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A bridge named after and maintained by Napolean Bonaparte Blanton spanned the Wakarusa River to the south of Lawrence and was the site of several border war events.
In a controversial attempt to quell guerrilla warfare along the Missouri-Kansas border, Union General Thomas Ewing issued General Order No. 11, exiling several thousand people from their homes in western Missouri. The August 25, 1863, orders required that “all persons” living in Jackson, Cass, Bates, and northern Vernon counties “remove from their present places of residence.”
On September 27, 1864, roughly 80 guerrillas under the command of William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson stopped a train outside of Centralia, Missouri. They then asked for a volunteer from among the Union soldiers on the train. Fully expecting to be executed, Sergeant Thomas M. Goodman stepped forward. Instead of killing the sergeant, however, the guerrillas shot the line of 22 unarmed Union soldiers.
The “bushwhackers” were Missourians who fled to the rugged backcountry and forests to live in hiding and resist the Union occupation of the border counties. They fought Union patrols, typically by ambush, in countless small skirmishes, and hit-and-run engagements.
Just to the east of Platte City, Missouri, the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad crossed over the Platte River - at least until September 3, 1861 when pro-Southern bushwhackers undermined the structure and sent a train plunging into the water below, killing up to 20 passengers.
Before William Clarke Quantrill was a feared Missouri bushwhacker, he joined with jayhawkers to plan a raid that would liberate slaves from a slaveholding Missouri farm.