Battle of Lone Jack, Missouri, August 15–16, 1862.

I had some spare time yesterday and so my wife and I took a short drive down to Lone Jack, Missouri to visit the Battle of Lone Jack Museum and cemetery. This was a Battle in 1862 fought by mainly by cavalry, dismounted and or mounted in the town of Lone Jack. Very bloody fight; over 175 casualties on both sides, not counting the civilians killed. This cemetery in town is an unusual Civil War grave site because it is a mass grave for both sides, Union and Confederate. The obelisk on the right is a Confederate memorial the column of the left is Union. The museum was personally backed (ordered) into being by ex-President Truman, who, as a boy, would attend the reunions of the battle. After his term as president he toured the country of his boyhood and was shocked that nothing had been done to remember this battle, so he personally led the effort to build the museum that is open today.

Notes on this battle:
1. It was a Confederate victory.
2. Eighteen year old Cole Younger fought here, and was noted for his gallantry and his care of Union prisoners even warning a Union officer that he was unknowingly about to walk into a line of Confederate fire.
3. Daniel Boone's Great Grandson, Confederate Colonel Upton Hays led the main attack against the Union forces.
4. John Wayne's character Rooster Cogburn, in the movie True Grit, said he lost his eye at the Battle of Lone Jack.

Nice little museum.