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View Diary: Civil War Prelude: "Bleeding Kansas" (30 comments)

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  •  One of my Kansas Uncles (8+ / 0-)
    Recommended by:
    eigenlambda, gravlax, EMBA30, Wee Mama, confitesprit, Celtic Pugilist, annetteboardman, caul

    had a Beecher's bible over the mantlepiece. His grandfather had come from Ireland and was given train fare, farm implements and a mule for signing a pledge to vote free when the plebescite came. The money came from Henry Ward Beecher's church and the pledge was drawn up by the Archbishop of Dublin. A lot of Kansas Irish got there like that.

    My Missouri Grandfather had a cap and ball .45 cal pistol that my grand mother's uncle had carried when he rode with the Missouri Partisans during the war. Out on the plains and down in the Ozarks there were still personal memories of that border war when I was a kid.

    "If I pay a man enough money to buy my car, he'll buy my car." Henry Ford

    by johnmorris on Wed Jun 29, 2011 at 06:16:45 AM PDT

    •  Both Missouri and Kansas sides of my family (4+ / 0-)
      Recommended by:
      confitesprit, ColoTim, annetteboardman, caul

      ...were unionist.  It surprised me as I expected a mix from the many different Missouri lines (several coming from Virginia.)  

      In my direct Missouri line my great-great grandfather rode with the Missouri militia cavalry hunting down the guerrillas.  He met my g-g grandmother (who was armed with a shotgun) when his unit bivouacked on her property.  

      Ironically, she is the one slave owning link I know of.  She was a widow when they met,  her first husband had southern sympathies, but did not go off to war.  He was executed by southern guerrillas.  Strange as it might seem for a southern leaning slave holder to be murdered in this fashion, it was not uncommon, even by "regular" secessionist forces in the state (e.g. the murder of a prominent slave holding citizen by the secessionist Missouri State Guard before the battle of Cole Camp in June 1861.)  They seemed to have the ultimate "either you are for us or against us" attitude.  These sorts of murders began at the start of the war and only got worse.

      I saw an estimate that ~29,000 people were killed in Missouri by the guerrilla warfare.  (I've not seen a breakdown of those killed "in arms" on both sides, innocents, non-combatants, or those who died while imprisoned/confined under charges so I have no idea what the basis is.)   While high, the total seems possible as the guerrillas made conditions unliveable for unionist, secessionist, and neutral families alike.  Civilian govt. was impossible and the state was stuck with a provost marshall system as a result.  

      Illustrative of how this violence works both ways, I recently discovered that where another cluster of my Missouri ancestors lived, groups of Unionist civilians in 1863 murdered or drove out the leading secessionists/guerrialla supporters.  It seems to have halted the guerrilla activity in their locality, at least for that very active year of guerrilla warfare.  

      If you ask "what color is the poster" when someone criticizes the President's policy or track record, you are probably a racist. If you assume white progressives don't like the President's policies because of his skin color, you are definitely a racist.

      by Celtic Pugilist on Wed Jun 29, 2011 at 09:26:48 AM PDT

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