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Title: Unidentified Guerrilla
Description: Charcoal portrait of man in typical guerrilla overshirt, wearing a hat with a plume, and holding two crossed pistols. Drawing is signed by the artist with "93" immediately below the signature.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Frank Shepherd
Description: Charcoal portrait of Frank Shepherd with suit coat, vest, shirt, and tie. Frank Shepherd served under Quantrill and Bill Anderson. He was part of the Lawrence, Kansas, massacre on August 21, 1863. During the Centralia, Missouri, battle on September 27, 1864, he rode on one side of Frank James; Richard Kinney on the other side. Both Kinney and Shepherd were killed, but James escaped unharmed.
Object Type: Image

Title: Tender of Service of Martin White
Description: In this document, created October 5, 1856, a volunteer company of mounted riflemen in Lykins County, Kansas, tenders its service to the Governor of Kansas Territory. The document includes a list of the company’s officers, including Captain Martin White.
Date: October 5, 1856

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: In this January 20, 1856 letter to his parents in Massachusetts, Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas writes that Missourians launched an attack near Leavenworth on Election Day and tried to confiscate the ballot boxes. Fitch predicts an imminent war, and laments: “How long O Lord must we suffer thus. I hope you will raise an army in the East and March through Missouri and Proclaim liberty to the slave.” Included is a copy of a September 15, 1855 broadside published by John Speer that challenges the Bogus Legislature.
Date: January 20, 1856

Title: Archibald Clements (Arch or Little Archie)
Description: Charcoal portrait drawing of Archibald Clements (sometimes spelled Clement) with a cigar in his mouth, dressed in a suit with a cravat and holding a pistol. Little Arch, or Archie, at age 17 became William ("Bloody Bill") Anderson's lieutenant. It is said that in one short year Clements eclipsed the record of every known guerrilla by killing 54 men. He was part of William C. Quantrill's famous raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863, and a major player in the Centralia, Missouri, massacre. After the Civil War he took up robbing banks until he was killed December 13, 1866, in Lexington, Missouri, at age 19.
Object Type: Image

Title: Harrison Trow
Description: Charcoal portrait of Harrison Trow in suit coat, vest, shirt, and tie. Harrison Trow served under Quantrill and was at the Lawrence massacre, August 21, 1863, and Centralia, September 27, 1864, as well as the Battle of Independence, August 11, 1862. After the war, Trow lived in Blue Springs, Missouri, until 1901 when he moved to Texas where he died February 24, 1925. He identified the body of Jesse James after James was shot.
Object Type: Image

Title: David Rice Atchison
Description: Photograph of a David Rice Atchison painting by George Caleb Bingham, located in Atchison's home in Clinton County, MO.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: Joseph (Joe) C. Lea
Description: Charcoal portrait of Joseph C. Lea (sometimes Lee) with artist's initials. Son of the noted Lee's Summit physician Dr. Pleasant Lea, Joe Lea was a member of Quantrill's Guerrillas. He was wounded during the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863. After the Civil War, Lea moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where he became a buffalo hunter, lawman, rancher, banker, and instructor in the military department at the University of New Mexico. He died in 1904 at Roswell. ("The Encyclopedia of Quantrill's Guerrillas" [MVSC Q 973.742 L28e])
Object Type: Image

Title: Kansas Territorial Records
Description: These documents include letters and affidavits documenting election fraud that occurred in Leavenworth, Johnson, Coffey, and Linn Counties in Kansas Territory. Kansas citizens voted on January 4, 1858 to determine the fate of the Lecompton Constitution and to elect state officials. These documents refer to incidents of “enormous fraud” including men voting repeatedly under false names, falsifying poll books, and destroying ballot boxes “by violence and force.”
Object Type: Government Document
Date: January 5, 1858-March 15, 1858

