Black Hawk's Unforgotten Hero Mystery Cache
Black Hawk's Unforgotten Hero
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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This cache IS NOT at the posted coordinates. Instead these coordinates will take you to a monument that was placed at the homesite of a union soldier, Pvt. James Brownell from Black Hawk County, who died in the Battle of Blue Mills in Missouri during the American Civil War. You can park right beside it.
The Battle of Blue Mills was a battle of the American Civil War that took place on September 17, 1861, south of Liberty, Missouri. Union forces unsuccessfully attempted to prevent 4000 newly recruited pro-Confederate Missouri State Guards troops from northern Missouri from crossing the Missouri River at the Blue Mills Landing to meet Confederate General Sterling Price at Lexington. After a major victory by the Confederate army in southern Missouri at Wilson’s Creek in August, General Price was starting a campaign to take control of Missouri and on September 15 ordered Missouri State Guard troops to concentrate at Lexington. At the same time on the 15th, Union Lt. Col. John Scott led a small force (500 men of the 3rd Iowa Infantry and about 70 Missouri Home Guards) towards Liberty to wait for 1500 Union recruits stationed in St. Joseph to arrive before marching on to Blue Mills to stop the MSG from crossing the river. After arriving in Liberty at dawn on the 17th, Scott waited for the reinforcements as long as he could. At 3:00 pm Scott’s force of 600 men marched without the recruits toward the Blue Mills Landing where the southern troops were actively crossing the Missouri River. In order to block Scott’s advance, State Guard soldiers were positioned in the brush on both sides of the road leading to the landing. At about 4:00 pm, Scott’s troops marched into the ambush. The southern force maintained a strong advantage throughout the hour long battle and Scott gradually withdrew his troops back to Liberty. After sunset the Union troops returned to retrieve their dead and wounded from the field and setup a hospital on the campus of William Jewell College in Liberty. Seventeen Union soldiers killed during the battle were buried on the grounds of the campus. The State Guard force completed their crossing of the river and then marched on to Lexington where they supported General Price and his successful attack at the Battle of Lexington. The 3rd Iowa Infantry was sent from Liberty to Fort Leavenworth and the reinforcements who arrived after the battle was over were sent back to St. Joseph.
See related web page if you wish to view a reenactment of this battle.
To find the cache you will need to use information on the monument and in this text to solve the numbers missing from the following set of coordinates.
N42 A.BC W092 D.EF
A = Day Pvt. Brownell died plus number of Union soldiers killed minus first digit of Post #.
B = Month monument was dedicated.
C = Second digit in the year the battle was fought times E.
D = Same as A minus the number of soldiers from Black Hawk County that died before Pvt. Brownell.
E = Iowa Infantry Regiment # times third digit in Post #.
F = The month Pvt. Brownell died squared.
The cache has room for only the log sheet so BYOP.
You can check coords at Geochecker. (visit link)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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