ON THIS DAY: Friday, Sept. 20, 1981

At Lexington, Missouri, the Confederates use bales of hemp, soaked in river water, to shield themselves as they advance on a wide front against the badly outnumbered Federal force dug in around the Masonic college. After trying unsuccessfully to set the bales on fire by firing hot shot, the besieged Union soldiers surrender, out of water and cut off on all sides by a much larger force. Unable to reach them in time, thwarted Union reinforcements, including the 39^th Ohio, move on to Kansas City.

Can anyone supply more information about the 39^th Ohio’s first brush with combat?

ON THIS DAY: Thursday, Sept. 19, 1861

Col. James A. Mulligan’s Federal troops, dug in around a Masonic college on a hill in Lexington, Missouri, are coming under increasing pressure, suffering from thirst in a scorching heat. They number only 2,800 men from Illinois and Missouri, while Confederate Maj. Gen. Stirling Price’s has a force that is estimated variously at 10,000 to 18,000. The Rebels capture the Federals’ water supply, cut off their means of escape via the nearby Missouri River, and block Union reinforcements—including the 39^th Ohio—from reaching Mulligan’s embattled little troop. The Ohioans will not taste battle here.

ON THIS DAY: September 18, 1861

The 39^th Ohio is on the move, the lone Ohio unit in a force sent to relieve a besieged Federal garrison at Lexington, Missouri. The 39th had been organized only a few weeks earlier at Camp Coleraine and Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati. Although it had little time for training, the 39^th was said to be “fully armed and equipped,” and on August 18, the Ohioans had departed for St. Louis. There they joined forces organizing under Gen. John C. Frémont.

After five companies of the 39^th were detached for other duties, the remaining five joined troops dispatched to the aid of Lexington. Unaccustomed to hard marching and given no transportation for the 85-mile journey, by this time the green soldiers of the 39^th are suffering “severely.”