Civil War

Title: From Elizabeth S.C. Earl to Dear Mother
Description: This letter, dated September 22, 1863, is from Elizabeth S.C. Earl in Lawrence, Kansas to her mother. She assures her mother that she is safe and has survived Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence. She adds that "you cannot imagine the distress, and suffering, of our women and children," and states that the Raid left 180 women widows and 200 children orphans. Earl tells her mother that she has taken charge of the City Hotel after the owner was killed and his family went back East.
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 22, 1863

Title: Instructions to Gen. P.F. Smith
Description: This document comprises a series of instructions given by the Secretary of War to Gen. P.F. Smith, Commander of the Department of the West, between February 15, 1856 and September 5, 1856. Smith is instructed to “make every exertion in your power with the force under your orders to preserve the peace and prevent bloodshed.” The Secretary of War empowers Smith to act if armed resistance is made by citizens of any political persuasion. Smith is instructed not to interfere with the activities of the Kansas Militia.
Date: February 15, 1856-September 5, 1856

Title: Charles Robinson, First Kansas Governor
Description: Portrait of Charles Robinson, early leader of the New England Emigrant Aid Society and the first Governor of the State of Kansas.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1861

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: From Florella Brown Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair and Emma Adair
Description: On September 14 and 15, 1860, Florella Brown Adair writes from Grafton Station, Ohio, to her husband Samuel Lyle Adair and daughter Emma Adair. Florella describes the contents of a barrel of clothing and other items she is sending to them. She says that her health has improved, and that her relatives and friends are “trying to make me look more like civilized folk than we did in Kansas.” Florella adds that she recently spent hours in conversation with a friend “about Kansas matters.”
Date: September 14, 1860-September 15, 1860

Title: Examination of John G. Wood
Description: This is John G. Wood's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Wood, a 25-year-old Missouri native, states that he served in the militia during the war. When asked "which side of the contest" he claimed to be on, Wood responds, "I was on the side of the Constitution[.] I did not believe either party was exactly right." The oath is No. 243 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Abraham Lincoln Raising a Flag at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, in Honor of the Admission of Kansas to the Union on Washington's Birthday
Description: 1911 print of a photograph of President Lincoln, en route to Washington for his inauguration, raising a flag in Philadelphia to honor the new state of Kansas.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1911

Title: Examination of George M. Pryor
Description: This is George M. Pryor's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Pryor, a 63-year-old Kentucky native, states that he has resided in Missouri for 30 years and was enrolled by the military authorities as "loyal" in 1862. The oath is No. 152 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

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: Reynolds's Political Map of the United States
Description: Printed on map: "Designed to exhibit the comparative area of the free and slave states and the territory open to slavery or freedom by the repeal of the Missouri compromise. With a comparison of the principal statistics of the free and slave states, from the census of 1850." Political map delineating the slave states, free states, and open territories, ca. 1856. The maps were created as political propaganda for the first Republican Party candidate for President, John C. Fremont, whose likeness is visible in the upper left corner of the map.
Object Type: Map

Title: Battle of Chancellorsville
Description: Kurz & Allison print depicting the Battle of Chancellorsville and the wounding of General Stonewall Jackson.
Object Type: Image

Title: Notice! to Citizens of Weston
Description: This broadside calls on “The Citizens of Weston and vicinity” to meet at the Weston, Missouri courthouse on September 1, 1854 at 7:00pm, “to adopt such measures as they may deem most proper and expedient, and best calculated to counteract the effect produced by SOME of the doings of SOME of the men connected with the ‘PLATTE COUNTY SELF DEFENSIVE ASSOCIATION.’” The broadside is signed “Many Citizens,” and is dated August 31, 1854.
Object Type: Broadside
Date: August 31, 1854

Title: Examination of Leonard Brassfield
Description: This is Leonard Brassfield's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Brassfield, an 80-year-old resident of Liberty, Missouri, originally from Kentucky, states that he remained loyal to the United States Government during the Civil War. He declares that, "I have always been a Union man," and "I have always been true to the Government in evry way." The oath, No. 13 in a bound volume, was signed by Brassfield in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Examination of John Tay
Description: This is John Tay's Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Tay, who was born in Ireland and describes himself as a 35-year-old resident of Clay County, Missouri, states that during the Civil War "I took up my musket and went in to the field." The oath, No. 18 in a bound volume, was signed by Tay in 1866.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Gale Block, Topeka, Kansas
Description: Photograph of the Gale block in Topeka, Kansas, where the Kansas state legislature convened in the 1860s.
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: From D.A.W. Morehouse to Robert M. Stewart
Description: This letter was written on December 24, 1858 by D.A.W. Morehouse in Papinsville, Missouri, to Missouri Gov. Robert M. Stewart in Jefferson City, Missouri. Morehouse declares that “The troubles again are rife in Kansas. They do not stop there, but again have penetrated with an armed force into Mo.” Morehouse asks Stewart to “order that a Company of Rangers be placed upon the Line,” since “Montgomery & Brown…play back and forward into the state in the night time.” Morehouse also asks Stewart to assign him a duty to perform in responding to the guerrillas.
Date: December 24, 1858

Title: Examination of John W. Collins
Description: This is John W. Collins's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Collins, a 43-year-old Kentucky native, states that he has lived in Missouri for 38 years and served in the militia during the war. The oath is No. 240 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: From Amos Lawrence to Francis Granger
Description: This letter, dated September 9, 1856, is from Amos A. Lawrence in Boston to Francis Granger. Lawrence criticizes President Pierce and his administration for assuming that Kansas settlers are mounting an insurrection against the government. Lawrence insists that Kansans are loyal to the U.S. government, despite resisting the laws of Missouri. He adds that Kansans have "been on the defensive wholly" and have not retaliated against the Missourians who "robbed, burned & murdered" Kansas residents.
Date: September 9, 1856

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

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