Entries by Topic
Read encyclopedia entries that describe and analyze significant people, places, and events of the Civil War on the Western Border. Each of these have been written by scholars or their advanced graduate students and edited by Drs. Bryan Le Beau and Jason Roe.
View the complete list of our Suggested Readings about the Civil War on the Western Border »
Battles & Other Events
(chronological order)
- Wakarusa War (November-December 1855)
- First Sack of Lawrence (May 21, 1856)
- Pottawatomie Massacre (May 24-25, 1856)
- Battle of Black Jack (June 2, 1856)
- Battle of Osawatomie (August 30, 1856)
- Marais des Cygnes Massacre (May 19, 1858)
- Battle of Boonville (June 17, 1861)
- Battle of Wilson's Creek (August 10, 1861)
- Battle of Lexington (aka Battle of the Hemp Bales, Sep. 13-20, 1861)
- Sacking of Osceola (September 22-23, 1861)
- First Battle of Independence (August 11, 1862)
- Battle of Lone Jack (August 15-16, 1862)
- Battle of Island Mound (October 27-29, 1862)
- Collapse of the Union Prison in Kansas City (August 13, 1863)
- Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence (August 21, 1863)
- General Order No. 11 (August 25, 1863)
- Shelby's Raid (Sep.-Nov. 1863)
- Price's Missouri Expedition (also known as Price’s Raid) (Sep.-Oct. 1864)
- Centralia Massacre (September 27, 1864)
- Battle of the Little Blue River (October 21, 1864)
- Battle of Westport (October 23, 1864)
- Battle of Mine Creek (October 25, 1864)
Entities & Locations
- 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers (later the 79th U.S. Colored Infantry)
- Bogus Legislature
- Border Ruffians
- Bushwhackers
- Fort Leavenworth
- Fort Riley
- Fort Scott, Kansas
- Free-State Party
- Jayhawkers
- New England Emigrant Aid Company
- Red Legs
- Quindaro, Kansas
- Underground Railroad
Concepts & Law
- Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
- General Order No. 11
- Kansas-Nebraska Act
- Leavenworth Constitution
- Lecompton Constitution
- Popular Sovereignty
- Topeka Constitution
- Wyandotte Constitution
Biographies
- Adair, Florella Brown
- Anderson, William “Bloody Bill”
- Anthony, Daniel Read
- Atchison, David R.
- Bingham, George Caleb
- Blunt, James Gillpatrick
- Brown, John
- Buchanan, James
- Carney, Thomas
- Curtis, Samuel R.
- Douglas, Stephen A.
- Ewing, Thomas Jr.
- Frémont, John C.
- Gamble, Hamilton R.
- Geary, John W.
- Hall, Willard P.
- Halleck, Henry Wager
- Jackson, Claiborne Fox
- Jennison, Charles R.
- Lane, James Henry
- Lecompte, Samuel Dexter
- Lincoln, Abraham
- Lovejoy, Julia Louisa
- Lyon, Nathaniel
- Marmaduke, John S.
- Montgomery, James
- Nichols, Clarina
- Pierce, Franklin
- Pleasonton, Alfred
- Plumb, Preston B.
- Pomeroy, Samuel Clarke
- Price, Sterling
- Quantrill, William Clarke
- Reeder, Andrew Horatio
- Rice, Spotswood
- Robinson, Charles
- Robinson, Sara
- Schofield, John McAllister
- Shannon, Wilson
- Shelby, Joseph Orville
- Sigel, Franz
- Singleton, Benjamin “Pap”
- Stringfellow, Benjamin F.
- Sumner, Charles
- Thayer, Eli
- Thompson, M. Jeff
- Wattles Family
- Woodson, Daniel