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Title: Warrant for the Arrest of Gen. John Reid
Description: This warrant for the arrest of Gen. John Reid was issued on September 19, 1856 by S.G. Cato, Assistant Justice of the Supreme Court of Kansas Territory. The warrant accuses Reid and others of sacking and burning the town of Osawatomie, Kansas, kidnapping two people, and stealing property worth several thousand dollars on August 30, 1856.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: September 19, 1856

Title: Civil War Muster Rolls
Description: These muster rolls from 1861 and 1864 list the names of soldiers enlisted in Captain James R. Murphy’s Company of Home Guards from Caldwell County, Missouri. Attached is a January 22, 1946 letter from Bertha E. Booth of Caldwell County to Mr. Shoemaker. Booth notes that the muster roll from 1864 is likely to be “a list of the militiamen who were in pursuit of the Thrailkill (Confed.) raiders.”
Date: 1861 and 1864

Title: From Morse to Joseph H. Trego
Description: This letter, dated October 28, 1862, is from a soldier named Morse to Lieut. Joseph Trego of the 5th Kansas Cavalry Regiment. Morse says that he was elected to Trego’s position after Trego left the company. He updates Trego on daily life at Camp Vandiver, informing him that Col. Clayton is planning to build barracks and that Lieut. Cox, who had gone AWOL, returned to camp drunk. He also mentions that rebels recently attacked an Illinois regiment and took 70 prisoners.
Date: October 28, 1862

Title: Jesse Hamlett
Description: Charcoal portrait of Jesse Hamlett (sometimes spelled Hamlet) in suit coat, vest, tie, and hat. Little is known about Jesse Hamlett. He appears to have served under William Anderson and was part of the Centralia, Missouri, September 27, 1864, massacre. He also may have been one of the U.S. Marshalls at Lexington, Missouri, after the war.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: From John M. Schofield to Thomas Carney
Description: This letter, written on the letterhead of Headquarters, Department of the Missouri and dated September 3, 1863, was sent by John M. Schofield in Kansas City, Missouri, to Kansas Governor Thomas Carney. Major General Schofield expresses his agreement with Gov. Carney on the necessity of preempting a potentially violent meeting in Paola, Kansas. Schofield states that he will issue an order preventing armed men not in the U.S. service from entering Missouri. He also accepts Carney’s offer of the services of the militia to help avert “any irregular action.”
Date: September 3, 1863

Title: From D.A.W. Morehouse to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on June 7, 1858 by D.A.W. Morehouse in Papinsville, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart in Jefferson City, Missouri. Morehouse refers to “the troubles on the border of the state touching Kansas,” and requests that a company of Rangers be stationed on the state line to protect local citizens. Morehouse asks Stewart for permission to organize such a company himself because he is "familiar with those characters Resident in the Territory."
Date: June 7, 1858

Title: From Samuel Medary to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This telegram, dated January 3, 1859, is from Kansas Gov. Samuel Medary to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Medary informs Stewart that he has ordered U.S. Troops to protect eastern Kansas and that he plans to organize a large force of Kansas citizens. He urges Stewart to keep troops on the Missouri side of the state line to protect his citizens if James Montgomery invades Missouri. He adds that Montgomery and John Brown have three forts and an armed force of 100-200 men.
Object Type: Telegram
Date: January 3, 1858

Title: From William Clarke Quantrill to My Dear Mother
Description: This letter is from William Clarke Quantrill to his mother. Quantrill writes from Stanton, Kansas on January 26, 1860. He acknowledges "the wrongs committed" by the proslavery party, but argues that the abolitionists are "the most lawless set of people." He criticizes their sympathy for John Brown, calling him a murderer and a robber, and declaring that he "should have been hung years ago."
Date: January 26, 1860

Title: Upton Hayes
Description: Charcoal portrait drawing of Colonel Upton Hays [Hayes] in suit. Hays, a great grandson of Daniel Boone, lived in Westport. He enlisted in the Second Missouri Calvary in 1861 and fought in the early battles of Carthage, Missouri, July 5, 1861; Wilson's Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861; Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 9, 1862; and others. Hays was killed in the battle of Newtonia, Missouri, on September 30, 1862. "In 1898, the United Daughters of the Confederacy exhumed his body and reburied it in the Confederate Cemetery at Westport, now known as the Forest Hills Cemetery" (Joseph K. Houts, Jr., "Quantrill's Thieves," page 153 [MVSC 973.742 H84q].)
Object Type: Image

