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Battle of Fort Davidson 1864

Battle of Fort Davidson: Map of Pilot Knob, Mo., and Vicinity. Wm. Hoelcke, Captn. & Addl. A. de C. - NARA - 305779
Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.

Key facts

Date27 September 1864Wikidata
Year1864Wikidata P585 (point in time)
Era19th century (1800–1913)derived from year
LocationUnited StatesNatural Earth (modern borders)
ContinentNorth AmericaNatural Earth
War / conflictAmerican Civil WarWikidata P361
Coordinates37.6194, -90.6415Wikidata P625

About the battle

The Battle of Fort Davidson, also known as the Battle of Pilot Knob, was a battle of Price's Missouri Expedition fought on September 27, 1864, near Pilot Knob, Missouri. Confederate troops under the command of Major-General Sterling Price had entered Missouri in September 1864 with hopes of challenging Union control of the state. On September 24, Price learned that Union troops held Pilot Knob. Two days later, he sent part of his command north to disrupt and then moved towards Pilot Knob with the rest of his army. The Confederate divisions of Major-General James Fagan and Brigadier-General John Marmaduke drove Union troops under Brigadier-General Thomas Ewing and Major James Wilson from the lower Arcadia Valley into Fort Davidson on September 26 and on the morning of September 27.

On the afternoon of the 27th, Price aligned troops around Fort Davidson in order to attack it from multiple sides. While intended to occur together, the attacks occurred separately and were repulsed in the same fashion. Brigadier-General William Cabell's Confederate brigade made three separate attacks against the fort, and succeeded in crossing the fort's moat on the final attempt, but were unable to enter the fort. That night, Ewing decided to abandon the fort.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Fort Davidson (revision 1370110406), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Location

37.6194, -90.6415 · United States

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Nearby battles

Other battles of the American Civil War

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Browse more: battles in United States · North America · 19th century battles

Further reading