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Title: From Mary Savage to Jane Simpson
Description: This is an excerpt from a November 29, 1863 letter that Mary Savage wrote to Jane Simpson about Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence. She describes watching two bushwhackers murder her neighbor: “I can never efface from my memory the look and cry of anguish that he gave as he fell, the blood running in streams from his wounds.” Mary says the bushwhackers also threatened to kill her husband, but she saved his life by convincing them that he was sick and was not a member of the Kansas Militia. She writes that nearly every house in town burned down, but some “heroic” women put out a few of the fires. After the raid, she says, downtown Lawrence was reduced to “a heap of ashes.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: November 29, 1863

Title: From John M. Schofield to Thomas Carney
Description: This letter, dated September 3, 1863, is from Major General John M. Schofield to Kansas Governor Thomas Carney. Schofield thanks Carney for offering the assistance of the Kansas Militia in protecting Lawrence and other border towns from Missouri rebels. Many of Schofield’s troops, he says, have left to fight with the regiments of Generals Grant, Steele, and Blunt. Schofield expresses a desire to avenge Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence, and he hopes that the extra troops will be able to “destroy the guerrilla bands which have so long savaged the border.”
Date: September 3, 1863

Title: William Clarke Quantrill
Description: Portrait of William Clarke Quantrill from the book "Quantrill and the Border Wars" by William Elsey Connelley (1st Ed., 1909).
Object Type: Image

Title: From Elizabeth S.C. Earl to Dear Brother
Description: This letter, dated September 22, 1863, is from Elizabeth S.C. Earl to her brother. Writing from Lawrence, Kansas, Earl describes Quantrill's Raid. She writes that Quantrill and 300 of his men invaded Lawrence at dawn and travelled from house to house knocking on doors: "when the men opened the door, they would shoot them down, and then rush in, and set fire to the house, threatening death to the women." Earl tells her brother, "You know nothing of the Horrors of this war."
Date: September 22, 1863

Title: From R.G. Elliott to Dear Sister
Description: This letter, dated August 24, 1863, is from R.G. Elliott in Lawrence, Kansas to his sister. He informs her that he was taken prisoner during Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, but managed to escape. He states that troops from Kansas City are in pursuit of Quantrill's Raiders, but he does not believe they will catch them. Following the Raid, he writes, "We have been engaged ever since in burying the dead."
Object Type: Letter
Date: August 24, 1863

Title: From Leigh R. Webber to Mrs. Brown
Description: This letter, dated September 5, 1863 is from Leigh R. Webber in Natchez, Mississippi to Mrs. Brown. Webber claims that in Natchez, "Nearly everybody has protection papers though they are avowed rebels of the deepest dye…It is an unendurable wrong and insult to the Union soldiers and foolish and wicked leniency to traitors for the Government and its generals thus to manage the war." Webber also expresses sadness about Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence: "It exceeds in atrocity our worst fears."
Date: September 5, 1863

Title: From Abishai Stowell to "Dear Sister"
Description: On September 24, 1863, Abishai Stowell writes from camp in Springfield, Missouri to his sister. Stowell says he has been at home on furlough and that the family is "tolerably well." He reports that there is great excitement in Kansas about William Quantrill: "he burned Lawrence a week ago last Friday & killed about two hundred (200) citizens[.] The people blame Gens. Schofield & Ewing for letting them into Kansas."
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 24, 1863

Title: From Elizabeth S.C. Earl to Dear Mother
Description: This letter, dated September 22, 1863, is from Elizabeth S.C. Earl in Lawrence, Kansas to her mother. She assures her mother that she is safe and has survived Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence. She adds that "you cannot imagine the distress, and suffering, of our women and children," and states that the Raid left 180 women widows and 200 children orphans. Earl tells her mother that she has taken charge of the City Hotel after the owner was killed and his family went back East.
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 22, 1863

Title: From Samuel R. Ayres to Lyman Langdon
Description: This letter was written on August 24 and 27, 1863 by Samuel R. Ayres in Moneka, Kansas, to Lyman Langdon. Ayres writes that “along our Missouri border we are subject to almost constant raids from the Bushwhackers over the line who rob our citizens burn their houses and murder prominent men.” Ayres offers a description of Quantrill’s recent raid on Lawrence, Kansas, calling it “an act of barbarity but seldom if ever equaled by the most savage tribes.” Ayres says that he and other local citizens are organizing to defend Mound City, Kansas from guerrilla attacks.
Date: August 24, 1863-August 27, 1863

Title: Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence
Description: This print, originally published in Harper's Weekly on September 5, 1863, shows Quantrill and his rebel guerrillas killing the citizens of Lawrence, Kansas, and setting fire to the buildings.
Object Type: Image
Date: September 5, 1863

