In August 1861, Confederate forces from Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and the Cherokee Nation moved to secure Missouri as a Confederate state. Gen. Nathaniel S. Lyon moved his force of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and US Army units to stop them.

At 5:00 a.m., on August 10, just four days before the Iowa regiment was to be mustered out, Gen. Lyon attacked the Confederate forces at Wilson’s Creek. He sent 1,200 troops under Col. Franz Sigel in a disastrous attack on the Confederates’ rear. Gen. Lyon led the remaining 4,200 troops, including the 1st Iowa Infantry, against the Confederate encampment of 12,000 rebels.

For nearly five hours the contest moved back and forth. Gen. Lyon, wounded twice, commanded the action. Company A was placed in support of Totten's Battery and helped repel cavalry and infantry attacks on the Union position. When the general was killed, the battle shifted in favor of the Confederates.

Major Samuel D. Sturgis, 1st U.S. Cavalry, assumed command and held until a lull in the fighting. At this point, with exhausted troops and ammunition running low, Maj. Sturgis retreated toward Springfield, leaving the Confederates in control of much of Missouri.

It is at this point that a gunner from Capt. Totten’s U.S. Battery called for assistance in saving a disabled gun. Private Bouquet came to his aid. Under constant fire of the approaching enemy, Bouquet retrieved a loose horse and roped it to the gun, saving the weapon from capture.

The Union forces lost 944 killed and wounded. The Confederates’ losses are estimated at 1,222 killed, wounded, and missing.