page_title: Second Battle of Newtonia
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Second Battle of Newtonia / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of battlefield core and study areas. The ABPP redrew the 1993 Study Area to include the ground (from modern day Stark City to the historic Granby Road) over which Blunt’s and Shelby’s forces fought, and to include the cornfields through which Sanborn’s reinforcements pressed Shelby’s division. Also included is the historic Granby Road, which both forces used at the beginning of the battle (segments of the road are still discernable on the landscape). The ABPP widened the Study Area to account for Confederate movements from the northwest into Newtonia, movement along the Pineville Road from Newtonia to the Confederate camp south of Newtonia, the Confederate encampment area, and the Confederate route of withdrawal from the camp to the south. The ABPP expanded the 1993 Core Area significantly to take in the full sweep of the general engagement between Blunt’s and Shelby’s forces and the later engagement between Sanborn’s reinforcements and Shelby’s division. The Core Area also now includes the position of the 1st Colorado Battery on the bluffs northwest of Newtonia.
context_page_description: The Second Battle of Newtonia was fought on October 28, 1864, in Newton County, Missouri, as part of Major General Sterling Price's Missouri Expedition of the American Civil War.
context_section_description: Price's Confederate cavalry force was in full retreat following its expedition into Missouri. On October 28, 1864, it stopped to rest about two miles (3 km) south of Newtonia, Missouri. About 3:00 p.m., Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt's Union cavalrymen spotted the rear of Price's supply train entering the woods south of town on the Cassville road. McLain's Colorado Light Artillery, supported by the 15th Kansas Cavalry, opened on the rebels.
  Blunt formed the 16th Kansas Cavalry and 2nd Colorado Cavalry in two lines and personally led a charge behind a screen of skirmishers toward the fleeing supply train. Most of the rebel skirmishers were in no condition (physically or mentally) to resist, and they were soon tumbling backwards. Brig. Gen. Joseph O. (Jo) Shelby's mounted infantry division, including his "Iron Brigade", rode to the front, dismounted, and engaged the Union force. Shelby's men overlapped the flanks of the smaller Union force and forced it back into a large cornfield near the Matthew H. Ritchey estate. There, fighting raged until Federal cannon fire and reinforcements under Brig. Gen. John B. Sanborn finally caused the Confederates to retreat at nightfall. However, Shelby had accomplished his mission in holding up the Union pursuers. By morning, Price had retreated across the desolate prairie towards the Indian Territory.
  Despite the duration and ferocity of the firefight, casualties were rather light (400 for the Federals versus 250 for the Confederates).
  Today, most of the battlefield is in private hands. Twenty acres (81,000 m²), plus the Ritchey mansion, are owned by the Newtonia Battlefield Preservation Society.
caption: Map of Newtonia II Battlefield core and study areas by the American Battlefield Protection Program.
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