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Title: Charles Robinson
Description: An artist's rendering of Free-State activist Charles Robinson speaking to the Lecompton Territorial Legislature. On October 6, 1856, Free-Staters boycotted the territorial elections that resulted in the second territorial legislature at Lecompton, Kansas. The Free-Staters complained that the options given on the referendum asked voters to choose between making Kansas a slave state or merely banning the new importation of slaves. The latter option would have sanctioned slavery for slaves who were already in Kansas, and its restrictions on new importations of slaves were likely unenforceable.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1856

Title: From Thomas R. Mitchell to J.T. Sweringen
Description: This letter is from Thomas R. Mitchell to J.T. Sweringen. Mitchell writes from Huntsville, Missouri on June 20, 1857, to inform Sweringen that Mrs. Ralston has safely arrived in town: "She found no difficulty in getting along amongst the 'border ruffians.'" He also expresses his concern that crops in Missouri are scarce this season.
Date: June 20, 1857

Title: Edward Payson Fitch, Jr.
Description: This black and white photograph, taken circa 1890, depicts Edward Payson Fitch, Jr., son of Edward and Sarah Fitch. He was born in Lawrence, Kansas in 1863. As a baby, he survived Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, but his family’s house was burned down and his father was killed in the attack.
Object Type: Image

Title: Julia Sumner Fitch
Description: This black and white photograph, taken circa 1890, portrays Julia Sumner Fitch. Julia was born to Edward and Sarah Fitch in Lawrence, Kansas in 1858. At the age of five, she survived Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence, but her family’s house was burned down and her father was killed in the attack.
Object Type: Image

Title: Statement of Wilson Shannon
Description: This statement by Kansas Gov. Wilson Shannon was written ca. December 1855. Shannon describes the series of events leading to the Wakarusa War, beginning with the murder of a Free State supporter named Charles Dow by Franklin Coleman, a proslavery man. To address the subsequent civil unrest in Douglas County, Kansas, Shannon asks General Richardson, General Strickler, and Col. Sumner to supply troops and assist Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones in restoring order.
Object Type: Government Document

Title: Joseph Orville Shelby
Description: Charcoal portrait of General Joseph Orville Shelby in suit coat, vest, shirt, and tie. General Shelby lived in Waverly, Missouri, at the beginning of the Civil War where he raised hemp. He organized a company of State Guards and fought at the Wilson's Creek, Lexington, and Pea Ridge battles. His unit became known as Shelby's Iron Brigade. In the summer of 1862, the Confederate government sent him to organize guerrilla groups in Missouri. After the war, he went to Mexico for a couple years before returning to Missouri. In 1893 until 1897, Shelby was the U.S. Marshal of the western district of Missouri. He died February 13, 1897, and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri. (O'Flaherty, Daniel. "General Jo Shelby, Undefeated Rebel." Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1954 [ MVSC 92 S544O ]).
Object Type: Image

Title: Proclamation to the State of Missouri
Description: In response to the federal government’s order that all eligible men enroll for the draft, Upton Hays and William Clarke Quantrill issue this proclamation to the state of Missouri. Hays and Quantrill state that all Missourians joining their forces will be furnished with arms and ammunition. “Any one who shall be found guilty of reporting to any military post the whereabouts of any Southern person shall be shot,” while men eligible for military duty who leave the state will be deemed “enemies of the ‘South’ and treated accordingly.”
Object Type: Circular
Date: August 4, 1862

Title: From Thomas Carney to James L. McDowell
Description: This letter, dated June 26, 1863, was written by Kansas Governor Thomas Carney in Washington, DC, to James L. McDowell. Carney writes that Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, has refused to approve Major General Schofield’s order to raise a regiment. Carney says that if necessary he will “foot the bill” himself to defend “helpless women and children” from the “brutal...ruffian raids that have so long cursed our state.”
Date: June 26, 1863

Title: From William Clarke Quantrill to William W. Scott
Description: William Clarke Quantrill writes a letter from Olathe, Kansas to William W. Scott on January 22, 1858. Quantrill reports the results of a recent election on the Lecompton Constitution, which he refers to as the "Lecompton swindle." He mentions a recent skirmish at Fort Scott and declares it "a pity" that the Kansas settlers "had not shot every Missourian that was there." He also calls James Henry Lane "as good a man as we have here" and describes Kansas Democrats as "rascals."
Date: January 22, 1858

