This engraving appeared in Harper’s Weekly on August 24, 1861, along with an article reporting the events of the skirmish at Dug Springs. Dug Springs is located approximately nineteen miles southwest of Springfield, Missouri, just southwest of the modern town of Clever.
The skirmish took place in the late afternoon of August 2, after Union forces under the command of General Nathaniel Lyon marched from Springfield to meet what they believed were separate columns of a large Southern army moving up from Cassville.
The engraving depicts the charge of a small party of Union cavalry through the middle of a force of Southern infantry; the Union loss was reportedly five soldiers, while the Southerners had approximately the same number killed and wounded.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Library Collection
