Battle of Baxter Springs | |||||||
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Part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
400 mounted guerrillas. |
96 infantry 200 cavalry 1 mountain howitzer[2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 killed, 2 wounded[3] | 103 soldiers killed, 18 wounded, 10 civilians killed[4] |
The Battle of Baxter Springs, more commonly known as the Baxter Springs Massacre, was a minor battle of the American Civil War fought on October 6, 1863, near the present-day town of Baxter Springs, Kansas.
In late 1863, Quantrill's Raiders, a large band of pro-Confederate bushwhackers led by William Quantrill, was traveling south through Kansas along the Texas Road to winter in Texas. Numbering about 400, this group captured and killed two Union teamsters who had come from a small Federal Army post called Fort Baxter (frequently referred to as Fort Blair).[5] The bushwhackers assaulted the fort but were repulsed, eventually retreating to the prairie, where they attacked a separate Union column, leaving only a few survivors.