Battle of Westport - Noteworthy Participants

Noteworthy Participants

Several participants in the battle later went on to gain national fame in other ways, many of them in the American Old West. Buffalo Bill Cody served as a private in the 7th Kansas Cavalry ("Jennison's Jayhawkers"). Wild Bill Hickock served as scout for General Curtis. Frederick Benteen, who assumed command of a brigade at Byram's Ford, would subsequently fight with George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Mountain man John "Liver Eating" Johnson (popularly known as Jeremiah Johnson) enlisted in the U.S. Navy before the war and on February 24, 1864 joined Company A, 3rd Regiment, Colorado Cavalry Volunteers "from depot in St. Louis." With that regiment, he fought for the Union at the Battle of Westport.

Three Union officers at Westport later served as post-war state governors: Samuel J. Crawford served as governor of Kansas, while John Lourie Beveridge became governor of Illinois. Thomas Theodore Crittenden served as governor of Missouri and was later buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, scene of fighting during Price's retreat from Westport. Senators Jim Lane and Samuel C. Pomeroy served on Curtis's staff while future U.S. Senators Preston B. Plumb and Edmund G. Ross served as Federal officers.

Former lieutenant governor Thomas C. Reynolds joined Gen. Price's staff, in hopes that Price's army might capture Jefferson City and install him as governor of a Confederate regime in Missouri. Price had served as a prewar governor, while Marmaduke later served as a post-war governor of Missouri.