Civil War

Title: Wyandotte Constitution
Description: The first page of the Wyandotte Constitution, which became the Constitution of the State of Kansas when Kansas was admitted as the 34th state of the United States of America on January 29, 1861.
Object Type: Image
Date: July 29, 1861

Title: Examination of John R. Hall
Description: This is John R. Hall's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Hall, a 61-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, states that he was born in Kentucky and that he thought General Sterlin Price "ought to have been arrested by Fremont" after the capture of General Mulligan at the First Battle of Lexington. The oath, labeled No. 106 in a bound volume, was signed by Hall on October 6, 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: October 6, 1866

Title: From Joseph Denison to Br. Griffing
Description: This letter, dated January 3, 1861, was written by Joseph Denison in Philadelphia to Br. Griffing. Joseph discusses the relief efforts of the Methodist Church in Kansas, which are being hindered by the threat of war. “Many think that War is inevitable,” he writes, “and affirm that if it does come it will be the end of slavery.” Joseph adds that if more people heard about the difficulties of Kansans, “it would arouse them to a sense of the real suffering in Kansas.”
Date: January 3, 1861

Title: St. Louis Riot
Description: An illustration by M. Hastings published in Harper's Weekly June 1, 1861 depicting the "Camp Jackson Affair" of May 10, 1861, which resulted in the death of 28 civilians.
Object Type: Image
Date: June 1, 1861

Title: Examination of Anderson B. Everett
Description: This unsigned Oath of Loyalty to the United States bears the name of Anderson B. Everett. The document is labeled No. 132 in a bound volume of oaths taken in 1866-1888 by Clay County, Missouri voters.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Nancy Walker Lyon Harris
Description: This ca. 1860 black-and-white photograph depicts Nancy Walker Lyon Harris, who was born in 1803. Nancy’s father, William Lyon, served as clerk of the court when Cass County, Missouri (originally Van Buren County) was first established. Nancy’s husband, Fleming Harris, helped found Harrisonville, Missouri, in Cass County, and served as its first town commissioner. Nancy died in Cass County in 1864.
Object Type: Image

Title: Examination of Thomas Morrison
Description: This is Thomas Morrison's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Morrison, a 65-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, originally from Ireland, states that he remained loyal to the United States Government during the Civil War. He claims that he defended the Union during "a little fight" in Lexington, Missouri. The oath, labeled "No. 5 1/2" in a bound volume, was signed by Morrison in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: From William McNeill Clough to A. Comingo
Description: This letter, dated November 24, 1863, is from William McNeill Clough, Attorney and Notary Public in Leavenworth, Kansas, to Capt. A. Comingo, Provost Marshal of the 6th district of Missouri. Clough responds to Comingo's request for information about a Kansas resident named Daniel Woodson. He states that Woodson has not been in Kansas for a long time and is probably "within the Confederate lines in Virginia." He adds that he is enclosing a copy of the Kansas statutes regarding disloyal citizens.
Date: November 24, 1863

Title: Letters Sent and Endorsements (Commissioner of Musters)
Description: This notebook contains copies of letters sent by Col. B.L.E. Bonneville, Commissioner of Musters, Department of the Missouri, between August 20, 1864 and July 1865. Correspondents include Capt. Ben Sharp, Assistant Commissioner of Musters in St. Joseph, Missouri, and Capt. John G. Quinn, Assistant Commissioner of Musters in Springfield, Missouri. Topics addressed in the correspondence include enrollment of recruits and muster rolls.
Date: August 20, 1864-July 1865

Title: Benjamin (Ben) Broomfield
Description: Charcoal portrait of Ben Broomfield with pullover shirt typical of the guerrillas, hat, and rifle. Ben Broomfield was with Quantrill and Bill Anderson, who "called him his own Indian." Broomfield was part Comanche. He took part in the Lawrence, Kansas, massacre on August 21, 1863. Facts don't correlate about his death. Broomfield was killed either in 1863 or 1864.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: From James H. Buxton to Daniel L. Chandler
Description: In a letter dated April 27, 1862, James H. Buxton writes from Lawrence, Kansas to Daniel L. Chandler. Buxton reports that the soldiers have left Lawrence and gone to Fort Riley, Kansas, although about two or three hundred remain in the hospital. He says he hopes "the war will not last long now for our men is gaining the victry very fast."
Object Type: Letter
Date: April 27, 1862

Title: Military Log Book for 8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry Regiment Company "A"
Description: This book documents the monthly records of the 8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry Regiment Company "A" from June 1864 to September 1864. These records include clothing and equipment inventories, receipt rolls, and list of arms.
Date: June 1864 - September 1864

Title: Examination of James M. Keller
Description: This is James M. Keller's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Keller describes himself as a 59-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri, who was born in Kentucky. He states that he was loyal and obedient to the United States Government during the Civil War and that he "took up arms by going into the Militia." The oath, labeled No. 111 in a bound volume, was signed by Keller on October 6, 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: October 6, 1866

Title: 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Memorial at Fort Scott National Cemetery
Description: A memorial in the Fort Scott National Cemetery honors members of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry who died in a guerrilla attack on Sherwood, Missouri in 1863.
Object Type: Image
Date: 2005

Title: It Went Against Us
Description: Samuel J. Reader painting of the Battle of Mine Creek (or "Little Osage"), Kansas, which occurred October 25, 1864. Reader was a Union prisoner of war captured by the Confederate army; he escaped capture shortly after this battle. Over forty years later in 1906, Reader produced this painting.
Object Type: Image
Date: March 24, 1906

Title: Henry Clay Bruce
Description: Portrait of Liberated Missouri slave Henry Clay Bruce, brother of the first black U.S. Senator Blanche K. Bruce. A literate man, Henry Bruce declared famously that slaves “understood the war to be for their freedom solely, and prayed earnestly and often for the success of the Union cause.”
Object Type: Image

Title: Emancipation Proclamation
Description: Commemorative lithograph celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Thomas Sherwood to Friend Woodward
Description: This letter, dated July 5, 1855, is from Thomas Sherwood in Squaws Leg City to his friend Woodward. Sherwood says that he has just left Pawnee, Kansas, where the Legislature is now in session, and mentions that the Legislature might move to the Shawnee Methodist Mission. He describes a conflict between Kansas Gov. Andrew Reeder and Benjamin Stringfellow, which began when Reeder accused Stringfellow, a Missourian, of voting illegally in Kansas.
Date: July 5, 1855

Title: From John W. Clem to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on August 18, 1859 by John W. Clem in Butler, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Clem, the Sheriff of Bates County, Missouri, reports that James Montgomery and his Jayhawkers have laid siege to Paris, Kansas; they soon intend to cross over into Missouri to free William Wright (alias Pickles), a prisoner being held there for murder and robbery. Clem states that if the Jayhawkers enter Bates County, “I will then call out the entire militia force for defense.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: August 18, 1859

Title: List of Colored Recruits Enlisted, 6th District Missouri
Description: This military roll, ca. 1863-1864, lists the names of "colored recruits" enlisted in the 6th congressional district of Missouri. The soldiers were recruited from Ray, Andrew, Clinton, Lafayette, Pettis, and Saline Counties. The document includes the names of the soldiers' owners and the months of their enlistment.

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

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