Civil War

Title: Representatives of Kansas, 1868
Description: This legislative panel shows the members of the Kansas House of Representatives for A.D. 1868. In the lower portion of the panels the legislature's names are listed in numeric order. Notable historical figures in this panel include: Everard Bierer, labeled "2"; John B. Bruner, "5"; Thomas H. Butler, "6"; Joel Kishler Goodin, "13"; Joel Grover, second left picture from bottom center; John Guthrie, "15"; John Hamilton, "55"; Richard W. Jenkins, top of left-most column; Charles Ransford Jennison, "22"; William Henry Harrison Kelley, "23"; Vincent J. Lane, "24"; Samuel D. Lecompte, "25"; William Mitchell, "66"; Preston Bierce Plumb, "31"; Philip Rockefeller, "33"; Charles May Sears, second right picture from bottom center; William Hillary Smallwood, "37"; George W. Smith, center; James Donaldson Snoddy, "39"; Thomas Jefferson Vanderslice, "44"; Henry H. Williams, "47"; and John K. Wright, "50".
Object Type: Image
Date: 1868

Title: From Emma Adair to Florella Brown Adair, Samuel Lyle Adair, and Ada Adair
Description: On May 30 and 31, 1862, Emma Adair writes from Leavenworth, Kansas, to her parents Florella Brown Adair and Samuel Lyle Adair and sister Ada Adair. Emma writes about staying with her Uncle and his family, who live in Leavenworth and own a store there. She supposes they have already heard about the evacuation of Corinth by the Rebels, and notes that “5 boats left here yesterday filled with soldiers.”
Date: May 30, 1861-May 31, 1861

Title: Franklin G. Adams
Description: Portrait of Franklin G. Adams, the election judge who presided over the 1858 vote on the Lecompton Constitution, circa 1876-1883.
Object Type: Image

Title: Affidavit of Q. Jernigan
Description: This is the sworn affidavit of Q. Jernigan, dated October 7, 1856 and signed in Douglas County by S.G. Cato, Associate Supreme Court Justice of Kansas Territory. Jernigan claims that in June, a group of armed men seized from him a Sharps rifle and a large Bowie knife, and that these items are now in the possession of Gov. John W. Geary. At the bottom of the page is an order from Cato to the U.S. Marshal of Kansas Territory, commanding him to obtain Jernigan’s stolen items and bring them before Cato “to be dealt with according to law.”
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: October 7, 1856

Title: From Abishai Stowell to "Dear Sister"
Description: On April 22, 1865, Abishai Stowell writes from Lewisburg, Arkansas to his sister. Stowell, a member of Co. B, 2nd Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, reports that "the prospect is good for me to go home in a few days for the war is just about ended." He says the assassination of President Lincoln "has caused a great deal of excitement here[,] the Union people feel the loss to be one that can never be repaid while the Secesh are overjoyed with the news."
Object Type: Letter
Date: April 22, 1865

Title: Russell W. Maryhugh
Description: This sepia carte de visite depicts Russell W. Maryhugh, who served in Company E, Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. The photograph, ca. 1861-1865, was produced by Armstead & White of Corinth, Mississippi.
Object Type: Image

Title: Soldier, Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry
Description: This sepia carte de visite depicts an unidentified officer of the Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. The photograph, ca. 1861-1865, was produced by A.C. Nichols of Leavenworth, Kansas.
Object Type: Image

Title: Henry Moon
Description: This carte de visite depicts Henry Moon, who served in the Fifth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. The photograph was produced ca. 1861-1865.
Object Type: Image

Title: From John W. Geary to Israel Donalson
Description: Kansas Gov. John W. Geary writes a letter from Lecompton, Kansas to U.S. Marshal Israel Donalson on November 24, 1856. Geary inquires about a rumor that a large number of prisoners who were in Donalson’s custody have escaped. He asks Donalson how many prisoners escaped, what their names are, and what steps have been taken to find them.
Object Type: Letter
Date: November 24, 1856

Title: From Sara Robinson to Charles Robinson
Description: Sara Robinson writes a letter to her husband, Kansas Gov. Charles Robinson, on May 11, 1862. She discusses officer appointments in a Kansas military regiment, and reports that some regiments have been ordered to leave for New Mexico soon. She also discusses their finances, expresses concern for her ill husband's health, and seeks his permission to let her visit him.
Date: May 11, 1862

