Fight in Ray's Cornfield

John Ray watched the opening stage of the Union defeat from his porch as, at 6:30 in the morning on August 10, 1861, soldiers entered his cornfield on the fenced high ground beyond his springhouse. From the right came Captain Joseph B. Plummer's 300-man regular army battalion, sent by General Lyon to secure the Federal left flank after Plummer had seen the Pulaski Arkansas artillery battering the main Union line on Bloody Hill and moved to silence that battery. Opposing them on the left were about 900 Louisiana infantry and Arkansas dismounted riflemen. The clash was brief and decisive as Confederate Colonel James McIntosh led a bold charge through the corn that drove the United States Regulars back to the creek, and only the Union artillery on Bloody Hill prevented the Southerners from annihilating Plummer's battalion.

Battlefield, Missouri · United States