BATTLE OF WESTPORT

Battle of Westport

By late 1864, Confederate General Sterling Price launched a sweeping mounted raid into Missouri, hoping to capture cities, inspire recruits, and shift attention from collapsing fronts elsewhere. On October 23rd, near the town of Westport—today within Kansas City—Union forces under Major General Samuel Curtis and Major General Alfred Pleasonton met Price’s column in a sprawling, confused battle. Militia units, volunteers, and cavalry fought across farm fields, wooded ravines, and river crossings along the Big Blue River and Brush Creek. A well-timed Union flanking maneuver turned the Confederate line and forced Price to retreat south. Two days later, Union cavalry hammered his rearguard at Mine Creek, wrecking the raid’s remaining combat power. Often dubbed the “Gettysburg of the West,” Westport ended Confederate hopes of reclaiming Missouri and underscored how western cavalry operations could still influence national strategy even as the main armies grappled in Virginia and Georgia.