Civil War

Title: Massachusetts Street, Lawrence, Kansas
Description: Stereograph by Alexander Gardner depicting Massachusetts Street in downtown Lawrence, Kansas. Founded by members of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society (later renamed the New England Emigrant Aid Company) in 1854, Lawrence was a center of Free-State activism during the Border War.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1867

Title: Invoice of Quartermasters Stores
Description: This military document is a Quartermasters Stores Invoice for the Missouri State Militia 8th Cavalry Regiment Company "A" that shows the transfer of iron and nails from Lieutenant M. W. Johnson and Lieutenant James J. Akard.
Date: August 4, 1862

Title: Hon. George S. Boutwell of Mass.
Description: Black and white glass plate negative of George S. Boutwell, Senator and Representative from Massachusetts and the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue under President Lincoln.
Object Type: Image

Title: Examination of Henry F. Estes
Description: This 1866 loyalty examination document bears the name Henry F. Estes. Estes, a 41-year-old Kentucky native, states that he has resided in Missouri for 36 years, served in Price's army during the war, and does not wish to take the Oath of Loyalty. The document is contained in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Gen. Samuel R. Curtis
Description: Black and white portrait of General Samuel R. Curtis, seated and in uniform. One of the first Republicans elected to Congress representing Iowa's 1st congressional district, Curtis resigned his seat in 1861 to join the Union Army. Curtis commanded Union forces to several victories during the Civil War, including at the Battle of Pea Ridge and the Battle of Westport.
Object Type: Image

Title: Examination of James G. Adkins
Description: This is James G. Adkins's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Adkins, a 32-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri, states that he was born in Kentucky and that he belonged to the Oddfellows and the Knights of Palermo. He declares that he demonstrated his loyalty to the United States Government during the Civil War "by taking arms and going into the Court House." The oath, labeled No. 47 in a bound volume, was signed by Adkins in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: 1860 Presidential Election Returns from Putnam County, Missouri
Description: This document presents the election returns from Putnam County, Missouri for the Presidential election held on November 6, 1860: John C. Breckenridge and Joseph Lane received 287 votes; Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson received 107 votes; John Bell and Edward Everett received 62 votes; and Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin received 7 votes. On November 7, the Clerk of the Putnam County Court certified the results.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: November 7, 1860

Title: Andrew Johnson
Description: Lithograph of Andrew Johnson, circa 1865.
Object Type: Image

Title: Pony Express Rider
Description: Lloyd Branson painting of a mail carrier for the Pony Express.
Object Type: Image

Title: Merchant's Bank of Trenton One Dollar Bill
Description: The dollar bill issued by the Merchant's Bank of Trenton, New Jersey, on November 20, 1861. The Merchant's Bank dollar bill was one of the earliest dated bills to depict President Lincoln's likeness following the President's authorization to print $250 million worth of Demand Notes in July, 1861.
Object Type: Image
Date: November 20, 1861

Title: From A.J. Huntoon to Lizzie P. Huntoon
Description: This letter was written on July 7, 9, and 11, 1861 by A.J. Huntoon in Williamsport, Shawnee County, Kansas, to his wife Lizzie P. Huntoon. A.J. describes a party he attended on July 4 in Topeka, Kansas, and states that he enlisted in the service as part of “the Lane guards.” He says that since Lizzie is away from home, “I feel that there is no excuse for not taking an active part in this struggle for freedom & humanity…Such as can leave should be the first to offer themselves, & I feel that I am one.” A.J. adds that he recruited three local men for his company.
Date: July 7, 1861-July 11, 1861

Title: From Joseph H. Trego to Alice Trego
Description: This letter, dated September 7 and 8, 1862, is from Joseph H. Trego in Helena, Arkansas to his wife Alice. Trego, a lieutenant in the 5th Kansas Cavalry Regiment, reports that he and several of his fellow soldiers are ill, that his regiment is “badly managed,” and that he has considered leaving the regiment. He predicts that “much fighting must necessarily be done this coming winter and we are likely to be called upon to do our full share.”
Date: September 7, 1862-September 8, 1862

Title: From Hamilton R. Gamble to Abraham Lincoln
Description: On September 8, 1862, Missouri Gov. Hamilton R. Gamble writes from St. Louis to President Lincoln. Gamble states that Gen. Lane and Col. Jennison are raising a military force and plan to invade Missouri. Gamble declares that if the invasion is carried out, "I will resist it with all the force I can command and…shall find myself obliged to give the people of Kansas a taste of the evils of war in their own territory." Gamble asks Lincoln to forbid U.S. troops from entering Missouri without permission.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: September 8, 1862

Title: From Charles Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written ca. 1862 by Charles Adair in camp in Missouri to his father Samuel Lyle Adair. Charles reports that his company has been on the march through Missouri and recently passed “Col. Riches camp on cow creek where we found him & his Indians they had had a battle with the sesech a few days before and whipped them…the sesech attacked him & when the Indians heard the firing they shot all the prisoners they had on hand…wheather Richey approved of it or not I do not know, it was a barberous act at any rate.”

Title: Findings of the Grand Jury in Relation to the Herald of Freedom, Kansas Free State, and Free State Hotel
Description: This document describes the findings of the Grand Jury, 1st District Court, Douglas County, Kansas, regarding the Herald of Freedom and Kansas Free State newspapers, and the Free State Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas. Concluding that the two newspapers are guilty of publishing “inflammatory and seditious” reports, and that the Free State Hotel is clearly intended to be a military stronghold, the Grand Jury recommends the newspapers’ “abatement,” and the hotel’s removal. The document, ca. 1854-1860, is signed by Owen C. Stewart, Grand Jury foreman.
Object Type: Legal Document

Title: Charles Sumner
Description: Lithograph of Senator Charles Sumner. The nation was polarized after Representative Preston Brooks (Democrat, South Carolina) caned antislavery Senator Charles Sumner (Republican, Massachusetts) nearly to death in the U.S. Senate chambers on May 22, 1856. Sumner delivered an anti-slavery speech called "The Crime against Kansas" two days before, and he spent the next three years recovering from his injuries. Southerners sent Brooks canes as a show of solidarity on the slavery issue.
Object Type: Image

Title: Examination of Anderville Franklin
Description: This is Anderville Franklin's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Franklin, a 23-year-old native of Clinton County, Missouri, states that he served in the militia in Nodaway County, Missouri during the war. The oath is No. 160 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: In this November 21, 1856 letter to his parents, Edward Fitch describes attending a fundraising dinner in Lawrence, Kansas for the Free State Prisoners in Lecompton. He reports that Governor Geary was not there and that, according to rumors, Judge Lecompton had ordered Geary arrested. He mentions that Governor Robinson and Lieutenant Governor Roberts were both in attendance and gave optimistic speeches about the future of Kansas as a free state.
Object Type: Letter
Date: November 21, 1856

Title: From W.N. Drinkard to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on September 12, 1859 by W.N. Drinkard, Acting Secretary of War, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart in Jefferson City, Missouri. Drinkard states that he received Stewart’s request “that the quota of arms to become due to the State of Missouri next year may be issued in advance.” Drinkard replies that “Such an issue of the whole quota is without a precedent and cannot be entertained, but…this Department will direct an advance of one half to be made upon your requisition.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 12, 1859

Title: Missouri State Militia General Orders Enforcing Abstinence from Liquor
Description: This General Order to the Missouri State Militia reminds officers that while in service, alcohol consumption is illegal and punishable by Court Martial. S. B. Shaw states that the health of the troops "depends upon the regularity of their habits, and abstinence all unwholesome food and intoxicating liquors..."
Date: January 10, 1862

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

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