Civil War

Title: Memorial to the President of the United States
Description: This 1854 broadside, entitled “Memorial to the President of the United States,” was drafted “on behalf of the settlers upon lands in Kansas Territory, ceded to the United States in July last, by the Delaware Indians.” The memorandum protests against a new treaty between the U.S. government and the Delaware Indians, because it will result in white settlers being driven from Kansas Territory and “will benefit none but speculators.” The document’s authors beg the President to reconsider the treaty.
Object Type: Broadside
Date: 1854

Title: Missouri State Militia 8th Cavalry Circular Orders on Leaves from Camp
Description: By order of Major Edward B. Eno, Lt. William O. Mead notifies commanding officers that "after this date no soldier is to leave the lines of the Camp without a pass from his commanding officer."
Date: September 28, 1863

Title: Lydia Maria Francis Child
Description: Silhouette of Lydia Maria Francis Child by Auguste Edouart, 1841. Child published the poem, "The Kansas Emigrants," in the New York Daily Tribune on October 23, 1856, in reponse to the caning of Senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston Brooks.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1841

Title: Thomas Archer
Description: This carte de visite depicts Thomas Archer, who served in the Fifth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. The photograph was produced ca. 1861-1865.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Charles W. Graeff to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter, dated July 29, 1858, is from Charles W. Graeff to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Graeff reports that he has just arrived in Polk County, Missouri and will soon travel to Jefferson City, Missouri. He tells Stewart that several hundred men are hiding in a place called “Osage rocks” in Kansas Territory. These men, he states, have invaded Missouri, robbed citizens, driven families away from their homes, murdered a man, and injured several others.
Object Type: Letter
Date: July 29, 1858

Title: The Arrest of Governor Robinson by Marshall Donaldson
Description: Illustration of the arrest of Governor Charles Robinson by Marshall Donaldson in Lexington, Missouri on May 10, 1856. Charles Robinson, then considered the Kansas Territorial Governor by the Free-Staters' illegitimate Topeka legislature, was arrested for treason in Lexington, Missouri due to his faux "governorship" and his denouncements of the proslavery "Bogus Legislature." He was imprisoned at Lecompton, Kansas before being released on September 10, 1856. He was finally acquitted of the charges of treason on August 20, 1857. This image was originally published in the 1856 publication of "True History of the Kansas Wars" by O. N. Merrill.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1856

Title: Missouri Militia Order to Organize Platoons and Companies for Polk and Cedar Counties
Description: Missouri Militia Colonel Hosea G. Mullings orders that residents of Polk and Cedar Counties in Missouri enrolled in military duty to be organized into companies and platoons. Mullings provides specifications of rank and number for a platoon and company.
Date: June 3, 1865

Title: From Calvin Iserman to Brother William
Description: In this letter of October 3, 1858, Calvin Iserman writes from Independence, Missouri to his brother William. Calvin wants to leave Independence, where non-slaveholders are “counted just nobody at all," and “a poor man, and mechanic is looked upon as no better than a slave.” He declares that “any man East that upholds Slavery…should be made to live in a Slave State all of his life time.” Calvin plans to go to Kansas Territory and “take a look around.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: October 3, 1858

Title: From S.B. Wait to A. Comingo
Description: This letter, dated October 1, 1863, is from S.B. Wait, Deputy Provost Marshal of Carroll County, Missouri, to Capt. A. Comingo, Provost Marshal of the 6th district of Missouri. Wait states that he is sending Comingo the military roll for the 25th sub-district. He asks, on behalf of the enrolling officers, for information about their pay, and he informs Comingo that there has been considerable "ill will" towards the enrolling officers in his community.
Date: October 1, 1863

Title: Petition of Sundry Citizens of Pottawatomie Creek
Description: This petition, dated September 19, 1856, is addressed to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary and is signed by 32 Kansas citizens living near the Pottawatomie, Sugar, and Middle Creeks and the Osage River. The petitioners describe several recent guerrilla attacks in their region, including the Battle of Osawatomie, and ask for Geary to take action. They complain that the attacks, launched by Missourians and “guided by a few desperate men in our midst,” have succeeded in “sacking and burning houses and in robbing and plundering and menacing the lives of our citizens.”
Object Type: Petition
Date: September 19, 1856

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: In a May 18, 1856 letter to his parents in Massachusetts, Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas announces that “the blow has been struck, the war has begun.” He reports that two men have been killed near Lawrence and that several, including Governor Robinson, have been captured. He expresses concern that Kansas does not have adequate resources for defense, and he appeals for support: “Tell every one who has the least interest in Kansas that now we want help-–men money and arms.”

Title: P.W. Shannon
Description: This carte de visite depicts P.W. Shannon, who served in Company A, Fifth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. The photograph was produced ca. 1861-1865.
Object Type: Image

Title: Petersburg, Va. Bomb-Proof Shelter in Federal Lines
Description: Black and white photograph of a Union fortification at the Siege of Petersburg.
Object Type: Image

Title: Anderson Morton's Appointment to Second Sergeant
Description: Colonel Joseph W. McClurg informs the Missouri State Militia 8th Cavalry Regiment that Anderson Morton is appointed to Second Sergeant, in Company "A", of the Eighth Regiment of Cavalry, M.S.M..
Date: June 23, 1862

Title: Siege of Atlanta
Description: L. Prang & Co. lithograph print of the Siege of Atlanta as painted by Thure de Thulstrup, circa 1888.
Object Type: Image

Title: Petition from Citizens of Vernon County, Missouri
Description: This petition was sent to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart on March 28, 1859 by 43 citizens of Vernon County, Missouri. The petitioners request military protection from a threatened attack by Kansas guerrillas. They state that the guerrillas are assembling near the Little Osage River under the command of James Montgomery, and that “the notorious Brown” has again made an appearance in Kansas. The petitioners believe that "it is the full intention of those lawless men to invade the State and rob and murder the inhabitants.”
Object Type: Petition
Date: March 28, 1859

Title: Quarterly Return of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores, 1865
Description: This military document is a return of ordnance and ordnance stores for Company "A" 8th Cavalry Regiment Missouri State Militia under command of Captain James J. Akard for the second quarter of 1865.
Date: May 26, 1865

Title: From James D. Eads to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter, dated November 26, 1860, is from James D. Eads of Warrensburg, Missouri to Robert M. Stewart, Governor of Missouri. Eads offers Stewart the services of a company of volunteers “to march to our frontier for the protection of our citizens.”
Date: November 26, 1860

Title: From A.J. Huntoon to Lizzie Huntoon
Description: A.J. Huntoon writes a letter from Shawnee County, Kansas to his wife Lizzie in New Hampshire. The letter, dated December 30, 1860-January 4, 1861, describes Huntoon’s daily life in Kansas Territory. He also reports to his wife that he plans to travel to Lecompton the following week “to witness the convening of our territorial legislature.”
Date: December 30, 1860-January 4, 1861

Title: Statement of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores
Description: This military document is a half completed statement of ordnance and ordnance stores for Company "A", 8th Cavalry Regiment, Missouri State Militia. Soldiers are listed on the statement along with articles charged to them, but no commanding officer signed or certified the document.
Date: 1863-1865

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

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