Civil War on the Western Border

Bleeding Kansas, John Brown, Jayhawkers, Bushwhackers, Border Ruffians, Redlegs, Quantrill, Bloody Bill Anderson, guerrilla warfare -- the Civil War on the western border was among the most terrible ever waged. What follows is a brief summary of the pitiless warfare that shaped the lives of Frank and Jesse James, Cole Younger and his brothers.

Bleeding Kansas

The Civil War on the western border had its roots in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, which provided that all new territories taken into the Union would determine whether they'd be slave or free depending on a vote of the settlers in each. This seemed a reasonable enough solution to the slave state/free state problem but, in actuality, it encouraged Abolitionist settlers to pour into Kansas Territory and slave holding Missourians to respond in kind.

Soon, ballot boxes were being stuffed and men were forming self-defense associations.

In 1855, the Abolitionist citizens of Lawrence, Kansas, began purchasing advanced, breech-loading rifles and building fortifications. Soon, fighting men from Missouri mustered only a few miles away. For a time, outright war was averted, but in May, 1856, Lawrence was attacked and looted.

More outrages soon followed, among them a massacre of proslavery settlers on Pottawatomie Creek by the infamous John Brown and his sons. In August, Abolitionists captured three proslavery strongholds and a regular civil war had begun.

In 1857, the Abolitionist faction seemed to have gained the upper hand when their candidates in Kansas were elected, aided, in part, by bands of Jayhawkers that prevented Missourians from slipping into Kansas to vote. But President Buchannon placated the proslavery faction and, by 1858, southern Kansas had become a stronghold for them. The Marais des Cygnes Massacre followed in which four Abolitionists were killed and six wounded.

In December 1858, John Brown staged a raid into Missouri, killed one slave owner and liberated eleven slaves. Missourians, in retaliation, rode into Kansas, broke up an "underground railroad" and forced thirteen fugitive slaves back into captivity. Brown's most famous attack occurred in October, 1859, at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt to foment a slave rebellion. For this, Brown was later tried, convicted and hung.

After Lincoln's election, Southern states began seceding, and raids between Kansasans and Missourians increased, with murders and lootings frequently carried out by night riders led by such men as William Clarke Quantrill.

War and Missouri

While some men desperately attempted to avert war, the pro-Union faction in St. Louis, and particularly the idealistic German population -- refugees from the revolutions of Europe -- began forming military companies. Southern sympathizers, in the meantime, took the Federal arsenal near Liberty, Missouri, but those attempting to take the arsenal in St. Louis were disarmed by the St. Louis militia.

In June, the proslavery governor, Claiborne Jackson, threatened by pro-Union forces, evacuated the capital of Jefferson City and fled south. He made a stand at Booneville but was forced to flee again as chaos reigned. A Federal force attempted to cut off his retreat at Carthage but was defeated. In August, the Federals were beaten in a major battle at Wilson's Creek, both sides taking heavy casualties.

In the meantime, John C. Fremont, the famed western explorer, was picked by Lincoln to command in Missouri and, as the Northern press cried for action, he declared martial law and freed slaves belonging to "disloyal" owners. The Confederates, for their part, undertook the reconquest of Missouri and beat Fremont at Lexington. But during the hard winter of 1861-62 the Federals began moving south again, driving the Confederates under Sterling Price out of Springfield. By March, they had driven into Arkansas, and defeated the Confederates at Pea Ridge. Later in the year, after the climactic battle at Prairie Grove, the Confederates were forced to fall back, deep into Arkansas, and Missouri remained secure from major attacks for almost two years.

Guerrillas and Raids

While the main armies slugged it out, Missouri descended deeper into guerrilla warfare. In August, Quantrill briefly captured Independence. A few days later, another guerrilla band clashed with Union guardsmen at Lone Jack. A year later, Quantrill pulled off his most famous raid, sacking Lawrence, Kansas, the longtime Abolitionist stronghold. His men scattered, afterwards, disappearing into the Missouri brush and, in an attempt to deny aid to such guerrillas, the Federals issued the infamous Order Number Eleven which expelled all people, loyal or disloyal, from four Missouri counties.

In October 1863, a large cavalry force under Jo Shelby and Quantrill, raided Baxter Springs, and, a year afterwards, Sterling Price and Shelby again moved north with a force of 12,000 men in a last attempt to take Missouri for the Confederacy. They assaulted the Federal fort at Pilot Knob and, in October, threatened to retake the capitol at Jefferson City. But Price, rightly fearing the possibility that he might be trapped between Federal forces, turned west, towards Kansas. At last, he was cornered at Westport and forced into a desperate retreat that marked the end of major, Confederate resistance along the western border.

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