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Title: Warrant for the Arrest of Gen. John Reid
Description: This warrant for the arrest of Gen. John Reid was issued on September 19, 1856 by S.G. Cato, Assistant Justice of the Supreme Court of Kansas Territory. The warrant accuses Reid and others of sacking and burning the town of Osawatomie, Kansas, kidnapping two people, and stealing property worth several thousand dollars on August 30, 1856.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: September 19, 1856

Title: Jesse Hamlett
Description: Charcoal portrait of Jesse Hamlett (sometimes spelled Hamlet) in suit coat, vest, tie, and hat. Little is known about Jesse Hamlett. He appears to have served under William Anderson and was part of the Centralia, Missouri, September 27, 1864, massacre. He also may have been one of the U.S. Marshalls at Lexington, Missouri, after the war.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: David Rice Atchison
Description: Half-length daguerreotype portrait of David Rice Atchison, facing three-quarters to the left. Atchison served as Democratic Senator from Missouri from 1843-1855.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1844-1860

Title: Jesse James
Description: Charcoal portrait of Jesse James dressed in suit coat, vest, shirt, tie, and hat. In 1863, James joined Quantrill's Guerrillas and after the Civil War became leader of the James-Younger gang. He was shot by a new member of his gang, Robert (Bob) Ford, April 3, 1882.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: William Clarke Quantrill
Description: Portrait of William Clarke Quantrill from the book "Quantrill and the Border Wars" by William Elsey Connelley (1st Ed., 1909).
Object Type: Image

Title: From Frederick Starr to Dear Father
Description: This letter was written on March 31, 1855, by Frederick Starr in Weston, Missouri, to his father. Starr describes the election fraud that took place at the Kansas legislative elections on March 30, calling it “a high handed outrage.” He says that hundreds of armed, pro-slavery Missourians came into Kansas to disrupt the election, and that more than 800 illegal votes were cast in Leavenworth, Kansas. Starr asks his father to publish the information in his letter in the Albany Evening Journal, without mentioning his name.
Date: March 31, 1855

Title: Alexander Franklin (Frank) James
Description: Charcoal portrait of Frank James dressed in what appears to be a Confederate cavalry uniform. Frank James, the older brother of Jesse, first joined the Missouri State Guard, but later became a member of Quantrill's guerrillas. Frank took part in many Civil War battles and skirmishes, including the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863, and the Centralia massacre. He surrendered at Samuel's Depot, Kentucky, at the end of the war. He was a member of the James-Younger gang and participated in numerous robberies, and although tried for some of these, was acquitted. He died of a stroke February 15, 1915. He is buried in the Hill family private cemetery near Kansas City.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: This letter, dated September 21, 1856, is from Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas to his parents in Massachusetts. He tells them that he and his army regiment marched to Franklin the previous week in an attempt to defend the town from Border Ruffians. The Ruffians rode into town, burned several buildings, robbed Fitch of everything he owned, and then “dispersed in different directions . . . stealing and murdering as they went.” Fitch mentions his suspicion that Governor Geary is a traitor who has negotiated with the Border Ruffians.
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 21, 1856-September 28, 1856

Title: Unidentified Man
Description: Charcoal portrait of unidentified man with suit coat, shirt, and tie. Drawing is signed by the artist with "93" immediately below the signature.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Quantrill's Flag
Description: Small cotton and wool flag dropped during Quantrill's raid on Olathe on September 7, 1862. The flag resembles the Confederate First National Flag, nicknamed the "Stars and Bars," however, the canton displays either a fist or palmetto tree and "Quant" for Quantrill.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Thomas McCleary to Hugh D. Fisher
Description: On September 25, 1863, Thomas McCleary writes from Blairsville to Rev. Hugh D. Fisher. McCleary says he was glad to hear of Fisher’s “Providential escape from the hands of the Rebbels.” He expresses hope that Kansas may rise in her strength and demolish border ruffians…and all that opposes freedom.”
Date: September 25, 1863

Title: William (Bill) T. Anderson
Description: Charcoal portrait of Bill Anderson in jacket with top button closed, shirt, carvat, and a brimmed hat with a lone star on the upturned brim and embellished with an ostrich plume. Bill Anderson was a chief lieutenant under William C. Quantrill and earned the sobriquet "Bloody Bill." He later was a lieutenant under George Todd. He was part of the Lawrence massacre on August 21, 1863, and responsible for much of the Centralia, Missouri, massacre on September 27, 1864. He was killed October 26, 1864, near Orrick (Ray County), Missouri.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: From Frederick Starr to Unknown
Description: This is an excerpt from a letter written on December 1, 1854 by Frederick Starr to an unknown recipient. Starr describes a recent “outrage on the ballot box” during elections in Kansas, when “Some 1200 or 1400 Missourians armed with bowie-knives & revolvers took the polls.” Starr says that many free-soilers were unable to reach the polls at all, and declares that “Big times are coming.” He adds that circumstances in Weston, Missouri “look dark.”
Date: December 1, 1854

Title: Unidentified Civil War Soldier or Guerrilla
Description: Charcoal portrait of unidentified Civil War soldier or guerrilla in uniform with cloak. Drawing is signed by the artist with "93" immediately below the signature. Person in this drawing is from another drawing in this collection (MVO-101F).
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Unidentified Guerrilla
Description: Charcoal portrait of man in typical guerrilla overshirt, wearing a hat with a plume, and holding two crossed pistols. Drawing is signed by the artist with "93" immediately below the signature.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Tender of Service of Martin White
Description: In this document, created October 5, 1856, a volunteer company of mounted riflemen in Lykins County, Kansas, tenders its service to the Governor of Kansas Territory. The document includes a list of the company’s officers, including Captain Martin White.
Date: October 5, 1856

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: In this January 20, 1856 letter to his parents in Massachusetts, Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas writes that Missourians launched an attack near Leavenworth on Election Day and tried to confiscate the ballot boxes. Fitch predicts an imminent war, and laments: “How long O Lord must we suffer thus. I hope you will raise an army in the East and March through Missouri and Proclaim liberty to the slave.” Included is a copy of a September 15, 1855 broadside published by John Speer that challenges the Bogus Legislature.
Date: January 20, 1856

Title: David Rice Atchison
Description: Photograph of a David Rice Atchison painting by George Caleb Bingham, located in Atchison's home in Clinton County, MO.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: Kansas Territorial Records
Description: These documents include letters and affidavits documenting election fraud that occurred in Leavenworth, Johnson, Coffey, and Linn Counties in Kansas Territory. Kansas citizens voted on January 4, 1858 to determine the fate of the Lecompton Constitution and to elect state officials. These documents refer to incidents of “enormous fraud” including men voting repeatedly under false names, falsifying poll books, and destroying ballot boxes “by violence and force.”
Object Type: Government Document
Date: January 5, 1858-March 15, 1858

Title: Unidentified Man in Uniform
Description: Charcoal portrait of unidentified guerrilla dressed in coat or cloak, shirt, and hat similar to a beret adorned with a plume and three large and two small stars on the headband. Subject holds a pistol. Drawing is signed by the artist with "93" immediately below the signature.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

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

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