method in which Insley, the department’s chief quartermaster and the post’s depot quartermaster,
handled his payments at the post. Insley assigned bills supposed to be paid by him in his role as
department quartermaster to Capt. Hodges, the depot quartermaster. “Stories of immense frauds
were rife,” Potter reported, although he also noted that his investigation found most of the
irregularities did not seem to be of a criminal nature, since “Many of these vouchers were
informal and issued by officers temporarily placed on duty as acting assistant quartermasters.” To
settle the irregularities, Potter paid a percentage of the claimed amounts to a!] claimants, and with
additional help from Washington, D.C., most of the indebtedness eventually was settled.*>

Peace with a different adversary came to the region over the summer, as negotiators
signed a treaty with several Indian tribes. Hoping to create a railroad corridor between the Platte
and Arkansas Rivers, federal commissioners met at the mouth of the Arkansas River with
Tepresentatives of the Apache, Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa tribes on August 14. By this
Little Arkansas Treaty, the tribes ceded to the United States their claims to any lands north of the
Arkansas River, and agree to settle on reservations to the south. A month later, Fort Smith was
the site of another treaty signing, with tribal leaders from the Cherokees, Creeks, Chactaws,
Chickasaws, Seminoles, Senecas, Shawnees, and Quapaws accepting federal terms.

On October 10, ten days after the First Kansas (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment,
originally organized at the post, mustered out of federal service, Fart Scott ceased to be a military
post. During August and September, only companies I and M of the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry
remained at the post as the garrison force. Most of the soldiers left the tent camps and extensive
quartermaster facilities behind, but the medical department remained in the post hospital until
Nov. 18, when the Army abandoned that building.”

The Army’s plans to repeat its 1855 sale of government buildings built during the war
years hit a significant roadblock at the end of November 1865, Wilson and other members of the
Fort Scott Town Company protested the contemplated sale, arguing that no rent had been paid for
any of the lots and that many of the pieces of property taken over by the Army could have been
sold for a considerable profit during the war but for their occupation by the government. The Fort
Scott citizens threatened a lawsuit if they were not given either payments for rent or possession
of the buildings built on their !and. In his response of Dec. 5, Bowles recited Quartermaster
Corps regulations that prohibited rent payments for vacant lots. He also noted that when he took
over quartermaster duties at the post in July 1865, he modified the bookkeeping practices of his
predecessor Insley. Believing it improper to deny the land owners any compensation, Bowles
maintained a separate inventory of vacant properties used by the government. No rental prices
were entered in the books, but the mere existence of such a category, Bowles believed, gave
property owners a good basis for eventual payments. Bowles invoked the “common law of
fixtures” in his argument, claiming that legal practices held that any structure attached by the

** LE.W. Foster to Dodge, July 9, 1865, Record Group 94 Descriptive Book and Clothing Accounts, Adjutant
General's Office, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives; Potter to Meigs, Sept. 15, 1865, O.R., 3/5, 465.

* The Little Arkansas treaties would eventually fail to win ratification by the U.S. Senate, and federal officials would
refuse to honor the tribal territorial rights guaranteed by the pact.

*’ Roll 8, Records of Adjutant General, Fort Scot Post Retums June 1842 to Apl. 1853; June 1858; Jan. £861 to Sept.
1865, Record Group 94, Port Scott National Historic Site archives.

230



Porter, Charles W. A Journal of Events in the Life of Charles W. Porter: While in the Service of the
United States during the Rebellion (privately printed, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives),

O'Connell, Charles Ir. The United States Army and the Origins of Modern Management, 1818-1860,
Pu.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1982.

we
so
ps)


transferred to Fort Leavenworth and replaced the next day by Company C of the Fourth Infantry,
commanded by Captain George McCall. The three companies remained at Fort Scott unti! called
away in 1846 for service in the Mexican War.

Like the majority of frontier outposts, Fort Scott rarely enjoyed the level of staffing
outlined in Army regulations. In theory, the First Dragoon Regiment was commanded by a
colonel, assisted by a staff of one lieutenant colonel and two majors. Captains commanded each
of the regiment’s ten companies, with a first lieutenant and a second lieutenant below each
captain. In practice, a host of duty assignments and responsibilities routinely left Army
companies with far fewer officers. In June 1842, with two companies of dragoons assigned to
Fort Scott, Capt. Moore commanded the post while leading Company C. Capt. Burdett Terrett
was in charge of Company A, with First Lt. William Eustis assisting him. Absent from the post
were First Lt. RH. West, Company C, on duty at Fort Gibson, and second lieutenants Richard
Ewell, Company A, and John Love, Company C, both temporarily assigned to Fort Wayne. In.
August of that year, the under-ranked Moore remained the post commander. He was joined on
active duty by Ewell and Love, while Josiah Simpson served as post surgeon. Eustis was
stationed full-time at the fort’s sawmill and Ewell acted as the post commissary officer. Captain
Thomas Swords, who reported to the post in July 1842 as Acting Assistant Quartermaster, was
away from the post on furlough and West remained on duty at Fort Gibson. As was the case in
the rest of the Army, low manpower was also the rule in the enlisted ranks. In one example
demonstrating the norm, with twenty-six dragoons on escort duty in 1843, Fort Scott housed the
remaining forty-one officers and men of the dragoon company and 139 men in companies C and
D of the Fourth Infantry. Of the 119 privates and noncommissioned officers remaining in the
three companies at the fort, only forty-seven were listed as available for duty. In the fall of that
year, Ewell] and Lt. Allen Norton led thirty-one dragoons on another Santa Fe Trail patrol and
were detached from Fort Scott for more than two months. While those men were away, only
forty-three men were listed as present for duty.*®

One of the key responsibilities assigned to Fort Scott was maintaining the military road
that was adjacent to Fort Scott and connected Fort Leavenworth with Fort Gibson and Fort
Smith. Originally conceived as the connection between the military outposts that separated the
indian and white worlds, the road’s purpose had changed by the Mexican War. It no longer
operated for a military purpose, but instead functioned as a conduit for emigration to Texas,
California and Oregon, and for transporting farm goods east and manufactured products west.
Maintenance and repair of the road required the continued effort of fort personnel; work on
construction of post buildings ceased on several occasions while soldiers from the fort repaired
flood damage to the road.** The diminished military importance of the road reflected the growing
irrelevance of the post. However, the road was destined to become a major territorial and state

TM Thompson, Fort Scott Historic Structures Report, 35; Post retums, Fort Scott National Historic Site, 1842-1846,

8 Wooster, Soldiers, Sutlers, and Settlers, 48; Fort Scott post returns, Fort Scott National Historic Site, 1842, 1843:
William E. Connelly, “Report of the Santa Fe Escort, August 24 to September 25, 1843,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review
XIf (September 1925), 249-55; Otis Young, “ Dragoons on the Santa Fe Trail in the Autumn of 1843,” Chronicles of Oklahoma
32,n. 1 (Spring 1954), 42-51.

% Fort Scott National Historic Site post returns, 1844-1848.

58



Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

ian CEE =

Post Hospital (HS-8, North elevation). Reconstruction of building frame, 1973.



The federal presence in Fort Scott spurres
and civilians intermingle on Wall Street.

Second Ohio Cavairy to the southeast — were “little better than vast pig-pens, officers and men
sleeping and messing together,” and the men had abandoned all attempts at military drills or were
off on furloughs in great numbers. As a whole, the brigade was “a mere ragged, half-armed,
diseased, and mutinous rabble,” he observed, “taking votes as to whether any troublesome or
distasteful order should be obeyed or defied.” He advocated mustering out many of the men in
two regiments and merging the remainder into one new unit. Aside from the poor military
condition of the units, the officer noted, soldicrs had taken large amounts of property from the
depots. He also reported people purchasing government horses with non-regulation orders, the
men claiming the animals as personal property and drawing forty cents a day additional pay for
their use.°

At least some units assigned to Fort Scott managed to perform military-related duties.
About one hundred men from the Second Ohio Cavalry spent nearly a week building a bridge
over the Marmaton River near the old military ford, north of the town. Other soldiers helped
establish a “pony express” between the post and Fort Leavenworth, bringing mail over the route
two days faster than the previous carriers. Men from the regiments surrounding Fort Scott also
received orders for assignments in the post’s quartermaster, commissary, and hospital, a practice
that eventually sparked a series of protests from an Ohio regiment serving at the fort. As the war
dragged on, the Army’s control over civilians expanded and many troopers served in the provost

° Maj. Charles alpine. to Major General, Henry Halleck, March 14. 1862. 0.2. [:8, 615-616; Fort Scott Western
Volunteer, March 31, 1862.

122



would do more to preserve peace on the frontier
than many additional regiments.”** Despite
protests such as these, the civilian sector retained
jurisdiction over suspected liquor traders.

Officers from Fort Scott were involved in
the campaign to stop the cross-border liquor trade
almost from the moment that the Army
established the post. When the dragoons moved
from Fort Wayne, they charged two men driving
wagons for the Army with transporting whiskey.
One of the teamsters was found with ten gallons
of liquor on his wagon, and the other was
suspected of selling his whiskey to soldiers at
Fort Scott. Their wagons were seized under
Captain William Amnstrong’s interpretation of
the Trade and Intercourse Act of 1834, which
calied for the confiscation of “goods, Boats,
packages and pelteries.” The law failed to list
wagons, and the owners claimed that the men had
transported the liquor without their knowledge
and if the Army kept the wagons, one wrote, “the
innocent will be made to suffer for the guilty.”
Military boundaries compounded the incident’s
complexity, since the men owning the wagons
lived near Fort Wayne and complained to the southern district’s commander, but officers
assigned to the territory’s northem district handled the arrests. Time and again the lax authority
of frontier society came into conflict with the rigid structure of the Army’s organization, and the
latter usually finished second.”*

As the case of the wagons illustrated, the principal weaknesses of the Trade and
Intercourse Act were its imprecise language and the fact that it gave jurisdiction over offenses to
civilian courts, which limited the effectiveness of Army officers making arrests. In this case, two
Indian agents, R.H. Calloway of the Osage agency and John B. Luce of the Neosho office,
acknowledged the severity of transporting alcohol. Luce and Calloway would be the last people
to support “the infamous practice of smuggling liquor into the Indian Country, wither for sale to
Indians or to Soldiers,” but they were less sanguine about the success of the federal restrictions,
noting that laws that penalized the innocent were unlikely to be effective. The owners of the
wagons were opposed to the whiskey trade as any government officials could be, the Indian
agents averred, ending by saying that “such persons are so scarce in this country that we sincerely

Col. Stephen Watts Kearny, commanding officer
of the First Dragoons.

® $.W. Kearny, Colonel, First Dragoons, to Rep. L.F. Linn und A.G. Harrison of Missouri. June 20, 1837, 25th Cong.
24 sess., House Document 276. Serial 328: 10.

* Capi, William Armstrong to Gen. Zachary Tavtor. June 30, 1842, Fort Scout National Historic Site microfilm: Daniel
MePhail, personal statement, June 26. 1842. Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm

24



Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-12, Quarter-
master Store-
house. Restora-
tion of west

4) Subsurface

M foundation (West
elevation). 1976.



Frontier.”

Despite all the success achieved by Union forces in indian Territory during the year, the
refugee situation in the Indian Territory remained perilous and the approach of winter only
worsened the possibilities of disaster. Their circumstances were only worsened by continued
poor relations between civilian and military officials. In mid-October, an Indian agent warned
William Coffin that the number of refugees was increasing, prospects for transporting adequate
amounts of food and supplies from Kansas would surely decrease with the onset of winter
weather, and the lands to the south were stil! occupied by Confederate forces. Coffin
recommended delaying the return of those Indians still in Kansas to Indian Territory until the
Confederates could be fully removed. Unless Army management in the military department
improved, he warned, the Interior Department would have to sustain the refugees for the
upcoming winter, as well as the following summer and winter.*'

The military situation involving Fort Scott remained serious as the year ended, and
enlistments and post improvements continued. On November 1, 1863, the Second Kansas
(Colored) Infantry Regiment mustered into federal service, three weeks before the Fourteenth
Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment joined the Union Army at the post. Midway through the
month, in a bid to improve communications, army engineers received authorization to obtain
enough supplies to build a telegraph line from Kansas City to Fort Scott. The surrounding county
to the south and east of the post was reportedly completely free of bushwhackers, except for
smal! bands in Montevallo and Nevada City, in Missouri. The main threat to area peace remained
Stand Watie and his Cherokee Regiment, with residents in Humboldt worried about a raid up the
Neosho Valley.”

