Civil War

Title: Slave Hire
Description: In this document, James Lawrence and W.W. Walter promise to pay Hugh G. Rees sixty dollars for the hire of a 15-year-old female slave named Nancy. Lawrence and Walter agree to “treat the said girl humanely…and not take her out of the State of MO.” The two men promise to return Nancy to Rees on January 1, 1856.
Object Type: Legal Document

Title: From Florella Brown Adair and Charles Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on April 14 and 15, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair and Charles Adair in Greenfield, Ohio, to Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella reports that she has been thinking about “the mysterious providence of God toward Kansas & toward our church, why does he permit such trying & afflictive things to come upon us as a people?” Charles finishes the letter on April 15, stating that they will be home the following week. He refers to the capture of Fort Sumter and declares, “The war has begun.”
Date: April 14, 1861-April 15, 1861

Title: James Henry Lane (1814-1866), Politician and Leader of the Free State Party of Kansas, with Gun
Description: Carte de visite featuring a sepia photograph of James Henry Lane posing with a gun.
Object Type: Image

Title: Battle of Hickory Point
Description: Painting by Samuel J. Reader depicting the Battle of Hickory Point. On September 13, 1856, James H. Lane led a force of jayhawkers against Hickory Point, a proslavery settlement in Jefferson County, Kansas that had supported an attack against Grasshopper Falls. Lane soon understood that he lacked artillery to attack the log buildings, and he retreated. During the retreat, Missourians pursued Lane's forces and attacked, but the jayhawkers returned fire. After receiving word that Territorial Governor John Geary had ordered a ceasefire, Lane withdrew, but reinforcements from Lawrence under command of Colonel James A. Harvey arrived on September 14, toting the captured cannon "Old Sacramento," and fired on the town. One proslavery man was killed, four others wounded, and several Free-Staters were wounded before a ceasefire was called and the Missourians withdrew from the area. 100 Free-Staters were arrested by U.S. troops, but they were later acquitted for acting in self-defense.
Object Type: Image

Title: General Orders, No. 23
Description: Samuel P. Simpson, Adjutant General of Missouri, issued General Order No. 23 from Jefferson City on August 8, 1865. The order instructs all officers of the Missouri State Militia to file an "Oath of Loyalty" to the United States Government, and it instructs officers on detached service to report monthly on their duties. The order also cites an act of the General Assembly of Missouri that authorizes the governor to issue commissions to military officers.
Date: August 8, 1865

Title: Constitutional Convention, Topeka, Kansas Territory [Topeka]
Description: Wood engraving depicting the Topeka Constitutional Convention of December 15, 1855. At the convention, Free-Staters voted to adopt the Topeka Constitution for Kansas Territory, provisionally banning slavery in Kansas and allowing suffrage for "civilized" male Native Americans, but still excluded blacks from settling in the state. However, the constitution failed to gain the recognition of proslavery settlers and the federal government, including President Franklin Pierce, who declared the Topeka legislature to be illegal and treasonous.
Object Type: Image
Date: December 15, 1855

Title: Monthly Return of Wagons, Harness, and Other Means of Transportation
Description: This military document is a collection of two monthly returns of various means of transportation including horses, wagons, and carts used by Company "A", 8th Cavalry Regiment, Missouri State Militia. The first return, June 1862, was completed by Captain David D. Stockton and certified by Second Lieutenant Thomas A. Wakefield. The second return, June 1863, was completed and certified by Captain James J. Akard.
Date: June 1862 - June 1863

Title: Examination of Mortimer Deering
Description: This is Mortimer Deering's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Deering, a 42-year-old Virginia native, states that he has lived in Missouri for 17 years and was enrolled by the military authorities as "loyal" in 1862. The oath is No. 200 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Soldier, Eleventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry
Description: This sepia carte de visite, ca. 1861-1865, depicts an unidentified soldier who served in the Eleventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. Carte de visites were small photographs that were often used as calling cards and became very popular during the Civil War.
Object Type: Image

Title: List of Colored Recruits Enlisted, 6th District Missouri
Description: This March 1864 military roll lists the names of enslaved "colored recruits" who were enlisted in the 30th sub-district of the 6th congressional district of Missouri in Chariton County. The roll provides the soldiers' physical characteristics, occupations, birthplaces, and the names of their owners.
Date: March 1864

Title: Stephen A. Douglas
Description: Black and white portrait of Stephen Douglas, Senator from Illinois and designer of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Object Type: Image

Title: Emancipation Proclamation
Description: This is a photograph of President Lincoln’s handwritten draft of the final Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln liberated millions of African Americans from slavery with these famous words: “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free.” The original draft of the Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, was lost in the Chicago fire of 1871.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: January 1, 1863

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on February 26 and 27, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair in Grafton, Ohio, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella writes that “much excitement prevails here in anticipation of the inauguration of Pres. Lincoln, many fears are expressed in his behalf, there is a good deal of war spirit felt most every where I go, most feel that the time for compromise has passed. I hope we shall not have war but I fear it.”
Date: February 26, 1861-February 27, 1861

Title: From Jacob Hall to My Dear Daughter
Description: This letter, dated February 7, 1864, was written by Jacob Hall in Independence, Missouri, to his daughter. Jacob writes that the counties of “Jackson, Cass, Bates and the Southern portion of Vernon have been reattached to the District of Missouri and placed under the command of Gen. Brown – and Gen. Ewing has left for Kansas with nearly all his command.” He adds that “Col. Fort is in command of…the above named counties.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: February 7, 1864

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: On September 8, 1855, Edward Fitch writes a letter from Lawrence, Kansas to his parents in Massachusetts, reporting that Governor Andrew Reeder was nominated for Congress at the recent convention in Big Springs, Kansas. He also informs his parents of his efforts to protect a free black man against a group of pro-slavery men who wanted to capture and enslave him. If they hadn’t eventually backed down, Fitch says, “we should have pitched in to them with our rifles.”
Date: September 8, 1855

Title: Examination of Michael Ryan
Description: This is Michael Ryan's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Ryan, a 44-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri, states that he remained loyal to the United States Government during the Civil War, though he did, at times, call himself a "Southern man." He says that he "did not like it" when the Federal army was defeated at Bull Run and adds, "the more that was killed the less I thought of the thing." His oath, labeled No. 82 in a bound volume, was signed by Ryan in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Assassination of President Lincoln
Description: Joseph Edward Baker painting of John Wilkes Booth fleeing the scene of President Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theater.
Object Type: Image

Title: Robert T. Van Horn
Description: Portrait view of Robert Thompson Van Horn, as an early middle-aged man. Identified as Kansas City Pioneers with name written on back of photograph.
Object Type: Image

Title: Battle of Cold Harbor
Description: Kurz & Allison lithograph of the Battle of Cold Harbor, one of the final battles of the Overland Campaign fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864.
Object Type: Image

Title: From John B. Wood to George L. Stearns
Description: On November 19, 1861, John B. Wood writes a letter from Lawrence, Kansas to his friend George L. Stearns in Boston, informing him that thousands of slaves have escaped Missouri and settled in Kansas. He says that in the past ten days, 131 escaped slaves have moved into Lawrence. Most of them have found employment on farms, Wood writes, but when the harvest season is over, they may be out of work. Wood worries that there will be “much suffering” and death, and he asks Stearns to “lay this matter before the friends of humanity of the East and ask them to send us funds” to assist the liberated slaves.
Date: November 19, 1861

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

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