Lawrence Memorial, Oak Hill Cemetery, Lawrence, Kansas

THIS MONTH IN THE CIVIL WAR IN KANSAS

INFORMATION FROM "THE ANNALS OF KANSAS" BY DANIEL W. WILDER

PUBLISHED IN 1875

AUGUST

1861

AUGUST.-- During the summer the State lands were selected by S. E. Hoffman, E. P. Bancroft and H. B. Denman.  Their Report, dated January 14, 1862 is published in the State Documents.  The following is copied from it:

  "The following list will show the quantity of lands the State is entitled to under the provisions of the act of admission, and under the provisions of other acts of Congress:

  "1st. In section 3d of the act of admission, 'sections number 16 and 36 in every township of public lands in the State are granted for the use of schools, and where either of said sections, or any part thereof, have been sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto.'  The quantity of land that would inure to the State under this provision, estimating the quantity from the number of surveyed townships taken from the records of the Surveyor General's office, would be, in the aggregate, 800,292 acres.

  "2d.  For the use and support of a State University, 46,080 acres.

  "3d.  For the purpose of completing or erecting public buildings at the seat of government, 6,400 acres.

  "4th.  Twelve salt springs, with six sections of land to each, 46,080 acres.

  "5th.  Under the act of Congress, approved September 4th, 1841, 500,000 acres.

  "6th.  Amount of land selected under the provisions of an act entitled 'An act to authorize settlers upon the 16th and 36th sections, who settle before the surveys of the public lands, to pre-empt their settlements,' approved February 25, A. D. 1859, to make up deficiencies where either townships or sections are fractional, 60,988 acres.

  "Making the aggregate amount of lands to which the State is entitled under the provisions of the act of admission and other acts of Congress, 1, 459,840 acres.

AUGUST 3.--  Captain Sully takes Independence, Missouri.

AUGUST 9.-- The Rebel John Mathews drives sixty Union families from the Neutral Lands.

AUGUST 10.--  Battle of Wilson's Creek, ten miles south of Springfield, Missouri.

  The following is copied from Greeley's Conflict:

  "The First Missouri, First and Second Kansas, and First Iowa regiments, with Steele's battalion of Regulars, won immortal honor by the persistent and heroic gallantry with which the for hours maintained their ground against immense odds.  The Rebels were repeated driven back in confusion, and the firing would be nearly or quite suspended for ten or twenty minutes; when, perceiving their decided superiority in numbers, since the rout and flight og Siegel's command, the Confederate officers would rally their men and bring them once more to the charge.  Meantime, Gen. Lyon, who had led out his own little army to fight, against his own judgment, upon the representation of Gen. Sweeny that to abandon all southwest Missouri without a battle would be worse than a defeat, and who had evinced the most reckless bravery throughout, had been twice wounded, and had had his horse killed under him.  The second ball struck him in the head and seemed for the moment to confuse him.  He walked a few paces to the rear, saying to Major Schofield, his Adjutant, 'I fear the day is lost;' to which Schofield responded, 'No General; let us try them once more.'  Major Sturgis offered him his own horse, which Lyon at first declined, but soon after mounted, and bleeding from his wounds, swung his hat in the air, and called upon the troops nearest him to prepare for a bayonet charge on the lines of the enemy.  The Second Kansas rallied around him, but in a moment its brave Col. Mitchell fell severely wounded, and his soldiers cried out; 'We are ready to follow--who will lead us."  'I will lead you." replied Lyon; 'come on, brave men." and at that moment a third bullet struck him in his breast, and fell mortally wounded."

  The fight opened at 5 A. M., and closed at 11:30.  Gen. Ben. McCulloch's Report admits a loss of 265 killed, 800 wounded, and 30 missing.  Our report make our loss 223 killed, 721 wounded, and 292 missing.  McCulloch says his force numbered 11,300, and 15 pieces of artillery.  We had 5,000 troops in the beginning of the engagement, and less than 4,000 during the last four hours.

AUGUST 14.--  Fremont declares martial law in Missouri.

AUGUST 17.--  Gen. Lane fortifies at Camp Lincoln, Bourbon county.

AUGUST 18.--  Organization of the Sixth Kansas begins.

AUGUST 31.--  Gen. Fremont issues General Order, from which the following is copied:

  "The property, real and personal of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, or shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men."

1862

AUGUST 4.-- J. H. Lane opens an office in Leavenworth as a Recruiting Commissioner, to enlist colored as well as white soldiers, receiving his authority from Washington.  The colored men are at first enlisted as laborers.

AUGUST 8.-- Gen. Blunt leaves Leavenworth to take command of the Indian Exposition, now in the Indian Territory.

AUGUST 12.-- P. B. Plumb and E. G. Ross begin enlisting men for Eleventh.

AUGUST 19.-- John Ross, Chief of the Cherokees, arrives in Leavenworth.

--E. G. Ross sells the Topeka Record to S. D. Macdonald and F. G. Adams.

   1863

AUGUST.-- Death of Archibald Williams, United States District Judge.

AUGUST 17.-- The Commissioners appointed by the Governor report to him that they have selected twenty acres of land adjoining Emporia as a site for the Normal School.

AUGUST 21.-- The Quantrell Massacre, at Lawrence.  The following account by Rev. Richard Cordley, D. D., is copied from Blackburn's Gazetteer of Kansas.  Dr. Cordley wrote a longer sketch for the Annual Register.  A pamphlet of considerable length, describing the Massacre, was written by Hovey E. Lowman.

