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Title: From James Mooney to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on January 4, 1859 by Capt. James Mooney in West Point, Missouri to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Mooney describes several recent incidents of robbery, property destruction, and murder perpetrated against the citizens of Bates and Vernon Counties in Missouri by guerrillas from Kansas. Mooney states that a company of 100 men has been organized within the counties; he requests that the company be “properly armed and equipped” and accepted into the service of the state. The final page of the letter is an endorsement of Mooney’s statements by J.A. Pigg and four other men.
Date: January 4, 1859

Title: From James Henry Lane to R.M. Ainsworth
Description: This is a copy of a letter written by Gen. James Henry Lane, labeled the first letter of the Wakarusa War. In the letter, dated December 1, 1855 and addressed to R.M. Ainsworth, Lane writes that a Free State man, Charles Dow, was “cowardly + brutally murdered by a gang of Proslavery men” in Lawrence, Kansas. Violence and threats followed, Lane says, and according to rumors, “this city is to be demolished without delay.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: December 1, 1855

Title: From John C. Gage to Dear Friends
Description: This letter, dated December 8, 1862, was written by John C. Gage in Kansas City, Missouri to friends in Pelham, New Hampshire. Declaring that the “guerrillas” have gone, John describes how his community has been altered by the war: “It is the common course of things for anybody to get killed. Even their own families hardly seem to mourn for them.” He adds that those injured in battle are often seen “about the streets with their crutches.”
Date: December 8, 1862

Title: From D.A.W. Morehouse to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on June 28, 1858 by D.A.W. Morehouse in Papinsville, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart in Jefferson City, Missouri. Morehouse tells Stewart about the organization of a company of mounted dragoons in Papinsville, and lists the company’s officers. Morehouse requests that Stewart issue the appropriate commissions and supply them with arms: “It is actually necessary that we should be armed and equipped to sustain civil order. Our lives and property and our families cannot otherwise be protected.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: June 28, 1858

Title: From Thomas Carney to James L. McDowell
Description: This letter, dated February 9, 1864, was written by Kansas Governor Thomas Carney in Topeka, Kansas to Major General James L. McDowell. Carney orders McDowell to organize and assume command of the Topeka militia for the purpose of protecting the city and its vicinity from guerrilla attacks. Carney states that he will promptly grant any necessary assistance in securing the public safety.
Object Type: Letter
Date: February 9, 1864

Title: William Napoleon (Babe) Hudspeth
Description: Charcoal portrait drawing of William "Babe" Hudspeth in suit, vest, and tie. Hudspeth was one of four brothers from eastern Jackson County that rode with Quantrill and Bill Anderson. He participated in the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, (August 21, 1863) and the Centralia, Missouri, massacre (September 1864). After the Civil War he lived on his farm in Jackson County and bred horses. He died in 1907. (from "Babe Hudspeth: Missouri Guerrilla" by John Sickles in "Military Images," Jan/Feb 2007, Vol. 28, #4, pp. 30-33.")
Object Type: Image

Title: From James S. Hackney to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on June 11, 1858 by James S. Hackney at “Noland House” in Independence, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Hackney reports that Col. Blakely and Gen. Parsons are in the process of organizing several military companies in Cass and Vernon Counties in Missouri. According to Hackney, Col. Blakely has “seen over 100 men who have been driven from the Territory by Montgomery’s band. He says ‘I’ll tell you times are hot down here—the people are boiling over with rage.’”
Object Type: Letter
Date: June 11, 1858

Title: From Jesse Newell to John W. Geary
Description: In this September 20, 1856 letter to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary, Jesse Newell complains that he was driven from his house by a band of guerrillas. He claims that they destroyed his property and threatened to hang him, his son Robert, and his brother-in-law. He adds that his neighbors are not safe either, and that his neighborhood is “pested” with guerrillas.
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 20, 1856

Title: John Ross
Description: Charcoal portrait of John Ross in suit coat, shirt, and string tie. Ross was one of Quantrill's guerrillas and took part in the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863. He was with Quantrill when Quantrill was mortally wounded in Kentucky. Ross, along with 14 others of Quantrill's band, surrendered to the U.S. Army at Samuel's Depot, Kentucky, July 25, 1865.
Object Type: Image

Title: General Orders, No. 38
Description: Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis issued General Order No. 38 from the Department of the Missouri Headquarters in St. Louis on May 22, 1863. The order details the proceedings of recent Military Commissions in St. Joseph, St. Louis, and Springfield, Missouri, where citizens were tried for war crimes, including consorting with guerrillas and bushwhackers, killing United States soldiers from the Seventh Cavalry Regiment Missouri Volunteers, and encouraging rebellion against the government. The order was signed by Assistant Adjutant General A.V. Colburn.
Date: May 22, 1863

