Attack on Franklin, Kan.

Tuesday, August 12, 1856

The "Old Sacramento" cannon. Collection of the Douglas County Historical Society, Watkins Museum, Lawrence, Kansas.

Free-Staters attack Franklin, Kansas, and six proslavery settlers are killed. The attackers capture "Old Sacramento," the name given to a cannon used by Missourians in the Mexican-American War. The attack is a success in part because the Free-Staters manage to roll a wagon of hay up to the front of a building holding proslavery men, before igniting the hay and threatening the building.