Tiny town of Croton was the northernmost battlefront west of the Mississippi River during the American Civil War

By John Skipper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iowa has a special distinction in American Civil War history because of a most unusual set of circumstances.

 

The state, or to be more accurate, a tiny portion of it, was involved in a battle that wasn’t even fought on Iowa soil but across the Des Moines River in Missouri. Yet the little Iowa town of Croton was battle-scarred because of inept Confederate soldiers who overshot their target.

 

And because of all of this, as inconsequential as the battle turned out to be, Iowa holds the distinction of being the northernmost battlefront west of the Mississippi River in the Civil War.

 

The skirmish is called the Battle of Athens (pronounced Ay-thens) — Athens, Mo., that is, and, as historian Frank Myers points out, to call it a battle “is stretching it a little when you consider the scale and deadliness of most confrontations between Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War.” It lasted just two hours and is not remembered for names like Grant or Lee or Sherman.

 

The little town of Athens, just across the Des Moines River from what is now Lee County, Iowa, is where the battle took place. As was the case with the Civil War as a whole, slavery was at the heart of the Battle of Athens that began and ended on Aug. 5, 1861.

 

TO READ THE ENTIRE STORY AND OTHER FASCINATING STORIES ABOUT IOWA HISTORY, subscribe to Iowa History Journal. You can also purchase back issues at the store.