Shelby’s Last Stand Tour Stop 13 (Battle of Westport Driving Tour) (Price's Raid)

Marker Inscription: On Oct. 23, 1864, Confederate Gen. Shelby being forced back from Westport by Gen. Curtis and flanked on the east by Gen. Pleasonton formed a defensive line here behind stone fences running east and west to the state line. Jackman's Brigade of Shelby's Division arrived after 1 P.M. To defend the Confederate right flank. Shelby's "Iron Brigade" under Gen. Thompson was farther west. Generals Curtis and Pleasonton finally drove the Confederates south.

This Marker notes Confederate Brig. Gen. Joseph Shelby, and his “Iron” Brigade, and other Confederate forces last delaying action of the newly combined might of Union forcesUnion Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt and Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis’ Army of the Border and Union Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton’s Provisional Cavalry Division of the Department of the Missouri, Union forces eventually prevailed and pushed Shelby’s forces to the South. This is part of the larger three-day Battle of Westport. 

This action was part of the three-day Battle of Westport, which took place from the 21-23 of October 1864. It was the largest battle of the Civil War west of the Mississippi River. General Sterling Price’s raid into Missouri essentially ended with his army’s loss in this battle. Union forces pursued Price’s army  all the way south out of Missouri and into Arkansas. The Union maintained control of Missouri for the rest of the war.

After being forced back from the Wornall House by Union Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis’ forces to the north, and Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton’s Cavalry division to the east, Confederate Brig. Gen. Joseph Shelby, who led the remnants of Col. Sydney Jackman’s Brigade formed a new defensive line here. As at the Wornall house, this was another delaying action to allow the rest of the Maj. Gen. Sterling Price’s army, including the wagon train full of war loot, to fall back and retreat. Shelby’s “Iron Brigade”, which was commanded by Brig. Gen. Jeff Thompson at the time, was further to the west, protecting the right flank of the Confederate line. This action did not last long. Dealing with an assault from the combining forces of Curtis and Pleasonton was too much and Shelby’s troops broke contact with the enemy and retreated south to join the rest of Price’s army. 

Brig. Gen. Shelby was one of the Confederacy’s most effective officers. Before the war, he was a hemp farmer, rope maker, and enslaver from Waverly, Missouri. Shelby led a unit of Kentuckians on the pro slavery side during Bleeding Kansas. In the spring of 1861 he joined the Missouri State Guard as a Captain, commanding Shelby’s Ranger Company. Served as a Colonial in the 5th Missouri Cavalry in 1862.  He served as a company commander at several battles including Wilson’s Creek and Pea Ridge. He was eventually promoted to Brigadier General in 1863. At the end of the war, he refused to surrender when the Confederacy collapsed, taking some of his force to Mexico to offer their service as a foreign legion for Emperor Maximillian. He declined, but he did allow them to establish an ex-confederate colony called “Carlota”. Shelby eventually came back to Bates County, Missouri and became a US marshal. He rather controversially appointed an African-American man to serve as a deputy US marshal, for which he received push back from the community. He also apparently regretted his actions in the Border War, telling historian William Elsey Connelley: “I was in Kansas at the head of an armed force. I was there to kill Free-state men. I did kill them. I am now ashamed of myself for having done so. I had no business there. No Missourian had any business there with arms in his hands.” (Connelley 1909, 288) Whether he was truly regretful is up for historical debate. 

The marker for Shelby’s Last Stand is also on the grounds of the Forest Hill Cemetery [see the Clio entry for Forest Hill]. The cemetery includes the graves of a large number of Confederate dead including Joseph Shelby. George Thoman, who historian Howard Monett identified as the farmer who helped the Union outflank the Confederates [see Union flanking movement entry], is ironically buried about 150 feet from Shelby. There also is a monument of a Confederate soldier in the cemetery erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1902. 

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“The Rebel Invasion Price Routed and Retreating.” The St. Joseph Herald. October 25, 1864.