1 (2) | A (4) | B (20) | C (4) | D (2) | E (1) | F (9) | G (3) | H (2) | I (1) | J (4) | K (1) | L (10) | M (6) | N (2) | O (3) | P (9) | Q (3) | R (5) | S (10) | T (3) | U (2) | W (6)

By Russell S. Perkins, University of Saint Mary

The First Battle of Independence, Missouri, was fought on August 11, 1862, between the 350 men of the outnumbered federal garrison of Independence and nearly 800 mounted Confederates who were recruiting in the eastern portions of Jackson County. While the federal defense was fierce throughout the day, their efforts were hampered by poor reconnaissance and battlefield conduct against Confederates engaged in both regular warfare and guerrilla depredations. By the end of the day, federal forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James T. Buel conditionally surrendered themselves and the city to Colonel Gideon W. Thompson.

By Terry Beckenbaugh, U. S. Air Force Command and Staff College

The Battle of Lexington, Missouri, fought on September 18-20, 1861, was a victory for the Missouri State Guard (MSG) in the early stages of the Civil War. In the short term, the victory boosted the spirits of Missouri secessionists, but the State Guard failed to leverage any long-term gains from the “Battle of the Hemp Bales,” so called because the MSG used hemp bales to encircle the federal position at Lexington.

By Matthew E. Stanley, U. S. Air Force Command and Staff College

The 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry (later the 79th U.S. Colored Infantry) was an African American regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was organized prior to the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and without federal authorization, thus becoming the first black unit to see combat alongside white soldiers during the war in October 1862.

By Matthew E. Stanley, Albany State University

The First Sack of Lawrence occurred on May 21, 1856, when proslavery men attacked and looted the antislavery town of Lawrence, Kansas. The assault escalated the violence over slavery in Kansas Territory during a period that became known as “Bleeding Kansas.” The sacking coincided with South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks’s scandalous caning of abolitionist Republican senator Charles Sumner, which had occurred on May 20. The two events were paired and dramatized by the national media, constituting turning point in the lead up to the Civil War.

By Marc Reyes, University of Connecticut

On March 7, 1827, Colonel Henry Leavenworth received his order to proceed “with four companies of his regiment, ascend the Missouri,” and find a point “on its left bank near the mouth of the Little Platte River and within a range of twenty miles above or below its confluence.” From there, Colonel Leavenworth would “select such position as in his judgment is best calculated for the site a permanent cantonment.” After two months of surveying the area, Colonel Leavenworth found what he was looking for: an area located strategically near the Missouri River but not in danger of being flooded by it.

By Deborah Keating, University of Missouri—Kansas City

Kansas was officially opened to white settlers in 1854, and settlers, lured by promises of cheap land and easy wealth, rushed to the area. As settlements grew behind the westward movement of the frontier line, the federal government built roads and forts to accommodate the migration and to protect and assist the travelers along the trails that led southwest to Santa Fe and Denver, and northwest to Salt Lake City and The Dalles in Oregon. Fort Riley, Kansas, built on the Santa Fe Trail near the confluence of the Kansas and Republican Rivers in 1855, was one of those forts.

By William E. Fischer, Jr., Fort Scott National Historic Site

The town of Fort Scott, established in 1855 on the former frontier fort grounds, quickly became embroiled in the debate over slavery. Populated primarily by those favoring the institution, many townspeople participated in “Bleeding Kansas” chicanery with outlying Free-Staters and abolitionists. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, the town was militarized and fortified to defend the state’s vulnerable southern approaches. But Fort Scott’s rich history even pre-dates these events.

By Matthew E. Stanley, Albany State University

The Free-State Party was an antislavery political coalition that was organized in territorial Kansas in 1855 to oppose proslavery Democrats. From 1855 to 1859, party members thwarted the expansion of slavery into Kansas Territory by forcibly resisting proslavery forces on the ground and drafting antislavery legislation in conjunction with the national Republican Party.

By Zach Garrison, University of Cincinnati

John Charles Frémont became a popular national figure after leading a series of expeditions intended to survey the Far West in the 1840s. The newly formed Republican Party chose Frémont, an outspoken critic of slavery, as their first presidential candidate in 1856. During the first year of the Civil War, Frémont fervently and controversially attacked slavery and slaveholders in Missouri, culminating in his declaration of martial law, which directed that the property of any individual acting against the United States would be confiscated, including slaves. The order engendered outrage, causing President Lincoln to overturn it and relieve Frémont of his command.