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Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, Provisional Cavalry Division, Department of the Missouri
Brig. Gen. John McNeil, 2d Brigade, Pleasonton's Division
Brig. Gen. William L. Cabell, Cabell's Brigade, Fagan's Division
Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, Army of Missouri (CSA)
Brig. Gen. Jo Shelby, Shelby's Division
Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton’s plan to cut off the Confederate retreat ends in failure. The Confederate wagon train and army passed through this town earlier this evening, escaping the trap.
After defeating the Confederates in the streets of Independence yesterday, General Pleasonton put a two-part plan in place to defeat the Confederates today. His main attack was going to be at Byram’s Ford. But the general detached one quarter of his cavalry and artillery to go around to the south of the Confederate army and cut off their escape route back to Arkansas.
General Pleasonton ordered Brig. Gen. John McNeil, commanding the 2d Brigade, to leave shortly after midnight, head down the Santa Fe Trail and reach New Santa Fe by first light. Pleasonton assumed there would be no problem covering the 14 miles or so in the next five hours or so.
But McNeil was a cautious man and took his time. Passing east of Byram’s Ford, he heard the sounds of battle and took time to investigate. He also stopped along the way to feed the horses because they had been two days without forage. As it turned out, McNeil never did reach his destination of New Santa Fe.
Around 9:00 a.m. General McNeil was still five miles from New Santa Fe, when he first spied the wagon train moving down the Harrisonville Road off in the distance. The train was being escorted by thousands of Confederate cavalry. McNeil had around 2,800 men in his command and realized he was greatly outnumbered. McNeil told us …
I moved on toward Hickman Mills, expecting to be able to strike Price's flank, moving cautiously about four miles, firing having ceased for some time, when suddenly I found myself in contact with the entire force of the enemy.
Meanwhile down with the wagon train, Brig. Gen. William L. Cabell received word of a large force of enemy cavalry off to the northeast. He quickly dispatched a courier to notify Maj. Gen. Sterling Price. Price was startled when he received Cabell’s message. He sent a dispatch to Brig. Gen. Jo Shelby, who was engaged fighting the Federals in present-day Loose Park, telling him the train was in danger and he needed to fall back. Then Price took his escort and hurried down to his wagon train.
While Price hurried down to his wagon train, Cabell urged the teamsters to hurry and deployed his brigade (about 1,400 men) in a skirmish line between McNeil and the wagon train. When Price arrived at the wagon train, he took control of the unarmed brigade of recruits and ordered them to deploy in line of battle.
McNeil observed all this enemy activity and thought he was up against the entire Confederate army. Eventually, McNeil responded by ordering his artillery to unlimber and shell the Confederates. He also deployed a skirmish line to engage the enemy.
The wind being favorable, Cabell decided to set the prairie on fire and have his skirmish line follow the fire as it burned toward McNeil’s position. As the Confederate skirmishers moved forward, they fired their rifles as rapidly as possible. McNeill decided to fall back away from the fire and the small arms fire.
Eventually, Cabell decided the wagon train was far enough down the road and ordered his men to fall back to the train. McNeil did not pursue and failed to capture the wagon train.
At the end of the day, General Pleasonton was very angry that McNeil had failed to cut off the Confederate retreat. The general said the following to our reporter:
The night previous, at Independence, I ordered General McNeil to proceed with his brigade from that point to Little Santa Fe, and to reach that latter point by daylight. General McNeil failed to obey this order … and instead of vigorously attacking the enemy’s wagon train, which was directly in front of him with but little escort, he contented himself with some skirmishing and cannonading, and the train escaped.
Monnett, Howard N. Action Before Westport, 1864. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1995.
Sinisi, Kyle S. The Last Hurrah: Sterling Price’s Missouri Expedition of 1864. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
Titterington, Dick. The Battle of Westport, October 21–23, 1864: A Driving Tour of Battle Sites in Kansas City, Independence, and Northeastern Jackson County, Missouri. Overland Park, KS: Trans-Mississippi Musings Press, 2019.