Civil War

Title: From D.W. Frost to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on January 9, 1859 by Brig. Gen. D.M. Frost, Missouri Militia, at Headquarters, 1st Military District in St. Louis, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart in Jefferson City, Missouri. Frost refers to Stewart’s recommendation that a military force be organized to protect “our State frontiers against the depredations of Kansas Outlaws & Ruffians,” and states that he is “prepared at any moment to Execute your orders.”
Date: January 9, 1859

Title: From S.H. Woodson to George R. Smith
Description: On July 1, 1856, S.H. Woodson writes from Independence, Missouri to Gen. George R. Smith. Woodson denies the charge that he called Smith "as great an Abolitionist as there was in Massachusetts or in New York," declaring "There is not one word of truth in it."
Date: July 1, 1856

Title: From the Kansas State Central Committee to Philip St. George Cooke
Description: This September 3, 1856 letter is from the Kansas State Central Committee to Lieut. Col. Philip St. George Cooke. The committee members state that Free State supporters have been forced to take up arms to defend themselves against “the inhuman atrocities of organized bands of assassins” from Missouri. They claim that the civil authorities have not helped, and they ask Cooke for protection. The letter is signed by H. Miles Moore, secretary of the committee, as well as W.R. Frost, Morris Hunt, and J. Lawson.
Date: September 3, 1856

Title: Daniel Read Anthony
Description: This black and white photograph shows Daniel Read Anthony, (1824-1904), brother of suffragist Susan B. Anthony. He migrated to the Kansas territory in 1854 as a member of the New England Emigrant Aid Company and settled in Leavenworth, Kansas; where he established a long and successfully career as a newspaper editor and publisher.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1880-1904

Title: Jesse James
Description: Charcoal portrait of Jesse James dressed in suit coat, vest, shirt, tie, and hat. In 1863, James joined Quantrill's Guerrillas and after the Civil War became leader of the James-Younger gang. He was shot by a new member of his gang, Robert (Bob) Ford, April 3, 1882.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Neosho, Missouri Masonic Hall
Description: Rendering of the Masonic Hall at Neosho, MO, site of Secession Convention, October 21-28, 1861.
Object Type: Image

Title: Unidentified Man in Confederate Uniform
Description: Charcoal portrait of unidentified man in Confederate uniform and hat with ostrich plume. The drawing is unsigned but attributed to Anna Lee (Dillenbeck) Stacey.
Object Type: Image

Title: Roger Brook Taney
Description: Portrait of Roger Brooke Taney, Chief Justice of the United States from 1836-1864. Taney is most remembered for his majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandrord case, which ruled that African-Americans, whether free or slave, could never be considered citizens of the United States and that Congress lacked the power to prohibit slavery in any federal territories.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
Description: Stereograph of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, from 1867. Fort Leavenworth was originally established in 1827 to provide protection along the Santa Fe Trail. During the Civil War, Fort Leavenworth served as a training station for Kansas volunteers, and in 1864 the fort's garrison prepared for a possible attack by Major General Sterling Price on his Missouri Expedition. At an age of more than 180 years, Fort Leavenworth is the oldest post west of Washington, D.C. that remains in continuous operation.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1867

Title: Independence, Missouri
Description: Bird's eye view of the city of Independence, Jackson Co., Missouri 1868.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1868

Title: William Clarke Quantrill
Description: Portrait of William Clarke Quantrill from the book "Quantrill and the Border Wars" by William Elsey Connelley (1st Ed., 1909).
Object Type: Image

Title: From Frederick Starr to Dear Father
Description: This letter was written on March 31, 1855, by Frederick Starr in Weston, Missouri, to his father. Starr describes the election fraud that took place at the Kansas legislative elections on March 30, calling it “a high handed outrage.” He says that hundreds of armed, pro-slavery Missourians came into Kansas to disrupt the election, and that more than 800 illegal votes were cast in Leavenworth, Kansas. Starr asks his father to publish the information in his letter in the Albany Evening Journal, without mentioning his name.
Date: March 31, 1855

Title: Old Sacramento
Description: Photograph of Mexican-American War cannon, nicknamed "Old Sacramento," that was captured by Free-State forces at the attack on Franklin, Kansas. On August 12, 1856, Free-Staters attacked Franklin, Kansas, and six proslavery settlers were killed. The attackers captured "Old Sacramento," the name given to a cannon used by Missourians in the Mexican-American War. The attack was a success in part because the Free-Staters managed to roll a wagon of hay up to the front of a building holding proslavery men, where they ignited the hay and threatened the building.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg
Description: Black and white photograph of President Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
Object Type: Image
Date: November 19, 1863

Title: From Charles Sumner to My Dear Hale
Description: Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner writes a letter from Washington to "My dear Hale" on March 1, 1856. Sumner criticizes Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, and the Know Nothing Party, and worries that "this Congress will do nothing for the benefit of Kansas." He expresses concern that Kansas will not be admitted to the Union due to its small population and the lack of support for its constitution.
Date: March 1, 1856

Title: Charleston, South Carolina. Ruins of Secession Hall
Description: Photograph of the remains of Secession Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, where delegates voted to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860.
Object Type: Image
Date: April, 1865

Title: From George Lewis to Mrs. Fitch
Description: George Lewis of Lawrence, Kansas writes a letter to Mrs. Fitch (Edward Fitch’s mother) in Massachusetts on January 14, 1857. He thanks her for donating clothing to his family and to other poor emigrants in Kansas. He tells her that a band of proslavery men robbed him and burned down his house, leaving him living in a tent with his wife and six children. Despite his struggles, Lewis, a Welsh immigrant, expresses hope about the future of Kansas: “It must be made a Free State. It shall be a Free State.”
Date: January 14, 1857

Title: The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Description: Mountain Meadows Massacre courtesy of T.B.H. Stenhouse's The Rocky Mountain Saints: a Full and Complete History of the Mormons, from the First Vision of Joseph Smith to the Last Courtship of Brigham Young. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, which occurred September 7-11, 1857, was one notable event in the turbulent period known as the Mormon or Utah War.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1873

Title: Resolutions of the Kansas Territorial Legislative Assembly
Description: These documents comprise 14 separate resolutions of the Kansas Territorial Legislative Assembly, dated between 1858 and 1861. The resolutions address a variety of topics, including support for admitting Kansas into the Union as a state; revision of county and township laws; protection of American Indian land rights; and maintaining peace with Missouri by denouncing any attempt by Kansans to interfere with slavery.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1858-1861

Title: Pass for John F. Richards
Description: A Provost Marshall wartime pass for travel west of St. Louis to Kansas. It is for John Francisco Richards who was the founder and owner of the Richards and Conover Hardware Company. His hardware store started out in Leavenworth, KS in 1857 and then later he moved it to the building that is still standing at 5th and Wyandotte. The pass describes Richards as having brown hair, gray eyes, five feet and eight inches tall, and 27 years of age.
Object Type: Image
Date: October 31, 1861

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

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