Civil War

Title: Dred Scott v. Sandford
Description: This is the full text of the decision in the U.S. Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford. Scott, a slave, sued his master for freedom after being taken to live in states where the Missouri Compromise had rendered slavery illegal. On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney handed down a 7-2 ruling that Scott did not have the right to file a federal lawsuit because African Americans “were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.”
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: March 6, 1857

Title: John Brown's Sharps Rifle
Description: Photograph of John Brown's personal Sharps rifle, which he carried during his Kansas campaign of 1856.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: Examination of Porter Groom
Description: This is Porter Groom's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Groom, a 23-year-old Missouri native, states that he manifested his loyalty during the war by "staying at home and attending to my business." The oath is No. 227 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: From John W. Geary to Israel Donalson
Description: Kansas Gov. John W. Geary writes a letter from Lecompton, Kansas to U.S. Marshal Israel Donalson on November 24, 1856. Geary inquires about a rumor that a large number of prisoners who were in Donalson’s custody have escaped. He asks Donalson how many prisoners escaped, what their names are, and what steps have been taken to find them.
Object Type: Letter
Date: November 24, 1856

Title: Gen. W.S. Harney
Description: Portrait of General William S. Harney.
Object Type: Image

Title: Examination of James M. Moore
Description: This is James M. Moore's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Moore, a 39-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri, states that he was born in Kentucky and that he served in the militia during the Civil War. The oath, labeled No. 129 in a bound volume, was signed by Moore in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on February 20, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair in Grafton, Ohio, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella says that the citizens of York “held a meeting and raised over $80.00 for Kansas.” Florella adds that there are many misconceptions about sending relief funds to Kansas: “I could have sent two or three hundred dollars to our town, if it had not been for the idea that all must go through the hands of the committee at Atchison.”
Date: February 20, 1861

Title: Examination of James H. Gant
Description: This is James H. Gant's Oath of Loyalty to the United States, signed October 13, 1866. Gant, a 78-year-old North Carolina resident, states that he has resided in Missouri since 1838. He says he "told [Col.] Penick to enroll me as loyal" in 1862, but admits that Penick required him to give bond "against my consent." The oath is No. 164 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: October 13, 1866

Title: From Sara Robinson to Charles S. Gleed
Description: This letter is from Sara Robinson, abolitionist and wife of Kansas Gov. Charles Robinson, to Charles S. Gleed, a businessman in Topeka. Robinson writes from Lawrence, Kansas on January 7, 1881 and criticizes an "error" in an article Gleed wrote: "[you] connected John Brown's name with the safety of Lawrence. He really never had anything to do with its defense in any way." Attached to the letter is an unsigned document describing Brown's role in the "Invasion of the 2800" on September 14, 1856.
Date: January 7, 1881

Title: From George M. Beebe to Jefferson Davis
Description: George M. Beebe writes a letter from Doniphan County, Kansas to Jefferson Davis on June 9, 1860. Beebe reacts to the news that Davis and A.G. Brown have "indefinitely postponed" his confirmation as Secretary of Kansas Territory. He defends his status as a Democrat, insisting that accusations of his alliance with the Free State Party are false. He claims that he has fought in favor of slavery and remains committed to the cause.
Date: June 9, 1860

Title: Petition of Citizens of Wise County
Description: This petition, dated December 5, 1856, is addressed to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary and is signed by C. Columbia, Esq., on behalf of 20 families of recent settlers to Wise County, Kansas. Columbia claims that the families staked their claims based on a map that showed the nearest Indian reservation 25 miles away. John Montgomery, Indian Agent, recently informed the families that their land belonged to the Kansas Indian Agency and ordered them to leave within three days. Columbia asks Geary to stay Montgomery’s proceedings, “until the circumstances of the case may be inquired into, and determined in a just and lawful manner.”
Object Type: Petition
Date: December 5, 1856

Title: Rescue of Jacob Branson, 1855
Description: Woodcut depicting the rescue of Free-Stater Jacob Branson following his arrest for threats made to Franklin Coleman. A skirmish broke out in the Wakarusa River Valley near Lawrence, Kansas, following the murder of Charles Dow, a Free-State settler who was killed by the proslavery Franklin Coleman. While the murder was not about politics, the resulting political unrest led Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones to raise a militia and place Lawrence under siege. The "war" claimed one more victim, a Free-Stater named Thomas Barber.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1855

Title: From Mary Savage to Dear Mother and Sister
Description: Mary Savage writes a letter to her mother and sister on October 10 and 12, 1863, describing Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence. She writes of the “fiendish pleasure” the attackers took in “witnessing the death agonies of our best citizens Murdered in cold blood.” She mentions helping soldiers and taking care of her minister’s family after their house was burned down in the raid. Mary says she fears an imminent guerrilla attack and tells her family, “we live in a state of constant excitement . . . our citizens are all armed . . . but their mode of warfare is so treacherous that we cannot have a fair fight.”
Date: October 10, 1863-October 12, 1863

Title: Examination of Thomas S. Dabney
Description: This is Thomas S. Dabney's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Dabney, a 54-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, originally from Virginia, states that during the Civil War, he demonstrated his loyalty to the United States Government by "fulfilling all my duties to the best of my ability and skill." The oath, No. 4 in a bound volume, was signed by Dabney in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Examination of J.T.V. Thompson
Description: This is an unsigned Oath of Loyalty to the United States, No. 5 in a bound volume of oaths taken in 1866-1888 by Clay County, Missouri voters. The document bears the name of J.T.V. Thompson, a resident of Liberty, Missouri.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Battle of Missionary Ridge
Description: Kurz & Allison lithograph of the Battle of Missionary Ridge, which occurred on November 23-25, 1863, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Object Type: Image

Title: Thomas Hart Benton
Description: Portrait of Missouri political figure, Thomas Hart Benton, by Ferdinand Thomas Lee Boyle, circa 1861.
Object Type: Image

Title: From O.C. Stewart to John W. Geary
Description: O.C. Stewart, mayor of Lecompton, Kansas, writes a letter to Gov. John W. Geary on October 11, 1856. Stewart asks Geary to send troops to Lecompton to seize an illegal supply of liquor that someone has been selling to soldiers.
Date: October 11, 1856

Title: Examination of Mulford Rose
Description: This is Mulford Rose's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Rose, a 35-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, states that he was born in Pennsylvania and that he served in the militia in Kansas during the Civil War. The oath, labeled No. 33 in a bound volume, was signed by Rose in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Examination of William A. Morton
Description: This is William A. Morton's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Morton, a 54-year-old Kentucky native, states that he has lived in Missouri for 24 years and served in the U.S. army during the war. He also says he used his influence "to prevent persons going into rebellion." The oath is No. 196 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

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

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