Mine Creek Battlefield
With the light drizzle of early morning came the Confederate Army of Sterling Price rumbling through Mine Creek. Barbara Jane Palmer Dolson, with her infant daughter, was staying with her mother and two sisters while her husband and father marched off with the militia to defend the state from invasion. Now, suddenly, that army of invasion was passing in full view of their farm, pillaging and looting as it went. She could only hope that the federal pursuit was close behind. Within a few hours a battle would be fought on this very spot, and unlike her husband and father who were well in the rear and would miss the battle, Dolson would witness the only major Civil War battle fought on Kansas soil.
The first Confederate soldiers reached the Palmer house just as breakfast was being served. Uninvited, the soldiers entered the house, sat down, and helped themselves to a meal. They were soon followed by others, who, not finding food, took whatever they could lay their hands on. From underneath her bed, one soldier pulled out a box that contained the clothes of her young daughter. Her pleading to leave the clothes alone fell on deaf ears until a Confederate officer appeared and ordered the man to put them back where he had found them. Taking a bed sheet from another soldier, the officer wrapped it around the shoulders of Barbara Jane, explaining that she might keep it as a shawl.
A harsh-looking man, dressing his wounded foot nearby, grew upset by the officer's manners. "I would kill all the women and children I could get my hands on if I had my way." Dolson later recalled the man saying. The officer quickly reprimanded the insolent soldier but was interrupted by someone shouting that there was going to be a battle. Dolson never saw the kind officer again as he rushed out of the house to prepare for battle. She would forever remember him as "my rebel officer."
The battle lines quickly formed as Dolson stood at the north door of the house, watching. The cannons belched their smoke and flames as the onward rush of men collided. Soon she could hear nothing but the rattle of musketry. Then men came over the creek in what seemed a massive flood of humanity; the Confederates racing southward with Union troops in hot pursuit.
In long minutes it was over. Dolson and her mother and ventured outside to aid the wounded. Approximately 400 to 500 people were killed October 25, 1864 at the Battle of Mine Creek; most were Confederate soldiers. The Union army victory at Mine Creek marked the end of the war on the western front.
In 1974 the Kansas Legislature approved acquisition of a 120-acre parcel of the battlefield site. An additional 160 acres was purchased in 1970. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. A visitor center opened at the site Saturday, October 24, 1998, the 134th anniversary of the battle. Today it operates as Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Site.
Entry: Mine Creek Battlefield
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: December 1969
Date Modified: June 2011
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
