Civil War

Title: From M. Jeff Thompson to Robert M. Stewart
Description: On November 26, 1860, Col. M. Jeff Thompson writes a dispatch from the Headquarters of the 4th Military District in St. Joseph, Missouri to Missouri Gov. R.M Stewart. Thompson reports that Major F.W. Smith is preparing his battalion to be ready for orders. Thompson urges Stewart to authorize Smith’s Quarter Master to procure sufficient arms and ammunitions.
Date: November 26, 1860

Title: From Daniel Woodson to John Sedgwick
Description: This dispatch, dated July 7, 1856, was sent by Acting Kansas Gov. Daniel Woodson in Lecompton, Kansas, to Major John Sedgwick. Woodson instructs Sedgwick to furnish Deputy Marshal William P. Fain with a small detachment of troops to assist him in issuing writs.
Date: July 7, 1856

Title: From Wilson Shannon to Franklin Pierce
Description: This letter, dated June 27, 1856, was written by Kansas Gov. Wilson Shannon in St. Louis to President Franklin Pierce. Shannon informs Pierce that after recent “troubles” in Kansas Territory, the area is no longer threatened by any “illegal military bodies” as far as he knows. Shannon believes that the presence of federal troops helped to restore peace, and states that these troops should be maintained in Kansas to help suppress future conflicts. Shannon is particularly concerned about the threat of civil unrest if the Free State legislature meets, as planned, on July 4, 1856.
Object Type: Letter
Date: June 27, 1856

Title: Plat and drawings of Aubry, Johnson County, Kansas
Description: This page from an 1874 plat book of Johnson County, Kansas includes a map of Aubry, Kansas and drawings of four Aubry Township residencies and stock farms, owned by W. H. Brady, John H. Troutman, J. H. Lusher, and E. F. Thompson.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1874

Title: From Samuel H. Robertson to Sterling Price
Description: This letter was written ca. October 7, 1854 by Samuel H. Robertson in Bates County, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Sterling Price. Robertson states that Osage Indians have been crossing the state line into Missouri to steal horses and crops, and asks Price for protection against this “Indian outrage and oppression.” He suggests that Price call some military companies into service for this purpose, and says that the Osage should be prevented from crossing the state line without written permission from their agent.
Object Type: Letter

Title: Quarterly Return of Ordnance and Ordnance Stores, March 31, 1863
Description: This military document is a quarterly return of ordnance and ordnance stores for Company "A" 8th Cavalary Regiment Missouri State Militia under the command of Captain David D. Stockton. This document covers the first quarter of 1863.
Date: March 31, 1863

Title: Camp Blood, near Pilot Knob, Missouri
Description: This sketch by a volunteer correspondent, originally published in Harper’s Weekly on September 21, 1861, depicts Camp Blood, near Pilot Knob, Missouri. Pilot Knob Mountain is shown to the right as it was before heavy ore excavation during and after the Civil War. Camp Blood became Fort Davidson in 1863 when permanent fortification was constructed.
Object Type: Image
Date: September 21, 1861

Title: John Caldwell Calhoun
Description: John C. Calhoun, President of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: Newell W. Spicer and Friend Dick
Description: This portrait, taken ca. 1861-1865, depicts Newell W. Spicer and his friend Dick. Both served in the First Kansas Volunteer Infantry.
Object Type: Image

Title: General Orders, No. 2
Description: Col. J.J. Gravely and Lieut. H. Mitchel of the Missouri State Militia issued General Order No. 2 on August 26, 1864. They instruct officers of companies stationed in Springfield, Missouri to prohibit their soldiers from leaving camp without permission. As punishment, "any soldier found absent from his command . . . will be arrested and confined."
Date: August 26, 1864

Title: Abraham Lincoln, Candidate for U.S. President, Before Delivering His Cooper Union Address in New York City
Description: Photograph of presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln prior to his Cooper Union speech, one of the most critical in his successful campaign for the presidency.
Object Type: Image
Date: February 27, 1860

Title: William Jenkins
Description: This sepia carte de visite depicts Capt. William Jenkins, who served in Company C, Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. The photograph, ca. 1861-1865, was produced by Armstead & White of Corinth, Mississippi.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Elias Stover to William Sayer Blakely
Description: Elias Stover writes a letter from Camp Blair, Kansas on March 25, 1862 to his friend William Sayer Blakely. Three days prior, Stover says, he marched into Missouri along with Maj. Pomeroy and 70 other men from the 2nd Kansas Cavalry Regiment. They ambushed a house where William Quantrill and his men were staying; they killed eight people, took six prisoner, stole horses and arms, and burned down the house, but Quantrill escaped.
Date: March 25, 1862

Title: Major-General Joseph Hooker
Description: Full-length portrait of Major-General Joseph Hooker in military uniform and mounted, with two tents and a large building in the background.
Object Type: Image

Title: Discharge of George McMillin
Description: These are the official discharge papers for George McMillin, who served as a private under Captain James Dunne in Company A of the 1st Regiment of Missouri Engineers from 1861 to 1864. The document, dated July 22, 1864, describes McMillin as a 23 year old farmer from Gentry County, Missouri. He was discharged after completing his term of service.
Date: July 22, 1864

Title: St. Joseph, Missouri
Description: This bird's eye view of Saint Joseph, Missouri was created by A. Ruger and published by the Merchants Lithographing Co. in 1868.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1868

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair and Emma Adair
Description: This letter was written by Florella Brown Adair on January 13 and 14, 1861 at Martha’s, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair and daughter Emma Adair. Florella is glad to hear they received the barrels she sent, but was dismayed that they had to pay additional money for their delivery upon receipt, and that they had been broken open, seemingly on purpose. Florella writes of a man from Douglas County, Kansas who is in a nearby Ohio town collecting money to send home. She says he might collect so much from people they will not have as much to give to Osawatomie, Kansas; she also fears that Lykins County, Kansas will not receive its fair share of relief funds.
Date: January 13, 1861-January 14, 1861

Title: Gen. Hancock with Officers
Description: Black and white photograph of Generals Winfield S. Hancock, Francis C. Barlow, David B. Birney, and John Gibbon.
Object Type: Image

Title: Kansas - Col. Sumner Arriving at Constitution Hall
Description: Wood engraving of Col. Sumner dispersing the Topeka Legislature on July 4, 1856. The Topeka legislature met to draft a request to Congress for the admission of Kansas as a free state, but federal soldiers under command of Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner dispersed the assembly. The Topeka Constitution was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, but the U.S. Senate rejected it by two votes.
Object Type: Image
Date: July 26, 1856

Title: James J. Akard's Appointment and Commission to Colonel
Description: In this document, Missouri Governor Thomas C. Fletcher appoints and commissions James J. Akard as Colonel of the Polk and Cedar Counties Regiment in the Missouri Militia.
Date: June 23, 1865

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

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