Search results

Title: The Union Volunteer
Description: Patriotic print created by the Currier & Ives Lithography Company in 1861, following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter and President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Charles Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: On September 30 and October 1, 1860, Charles Adair writes from Akron, Ohio to his father Samuel Lyle Adair. Charles says that he is now staying at Cousin Jason’s house near Akron. He reports that he and Jason attended a Republican meeting in Copley, Ohio: “there were a great many people at the meeting, the Akron wideawakes were out...they made a grand show.”
Date: September 30, 1860-October 1, 1860

Title: 1860 Presidential Election Returns from Mercer County, Missouri
Description: This document presents the election returns from Mercer County, Missouri for the Presidential election held on November 6, 1860: Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson received 682 votes; John Bell and Edward Everett received 491 votes; John C. Breckenridge and Joseph Lane received 169 votes; and Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin received 80 votes. On November 10, R.R. Ballew, Clerk of the Mercer County Court, certified the results.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: November 10, 1860

Title: From W.W. Thayer to James Montgomery
Description: On April 16, 1861, W.W. Thayer of Boston writes a letter to James Montgomery, encouraging him to mount an insurrection in the South and help liberate the slaves. Thayer argues that an organized slave rebellion could bring a swift end to the war: “a bloody war full of horrors concentrated into a few days or months would be far preferable to one consuming time, money, lives.” He warns Montgomery that the people of the South are brave and that they “will fight to the bitter End.” A note from R.J. Hinton at the bottom of the letter states that James Lane was recently put in command of 1,000 troops in Washington.
Date: April 16, 1861

Title: From W.W. Phillips to John B. Ward
Description: W.W. Phillips writes a letter from Auburn, Kansas to his friend John B. Ward on May 21, 1861. Phillips tells Ward that Kansas is full of excitement: “War. War. is the cry.” He says that troops are organizing in preparation for defense, and he declares that “We are Ready for Missouri.” He also anticipates there will be a conflict with Native Americans living nearby.
Object Type: Letter
Date: May 21, 1861

Title: List of Morgan County Radicals in This District
Description: This document, ca. 1861-1865, provides a list of “radicals in this District.” Each of the 22 “radicals” is identified by name, town, and county; most are from Andrew County, Missouri. A note on the reverse states “There are some others but don’t know their address.”

Title: From Charles Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: This letter was written on October 14 and 17, 1860 by Charles Adair in Hudson, Ohio, to his father Samuel Lyle Adair. Charles reports that he has started school, which he is “very well pleased with.” He says that his mother, Florella Brown Adair, has been away for the past week visiting cousins near Ashtabula, Ohio.
Date: October 14, 1860 and October 17, 1860

Title: From George M. Beebe to Jefferson Davis
Description: George M. Beebe writes a letter from Doniphan County, Kansas to Jefferson Davis on June 9, 1860. Beebe reacts to the news that Davis and A.G. Brown have "indefinitely postponed" his confirmation as Secretary of Kansas Territory. He defends his status as a Democrat, insisting that accusations of his alliance with the Free State Party are false. He claims that he has fought in favor of slavery and remains committed to the cause.
Date: June 9, 1860

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Father
Description: This unsigned May 20, 1858 letter is presumably from Edward Fitch of Lawrence, Kansas to his father in Massachusetts. Fitch criticizes the Lecompton Constitution and the English Bill due to their proslavery stance. He fears that those in the Kansas territory will accept the English Bill since it offers large amount of public lands to Kansas settlers. Though Fitch fears Kansas' entrance into the Union as a slave state, he ends his letter in an optimistic tone, remarking that it would be as impossible to make Kansas into a slave state “as it would be to make Hell out of Heaven.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: May 20, 1858

Title: Another Abolition Outrage
Description: The St. Louis Daily Bulletin printed this article on December 11, 1860, announcing that a party of abolitionists tried to steal forty slaves from Morgan Walker in Independence, Missouri. J.H. McMurray, author of the article, writes: "Walker told them to take the negroes, and commenced shooting. One of the gang fell dead on the steps; one was taken prisoner, and the messenger thought two others were killed."
Object Type: Newspaper Article
Date: December 11, 1860

Title: From Calvin Iserman to Brother William
Description: In this letter of October 3, 1858, Calvin Iserman writes from Independence, Missouri to his brother William. Calvin wants to leave Independence, where non-slaveholders are “counted just nobody at all," and “a poor man, and mechanic is looked upon as no better than a slave.” He declares that “any man East that upholds Slavery…should be made to live in a Slave State all of his life time.” Calvin plans to go to Kansas Territory and “take a look around.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: October 3, 1858