Union efforts to completely secure the Indian Territory remained hampered by
bureaucratic fighting between the Interior and War departments. Late in November, Indian agents
reported about ten thousand loyal Cherokees in indian Territory, with about eight thousand
dependent upon federal relief. The agent wrote that for the Indians to supply themselves “it will
be absolutely necessary to have the hearty cooperation of an efficient military force. This they
have, so far, been deprived of,” and as a result, ali the lands outside the immediate protection of
Fort Gibson were uninhabitable. In addition to the complete lack of protection, the military was
blamed for “reckless disregard paid by troops to Cherokee property,” with soldiers reported
killing cattle and taking just a few cuts of meat, leaving the rest to rot. With the exception of Fort
Gibson, most of the white troops in the region had moved east to Fort Smith, where they assisted
the effort to push the Confederates out of Arkansas. Until the army sent a military commander
able to work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the agent predicted, the dire situation would
remain. In one last military display, Stand Watie’s Indian forces attacked the Union Indian.

* Castel, Civil War Kansas, 158-161; Blunt report, October 19, 1863.

+ Milo Gookins to Coffin, October 17, 1863, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the
Secretary of the Interior, serial 1184, vol. 3. 1* sess, 38" Congress (Washington, D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1864), 338-
339; Coffin to Dole, October 23, 1863, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Secretary of the
Interior, serial 1184, vol. 3, 1* sess, 38° Congress (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1864), 338.

“ OLR, tl:4: $44; Post Retums, Fort Scott, National Archives, Microcopy No. 617, Retums from U.S. Military Posts
1800-1916, Rol 1537, Fort Scott, Kansas, January 1861 — October 1865.

153



human problem. *!

To increase security and protect lines of military communication in response to the
constant guerrilla menace, additional subposts were established around Fort Scott in Vernon
County, Missouri, and southeast Kansas. In July, four companies of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry
left Fort Scott and established outposts at Balltown, Missouri (Co. A, Capt. Robert Carpenter),
Deerfield, Missouri (Co. F, Capt. D. Vittum), Lambert's Ford, south of Deerfield (Co. D, Capt.
Leander Shaw) and Drywood, Kansas, at the ford on the Old Military Road 12 miles southeast of
Fort Scott (Co. C, Capt. Homer Pond).

By August, Fort Scott was the commercial center of the region. C.M. Chase, who visited
the town on August 18, 1863, wrote

“(Fort Scott] was formerly one of the frontier Indian Forts, until the rebellion broke
out, containing nothing but the buildings in the Fort. But as the war broke out it
was filled with soldiers and all the southwestern government business was
transacted here. Business men began to move in and build adjoining the Fort, until
now it is the largest in Southern Kansas, numbering between one and two thousand
permanent and many more transient residents. Good buildings are going up in
every part of town, the streets are constantly crowded with people, and every thing
presents an air of life, enterprise and progress. The Fort buildings are situated
around a large square, while the new town is built adjoining the Fort. Like all
towns springing up in a day and containing a large temporary population, Fort
Scott is a “fast town.” It would require no effort to get up a race, a bet, a drunk, a
fight, or any other little amusement common among men. The town contains many
well stocked stores, a good hotel, a countless number of beer saloons, a couple of
dozen of billiards, two or three ten pin allies, &c, &c. The theatre goers are
accommodated with a barn fixed up with temporary conveniences, supplied with
two or three changes of scenery, one or two tolerable performers for stars, and a

3932

half a dozen very scurvy stock performers.

In contrast to the town’s bright economic possibilities, the refugees forced to live nearby
were destitute and pessimistic. Chase noted how the “refugees and contrabands from Missouri
and Arkansas, the most dirty, shiftless, ignorant specimens of the genus homo imaginable,” lived
in squalor in a strand of timber along a stream near Fort Scott, a ravine known as Buck Run.
Chase condemned their despondency, writing that “Sprawled out on the ground in squads, they
while away the time unconcerned about the next meal or the frost of the coming winter. The
town offers them work, but they do not incline to accept. When the severity of the winter drives
them from their bowers and tents, Fort Scott will be compelled to provide for their comfort.” The
situation could only get worse, Chase warned, pointing out that some estimated fifty to one

31 justin Harlan to Coffin, August 8, 1863, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the
Secretary of the Interior, serial 1184, vol. 3, 1* sess, 38 Congress (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1864), 332-
333; Coffin to Mix, August 31, 1863, Annus! Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Secretary of the
Interior, scrial 1184, vol. 3, 1* sess, 38° Congress (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1864), 333.

* Folder “Misc. — Chase, C.M..” Miscellaneous Collections, Chas-Ci, Kansas State Historical Society.

148



The Post on the Marmaton

An Historical Resource Study
Of Fort Scott National Historic Site

By
Daniel J. Holder
and Hal K. Rothman

United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Midwest Regional Office

Omaha
2001
RECOMMENDED:
Acting Chief, CulturalfXesources, Midwest Regional Office Date
CONCURRED:

BhikL fang Ax; ash 13, Li
Suverpenden Fort Scott Natighal Hoge: T Date”

APPROVED:

Awd Wed ALL S/izfe)

Regional Director, Midwest Regional Office Date



southern views and held slaves. Enlisting Indians became part of southern strategy after
Confederate setbacks in Arkansas early in 1862 drove southern Trans-Mississippi states to
demand more action from Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government. Defeat in the battle
of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, early in March, muted this strategy as well as southern strength in the
West. Union forces took the offensive in the West, capitalizing on the Pea Ridge victory. Federal
commanders slowly moved out of defensive postures as their power increased, planning an
excursion into New Mexico and conducting an expedition south into the Indian Territory.
Because of military successes, 1862 brought a host of changes and an increased centrality for the
federal forces in southeastern Kansas.

Federal efforts to halt ongoing jayhawking focused on Kansans during the first month of
the new year. After almost six months of jayhawking raids into Missouri with little military
purpose, federal leaders decided that the irregulars caused more trouble than gain. Lane’s Kansas
Brigade, supplied from Fort Scott but based twelve miles north at Fort Lincoln, was one of the
worst offenders. It failed to offer serious opposition to a Confederate campaign in Missouri in
September 1861, and instead raided and plundered homes, farms, and towns across western
Missouri. As a result, frustrated Union leaders curtailed Lane’s authority in southeastern Kansas.
On January 3, 1862, Major General David H. Hunter, a former Army officer with personal ties to
Lincoln that predated Lane’s, commanded the newly established Department of Kansas with
eight regiments of cavalry, three of infantry, and three artillery batteries. Federal officials ordered
Hunter to work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to organize 4,000 Indians for federal service.
By bringing Lane’s forces into a new, more organized command structure, Huntet’s superiors
hoped to halt unauthorized raids and decrease the antagonism Jayhawkers caused among, both
northern and southern sympathizers across Missouri. in carly January, Major General Henry
Halleck, in charge of the Department of the Missouri that included Kansas, strongly condemned
Charles Jennison, one of Lane’s commanders, as well as the entire First Kansas Regiment.
Halleck charged that the men had no business in Missouri and issued orders to his command to
drive them out, or if necessary, to disarm and imprison them. “They are no better than a band of
robbers,” Halleck insisted, “they cross the line, rob, steal, plunder, and burn whatever they can
lay their hands upon.” Frederick Steele, commanding the federal garrison at Sedalia, Missouri,
confirmed that Jennison’s troops committed outrages against Missouri civilians, both pro- and
anti-Union. The Jayhawkers’ actions were so outrageous that federal officials even apologized to
their enemies. In a January 27 letter to Major General Sterling Price, commander of the Missouri
forces, Halleck substantiated Price’s contention that “a band of outlaws on the Kansas frontier”
caused the burning of houses and bams. Halleck disavowed the Jayhawkers and promised either
to drive them out of the area or capture them himself.”

Despite nearly unanimous Army condemnation of Lane’s actions, Lincoln supported the
commander of the Kansas Brigade, but in the end, Lane’s military power diminished, Lane

? Albert Castel, Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind, Authorized Edition (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas,
1997), 48-57; Lane to Hunter, January 3, 1862, United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the
Official Records af the Union and Confederate Armies, Published Under the Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert N.
Scott (Washington, D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1880-1901) (cited as O.R.), 1: 8, 482; Halleck to Brigadier General

Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General of the Army, January 18, 1862, O.R,, 1:8, 507-508; Halleck to Price, January 27, 1862, O.R.,
1:8, 528-529,

118



By the early1850s, the military uses of the fort had diminished. The concept of the
Permanent Indian Frontier had become obsolete, and the Plains Indians were pushed farther west
every year. From Fort Scott, the military had to send its men increasing distances for any military
purpose. The post was clearly at the end of its effectiveness. When Lt. Orren Chapman
commanded Company F of the First Dragoons on a march to the headwaters of the Arkansas
River in 1850, he undertook the last military action performed by dragoons at Fort Scott. In
November 1850, they left the fort forever, leaving one company of the Sixth Infantry behind.

The post became an anomaly, a place for which the military had little use. Even senior
officers were left confused. In 1852, the Army’s senior quartermaster officer, General Thomas
Jesup, inquired of the status of quarters and stables at Fort Scott. Swords, then assigned to the
quartermaster office in New York City, responded that when he left in 1846, two infantry and
one dragoon barracks, along with stables for dragoon horses, were nearly completed. Burbank,
commander of the post during the Mexican War, added that the foundation for the quartermaster
stables had been laid. Burbank also observed that the company quarters were designed to house
fifty men, but he believed that as many as seventy men could be accommodated. The post could
furnish housing for the officers of three companies.” The question loomed large: what use would
three companies at Fort Scott be?

The new possessions won in the Southwest and Northwest demanded new kinds of
troops, and Congress acted swiftly to satisfy the new military requirements. As American settlers
headed to the Pacific Northwest during the late 1840s, congressional leaders and local officials
engaged in serious debates about the most effective form of protection for emigrants. Many
favored a series of small forts about one day’s travel apart which would house small contingents
of soldiers to patrol] the Oregon Trail. Others suggested that continual sweeps of soldiers based in
one or more large forts provided more efficient protection. After his 1845 expedition to the
Rockies, Kearny supported the concept of mounted patrols stationed in small posts along the
trail, and Congress followed his recommendation. A new mounted unit,.the Regiment of
Mounted Riflemen, provided protection on the Oregon Trail as part of the small-post concept
approved by Congress on May 19, 1846. The appropriation of $76,500 was to equip one regiment
of mounted riflemen and to provide funds to construct a series of posts along the Oregon Trail.
The start of the Mexican War delayed the project, but once peace was established,
implementation of the unit began. The Army continued to maintain a dragoon presence on the
emigrant trails of the Southwest after the Mexican War, and two companies of the new mounted
unit eventually replaced the dragoon company stationed at Fort Scott. Companies A and K of the
Regiment of Mounted Rifles were stationed at Fort Scott from November 1852 until the post
closed six months later. °

The frontier remained in a state of burcaucratic flux during and after the Mexican War, as
units shifted, responsibilities changed among government agencies, and new territories needed
protection, The Army relinquished primary responsibility for safeguarding traffic along the Santa
Fe Trail ta the Office of Indian Affairs after Keay captured New Mexico in 1846. Thomas

* Capt. Sidney Burbank to Jesup, September 14, 1852, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

Arthur P. Wade, “Forts and Mounted Rifles Along the Oregon Trail,” Kansas Quarterly 10, n. 3 (1978), 3-15; The
Statutes at Large and Treaties of the United States (1851), 9:13-t4.

