Civil War

Title: Examination of John Leonard
Description: This 1866 Oath of Loyalty document bears the name of John Leonard. Leonard, a 34-year-old native of Ireland, states that he has lived in Missouri for 13 years, and served in the Curbstone Militia during the war. He says he is willing to take "about half of" the Oath of Loyalty. When asked which side he was on during the war, he replies, "On the side of the state of Mo." The document is contained in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: List of Colored Recruits Enlisted, 6th District Missouri
Description: This December 1863 military roll lists the names of "colored recruits" 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: December 1863

Title: Examination of J.J. Armstrong
Description: This is J.J. Armstrong's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Armstrong, a 56-year-old Pennsylvania native, states that he has resided in Missouri for 12 years and was enrolled by the military authorities as "loyal" in 1862. The oath is No. 144 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Examination of David Thorp
Description: This is David Thorp's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Thorp, a 21-year-old Missouri native, states that he was never required to give bond during the war. The oath is No. 239 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: From James B. Fry to E.B. Alexander
Description: This is a copy of two telegrams from James B. Fry to Col. E.B. Alexander, Acting Assistant Provost Marshal General of Missouri. In the first dispatch, Fry instructs Alexander to ensure that all Provost Marshals in Missouri report the names, pay rates, and dates of service of their Enrolling Officers. In the second dispatch, he tells Alexander to have his Provost Marshals report the number of volunteers recruited in their districts. Both telegrams are dated November 21, 1863.
Date: November 21, 1863

Title: From Mattie Jane Tate to Cousin Mary
Description: This letter of December 14, 1864, is from Mattie Jane Tate in Jackson County, Missouri, to her cousin Mary. While Mattie’s family was vacating their home under Order No. 11 in September 1863, “some soldiers from Kansas” shot and killed her husband and five others. “I am left with three small children to take care of [and] am not able a great part of my time to take care of myself,” she writes. Blaming the massacre on anti-slavery factions, Mattie declares “I can never have any love for any of that side or stripe again.”
Date: December 14, 1864

Title: Unidentified Civil War Soldier or Guerrilla
Description: Charcoal portrait of unidentified person in cloak, shirt, and hat with plume andfive stars on the hatband. Drawing is signed by the artist with "93" immediately below the signature. Person in this drawing is taken from another drawing (MVO-101F).
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: From Mary E. Bedford to A.M. Bedford
Description: This letter, dated May 1, 1864, is from Mary E. Bedford in Savannah, Missouri to her husband, Lieut. Alex M. Bedford, at the Officers Prison in Point Lookout, Maryland. Mary updates him on the health of family members and on her tenant’s upkeep of her farm. She reports that two acquaintances who joined the army the previous spring have both recently died. Missouri, she states, “is peaceable . . . and I hope it will remain so.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: May 1, 1864

Title: Examination of William Haverty
Description: This is William Haverty's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Haverty, a 27-year-old Pennsylvania native, states that he has resided in Missouri for 2 years and was enrolled by the military authorities as "loyal" in 1862. The oath is No. 156 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Diary Entries
Description: These unsigned diary entries discuss the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the election of the Bogus Legislature and subsequent protests, the arrest of John Brown, and violent Bushwhacker raids. The author describes the “tragic + bloody + exciting scenes” of life on the border of Kansas and Missouri.
Object Type: Diary
Date: 1854-1855

Title: Oath of Loyalty of Stephen Blanchard
Description: This document establishes that Stephen Blanchard has taken an oath of loyalty to the United States and to the state of Missouri. It declares that Blanchard will support the Constitution and “protect and defend the union of the United States.” The oath is dated October 28, 1867 and is signed by Blanchard, two witnesses, and a clerk of the Holt County Court.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: October 28, 1867

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 C.F. Smith to A. Comingo
Description: This letter, dated November 24, 1863, is from C.F. Smith, Enrolling Officer of the 6th district of Missouri, to Capt. A. Comingo, Provost Marshal of the 6th district of Missouri. Smith states that he will complete enrollment within the next few days. He apologizes for the delay and explains that he was injured in an accident while riding his horse.
Date: November 24, 1863

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

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

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