Civil War

Title: The Kansas War & Other Matters
Description: This poem was written in 1863 by S.S. Wiciszg, a soldier serving near Hardeeville, South Carolina. Wiciszg describes himself as "a soldier just from Lawrence" and decries the violence and guerrilla warfare in Kansas during the border wars. The poem condemns the Border Ruffians and the Doniphan Tigers. It also criticizes the political climate, and mentions the Free Soilers, Wilson Shannon, Horace Greely, and Arthur Tappan.
Object Type: Document
Date: 1863

Title: Application of Catharine Richmond
Description: This is Catharine Richmond’s application for compensation from the United States government for the military service of her slave, Basil Hayden. The application, dated November 26, 1866, includes an oath of allegiance to the United States, a statement that Richmond lawfully obtained her slave, and the signatures of two witnesses and a notary public in Marion County, Missouri.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: November 26, 1866

Title: Examination of Joseph R. Hicks
Description: This is Joseph R. Hicks's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Hicks, a native of Virginia, states that he has lived in Missouri for 23 years and served in the Curbstone Militia during the war. The oath is No. 203 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: From Frederick Starr to My Dear Father
Description: On March 19, 1855, Frederick Starr writes from Weston, Missouri to his father. Starr transcribes a recent article from the local newspaper “Liberty Platform,” in which he is accused of being a “political priest” in charge of a “gang” of abolitionists. Starr believes the article makes unjust and false statements about him, but admits “it may be the impression which has fixed itself upon the minds of the fire eating part of the community. If so I would not have it otherwise.” The article also describes the nomination of Gen. Whitfield as the Kansas Territory delegate to Congress.
Date: March 19, 1855

Title: Affidavit of Resolved Fuller
Description: Resolved Fuller of Jefferson County, Kansas swore this affidavit on or around September 20, 1856. He states that he was arrested the previous week by a group of men claiming to be Capt. Miller’s company. The company, Fuller says, also captured a Mr. Newell and his son, demanded information, and threatened to hang them. Fuller claims he was captured that morning by four strangers, held prisoner for a half hour, and then escaped.
Object Type: Legal Document

Title: Fifth Street, Leavenworth, Kansas
Description: This stereograph of Leavenworth, Kansas was taken by Alexander Gardner. Gardner titles the image, "Fifth Street, Leavenworth, Kansas, 809 [309] miles west of St. Louis, Mo."
Object Type: Image
Date: 1867

Title: From George Collamore to G.L. Stearns
Description: This letter was written on May 2 and 7, 1861 by George Collamore in Leavenworth, Kansas to G.L. Stearns in Boston. Collamore writes that Kansas is under threat of attack from Missouri and the Cherokee and Osage Indians, and that Kansas’s defenses are weak. He reports that Gov. Robinson offered him the position of Quartermaster General of the Kansas Militia, which he temporarily accepted. Collamore asks Stearns to send “thick colored blankets” and other items to Kansas, urging Stearns to keep his activities secret and to be cautious about what he writes in future letters.
Object Type: Letter
Date: May 2, 1861 and May 7, 1861

Title: From H.D. Palmer to Isaac Feback
Description: This letter, dated December 20, 1862, was written by H.D. Palmer in Independence, Missouri, to Isaac Feback. Palmer thanks Feback for his kindness, lamenting that he has few friends left who can rise above “political prejudice” as Feback has done. Palmer says he has done everything “to keep down jayhawking & protect my Union friends,” but has been betrayed by those friends and the militia who took his livestock without proper payment. Palmer notes that the oath of allegiance is meaningless unless it offers government protection for those who take it.
Object Type: Letter
Date: December 20, 1862

Title: Examination of Joseph Simms
Description: This is Joseph Simms's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Simms, a 61-year-old Virginia native, states that he has lived in Missouri for 36 years and was enrolled by the military authorities as "loyal" in 1862. The oath is No. 170 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Examination of Michael Fraher
Description: This is Michael Fraher's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Fraher, a 49-year-old native of Ireland, states that he has resided in Missouri for 16 years, and served in the Curbstone Militia during the war. He also confirms he "did give bond against my consent. I claimed to be loyal." The oath is No. 189 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Examination of Hugh McGowan
Description: This is Hugh McGowan's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. McGowan describes himself as a 48-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri who was born in Ireland. He states that he demonstrated his loyalty to the United States Government by "coming to the Court House here with my gun in my hand." The oath, labeled No. 110 in a bound volume, was signed by McGowan on October 6, 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: October 6, 1866

