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Doc. 119.-the massacre at Lawrence, Kansas. Statement of William Kempf. Mr. Kempf was an attache of the Provost-Marshal's office at Lawrence. yesterday, the twenty-first of August, about half-past 4 o'clock, the citizens of Lawrence were surprised to hear a body of cavalry ride rapidly toward the Kansas River. As soon as the first of these men reached the river by.Massachusetts street and the streets east and west of it, they raised a shout, which was repeated down the streets as far as it was possible to hear. The citizens, startled by the noise, rushed into the streets to ascertain the cause. Many of the citizens were then shot down. With the quickness of lightning, the news spread over town that the accursed Quantrell, with his bushwhackers, was in town. The surprise was so complete that it was utterly impossible for the citizens to undertake any thing whatever for their defence. The few who heroically run out with their guns were quickly murdered, as were, in
for Fort Laramie, but without arms. There was one company at Leavenworth City just receiving horse equipments. Arms and horse equipments were issued at once, and at one P. M. I started from Fort Leavenworth with near three hundred men of these companies. News reached me at Leavenworth City of the burning of Lawrence, and of the avowed purpose of the rebels to go thence to Topeka. I thought it best to go to De Soto, and thence, after an unavoidable delay of five hours in crossing the Kansas River, to Lanesfield. Finding there, at daybreak, that Quantrell had passed east, I left the command to follow as rapidly as possible, and pushed on, reaching, soon after dark, the point on Grand River where Quantrell's force had scattered. Lieutenant-Colonel Lazear, with the detachments of the First Missouri, from Warrensburgh and Pleasant Hill, numbering about two hundred men, after failing to find Quantrell on Blackwater on the twenty-second, encountered him at noon on the twenty-third,
thence northwestward to the Columbia and to Oregon; the other southwestward to Salt Lake, the Humboldt, and California. The western boundary of Missouri was originally a line drawn due north as well as south from the point where the Kansas or Kaw river enters the Missouri; but in 1836 a considerable section lying west of this line, and between it and the Missouri, was quietly detached from the unorganized territory aforesaid and added to the State of Missouri, forming in due time the fertile State men elected at this second election were refused seats by the pro-Slavery majority, and the pro-Slavery men chosen on the regular day of election duly installed in their places. The Legislature was called to meet at Pawnee City on the Kansas river, nearly a hundred miles west from the border. It was immediately adjourned, over the Governor's veto, to Shawnee Mission, directly on the line of Missouri. It proceeded to pass one act whereby the laws of Missouri generally were adopted and
e Missourians had decamped. Capt. Brown left soon after for the East by the circuitous land route through Nebraska and Iowa; that through Missouri being closed against Free-State men. He took a fugitive slave in his wagon, and saw him safely on his way to freedom. He made two or three visits to the East in quest of aid and of funds, returning for the last time to Southern Kansas in the Autumn of 1858. Peace had finally been secured in all that part of the Territory lying north of the Kansas river, by the greatly increased numbers and immense preponderance of the Free-State settlers, rendering raids from Missouri, whether to carry elections or devastate settlements, too perilous to be lightly undertaken. When the Missourians still rallied, in obedience to habit, at Kansas elections, they did so at Oxford, Santa Fe, and other polls held just along the border, where they could suddenly concentrate force enough to make the operation a tolerably safe one. But Southern Kansas was stil
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Kansas, (search)
urned in......September, 1541 French explore the Missouri River as far as the mouth of the Kansas River......1705 M. Dutisne, a young French officer, sent out by Bienville, governor of Louisianas stationed there......1827 Treaty with the Delaware Indians, locates them in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri rivers......Sept. 24, 1829 Baptist Shawnee mission (Rev. Johnston Lykins and wifand thence travels northwest to the Blue and Platte rivers......1842 Fremont passes up the Kansas River on a second expedition......1843 Wyandottes remove from Ohio, encamp on the east bank of the Kansas, in what is now Wyandotte county, in July, and remove to permanent location purchased from the Delawares in the forks of the Kansas and Missouri rivers......December, 1843 Kansas IndiansKansas and Missouri rivers......December, 1843 Kansas Indians cede to the United States 2,000,000 acres in Kansas......Jan. 14, 1846 Gen. S. W. Kearny marches from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe......1846 Mormon battalion leaves Fort Leavenworth in the empl
James Redpath, The Public Life of Captain John Brown, chapter 1.13 (search)
e Government, they were public nuisances. This mob was headed by an ex-Senator and ex-Vice President of the United States! Among the brave young men who saw these outrages committed, were Charley Lenhart and John E. Cook. Next day they left the town, to commence reprisals. Nearly two hundred thousand dollars worth of property had been stolen or destroyed, without reckoning, in this amount, nearly two hundred Horses that had been pressed into the service of the South. North of the Kansas River, the conquest of the Territory was complete ; and, south of it, several Free State districts had submitted to the power of the invaders. All the towns on the Missouri River were in their hands; Lawrence had been sacked, its prosperity checked, and its prestige broken; while Tecumseh, and Lecompton, Fort Scott, and the far Southern region, had always been faithful to the traffic in human souls. On a flag that waved in the ranks of the lawless sheriff's southern force, on that memorable 2
James Redpath, The Public Life of Captain John Brown, X. John Brown's defence of Lawrence. (search)
myself have so many times escaped ; for, if all the bullets which have ever been aimed at me had hit me, I would have been as full of holes as a riddle. Having thus taught them in the arts of war, he commenced his preparations for defence. There were several forts and breastworks, and also one or two unfinished churches in the south, south-west, and southeast sides of the town: these were all manned with as many soldiers as could be spared for them. On the north of the town ran the Kansas River; on the west was a ravine; and the enemy were looked for on the south. As for myself, I occupied, with some fifteen or twenty others, a breastwork thrown across the south end of Massachusetts Street — a precaution which had been found necessary in the early part of the season. Captain Brown was always on the alert, visiting every portion of the town, and all the fortifications, in person, giving directions, and exhorting every man to keep cool, and do his duty, and his reward would be
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Chapter 3: Journeys (search)
riders, and they are the latest from Kansas and we get them quickly into a private room to hear the news-how the road is peaceful just now, and they need flour and lead woefully at Lawrence, and how four hundred men chased seven hundred. . . . The wells are nearly dry, though I can't conceive that enough has ever been drawn from them to produce the effect, and the dirtiest thing in the landscape is the river .. The most discouraging thing I have heard for liberty in Kansas is that the Kansas River is just like the Missouri. Topeka, September 24, 1856 People joke here as readily as anywhere, though all pronounce it the darkest time Kansas has ever seen. . . Geary is conquering them at last and the leaders are flying from arrest. Just as they had thoroughly expelled the Missourians, the United States Government steps in, and arrests their best and bravest. Geary's intention is to give them peace and bread, at the price of obedience to the laws of the false legislature. He
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 17. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), Development of the free soil idea in the United States. (search)
was received as a free State on the next day. This was according to an agreement, and all the territory north and west of the line of 36° 30′, which was the south line of the State of Missouri, was declared by act of Congress at the same time to be free territory, and that slavery should be forever excluded. It was at that time occupied only by Indians and a few trappers. The Missouri State line on the west ran due north and south, crossing the river at Kansas City, at the mouth of the Kaw river. The territory comprising the six counties in the northwest part of the State was then an Indian reservation, and contains its most fertile soil. Senators Benton and Linn succeeded in securing an extension of this State line to the river, and this extension included these fine lands, the bill being approved by President Jackson on the 7th day of June, 1836. This extension of slave territory was so quietly done, notwithstanding the anti-slavery agitation of the times, and the great debat