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 Deborah Keating, University of Missouri-Kansas City

History often measures prominent individuals by what they did not accomplish as much as by what they did. Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, was one such person whose failings overshadowed his contributions. Irrevocably associated with the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) and “Bleeding Kansas,” Pierce is ranked by many historians as the worst of all the nation’s presidents. A strict constitutionalist and supporter of the Southern position on slavery, as well as an outspoken critic of Abraham Lincoln, Pierce earned the disdain of his contemporaries and the low esteem of history. But as is true with most famous figures, Pierce’s impact on the nation’s legacy was not so one-dimensional.

By William D. Hickox, University of Kansas

Alfred Pleasonton was a Union cavalry general during the Civil War. While he is best known for leading the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps in the Gettysburg Campaign, Pleasonton also played a crucial role on the Western Border. After being transferred to the Department of the Missouri, Pleasonton helped to defeat Sterling Price’s epic cavalry raid in October 1864.

By Matthew E. Stanley, University of Cincinnati

Preston B. Plumb was an antislavery “Free-Soil” advocate, a Union Army officer during the Civil War, a successful businessman, and a three-term senator from the state of Kansas, where he is considered a founding figure.

By Matthew Reeves, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Samuel Clarke Pomeroy was a Massachusetts born educator, financial officer for the New England Emigrant Aid Company (NEEAC), mayor, and multi-term senator from Kansas (1861 to 1873). An ardent Free-Soil supporter, Pomeroy moved to Kansas in 1854 to further his work with the NEEAC.

By Zach Garrison, University of Cincinnati

Popular sovereignty in 19th century America emerged as a compromise strategy for determining whether a Western territory would permit or prohibit slavery. First promoted in the 1840s in response to debates over western expansion, popular sovereignty argued that in a democracy, residents of a territory, and not the federal government, should be allowed to decide on slavery within their borders.

By Chris Rein, Combat Studies Institute, Army University

On the night of May 24, 1856, the radical abolitionist John Brown, five of his sons, and three other associates murdered five proslavery men at three different cabins along the banks of Pottawatomie Creek, near present-day Lane, Kansas.

By Christopher Phillips, University of Cincinnati

Sterling Price, a U.S. congressman, governor of Missouri, and Confederate major general, was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, to a slave-owning planter family. He eventually became one of the most important Confederate generals operating in Arkansas and 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 Tony O’ Bryan, University of Missouri—Kansas City

Beginning in April 1863, Union officers began rounding up females suspected of providing aid and support to Confederate guerillas in the Western border region and placing them in makeshift jails in Kansas City. When one of these overcrowded prisons collapsed on August 13, 1863, it killed and maimed several female relatives of the guerrillas. Although the direct cause of the collapse remains unclear, it is certain that the disaster helped seal the fate of many men in Lawrence, Kansas, eight days later.