67



Official Records of the Federal and Confederate Armies, Reports of the Adjutant Generals
of the Several States, Des Moines, Iowa: Dyer Publishing Co., 1908; Dayton, Ohio:
Morningside Bookshop, 1990.

Eckert, Allan W, Twilight of Empire. Boston: Little, Brown, 1988.

Emory, William H. Notes of a Military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to
San Diego, in California, in 1846. Washington, D.C.: Wendell and Van Benthuysen, 1848.

Ewers, John Canfield. The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture: With Comparative Material from
Other Western Tribes. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980,

Faragher, Joha Mack. Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer. New York:
Henry Holt and Company, 1992.

. Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1994,

Fehrenbacher, Don E. The South and Three Sectional Crises. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1980.

Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative; Fort Sumter to Perryville. New York: Random
House, 1958.

. The Civil War: A Narrative, Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House,
1963.

Foreman, Grant, ed, A Traveler in Indian Territory: The Journal of Ethan Allen Hitchcock.
Cedar Rapids, lowa: Torch Press, 1935.

Fox, William F, Regimental Losses In The American Civil War, 1861-1865. Albany, N.Y. Albany
Publishing Company, 1889.

Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth und Eugene Genovese. Fruits of Merchant Capital: Slavery and Bour-
geois Property in the Rise and Expansion of Capitalism, New York: Oxford Press, 1983.

Franks, Kenny A. Stand Watie and the Agony of the Cherokee Nation. Memphis: Memphis State
University Press, 1979,

Fredriksen, John C. comp. Shield of Republic/Sword of Empire: A Bibliography of United States
Military Affairs, 1783-1846, New York: Greenwood Press, 1990,

Frederickson, Otto Frovin. The Liquor Question among the Indian Tribes in Kansas, 1804-1881,
Bulletin of the University of Kansas, Humanistic Studies, Vol. 4, n. 4. Lawrence: Univ. of
Kansas, 1932.

Freehting, William W. The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War. New
York : Oxford University Press, 1994,

~———. The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, (776-1854, New York: Oxford Press, 1990,

Gaeddert, G. Raymond. The Birth of Kansas. Lawrence, Kans: University of Kansas Publications,
1940,

Gaines, W. Craig. The Confederate Cherokees: Jolin Drew's Regiment of Mounted Rifles. Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989,

Genovese, Bugene D. The World the Slaveholders Made: Two Essays in laterpretation.
Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1988.

Glatthaar, Joseph T. Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White
Officers. New York : Free Press, 1990.

Goetzmnann, William H. Army Exploration in the America West, 1803-1863. New Haven: Yale

386


The commercial successes of the war era fueled dreams of future glory for the town, but
by the end of the Civil War only cities with ties to transportation could make their wartime
growth continue. In a rapidly industrializing society, connections to the growing railroad systems
that defined the economic future were crucial. Fort Scott long suffered from typical problems in
the history of American communities. Geographic isolation led its list of dilemmas; no navigable
waterway came near it and all merchandise had to be transported by wagon. The cost of shipping
from Leavenworth, Kansas City and other places were astronomical. Charges of as much as $3
per hundred pounds of goods were common. Nor were roads dependable arteries. In bad weather,
the fastest stage ride from Kansas City could take more than a week. Railroads promised to end a
community’s dependency upon weather and geography to maintain a consistent supply of the
goods that drove the regional economy.

The need for a railroad set off a chain of events that brought the military back to
southeastern Kansas. By 1866, the Army — and the money it brought — was gone, but securing a
railroad into Fort Scott offered a way to continue its fabulous wartime growth. Money, political
ingenuity, and sheer forcefulness were prerequisites if the railroad was to come. Finding land for
the railroad to cross posed another major obstacle. A rail connection to the north faced few
political obstacles to construction, but to the south of Fort Scott was the huge barrier of the
Cherokee Neutral Lands, a reserve of 800,000 acres denied to white settlers. The law prevented
settlers from patenting the neutral jands, but countless squatters moved onto Indian land, sure
that sooner or later, the government would confirm their activities. After all, the American
government was in the business of encouraging settlement. This proprietary sense about Indian
land became the central issue in a complicated question. When construction of lines to the Gulf
Coast began, squatters on the Indian tract turned to violence to protect their homes and financial
commitments. Jn response, the railroads sought federal help and the establishment of the Post of
Southeast Kansas brought the Army back to Fort Scott once again.>

Military leaders watched the commercial development of railroads with great interest
throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, seeing in the expansion of the steel rails the
perfect method to tame the vast spaces of the West. The Army, federal government, and the
nation’s railroad builders found themselves allies. The military supplied civil engineers trained at
West Point to lay out the tracks, troops to provide labor and guard survey and work parties, and
also provided a consistent source of freight that translated into business for the railroads. In
addition, rail companies received federal lands across the West to help defray construction costs.
Railroad owners in turn provided the Army and the federal government with the lowest freight
and passenger rates, and made possible the rapid movement of the troops needed to quell Indian
or civil disturbances.’

In the 1850s, questions concerning ownership of southeast Kansas lands delayed the
initial Anglo-American settlement south of Fort Scott and property rights became a significant
factor in developing the region’s rail system during the following decade. The original occupants
of the area south of Fort Scott were the Osages. in an 1825 treaty, the Osage Indians traded all

> Miner, “Border Fronticr: The Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad in the Cherokee Neutral Lands,” 105-129.

* Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski, For ihe Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America
(Now York: The Pree Press, 1994), 137-8.



In direct response to the Confederate attack on Lawrence, Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Ewing,
commanding the District of the Border issued “Order Number 11,”on August 25, 1863. The
measure was designed to calm Kansas residents that another attack would not oceur, and curtail
bushwhacking and jayhawking raids to and from Missouri and Kansas. Missouri residents living
along the border, in Jackson, Cass, and Bates counties, and the northern part of Vernon County
within the District of the Border, except those living within one mile of Kansas City,
Independence, Hickman, Mills, Pleasant Valley, and Harrisonville were ordered to leave their
homes within fifieen days. Rural residents loyal to the Union were settled in federal areas of
controi such as the large towns or cities, or across the border in Kansas. Those refusing to take a
loyalty oath were ordered out of the district. Federal troops then burned abandoned properties and
crops to ensure that rebel sympathizers did not use them to aid the guerillas. The only Fort Scott
troops affected by Order Number 11 were those manning outposts in northern Vernon County.
By the end of September more than two-thirds of the civilian population in the affected counties
had left their homes.*”

While his home state shuddered from the horrors inflicted by Quantrill, Blunt continued
his campaign in Indian Territory. On August 22,
reinforced by 1,500 Kansas cavalrymen commanded by
Col. William F. Cloud, Blunt again crossed the Arkansas
River and headed east. The Confederate forces in front of
him split up into two retreating forces. Blunt followed
one south into Choctaw country, destroying supply
depots at Perryville and North Fork. He then turned east,
and on September 1, Blunt and his soldiers occupied Fort
Smith, Arkansas.

The last half of September saw two Confederate
victories in the western theater. In Georgia, southern
troops under Gen. Braxton Bragg won a costly victory,
their last in the western theater, at Chickamauga, pushing
the Union army into Chattanooga at a cost of eighteen
thousand killed, wounded, or missing. The northern
force, with about sixteen thousand casualties in all,
received a new leader soon after, when Lincoln.
appointed General Ulysses $. Grant commander of all

Union armies between the Appalachians and the William Quantrill, the Confederate
Mississippi. Across the river, the Confederate cause was | commander of attacks on Lawrence and
electrified on September 22, when Jo Shelby and six Banter Springs in Kansas

hundred men of his Iron Brigade began a long raid into

Missouri, eventually reaching Boonville on the Missouri River, 750 miles north of their starting
point. After forty-one days, federal forces finally pushed the Confederates into Arkansas, but not
before they killed or wounded scores of Union soldiers, destroyed almost $2 million in Union
supplies, and heartened Southern sympathizers across the region. The long Confederate raid was

* Castel, Civil War Kansas, 142-53.

151



Smith’s command included companies from the First Cavalry, Second Dragoons, and Sixth Infan-
try. Geary and Smith combined to use the military foran effective show of federal force. The onset
of winter months and government officials’ use of negotiations backed by armed force eventually
helped to calm northern Kansas at least temporarily. Worn out by months of heightened tensions
and calmed by the presence of federal troops, settlers across northem Kansas turned their atten-
tions away from political events and concentrated on improving their economic situation. Throughout
1857 and the early part of 1 858, a large portion of “Bleeding Kansas” sought to heal its wounds.

By the summer of 1857, the violence shifted to Linn and Bourbon counties. The pro-slavery
movement turned more ofits attention on southeastern Kansas, far removed from the federal posts
at forts Leavenworth and Riley. Its location also made it less attractive to free-state settlers moving
in from Kansas City or Nebraska, providing hope that pro-slavery influence ofnearby Missouri
could prove attractive. Early in August 1857, a group of pro-slavery Texans arrived in Fort Scott.
Calling themselves “Texas Rangers,” they added about fifty supporters from the town and marched
northinto Linn County in search of John Brown and his men. On the night of. August 29, while the
Texans camped on Middle Creek, about fifteen miles south of Osawatomie and sixty miles north of
Fort Scott, a group of armed free-soilers surprised them. The pro-slavery men retreated in panic,
some racing into Fort Scott with news of an imminent invasion by the Free-State troops. Former
sutler Fiero Wilson and his family were among those who fled, seeking shelter south of the town.
Other residents dealt with the emergency in their own way. With her husband and sons away with
the family horses, Dr. Hill's wife had her servants pull her carriage into the bottom ofa steep ravine.
Guarded by the servants, she remained hidden until daylight. After the incident, many pro-slavery
men sent their families away from Fort Scott.'*

Inretaliation for the Middle Creek incident, pro-slavery forces led by Potawatomi Indian
Agent George W. Clarke raided Linn and Bourbon counties early in September 1857. Clarke’s
officers included G. W. Jones of Fort Scott and Linn County sheriff John E. Brown. Supported by
Missouri men, the force raided river settlements, destroying crops, driving off stock, and burning
household goods. Most of the destruction seemed designed to drive free-state settlers from the
area, although many settlers returned to their claims after hiding in the brush during the raids. They
later obtained emergency supplies of food and clothing from the National Kansas Committee, an
anti-slavery support organization based in Chicago."”

Despite the consistent violence, the Fort Scott population grew in 1856 and 1857. Free-
State settlers dominated the rural areas surrounding the town, while Fort Scott mostly remained in
the hands of slavery advocates. Developers established competing groups, the Wingfield Land
Company and the Fort Scott Town Company, in 1857, but the two merged in 1858 after the
Wingfield group failed to secure title to New York Indian lands, Despite the lack of cleartitle,
development continued and the settlers found uses for the former buildings of Fort Scott. Even the
uses ofthe buildings reflected area politics. Officers Quarters No. 1, originally purchased in the
1855 auction by Alfred Hornbeck for $350, soon became the Fort Scott Hotel, the local headquar-
ters for Free-State supporters. Across the parade grounds, new owners soon renamed the former
infantry barracks the Western Hotel, the town’s unofficial pro-slavery headquarters. The dragoon

“ Gihon, Governor Geary's Administration.
% Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, 1066.

v3


Voluntecrs in 1862, Russell won brevet promotion July 1862 for gallantry during the Peninsular
Campaign, In August 1862, he was appointed major in the Eighth Infantry, and brigadier general in
the U.S. Volunteers three months later. Russell fought at Gettysburg, where he was breveted
colonel for his actions, and he was again in combat at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, winning
promotion to brevet brigadier general for his actions at the Wilderness. Later he fought at Cold
Harbor, Petersburg, Winchester, and the Shenandoah campaign. In his final action on September
19, 1864, Russell won posthumous promotion to major general in both the Regular Army and U.S.
Volunteers for bravery at the battle of Opequan, Va. He was 42 when he was killed.

