Battle of Mount Zion Church

Battle of Mount Zion Church
Part of the American Civil War
Mt. Zion Church from the west
Date December 28, 1861 (1861-12-28) Location Boone County, Missouri Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States (Union)	Missouri State Guard
Commanders and leaders
Benjamin M. Prentiss	Caleb W. Dorsey
Units involved
3rd Missouri Cavalry Birge's Western Sharpshooters
Strength
440	~900
Casualties and losses
3 dead 63 wounded 4 captured	~25 dead ~150 wounded 60 captured

The Battle of Mount Zion Church was fought on December 28, 1861, in Boone County, near Mount Zion Church, during the American Civil War. The resulting Union victory here and elsewhere in central Missouri ended Confederate recruiting activities in the region and pushed conventional Confederate forces out of the area until the desperate fall 1864 invasion by General Sterling Price and his Missouri State Guard.

Brig. Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss led a Union force of five companies of the Third Missouri Cavalry [Federal] and two companies of Birge's Western Sharpshooters into Boone County to protect the North Missouri Railroad, disrupt the organization of the secessionist Missouri State Guard, and generally overawe secessionist sentiment in the region. Prentiss's forces left the Northern Missouri headquarters in Palmyra, Missouri, on December 24.

After arriving in Sturgeon on December 26, Prentiss learned about a concentration of State Guard near Hallsville. He sent a company to Hallsville the next day that fought a State Guard detachment under the command of Colonel Caleb Dorsey and, in a 10-minute skirmish about one half mile north of Mount Zion Church, itself situated about 3 miles southeast of Hallsville and 15 miles northeast of Columbia. Prentiss's troops suffered casualties, including men taken prisoner, before retreating back to Sturgeon by 6 p.m.

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