returns.

The Republic reported that a Union officer searching the surrounding countryside after the battle found wounded Confederates being cared for in several homes. Based on information gathered locally, the officer estimated that dozens of Confederate soldiers had been killed.

Names printed by the newspaper offered readers something statistics could not: glimpses of the individuals caught in the fighting. Among those listed were men from Marion, Ralls, Randolph, Boone, Monroe and other Missouri counties. Some had suffered wounds to the head, chest, arms or legs. Others were reported killed.

One of the most revealing passages published by the Republic appeared alongside the reports of the battle. The newspaper described the experience of Lt. William B. Kemper, a Union officer serving in Guitar's regiment.

Although Kemper fought with Guitar’s forces at Moore’s Mill, his own brother, Peter, and his brother-in-law, D. Perry Brown, were reportedly serving with Porter. Brown was severely wounded and subsequently died.

Such stories highlight how Missouri's Civil War became so bitter. The struggle was not always between distant armies populated by strangers. In communities such as those surrounding Fulton and Calwood, the opposing sides could include neighbors, acquaintances and relatives.

The newspapers also reveal that the violence did not end when the shooting stopped. Reports appearing after Moore's Mill described armed bands moving through the countryside, taking horses, saddles, bridles and weapons. Residents lived amid continuing uncertainty over which armed group might appear next.

One letter captured by Union forces and printed in the Republic in September offered another perspective. Written from Fulton on August 27, it declared that fighting was occurring nearby with disturbing frequency.

“We have some damn big fights, within hearing of our house every day,” the writer complained, specifically mentioning the severe engagement at Moore's Mill.

It was later revealed that not only did Odon Guitar survive Moore's Mill, but the battle enhanced his military reputation. His forces ultimately compelled Porter's men to withdraw northward along Auxvasse Creek. More importantly, the campaign helped prevent Confederate recruits from moving south to join larger Confederate forces.

Moore's Mill was followed by additional Union operations against Porter, including the Battle of Kirksville in August. Guitar became ill shortly after Moore's Mill and did not participate at Kirksville but subsequently returned to operations against Confederate forces in Missouri.

A biography published decades later in the 1921 Centennial History of Missouri credited Guitar's conduct at Moore's Mill with helping bring about his advancement to brigadier general. Its assessment of Guitar's larger wartime service credited him as one of the officers most effective in driving guerrilla forces from the field.

His military career following Moore's Mill included operations against Confederate recruiter John A. Poindexter. Guitar's forces helped scatter Poindexter's command at Compton's Ferry and in subsequent fighting. On August 18, 1862, Maj. Gen. John Schofield breveted Guitar a brigadier general in recognition of his service.

After the war, Guitar returned to his legal career in Columbia. He died March 13, 1908, at the age of 82. By then, the gunfire along Auxvasse Creek had been silent for nearly half a century.

The battlefield gradually returned to agricultural use, and much of the fighting ground became indistinguishable to someone unaware of what happened there. Visitors, however, can find tangible reminders along the roadside.

The Battle of Moore's Mill historical markers and interpretive panels are located along State Route JJ near Calwood. The displays explain troop movements, the course of the fighting and the men involved in the engagement. One set of panels was erected in 2012 as part of Missouri's Civil War interpretation efforts.

Nearby is another sobering reminder of the battle’s human cost. Approximately six-tenths of a mile from the battlefield interpretive displays is the site associated with the Moore’s Mill mass grave. Local historical research indicates that casualties were buried near the battlefield, while ground-penetrating radar later identified an area believed to contain graves.

Today, a granite memorial at the site bears the names of Union and Confederate soldiers who were killed or mortally wounded in the fighting, preserving the memory of men from both sides who died at Moore’s Mill.

Archaeology also helped establish where the battle occurred. Investigations conducted in 2013 at the request of Missouri's Civil War Heritage Foundation, with support from the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program, examined historical accounts alongside physical evidence recovered from the battlefield. The work helped confirm the location and provided a clearer understanding of the engagement.

On July 28, 1862, hundreds of Missourians and other Union soldiers entered those woods and creek bottoms carrying carbines, muskets and artillery. Some never left alive while others carried wounds and memories of the battle for the remainder of their lives.

Much of the history of this historical battle has faded from public awareness. Yet for those who now stop at the roadside markers and look across the surrounding countryside, the landscape preserves the story of a summer afternoon when the Civil War came violently to Moore's Mill.  
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Jeremy P. Ämick is author of the historical compendium “Voices of the Moreau.”  
 

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The Moore’s Mill memorial honors Union and Confederate soldiers killed or mortally wounded in the July 28, 1862, battle. Located near the battlefield along State Route JJ, the memorial stands at the site associated with a mass grave containing casualties of the fighting. Photo by Jeremy P. Ämick.