Title: From Edward Fitch to Dear Parents
Description: Edward Fitch writes a letter to his parents from Lawrence, Kansas on May 5, 1861. He tells them that if Missouri secedes, Kansas will have to fight. He asks how people in Massachusetts feel about the war, and expresses hope that the “Yankees” will go to battle with the South and not stop until slavery is eradicated. “War is terrible,” he says, “but sometimes it is necessary for the good of the whole world.”
Date: May 5, 1861

Title: 1860 Presidential Election Returns from Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, and Clay Counties, Missouri
Description: These are the election returns from Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, and Clay Counties in Missouri for the Presidential election held on November 6, 1860. In Caldwell County, Bell received 367 votes; Douglas 263 votes; Breckenridge 186 votes; and Lincoln 43 votes. In Carroll County, Douglas received 752 votes; Bell 552 votes; Breckenridge 276 votes; and Lincoln 3 votes. In Clay County, Bell received 1,045 votes; Douglas 528 votes; Breckenridge 305 votes; and Lincoln “Nairy Vote.” The Chariton County document accounts for votes from each electoral precinct in the county, but does not provide a list of votes for the individual candidates.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: November 7, 1860-November 10, 1860

Title: From James Montgomery to George L. Stearns
Description: James Montgomery writes a letter from Mound City, Kansas to George L. Stearns on May 8, 1861. He reports that, “We are in a perilous position here, and have not ammunition enough to make a respectable fight.” He says that he has organized a regiment to help defend Kansas against pro-slavery Missourians, whose troops are camped along the border of Linn and Bourbon counties. He mentions that an Osage Indian chief attacked some of these troops, then “tied them with ropes to the Horns of his Saddles and dragged them out of the country.” Montgomery asks for Stearns’s assistance in acquiring arms and declares that, “If we have to fight, we will carry the war out of Kansas.”
Date: May 8, 1861

Title: John R. Boyd Handbill
Description: This handbill, signed by John R. Boyd, urges the citizens of Buchanan County, Missouri to join arms and fight against the “usurping invader, Fremont.” Boyd instructs them to bring their shot guns and rifles to Rock House Prairie, where hundreds of men have set up camp and plan to fight until they achieve freedom, “or be buried beneath the dead bodies of men who would rather die than be slaves.”
Object Type: Leaflet

Title: Dividing the National Map
Description: Satirical illustration parodying the four candidates of the 1860 presidential election. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas tear at the western part of the country, John C. Breckinridge tears at the southern part of the map, while John Bell attempts to glue the map back together with a comically small jar of glue.
Object Type: Image

Title: From Charles Adair to Samuel Lyle Adair
Description: On September 16, 1860, Charles Adair writes from Rawsonville to his father Samuel Lyle Adair. Charles describes his recent visit to Oberlin, where he met an old classmate of his father’s and attended a concert. He says that he would like to attend school in Hudson, Ohio, but believes his father may need his assistance at home; Charles asks him to decide what is best.
Date: September 16, 1860

Title: From James Griffing to Augusta
Description: This April 6, 1855 letter was written by James Griffing in Wakarusa, Kansas, to Augusta. James has been helping some new “pioneer friends” stake a claim and become settled in Kansas Territory, remarking, “You can hardly think how fast the emigration is pouring in from the free states.” James describes a recent episode of election fraud: “armed forces from Missouri came and took possession of the ballot boxes and pretty much carried on the election as they pleased. Their proceedings will only work against them.”
Date: April 6, 1855

Title: From James Montgomery to G.L. Stearns
Description: These two letters were sent to G.L. Stearns by James Montgomery. Writing from Mound City, Kansas on May 8, 1861, Montgomery states that he has organized a regiment and accepted a position on the Governor’s War Council. He reports that the Missourians are “trying to stir up the Indians on our border,” and asks Stearns for two small breech-loading guns. Writing from Lawrence, Kansas on June 21, 1861, Montgomery says that southern Kansas is threatened by invasion from Missouri and Arkansas, while Union men in Missouri are either driven out of the state or drafted into the Confederate army. Montgomery states that he has used Stearns' letter of credit at various times, and thanks him for his generosity.
Date: May 8, 1861 and June 21, 1861

Title: Union Pacific Railway Co., Wyandotte, Kansas
Description: Stereograph of the Union Pacific Railway Co. building in present day Kansas City, Kansas. The back of the print states, "Office U. Pacific Railway Co. E. D. Wyandotte, Kansas, 286 miles west of St. Louis, Mo." The Wyandotte Constitutional Convention was most likely held in this building.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1867

Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865

Error message

Pages

Pages

Object Type

Local Subject

People

Geographic Subject

Owning Organization