calsfoundation@cals.org
August 10, 1861
At the Battle of Wilson’s Creek (also known as the Battle of Oak Hills) in Missouri, the Second Arkansas Mounted Rifles, organized under the command of Colonel James McIntosh, saw action on the Confederate right when they jumped a fence and drove off an attack by Federal troops under General Franz Sigel, capturing Sigel’s cannons in the process. The First Arkansas Mounted Rifles, originally organized in Little Rock (Pulaski County) on June 16, 1861, by future governor Colonel Thomas J. Churchill, were in the thick of this fight, and Federal troops were pushed back and forced to retreat to Springfield, Missouri.