Battlefield Lawrence

The Leaven ^ | 08.12.2002 | By Monte Mace, Leaven Staff

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Intersting story about the Civil War and Kansas' involvement as a free state.

[tet68]

It wasn't called "Bloody Kansas" for nothing.

[scotiamor]

One of the reasons for the high death rate among Lawrence Citizens is that they did not keep firearms in their homes - the city government thought it best to store firearms in a central armory. So many citizens were caught without weapons with which to defend themselves - sort of like how liberal Democrats want to treat US Citizens today, or how Tony Blair's government now treats its own citizens - defenseless against modern border ruffians.

[ArcLight]

Ah, yes--Quantrill. The noble and glorious Confederacy at its finest.

[Licensed-To-Carry]

Ah, yes -- Sherman's march through Georgia, the noble Yankees at their glorious best. Saving the Union by destroying the South.

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And to think we here in Kansas sat on the fencepost and bled like a sieve. Now, I am sure we will be asked to pay repairations. Quesstion: If I can prove my ancestors were closer to being slaves than owning slaves, am I off the hook?

[FreedomFarmer]

Slight correction, he was a yankee school teacher, crook and horse thief, and was a stanch abolutionist. He changed his name to hide his crimes, but still wrote home to Momma.

[Arkinsaw]

The impetus for the raid was the Union arrest and imprisonment of the raiders women-folk in Kansas City. The women were held in a old building that ended up collapsing and killing several of them and maiming others.

When the news got back to these men it came with the rumor that Union soldiers had undermined the building purposefully and caused it to collapse as punishment for the Confederates. Quantrill's Raiders were understandably upset.

This claim of deliberate undermining by Union troops doesn't stand up to history and was just rumor running through Missouri. But the fact that the women family members were imprisoned and suffered this fate still sheds a different light on the immediate motivations that led up to the raid. Of course the article doesn't mention this aspect and nor do many others who discuss the Lawrence raid.

The Kansas-Missouri theater wasn't really very gentlemanly on either side whether you are talking about the massacre in Lawrence by Confederates or the forced depopulation of an entire section of the State by Federals.

[Arkinsaw]

And to think we here in Kansas sat on the fencepost and bled like a sieve. Now, I am sure we will be asked to pay repairations. Quesstion: If I can prove my ancestors were closer to being slaves than owning slaves, am I off the hook?

You would have to prove that no one in any line of your family tree profited in any way from slavery or the slave trade from its initiation until its end as well as any other activity since that time that had any negative effect on the plaintiffs. You better start getting your paperwork together now.

[ravinson]

Slight correction, he was a yankee school teacher, crook and horse thief, and was a stanch abolutionist.

What is an "abolutionist"? Quantrill, who was a Confederate Captain, was certainly no abolitionist. He murdered abolitionists.

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I know that my Dad was born in Bala, Kansas in 1917. His dad was born after the war in 1886 in Idana, Kansas (Married to a gal born 1886 in Ohio, family North of the MD line since 1843). My Great-Great Grandfather and My Great-Grandfather operated the General Store in Idana, Kansas, starting around 1850. My Mom's dad was the son of a poor sharecropper born in Perry, Kansas across the river from the pro-slave capitol of Kansas, Lecompton. He later became a land owner in the Missouri Ozarks, where my Mom was born in the 1920's. My family may have had some dealings in slaves sometime long before the Civil War. Their humble existance since the middle 1800's suggest they were not big into large holdings in either real estate or people.

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...and was a stanch abolutionist.

That one concerned me too!

[Eternal_Bear]

Would you believe he also had blacks in his unit?

[Arkinsaw]

What is an "abolutionist"? Quantrill, who was a Confederate Captain, was certainly no abolitionist. He murdered abolitionists

I'm aware that he rode on a raid into Missouri with a band of abolitionists in order to free a slave. Maybe thats where the poster got the idea. I'm not a Quantrill expert but thats all I am aware of.

That being said, I'm pretty sure that riding on this raid doesn't actually qualify him as a staunch abolitionist since he promptly betrayed them to their enemies and seemingly without much regret.

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I would believe almost anything when it comes the truth. Truth is always stranger than fiction.

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Kansas Bump:

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KANSAS BUMP: Per Aspera

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KANSAS BUMP: IS THIS THING ON!

[Arkinsaw]

My family may have had some dealings in slaves sometime long before the Civil War.

You are probably stuck with a reparations bill then.

I've got quite a few Confederate ancestors. So far I have located one slaveholder way back pre-war who had a couple of slaves. At the actual time of the war and directly preceding it I can't find any slaveholders in the family or amongst the veterans. One of my ancestors was living with a "free black woman" of very advanced age in 1850. Based on family legend and census records we have concluded that it was his mother-in-law who was actually Indian listed as a free black or his mother-in-law who was a free black but converted to "Indian" by descendants. I'm wondering if either would exempt me from reparations or qualify me for them. Perhaps my one free black will cancel out my one slaveholder and I can go my merry way.

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Sorry everyone. Nothing posted was showing up and NO, it wasn't because we crossed the 100 mark TroutStalker....LOL.