The Battle of Carthage, Missouri, was the first full-scale land battle of the Civil War. Governor Claiborne Jackson's rebel Missouri State Guard made its way toward southwest Missouri near where Confederate volunteers collected in Arkansas, while Colonel Franz Sigel's Union force occupied Springfield with orders to intercept and block the rebels from reaching the Confederates. The two armies collided near Carthage on July 5, 1861. The battle lasted for ten hours, spread over several miles, and included six separate engagements before the Union army withdrew under the cover of darkness. The New York Times called it "the first serious conflict between the United States troops and the rebels." This book describes the events leading up to the battle, the battle itself, and the aftermath.

Translated as "New City," Carthage was founded in 1842 as the county seat of Jasper in southwest Missouri. The town prospered for two decades until military advances during the Civil War destroyed the entire town and dispersed its population. This volume, assembled by the Powers Museum, offers a pictorial glimpse into the rebuilding and growth of this historic city during its most influential years. The citizens of Carthage quickly rebuilt the city during the late 1860s and early 1870s, and eventually reclaimed its pre-war prominence as an agricultural and trade center located at the edge of the northern prairies and the Ozark foothills. When lead, zinc, and limestone were discovered and developed into prosperous industries, families began to arrive from all over to take advantage of the area's economic opportunities. Carthage's trademark Victorian architecture, still in place today, is a result of the economic affluence of the town during this late nineteenth and early twentieth century period.