Battle of Pilot Knob State Historic Site (Fort Davidson)

Pilot Knob was the end of the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad in the iron-rich Arcadia Valley, and in the summer of 1863 Federal troops and a company of Black freemen built Fort Davidson on the valley floor. It was a hexagonal earthwork with sides about 150 feet long, packed-earth walls lined with planks inside, a dry moat, four heavy guns and a magazine at the center. It could stand an infantry assault, but Pilot Knob and Shepherd Mountain looked down into it.

In September 1864 Sterling Price led the largest Confederate cavalry raid of the war into Missouri, hoping, if he could, to take St. Louis or Jefferson City. Gen. Thomas Ewing reached the fort with reinforcements, bringing the garrison to about 1,500. On September 27 about 8,000 Confederates attacked after guns on Shepherd Mountain opened fire. The assaults came out of step, and only one brigade crossed the plain to the moat, where the defenders threw hand grenades down on it. In about 20 minutes the Confederates lost some 1,000 killed or wounded, the Union fewer than 100.

Ewing knew he could not hold another day. In the early morning hours the garrison marched out past Confederates who took them for their own, while a small party stayed behind to blow up the powder magazine. They fought their way to Leasburg and on to Rolla. The delay cost Price his chance at St. Louis. The site keeps the earthwork and battlefield, and the visitor center has a fiber-optic diorama of the battle.