Civil War

Title: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair and Emma Adair
Description: This letter was written on April 8, 9, and 10, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair in South Salem, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair and daughter Emma Adair. Florella writes that she continues to have difficulty collecting money for Kansas, and declares “I hope there will be not one cent given to those who will not work, as hard as I have to get the little I have for their benefit.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: April 8, 1861-April 10, 1861

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: Republican Banner for 1860
Description: Republican Party banner for the 1860 Presidential campaign featuring Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for president and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for vice president.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1860

Title: Examination of Richardson Terrell
Description: This is Richardson Terrell's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Terrell, a 28-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri, states that he was born in Kentucky and demonstrated his loyalty to the Union "by Entering the service of the Govt." during the Civil War. The oath, labeled No. 32 in a bound volume, was signed by Terrell in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Lee Surrenders to Grant at Appomattox
Description: The Room in the McLean House, at Appomattox C.H., in which Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant. Most written accounts of Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, noted the difference between Lee’s stiff dignity and Grant’s more relaxed demeanor. This lithograph of the event, showing the two men as they waited for the peace terms to be copied, captures that difference better than most. After the surrender, Wilmer McLean, the owner of the house, lost much of his furniture to soldiers desiring mementos of the historic event. Later, in what proved to be a futile effort to recoup his losses and raise funds for his needy family, he commissioned this print.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1867

Title: Price's Raid
Description: Samuel J. Reader painting of Price's Raid when Reader was a Union prisoner of war amongst the Rebel Army from October 22-25, 1864, escaping shortly after the Battle of Mine Creek. Reader made this painting the following year at his home in Indianola (just north of downtown Topeka), Kansas. Reader labels the painting, "'Close Up' 'Double Quick!' Members of the 2nd Regiment Kansas State Militia, prisoners of war. 'Price Raid', October, AD. 1864. An eye-witness. On the way to 'Camp Ford' prison pen, near Tyler, Texas".
Object Type: Image
Date: February 13, 1865

Title: Governor Wilson Shannon (1802–1877)
Description: Wilson Shannon, a former governor of Ohio, was appointed Kansas territorial governor by President Franklin Pierce. In contrast to his predecessor, Andrew H. Reeder, Shannon was outspoken in his proslavery stance and even failed to defend the town of Lawrence from a proslavery raid in May 1856. The "Bleeding Kansas" era began during Shannon's term in office, as the Pottawatomie Massacre and other threats of violence emerged. Admitting failure, Shannon left the territory on June 23, 1856 and his resignation was tendered on August 18, 1856. Still, Shannon's 9.5 month tenure was the longest of any of Kansas Territory's embattled governors.
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: Correspondence of the Kansas Territory Executive Department
Description: This group of documents, dated between 1855 and 1856, comprises correspondence and other papers relating to the construction of the capital building at Lecompton, Kansas. Kansas Governors Reeder, Geary, and Shannon participated in the correspondence, which includes the appointment of Owen C. Stewart as Superintendent of Construction on October 20, 1855, and a contract for construction dated December 27, 1855.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1855-1856

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: Examination of John S. Thomason
Description: This is John S. Thomason's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Thomason, a 38-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, states that he remained loyal to the United States Government during the Civil War. The oath, labeled No. 95 in a bound volume, was signed by Thomason on October 6, 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: October 6, 1866

Title: Examination of W.W. Dougherty
Description: This is W.W. Dougherty's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Dougherty, who was born in Indiana, describes himself as a 47-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri. He claims that he had "no particular sympathy" with either side during the Civil War. Upon hearing that Gen. Sterling Price had captured Gen. Mulligan and his army at Lexington, Missouri, Dougherty "felt that there was a big mess on hand." The oath, labeled No. 49 in a bound volume, was signed by Dougherty in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

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: St. Louis, Missouri
Description: This stereograph displays the commercial district of St. Louis, Missouri."
Object Type: Image
Date: 1862 - 1868

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: Slave Hire
Description: In this document, James Lawrence and W.W. Walter promise to pay Hugh G. Rees sixty dollars for the hire of a 15-year-old female slave named Nancy. Lawrence and Walter agree to “treat the said girl humanely…and not take her out of the State of MO.” The two men promise to return Nancy to Rees on January 1, 1856.
Object Type: Legal Document

Title: From Florella Brown Adair and Charles Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on April 14 and 15, 1861 by Florella Brown Adair and Charles Adair in Greenfield, Ohio, to Samuel Lyle Adair. Florella reports that she has been thinking about “the mysterious providence of God toward Kansas & toward our church, why does he permit such trying & afflictive things to come upon us as a people?” Charles finishes the letter on April 15, stating that they will be home the following week. He refers to the capture of Fort Sumter and declares, “The war has begun.”
Date: April 14, 1861-April 15, 1861

Title: James Henry Lane (1814-1866), Politician and Leader of the Free State Party of Kansas, with Gun
Description: Carte de visite featuring a sepia photograph of James Henry Lane posing with a gun.
Object Type: Image

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

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