Civil War

Title: Examination of James McKernin
Description: This is James McKernin's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. McKernin, a 50-year-old native of Ireland, states that he has resided in Missouri for 16 years and was enrolled by the military authorities as "loyal" in 1862. The oath is No. 151 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Augustus Wattles
Description: A photograph of Augustus Wattles, abolitionist and founder of the Free-State town of Moneka, in Linn County, Kansas.
Object Type: Image

Title: Appendix to the Journals of the Twenty-First General Assembly of Missouri
Description: The Appendix to the Journals of the Twenty-First General Assembly of Missouri was printed in 1861 by W.G. Cheeney in Jefferson City, Missouri. It includes petitions and letters to Gov. Robert M. Stewart about the guerrilla attacks on Missouri led by James Montgomery and Charles Jennison. The appendix also includes Brig. Gen. D.M. Frost’s report on the South-West Expedition, affidavits relating to Jennison’s murder of Russell Hindes, and proceedings from the Southern Kansas Convention.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1861

Title: Map Depicting Land Surveying Activity in Kansas and Nebraska
Description: This black-and-white map, ca. 1854-1861, depicts land surveying activity in eastern Kansas and Nebraska Territories.
Object Type: Map
Date: 1854-1861

Title: New York Draft Riots
Description: Two engravings of the 1863 New York Draft Riots, which appeared in The Illustrated London News of August 15, 1863. The illustrations depicts the "Destruction of the Couloured Orphan Asylum" and the "Conflict between the Military and the Rioters in First-Avenue".
Object Type: Image
Date: August 15, 1863

Title: From Frederick Starr to Unknown
Description: On December 29, 1854, Frederick Starr writes from Weston, Missouri to an unknown recipient. He writes about attending a meeting of the Platte County, Missouri Self Defensive Association, which he began describing in a previous letter. Starr recounts that the Association accused him of several offenses, including allowing a slave to ride in his buggy on July 4. Starr explains how the situation came about and notes that many of the Association’s members often ride with their own slaves in their buggys.
Date: December 29, 1854

Title: Harriet Tubman
Description: Harriet Tubman, full-length portrait, standing with hands on back of a chair. Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery and then returned to the South 19 times to escort over 300 slaves to freedom.
Object Type: Image

Title: Examination of Samuel Hays
Description: This is Samuel Hays's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Hays, a 28-year-old Virginia native, states that he has lived in Missouri for seven years and served in the militia for two years during the war. The oath is No. 258 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Benjamin F. Stringfellow
Description: Portrait of Benjamin Stringfellow, attorney and pro-slavery activist. In 1838, Stringfellow settled in Missouri, where he served in the house of representatives, and was attorney general for four years. After moving to Weston, Missouri, he became a member and officer of the Platte County Self-Defensive Association (an aggressive pro-slavery organization). He wrote a pamphlet entitled "Negro Slavery No Evil, or the North and the South." In 1858, Stringfellow moved to Atchison, Kansas Territory, where he helped build the town and was an attorney for the Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: John McCorkle
Description: Charcoal portrait of John McCorkle in suit coat, shirt, tie, and hat. McCorkle, born December 12, 1838, in Andrew County, Missouri, moved to a farm near Westport around 1846. In April 1861 he enlisted in Company A of the Missouri State Guards, but in August 1862 he became part of Quantrill's guerrillas. In 1865, McCorkle surrendered at Newcastle, Kentucky, along with George Wigginton and a Confederate Captain Stone. They were paroled. Some years later, O. S. Barton helped McCorkle write his memoirs, "Three Years with Quantrell [sic]," published in 1914. McCorkle lived in Howard County, Missouri, until he died in 1918.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on December 21 and 22, 1862 by Florella Brown Adair in Osawatomie, Kansas, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella writes that she has heard various reports concerning their son Charles in the army, and says that although none of them can be trusted, “I cannot help being affected by them especially if I do not know they are not true.” Florella also discusses household matters such as taxes and her plans concerning a cow and calf she loaned to a neighbor.
Date: December 21, 1862-December 22, 1862

Title: Map of North America Showing Proposed Railroad Routes
Description: This black-and-white map is entitled “Map of North America, From the Latest Authorities Showing the Proposed Railroad Routes from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.” The map was printed in 1854 by J.H. Colton and Co. in New York, for J. Disturnell.
Object Type: Map
Date: 1854

Title: Affidavit of Henry E. McKee
Description: This is the sworn affidavit of Henry E. McKee, signed by Kansas Gov. John W. Geary on October 4, 1856. McKee claims that on October 2, he witnessed H. Miles Moore enter the American Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, where eight men captured him. They took Moore to Wyandotte, Kansas and “unlawfully imprisoned” him there, McKee says. He adds that if Moore does not receive help soon, “his life is in great hazard and will be sacrificed.”
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: October 4, 1856

Title: From Daniel Woodson to Philip St. George Cooke
Description: This dispatch, dated August 28, 1856, was sent by Acting Kansas Gov. Daniel Woodson in Lecompton, Kansas, to Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke, commanding U.S. troops near Lecompton. Woodson states that the Douglas County, Kansas Sheriff and the U.S. Marshal have informed him they are currently prevented from executing legal writs. Woodson orders Cooke to furnish them with approximately 75 U.S. troops to assist them in executing the writs.
Date: August 28, 1856

Title: Atchison, Kansas
Description: Bird's eye view of the city of Atchison, Atchison Co., Kansas in 1869.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1869

Title: From Frederick Starr to Unknown
Description: This ca. April 1855 letter was written by Frederick Starr to an unknown recipient, possibly his father. Starr says that he plans to leave Weston, Missouri within 3 or 4 weeks, because “We are in the midst of terrible times again…The ballot box is violated[,] the press overthrown, the church denounced[,] surely pro slavery powers are making great advances.” Starr states that the printing press owned by Park and Patterson in Parkville, Missouri was thrown into the river, and the men were ordered to leave the state.

Title: From John W. Reid to John W. Geary
Description: John W. Reid writes a letter from Independence, Missouri to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary on September 20, 1856. Reid states that he obeyed Geary’s order to disband his troops and terminate an expedition to plunder Lawrence. He admits that “some bad men who were with us did commit some outrages . . . which I hope you will believe was beyond my control or power to prevent.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 20, 1856

Title: Examination of John W. Reynolds
Description: This is John W. Reynolds's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Reynolds, a 60-year-old Kentucky native, states that he has lived in Missouri for 39 years, and opposed "the enemies of the Government" during the war "by staying at home and advising them to keep out of Rebellion." The oath is No. 182 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: From Philip St. George Cooke to John W. Geary
Description: Lieut. Col. Philip St. George Cooke writes a dispatch from camp in Nebraska to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary on October 8, 1856. He reports on military operations near the Nebraska-Kansas border, and informs Geary that he is sending troops to Lecompton and Topeka.
Date: October 8, 1856

Title: Seal of the Confederate States of America on Brass Medallion
Description: Brass medallion displaying the seal of the Confederate States of America, circa 1876-1900.
Object Type: Image

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

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