This is a very old thread I realize but a lot of misconstrued information might be in this discussion. My great great uncle was 2nd Lt. of Company B, 15th Kansas Cavalry. His name was David John Mosher Wood. He was a Methodist Minister and came from a family of abolitionists and women's suffragists. After the Kansas/Nebraska act was passed in 1854 by Stephen Douglas people on both sides of the political divide saw it as a means of expanding slavery North beyond the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
The New England Immigrant Aid Company started bringing abolitionists down from the North and settling in Lawrence Kansas. They established the Free State Hotel there and John Speer and my other gr gr Uncle Samuel Newitt Wood established the 'Herald of Freedom' newspaper. At the same time pro-slavery squatters would come over from Missouri and put claims down in order to be able to vote in Kansas elections. Sometimes murdering the abolitionist who was already there or already had a claim. As was the case with Charles Dow. Others such as Pardee Butler another abolitionist minister were run out of town.
The Missourians cheated in the election of March 30, 1855 in Kansas establishing a "bogus" legislature. One that was pro-slavery leaning, they used this to put into place corrupt authorities such as Sheriff Samuel Jones of Westport, Missouri. Who would travel into Kansas and try to arrest abolitionist men. As sheriff, he arrested Jacob Branson in November 1855. Jacob Branson who was a friend of Charles Dow was falsely accused of his murder by the actual pro-slavery murderer Franklin D. Coleman. When Jones and his posse arrested Branson he was freed by the anti-slavery men; George Washington Brown, Samuel Newitt Wood, Samuel F. Tappan, etc. This led to charges being brought against them as well by the "Bogus" authorities. Sheriff Jones and his posse were not recognized by the Kansas men.
These events lead to the Wakarusa War in December 1855 where Lawrence Kansas was surrounded but a treaty was established. Eventually someone tried to shoot Jones on April 23, 1856. Which lead to Sheriff Jones and Marshal Donaldson assembling an army of roughly 800 Southern pro-slavery settlers to respond. The "Sacking of Lawrence" occurred on May 21, 1856, by Missouri pro-slavery raiders. Jones was allowed to shoot the Free State Hotel with a cannon and they burned the Hotel and almost destroyed the town.
The town was attacked again by Quantrill's raiders on August 21, 1863 where between 160-190 boys and men were dragged from their homes and murdered by the raiders. One raider Larkin skaggs was killed.
This raid led to the establishment of the 15th Kansas Volunteers. Some of which were accused of crimes (by pro-slavery folks) as they made their way back through Missouri. Jennison was charged and some of the men had their pensions revoked, but later reinstated.
Now one thing to remember when researching this stuff is that the newspapers at the time were essentially propaganda from the two sides. You had pro-slavery newspapers accusing the abolitionists of every crime under the sun and abolitionist newspapers accusing the pro-slavery men of every crime under the sun. A lot of which was untrue, but it has lead to current day historians seeing vasts amounts of crime everywhere even when it wasn't actually so.
I research the Indian Agents and am writing a book on that topic and it's exactly the same. They were Presidential appointments and therefore politicized. A Republican would be elected to the Presidency and he would accuse the Democrat appointed Indian Agents of every foul deed and replace them. It would be in all the Republican leaning papers. Then a Democrat would get elected to the Presidency and he would accuse the Republican appointees of all the same stuff and replace them. It would be in all their propaganda papers. Often the two parties would bring trumped up charges against each other.
So now as people research the topic they look through all the old writings and papers and court documents without realizing what is propaganda and they believe all of it. So they have the conclusion all Indian Agents were horrible crime ridden people. Which was not the case, just look up Brinton Darlington for proof. The tribes he was assigned came to his funeral and were distraught.