Thanks to well-constructed Union defenses and some rather unorthodox battle tactics by the Confederates, casualties had been kept to a minimum. Price had had his men advance against the Union lines while hiding behind large bales of water-soaked hemp. The oddly practical idea had worked quite well in the face of heavy enemy fire, and would go down in history as The Battle of the Hemp Bales.
Everett Peabody had been actively involved in the Union defense, and received two fairly minor but painful wounds for his efforts. The first resulted from a spent bullet striking him in the chest, knocking him off his feet and temporarily paralyzing him. (A spent bullet is one that has lost most of its hitting power, either from reaching its maximum distance and/or from striking another object. Even if not fatal, a spent bullet can still cause serious injury.)
In an example of remarkably bad luck, Peabody was struck again while being carried from the field following his first injury. This second bullet struck him in the ankle and lodged in the middle of his foot, causing an extremely painful wound. The two injuries would incapacitate the Union officer for several weeks. The wound to his foot was still not fully healed by the time of Shiloh the following April.
A New Designation
Following their capture at Lexington the Union defenders had been paroled by Price and sent on their way, on the promise that they would not take up arms again until an official prisoner exchange took place. (Paroles were quite common at this time. It saved the victor from having to care for hundreds or thousands of prisoners in the middle of an active campaign.) Despite his success at Lexington, Price's campaign would soon fizzle out and his army was forced to pull back to Arkansas. For the moment at least, Missouri's status as a Union-held state was safe.
