Fight in Ray's Cornfield
Wilson's Creek
John Ray watched the first stage of the Union defeat from the porch behind you. At 6:30 in the morning, August 10, 1861, soldiers appeared in his cornfield. The cornfield is the fenced high ground in front of you, just beyond Ray's springhouse.
From the right came Captain Joseph B. Plummer's 300-man regular army battalion. Sent by General Lyon to secure the Federal left flank, Plummer had observed the Pulaski Arkansas artillery mauling the main Union line on Bloody Hill, and was moving to silence the battery. But to the left, about 900 Louisiana infantry and Arkansas dismounted riflemen stood in their way.
The clash was short and decisive. Confederate Colonel James McIntosh inspired a daring charge through the corn that sent the United States Regulars running back to the creek. Only the Union artillery on Bloody Hill kept the Southerners from annihilating Plummer's battalion.
Marker can be reached from Tour Road, on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