Title: From Samuel Ayres to Lyman Langdon
Description: Samuel Ayres writes a letter from Centreville, Linn County, Kansas, to Lyman Langdon on January 7, 1859. The letter includes a copy of a December 30, 1858 article from the Lawrence Republican titled “Who is Responsible?” The article argues that the guerrilla violence in Linn and Bourbon Counties is not the fault of the Free State supporters, as many have argued, but is rather the fault of the proslavery Democrats. The article also explains how Captain Montgomery has tried to defend Free Staters: “his practice has been to warn an offender to leave in a given time . . . If he does not leave at that time, a company of men called ‘jay-hawkers’ goes and takes a part of his property . . . and otherwise frightens him, thus compelling him to leave.” Ayres ends the letter with the news that he has been instructed to put Linn County under martial law.
Date: January 7, 1859

Title: $10 Missouri Note
Description: This is a ten dollar Confederate note issued in Jefferson City, Missouri and dated January 1, 1864. It states: “Three Years after Date the State of Missouri Will pay Ten Dollars to Bearer with ten per Cent interest.”
Object Type: Currency
Date: January 1, 1864

Title: Claim of Rias Lewis against Jonah Moore
Description: This is the legal claim of Rias Lewis, “a free man of color,” against Jonah Moore for $40 in unpaid wages. The claim is dated September 26, 1854 and is signed by a justice of the peace, a public administrator, and two witnesses in Chariton County, Missouri. A note on the back indicates that the debt was settled in court on August 10, 1855. Attached to the claim is the original agreement for Lewis to work for Moore, signed by both parties and dated February 12, 1850.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: February 12, 1850-August 10, 1855

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas, writes a letter to his parents in Massachusetts on August 9, 1857, announcing that Kansas has voted to ratify the Topeka Constitution. He adds that Free State supporters appear to comprise a majority in Kansas. Fitch complains about a recent Herald of Freedom article on the apportionment of the Kansas Legislature, and claims that it is “the most damning piece of villany ever perpetrated by any men or set of men.”
Date: August 9, 1857

Title: Application of William H.H. Isaacs
Description: This is William H.H. Isaacs’s application for compensation from the United States government for the military service of his slave, Thomas Johnson. The application, dated November 16, 1866, includes an oath of allegiance to the United States, a power of attorney transfer to Isaac C. Dodge, and the signatures of four witnesses, a notary public, and a justice of the peace in Saline County, Missouri.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: November 16, 1866

Title: Historical Note
Description: This historical note explains that the state of Missouri's second Constitution, adopted at the end of the Civil War, declared that any citizens who had ever "engaged in exciting or carrying on rebellion against the United States" would not be allowed to vote. Any person intending to vote would thus have to swear an "oath of loyalty" to the United States. This note, written by James M. Sandusky in 1916, appears at the front of a bound volume of loyalty oaths given by citizens of Liberty Township in Clay County, Missouri from 1866 to 1868.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1916

Title: From James W. Denver to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on August 18, 1858 by Kansas Gov. James W. Denver in Lecompton, Kansas, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Denver writes that he disagrees with Stewart's decision to "station an armed force along the borders” in response to "the unsettled state of affairs" in southeastern Kansas. Denver asserts that after he sent U.S. and volunteer troops to the “troubled districts,” peace has been fully restored, and that “the only marauders now in this Territory are organized bands of horse thieves, such as are too common in all new countries.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: August 18, 1858

Title: Sara Tappan Lawrence Robinson
Description: Portrait of Sara Robinson taken in 1857. The wife of Dr. Charles Robinson, Sara Robinson was a notable Free-State activist and author of Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1857

Title: Correspondence of the Kansas Territory Executive Department
Description: This correspondence, dated January 7, 1858 through April 6, 1858, relates to contracts between the Kansas Territorial government and Charles A. Perry, Findley Patterson, and F.J. Marshall, to construct the capital building at Lecompton, Kansas. Perry, Patterson, and Marshall each claim that they have not been paid for contracted work on the capital building. Patterson’s letter dated March 10, 1858 refers to an upcoming Congressional vote on the "Kansas question."
Date: January 7, 1858-April 6, 1858

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

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