First Battle of Lexington

Price and his army—now numbering around 15,000 men—arrived before Lexington on September 11, 1861. Skirmishing began the morning of September 12, when two Federal companies posted behind hemp shocks along a hill opposed Price's cavalry advance. Price pulled back several miles to Garrison creek to await his artillery and infantry. With their arrival in the afternoon, he resumed the advance along a more westerly course, eventually intercepting the Independence Road.[15] Mulligan dispatched four companies of the 13th Missouri Infantry (USA) and the two companies of Van Horn's United States Reserve Battalion to oppose this movement. They battled Price's advance elements among the tombstones in Machpelah Cemetery south of town, hoping to buy time for the rest of Mulligan's men to complete their defensive preparations.[16] Price's artillery deployed and together with his growing infantry contingent, dislodged the defenders and forced them back to their fortifications.[17]

Pursuing the fleeing Federals, Price deployed Guibor and Bledsoe's batteries to shell the Federal fortifications at the college. Three Federal artillery pieces replied, destroying one of Guibor's caissons near the end of the exchange. The two-and-a-half hour artillery duel badly diminished the State Guard's ammunition, and much of Price's ordnance supply train had been left at Osceola.[18] This development combined with the redoubtable nature of the Union fortifications to render any further assault impractical.[16] The Federals remained trapped in their fortress, however, surrounded by an army nearly five times their size. Having bottled up his enemy, Price decided to await his own ammunition wagons, other supplies and reinforcements before renewing the assault. "It is unnecessary to kill off the boys here," said he; "patience will give us what we want."[19] Accordingly, he ordered his infantry to fall back to the county fairgrounds.

On September 18, Price had determined the time had come. The State Guard advanced under heavy Union artillery fire, pushing the enemy back into their inner works. Price's cannon responded to Mulligan's with nine hours of bombardment, utilizing heated shot in an attempt to set fire to the Masonic College and other Federal positions.[19] Mulligan stationed a youth in the attic of the college's main building, who was able to remove all incoming rounds before they could set the building ablaze.[16]

Anderson House — The Union hospital attacked by the Confederates

A map of the area around the Anderson House during the battle. a is the Anderson house; b a smaller brick; c a low earthwork, projecting down nearly into the ravine, represented by the dotted line; d the sally-port in the earthworks; e a canal-like carriageway leading up to the house; the brackets represent Federal picket-guard stations with a little dirt thrown up for protection; the dotted line sss shows a deep gorge or ravine which was full of Confederate sharp-shooters.[20]

Once described by a local newspaper as "...the largest and best arranged dwelling house west of St. Louis,"[21] the Anderson House was a three-story, Greek Revival style house constructed by Oliver Anderson, a prominent Lexington manufacturer. Sometime around July 1861 the Anderson family was evicted from their home, which lay adjacent to Col. Mulligan's fortifications, and a Union hospital was established there.[22] At the start of the battle over a hundred sick or wounded Union soldiers occupied this structure, with their medical care entrusted to a surgeon named Dr. Cooley, while Father Butler, Chaplain of the 23rd Illinois, provided for their spiritual needs.[16]

Because of its tactical significance—lying as only a few yards from State Guard positions—General Thomas Harris ordered soldiers from his 2nd Division (MSG) to capture the house on September 18. Shocked at what he considered a violation of the Laws of War, Col. Mulligan ordered the structure to be retaken. Company B, 23rd Illinois, Company B, 13th Missouri, and volunteers from the 1st Illinois Cavalry charged from the Union lines and recaptured the house, suffering heavy casualties in the process. Harris's troops recaptured the hospital later that day, and it remained in State Guard hands thereafter.[16]

During the Federal assault on the Anderson house, Union troops summarily executed three State Guard soldiers at the base of the grand staircase in the main hall. The Southerners claimed the men had already surrendered, and should have been treated as prisoners of war. The Federal troops, who had sustained numerous casualties in retaking the residence, considered the prisoners to have been in violation of the Laws of War for having attacked a hospital in the first place. The Anderson home was heavily damaged by cannon and rifle projectiles, with many of the holes still visible both inside and outside the house (which is now a museum) today.

The Anderson House and Lexington Battlefield was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.[23]

On September 19 the State Guard consolidated its positions, kept the Federals under heavy artillery fire, and prepared for their final attack. One problem faced by the defenders was a chronic lack of water; wells within the Union lines had gone dry, and State Guard sharpshooters were able to cover a nearby spring, picking off any man who tried to approach it. Surmising that a woman might succeed where his men had failed, Mulligan sent a female to the spring. Price's troops held their fire, and even permitted her to take a few canteens of water back to the beleaguered Federals.[24] This tiny gesture, however, could not solve the increasing crisis of thirst among the Union garrison, which would contribute to their ultimate undoing.

Map of the last three days of battle

General Price had established his headquarters in a bank building at 926 Main Street on September 18, 1861, located across the street from the Lafayette County Courthouse, directing State Guard operations from a room on the second floor. On the 20th a cannonball, probably fired from Captain Hiram Bledsoe's State Guard Battery, struck the courthouse only about one hundred yards from General Price's headquarters.[16] According to accounts dating from 1920, the ball did not originally lodge in the column but fell out and was recovered by a collector. Decades after the battle, the then-elderly gentleman signed an affidavit with his story, then gave the cannonball to County Commissioners. They in turn had the ball screwed onto a two-foot iron rod embedded in the column for the purpose, where it remains visible to tourists today.[25][26][27]

On the evening of September 19, soldiers of Brigadier General Thomas A. Harris's 2nd Division (State Guard) began using hemp bales seized from nearby warehouses to construct a moveable breastwork facing the Union entrenchment. These bales were soaked in river water overnight, to render them impervious to any heated rounds fired from the Federal guns. Harris's plan was for his troops to roll the bales up the hill the following day, using them for cover as they advanced close enough to the Union garrison for a final charge. The hemp bale line started in the vicinity of the Anderson house, extending north along the hillside for about 200 yards. In many places the hemp bales were stacked two high to provide additional protection.[16]

Confederates fighting behind hemp bales

Early on the morning of September 20, Harris's men advanced behind his mobile breastworks. As the fighting progressed, State Guardsmen from other divisions joined Harris's men behind them, increasing the amount of fire directed toward the Union garrison. Although the defenders poured red-hot shot into the advancing bales, their soaking in the Missouri River the previous night had given the hemp the desired immunity to the Federal shells. By early afternoon, the rolling fortification had advanced close enough for the Southerners to take the Union works in a final rush. Mulligan requested surrender terms after noon, and at 2:00 p.m. his men vacated their trenches and stacked their arms.

Many years later, in his book The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Southern president Jefferson Davis opined that "The expedient of the bales of hemp was a brilliant conception, not unlike that which made Tarik, the Saracen warrior, immortal, and gave his name to the northern pillar of Hercules."[28]