An 1850 West Point graduate, Lt. Eugene A. Carr’s first assignment was in the Mounted
Ritles, He served at a number of frontier outposts, including Fort Scott in 1852-53. After his
transfer to the First Cavalry Regiment in 1855 Carr returned to duty in Kansas the following year.
The New York native served with Union forces in Missouri during the first year of the war, and
was breveted for bis performance at Wilson’s Creek, Carr also was involved in fighting at Pea
Ridge in 1862, where he remained in combat despite three wounds, an action for which he later
received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Afier combat in Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas,
Carr ended the war as a brevet major general in the U.S. Army, Carr remained in the Army for
another twenty years, serving on the frontier against the Indians, He retired in 1893 as a full
brigadior general?

Lieutenant James Carleton served at Fort Scott with the First Dragoons from 1845 to 1846,
accompanying Stephen Kearny on the Rocky Mountain expedition of 1846. After transferring to the
First U.S. Cavalry when the Civil War broke out, Carleton raised the California Column in the
spring of 1862, leading it across the Yuma and Gila deserts to Mesialla on the Rio Grande to
counter the Confederate threat to Arizona and New Mexico, Promoted to brigadier general, U.S.
Volunteers in April of that year, he relieved Edward Canby as commander of the Department of
New Mexico, and remained in charge to June 27, 1865. A fellow Dragoon officer who served al
Fort Scott from 1842 to 1843, Lt. John Love was among the minority of native Virginians who
continued to serve the Union. After resigning from the Army in 1853, Love returned to service as a
major inspector general with the Indiana Volunteers in April 1861. He remained on active service
before resigning in January 1863.4

Lieutenant George H, Gordon graduated from West Point in 1846 as a brevet second
lieutenant, receiving his first assignment to the Regiment of Mounted Rifles. He served in several
westem posts, including Fort Scott in 1852-53. The Massachusetts native resigned his commission
in October 1854 and practiced law, but when the war started the government appointed him as a
colonel in the Second Massachusetts Iafantry. He served in the Eastern theater, and later in Arkan-
sas, Alabama, South Carolina and Florida. Appointed a brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers in
1862, and a brevet major general of volunteers in 1865, Gordon was mustered out in August 1865,
returning to his Boston law practice until his death in 1886.

An 1822 graduate of the military academy, Lieutenant George A. McCall served in the
Seminole War, rising to the rank of captain. He served with the Fourth Infantry when it was garri-

* James T. King, War Eagle, A Life of General Eugene A. Carr (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963).

* Aurora Hunt, Major General James Henry Carleton, 1614-1873, Western Frontier Dragoon (Glendale, CA, A. HL.
Clark Co,, 1958); Stewart Sifakis, Who Was Who in the Civil War (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1988)

274



councils had different concerns and beliefs about problems involving Indians, international
borders and white settlements. Today the decisions made in Washington, D.C., touch the
majority of Americans just about every day. However, in the early nineteenth century a relatively
small federal government had little contact with most citizens, an influence that diminished even
further along the frontier. Militia units, run by the states, tended to reflect the passions of local
residents, including settlers’ demands for more lands during conflicts across the Old Northwest
(Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois) in the first two decades of the century. Many times,
calling out the volunteers made a tense situation between Indian and white even worse. Driven by
demands for a neutral force that could enter and defuse frontier situations, Army officers began a
push to professionalize their ranks by increasing training and demanding loyalties to the national
government, showing the first blush of improvement in the First Seminole War of 1818-19. The
revived officer corps would show the effects of reforms in again fighting the Seminoles in the
1830s, and also during the Mexican and Civil wars. Another type of military lesson came from
frontier service in posts such as Fort Scott.*

American officers were not prepared for conflict against Indians groups. Instead their
formal educational experiences at the U.S. Military Academy were mainly directed for war
against a “European” style enemy. This left most officers unready for frontier service. Officers
saw campaigns against the Indian peoples as diversion from real duty of countering an invasion,
a distraction that offered little chance for promotions or glory. Senior officers, without reliable
lines of communications to the isolated posts, could only offer guidance on how to handle
frontier situations, mainly simply issuing orders te enforce various trade and intercourse acts.
Commanders on the scene had broad discretion on how to deal with frontier problems. The
growing professionalism of the officer corps imparted a nonpolitical stance to their attitudes and
actions — as the uniformed men interacted with frontier groups, they typically sought to balance
the rights of the Indians and whites. Unified federal responses to frontier conflicts helped prevent
uncoordinated responses, often brought on as different states followed their own strategies. Local
attitudes did influence Army officers, especially when complaints reached a state or territory’s
member of Congress. Fears of civil lawsuits, compounded by the usual tendency of civilian juries
to rule against soldiers, also played roles in the decision process. Societal beliefs about Indians
carried by officers also influenced their actions. In spite of these negative factors, officers trained
for war gradually replaced amateur leaders. This professionalism would prove decisive in the
latter years of the 1850s, when violence erupted across the eastern half of Kansas. °

Many Regular Army officers who served in the Civil War acquired a large part of their
military experience on the American frontier. One consequence of the Indian Removal Act of
1830 was a federal commitment to keep the Indian and white races separate. President Andrew
Jackson signed a bill July 2, 1836, providing for a line of outposts along the western frontier of

* Richard Bruce Winders, Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War (College Station:
Texas AKM University Press, 1997), 68.

$ John C. Fredriksen, comp., Shield of Republic/Sword of Empire: A Bibliography of United States Military Affairs,
1783-1846 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1996); Skelton, dn American Profession of Arms, 305-13; Allan Millet and Peter
Maslowski, For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America (New York: The Free Press, 1994),
$26-28, 134-37; Holder, Changes in Attitude, 40-54. Russell F. Weigley, History of the United States Army (New York:
Macmillan, 1967), 144-172.

14



tenant becomes property of the land owner. On Dec. 14, Army quartermasters again prepared for
the sale of buildings. The buildings were eventually sold, but for very low prices. Twenty-five
buildings and structures went under the auctioneer*s hammer, ranging from the post stable and
two-story military prison to the lunettes that protected the city*

The Confederacy’s collapse in April 1865 brought dramatic changes to the nation’s
military establishment. Even as the North celebrated victory with a two-day triumphant march of
its armies through Washington, D.C., military leaders prepared the shift to a smaller, peacetime
force. The demobilization efforts that quickly followed reduced the Army’s strength from more
than one million men to just more than 54,000, and the reductions continued. By 1870, the Army
consisted of 2,488 officers and 34,870 enlisted men stationed at 203 posts. In the immediate
postwar period, when the continental United States was still divided into Army areas of
responsibility, Kansas was part of the Department of the Missouri.” The centrality of the war
years became a memory, opening the way for al! kinds of extralegal activity, including organized
violence against railroad construction in southeast Kansas.

During the Civil War, Fort Scott successfully made the transition from isolated frontier
outpost to a key part of the Trans-Mississippi defensive network, due to its location and the
nature of war in the West. The strong federal presence in southeast Kansas minimized Southern
influence in the Indian Territory and helped ensure that Missouri remained outside the
Confederacy. The vast distances between Western communities forced Southern military leaders
to resort to a strategy of raids, large expeditions designed to avoid pitched battles. Columns
northbound from Arkansas left their supply lines vulnerable to attack from federal units at Fort
Scott. On a smaller scale, the post’s mounted patrols helped contro! bushwhackers and guerrillas
operating in the region, denying the South a consistent base of supplies. A small, significant but
very temporary piece of the North’s military system, the officers and men who served at the Fort
Scott that was reborn in 1862 were worthy successors to the first garrison sent west twenty years
carlier to guard the Permanent Indian Frontier.

** Roll 11, Records of the Quartermaster General, Consolidated Correspandence File, Fart Scott, Record Graup 92,
Fort Scott National Historic Site archives. A list of the buildings and structures sold at auction is contained in the appendix,

8 Allan R. Millett and Peter Masiowski, For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America
{Now York: The Free Press, 1994), 248-80.

232



First Dragoons
Company A
Company C
Company F

First Infantry
Company B

Fourth Infantry
Company C
Company D

Sixth Infantry
Company H

Mounted Riflemen
Company A
Company K

First Cavalry
Company E
Company FP
Company C
Company 1

Third Artillery
Company E
Second Infantry

Company B

Company D

UNITS STATIONED AT FORT SCOTT

Frontier Years, 1842-1853

May 30, 1842 to June 4, 1846
May 30, [842 to May 2, 1843
Nov. 19, 1848 to August 1850

July 14, 1845 to Oct. 3, 1848

May 3, 1843 to July 21, 1845
Oct. 23, 1842 to July 21, 1845

Sept. 29, 1848 to April 22, 1853

Nov, 1, 1852 to April 22, 1853
Nov. 1, 1852 to April 22, 1853

Bleeding Kansas, 1857-1861

Dec, 21, 1857 to Jan. 10, 1858
Dec. 21, 1857 to Jan, 10, 1858
Feb, 26, 1858 to May 17, 1858
Feb, 26, 1858 to May 17, 1858

Feb. 26, 1858 to May 17, 1858
June 9, 1858 to Aug. 5, 1858

Tune 9, [858 to Aug. 5, 1858
Dec. 20, 1860 to Feb. 1, 1861
June 9, 1858 to Aug. 5, 1858
Dec. 20, 1858 to Feb. 1, 1861)

279



41
42
43
44

45

46

47

48
49
50
31
52
33
aM
55

56
S7
58
59
60
6!

62
63
64

C. T. Hayden
T. F. Whitlock
T.S. Dodge
T. S. Dodge
Geo. Oldham.
Wm. Barbee
A. Hornbeck
H. T. Wilson
G. M. Stratien
C. Mitchel! &
T.S. Burgess

DF, De Wint
G.M. Stratten
IT. Wilson
H. Procter

James Miller

T. Shoemaker
T. Shoemaker

Geo. Oldham
T.S. Dodge
B.F. Dodge
B.F. Dodge
John Herford
Peter Duncan
TS. Burgess
D.F. De Wint

A. Masters

A. Margrave
D.F. Greenwood
H.T. Wilson

A. Hornbeck
Wm. Barbee

S.A. Williams
H. Bloomfield
Wm. Barbee

Copper boiler in hospital
Hospital

Compy Quarters, West Cor
Stable

Compy Quarters, N.W. Cor
Adjts office & gun house

\* block offrs quarters

2d block offrs quarters

3d block offrs quarters

4" block offrs quarters

Smoke House in rear of 4" off Qrts

Smoke House in rear of 3d off Qrts

Smoke House in rear of 2d off Qrts

Rails enclosing 2 small (?) in rear of
Adjts office

Ice house & 2 loghouses near
Ord. Sergt, Qrts

Hut occup by Ord Sergt & shed
in enclosure, rails enclosing
Rails round Ord Sergt garden

42 bunks in north set of Barracks
10 bunks in west set of Barracks
Smal! Building
Fence enclosing Parade Grounds
Lightning rod & staff & Flag staff
Wardrobe in cast end 4" block
Sideboard in cast end 4" block
Sideboard & Wardrobe in North End
4” block
Wardrobe in east end 3 block
Sideboard in east end 3" block
Sideboard & Wardrobe in Nih end 3" block
2 Wardrobes & 2 Sideboards in 2“ block
{ Wardrobe & i Sideboard E. end 1 block
1 Wardrobe & 1 Sideboard North end
1* block
Large table in Hospital
Benches in Hospital
Benches in Hospital

5.00

400,00
300,00
200.00
200.00
200,00
350.00
300.00
505.00

425.00

10.00
10.00
5.00

4.50
5.00

60.00
10.00

2.50
2.50
1.00
11.00
1.00

13.00

13.00
10.00
11.00
28,00
60.00
25.00

25.00
4.00
1.50
1,50


Phiilips claimed circumstances had disheartened and discouraged the Confederate-supporting
Indians. A week later, Phillips amplified his earlier prediction, saying “So far as the rebel Creek,
Seminole, and Chickasaw Nations are concerned the war is over. They have been destroyed or
driven from their country.” Hoping to split the Indian enemy, Phillips sent letters to leaders of the
Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole nations, asserting that Union domination doomed the
Confederate cause and the Indians’ best hope was their quick return to federal authority.*

Fort Scott’s garrisons faced ongoing calls for men to guard individuals or supply trains
that traveled through the area. One typical operation in February involved Company F of the
Third Wisconsin Cavalry, based at Fort Curtis, near Balltown, Missouri, about twelve miles from
Fort Scott. The post ordered forty Wisconsin troopers and a sergeant to accompany Major
General Curtis to Fort Smith, about one hundred and eighty miles southeast of Fort Scott. After
preparing their mounts and securing the necessary ammunition, food, and forage, the smail
column marched off to Fort Scott and met the general. Their departure left the post in crisis, a
frequent circumstance. As men were designated for escort duty, Fort Scott and its subposts were
often left with only a skeletal staff.

