1 (2) | A (4) | B (20) | C (4) | D (2) | E (1) | F (9) | G (3) | H (2) | I (1) | J (4) | K (1) | L (10) | M (6) | N (2) | O (3) | P (9) | Q (3) | R (5) | S (10) | T (3) | U (2) | W (6)

By Chris Rein, Combat Studies Institute, Army University

On May 19, 1858, proslavery “border ruffians” led by Charles Hamilton rounded up a number of suspected antislavery men near the town of Trading Post in modern Linn County, Kansas, marched 11 men into a secluded ravine, and opened fire on them, killing five and seriously wounding five others before escaping back across the border into Missouri.

By Russell S. Perkins, University of Saint Mary

John Sappington Marmaduke was born on March 14, 1833, in Saline County, Missouri, into a prominent political family. His father, Meredith Marmaduke, was the eighth governor of the state and a staunch Unionist before and during the Civil War. But it was the political lead of his uncle, a pro-secessionist governor of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson, which Marmaduke followed in the critical opening months of the Civil War.

By Jeremy Prichard, University of Kansas

The New England Emigrant Aid Company (NEEAC) formed in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. That bill declared that eligible voting residents in Kansas Territory would determine whether the future state would allow or prohibit slavery as a requisite for admission to the Union, creating what became known as popular sovereignty. Antislavery Northerners denounced the act because it essentially repealed the Compromise of 1820, which barred slavery in the lands attained from the Louisiana Purchase above the 36°30’ parallel, including the area that would become Kansas.

By Terry Beckenbaugh, U. S. Air Force Command and Staff College

The Battle of Mine Creek, fought on October 25, 1864, was a devastating defeat for Major General Sterling Price’s Confederate Army of Missouri.

By Christopher Phillips, University of Cincinnati

Major General Sterling Price’s unsuccessful cavalry raid of September and October 1864, the largest Confederate cavalry raid of the war, sought to capture St. Louis and recover Missouri for the Confederacy. Price believed the expedition would spur recruiting, contribute to Abraham Lincoln’s defeat in the November presidential election, and perhaps end the war.

By Christopher Phillips, University of Cincinnati

James Montgomery, abolitionist and federal army colonel, was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, in Ohio’s deeply antislavery Western Reserve, on December 22, 1814. The deeply evangelical Montgomery was soon caught up in the controversy over slavery and popular sovereignty in the newly formed Kansas Territory. An ally of John Brown and Charles Jennison, Montgomery became notorious for antislavery guerrilla warfare along the Missouri-Kansas border.