The Engagement at Rock Creek - June 13th, 1881

Hundreds of Southern militia assembled along Rock Creek in western Missouri. These fresh troops barely knew the rudiments of a military drill when their pickets reported at dusk that 200 Union cavalrymen were within two miles. The Rock Creek camp and make a show of force, but did not engage, eyeing each other from opposing ridges. Colonel Edmonds B. Holloway of the Missouri State Guard and an aide rode out to meet with Captain David Stanley under a white flag. The officers were surprised to learn they knew one another and had been friends on the frontier. They had spoken only a few minutes when Captain Stanley noticed that some of his men continued to advance despite the truce. Holloway and his aide immediately turned back toward their lines to recall the men, only to be mortally wounded by their own nervous soldiers. The Union soldiers withdrew.