Battle of Mine Creek

Battle of Mine Creek
Part of the American Civil War
A view of the Battle of Mine Creek, Kansas by Samuel J. Reader dated February 13, 1865.
Date October 25, 1864 (1864-10-25) Location Linn County, Kansas Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
Alfred Pleasonton	John S. Marmaduke James F. Fagan
Strength
2,600	7,000
Casualties and losses
100	1,200

The Battle of Mine Creek, also known as the Battle of the Osage, was a battle that occurred on October 25, 1864, in Kansas as part of Price's Raid during the American Civil War. In the second largest cavalry engagement of the war, two divisions of Major General Sterling Price's Army of Missouri were routed by two Federal brigades under the command of Colonels Frederick Benteen and John Finis Philips.

This battle was the second of three fought between Price and the Federals on this day; the first had been earlier that morning at Marais des Cygnes a few miles away, while the third would be fought a few hours later at the nearby Marmiton River. Although vastly outnumbered, Union forces won all three engagements, forcing Price out of Kansas and sealing the fate of his disastrous Missouri campaign.

General Alfred Pleasonton, commanding the Federal forces in this engagement, was previously in command of Federal forces at the Battle of Brandy Station in the eastern theater; this gives him the distinction of having won a major cavalry battle for the Union on both sides of the Mississippi River.

In the fall of 1864, Sterling Price led an expedition into Missouri hoping to capture that state for the Confederacy, or at least to negatively affect Abraham Lincoln's chances for reelection in November. After a series of several battles across that state, Union forces under Maj. Gens. Samuel R. Curtis and Alfred Pleasonton finally defeated Price decisively at the Battle of Westport, in modern Kansas City, Missouri. Price withdrew south toward his base in Arkansas while Pleasonton, commanding a Union cavalry division, pursued him into Kansas hoping to capture or destroy his army before he could reach Confederate territory.

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