This has possibly already been discussed and figured out in this forum, but I haven’t found it so bear with me if you will. In working on the geography of the Marmaduke and Price raids, I have encountered numerous references to bridges over Big River and Mill Creek being burned. And yet, the geography does not always seem to jive. So I am trying to straighten this out in my own mind and would appreciate any corrections.

During Marmaduke’s 1863 raid to Cape Girardeau, a detachment of ~90 men under Captain Muse (apparently actually led by one Lt. Bledsoe) were sent from Fredericktown north to cut the Iron Mountain Railroad, preferably at the bridge over the Big River (sometimes referred to as Big Creek) near Blackwell. Finding it too well-guarded, they instead attacked a bridge over Mill Creek, reportedly about 3 miles south of the Big River bridge. From Muse’s description, I am guessing that this would be one of numerous crossings of Mill Creek in the vicinity of the village of Tiff. This is approximately on the border of Washington and St. Francois Counties. I have seen interpretations that this attack was made at Irondale or Mineral Point but it does not appear to be so, by Muse’s account.

Their main target was apparently the bridge previously burned by Jeff Thompson in October of 1861 as part of the fighting at Blackwell.

During Price’s raid in 1864, Shelby’s men also burned a railroad bridge over the Big River and nearby bridges over Mill Creek. From those accounts, these are not the same bridges previously attacked. Benjamin Elliott’s men burned the Big River (again, “creek”) and then advanced to Irondale. So this bridge would likely be the one located 1.5 miles north of Irondale. Frank Gordon’s men rode into Mineral Point, burning the bridge there (over Mill Creek) and one further downstream (north) which is also over Mill Creek.

To further confuse the issue there is also a Mill Creek which empties into the Big River just upstream from Irondale. But unless I have my geography wrong, the various bridges burned over the Big River and Mill Creek at different times, were all different bridges, not the same.