When Yank Fought Yank: An Incident on the Kansas Border

WHEN YANK FOUGHT YANK: An Incident on the Kansas Border Howard V. Canan Geography and politics decreed that Missouri would be plagued throughout its early years by strife and disorder. The first hint of the trouble to come was in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state. Instead of the act facilitating Missouri's admission, its entry was delayed. Slavery was an issue which no amount of talk or compromise could settle but attempts by Congress to compromise the question continued . In 1854 it passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, a measure that satisfied no one and had the effect of intensifying the feeling against slavery. Instead of providing a peaceful solution, it led to violence, chaos, and bloodshed. It was the start of the Civil War for many Missourians. Slavery advocates in Missouri did not want a free state on their western border. They had inferred that Kansas would be settled by southerners and became active in their determination that Kansas would be slave. But there were others in Kansas who were just as determined that it would be free. During the tumultuous years that followed northern newspapers characterized all Missourians as "Border Ruffians," vilhans and secessionists. This propaganda was so successful that when Missouri was occupied by troops from the North in 1861 it was to feel the result of its unearned reputation. Although only a small percentage of Missourians had taken part in the outrages in Kansas and only a minority were slaveholders, the entire state had to suffer during the Civil War from the bad name given it; and from its location. After Kansas had been admitted to the Union as a free state, deep resentment toward Missourians still lingered. Missourians harbored equal resentment toward the zealots and abolitionists of Kansas who had also carried on their share of terrorism on the Missouri side of the border. The mutual antipathy was intensified by the outbreak of the Civil War. As Missouri was then torn by internal strife, an opportunity was presented to certain Kansans which they were not 143 144CIVIL WAR HISTORY slow in grasping. Many believed that there were no loyal Unionists in Missouri and that Missouri should be cleaned out. United States Senator James H. Lane and Charles R. Jennison, prominent Kansans and influential Republican politicians, became leaders of Kansas volunteer troops. Their deep hatred for Missouri was not tempered by the fact that most Missourians were loyal to the Union and thousands were serving in the Union army. Whenever these revengeful and, as they turned out to be, rapacious Kansans had the opportunity to lead their troops into Missouri, loot was an important objective.1 Their first opportunity came in July, 1861, when Jennison's troops raided Harrisonville, Missouri. Jennison returned to Jackson County in November and December, 1861, when outrages of every sort were committed. Lane had his chance when Confederate Major General Sterling Price moved north in Missouri in September, 1861. Lane burned Osceola, shot nine citizens and returned to Kansas with many wagonloads of loot.2 The acts of these men were repugnant to Governor Charles Robinson of Kansas, who wrote on September 1, 1861, to Major General John C. Fremont, commanding the Department of the West, that he feared that Lane's forays might result in open conflict between Missouri and Kansas troops.3 Captain W. E. Prince, who commanded at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and who seemed to have unusual influence for an officer of his grade, felt in a like way. He let his views be known in a manner worthy of a trained diplomat when, on September 9, 1861, he wrote Lane: "I hope you will adopt early and active measures to crush this marauding which is being enacted in Captain Jennison's name, and also in yours, by a band of men representing themselves as belonging to your command." Prince made no mention of a letter written to him by Lane on August 25, requesting reinforcements, with which "we could play hell with Missouri in a few days."4 Major General Henry W. Halleck, commanding the Department of Missouri, told Washington authorities, in December, 1861, that he was...