Sometimes the enemy did not wear Confederate gray. The Wisconsin men returned to
camp two weeks later complaining that the commissary sergeant had sold most of the Army
rations drawn for them for his personal profit. The men vowed to run down the scheming
sergeant, but he fled the camp to the safety of the civilian population in the town of Fort Scott.
The tegiment’s officers investigated the case and substantiated the allegations, but despite the
ruling, the Army discharged the sergeant in March, and the troopers never caught up with him.

Fortunately for the troopers on escort duty and in camp, there were usually some civilians
around cager to supplement the Army rations. The Third Wisconsin soldiers, assigned to Fort
Scott since 1862, were familiar with the area and their continuous patrols allowed them to meet
residents on a regular basis. Missourians often came into the Army camps seeking to sell butter,
eggs, produce, and other food. Many troopers saved sugar and coffee from their rations for
trading purposes. Army paydays also provided breaks in the dull daily routine of garrison life.
One lieutenant reported on his company’s activities in the town with money in their pockets,
calling it “a bacchanalian feast began, which grew Jarger as Companies was paid. This evening
Fort Scott was turned into a pandemonium, and every gateway to hell was jammed to its utmost
capacity.”*

In the absence of serious Confederate threats, Fort Scott’s garrisons tumed to squelching
the small bands of irregulars that continued to mount pinprick attacks on small convoys and
isolated households throughout southwestern Missouri and southeastern Kansas. Civilian spies,
scouts and detectives hired by the federal government sometimes aided the soldiers. In the
middle of February, one detective employed by the Union Army reported to Curtis’ staff that he
believed guerrillas planned to attack supply trains on the Santa Fe Trail, hoping to disrupt

“Reports of Col. William A. Phillips, Feb. 16, 1864, O.R, Series 1, 34/1, 106-107, 109.

* Charles W. Porter, A Journal of Events in the Life of Charles W. Porter, While in the Service of the United States
During the Rebellion, Feb. 2; Feb. 17; Feb. 21; March 2, 1864, Manuscript, Fort Scott Nationa) Historic Site archives.

“ Porter, A Journal of Events, Feb. 7, 1864; Feb. 22, 1864.

197



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-15, Aprit-July 1972:
Southeast view. includes the
narth half of the octagonal-
shaped structure. Buildings
in the background include,
from left to right, the Trernont
Hotel (formerly on the south-
east comer of State and Wall
streets), and the Hermann
Lumber Yard (the Bootjack
Western Wear Store in
2001) on the northeast cor-
ner of State and Wall streets.

HS-15, April-July 1972: South view. Includes the east half of the structural
foundation. Gorcrete well cap is in the center of the photograph. HS-8
(Post Hospital}, cavered with galvanized tin roofing is in the upper lett-
hand corner of the photograph.

313



parties” to resume commercial dealings with the Indians.'°

After capturing John Ross and occupying the Cherokee capital at Tahlequah (Oklahoma),
Weer’s momentum stalled. He pondered his next move for more than a week, sitting in his tent.
reportedly drinking, while his men ate their supply of rations, News from Fort Leavenworth that
a large Confederate force left Arkansas and threatened his supply lines and Fort Scott may have
triggered his uncertainty. Blunt warned him to be cautious and not leave his lines of
communication unprotected, and the advice stopped the advance. Weer finally decided to
continue to Fort Gibson, hut before he cauld do so his officers mutinied. On July 19, Coi.
Frederick Salomon of the Ninth Wisconsin seized control, accusing Weer of drunkenness,
insanity, and of exposing the expedition to destruction by refusing to return to Fort Scott to
obtain supplies. The weak Confederate forces were nowhere near the northern column, but
Salomon ordered all of the white regiments to fall back to Fort Scoit, leaving the two Indian
regiments and whatever volunteers officers could organize to defend the Indian Territory.”

Reaction among the northern forces was swift. Salomon sent word of the mutiny to Fort
Leavenworth and Blunt, stunned that Union officers had abandoned the expedition, raced to Fort
Scott to take command. He also ordered two of the white regiments to remain in Indian Territory.
When Blunt arrived at Fort Scott, he found all of the white regiments — including the two he
ordered to remain in Indian Territory, although his orders reached Salomon at Baxter Springs.
Alter sending reinforcements to join the Indian regiments, Blunt convened a general court-
martial to investigate the mutiny. The demands of war and the fact that so many of the
expedition’s officers were involved undercut the legal process, and the Army never punished
anyone. Accompanying the retreating white regiments were thousands of pro-Union Indians,
seeking the protection denied them in Indian Territory. Many stopped at Baxter Springs where
the government established a refugee camp under the command of Maj. John A. Foreman of the
Third Indian Regiment.

Away from the energized atmosphere of the battlefield, the Union forces suffered through
boredom, harsh weather, and bugs. Encamped in tents in the prairies around Fort Scott, members
of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry were “tormented at night by mosquitos and a specics of bug,
these bugs run in our cars and keep up a constant scrabble until drowned out and occasionally a
snake takes fodging with us.” The frequent rain storms provided most of the bathing water for the
regiments, and as Sgt. Porter related, when time permitted, the companies would turn out in force
for washing clothes, using the “Marmaton river for wash tub and large flat rocks for wash
boards.”!

Confederate interest in Missouri revived during the second half of 1862, when the Indian
regiments were deep inside Indian Territory and mast of the white units led by Salomon camped
around Baxter Springs. [he Confederates soon made their presence felt. A detachment from the

" Henning ta Weer, July 2. 1862. "Old Book 981-82. 988-92. Bound as 394 Dept. Mo.” Roll 25, Department of
Missour! Telegraphs. Orders, Fort Scott National | fistorie Site archives; Blunt to Weer, July 19, 1862, and Blunt to Stunton.
Juty 21, 1862. National Archives. Record Groap 393 Army Continental Commands. Vol. 137: Weer to Moonlight, June 23.
3862. OK. 1:8. 443.

Col. Frederick Salomon to Blunt, fuiy 20. 1862, 0.2. 1:8, 484-85: Castel, Civil Har Kansas. 97-99.

* Porter. A Journal of Events in the Life of Charles W. Porter, Wily 26-29. 1862.

127



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

ey Dey eat a ye Noe
HS-8, Oct. 15, 1968: Excavating porch along north (Parade
Ground) side of Post Hospital building. View is looking east.
Rear (west) side of city jail (brick structure) is in back-
ground,

iew of excavated porch looking
west. Winchel Manufacturing Company buildings on the
west side of Marmaton Avenue in background.

304


Chapter Seven:
Fort Scott at the Midpoint, 1863

After two years of fighting, the United States military had not made significant progress
toward ending the rebellion. The Confederate States of America still enjoyed a viable chance to
win foreign recognition or garner support for a compromise solution among northern voters.
Throughout 1862, while federal armies operating in the West had made significant gains in
securing control of the Mississippi River and establishing firm authority over Missouri, the
Confederates held a military edge in the war's main theater of operations along the eastern
seaboard. Irreplaceable casualties in the Southern armies and an increase in command
capabilities in the federal ranks improved the North’s military fortunes during 1863. Fighting a
different kind of war in the southeast corner of Kansas, Fort Scott played a significant role in
keeping its neighboring border state under Union sway, and during the year its forces and supply
stores helped stabilize western Missouri and win back the Indian Territory from Confederate
control.

Union leadership still sought to deny Confederates foreign recognition, a continuing
problem exacerbated by President Abraham Lincoln’s inability during the war’s first two years to
find a military commander who matched his political talents. The North’s leadership
disadvantage became worse on June 1, 1862, when General Robert E. Lee was assigned
command of the newly reorganized Army of Northern Virginia. Lee directed forces to victory in
the Seven Days Campaign from June 25 to July | and recorded a decisive triumph at the second
Battle of Bull Run on August 30, 1862, where the first major battle of the war had becn fought
the year before. Despite this new and vibrant leadership, the Confederates faced clear limits.
Antietam in 1862, although not a clear federal battleficld success, blunted Lee’s mid-September
drive into Maryland and secured several strategic advantages for the North. In the weeks after the
costly battle, Antietam provided a final reason for I.incoln to remove the ineffective George B.
McClellan from top command of the Union army. Its long-range results were to block English
and French recognition of the Confederacy, and provide the political climate for the president to
change his war aims and objectives. ‘The new strategy led to the Emancipation Proclamation,
with its injunction for the rebelling states to re-enter the union by the end of the year or face legal
emancipation of slaves within territory occupied by the Union Army.

Lincoin’s proclamation, which became effective January 1, 1863, introduced a radical
change in the political nature of the war. The stated purpose of the document was extremely
limited in scope, secking only reunion of the nation, not the abolition of slavery. It pledged
freedom solely for those blacks outside the control of the federal government, leaving untouched

‘effrey Rogers Hummel. /maneipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War (Chicago:
Open Court Publishing. 1996), 204-217, Shelby Foote. The Civil War: 4 Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville (New York
Random House, 1958}. 704-710: see also James M, McPherson. 7he Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the
Civil War and Reconstruction (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964). For northern apposition to emancipation. see V
Jacque Voegeli, Free But Not Equal: The Midwest and the Negra in the Civil War (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1967).

133



HS-16 Fort Scott National Historic Site

i bo iistestase

HS-16, Flagpole. Installation of Flagpele (North elevation). September 1981. Note duildings, front to back,
HS-15 (Weil Canopy), Flagpole, HS-17 (Powder Magazine) and HS-8 (Post Hospital/Visitor Center).

a i sees Bes 5
HS-16, Flagpole. installation of Flagpole (Southwest elevation). September 1981. Note buildings, left to right,
HS-15 (Well Canopy), HS-4 (Officers Quarters), HS-12 (Quartermaster Storehouse) and HS-6 (Infantry
Barracks}.

363


Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

1955 aerial view of north Fort Scott (South view). Above Missouri & Pacific Railroad cut.

256



set by a board of officers. Each group of four Jaundresses was issued a tent, hatchet, a camp
kettle, and a pair of mess pans. The longstanding tradition ran well unti] 1864, when a series of
problems with the women erupted at Fort Scott. The commander of the Fifteenth Kansas
Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, Company D, canceled rations for his unit’s laundresses and warmed
that future disturbances would lead to the women’s removal from camp with their husbands
required to request a pass to visit them. The Sixteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment
encountered a series of problems with laundresses and their husbands that same summer.
Company D appointed Mrs. Bridget Delaney a laundress on June 1, but in August, ten days after
her husband, Sgt. James Delaney, was reduced in rank for fighting, her appointment was
revoked. In October, Mrs. F.P. McKer’s appointment was revoked by the same company, the
same day her husband was reduced in rank. In September the Company D commander ordered ali
women out of camp, ordering them to find their own living quarters, away from the Sixteenth
Kansas regiment.”

In addition to personnel problems, the tribulations of the Fort Scott officers during the
Civil War parallels with their modern-day counterparts, especially in the world of military
paperwork. The post adjutant wrote to the assistant adjutant general at Fort Leavenworth in July
1863, reporting that Fort Scott was badly in need of blank forms of all descriptions. Three
months later the problem still existed, with the post commander requesting from Fort
Leavenworth “a sufficient number of bianks necessary for the use of this post. As my adjutant is
away, I cannot describe them, only that (we] are entirely out.” In a similar vein, the commander
wrote to the department headquarters in St. Louis for a copy of all orders issued, confessing that
“For some reason the orders have never been received, and I find it very embarrassing at times, to
get along without them.”