Title: J.F. Vaughn
Description: This carte de visite depicts 2nd M. Sgt. J.F. Vaughn, who served in the Fifth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. The photograph was produced ca. 1861-1865.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on February 20, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair in Grafton, Ohio, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella says that the citizens of York “held a meeting and raised over $80.00 for Kansas.” Florella adds that there are many misconceptions about sending relief funds to Kansas: “I could have sent two or three hundred dollars to our town, if it had not been for the idea that all must go through the hands of the committee at Atchison.”
Date: February 20, 1861

Title: From Sara Robinson to Charles S. Gleed
Description: This letter is from Sara Robinson, abolitionist and wife of Kansas Gov. Charles Robinson, to Charles S. Gleed, a businessman in Topeka. Robinson writes from Lawrence, Kansas on January 7, 1881 and criticizes an "error" in an article Gleed wrote: "[you] connected John Brown's name with the safety of Lawrence. He really never had anything to do with its defense in any way." Attached to the letter is an unsigned document describing Brown's role in the "Invasion of the 2800" on September 14, 1856.
Date: January 7, 1881

Title: Petition of Citizens of Wise County
Description: This petition, dated December 5, 1856, is addressed to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary and is signed by C. Columbia, Esq., on behalf of 20 families of recent settlers to Wise County, Kansas. Columbia claims that the families staked their claims based on a map that showed the nearest Indian reservation 25 miles away. John Montgomery, Indian Agent, recently informed the families that their land belonged to the Kansas Indian Agency and ordered them to leave within three days. Columbia asks Geary to stay Montgomery’s proceedings, “until the circumstances of the case may be inquired into, and determined in a just and lawful manner.”
Object Type: Petition
Date: December 5, 1856

Title: Rescue of Jacob Branson, 1855
Description: Woodcut depicting the rescue of Free-Stater Jacob Branson following his arrest for threats made to Franklin Coleman. A skirmish broke out in the Wakarusa River Valley near Lawrence, Kansas, following the murder of Charles Dow, a Free-State settler who was killed by the proslavery Franklin Coleman. While the murder was not about politics, the resulting political unrest led Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones to raise a militia and place Lawrence under siege. The "war" claimed one more victim, a Free-Stater named Thomas Barber.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1855

Title: From Mary Savage to Dear Mother and Sister
Description: Mary Savage writes a letter to her mother and sister on October 10 and 12, 1863, describing Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence. She writes of the “fiendish pleasure” the attackers took in “witnessing the death agonies of our best citizens Murdered in cold blood.” She mentions helping soldiers and taking care of her minister’s family after their house was burned down in the raid. Mary says she fears an imminent guerrilla attack and tells her family, “we live in a state of constant excitement . . . our citizens are all armed . . . but their mode of warfare is so treacherous that we cannot have a fair fight.”
Date: October 10, 1863-October 12, 1863

Title: From O.C. Stewart to John W. Geary
Description: O.C. Stewart, mayor of Lecompton, Kansas, writes a letter to Gov. John W. Geary on October 11, 1856. Stewart asks Geary to send troops to Lecompton to seize an illegal supply of liquor that someone has been selling to soldiers.
Date: October 11, 1856

Title: From Fred L. Haywood to Dear Sister Loesa
Description: This letter, dated April 6, 1863, is from Fred L. Haywood, a soldier in the 1st Minnesota Battery, McArthur’s Division, Army of the Tennessee, to his sister Loesa. He writes from Louisiana, where both his regiment and the 1st Kansas Regiment are camped. He tells his sister that the 1st Kansas Regiment recently discovered, upon the death of one of their sergeants, that the sergeant was a woman: “You can imagine their astonishment . . . She was brave as a Lion in battle . . . She would have been promoted to a Lieutenancy in a few days if she had lived.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: April 6, 1863

Title: Business Permits
Description: These four business permits were issued on October 12, 21, and 22, 1864 by Col. R.N. Hershfield. Hershfield grants permission to four different citizens to produce beer for the Army, to run a ferry boat, to keep a shop open, and to continue operating a millinery establishment.
Date: October 12, 1864 and October 21, 1864-October 22, 1864

Title: Correspondence of the Kansas Territory Executive Department
Description: These documents, dated between 1855 and 1856, relate to the organization and administration of the Kansas Territorial Militia, Southern Division. The documents address officer appointments, military commissions, arms requisitions, and company requests to be mustered out of service. Included among the correspondence are several letters written by Capt. John Donaldson, Company A, 2nd Regiment Infantry, to Gov. Geary regarding criminal charges brought against him.
Date: 1855-1856

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

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