Civil War

Title: From Mary E. Bedford to A.M. Bedford
Description: This letter, dated January 11, 1864, is from Mary E. Bedford to her husband, Lieut. Alex M. Bedford. She expresses concern about his ailing health, and promises to send him money and provisions. She shares news of relatives, and reports that “it is peaceable hear now but the lord only knows how long it will remain so.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: January 11, 1864

Title: From James Griffing to Unknown
Description: This letter, dated January 10, 1854 but presumably written January 10, 1855, was sent by James Griffing in Wyandotte County, Kansas to an unknown recipient. James discusses pioneer life in Kansas Territory, claiming that it is not at all dangerous: “Our society is mostly all from the East, and you feel just as much composed as when in New England.” Although James believes Missourians are more dangerous than the American Indians, he insists “there is no more reason for a person who attends to his own business to be afraid here” than anywhere else.
Date: January 10, 1855

Title: Laura Hidden Pearson
Description: This tintype, ca. 1860, depicts Laura Hidden Pearson, an Ohio native who married William D. Pearson in Cass County, Missouri. William was the oldest child of Robert D. Pearson, an early Cass County pioneer. William served in Confederate Captain Shanks’ company for nine months until he was taken prisoner near Lexington, Missouri; he was eventually released on parole. Laura and William married after the war.
Object Type: Image

Title: Union Men and Their Sufferings in North-Western Missouri
Description: This 1864 pamphlet, entitled “Union Men and Their Sufferings in North-Western Missouri,” was written by Major J.M. Bassett, former Provost Marshal-General of the Northwest District of Missouri. Bassett provides a “glance at the history of the Rebellion in Northwest Missouri,” admitting “it may be that my hatred for rebels is too intense, my sympathy for loyal men too strong, to make every sentence I write acceptable to all.” The pamphlet, which features several black-and-white illustrations, was published by the Press of Wynkcop, Hallenbeck, and Thomas in New York, with proceeds from its sale given to The Ladies’ Aid Society of St. Joseph, Missouri.
Date: 1864

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Friends at Home
Description: Edward Fitch writes a July 26, 1855 letter from aboard a steamboat on Lake Erie. He tells friends in his hometown of Hopkinton, Massachusetts that he is en route from Boston to Osawatomie, Kansas. He describes the other members of his travelling party, a group of nineteen emigrants he is taking to Kansas for the New England Emigrant Aid Company.
Object Type: Letter
Date: July 26, 1855

Title: From T.W. Trego to Dear Sister Alice
Description: This letter, dated June 10, 1862, is from T.W. Trego in Chicago to his sister-in-law Alice. He asks Alice about her husband Joseph, a lieutenant in the 5th Kansas Cavalry Regiment. He mentions that Col. Jennison told him that Joseph might have been transferred to the 6th Regiment; he asks Alice whether this is true. T.W. adds that he hopes “the biggest part of the fuss will soon be over so that Joseph can be released from his duties in the field, and devote himself to you.”
Date: June 10, 1862

Title: From John A. Bushnell to Eugenia Bronaugh
Description: John A. Bushnell writes a letter from St. Louis to Eugenia Bronaugh of Hickory Grove, Missouri on August 3, 1864. He tells her that one of his former slaves was arrested and brutally attacked in Sedalia, Missouri, and he expresses hope that the Conservative Party will put an end to the violence and lawlessness. He tells Eugenia that he wishes he could write to her freely, without “the fear of fiendish eyes,” but he suspects that all of the letters he sends her are intercepted and read.
Date: August 3, 1864

Title: From Thomas R. Mitchell to J.T. Sweringen
Description: This letter is from Thomas R. Mitchell to J.T. Sweringen. Mitchell writes from Huntsville, Missouri on June 20, 1857, to inform Sweringen that Mrs. Ralston has safely arrived in town: "She found no difficulty in getting along amongst the 'border ruffians.'" He also expresses his concern that crops in Missouri are scarce this season.
Date: June 20, 1857

