In the Marmaton Valley, two Civil War actions near Deerfield were tied to Sterling Price's Missouri campaigns. After the Southern victory at Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861, Price led the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard north toward Lexington and detoured toward Fort Scott, Kansas, where James H. Lane had assembled 2,500 men. On September 2, 1861, Lane sent James Montgomery with 450 cavalry and a mountain howitzer to slow Price's advance, and at Dry Wood Creek near Hogan's Ford Montgomery's Kansans struck Price's advance guard and drove it back across the creek. Price rushed artillery and infantry into action, the Kansans fired from the wooded creek bottom with Sharps breech-loading rifles, and the Missourians replied from the tall prairie grass with muskets and shotguns. After less than two hours, Montgomery, short of ammunition, withdrew to Fort Scott at sunset. Casualties were light, with Price reporting two killed and 23 wounded and Montgomery acknowledging five killed and six wounded. Lane abandoned Fort Scott, but Price did not pursue because his aim was to free Missouri rather than invade Kansas; he continued north, captured Lexington, and was later forced from the state. Three years later, during Price's ill-fated 1864 raid through Missouri, his Confederate cavalry was defeated at Westport on October 23 and nearly half his army was routed at Mine Creek on October 25 while protecting about 500 wagons of captured supplies. As the fugitives and wagons fell back toward Douglass Ford on the Marmaton River, Price ordered Joseph O. Shelby to delay the Federal pursuit. Shelby placed about 8,000 men on a low prairie hill between Shiloh and Cottonwood Creeks, using fences and stone walls for cover and concealing Charles Tyler's unarmed recruits in woods on his right. At 3:30 p.m. John McNeil's brigade, followed by Frederick Benteen's, attacked despite being outnumbered because the Confederates appeared close to collapse. Shelby used Tyler's men to check the advance briefly and then counterattacked, but Federal artillery drove him back. When the Federal advance resumed, exhausted horses would not charge, so the Federals halted and opened fire; the 4th Iowa Cavalry advanced as Shelby's left began to break, and Sidney Jackman's brigade arrived from reserve to drive the Iowans back. These fights formed part of Price's wider 1864 raid, which began on September 19 with plans to seize St. Louis and Jefferson City, ravage Kansas, and return south with arms, supplies, and recruits. After a bloody repulse at Pilot Knob and failure to take Saint Louis or Jefferson City, Price moved to Boonville, was pursued to Westport, and was defeated there before his retreating army was nearly destroyed on October 25 at Mine Creek, the Little Osage River, and the Marmaton River. He destroyed his wagons and continued retreating to Texas, and although the raid diverted Union troops from other hard-pressed theaters, it failed to achieve Price's strategic objectives.
