Civil War

Title: Statement of Hiram D. Preston
Description: This statement, dated September 11, 1856, was given by Hiram D. Preston regarding the robbery of a team of horses and a load of provisions near Leavenworth, Kansas in August 1856. Preston states that he was accosted by three men on the road from Lawrence, who took him to Capt. Emory’s camp nearby. After being held hostage for several days, Preston lost the team, which belonged to H.L. Jones, and provisions worth $120.52.
Object Type: Document
Date: September 11, 1856

Title: Hon. Salmon P. Chase
Description: Black and white portrait of politician and jurist, Salmon P. Chase, who served as Senator from Ohio; Governor of Ohio; U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Lincoln; and sixth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Object Type: Image

Title: Examination of James M. Bowing
Description: This is James M. Bowing's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Bowing, a 23-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri, states that he served in the militia during the Civil War. The oath, labeled No. 127 in a bound volume, was signed by Bowing in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Examination of Fredrick Gwinner
Description: This is Fredrick Gwinner's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Gwinner, 49, states that he has resided in Liberty, Missouri for 25 years. As evidence of his loyalty to the U.S. government, Gwinner reports that he "fed soldiers during the war." The oath is No. 136 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: From Edward Fitch to Those...Who So Generously Responded to the Appeal for Help
Description: Edward Fitch writes a letter from Lawrence, Kansas to the people in his hometown of Hopkinton, Massachusetts on December 17, 1856. He thanks them for responding to his recent request for help by donating clothing to poor Kansas emigrants. He describes the people who have received their donations and the suffering they have endured. Many of them, Fitch says, have been robbed, attacked, or had their houses burned down by Border Ruffians.
Date: December 17, 1856

Title: Examination of William Bryant
Description: This is William Bryant's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Bryant, a 46-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, states that he was born in Kentucky and demonstrated his loyalty to the United States Government during the Civil War by "staying at home and attending to my own business and treating soldiers as they ought to be." The oath, labeled No. 83 in a bound volume, was signed by Bryant in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Examination of W.G. Searcy
Description: This is W.G. Searcy's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Searcy describes himself as a 70-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri who was born in Kentucky. He states that during the Civil War, he remained loyal to the United States Government and "took but very little part" in the conflict. The oath, labeled No. 109 in a bound volume, was signed by W.G. Searcy on October 6, 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: October 6, 1866

Title: Wyandotte Constitution
Description: The first page of the Wyandotte Constitution, which became the Constitution of the State of Kansas when Kansas was admitted as the 34th state of the United States of America on January 29, 1861.
Object Type: Image
Date: July 29, 1861

Title: Examination of John R. Hall
Description: This is John R. Hall's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Hall, a 61-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, states that he was born in Kentucky and that he thought General Sterlin Price "ought to have been arrested by Fremont" after the capture of General Mulligan at the First Battle of Lexington. The oath, labeled No. 106 in a bound volume, was signed by Hall on October 6, 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: October 6, 1866

Title: St. Louis Riot
Description: An illustration by M. Hastings published in Harper's Weekly June 1, 1861 depicting the "Camp Jackson Affair" of May 10, 1861, which resulted in the death of 28 civilians.
Object Type: Image
Date: June 1, 1861

Title: Examination of Anderson B. Everett
Description: This unsigned Oath of Loyalty to the United States bears the name of Anderson B. Everett. The document is labeled No. 132 in a bound volume of oaths taken in 1866-1888 by Clay County, Missouri voters.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Nancy Walker Lyon Harris
Description: This ca. 1860 black-and-white photograph depicts Nancy Walker Lyon Harris, who was born in 1803. Nancy’s father, William Lyon, served as clerk of the court when Cass County, Missouri (originally Van Buren County) was first established. Nancy’s husband, Fleming Harris, helped found Harrisonville, Missouri, in Cass County, and served as its first town commissioner. Nancy died in Cass County in 1864.
Object Type: Image

Title: Examination of Thomas Morrison
Description: This is Thomas Morrison's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Morrison, a 65-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, originally from Ireland, states that he remained loyal to the United States Government during the Civil War. He claims that he defended the Union during "a little fight" in Lexington, Missouri. The oath, labeled "No. 5 1/2" in a bound volume, was signed by Morrison in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Benjamin (Ben) Broomfield
Description: Charcoal portrait of Ben Broomfield with pullover shirt typical of the guerrillas, hat, and rifle. Ben Broomfield was with Quantrill and Bill Anderson, who "called him his own Indian." Broomfield was part Comanche. He took part in the Lawrence, Kansas, massacre on August 21, 1863. Facts don't correlate about his death. Broomfield was killed either in 1863 or 1864.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1893

Title: Examination of James M. Keller
Description: This is James M. Keller's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Keller describes himself as a 59-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri, who was born in Kentucky. He states that he was loyal and obedient to the United States Government during the Civil War and that he "took up arms by going into the Militia." The oath, labeled No. 111 in a bound volume, was signed by Keller on October 6, 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: October 6, 1866

Title: 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Memorial at Fort Scott National Cemetery
Description: A memorial in the Fort Scott National Cemetery honors members of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry who died in a guerrilla attack on Sherwood, Missouri in 1863.
Object Type: Image
Date: 2005

Title: It Went Against Us
Description: Samuel J. Reader painting of the Battle of Mine Creek (or "Little Osage"), Kansas, which occurred October 25, 1864. Reader was a Union prisoner of war captured by the Confederate army; he escaped capture shortly after this battle. Over forty years later in 1906, Reader produced this painting.
Object Type: Image
Date: March 24, 1906

Title: From Thomas Sherwood to Friend Woodward
Description: This letter, dated July 5, 1855, is from Thomas Sherwood in Squaws Leg City to his friend Woodward. Sherwood says that he has just left Pawnee, Kansas, where the Legislature is now in session, and mentions that the Legislature might move to the Shawnee Methodist Mission. He describes a conflict between Kansas Gov. Andrew Reeder and Benjamin Stringfellow, which began when Reeder accused Stringfellow, a Missourian, of voting illegally in Kansas.
Date: July 5, 1855

Title: From John W. Clem to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on August 18, 1859 by John W. Clem in Butler, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Clem, the Sheriff of Bates County, Missouri, reports that James Montgomery and his Jayhawkers have laid siege to Paris, Kansas; they soon intend to cross over into Missouri to free William Wright (alias Pickles), a prisoner being held there for murder and robbery. Clem states that if the Jayhawkers enter Bates County, “I will then call out the entire militia force for defense.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: August 18, 1859

Title: From M.C. Goodlett to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter, dated January 5, 1859, was written by M.C. Goodlett in the Senate Chamber, Jefferson City, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart. Goodlett states that he received a letter from a newly-formed military company in Johnson County, Missouri, tendering its services to the Governor. Goodlett says that he personally knows all the officers and soldiers of the Johnson Guards and hopes that Stewart will call on them “to assist in driving back the Plundering Murdering Horde” of Kansas outlaws.
Date: January 5, 1859

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

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