Women's Prison in Kansas City Collapses

Thursday, August 13, 1863

Historical marker at the site of the Union Prison collapse in Kansas City, Missouri. Photograph by Cody Kauhl.

A makeshift Union prison holding female relatives and associates of proslavery Missouri bushwhackers (by order of General Thomas Ewing Jr.) collapses, killing four of the women. Among the victims is the sister of Missouri guerrilla William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson. A fifth woman later dies from her injuries.