Experience the Battle.
History
Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, a unit of the National Park System, preserves the site of the first major battle of the Civil War in the West. The Confederate victory on August 10, 1861, focused national attention on the war in Missouri, leading to greater federal military action.
Preservation
In 1950, local community leaders formed Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Foundation, with its first priority purchasing the 37 acres of Bloody Hill, using funds raised mostly from area school children. After several attempts to gain national park status, and with the financial assistance of the Missouri Legislature to obtain 1,700 additional acres, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield was dedicated on August 10, 1961, the 100th anniversary of the battle.
Enjoyment
The park, which hosts over 300,000 visitors annually, is considered to be one of the three best preserved and most pristine Civil War battlefields in the National Park System. While many come to enjoy the natural setting, growing numbers of guests visit the park for study and research.
Things To Do
Take The Tour
A 4.9 mile paved tour road provides a self-guided auto tour with eight interpretive stops at significant battle-related locations. There are trail systems for walking, running, hiking and horseback riding. Be sure to check out the new mobile phone tour!
Civil War Museum
Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield is home to one of the finest publicly held museum collections representing the American Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi West Theater.
The museum collections include historic objects and documents from many of the battles in the Trans-Mississippi Theatre of the War. The collections also contain objects from prisoner of war camps where Trans-Mississippian soldiers were detained and perished, items documenting battlefield medicine and advances in treatment, objects and documents that lead to a greater understanding of the role of women in the Civil War, and items documenting the naval aspect of warfare in the Trans-Mississippi Theater.
The collections also contain over 1,500 images of Civil War soldiers, battlefields, and civilians; a large field ordnance collection; period furniture; drawings by soldiers; an extensive medical tools and equipment collection; uniforms, hats, and other textiles; household objects; saddles, and saddle bags; and many personal items from soldiers that include grooming kits, playing cards, dice, dominoes, tobacco pipes, and housewife kits (sewing kits). The park’s extensive archival collections include personal diaries and journals, civilian and military correspondence, and military orders.
Notable items in the Wilson’s Creek museum collections include: a sword belt and sash belonging to Arkansas General Patrick Cleburne, Abolitionist John Brown’s telescope and case, Civil War Medals of Honor, rare weapons such as the Gibbs Carbine carried by a soldier in the 10th Missouri Cavalry and an 1860s Henry repeating rifle, the bed where Union General Nathaniel Lyon’s body rested before it was removed to Springfield, the Lyon body pass issued by Captain Emmett MacDonald, Lyon’s sword and scabbard, and the counterpane used to cover his body after he was killed on the field of battle at Wilson’s Creek. The battlefield also has a noteworthy collection of Civil War flags. These include the Confederate Cherokee Mounted Rifles Regimental flag “Cherokee Braves” representing the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole soldiers led by Cherokee General Stand Watie; the flag carried by the German immigrants from St. Louis, the Turner Battalion; the Confederate First National flag recovered from the battlefield at Wilson’s Creek; and the Confederate Hempstead Rifles flag carried by Company H, 17th Arkansas Infantry.
The museum, formerly General Sweeny’s Museum, was purchased by the National Park Service in 2005.
Hulston Library
The John K. and Ruth Hulston Civil War Research Library at the Visitor Center has grown to be among the largest in the National Park System. Containing government records, books, diaries, maps, and journals, it is a wealth of historical information for research scholars, genealogists, and all the generations to come who will want to know more about this defining event and how it shaped U.S. history and particularly the war in the west. The collection is now housed in a new state-of-the-art library annex and education center adjacent to the Visitor Center. Each year more than 20,000 school children visit this historic site to learn about their heritage as Americans.
So Much More
- A Junior Ranger program for kids
- Ray House, where John Ray’s family lived during the battle
- Restored Edwards Cabin, site of General Sterling Price’s headquarters
- Fiber optic map presentation that recreates the battle
- A brand new twenty-nine minute interpretive film in stunning HD & surround sound
- Several artifact exhibits in the Visitor Center
- Gift shop with Civil War books and souvenirs
How To Get There
Park Location
Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield
6424 West Farm Road 182
Republic, MO 65738-9514
Interactive Park Map
Click on any of the major stops to get directions. The blue marker indicates the Visitor’s Center. The green markers highlight important destinations along the Tour Road.
