Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz

A battle which was significant is determining the possession of Missouri in the Civil War was fought July 28, 1862 in the eastern part of Callaway County. The battlefield was about one-half mile south of the village of Calwood, known at that time as Moore's Mill.

The battle was the result of the coming into Callaway County of Colonel Joseph C. Porter, a Confederate who came down from Audrain County with approximately one hundred twenty-five horsemen. He encamped at Brown's Spring, two miles northwest of the present village of McCredie and on the Auxvasse Creek. There he was joined by sixty-five members of the Black Foot Rangers from Boone and Randolph Counties. The same day, Captain Alvin Cobb arrived with seventy-five men, making a total of approximately two hundred sixty.

Captain Odom Guitar, stationed at Federal headquarters in Jefferson City, received word of this movement and immediately departed for Brown's Spring with one hundred thirty-five infantrymen. In Fulton, he picked up fifty additional troops and proceeded to Brown's Spring. Meanwhile, Colonel Porter had moved down the Auxvasse Creek below the village of Moore's Mill and had then come up to the road which ran south from that place. At Brown's Spring, Guitar was joined by Lt. Col. Shaffer with five hundred men and two pieces of artillery. This force, numbering now seven hundred forty, followed Porter and his troops down the Auxvasse Creek south of Calwood where a battle was joined at noon. It continued with varying fortunes until four o'clock at which time Porter has exhausted his ammunition and withdrew from the field. He was not followed by Guitar. This battle prevented Porter from joining up with General Sterling Price, and his drive to capture Missouri for the South.

Determining the number of dead and wounded is very difficult in view of the disparity between the reports of the two commandments. As nearly as can be judged, it would appear that probably between seventy-five and one hundred men were killed outright and probably three or four times that number received wounds of various degrees from which many died.

A large number of killed were buried beside the Fulton-Calwood Road only a few hundred yards west of Calwood.

Colonel Porter returned to North Missouri after the battle, continued to serve the Confederate cause, and was killed Janurary 11, 1863 at the Battle of Hartville in Wright County. Colonel Guitar attained the rank of General, served throughout the war, and at its conclusion returned to Columbia where he resumed the practice of law and lived until 1909.

Down through the years, numerous bullets and shell fragments, etc., have been found on the site of the battlefield.

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