Search results

Title: From James M. Boyer to A. Comingo
Description: This letter, dated October 9, 1863 is from James M. Boyer, Deputy Provost Marshal of Chariton County, Missouri, to Capt. A. Comingo, Provost Marshal of the 6th district of Missouri. Boyer asks Comingo for information about the proper procedure for discharging soldiers. He also reports that Jefferson J. Shaw of Chariton County was discharged from his regiment despite being fit and wanting to remain in the service. "It does seem to me," Boyer writes, "that there is a screw loose somewhere."
Date: October 9, 1863

Title: Diary of A.H. Lewis
Description: This diary, written between December 15, 1861 and March 19, 1862, records the experience of A.H. Lewis of Saline County, Missouri as a Confederate soldier and prisoner of war. Lewis’s company of Missouri State Guards was captured by Col. Davis in the Battle of Blackwater River on December 19, 1861. After being held for several weeks at the St. Louis military prison, the Confederate prisoners were moved to the penitentiary at Alton, Illinois. Although Lewis initially criticized prisoners who took an Oath of Loyalty to the Federal government to gain freedom, Lewis took the Oath himself on March 14, 1862 and was released.
Object Type: Diary
Date: December 15, 1861 - March 19, 1862

Title: James Hicklin Documents
Description: These documents attest that James Hicklin, a citizen of Lexington, Missouri, provided supplies and money to the Union army several times during the course of the war. Hicklin purchased $2,000 in state defense bonds on June 15, 1861, and received orders of protection from the army in February, September, and November 1862. He gave an oath of loyalty to the United States on July 8, 1862, which limited his movements to “Lafayette and Saline Counties.”
Object Type: Legal Document

Title: Oath of Allegiance of John T. Armantrout
Description: In his Oath of Allegiance, signed and dated June 22, 1865, former Confederate soldier John T. Armantrout declares loyalty to the United States government and denounces the Confederacy. Attached is a document that permits Armantrout to return home, by order of Major General Canby, following the surrender in Shreveport, Louisiana on June 8, 1865. Also attached is Armantrout’s Certificate of Enrollment in the Missouri Militia, signed in Saline County in 1866. Armantrout served as a private in Company C, 10th Regiment of Missouri Volunteers.
Date: 1865 - 1866

Title: From John P. Scott to A. Comingo
Description: On December 13, 1863, John P. Scott writes from St. Louis to Capt. A. Comingo, Provost Marshal for the 6th District of Missouri, in Lexington, Missouri. Scott says he heard a rumor "that I am enrolled in Saline County under the conscription act," when he has actually fled the county out of fear for his personal safety. He asks Comingo to transfer his enrollment to St. Louis, and explains that he is part of the second class draft, "being forty four and a half years old."
Date: December 13, 1863

Title: Medical Record of Examination of Recruits
Description: This is a bound volume of records noting the medical examinations of men recruited to the Union Army in Kansas. The records, dating from November 5, 1864 to April 20, 1865, include the recruits' names, ages, country or state of birth, occupation, height, complexion, eye and hair color, chest measurements, race, and town or county of residence.
Date: November 5, 1864-April 20, 1865

Title: From Walthall Robinson to Sister Em
Description: This letter, dated October 25, 1863, was written by Walthall Robinson in Miami, Missouri, to his sister Em. Walthall provides a detailed account of Shelby’s Raid and the Battle of Marshall, declaring, "Affairs have not changed any for the better…I greatly fear a complete state of anarchy and terrorism.” He describes a violent encounter between some aquaintances and two “Jim Lane men,” and concludes that the November elections will determine “whether there will be any safety whatever” in Missouri.
Date: October 25, 1863

Title: Diary of the Official Activities of the District Provost Marshal (6th District Missouri)
Description: This notebook documents the official activities of A. Comingo, District Provost Marshal, 6th District of Missouri, between July 1863 and April 1865. Included in the journal are records of appointments and meetings attended by Comingo, his daily activities running the office, and a report of vouchers issued and paid for using his "individual funds."
Date: July 1863-April 1865