Title: From D.W. Frost to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on January 9, 1859 by Brig. Gen. D.M. Frost, Missouri Militia, at Headquarters, 1st Military District in St. Louis, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart in Jefferson City, Missouri. Frost refers to Stewart’s recommendation that a military force be organized to protect “our State frontiers against the depredations of Kansas Outlaws & Ruffians,” and states that he is “prepared at any moment to Execute your orders.”
Date: January 9, 1859

Title: From the Kansas State Central Committee to Philip St. George Cooke
Description: This September 3, 1856 letter is from the Kansas State Central Committee to Lieut. Col. Philip St. George Cooke. The committee members state that Free State supporters have been forced to take up arms to defend themselves against “the inhuman atrocities of organized bands of assassins” from Missouri. They claim that the civil authorities have not helped, and they ask Cooke for protection. The letter is signed by H. Miles Moore, secretary of the committee, as well as W.R. Frost, Morris Hunt, and J. Lawson.
Date: September 3, 1856

Title: Jesse James
Description: Charcoal portrait of Jesse James dressed in suit coat, vest, shirt, tie, and hat. In 1863, James joined Quantrill's Guerrillas and after the Civil War became leader of the James-Younger gang. He was shot by a new member of his gang, Robert (Bob) Ford, April 3, 1882.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Unidentified Man in Confederate Uniform
Description: Charcoal portrait of unidentified man in Confederate uniform and hat with ostrich plume. The drawing is unsigned but attributed to Anna Lee (Dillenbeck) Stacey.
Object Type: Image

Title: William Clarke Quantrill
Description: Portrait of William Clarke Quantrill from the book "Quantrill and the Border Wars" by William Elsey Connelley (1st Ed., 1909).
Object Type: Image

Title: From Charles Sumner to My Dear Hale
Description: Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner writes a letter from Washington to "My dear Hale" on March 1, 1856. Sumner criticizes Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, and the Know Nothing Party, and worries that "this Congress will do nothing for the benefit of Kansas." He expresses concern that Kansas will not be admitted to the Union due to its small population and the lack of support for its constitution.
Date: March 1, 1856

Title: William Gregg
Description: Charcoal portrait drawing of a bearded Captain William Gregg in jacket. Gregg was one of the first to join William Quantrill's gang in December 1861 and one of the first to leave (December 1863) when Quantrill began losing control of the bushwhackers. That same month Gregg joined General Joseph O. Shelby's brigade and was made a First Lieutenant in command of Company I. After the war, Gregg lived in Kansas City and became a deputy sheriff for Jackson County. He died at the age of 78 on April 22, 1916, in Kansas City and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery.
Object Type: Image

Title: Documents Relating to Kansas Territory, U.S. District Court, 3rd District vs. James Montgomery
Description: These documents, dated between December 24, 1858 and February 17, 1859, relate to the case of Kansas Territory, U.S. District Court, 3rd District versus James Montgomery for robbery and murder. In the documents, James Montgomery, John Brown, and other men are accused of murdering John Little and robbing his store on December 16, 1858, while attempting to free their comrade Benjamin Price at Fort Scott, Kansas. The documents include a writ for the arrest of John Brown and a statement by William P. Fain, U.S. Marshal for Kansas Territory.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: December 24, 1858-February 17, 1859

Title: Alexander Franklin (Frank) James
Description: Charcoal portrait of Frank James dressed in what appears to be a Confederate cavalry uniform. Frank James, the older brother of Jesse, first joined the Missouri State Guard, but later became a member of Quantrill's guerrillas. Frank took part in many Civil War battles and skirmishes, including the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863, and the Centralia massacre. He surrendered at Samuel's Depot, Kentucky, at the end of the war. He was a member of the James-Younger gang and participated in numerous robberies, and although tried for some of these, was acquitted. He died of a stroke February 15, 1915. He is buried in the Hill family private cemetery near Kansas City.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: From Z.M. Hadly to Edmund G. Ross
Description: This 1864 telegram was sent by Capt. Z.M. Hadly in Kansas City, Missouri, to Capt. Edmund G. Ross in Lawrence, Kansas. Hadly states that between 150 and 200 guerrillas crossed into Kansas the previous night, heading in the direction of Olathe, Kansas. Hadly reports that 350 cavalry were immediately dispatched from Kansas City to Olathe.
Object Type: Telegram
Date: 1864

Title: From G.A. Parsons to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This dispatch, dated June 3, 1858 is from G.A. Parsons, Adjutant General of the Missouri Militia, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Parsons reports from Cass County, Missouri on the border conflict; he states that a number of Missouri farmers have abandoned their farms and moved into the interior of the state to seek safety. He adds that James Montgomery and a group of Kansas citizens met with a committee of Missouri citizens and demanded their surrender.
Date: June 3, 1858

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

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