Union soldiers, like their counterparts in any army ever formed, worked hard to adjust to
their circumstances. The troop population around Fort Scott could soar to more than six
thousand, in preparation for a major event such as the expedition into Indian territory in June
1862, The norm was two or three companies of cavalry living close to the town, and a garrison
contingent of quartermaster, commissary, and staff personnel. Some of the troops found
accommodations within the town. A storeroom owned by a merchant named Drake served as a
barracks for troops right after the Jate 1861 evacuation unti] April 1862, when he regained the use
of his rooms. Most of the soldiers lived in tents in the surrounding prairies to the south and west
of town. In April 1862, the Second Ohio Cavalry and Rabb’s artillery battery set up camp on the
west bank of Mill Creek, while the Tenth Kansas regiment camped about five miles west of
town. When the Second Kansas marched into Fort Scott in May 1862, the companies marched up
the Marmaton River two miles before setting up camp. The Seventh Kansas was two miles above
the fort, while the First Kansas, and the Twelfth and Thirteenth Wisconsin were camped

* Elizabeth D. Leonard, Ail the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies (New York: W.W. Norton &
Co., 1999), Marilyn Mayer Culpepper, Trials and Triumphs: The Women of the American Civil War (East Lansing: Michigan
State University Press, 1991); Special Orders, No. 1, July 23, 1864, Co. D Order Book Fifteenth K.V.L; August 12, 1864, and
Sept. 29, 1864, Co. D Order Book, Sixteenth K.V.1, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

“Old Book 981-982, 988-992. Bound as 394 Dept. Mo. “Roli 25, Department of Missouri Telegraphs, Orders, Etc.”
Fort Scott National Historic Site archives,

188



HS-& Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-8; central core of former Post Hospital covered with tin roofing. Front view (Northeast elevation) from
Fenton Avenue. October 1966.

Sonat
HS-8, former Post Hospital, front view (North elevation) from Carroll Plaza. Note: pictured stone wall was

constructed in the 1930s as a WPA work project. October 1966.
337



a wood and coal yard and to the southeast was a forage yard, corn cribs, hay press and the Forage
Masters’ Office.

Military necessity sometimes required more than buildings in the town of Fort Scott.
Flood waters in March 1862 finally convinced the military that relying on the old ford across the
Marmaton River was no longer practicable. Officers took a detachment of several hundred
soldiers from the Second Ohio Cavalry off their horses and put them to work. The men built a
strong wooden bridge over the river in several days, the Fort Scott newspaper reported, rendering
crossing both easy and safe. Heavy flood waters soon destroyed the new structure, but the Army
again ordered out its soldiers and built another bridge. Coordinating military activities out of Fort
Scott early in the war proved difficult due to its remote location. In the first year of combat the
closest telegraph stations to the post were in Springfield, Missouri, and at Fort Leavenworth. In
November 1863, the department commander authorized construction of a telegraph line from
Kansas City to Fort Scott, and the U.S. Military Telegraph Service built a line the following year.
By March 1864, Fort Scott was in direct communication with department headquarters at Fort
Leavenworth.”

‘War’s outbreak caused a disruption in many aspects of national life, and the Army
imposed many elements of its judicial organization on civilians to help supplement the
beleaguered legal system. One of the most important was the military police farce, the provost
marshals. Long a part of the American military structure, provost marshals served in George
Washington’s Revolutionary War army. The men patrolled camps in. search of thieves, rounded
up stragglers, prevented desertions during battles, and gradually assumed responsibility for
guarding prisoners of war. The provost marshals, organized again in 1863 to act at the Army’s
police force, originally were responsible for the pure military functions of maintaining order
within the regiments and aiding the Army’s conscription effort. Its officers and men arrested
deserters and assisted recruiting officers by enrolling men for the draft and enlisting volunteers.
The army draft came to southeast Kansas in August 1862, when the county commissioners
appointed C.F, Drake to enroll all men between the ages of 18 and 45 who were eligible for
military duty. At first strictly a military unit, as sheriffs and marshals struggled to cope with
upheavals brought on by the Civil War, eventually the duties of the Army’s provost marshals
expanded to include the protection and control of the civilian population."*

Provost marshals had unique responsibilities in helping civilian law enforcement agencies
fight the irregular combat units that continually struggled along the Kansas-Missouri border.
Brig. Gen. Sarnuel Curtis, commanding the Department of Kansas, described their duties as “care
for property, watch paroled rebels, report conspiracies, and keep our friends advised and our foes
in fear.” When Major B.S. Henning of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment assumed the
duties of deputy provost marshal of the District of Fort Scott on June 10, 1862, his

" Fort Scott Bulletin, June 21, 1862; July 12, 1862; July 26, 1862; August 9, 1862; Capt. M.N. Insley to Maj. Gen.
Meigs, June 30, 1865, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

" Fort Scott Western Volunteer, March 31, 1862; Capt. George Smith to Col. Anson Stager, October 25, 1864, O.R.
3:4, 844,

" Robert K. Wright, Jr. Military Police (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1992), 3-
6; Fort Scott Bulletin, August 23, 1862.

177



cry / TOWN °
SATILE STE t
COUNTY BORDER

‘STATE LINE ————

. BATTLE OF OSAWATOMIE
. POTTAWATOMIE MASSACRE

(MAY 24 AND 25, 1856)
. BATTLE OF MIDDLE CREEK

. RAID ON FORT SCOTT

£2 Xen rk &

. RAID ON FORT SCOTT \

KANSAS TERRITORY
1855-1859

LEGEND

TERRITORY

KANSAS

(AUG. 30, 1856)

Vv f ‘am “A | fuapreron’

ee °
FORT Fort MOUND CITY
PY monpcomery OWN

(AUG. 26, 1856)

MARAIS DES CYGNES MASSACRE
(MAY 19, 1858)

BATTLE AT "FORT BAYNE
(DEC. 16, 1857)

RAID INTO MISSOURI

(JUNE 5, 1858)

(DEC. 16, 1858) |

PUBLISHED BY: FOSTER DESIGN, INC.
(800) 945-3384

(DEC. 20, 1858) uot

BATTLE OF YELLOW PAINT CREEK

(APR. 21, 1858) v_|
|
|

73

BOURBON COUNTY

MISSOURI



Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

Officers Row (Southwest elevation) and
former Dragoon Barracks. 1873.

Detail from above photograph, showing former Quartermaster Quadrangle buildings (loafing shed and Stables)
left center. 1873.

260


HS-6 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-6: Infantry Barracks foundation (Northeast view). Background: restored HS-12, Quartermaster Store-
house (left); HS-14, Post Bakery (center); and HS-30, Stone Quartermaster Building (right). 1978.

HS-6, Infantry
Barracks
(Southeast
élevation),
reconstruc-
tion in
prograss.
1979.



Johns, Sally C. “Viva Los Californios! The Battle of San Pasqual.” Journal of San Diego History
(Fall 1973): 1-13.

Langellier, John Philip. “Sabers, Saddles and Shakos: The Formative Years of the Regiment of
Dragoons, 1833-1846.” Gateway Heritage 4, n. 1 (1983): 38-48.

Langsdorf, Edgar. “Jim Lane and the Frontier Guard.” Kansas Historical Quarterly 9 (February
1940); 13-25.

, ed. “The Letters of Joseph H. Trego, 1857-1864, Linn County Pioneer: Part I, 1857,

1858.” Kansas Historical Quarterly 19 (May 1951): 113-32.

, ed. “The Letters of Joseph T. Trego, 1857-1864, Linn County Pioneer: Part II, 1861,
1862,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 19, n. 3 (August 1951): 113-224

Littlefield, Daniel and Lonnie Underhill. “Fort Wayne and Border Violence, 1840-1847.” Arkan-
sas Historical Quarterly 36, n. 1 (Spring 1977): 3-13.

Miller, Nyle H. ed., “Surveying the Southern Boundary Line of Kansas: From the Private Journal
of Col. Juseph E. Johnston.” Kansas Historical Quarterly 1, n. 2 (February 1932): 104-139.

Miner, Craig. “Border Frontier: The Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad in the Cherokee
Neutral Lands, 1868-1870.” Kansas Historical Quarterly 35, n. 2 (Summer 1969): 105-130.

McAnaney, William. “Desertion in the United States Army.” Military Service Institution of the
United States 10 (September 1889): 450-478.

Oates, Stephen B. ed. “Hugh F. Young’s Account of the Snively Expedition as Told to John S.
Ford.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 70 (July 1966).

Leo Oliva, “Frontier Foris and the Settlement of Western Kansas,” in Kansas and the West:
Bicentennial Essays in Honor of Nyle H. Miller, Forrest Blackburn, Edgar Landsdorf,
Robert Richmond, Joseph Snell and Homer Sucolofsky, eds. Topeka: Kansas State Historical
Society, 1976.

Plummer, Mark A. “Missouri and Kansas and the Capture of General Marmaduke.” Missouri
Historical Review 64, n. | (October 1964); 90-104.

Prucha, Francis Pau]. “Distribution of Regular Army Troops Before the Civil War.” Military
Affairs 16 (Winter 1952): 169-73.

Robbins. Eloise Frisbie. “The Original Military Post Road Between Fort Leavenworth and Fort
Scott,” Kansas History 1, n. 2 (Summer 1978): 90-100.

Sallee, Scott E. “Missouri! One Last Time: Sterling Price's 1864 Missouri Expedition.” Blue &
Gray Magazine 8, n. 5 (June 1991): 10-20.

Schafer, David. “Everybody Here Is Hunting Mad.” Kansas Wildlife and Parks 51, n. 6 (Novem-
ber 1994),

Shea, William L. “The Road to Pea Ridge.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 52, n. 3 (Autumn
1993): 205-222

Sheridan, Richard B. “From Slavery in Missouri to Freedom in Kansas: The Influx of Black
Fugitives and Contrabands into Kansas, 1854-1865.” Kansas History 12, 0. 1 (Spring 1989):

382



HS-11 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-11, Post Headquarters/Ordnance Storage: construction of foundation. Front view (East side of building).
1979.

HS-114, Post Headquarters/Ordnance Storage. Construction of frame and interior chimney (Southeast
elevation). 1979.

349



Fort Leavenworth, distances of considerable
significance when it came to questions of horse-
borne transportation and communication. The
builders named the fort after Commanding
Officer of the Army Gen. Winfield Scott, a hero
of the War of 1812. The post’s northern location
also altered the chain of command on the frontier.
The Army assigned Moore to Taylor’s Second
Military District, but the new post fell under the
authority of the First Military District. On June
22, 1842, the Adjutant General’s office directed
Moore to make future reports to the headquarters
of his new superiors, at Jefferson Barracks,
Missouri.”

When the Army built a post on the
frontier, high transportation costs forced it to use
local materials as much as possible. Typically
lean War Department budgets demanded that
soldiers undertake most construction. The
primary exception occurred when soldiers lacked
Commanding Officer of the Army General the specialties that civilians possessed. Fort Scott
Winfield Scott followed this pattern. Workers crafted its

buildings from locally produced materials,
including lumber cut at the Army’s sawmill on Mill Creek, about one and one half miles
northwest of the post. The “large body of fine building lumber convenient to the Post” that
Moore observed during his initial visit had been a primary attraction. When civilians could not be
found to run a mill to sell contract lumber, the Army built and operated its own mill. This
generated a range of problems. Soldiers, typically poor, often urban or immigrant, and usually
lacking skills, knew little about sawmills. Mechanical breakdowns, compounded by the long
distances required for replacement parts, droughts, floods, and shoddy work hampered the mill’s
output. However, the Army hired a civilian sawyer/millwright to supervise the operation of the
sawmill and it produced the milled timber needed for construction, although reports continually
cited the mill as a major source of delay.”

As was typical of military posts, the Army built Fort Scott on level ground near the point
of a bluff overlooking a river. The high plateau opened to the plains to the south, while cliffs fifty
feet high protected the other three sides of the post. This stretch of high ground was oriented
northeast to southwest and its shape determined the orientation of the post buildings. After

* R. Jones, Adjutant General, to Capt, B.D. Moore, June 22, 1842. Roll No, 787, Fort Scott National Historic Site
Microfilm.