Title: From George E. Young to My Dear Father
Description: This letter, dated August 23, 1863, is from George E. Young in Minneola, Kansas to his father. Young writes that he was in Lawrence on the day of Quantrill's Raid and "came very near being killed." He describes how the attackers approached the boarding house where he was staying, ordered all the women and children to leave, then lined up the men and shot at them. Young tells his father that he ran away and hid in a nearby cellar, narrowly escaping death.
Date: August 23, 1863

Title: William (Bill) Hulse
Description: Charcoal portrait drawing of a seated William Hulse (Bill) dressed in shirt with pullover decorated on edges typical of Quantrill's guerrillas, tie, and hat. A member of Quantrill's guerrillas, Hulse participated in the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1863, and the massacre at Centralia, Missouri, September 1864. On July 26, 1865, he surrendered at Samuel's Depot, Kentucky. Hulse died in 1890 and is buried in the Lee's Summit, Missouri, cemetery.
Object Type: Image

Title: Jesse James
Description: Charcoal portrait of Jesse James dressed in suit coat, shirt, and cravat. 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 Ford, April 3, 1882.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Leigh R. Webber to Miss Brown
Description: Leigh R. Webber writes a letter from Lawrence, Kansas to Miss Brown on October 22, 1859. He reports on recent events in Kansas politics, mentioning that Charles Robinson was nominated for Governor and James Henry Lane plans to run for Senate if Kansas is admitted to the Union. He reports that John Brown has caused "quite a row in the East" and criticizes Brown's "insane madness against the Slave Power."
Date: October 22, 1859

Title: Fletcher Taylor with Frank and Jesse James
Description: Charcoal drawing of three of Quantrill's guerrillas: Fletcher Taylor (left), Frank James (sitting), and Jesse James (right). Fletch and Jesse are dressed in suits and hats; Frank is hatless and in uniform.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Unidentified Civil War Soldier or Guerrilla
Description: Charcoal portrait of unidentified person in cloak, shirt, and hat with plume andfive stars on the hatband. Drawing is signed by the artist with "93" immediately below the signature. Person in this drawing is taken from another drawing (MVO-101F).
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Diary Entries
Description: These unsigned diary entries discuss the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the election of the Bogus Legislature and subsequent protests, the arrest of John Brown, and violent Bushwhacker raids. The author describes the “tragic + bloody + exciting scenes” of life on the border of Kansas and Missouri.
Object Type: Diary
Date: 1854-1855

Title: The Kansas War & Other Matters
Description: This poem was written in 1863 by S.S. Wiciszg, a soldier serving near Hardeeville, South Carolina. Wiciszg describes himself as "a soldier just from Lawrence" and decries the violence and guerrilla warfare in Kansas during the border wars. The poem condemns the Border Ruffians and the Doniphan Tigers. It also criticizes the political climate, and mentions the Free Soilers, Wilson Shannon, Horace Greely, and Arthur Tappan.
Object Type: Document
Date: 1863

Title: Peyton Long
Description: Charcoal portrait of Peyton Long in suit coat, vest, shirt, and tie. Peyton Long enlisted May 1861 in Captain Tom McCarty's company of John T. Hughes regiment, of the Confederacy, but in January 1862, he joined Silas Gordon and in the summer of 1863, Quantrill. It's reported that Long killed more men during the Lawrence, Kansas, massacre on August 21, 1863, than any other raider. Long was killed in Meade County, Kentucky, during a skirmish around April 30, 1864. The "Liberty Tribune" (June 21, 1901) said he was killed in 1865.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: From Wilson Shannon to Franklin Pierce
Description: This letter, dated June 27, 1856, was written by Kansas Gov. Wilson Shannon in St. Louis to President Franklin Pierce. Shannon informs Pierce that after recent “troubles” in Kansas Territory, the area is no longer threatened by any “illegal military bodies” as far as he knows. Shannon believes that the presence of federal troops helped to restore peace, and states that these troops should be maintained in Kansas to help suppress future conflicts. Shannon is particularly concerned about the threat of civil unrest if the Free State legislature meets, as planned, on July 4, 1856.
Object Type: Letter
Date: June 27, 1856

Title: From James Griffing to Augusta
Description: This letter, dated June 8, 1855, was sent to Augusta by James Griffing at Walnut Cabin. James discusses frontier life and news of friends in the area, and says that he plans to dispose of his current claim and secure one near Topeka, Kansas. He reassures Augusta that Kansas remains safe despite a violent episode of election fraud perpetrated by “a gang of drunken, worthless villains.”
Date: June 8, 1855

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

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