Writing to his sister in the fall of 1861, Paola, Kansas, resident and store owner Allan T. Ward complained of the numerous worries sparked by the Civil War. Similar to many residents along the Missouri-Kansas border, Ward had suffered through years of “Bleeding Kansas” troubles before the war even began, and he noted that the start of the Civil War only made things worse. Ward summarized his frustrations, writing “we would have no cause of complaint if we could only have peace, but alas, war with all its horrors is upon us, and of all wars that ever a country was cursed with a civil war is the worst.”