page_title: Lexington, Missouri
section_title: Civil War and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Lexington, Missouri / History / Civil War and aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: The Anderson House in Lexington, Missouri. This home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
context_page_description: Lexington is a city in Lafayette County, Missouri. The population was 4,726 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Lafayette County. Located in western Missouri, Lexington lies approximately 40 miles east of Kansas City and is part of the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is the home of the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site, and of the former Wentworth Military Academy and College, the second-oldest military school west of the Mississippi River, opened in 1880.
context_section_description: Lexington was the site of two of the largest battles in the western campaign of the American Civil War. The better-known Battle of Lexington is commonly referred to as the Battle of the Hemp Bales. On September 12, 1861, between 6,000 and 10,000 soldiers of the Missouri State Guard, led by Major General Sterling Price, began a siege against the Federal military post in the old Masonic College commanded by Colonel James A. Mulligan.
  On September 18, Price's army mounted an assault. Some of Price's army used hemp bales as moving breastworks while they moved up the river bluffs and closed in on Mulligan's headquarters. On September 20, 1861, Mulligan's troops surrendered. Combined casualties were 73 dead, 270 wounded. The battlefield on the bluffs of the Missouri River is now a state park, and the cannonball stuck in one of the upper pillars of the Courthouse has become a symbol for the town.
  The Second Battle of Lexington occurred during Price's Missouri Expedition on October 19, 1864.
  Lexington was known as a center for Quantrill's Raiders during the war. Two months after the Civil War ended, many of these guerrilla fighters who had refused to honor the cease fire finally decided to take advantage of the special Federal amnesty that was declared for such forces and turn themselves in at Lexington. While riding into town, reportedly under a white flag, they were fired upon by Union soldiers from the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry, and Jesse James was severely wounded in the right lung. Some credit this event as a major contributing factor to his post-war career as a legendary bank robber. It is likely not a coincidence that the James-Younger Gang targeted the Alexander Mitchell bank in Lexington for the second daylight bank robbery in United States history. In December 1866, Archie Clement, an accomplice of the James brothers and perhaps the most notorious of all the guerrilla fighters, terrorized the town and was shot from his horse and killed by a sniper perched in the second floor of the Courthouse.
caption: The Anderson House was used as a field hospital in the Civil War during the Battle of Lexington.
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