Wilson’s Creek from History to Memory and Preservation (This Hallowed Ground Speaker Series)

Initially viewed as one of the foremost events of the Civil War, the Battle of Wilson’s Creek was overshadowed by later, larger engagements. But the battle’s relative obscurity by 1961, the first year of the Civil War Centennial, resulted from more than its small scale. The struggle at Bloody Hill and in the Ray Cornfield did not fit the Virginia-centric view of the war established by eastern veterans and later by historians. But as contemporary historic preservationists focus on battlefields as “sacred ground,” Wilson’s Creek’s nearly pristine historical landscape offers a special opportunity to memorialize the soldiers and civilians whose lives were shaped by the gunfire amid the oak hills at Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861.
______________
A native of Tennessee, William Garrett Piston retired in 2017 from the Department of History at Missouri State University, where he taught courses on the Civil War and American Military History for twenty-nine years. He is the author, co-author, and editor of numerous books and articles, most of which focus on the Civil War in Missouri. His publications include “We Gave Them Thunder”; Marmaduke’s Raid and the Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas, co-authored with John Rutherford. Piston is a past president of the Civil War Round Table of the Ozarks and the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Foundation.
______________
Join park staff and guest speakers at 1 pm every Sunday from July 6th through August 3rd to learn the history behind battlefield preservation efforts and commemoration. This series will engage visitors in the stories of people and events that saved places hallowed by the sacrifices of soldiers and civilians alike during and after the Civil War. Wilson's Creek National Battlefield is one of those places and this series is part of the remembrance of the 164th anniversary of the Battle of Wilson's Creek.