Missouri 47th Volunteer Infantry (Union)

Fort Davidson

Facing battlefield defeats in the late summer of 1864, the Confederacy desperately sought victories in hopes of persuading the war-weary Union population to vote against the reelection of Abraham Lincoln that November. That September, the 12,000-man Confederate Army of Missouri under Maj. Gen. Sterling Price moved north with the goal of capturing St. Louis. Eighty miles south of the city, Price encountered Fort Davidson near the town of Ironton, defended by 1,500 men under Union Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing. On…READ MORE