The Prelude: Battle of the Little Blue Set the Stage for Westport

Review of the Battle of the Little Blue, a daylong series of skirmishes on October 21, 1864 during the Civil War along a 7.5 mile strip of what is now eastern Independence. Also discusses the proposed construction of roadways that will traverse the area. Fighting began at Ripley Junction, now a tourist site near the Little Blue Trace Trail off Highway 24 in Independence. "Near here, General John Marmaduke's forces extinguished a fire set to a bridge by the Eleventh Kansas. By saving the bridge, Marmaduke's artillery and infantry avoided wading into the steep banks of the Little Blue River. Ripley Junction will be the site of an interpretive battle marker. The Lawson Moore Home [nearby] had been evacuated earlier as a result of Order No. 11, and it was one of the few structures in the area that wasn't razed. Officers and enlisted men who died in the battle are believed to be buried next to a nearby barn."