Title: Unidentified Man in Uniform
Description: Charcoal portrait of unidentified guerrilla dressed in coat or cloak, shirt, and hat similar to a beret adorned with a plume and three large and two small stars on the headband. Subject holds a pistol. Drawing is signed by the artist with "93" immediately below the signature.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Charles Otis Fitch
Description: This black and white photograph, taken circa 1890, depicts Charles Otis Fitch, son of Edward and Sarah Fitch. He was born in Lawrence, Kansas in 1860. At the age of three, he survived Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence, but his family’s house was burned down and his father was killed in the attack.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas writes a letter to his parents on March 25, 1855, discussing controversy over the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society. Some consider it “a curse to the territory,” Fitch says, but he disagrees and claims it merely “has not done as much good as I wish it had.” He informs his parents, who live in Massachusetts, that he has turned his school into a boardinghouse to accommodate an influx of emigrants. He also mentions the upcoming state legislative election in Kansas and expresses concern that the pro-slavery ticket will win.
Object Type: Letter
Date: March 25, 1855

Title: Petition of Sundry Citizens of Pottawatomie Creek
Description: This petition, dated September 19, 1856, is addressed to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary and is signed by 32 Kansas citizens living near the Pottawatomie, Sugar, and Middle Creeks and the Osage River. The petitioners describe several recent guerrilla attacks in their region, including the Battle of Osawatomie, and ask for Geary to take action. They complain that the attacks, launched by Missourians and “guided by a few desperate men in our midst,” have succeeded in “sacking and burning houses and in robbing and plundering and menacing the lives of our citizens.”
Object Type: Petition
Date: September 19, 1856

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: In a May 18, 1856 letter to his parents in Massachusetts, Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas announces that “the blow has been struck, the war has begun.” He reports that two men have been killed near Lawrence and that several, including Governor Robinson, have been captured. He expresses concern that Kansas does not have adequate resources for defense, and he appeals for support: “Tell every one who has the least interest in Kansas that now we want help-–men money and arms.”

Title: From James A. Holmes to John W. Geary
Description: This letter, dated October 2, 1856, was written by James A. Holmes on behalf of the people of Osawatomie, Kansas, to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary. Holmes states that on August 30, 1856, a band of 410 Border Ruffians led by Martin White attacked Osawatomie, killing two men and injuring a third before plundering and burning the town. Holmes seeks permission for the citizens of Osawatomie to organize in self-defense against another attack by White.
Date: October 2, 1856

Title: Payne Jones
Description: Charcoal portrait of Payne Jones in hat, shirt, and pullover typical of Quantrill's guerrillas trimmed with buttons along the shoulders, V neck, and tops of pockets. Jones was part of Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863, and the Centralia, Missouri, massacre on September 27, 1864. After the war, he became a member of the James-Younger gang. According to the "Missouri Republican," November 11, 1867, Jones was shot November 6, 1867, during a robbery attempt.
Object Type: Image

Title: Thomas (Tom) Maupin
Description: Charcoal portrait of Thomas (Tom) Maupin wearing a checked shirt covered by a pullover with decorated pockets and decorations around the V neck. Maupin was part of Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863, and the Centralia, Missouri, massacre on September 27, 1864. "Weekly Graphic" of Kirksville, Missouri, April 7, 1882, page 1, relates that Maupin owned several cattle ranches in Texas; other sources say he was killed near Rocheport on May 24, 1865.
Object Type: Image

Title: William T. Anderson
Description: Portrait of William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson
Object Type: Image
Date: 1864

Title: Unidentified Man
Description: Charcoal portrait of unidentified man with suit coat, vest, shirt, and tie. Drawing is signed by the artist with "93" immediately below the signature.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: From Martin White to John W. Geary
Description: This letter, dated October 5, 1856, was sent by Martin White in Miami County, Kansas, to Kansas Governor John Geary. White is frustrated by Geary’s lack of response to his previous requests for troops to protect local citizens against John Brown’s raids. White states that has raised a company of 80 men who wish to be mustered into the U.S. service to help with local defense.
Date: October 5, 1856

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

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