Peace Convention-Fort
Scott, KS
"...A
stain that shall never bleach out in the sun! ..."
John
Greenleaf Whittier
The Marais Des Cygnes Massacre
published September 1858
The years of 1854-1861 were a turbulent time in Kansas
territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 established the territorial boundaries
of Kansas and Nebraska and opened the land to legal settlement. It allowed
the residents of these territories to decide by popular vote whether their
state would be free or slave. This concept of self-determination was called
popular sovereignty'. In Kansas, people on all sides of this controversial
issue flooded the territory, trying to influence the vote in their favor.
Rival territorial governments, election fraud, and
squabbles over land claims all contributed to the violence of this era.
Three distinct political groups occupied Kansas:
pro-slavers, free-staters and abolitionists. Violence broke out immediately
between these opposing factions and continued until 1861 when Kansas entered
the Union as a free state on January 29th. This era became forever known
as "Bleeding Kansas".
Murder and Mayhem
During "Bleeding Kansas", murder, mayhem,
destruction and psychological warfare became a code of conduct in Eastern
Kansas and Western Missouri. Well-known examples of this violence include
the massacre in May 1856 at Pottawatomie Creek where John Brown and his
sons killed five pro-slavery advocates.
Locally, trouble began in the summer of 1856 when
a group of about 30 pro-slavery settlers from South Carolina arrived in
Bourbon County. It was suspected that they were sponsored by the Southern
Emigrant Aid Society and were members of the Dark Lantern Societies. These
societies terrorized free-state settlers and attempted to drive them from
Kansas.
A Town Divided
Fort Scott and the surrounding area were not immune
from the violence. The division of the opposing factions was clearly
visible at the site of the "old fort". The military had abandoned
Fort Scott in 1853. Two years later, the buildings were sold at a public
auction and the former fort immediately became the nucleus of a rapidly
growing town.
Two of the buildings became hotels. One,
a former officer's quarters, was opened as the Fort Scott or Free State
Hotel. Located right across the parade ground was the Western or Pro-Slavery
Hotel, a former infantry barracks. The residents of Fort Scott were predominately
pro-slavers, while free-staters and abolitionists dominated the surrounding
countryside. Radicals of each faction terrorized the town throughout the
"Bleeding Kansas" era.
1858: A Most
Violent Year
By 1858, trouble had intensified in southeast Kansas.
Radical elements from other theaters of the conflict were now converging
on this area. James Montgomery became a leader of free state forces and
was involved in several violent incidents.
- In April of 1858, Montgomery and his men fought
U. S troops stationed at Fort Scott in the battle of Paint Creek. One
soldier was killed in this encounter.
- In May of 1858, Montgomery and his men drove pro-slavery
forces from Linn County. In retaliation, eleven free-staters were pulled
out of their homes, taken to a ravine and shot down. This incident, known
as the Marais des Cygnes Massacre was rumored to have been plotted in
the Western Hotel.
- On June 5, 1858, Montgomery and his raiders tried
to burn down the Western Hotel. Several shots were fired into the hotel
and surrounding homes, but the hotel was saved.
- Violence, such as this, caught the governor's
attention. On June 15, 1858, he held a meeting at the Western Hotel in
order to settle political unrest. While this meeting nearly broke out
into a riot, it was successful. Peace and quiet reigned for a brief five-month
period.
- Montgomery and his raiders struck again in December
of 1858 when he rescued Benjamin Rice, a free-soiler. Rice had been arrested
for murder and was imprisoned in the Fort Scott Hotel. Montgomery claimed
that he was jailed illegally, so he came to Fort Scott to free him.
In the struggle following Rice's rescue, former Deputy
Marshal John Little, a pro-slavery advocate, fired shots into the ranks
of the free-staters. Little peered out of a window of his father's store
(the former post headquarters) to observe the effects of the shooting. His
movement was noted by a free stater who shot and killed him. Little's fiancé,
Gene Campbell, wrote Montgomery a letter reprimanding him and saying that
he was a "minister of the devil, and a very superior one too..."
Fort
Scott
January
4, 1859
Montgomery:
Listen
to me. Today I heard that you said in a speech a few days ago that
you were not sorry you had killed John Little. That he was not killed
too soon. Can you before God say so? Oh, the anguish you have caused.
He was one of the noblest men ever created, brave and true to his
country and to his word. You can't prove that he ever injured an innocent
person. A few days more and we were to have been married, then go
south to trouble you no more.
But
through your influence, he was killed. He was sent to another world
without even time to pray or to say goodbye to his friends. But thanks
to God, though you did kill his body, you can't touch his soul. No.
No, it is in the spirit land. Now the cry of "the Osages are
coming!" can awaken him no more. He quietly sleeps in our little
graveyard.
But
remember this. I am a girl, but I can fire a pistol. And if ever the
time comes, I will send some of you to the place where there is "weeping
and gnashing of teeth". You, a minister of God? You mean a minister
of the devil, and a very superior one too. I have no more to say to
you and your imps. Please accept the sincere regards of your future
repentance.
Gene
Campbell
A Nation Divided
"Bleeding Kansas" was part of the political
storm that occurred throughout the United States before the Civil
War. The anti-slavery forces prevailed as Kansas entered into the Union
a free state on January 29, 1861. This turbulence illustrated the beginning
of the terrifying bloodshed that was to come during the Civil War.
Suggested
Readings
- Bleeding Kansas, Alice Nichols
- Border Warfare in Southeastern Kansas:
1856-1859, G. Murlin Welch
- Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865,
Jay Monaghan
- Fort Scott: Courage and Conflict on the
Border, Leo E. Oliva
- To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography
of John Brown , Stephen B. Oates
- War to the Knife, Thomas Goodrich
- With the Border Ruffians, R.H. Williams
Related
Sites