Title: Charles Sanders
Description: Charcoal portrait of Charles Sanders (Saunders) in suit coat, vest, shirt, and tie. Sanders served with Quantrill and was part of the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863. While recuperating at the home of Mrs. Richard Kinney in Jackson County from wounds, Sanders was shot and killed in March 1865 by Captain J. W. Sheets' company of soldiers.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Samuel Medary to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter, dated April 14, 1859, is from Kansas Gov. Samuel Medary to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Medary responds to Stewart’s April 8 letter stating that Gen. Parsons is patrolling the Kansas-Missouri state line to protect Missourians from guerrilla attacks. Medary expresses surprise and claims no knowledge of guerrilla bands in Kansas. He assures Stewart that he will investigate and that he will cooperate with Stewart’s efforts to preserve peace along the border.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: April 14, 1859

Title: From John A. Halderman to Samuel R. Curtis
Description: This letter, dated November 6, 1862, is from Maj. John A. Halderman of the 1st Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment to Maj. Gen. Curtis, commander of the Department of the Missouri. Halderman asks, on behalf of Kansas Gov. Charles Robinson, for Curtis’s assistance in arming the Kansas State Militia so that they can better protect the Kansas-Missouri border “against the violence of lawless bands in Missouri.”
Date: November 6, 1862

Title: From Cyrus Leland, Jr. to Dear Mother
Description: Cyrus Leland, Jr. writes a letter to his mother in Troy, Kansas on September 16, 1863. Leland, a lieutenant of the 10th Kansas Infantry, Company F, reports that he recently arrived in Kansas City, Missouri from Atchison, Kansas. He tells his mother that a colonel fought a band of Bushwhackers the previous day: “He killed several and captured forty Horses.”
Date: September 16, 1863

Title: From Daniel Woodson to William P. Richardson
Description: This order, dated September 1, 1856, was sent by Acting Kansas Governor Daniel Woodson in Lecompton, Kansas, to Major General William P. Richardson, Kansas Militia, Northern Division. Woodson reminds Richardson that General Order No. 1, issued August 21, 1856, directed that all peaceable Kansas citizens and their property were to be protected regardless of their political views, and that no houses were to be destroyed unless they were proven to be used as forts or arsenals against the territorial government. Woodson directs Richardson to use the “severest penalties” against soldiers violating the order, and prohibits the burning of dwellings.
Date: September 1, 1856

Title: From John Wright to John W. Geary
Description: In this September 20, 1856 letter to Kansas Gov. John W. Geary, John Wright complains that a mob of 15 to 20 armed men raided his house. According to Wright, the mob was led by Capt. Miller of Leavenworth County, Kansas. They broke into his home with revolvers, threatened to kill him, and captured Joseph Wright and John Kissinger. Wright asks Geary to rescue Joseph and John from the mob and “Save their Lives.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 20, 1856

Title: From E.B. Alexander to William Fowler
Description: On August 8, 1863, Col. E.B. Alexander, Acting Assistant Provost Marshal General in St. Louis, writes to Capt. William Fowler, Provost Marshal for the 7th District of Missouri. Alexander reports that four "desperate" horse thieves have escaped from a court house in Iowa and are rumored to be in northern Missouri. He adds that one of the men, Washington Rodgers, is charged with enlisting men for the Confederate side "and is supposed to have been an active guerrilla in northern Missouri."
Date: August 8, 1863

Title: Richard (Dick) Yeager
Description: Charcoal portrait of Richard (Dick) Yeager dressed in suit coat, shirt, and tie. Dick Yeager was a son of James B. Yeager, a judge who served in the state legislature for two years and as presiding judge of the Jackson County Court in 1840. James owned a freight business running the Santa Fe Trail, and before the war, Dick was in charge of one of his father's wagon trains. When his father's farm was raided, Dick joined Quantrill's guerrillas. He was part of Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863, and is also known for a daring raid in the vicinity of Council Grove, Kansas, on May 4, 1863. There are several versions of his death, which occurred around July or August 1864.
Object Type: Image

Title: Andrew (Andy) McGuire
Description: Charcoal portrait of Andrew McGuire in coat over a tab-closing shirt. McGuire was part of Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas, August 21, 1863, and Centralia, Missouri, September 27, 1864. He surrendered at Samuel's Depot, Kentucky, July 25, 1865. In May 1867, 14 men held up the bank in Richmond, Missouri. A warrant was issued for McGuire's arrest in connection with the robbery. He was arrested in St. Louis and taken to the Richmond city jail. On March 20, 1868, a mob of 15 stormed the jail and lynched McGuire along with James M. Devers.
Object Type: Image

Title: Sacking of Lawrence
Description: This print, originally published in O. N. Merrill's 1856 publication of "True history of the Kansas wars, and their origin, progress and incidents", depicts the Sack of Lawrence in 1856 by Douglas County sheriff Samuel J. Jones.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1856

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

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