+ John D. Reynolds. Archeological Investigations at Old Fort Scott, 1968 to 1972 (Omaha, Nebr; United States
Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Midwest Region, 1983); Capt. B.D. Moore to General R. Jones, Adjutant
General, May 21, 1842, M219, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

31



season to expect Indian raiders from the south.”

By the time that the senior commanders learned that the threat from the south had been
greatly exaggerated, they heard news that was worse and fully true. During the evening of April
14, President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater, in Washington, D.C. At
7:22 a.m. the next day, Lincoln died of the single bullet wound to the head. The day the president
died, the Army offered condolences in its own way. Aside from the usual measures such as
lowering all flags to half staff, draping all regimental and camp colors in mourning, and all
officers wearing mourning badges for sixty days, all government businesses were ordered closed
for three full days and every post was to fire one gun every half hour from sunrise to sunset.
Despite feelings of rage over the assassination, labeled a “barbarous act of the abettors of this
cursed and non-crushed rebellion,” all officers and men were ordered to refrain from individual
acts of retaliation. An officer visiting Fort Scott observed a large crowd listening to a memorial
oration honoring Lincoln on Carrol] Plaza, the former post parade grounds, while the post
cannons fired at the department’s required thirty-minute intervals. All of the government
buildings in town were draped in mourning, as were most of the businesses and private
buildings.”

Blair returned with bis men from the phantom Watie raid to Fort Scott on April 16. He
reported to the subdistrict commander that there was no rebel and Indian force, explaining that
“the big stories all grew out of the killing of one or two cattle thieves by the Indians.” He warned
that an Indian uprising was possible, but not by Stand Watie. The Kiowas and Comanches, upset
with continual encroachment on their territories, seemed likely to raid Kansas in the next few
months. To block the threat, Blair requested that five or six cavalry companies be stationed in
southwestern Kansas. A weel later, the Department of Missouri ordered Blair to send most of his
cavalry force, the Fifteenth Kansas, to Little Rock to aid in the final drive across Arkansas. The
Fort Scott commander respectfully demurred, stating that while he had received some Wisconsin
infantry companies to bolster his garrison, a transfer of his mounted troops would cripple Union
defense of Kansas’ southern and eastern borders. Senior commanders agreed to delay the move
until the Third Wisconsin Cavalry could be moved up from Little Rock to Fort Scott.”

Fort Scott made an impression on the newly arriving Wisconsin infantrymen. One of
them, Charles Felkner, saw Fort Scott, by April 1865 a town of about two thousand residents, as
of “no particular importance except as a military post.” He and the rest of Company A of the
Forty-Eighth Wisconsin Infantry were encamped about one-half mile from town. The men lived
in tents with food cooked over campfires, and “have plenty of dirt, smoke, mud and fresh air.”
Continuing the military tradition of improvising and improving his camp life, Felkner invented a
small stove for his tent, digging a hole inside and connecting it via a small trench to an outside
chimney. He covered the hole with a small piece of sheet iron with a hole cut in one end, the

Lt, William Wise to Lt, LE. Tappan, April 12, 1865, 0.8, 1:48/2, 84.
21 General Orders No. 26, April 15, 1865, O.2., £:48/2, 103: Porter, A Journal of Events, April 16, 1865.

2 Blair to Dodge, Dodge to Bell, April 18, 1865, QR, 1:48/2, 140.

225



Missouri River at Boonville, west of Columbia. From there, the Union troops seized control of
Jefferson City, Missouri’s capital. Jackson withdrew to the southwest, Price's troops joined him,
and the militia general took command of the combined force. Deciding his command was too
weak to oppose Lyon’s well-trained and equipped Regulars, Price ordered a retreat to
southwestern Missouri, seeking the support of Confederate troops in Arkansas. The possibility of
introducing new forces into the escalating regional conflict compelled a Union response. Kansas
sent the First and Second Kansas regiments, raised earlier in Lawrence and Leavenworth,
eastward to reinforce Lyon. On July 5, 1861, some federal regiments met part of the Missouri
forces, clashing near Carthage, Missouri, approximately seventy miles from Fort Scott in the
southwest corners of Missouri. The Missouri State Guard troops ied by Govemor Jackson
defeated part of Lyon’s expedition, about one thousand German-American troops from St. Louis
commanded by Brigadier General Franz Siegel, forcing a Union retirement toward Carthage.
Siegel withdrew in an orderly fashion, limiting the significance of the triumph, but pro-southern
elements in Missouri, anxious for good news, championed their first victory.'°

The threat from Missouri was only one concern for residents of Fort Scott. Confederate
leaders quickly saw southeastern Kansas’ strategic importance to both Missouri and the Indian
Territory and looked to seize it. Indian Territory became a de facto Southern possession on April
30, 1861, when federal troops evacuated forts in the territory, leaving the Chickasaw, Choctaw,
and portions of the Creek, Seminole and Cherokee tribes exposed to Confederate influence.
Eventually the balance of Creek, Seminole and Cherokee tribes remained loyal to the United
States and many warriors served as soldiers in the Union Army. In an attempt to win absolute
control over all the tribes, the Confederates needed to impress the peoples of Indian Territory
with their power. Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch, the former Texas Ranger who led
southern forces in Arkansas, believed that possession of northern Arkansas and Fort Scott could
help pressure the Cherokee Indians out of neutrality and into the Confederate camp. “I am
satisfied that Lane has no force yet of any importance,” he informed Confederate Secretary of
War Leroy P. Walker on June 14, 1861, “and the occupation of Fort Scott would not only place
Kansas in my power, but would give heart and countenance to our friends in Missouri.” Looking
past the opportunities offered in Indian Territory, McCulloch added that the border population of
Missouri supported the Confederate cause, predicting easy access to supplies. He predicted that
“After strengthening myself at Fort Scott I could, by co-operating with Missouri, take such a
position on the Kansas River as I might desire.” This strategic analysis posed a real threat to
Union aspirations in southeast Kansas as well as federal control of western Missouri and eastern
Kansas. Those concems were only slightly mollified at the end of July, when the Missouri State
Convention voted to replace Jackson with Hamilton R. Gamble, a native of Virginia who
supported the Northern cause."®
: The military situation in Missouri and the early July signing of Confederate peace

} Wiley Britton, The Civil War on the Border: A Narrative of Operations in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and the
Indian Territory During the Years 1861-62, (New York: Putnam's, 1890-1899), and Wiley Briton, Memoirs of the Rebellion on
the Border, 1863 (Chicago: Cushing, Thomas, 1882); Kansas Adjutant General’s Office, Official Military History of Kansas
Regiments During the War for the Suppression of the Great Rebellion (Leavenworth, Kans.: W.S. Bucke, 1870), 119-30.

"© McCulloch to Walker, June 14, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 594-595.

102



promised that “If laborers can be obtained, the whole may be completed in a few months.”*

Swords rarely shared the official optimism, often sounding gloomy about the prospects of
the fort. Without the addition of civilian workers, he could not keep to the War Department’s
schedule. It was impractical to believe that soldiers could provide all the labor necessary to
complete the barracks and quarters. Without skilled help, frame buildings were simply
impossible to construct. Among the soldiers stationed at Fort Scott in 1844, Swords found just
seven carpenters and four masons, only three or four of whom he respected as construction
workers. Work continued, with supplies from St. Louis supplementing local purchases, but never
as quickly as he hoped. By October 1843, Swords had accepted delivery for a range of
construction materials, including six thousand one hundred pounds of cut nails, twelve stoves,
five hundred and five pounds of stove pipe, twelve cupboard locks, two barrels of hydraulic
cement and twenty-one paint brushes. The soldiers of Companies A and C of the First Dragoons
and Company D of the Fourth Infantry spent their days in construction projects, including the
building of the hospital, quarters, and storehouse. Skilied tradesmen built chimneys, completed
building interiors, and repaired wagons. In exchange for what the Army labeled “extra duty,” the
men were allotted whiskey.** The libation made the soldiers more eager to perform the tasks that
Swords required.

The absence of adequate resources paralleled the lack of trained workers. Low flow on
Mill Creek for the greater part of the year made the sawmill unproductive. Swords complained in
August 1843 that the mill was again inoperative for lack of water, and that without more
consistent operations, the post “will take 2 years longer to finish for want of lumber.” When the
water was available, the post often operated the mill twenty-four hours a day. Heavy use of the
sawmill wore out or broke most of the moving parts. St. Louis was the nearest source of spare
parts. In March 1844, Swords informed superiors that the shaft of the mill was broken four weeks
previously, “and consequently have been doing nothing since — and afl the water is running
away over the dam — rather provoking at this time.” The fort sent Edmunds Holloway, an officer
with the Fourth Infantry, to St. Louis for a new shaft, and “is hourly looked for back.”** The
delays seemed endless and progress was slow.

Construction of permanent quarters followed rank. One of the first projects undertaken
was the construction of the officer’s quarters, which began as summer became fall in 1842. The
plans for these quarters were similar to the ones used by the Army and showed similarities to
Fort Leavenworth’s buildings, where Swords also served. All four of the buildings on Officer’s
Row were two-story duplexes, with their basements built above ground. Each side of the duplex
had two large rooms on each floor, with wide haliways containing staircases at the end of each
floor. The kitchen was in the basement, and a fireplace in each room heated the buildings. Wide

* Report of the Quartermaster General, Oct. 25, 1843, 28th Cong,, ist sess., Senate Document 1 (Seriai 431), 75:
Report of the Quartermaster General, Nov. 11, 1844, 28th Congress, 2d sess., Senate Document 1 (Serial 449), 147.

* Thomas Swords, report, Murch 4, 1843, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm; invoice of Quarter Master stores
furnished Capt. Thos. Swords, A.Q.M., Fort Scott, Quarter Masters Office, St. Louis, October 27, 1843, Fort Scott National

Historic Site microfilm; extra duty roster, fourth quarter 1841; first, second, third and fourth quarter 1842: and first quarter 1843,
Fort Wayne, Cherokee Nation, and Fort Scott, Missouri Territory, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

*. Swords to Johnston, August 7, 1843 and March 26, 1844, Myers, “Front the Crack Post of the Frontier”: 17.

38



Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

41955 aerial view of Carroll Plaza (North view).

254



Archeology

Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-22, September-October 1968: West
view. Includes the northwest perimeter of
the excavation with a full front and the
east side of HS-12 before restoration.

HS-22, September-October 1968:
North view. Includes north half of the
excavation. Features, from top ta bot-
tom, include stone-lined rectangular
latrine pit, circular rock-lined shaft,
north section of two-room washhouse,
HS-30 (stone building) is in the upper
right-hand corner. North/south munici-
pal alley is immediately to the east
(right) of the excavation.

HS-22, September-October 1968: North view of the
rectangular stone-lined latrine pit.


Epilogue:
After the Army:
The Town of Fort Scott

Civilian residents quickly returned many of the buildings constructed or taken over by the
Army to commercial or town use. The former post hospital (HS-8) became a school for African
Americans in September | 869, After resolution of conflict with settlers south of Fort Scott, the
town’s economic growth soared as businesses took advantage of the region’s building stone,
lime, cement, coal, water and natural gas resources. The Forl Scott Gas Works were finished in
October 1871. Townspeople organized and incorporated a water company June 5, 1882, with a
supply taken from the Marmaton River from a well sunk down beneath the sand and gravel in the
bed. The town expanded its rail connections. The St. Louis, Fort Scott & Wichita Railroad
completed a line to El Dorado, in Builer County, Kansas, carly in 1883. The Missouri-Kansas-
Texas Railroad, known as the “KATY,” reached Kansas City, Mo., in 1886 on leased trackage
rights {rom Paola over the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis (the name of the Kansas City,
Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad since 1881) line. The company completed a bridge across the
Mississippi at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1887.

