Background
On June 15, 1861, Union Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon took control of the Missouri capitol in Jefferson City. Two days later, he routed the portion of the Missouri State Guard then assembling at Boonville with pro-secession Missouri Governor Claiborne F. Jackson. As the portion of the guard accompanying Governor Jackson fled to the southwest of the state, a Unionist Missouri Home Guard regiment was in position to obstruct his retreat.
The majority of the inhabitants of Benton County were of Southern origin and sentiment; however, the German immigrants and their descendants were predominantly pro-Union and anti-slavery. These formed the core of the Benton County Home Guard. Captain Abel H.W. Cook began to form the regiment in early June and called for the volunteers to assemble northeast of Cole Camp on June 11.
A secessionist force was gathering nearby at Warsaw. Captain Walter S. O'Kane organized the Warsaw "Grays" and Captain Thomas W. Murray organized the "Blues." The combined force numbered about 350, with 100 of them mounted. two weeks after Cole Camp, just before the Battle of Carthage, O'Kane was elected lieutenant colonel of the battalion while Murray was elected major.
The secessionists were aided by Benton County's Sheriff, Bartholomew W. Keown. Keown attempted to arrest captains Cook and Mitchell at the Union Home Guard camp, but they refused to comply. The "arrest" apparently was a pretense for gathering intelligence.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Cole Camp (1861)
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