Roy Blunt: “The language we are discussing today is designed to authorize a study by the National Park Service to determine the…”

“The language we are discussing today is designed to authorize a study by the National Park Service to determine the feasibility of creating a new Civil War battlefield at Newtonia, Missouri, or bringing those battlefield lands under the management of the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield near Springfield and also near the Newtonia battlefield site. This measure is a necessary first step to determine if this battlefield, as I believe it will, fits the criteria necessary for being preserved as part of the National Park System. I believe the study will find that the two Civil War battles at Newtonia, like the Manassas Battlefield south of where we are now, hold a unique place in American history and are worthy of protection in the National Park Service system. Two important battles were fought at Newtonia during the Civil War, one in 1862, where large numbers of American Indian troops on the Confederate side and the Union side, actually fought each other in battle. It was the largest of the rare engagements where native Americans fought on both sides in the Civil War. My understanding is that this is the place where those troops actually fought each other. Two years later, in 1864, the last battle of the Civil War west of the Mississippi was fought at Newtonia as Confederate forces withdrew from Missouri after their defeat at Westport.”