Civil War

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: 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: From F.R. Newell to Rev. H.D. Fisher
Description: This letter, dated August 30, 1863, was written by F.R. Newell in St. Louis, to Rev. H.D. Fisher. Newell offers sympathy to Fisher and his family in the wake of Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, Kansas, declaring, “God grant that the raid of Lawrence may be for the healing of the nation, even as his tender compassion alone, can bind up the hearts that are broken!" Newell states that he has plenty to do in St. Louis after the recent arrival of "contrabands."
Date: August 30, 1863

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

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

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

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