The battle ended the last major Confederate offensive west of the Mississippi River, and for the remainder of the war the United States Army maintained solid control over most of Missouri.

Westport (now a part of Kansas City, Missouri) had already established its place in history by the time Union and Confederate forces clashed there in 1864.

John Calvin McCoy, known as the "Father of Kansas City", had laid out the town, and pioneers traveling along the Oregon, California and Santa Fe Trails all passed through it on their way West.

Rosecrans's cavalry under Major General Alfred Pleasonton set out in pursuit of Price's force, accompanied by a large detachment of infantry from the Army of the Tennessee under Andrew J. Smith.

After his defeat at the Battle of Ft. Davidson, Price realized that St. Louis was far too heavily fortified for his rather small force (12,000 men), so he turned west to threaten Jefferson City.

Curtis was only initially able to muster about 4,000 volunteers; he asked Kansas governor Thomas Carney to call out the state militia to bolster his forces.

However, once Price had turned west toward Jefferson City, Carney relented and Maj. Gen. George Dietzler took command of a division of Kansas Militia that now joined Curtis's Army of the Border.

[2] General Curtis sent the bulk of his 1st Division under Gen. James Blunt to confront the Confederates at Lexington, approximately forty miles east of Kansas City, on October 19.

Again, at the Little Blue River on October 21, Blunt was forced to retire — but not without slowing Price enough for a pursuing Federal cavalry division under Alfred Pleasonton to close the gap between himself and the Rebels.

With about 500 wagons and 5,000 head of cattle, Price first needed a ford for his supply trains to cross the Blue River near Westport.

Two other Confederate divisions, under Shelby and James Fagan, were poised to assault Blunt along Brush Creek the next day, hoping to defeat him before Pleasonton could arrive on the field in force.

[citation needed] Anticipating Price's impending attack, Blunt had positioned his three available brigades along Brush Creek, while a fourth under Col. Charles Blair was en route from Kansas City.

Also at this crucial hour, Col. Blair's brigade arrived and Curtis heard Pleasonton's guns engaging the Confederates at nearby Byram's Ford.

His spirits lifted, the Union commander rode to the front lines and personally directed Blair's troops into battle west of Jennison.

His scouts found a local farmer named George Thoman, who was eager to help the Federals as the Confederates had absconded with his horse the previous night.

Meanwhile, Blunt continued to push Jennison and Ford up the rise across Brush Creek, making slow progress until the 9th Wisconsin opened fire upon the Confederate flank and rear.

[citation needed] As disaster was befalling Shelby and Fagan, a similar fate was happening to Price's rearguard, under Marmaduke, at Byram's Ford.

Shelby's colleague General Marmaduke had subsequently established his own defensive line on the west bank of the river to hold off Pleasanton's cavalry, which was pressing them hard from the east.

[citation needed] The Confederates pulled back to their last line of defense, along the road south of Forest Hill (present day Gregory Blvd), with Colonel Jennison leading the pursuit.

One Federal battery had just unlimbered when Colonel James H. McGhee's Arkansas Cavalry charged down Wornall's Lane in an attempt to capture it.

[citation needed] Shelby sent a brigade under Colonel Sidney D. Jackman to secure his wagon trains, but these had already been removed by order of General Price.

Jackman was instead intercepted by General Fagan, who alerted him to the massed Union cavalry (Pleasonton's) which had just crossed the Big Blue River to the east.

[citation needed] Price's men set fire to prairie grass in the area to create a smoke screen to cover their withdrawal.

They would chase Price through Kansas and southern Missouri, engaging him at the Marais des Cygnes, Mine Creek, the Marmiton River, and finally at Newtonia, forcing Price to withdraw into Indian Territory, from which he eventually returned to Arkansas via Texas, and ultimately leaving the Confederate leader with less than 6,000 survivors from his initial force of 12,000 when his campaign officially ended on November 1, 1864.

Frederick Benteen, who assumed command of a brigade at Byram's Ford, would subsequently fight with George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Thomas Theodore Crittenden served as governor of Missouri and was later buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, scene of fighting during Price's retreat from Westport.

In 1906, local historian Paul Jenkins published his Battle of Westport, while the Byram's Ford engagement was reenacted in Swope Park in 1912.

[11] During the 1920s, civic leaders under H. H. Crittenden of the Missouri Valley Historical Society conceived a plan to save the Westport battle sites near present-day Loose Park and Byram's Ford.

The mayor and council of Kansas City passed ordinances recognizing these sites; this was followed by the introduction of a bill in 1924 in the United States Congress to create a National Military Park.

Title was transferred to the Kansas City Parks Department in April 1995, and archaeological surveys in 1996 revealed artifacts from the battle in and around the Byram's Ford area.