  "Early in the summer of 1863, a large band entered Olathe, one night, about midnight.  They took most of the citizens prisoners, and kept them till their work was done.  They plundered the town, carried off what they wanted, and destroyed other property, and left before daylight.  They killed some seven men.

  "Some time after, they sacked the town of Shawnee twice.  In addition to robbery, they burned most of the town.  Several were killed here also.  Individual murder and house-burning were common.

  "On the 20th of August, a body of between three and four hundred crossed the State line at sundown.  Riding all night, they reached Lawrence at daybreak.  They dashed into the town with a yell, shooting at everybody they saw.  The surprise was complete.  The hotel, and every point where a rally would be possible, was seized at once, and the ruffians then began the work of destruction.  Some of the citizens escaped into the fields and ravines, some into the woods, but the larger portion could not escape at all.  Numbers of these were shot down as they were found, and often brutally mangled.  In many cases the bodies were left in the burning buildings and were consumed.  The Rebels entered the place about five o'clock, and left between nine and ten.  Troops for the relief of the town were within six miles when the Rebels went out.  One hundred and forty-three were left dead in the streets, and about thirty desperately wounded.  The main street was all burned but two stores.  Thus, about seventy-five business houses were destroyed, and nearly one hundred residences.  They destroyed something near two millions of property, left eighty widows and two hundred and fifty orphans, as the result of their four hours' work.  Scenes of brutality were enacted, which have never been surpassed in savage warfare.  The picture is released only by the fact that women and children were in no case hurt."

  The first news of the event was brought to Leavenworth by James F. Legate.  The first full newspaper description of it was written by George T. Isbell, for the Leavenworth Conservative, and telegraphed thence through the country.

  A book called "Shelby and his Men; or War in the West," was printed in Cincinnati in 1867.  It is a Confederate history.  The following is copied from pages 400, 401:

  "About daylight on the morning of August 21, 1863, Quantrell, with three hundred men dashed into the streets of Lawrence, Kansas.  Flame and bullet, waste and pillage, terror and despair, were everywhere.  Two hundred were killed.  Death was a monarch, and men bowed down and worshipped him.  Blood ran in rivulets.  The guerillas were unerring shots with revolvers, and excellent horsemen.  General Lane saved himself by flight; General Collamore took refuge in a well and died there.  Poor Collamore!  He should have kept away from the well, upon the principle that actuated the mother who had no objection to her boy's learning how to swim, if he didn't go near the water.  Printers and editors suffered.  Speer of the Tribune, Palmer of the Journal, Trask of the State Journal, hadn't time even to write their own obituaries.  Two camps of instruction for white and negro soldiers, on Massachusetts street (of course), were surrounded and all their occupants killed.  Every hotel, except the City Hotel, was burned.  Other property, valued at two million dollars, was also fired and consumed.  . . . .  Massachusetts street was made a mass of smouldering ruins.  Sometimes there is a great deal in a name--in this instance more than is generally the case.  After killing every male inhabitant who remained in Lawrence, after burning the houses in the town and those directly around it, Quantrell very quietly withdrew his men into Missouri and rested there followed, however at a safe distance, by General Lane, who made terrible threats, but miserable fulfilments.  Two hundred white abolitionists, fifty or sixty negroes and two millions of dollars worth of property were aggregates of losses."

AUGUST 22.--  The citizens of Leavenworth raise $10,000 for the relief of Lawrence.     

AUGUST 23.--  Blunt crosses the Arkansas.

---The following order issued by Gen. Thomas Ewing, jr.:

"General Order No. 11.]                                                                         KANSAS CITY, MO., Aug. 23d, 1863.

  "All persons living in Jackson, Cass and Bates counties, Missouri, and that part of Vernon county included in this district, except those living within one mile of Independence, Hickman's Mill and Harrisonville, and except those in Kaw Township, Jackson county, north of this creek and west of the Big Blue embracing Kansas City and Westport, are hereby ordered to remove from their places of residence within fifteen days from the date hereof.

  "Those who within that time prove their loyalty to the satisfaction of the commanding officer of the military station nearest their present places of residence, will receive from him certificates stating the fact of their loyalty, and the nanes of witnesses by whom it can be sworn.  All who have received such certificates will be permitted to remove to any military district, or to any part of Kansas except the counties on the eastern border of the State.  All others shall remove out of this district.  Officers commanding companies and detachments serving in companies will see that this paragraph is promptly obeyed.

  "All hay or grain in the field or under shelter, in the district from which the inhabitants are required to remove, within reach of the military stations after the 9th of September next, will be taken to such stations and turned over to the proper officers there, and report of the amount so turned over made to the district headquarters, specifying the names of all loyal owners and the amount of such produce taken from them.  All grain and hay found in such districts after the 9th of September next, not convenient to such stations will be destroyed."

1864

AUGUST 3.--  State Convention of colored men to ask that the word "white" be struck out of the Constitution. 

AUGUST 5.--  Farragut's victory at Mobile Bay. 

AUGUST 10.--  Serious Indian raid on the Little Blue, near Marysville. 

AUGUST 14.--  Death of Judge Elmore. 

AUGUST 29.--  Four companies of the Fifth Kansas, under Major Samuel Walker, arrive in Leavenworth from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. 

AUGUST 29.--  National Democratic Convention at Chicago.  McClellan and Pendleton nominated for President and Vice President.