Cumberland Academy

On Friday September 11, and Saturday September 12, students from Lindenwood University in St. Charles along with students from Truman State University will participate in an archeology survey to learn more about Civil War battlefield archeology. Members of metal detecting clubs from St. Louis and Jefferson City are also participating in the project.

The archeology survey is based on the scene of the 1862 Battle of Kirksville that will be under the supervision of Dr. Steve Dasovich, Chair of Lindenwood’s Department of Anthropology and Sociology, and Director of its archaeological research program.

The Battle of Kirksville occurred on August 6, 1862, and is considered the most significant action during Joseph Porter’s Confederate raid into North Missouri in that year.

The focus of this survey in on Kirksville’s Memorial Park, which was the location of Union artillery during the battle. At the time of the battle, the Memorial Park site was occupied by a building constructed for the Cumberland Academy. Later the building on the site served as the first classrooms of the North Missouri Normal School, predecessor of Truman State University.