Civil War

Title: View of Manhattan, Kansas
Description: A civil war drawing by John Gaddis of the 12th Regt. Wisconsin Volunteers on their way to Ft. Riley, Kansas, near Manhattan, Kansas.
Object Type: Image
Date: April 24, 1862

Title: Archibald Clements (Arch or Little Archie)
Description: Charcoal portrait drawing of Archibald Clements (sometimes spelled Clement) with a cigar in his mouth, dressed in a suit with a cravat and holding a pistol. Little Arch, or Archie, at age 17 became William ("Bloody Bill") Anderson's lieutenant. It is said that in one short year Clements eclipsed the record of every known guerrilla by killing 54 men. He was part of William C. Quantrill's famous raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863, and a major player in the Centralia, Missouri, massacre. After the Civil War he took up robbing banks until he was killed December 13, 1866, in Lexington, Missouri, at age 19.
Object Type: Image

Title: An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas
Description: This is a copy of “An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas,” otherwise known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The act, proposed by Senator Stephen Douglas, allowed Kansas to determine through popular sovereignty whether or not to legalize slavery. Despite much dissent in the House and Senate, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed and was signed into law by President Franklin Pierce on May 30, 1854.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: May 30, 1854

Title: From J.F. Snyder to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This dispatch is from J.F. Snyder to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Snyder writes from the headquarters of the 6th Division, Missouri Militia, in Polk County, Missouri on July 29, 1858. He informs Stewart that he has received his commission as District Inspector and will report to Bates County to await further orders.
Date: July 29, 1858

Title: Examination of James W. Mosby
Description: This is James W. Mosby's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Mosby, a 29-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri states that he remained loyal to the United States Government during the Civil War, but he states, "I dont know as I did anything either way" to oppose the enemies of the government. The oath, labeled No. 117 in a bound volume, was signed by Mosby in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Harrison Trow
Description: Charcoal portrait of Harrison Trow in suit coat, vest, shirt, and tie. Harrison Trow served under Quantrill and was at the Lawrence massacre, August 21, 1863, and Centralia, September 27, 1864, as well as the Battle of Independence, August 11, 1862. After the war, Trow lived in Blue Springs, Missouri, until 1901 when he moved to Texas where he died February 24, 1925. He identified the body of Jesse James after James was shot.
Object Type: Image

Title: From William Murphy to John W. Geary
Description: This letter, dated September 23, 1856, is from William Murphy, mayor of Leavenworth, Kansas, to Gov. John W. Geary. Murphy responds to Geary’s recent inquiry about a group of citizens who claim they were forced to leave Leavenworth. He confirms that Capt. Emory told “all persons who were not in favour of the laws, and unwilling to fight in defence of the City, that they had better leave.” He assures Geary that these people may safely return to Leavenworth “if they will act as law abiding citizens.”
Date: September 23, 1856

Title: From Elizabeth S.C. Earl to Dear Mother
Description: This letter, dated September 22, 1863, is from Elizabeth S.C. Earl in Lawrence, Kansas to her mother. She assures her mother that she is safe and has survived Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence. She adds that "you cannot imagine the distress, and suffering, of our women and children," and states that the Raid left 180 women widows and 200 children orphans. Earl tells her mother that she has taken charge of the City Hotel after the owner was killed and his family went back East.
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 22, 1863

Title: Instructions to Gen. P.F. Smith
Description: This document comprises a series of instructions given by the Secretary of War to Gen. P.F. Smith, Commander of the Department of the West, between February 15, 1856 and September 5, 1856. Smith is instructed to “make every exertion in your power with the force under your orders to preserve the peace and prevent bloodshed.” The Secretary of War empowers Smith to act if armed resistance is made by citizens of any political persuasion. Smith is instructed not to interfere with the activities of the Kansas Militia.
Date: February 15, 1856-September 5, 1856

Title: Charles Robinson, First Kansas Governor
Description: Portrait of Charles Robinson, early leader of the New England Emigrant Aid Society and the first Governor of the State of Kansas.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1861

Title: David Rice Atchison
Description: Photograph of a David Rice Atchison painting by George Caleb Bingham, located in Atchison's home in Clinton County, MO.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair and Emma Adair
Description: On September 14 and 15, 1860, Florella Brown Adair writes from Grafton Station, Ohio, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair and daughter Emma Adair. Florella describes the contents of a barrel of clothing and other items she is sending to them. She says that her health has improved, and that her relatives and friends are “trying to make me look more like civilized folk than we did in Kansas.” Florella adds that she recently spent hours in conversation with a friend “about Kansas matters.”
Date: September 14, 1860-September 15, 1860

Title: Examination of John G. Wood
Description: This is John G. Wood's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Wood, a 25-year-old Missouri native, states that he served in the militia during the war. When asked "which side of the contest" he claimed to be on, Wood responds, "I was on the side of the Constitution[.] I did not believe either party was exactly right." The oath is No. 243 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Abraham Lincoln Raising a Flag at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, in Honor of the Admission of Kansas to the Union on Washington's Birthday
Description: 1911 print of a photograph of President Lincoln, en route to Washington for his inauguration, raising a flag in Philadelphia to honor the new state of Kansas.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1911

Title: Examination of George M. Pryor
Description: This is George M. Pryor's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Pryor, a 63-year-old Kentucky native, states that he has resided in Missouri for 30 years and was enrolled by the military authorities as "loyal" in 1862. The oath is No. 152 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Joseph (Joe) C. Lea
Description: Charcoal portrait of Joseph C. Lea (sometimes Lee) with artist's initials. Son of the noted Lee's Summit physician Dr. Pleasant Lea, Joe Lea was a member of Quantrill's Guerrillas. He was wounded during the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863. After the Civil War, Lea moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where he became a buffalo hunter, lawman, rancher, banker, and instructor in the military department at the University of New Mexico. He died in 1904 at Roswell. ("The Encyclopedia of Quantrill's Guerrillas" [MVSC Q 973.742 L28e])
Object Type: Image

Title: Reynolds's Political Map of the United States
Description: Printed on map: "Designed to exhibit the comparative area of the free and slave states and the territory open to slavery or freedom by the repeal of the Missouri compromise. With a comparison of the principal statistics of the free and slave states, from the census of 1850." Political map delineating the slave states, free states, and open territories, ca. 1856. The maps were created as political propaganda for the first Republican Party candidate for President, John C. Fremont, whose likeness is visible in the upper left corner of the map.
Object Type: Map

Title: Battle of Chancellorsville
Description: Kurz & Allison print depicting the Battle of Chancellorsville and the wounding of General Stonewall Jackson.
Object Type: Image

Title: Notice! to Citizens of Weston
Description: This broadside calls on “The Citizens of Weston and vicinity” to meet at the Weston, Missouri courthouse on September 1, 1854 at 7:00pm, “to adopt such measures as they may deem most proper and expedient, and best calculated to counteract the effect produced by SOME of the doings of SOME of the men connected with the ‘PLATTE COUNTY SELF DEFENSIVE ASSOCIATION.’” The broadside is signed “Many Citizens,” and is dated August 31, 1854.
Object Type: Broadside
Date: August 31, 1854

Title: Examination of Leonard Brassfield
Description: This is Leonard Brassfield's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Brassfield, an 80-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, originally from Kentucky, states that he remained loyal to the United States Government during the Civil War. He declares that, "I have always been a Union man," and "I have always been true to the Government in evry way." The oath, No. 13 in a bound volume, was signed by Brassfield in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

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

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