Rolla During the Civil War

   The folks around Rolla (MO) were decidedly Southern in sentiment when the Civil War broke out in the spring of 1861. Southern sympathizers held several mass meetings and demonstrations in Rolla. In April, an outfit calling itself the "Phelps County Minutemen" was organized, and in early May a group of women presented the citizens of Rolla a Confederate flag, which was hoisted over the town to great hurrahing.
   The Confederate reign in Rolla, however, was short-lived. In mid-June, over a thousand Federal troops from St. Louis under Colonel Franz Sigel arrived to take over the town. Rolla's would-be Confederates quietly vanished into the background, as the Union soldiers took down the Rebel flag and replaced it with the Stars and Stripes. Sigel soon marched to Springfield, but an occupying Federal force remained in Rolla. More troops soon arrived, and the town was held by the Union throughout the remainder of the war. As the western terminus of the railroad and situated in central Missouri, it was a strategic site.
   At least one Union battalion was organized at Rolla, and numerous area residents joined other Federal units. No doubt at least a few of these men had previously been wanna-be Confederates, but a large number of local men did, indeed, join the Confederate-allied Missouri State Guard, while others took to the bush as guerrillas. The town of Rolla itself, however, was never seriously threatened by Confederate forces, as it was always heavily garrisoned. A post-war report in a Rolla newspaper estimated that between five thousand and fifty thousand troops were camped in and around Rolla during most of the war, although the fifty thousand figure seems a little high. Two forts were constructed, one called Fort Detty on the north side of town on what is now the campus of the University of Missouri-Rolla and the other called Fort Wyman located just south of town along present-day US Highway 63. In addition, a network of earthworks and trenches surrounded the town, the courthouse was fortified with rifle pits, and a strong headquarters encampment was located west of town.
   Although Rolla was never seriously threatened by Rebel forces during the war, it was a fairly busy place because of its strategic location. Notably, after the Federal defeat at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in mid-August 1861, thousands of Union soldiers evacuated to Rolla, and the Federal forces at Pilot Knob also retreated to Rolla after blowing up the magazine at Fort Davidson in the face of a threat from General Sterling Price's Confederate forces in the fall of 1864. In addition, thousands of Union refugees made their way to Rolla during the Civil War, fleeing from privation and depredations in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.