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Title: Discharge of Nathaniel B. Mitchell
Description: These are the official discharge papers for Nathaniel B. Mitchell, who served as a private under Confederate Captain John S. Percival in the Missouri 2nd Infantry from June to December 1861. Mitchell enlisted at Camp Holloway in Jackson County, Missouri, and was discharged in Osceola, Missouri. The document, dated December 11, 1861, notes that Mitchell was discharged after completing his six-month term of service.
Date: December 11, 1861

Title: James Hicklin Documents
Description: These documents attest that James Hicklin, a citizen of Lexington, Missouri, provided supplies and money to the Union army several times during the course of the war. Hicklin purchased $2,000 in state defense bonds on June 15, 1861, and received orders of protection from the army in February, September, and November 1862. He gave an oath of loyalty to the United States on July 8, 1862, which limited his movements to “Lafayette and Saline Counties.”
Object Type: Legal Document

Title: Order for Funding from Lexington, Missouri
Description: This is an order for funding issued by the headquarters of the Sixth Military District E.M.M., Lexington, Missouri. The order, issued by Brigadier General Vaughn and dated October 29, 1862, declares that “the disloyal citizens of the City and Township of Lexington are assessed $15,000 for the subsistence of the troops, the families of such as are in indigent circumstances, and refugees.” Recipients of the order are directed to pay their “proportion of the said assessment” at headquarters within ten days.
Date: October 29, 1862

Title: Excerpt from George Palmer's Diary
Description: Union Captain George Palmer’s diary, written July-August, 1861, records daily life in his company of dragoons. Palmer writes of meeting “Col. Grant,” searching a suspicious barge, and receiving orders from General Pope. He also hears news of a “battle at Springfield,” presumably the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. Palmer recalls that during a storm in camp, 100 men from Col. Williams’ regiment “stripped of all their clothes and ran out in the rain,” causing “much merriment.”
Object Type: Diary

Title: From T.E. Brawner to Sue Brawner
Description: This letter, from January 12, 1862, is from T.E. Brawner in Linneus, Missouri, to Sue Brawner. T.E., presumed to be a Union soldier, writes “I am now out of the service but if the Rebels make their raids in this State again this summer, you will no doubt hear of me being in the service again.” T.E. notes that, regardless of the War, he has not "lost any of my love for the old stars and stripes." He sends his love for his son Eddie, asking Sue to “tell him Pa wants to see him more than ever.”
Date: January 12, 1862

Title: Discharge for Richard H. Brown
Description: These are the official discharge papers for Richard H. Brown, who served as a private in the Fifth Regiment of the Missouri U.S. Reserve Corps from June 14, 1861 to August 11, 1861. The document, dated August 11, 1861, notes that Brown was born in Manchester, England and worked as a “Boundary man and Iron worker.” The 28-year-old Brown was discharged at Lexington, Missouri at the end of his term of service.
Date: August 11, 1861

Title: From S.S. Sawyer to John P. Bowman
Description: This telegram, dated March 9, 1861, was sent by S.S. Sawyer in Jefferson City, Missouri, to John P. Bowman (presumably the sheriff of Lexington, Missouri). Sawyer relates details of a committee report, presumably that of the Missouri State Convention’s Committee on Federal Relations, which was meeting in St. Louis to consider secession. Sawyer states that the committee is "against secession, against coercion, [and] for Crittenden amendment." He notes that "the majority [are] for national, the minority for border slave state convention."
Object Type: Telegram
Date: March 9, 1861

Title: From E.R. Brawner to Sue Brawner
Description: This letter, dated November 10, 1861, is from E.R. Brawner in Linneus, Missouri, to her sister Sue Brawner. E.R. Brawner writes that her friend Greg is recruiting for a cavalry company. Greg is also making plans with another man known as “Jack the Jayhawker” to “go down to Lexington and clear it out.” E.R. Brawner notes that she tried to dissuade Jack from this plan, but he is a “dare devil” and would not listen.
Object Type: Letter
Date: November 10, 1861

Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865