Title: Indenture of Robertson Moore and David L. Cavanagh
Description: This April 1864 document declares the upcoming sale of the late John C. Cavanagh’s real estate and his three slaves, Abe, Lucy, and Eliza. Robertson Moore, Sheriff of Chariton County, announces that he will auction off Cavanagh’s property outside of the courthouse in Keytesville, Missouri.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: April 1864

Title: From Mary E. Bedford to Alex M. Bedford
Description: On July 17, 1863, Mary E. Bedford writes from Savannah, Missouri to her husband Alex M. Bedford. Mary says that she believes Alex will be exchanged soon, and expresses hope that the war will soon come to an end. She states that she could not retrieve the horse Alex left in Clay County, Missouri, because it was taken as contraband. Mary provides an update about various friends in the area, including several who have left and some who joined the military. She adds that the price of goods is very high and that she may go to Kentucky to stay with relatives.
Date: July 17, 1863

Title: Julia Sumner Fitch
Description: This black and white photograph, taken circa 1890, portrays Julia Sumner Fitch. Julia was born to Edward and Sarah Fitch in Lawrence, Kansas in 1858. At the age of five, she survived Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence, but her family’s house was burned down and her father was killed in the attack.
Object Type: Image

Title: From G.H. Forkney to Col. Peery
Description: This letter, dated June 13, 1856, is from G.H. Forkney in Basin Knob, Missouri to Col. Peery. Forkney discusses business dealings, then goes on to describe the "deplorable state of affairs" in Kansas Territory: "murders are common & occasionally the women & children fall victim to the fury of the northern fanatics." He reports that President Franklin Pierce has put Kansas under martial law, and that Missourians are preparing for "a war of extermination."
Object Type: Letter
Date: June 13, 1856

Title: Excerpt from George Palmer's Diary
Description: Union Captain George Palmer’s diary, written July-August, 1861, records daily life in his company of dragoons. Palmer writes of meeting “Col. Grant,” searching a suspicious barge, and receiving orders from General Pope. He also hears news of a “battle at Springfield,” presumably the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. Palmer recalls that during a storm in camp, 100 men from Col. Williams’ regiment “stripped of all their clothes and ran out in the rain,” causing “much merriment.”
Object Type: Diary

Title: From Thomas Carney to James L. McDowell
Description: This letter, dated June 26, 1863, was written by Kansas Governor Thomas Carney in Washington, DC, to James L. McDowell. Carney writes that Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, has refused to approve Major General Schofield’s order to raise a regiment. Carney says that if necessary he will “foot the bill” himself to defend “helpless women and children” from the “brutal...ruffian raids that have so long cursed our state.”
Date: June 26, 1863

Title: From William Clarke Quantrill to William W. Scott
Description: William Clarke Quantrill writes a letter from Olathe, Kansas to William W. Scott on January 22, 1858. Quantrill reports the results of a recent election on the Lecompton Constitution, which he refers to as the "Lecompton swindle." He mentions a recent skirmish at Fort Scott and declares it "a pity" that the Kansas settlers "had not shot every Missourian that was there." He also calls James Henry Lane "as good a man as we have here" and describes Kansas Democrats as "rascals."
Date: January 22, 1858

Title: From George E. Young to My Dear Father
Description: This letter, dated August 23, 1863, is from George E. Young in Minneola, Kansas to his father. Young writes that he was in Lawrence on the day of Quantrill's Raid and "came very near being killed." He describes how the attackers approached the boarding house where he was staying, ordered all the women and children to leave, then lined up the men and shot at them. Young tells his father that he ran away and hid in a nearby cellar, narrowly escaping death.
Date: August 23, 1863

Title: From A.M. Bedford to Mary E. Bedford
Description: This letter, dated October 12, 1864, is from Lieut. Alex M. Bedford to his wife Mary E. Bedford in Savannah, Missouri. He writes from Morris Island off the coast of Charleston, S.C., where he is imprisoned. He informs his wife that he has written to Gen. Craig and requested parole. He tells Mary, “I am very tired of prison life + want to get out if there is any honorable way.”
Date: October 12, 1864

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: 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: 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

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

Error message

In collections

Pages

Pages

Object Type

Local Subject

People

Geographic Subject

Owning Organization