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Title: Soldier, Eleventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry
Description: This sepia carte de visite, ca. 1861-1865, depicts an unidentified soldier who served in the Eleventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. The carte de visite was produced by R.H. Kimball & Company of Leavenworth, Kansas. Carte de visites were small photographs that were often used as calling cards and became very popular during the Civil War.
Object Type: Image

Title: Missouri State Militia Special Order No. 4
Description: By order of Missouri State Militia Major Edward B. Eno, Dubart E. Murphy instructs company commanders to secure horses at night in order to prevent their escape.
Date: September 25, 1862

Title: From T.E. Brawner to Sue Brawner
Description: This letter, from January 12, 1862, is from T.E. Brawner in Linneus, Missouri, to Sue Brawner. T.E., presumed to be a Union soldier, writes “I am now out of the service but if the Rebels make their raids in this State again this summer, you will no doubt hear of me being in the service again.” T.E. notes that, regardless of the War, he has not "lost any of my love for the old stars and stripes." He sends his love for his son Eddie, asking Sue to “tell him Pa wants to see him more than ever.”
Date: January 12, 1862

Title: Diary of the Official Activities of the District Provost Marshal (6th District Missouri)
Description: This notebook documents the official activities of A. Comingo, District Provost Marshal, 6th District of Missouri, between July 1863 and April 1865. Included in the journal are records of appointments and meetings attended by Comingo, his daily activities running the office, and a report of vouchers issued and paid for using his "individual funds."
Date: July 1863-April 1865

Title: From Samuel R. Ayres to Lyman Langdon
Description: This letter from Samuel R. Ayres to Lyman Langdon is dated January 1, 1863, the day that President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In his letter, Ayres expresses support for the proclamation, but mentions the possibility of it being revoked and questions whether or not slaves will indeed be set free. Ayres also reports that his two sons are in Gen. Grant’s division of the 7th Kansas Cavalry Regiment and have had to fight nearly every day.
Object Type: Letter
Date: January 1, 1863

Title: From S.F. Chalfin to A. Comingo
Description: This dispatch, dated August 26, 1863, is from S.F. Chalfin, Assistant Adjutant General, to Capt. A. Comingo, Provost Marshal of the 6th district of Missouri. Writing from the War Department in Washington, D.C., Chalfin states that the Provost Marshal General has approved Comingo's request for payment of his employees.
Date: August 26, 1863

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: $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

Title: Application of William H.H. Isaacs
Description: This is William H.H. Isaacs’s application for compensation from the United States government for the military service of his slave, Thomas Johnson. The application, dated November 16, 1866, includes an oath of allegiance to the United States, a power of attorney transfer to Isaac C. Dodge, and the signatures of four witnesses, a notary public, and a justice of the peace in Saline County, Missouri.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: November 16, 1866

Title: From John C. Gage to Dear Friends
Description: This letter, dated September 1, 1862, was written by John C. Gage in Kansas City, Missouri to friends in Pelham, New Hampshire. John states that Confederate forces camped nearby have retreated to Arkansas, leaving the area vulnerable to guerrilla attacks. The biggest threat comes from Jim Lane’s brigade under Jennison, which is “raising and arming negroes in Kansas to plunder good citizens in Missouri.” Of Jennison, John declares, “He ought to be killed and I would esteem it the best act of my life to do it.”
Date: September 1, 1862

Title: From John A. Bushnell to Eugenia Bronaugh
Description: John A. Bushnell writes a letter to Eugenia Bronaugh on August 18, 1863. He describes the beautiful scenery and overwhelming heat in Calhoun, Missouri. He complains about those who do not fear the law, claiming they would “sink the government, their neighbors—everything for their own dear personal safety.”
Date: August 18, 1863

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

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