The 30,000-man Confederate army that Major General Ulysses S. Grant trapped at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in mid-May 1863 contained no finer unit than Colonel Francis Marion Cockrell's 1st Missouri Brigade. Although Missouri was officially a Union state, Cockrell and his men chose exile rather than submit to Yankee rule. They dreamed of reclaiming Missouri for the Confederacy, but fate decreed that they would serve far from home. Disappointed but not discouraged, the Missourians fought throughout the Vicksburg Campaign as if they were defending their native soil.

In the spring of 1861, pro-Confederate Missourians joined the Missouri State Guard under Sterling Price, a former governor and Mexican War hero. The State Guard fought bravely at Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Lexington, and Pea Ridge, but could not prevent Federal forces from consolidating their hold over Missouri.

Following Pea Ridge, the Missourians were transferred to the east side of the Mississippi River, and they reached Memphis on April 11, 1862. Price and his exiles saw action at Iuka, Mississippi, on September 19, and Corinth on October 4. Sixteen days later, the remaining infantry elements from the old Missouri State Guard were organized into the 1st Missouri Brigade. Brigadier General John S. Bowen led the brigade for a brief period before being elevated to command the division containing the Missourians and troops from Arkansas. Colonel Cockrell replaced Bowen at the head of the Missouri Brigade.

When the Vicksburg Campaign opened, Cockrell's Brigade consisted of the amalgamated 1st and 4th Missouri Infantry Regiment, the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th Missouri Infantry Regiments, and Guibor's Missouri Battery. Cockrell's men suffered 206 casualties while holding off three Yankee divisions at Port Gibson, May 1, 1863. The Missouri Brigade spearheaded Bowen's brilliant charge at Champion's Hill on May 16, but was forced to retreat into Vicksburg after losing 600 more men. Cockrell's Missourians held the Stockade Redan against a furious Union assault on May 22. The Missourians also sealed breaches in the Confederate lines with blistering counterattacks on June 25 and July 1. These successes cost the brigade another 559 casualties. Worst of all, the Missourians' sacrifices failed to prevent Vicksburg's surrender on July 4.

Paroled with the rest of the Vicksburg garrison and exchanged in September 1863, the Missouri Brigade fought to the end of the war in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama.

(Click here to go back)