Title: Union Men and Their Sufferings in North-Western Missouri
Description: This 1864 pamphlet, entitled “Union Men and Their Sufferings in North-Western Missouri,” was written by Major J.M. Bassett, former Provost Marshal-General of the Northwest District of Missouri. Bassett provides a “glance at the history of the Rebellion in Northwest Missouri,” admitting “it may be that my hatred for rebels is too intense, my sympathy for loyal men too strong, to make every sentence I write acceptable to all.” The pamphlet, which features several black-and-white illustrations, was published by the Press of Wynkcop, Hallenbeck, and Thomas in New York, with proceeds from its sale given to The Ladies’ Aid Society of St. Joseph, Missouri.
Date: 1864

Title: Examination of A.J. Turpin
Description: This is A.J. Turpin's 1866 Oath of Loyalty to the United States. Turpin, a 61-year-old Kentucky native, states that he has lived in Missouri for 12 years. He was arrested twice during the war: once in August 1862 for feeding Quantrill's men; and in June 1863 by Lt. Col. Hayes. Turpin declares, "I was always always a strong Union man until the Red legs stole my Property." The oath is No. 191 in a bound volume.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: 1866

Title: Proclamation to the State of Missouri
Description: In response to the federal government’s order that all eligible men enroll for the draft, Upton Hays and William Clarke Quantrill issue this proclamation to the state of Missouri. Hays and Quantrill state that all Missourians joining their forces will be furnished with arms and ammunition. “Any one who shall be found guilty of reporting to any military post the whereabouts of any Southern person shall be shot,” while men eligible for military duty who leave the state will be deemed “enemies of the ‘South’ and treated accordingly.”
Object Type: Circular
Date: August 4, 1862

Title: From F.R. Newell to Rev. H.D. Fisher
Description: This letter, dated August 30, 1863, was written by F.R. Newell in St. Louis, to Rev. H.D. Fisher. Newell offers sympathy to Fisher and his family in the wake of Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, Kansas, declaring, “God grant that the raid of Lawrence may be for the healing of the nation, even as his tender compassion alone, can bind up the hearts that are broken!" Newell states that he has plenty to do in St. Louis after the recent arrival of "contrabands."
Date: August 30, 1863

Title: From Elias Stover to William Sayer Blakely
Description: Elias Stover writes a letter from Camp Blair, Kansas on March 25, 1862 to his friend William Sayer Blakely. Three days prior, Stover says, he marched into Missouri along with Maj. Pomeroy and 70 other men from the 2nd Kansas Cavalry Regiment. They ambushed a house where William Quantrill and his men were staying; they killed eight people, took six prisoner, stole horses and arms, and burned down the house, but Quantrill escaped.
Date: March 25, 1862

Title: From Andrew Brownlow to Hamilton R. Gamble
Description: On August 1, 1862, Andrew Brownlow writes from Sugar Creek Grove, Buchanan County, Missouri to Missouri Gov. Hamilton R. Gamble. Brownlow describes the "troubled" state of affairs in Buchanan County, predicting that recent outrages "will make desperate men out of good citizens." He accuses Gen. Loan of "playing in to the hands of the Kansas thieves" and predicts that unless Gamble "does something to protect the people on the Border all there property will…be taken to Kansas."
Date: August 1, 1862

Title: William Quantrill
Description: This illustration of Missouri Bushwhacker William Clarke Quantrill is included in the 1914 publication of "Three years with Quantrell; a true story".
Object Type: Image
Date: n.d.

Title: From F.L. Pilla to Dear Brother
Description: F.L. Pilla writes a letter to his brother on September 21, 1863. Pilla writes about Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, explaining that Lawrence is seven miles from his home in Eudora, Kansas. On the day of the Raid, he heard a rumor that Quantrill planned to target Eudora, and readied himself for a possible attack. The following day, he visited Lawrence and found "the best part of the City burned down" and "dead bodies laying around in all directions."
Object Type: Letter
Date: September 21, 1863

Title: From Jacob Hall to Mary Hall
Description: This letter, dated October 25, 1862, was written by Jacob Hall in Washington, DC to his daughter Mary Hall, who was staying with her aunt and uncle. Jacob writes of political bickering between “Secretary Smith” and “Assistant Secretary Usher,” as well as news from his and Mary’s home town: “Quantrill and his band” took almost all their horses, and the next week “Confederates” confiscated much of their food stores, crops, and two mules, refusing to compensate Jacob’s wife.
Date: October 25, 1862

Title: From S.A. Routsong to Wife Ellen
Description: S.A. Routsong writes a letter to his wife, Ellen, on November 13 and 14, 1862. He describes recent travel to Iowa and assures her of his safety. He states that he has heard that William Clarke Quantrill is travelling South through Johnson and Bates counties “with the Militia hard after him of course”. He also mentions a rumor that “the New + Old Militia were fighting each other” in Jefferson City.
Date: November 13, 1862 - November 15, 1862

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

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