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Title: The Governor's Mansion, Lecompton, Kansas Territory
Description: Harper's Weekly wood engraving of men on horseback outside of the governor's mansion in Lecompton, Kansas Territory. The house was built by Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones and briefly resided in by Kansas Territorial Governor John W. Geary. In 1855, The "Bogus Legislature" selected the proslavery town of Lecompton as Kansas Territory's capital city. Meanwhile, Free-Staters continued to denounce the legislature as illegitimate.
Object Type: Image
Date: June 6, 1857

Title: Quantrill's Raid
Description: An illustration entitled, "The War in Kansas-Fearful Massacre at Lawrence by Quantrell's Guerillas", originally published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.
Object Type: Image
Date: September 12, 1863

Title: Charles Robinson
Description: An artist's rendering of Free-State activist Charles Robinson speaking to the Lecompton Territorial Legislature. On October 6, 1856, Free-Staters boycotted the territorial elections that resulted in the second territorial legislature at Lecompton, Kansas. The Free-Staters complained that the options given on the referendum asked voters to choose between making Kansas a slave state or merely banning the new importation of slaves. The latter option would have sanctioned slavery for slaves who were already in Kansas, and its restrictions on new importations of slaves were likely unenforceable.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1856

Title: The Ruins of Lawrence, Kansas
Description: An illustration of the ruins of Lawrence, Kansas after Quantrill's Raid on August 21, 1863, originally published in Harper's Weekly.
Object Type: Image
Date: September 19, 1863

Title: Mileage Reimbursement Forms, Abstract of Articles Expended, Return of Quartermaster's Stores
Description: These military documents pertaining to the 6th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry include two mileage reimbursement forms from Major Wyllys Cadwell Ransom; an abstract of articles expended in public service filled out by 1st Lieutenant R.J. Lewis; and a return of quartermaster's stores completed by Lewis.
Date: 1863-1865

Title: Sacking of Lawrence
Description: Depiction of the ruins of Free State Hotel following the Sacking of Lawrence on May 21, 1856. Douglas County's own sheriff, Samuel J. Jones, led a posse of 800 proslavery settlers in the sacking of the town of Lawrence, Kansas. The Free-State Hotel and two newspaper print shops were destroyed, and one of the attackers was killed by falling masonry.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1856

Title: The Capture of Colonel Titus
Description: An illustration of Colonel Henry T. Titus and his Pro-Slavery men being captured by Free-Staters led by Samuel Walker during the Destruction of Fort Titus (background) on August 16, 1856. This image is included in the 1867 publication of "Beyond the Mississippi: From the Great River to the Great Ocean" by Albert D. Richardson.
Object Type: Image
Date: 1867

Title: Proclamation to Discharge Kansas Volunteer Militia
Description: The lower half of this page includes a complete proclamation by Territorial Kansas Governor John W. Geary on September 11, 1856. Geary declares that the Kansas volunteer militia, originally organized to maintain order, is "no longer required, and hereby order that they be immediately discharged." This page is taken from the 1888 publication of Collections of the Kansas Historical Society, v. IV.
Object Type: Government Document
Date: September 11, 1856

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