Jayhawkers

Unusually large influx of New England yankee migrants into eastern kansas. Didn't mix well with the southerners who populated Missouri.
The extent of the extreme hateful violence out there in Kansas and Missouri has always puzzled me. I would like to learn more about the very beginnings of it.

IMO Nicole Etchisons Bleeding Kansas is one of the more unbiased books on the topic
 
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.
 
This interesting carte-de-visite came up on the Cowans Auction page a while back. The three cavalrymen are not identified, but are said to belong to the 15th Kansas Cavalry. The back bears the imprint "L. W. McSchooler, Weston, Mo."

22449598_10154684308997133_3773966753199542321_n.jpg
 
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.
I agree bloody Kansas wasn't all that bloody, and the violence in Kansas was about even. Though the jayhawking raids into Missouri aren't included in it. And it's rather hard to spun them as anything other then raids for plunder by criminals. The book I previously recommended by Nicole Etchison is one of the more modern and less biased.
 
I found a useful coverage of the irregular fighting on the Kansas/Missouri frontier during the Civil War, particularly from the Confederate guerrilla perspective, is provided in, 'Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West 1861 - 1865', by Richard S. Brownlee.
 
Northeasterners who traveled to Eastern kansas under the guidance of NEIAC were looking for trouble. They intended to alter the outcome of the vote, just as the Missourians did.
 
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This interesting carte-de-visite came up on the Cowans Auction page a while back. The three cavalrymen are not identified, but are said to belong to the 15th Kansas Cavalry. The back bears the imprint "L. W. McSchooler, Weston, Mo."

View attachment 436353
Probably riding horses stolen from Missouri. Weston is a river town in Platte County. Jayhawker terrorists didn't devastate Platte Co. like they did several of the Counties south of the Missouri river, but they did routinely loot and burn out farms and they burned much of Platte City.
 
I found a useful coverage of the irregular fighting on the Kansas/Missouri frontier during the Civil War, particularly from the Confederate guerrilla perspective, is provided in, 'Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West 1861 - 1865', by Richard S. Brownlee.
A fine work.
 
This interesting carte-de-visite came up on the Cowans Auction page a while back. The three cavalrymen are not identified, but are said to belong to the 15th Kansas Cavalry. The back bears the imprint "L. W. McSchooler, Weston, Mo."

View attachment 436353
McSchooler was born in New York in 1831. Tax and draft records show him living in Weston, MO, in 1863. He is listed as a photographer/artist. By 1866 he had moved on to St. Joseph, MO.
 
A fine work.

Found the content (274 pages) of this work to be researched, well-written and engaging. It's a flowing chronology of confederate guerrilla activities that occurred within (and around) Missouri through the war.

The Appendix has a list of known members of the main guerrilla bands.
 
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Found the content (274 pages) of this work to be researched, well-written and engaging. It's a flowing chronology of confederate guerrilla activities that occurred within (and around) Missouri through the war.

The Appendix has a list of known members of the main guerrilla bands.
Mr. Brownlee, who wrote the book, was the Secretary of the Missouri State Historical Society quite some years ago. Well known and respected throughout the state. I know his daughter, who is an equally excellent person. If you read the acknowledgements in the book, you will see that Mr. Brownlee thanked Judge Roy D. Williams of Boonville, for his input. Judge Roy was doubtless what we would call a "beta reader" of the manuscript before publication. Judge Roy was a veritable celebrity personality here in Boonville, and a fine historian in his own right. And Judge Roy was old enough to have known some of the guerrillas when he was a boy!
 
Jennison was court martialed and dishonorably discharged during the war, his reputation continued to decline after the war, however he died at 50 of natural causes, Lane was the one who committed suicide, Blunt went insane, and Ewing was struck by a cable car and died
The movie "The Outlaw Josey Well" renders a rather negative view of the Red Legs. Can anyone with knowledge of them state rather or not this was a accurate portal of them. As to Josey , what group would you think he was a member of. Was this a accurate picture of the border wars ? Eastwood gave a interesting portal of a border ruffin would have possibly been and even after the war. Are there any accurate books on the border war during the CW? Would anyone think that the CW started with border wars with ''Bleeding Kansas" and the Missouri -Kansas Act as to the warfare of free staters and pro slave groups ?
 
The movie "The Outlaw Josey Well" renders a rather negative view of the Red Legs. Can anyone with knowledge of them state rather or not this was a accurate portal of them. As to Josey , what group would you think he was a member of. Was this a accurate picture of the border wars ? Eastwood gave a interesting portal of a border ruffin would have possibly been and even after the war. Are there any accurate books on the border war during the CW? Would anyone think that the CW started with border wars with ''Bleeding Kansas" and the Missouri -Kansas Act as to the warfare of free staters and pro slave groups ?
See @Nathan Stuart's post #27 for a good, accurate, well researched book recommendation. There are others, but Brownlee's work is a great place to start. The Red Legs were a paramilitary group of free booters who weren't officially endorsed by anyone. Buffalo Bill Cody was a Red Leg in his young days. He said words to the effect of: "A bigger gang of thieves never lived." See Donald Gilmore's book "Civil War On The Missouri Kansas Border" for lots of information about Red Legs, Jayhawkers, and their leaders. I can tell you in advance that you won't find any accurate information on them that is favorable. Even William Elsey Connelley, who wrote "Quantrill and The Border Wars" and who loathed Quantrill, said that Jayhawk leader Charles "Doc" Jennison probably should have been hanged.
 
They'd be labeled terrorist thugs under normal circumstances. They carried out their criminality under Union colors, their leaders held Union military rank. The violence was tolerated and largely ignored by Union officials, because they helped subjugate the civilian population of Western Missouri.
 
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