This illustration shows Osceola, Missouri, burning on Sept. 26, 1861, during conflict between Kansas and Missouri. (Kansas State Historical Society)
Opinion
By Frank Barthell, special to the Kansas Reflector
Unless you live in the state, you may have forgotten that Missouri remained in the Union during the Civil War. It’s an easy oversight. For nearly a decade, Kansas and Missouri were each other’s mortal enemy. The hostilities persisted even longer.
For perspective, it helps to revisit the Bleeding Kansas era between 1854 and 1860.
James Montgomery didn’t set out for the Kansas Territory in 1854 with his wife and six children to become an abolitionist, observe Todd Mildfelt and David Schafter in their history, “Abolitionist of the Most Dangerous Kind: James Montgomery and His War on Slavery.” They describe Montgomery’s transition into a militant abolitionist, absent the myths and legends that grew up around his fellow abolitionist John Brown.
“While living in Kentucky and struggling financially, Montgomery became frustrated by the need to compete against slave labor. In a widespread practice, slaveholders ‘hired out’ enslaved men, women and children to work for other people. As a skilled carpenter, Montgomery could have earned between three and five dollars per day in a free labor market. But in places like Kentucky and Missouri, slave labor undercut that rate,” Mildfelt and Schafter write.
Montgomery was a “free soiler,” opposed to slavery in Kansas more on economic grounds than moral ones.
He settled in southeast Kansas in the midst of the 1854 election. That was the first instance of Missourians crossing the state line to vote and intimidate Kansas residents. Of the 3,000 votes, 1,700 were later deemed fraudulent. Even after a second vote, the state legislature remained in the firm grip of the pro-slavery majority.
“Free-state leaders believed this basic right was being seized from them and it was being done with the consent of the US Government,” according to the authors.
Two years later, a pro-slavery force intent on driving free-state settlers off their land struck in Bourbon and Linn counties.
“The raiders cut a swath several miles wide, stealing horses, cattle, hogs and chickens. They also plundered furniture, clothing, saddles and farm implements. On at least three occasions, the pro-slavery force burned houses,” the authors wrote.
Later that year, Montgomery, armed with a small force and list of Missourians responsible for the raids, supposedly took possession of a home in Bates County, Missouri, held 21 captive, stole $250 and 11 horses, and smashed their weapons. The story, “real or myth contributed to the reputation Montgomery fostered as a guerilla chieftain in Linn County,” according to Mildfelt and Schafer.
The Civil War began in April 1861. In June and July 1861, Kansans invaded Vernon, Bates and Cass counties in Missouri. In September, military commander and U.S. Sen. James Lane organized Lane’s Brigade. Montgomery led one of the four regiments in the command.
“The tables are turned now,” a Kansas soldier is quoted as saying. “And here in camp are many Kansas men who were hunted in ’55 and ’56 by the Border Ruffians who rode, booted and spurred over our state.”
Taking advantage of the conflicts between pro-Confederate and pro-Union families within Missouri, the Kansas Brigade had nearly free rein.
Missouri historian Tom Rafiner observed: “For Kansas radical abolitionists, a call to open war meant an invitation to aggressively pursue long held designs to destroy Missouri’s slave institutions.”
The fall 1861 campaign by Lane’s Brigade, moving as far east as Osceola, Missouri, is often highlighted as the first and the worst of the brigade’s looting, murdering and burning campaigns. At the time, it was reputed to be a storage site for ammunition, and a source of cash on hand.
Among Civil War historians I consulted, there’s agreement that much of the city was burned, property and cash were pilfered, and some enslaved people welcomed the opportunity to follow the brigade back to Kansas.
The website www.civilwarontheborder.org quotes from a contemporary newspaper, The Newark Advocate, which reported: “With his immense train of supplies, three-hundred and fifty horses and mules, 400 head of … cattle, large drove of sheep and swine, and as many ‘contrabands’ (200 slaves) as he could employ, Lane made his way to West Point, Missouri unpursued.”
In his account of the Osceola raid, historian Bryce Benedict offers a scaled down list: “50 horses, 20 wagonloads of valuables and 27” slaves. Benedict’s data is based on many primary sources and multiple eye-witnesses. His book “Jayhawkers, The Civil War Brigade of James H. Lane” is cited by a number of reputable Civil War historians.
For a time I considered these differences purely academic. What difference does it make in my life, in our time, how many wagonloads of stolen property Lane’s boys actually carried out of Missouri 163 years ago? But considering the huge divide between these two accounts, how has each story shaped the views and opinions of generations of students who followed?
Keeping that in mind, consider making your own road trip into Missouri. There are remarkable historic museums throughout the state; staff and volunteers welcome the opportunity to speak to curious visitors from Kansas. I recommend the Bushwhacker Museum in Nevada, the Cass County Historical Museum in Harrisonville, the Bates County Museum in Butler, and the St. Clair County Museum and Research Library in Osceola.
Frank Barthell is a former video producer at the University of Kansas. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.
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