Title: From George Collamore to G.L. Stearns
Description: This letter was written on May 2 and 7, 1861 by George Collamore in Leavenworth, Kansas to G.L. Stearns in Boston. Collamore writes that Kansas is under threat of attack from Missouri and the Cherokee and Osage Indians, and that Kansas’s defenses are weak. He reports that Gov. Robinson offered him the position of Quartermaster General of the Kansas Militia, which he temporarily accepted. Collamore asks Stearns to send “thick colored blankets” and other items to Kansas, urging Stearns to keep his activities secret and to be cautious about what he writes in future letters.
Object Type: Letter
Date: May 2, 1861 and May 7, 1861

Title: War in Kansas!
Description: This 1856 broadside announces the commencement of civil war in Kansas. It urges the citizens of Lafayette County, Missouri to gather with their guns and horses in Lexington on August 20, and "put an end to Abolitionism in Kansas." The broadside, signed by twelve men, reports that John Brown, James Henry Lane, and their forces have launched several guerrilla attacks upon Kansas residents, and are now "advancing upon us--the next breath from Kansas may bring to our ears the death shrieks of our Fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, neighbors and friends."
Object Type: Broadside
Date: August 1856

Title: 1860 Circuit Attorney Election Returns from Saline County, Missouri
Description: This document presents the election returns from Saline County, Missouri for the circuit attorney election held on November 6, 1860: Jonathan C. Royle received 889 votes and John W. Bryant received 845 votes. On November 7, Jesse Davis, Clerk of the Saline County Court, certified the results.
Object Type: Legal Document
Date: November 7, 1860

Title: From Eugenia Bronaugh to John A. Bushnell
Description: Eugenia Bronaugh writes to John Bushnell from Hickory Grove, Missouri on May 30, 1865. She describes a severe thunderstorm, and says the shrubbery in her garden is “destroyed since the war.” Eugenia says her relatives in Saline County, Missouri wish they could relocate from their home because it reminds them of “evils committed in the name of ‘Liberty.’” Eugenia herself also longs to relocate to escape unfaithful friends and memories of “the cruelties of war.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: May 30, 1865

Title: From John A. Bushnell to Eugenia Bronaugh
Description: On July 29, 1863, John A. Bushnell writes a letter to Eugenia Bronaugh in Calhoun, Missouri, informing her that he has arrived in St. Louis. He had planned to apply for exemption from military service during his trip to St. Louis, but has discovered that he must apply to the Board of Enrollment in his home district. He says he hopes to familiarize himself with news of the war, which has been difficult to do in Calhoun: “as now is a critical period of the times I can perhaps inform myself better here than at home.”
Object Type: Letter
Date: July 29, 1863

Title: General Orders, No. 38
Description: Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis issued General Order No. 38 from the Department of the Missouri Headquarters in St. Louis on May 22, 1863. The order details the proceedings of recent Military Commissions in St. Joseph, St. Louis, and Springfield, Missouri, where citizens were tried for war crimes, including consorting with guerrillas and bushwhackers, killing United States soldiers from the Seventh Cavalry Regiment Missouri Volunteers, and encouraging rebellion against the government. The order was signed by Assistant Adjutant General A.V. Colburn.
Date: May 22, 1863

Title: From Thomas Fletcher to R.T. Van Horn
Description: This dispatch, dated October 20, 1866, is from Thomas Fletcher in Jefferson City, Missouri to Hon. R.T. Van Horn. Fletcher reports that his plans concerning troop movements within Missouri have changed. He had originally planned to send troops to Platte, Clay, Carroll, Ray, and Chariton counties, but is now occupied with political concerns: "The ablest men in the Conservative Party are detailed to the duty of getting up a disturbance between Genls Sherman[,] Hancock & myself, and it keeps me busy & watchful to prevent them making us trouble."
Date: October 20, 1866

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

Error message

Object Type

Local Subject

People

Geographic Subject

Owning Organization