Federal troops under the command of General James H. Lane are outnumbered and forced to retreat by General Sterling Price’s Missouri State Guard forces at the Battle of Drywood Creek, also known as the Battle of the Mules, in Vernon County, Missouri. Despite this loss, days later Lane sets out with troops on a destructive raid targeting southern sympathizers and their property in Cass, Bates, Vernon, Henry, and St. Clair Counties. This effort helps secure the freedom of hundreds of enslaved African Americans. However, this and other raids by U.S. Army forces in the region also lead to retaliatory guerilla warfare directed against Unionist Missourians, some of whom are forced to flee to Kansas.
