Minnesota 7th Volunteer Infantry (Union)

Wood Lake

Otherwise focused on military campaigns across the Confederacy in 1862, the U.S. government largely ignored the growing signs of frustration and dissatisfaction among the Indians in areas of white settlement and did little to quell the possibility of an outbreak of hostilities. Inside many of the tribal councils, there was much heated debate between factions for war and those opposed to hostile action. In Minnesota, the Lower Santee Sioux tribe's democratically elected leader, Traveling Hail, refused to gi…READ MORE

Tupelo

Union Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith, commanding the Sixteenth Corps with more than 14,000 men, left LaGrange, Tennessee on July 5, 1864, and advanced south. Smith's mission was to insure that Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest and his cavalry did not raid Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's railroad supply line in middle Tennessee supporting the campaign against Atlanta. Laying waste to the countryside as he advanced, Smith reached Pontotoc, Mississippi, on July 11th. Forrest was in nearby Okolona with about 6,000 men, bu…READ MORE

Westport

The Battle of Westport, fought October 21-23, was the largest battle west of the Mississippi River and the decisive battle of Confederate Gen. Stirling Price's 1864 Missouri campaign. Directions guide the visitor to the first of twenty-five narrative markers on a 32-mile, self-guided automobile tour and a self-guided walking tour of Byram's Ford and the Big Blue Battlefield. Each marker provides directions to the next stop on the tour. A written brochure is available from the Battle of Westport Visitor Cen…READ MORE

ColonelWilliam R. Marshall

Lieutenant ColonelGeorge Bradley

ColonelSylvester G. Hill

ColonelWilliam R. Marshall

Brigadier GeneralJohn McArthur

ColonelSylvester G. Hill

Nashville

Despite a series of defeats in the closing days of November, 1864, Confederate Lieut. Gen. John Bell Hood continued to drag his bloodied Army of Tennessee, approximately 30,000 strong, north towards Nashville. The city was protected by 55,000 Union soldiers, which should have precluded further offensive operations, but Hood was determined and his situation was dire. Hood reached Nashville on December 2nd and staked out a position south of the city, hoping to draw the Union forces into a costly attack. Ulys…READ MORE