Fort Scott’s post buildings continued to serve as residences and commercial properties for
a number of years. Eventually some were destroyed by fire, while others were torn down to make
way for new structures, Others were extensively remodeled as their owners sought to use them
for new purposes. The fate of the officers’ quarters and enlisted barracks serves as examples for
all of the post buildings. Justice of the Peace William Margrave bought the structure known to
the Army as Officers Building No. 1 and lived in it until his death in 1904. Noted Fort Scott
author Ralph Richards later owned it, and it eventually became the property of the town of Fort
Scott. The town leased the building to the Fort Scott Business and Professional Woman’s Club,
which maintained it as a museum. Former post sutler Hiero Wilson, who bought the adjacent
Officers Building No. 2 in the 1855 sale, apparently put half of that building up for sale in 1873,
although local tradition held that he lived there until his death in 1892. Soon after Wilson’s
death, Charles Goodlander acquired the building. In 1901 he established the Goodlander home
for children there. That organization eventually bought out the other half of the structure and
maintained the institution there until 1955. G.W. Webb opened a boarding house in the third
officers’ house in 1869, after buying it from former commander of the military post of Fort Scott,
Charles Blair, The building was torn down around 1900. The fourth officers’ quarters also
accommodated a boarding house during the 1870s. Ils owners remodeled the building around
1900, dividing it into apartments. A 1945 fire destroyed the eastern half of the structure.

Other buildings around the post underwent similar fates as the officers’ quarters, modi-
fied to fit whatever purpose their new owners sought. The former Dragoon Barracks (HS-5),
served a number of municipal functions for many ycars, housing the U.S. Land Office and other
agencies, as well as commercial establishments including a barber shop. The building was
apparently still standing in 1871, but Goodlander identified its site as being occupied by a lumber
yard in 1900. The fate of the other enlisted barracks is unknown, while civilian owners converted

249



loyal Indians in the spring of 1862. He hoped to relieve the refugee problem in Kansas while
keeping the Confederates away from northern territory. Initially, the Army assigned few white
officers to the units, leaving the companies that made up the regiment under the control of Indian
officers. The informal nature of leadership limited training for the new regiments, and in the
Ammy’s estimation the units were not ready for combat. Their brigade commander believed that
the addition of even a few experienced officers would dramatically increase the regiment’s
effectiveness. After active campaigning in June and July, the First Indian Home Guard Regiment
became demoralized; uncertainties about returning to their homes and intertribal conflicts
worsened the companies’ leadership problems. The government had to reorganize the regiment in
October, with Army lieutenants replacing their Indian counterparts. Eventually, the Army
promoted white noncommissioned officers out of veteran regiments, commissioning them to
instill the army way into the Indian regiments.”!

The Second Indian Regiment displayed the effects of ineffective leadership even more
dramatically. The Osages and Quapaws never adjusted to Army regulations and procedures, and
the government mustered them out after a series of mass desertions. To replace them, the Army
turned to Cherokees and mixed-bloods. The unit became slightly more effective but in the
opinion of military leaders, it still needed more regular army officers. The Third Indian HomeTM -.
Guard Regiment evolved in a different fashion. It consisted mostly of Confederate Cherokees
who had deserted from the regiments commanded by John Ross and John Drew in the late spring
and summer of 1862. The Union Army mustered this regiment at Carthage, Missouri, on
September 16, 1862. The brigade commander predicted their ultimate usefulness, noting that
“they are brave as death, active to fight, but lazy. They ought invariably to be mounted; they
make poor infantry, but first-class mounted riflemen.” Despite the regiments’ shortcomings, its
soldiers served in the summer Indian Expedition of 1862 and remained in Indian Territory as the
principal Union military force and provided a measure of effective defense.”

In addition to Indians allied with the Confederacy, the Army also had to deal with threats
and sporadic attacks on settlers and travelers by Plains Indians in central and western Kansas.
Most remained quiet for the first two years of the war, but white settlers periodically complained
of threatened attacks, forcing a response from Fort Scott, When he sent a Second Ohio patrol to
Humboldt in October 1862, post commander Major B.S. Henning warned his men to avoid
confrontations with Indians but to threaten them with the “serious displeasure of the Federal
Government.” In preparation for a similar mission mounted four days later, Henning informed
the patrol commander that if white settlers were to blame for the disturbances, regulations
authorized Army officers to punish them. By November, Henning informed superior officers in
St. Louis of a possible outbreak among the Osage Indians, sparked by the government’s failure to
honor its promise to pay Indian volunteers. Hoping to avoid a new military problem, Henning
recommended that the Army or the Interior Department send a replacement agent west to handle
the Indians complaints before violence erupted. As the Union’s military situation brightened,
more soldiers became available for frontier duty and Kansas was spared the horrors of any

* 1. Thomas to Gea. Henry Halleck, April 4, 1862, O.R., 1:8, 659-660; Col, William Phillips to Curtis, January 19,
1863, O.R., 1:22, 56-62.

* Col. William Phillips to Major General Curtis, January 19, 1863, O.R. 1:22/2, $7-58,

163



HS-15 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-15, Well Canopy. Second reconstructed well canopy (South elevation). December 1977. Note: construc-
tion of Cottonwood Stone walkway in progress. Backgraund: restored buildings, from left to right, HS-2
(Officers Quarters), HS-36 (Storage Building), and HS-32 (Carriage House).

360



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-8, Sept. 16,
1970: East side
of the interior of
the Post Hospi-
tai, looking north
toward the
Parade Ground.
View of exca-
vated east
chimney founda-
tion.

HS-8, Sept.
16, 1970:
interior of

Post Hospi-

tal, view to
the cast,



deteriorated. Possible American annexation of Texas caused anxiety in Mexico and sparked a
decade of debates in Washington, D.C. Finally, on February 28, 1845, Congress resolved to
admit Texas as a state. Seeing the annexation as a blow to its national pride, Mexico severed
diplomatic relations. U.S. President James Polk continued his efforts to defuse the crisis though
diplomacy and hoped to settle the Texas crisis and acquire Mexican territories along the border
by purchase. Polk also instructed the military to prepare for war.

After Texas accepted annexation by the United States on July 4, 1845, American military
forces under Gen. Taylor, including Fort Scott’s two infantry companies, moved closer to
Mexico. Taylor concentrated his troops near the small Texas town of Corpus Christi, along the
Nueces River, what the United States then considered the southern boundary of the new territory.
By mid-October almost 4,000 regular Army soldiers, backed by volunteers, assembled near the
town on the Gulf of Mexico. The troops spent the next six months drilling and readying for
combat while the two governments continued negotiations. The diplomatic stalemate tightened in
December 1845 when Texas was formally admitted to the United States. The impasse ended the
following January, when Taylor advanced about 120 miles south to the Rio Grande, which the
federal government now proclaimed as Texas’ southern boundary.**

Fort Scott’s officers and soldiers took part in the series of battles and marches that made
up the Mexican War. The infantry companies stationed at Fost Scott served in the invasion of
Mexico under generals Taylor and Scott, as did the mounted horsemen of the post, Company A
of the First Dragoons. Fort Scott’s Company C of the First Dragoons joined dragoons from Fort
Leavenworth and marched west with Kearny’s Army of the West. Capt. Thomas Swords, the
principal builder of Fort Scott who was promoted to major on April 21, 1846, served as the
column’s quartermaster for its march to the Pacific Ocean.*”

The American military forces deployed to the Gulf of Mexico gradually grew to about
15,000 before August, when Taylor crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico and marched on
Monterrey, a provincial capital built in a pass in the Sierra Madres about two hundred miles west
of the Gulf. Company A of the First Dragoons and the Fourth Infantry companies served under
Taylor, participating in the victory on September 23, 1846. Lt. Charles Hoskins of the Fourth
Infantry, stationed at Fort Scott the previous year, was killed in action there. When General Scott
arrived in Mexico early in December, he took most of the regular Army troops, leaving Taylor
with fewer than 7,000 men, among them Company A of the First Dragoons. The Fort Scott
veterans participated in the battle of Buena Vista in February 1847. The Mexican forces almost
defeated the greatly outnumbered Americans, but Taylor eventually claimed victory. The tenacity
of the volunteers who made up the bulk of his troops, the deadly effectiveness of his artillery, and

“Norman A, Graebner, “The Mexican War: A Study in Causation,” Pacific Historical Review 49 (August 1980),
405-426; K. Jack Baucr, The Mexican War, 1846-1848 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1974); Weber, The Mexican
Frontier,

*’ James A, Huston, The Sinews of War: Army Logistics, 1775-1953 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1960); Erna Risch, Quartermaster Support of the Army: A History of the Corps, 1775-1939 (Washington, D.C.
Government Printing Office, 1962); W.I. Timmons, “The Merchants and the Military, 1849-1854," Pasyword 27 (Summer
1982), 51-61,

63


Sackett, Lt. Delos Bennet, First Dragoons
Scott, Lt. Henry Lee, Fourth Infantry*
Sanderson, Major Winslow F., Mounted Rifles
Simpson, Josiah Surgeon

Simpson, Richard French, Surgeon’

Swords, Capt. Thomas, First Dragoons
Terrett, Capt. Burdett A., First Dragoons?
Thompson, Capt. Philip Roots, First Dragoons
Van Buren, Capt. Michael E., Mounted Rifles
Walker, Capt. John George, Mounted Rifles
Walker, Joscph, Surgeon

Wallace, Lt. George Weed, First Infantry
West, Lt. Richard H., First Dragoons*
Whittlestey, Lt. Joseph, First Dragoons

* Assigned but not present for duty at Fort Scott

‘Served at Fort Scott for one month.

* Died at Fort Scott

272

1849
1843-45
1852-53
1842
1844
1842-46
1842-45
1848-49
1852-53
1852-53
1842-47
1845-48
1842
1846



Richmond, Virginia. Known as the Battle of the Wilderness, the campaign ended six weeks later
with Lee’s army entrenched around Petersburg. To the south of Grant, Major General William T.
Sherman’s Grand Army of the West began another phase of Grant’s plan of simultaneous attacks
on the Confederacy on May 6. He left Chattanooga, Tennessee, beginning his march to Atlanta,
Georgia, and the ocean. Further west another one of Grant’s designs ended in failure. Maj. Gen
Steele returned to Little Rock, Ark., ending his portion of Red River expedition.”

Fully aware of the Indian Territory’s importance to the safety of his Kansas Department,
Curtis improved his supply lines to Fort Gibson. He advocated using boats on the Arkansas River
to transport large amounts of supplies whenever possible and continuing land transportation from
Fort Scott, which offered a choice of overland routes. Curtis preferred the old military road that
passed through Fort Scott, arguing that the route through southwestern Missouri was more
mountainous, lined with timber-filled spaces that easily concealed bushwhackers, and had less
available forage for stock. Senior Army leaders rejected Curtis’ demand for more troops to
protect Kansas, but accepted Curtis’ recommendation on continued supply of Fort Gibson
through Fort Scott.”

Both Union and Confederate leaders gave only slight attention to the Indian Territory.
Early in May, the Confederate government promoted Stand Watie to brigadier general as a
reward for his continuing efforts to oppose the Union, but declined to assign him more troops.
Union efforts were no more effective. Curtis ordered soldiers based at Fort Scott to examine the
cattle driven north from Indian Territory to assure that they were not stolen from pro-Union
Indians. The state border was too long for him to monitor with the men he had available. At the
same time that military men worried that Kansas was vulnerable to Confederate attack, reports
assured officials at the Bureau of Indian Affairs that the Army had made the Indian Territory safe
enough to move refugee Indians back south to their homes. On May 16, three thousand Indian
refugees left the Sauk and Fox Indian reservation in Kansas for the Indian Territory.”

Fort Scott’s commanders could not concentrate on the threat from the Indian Tertitory
and ignore what was happening to the east, where guerrilla attacks continued. A small
engagement with Missouri bushwhackers resulted in another Fort Scott soldier receiving the
Congressional Medal of Honor that was the second one awarded to the Pond family. Private
George Pond, a private in the Third Wisconsin and brother of Lt. James Pond, who earned the
medal for his bravery during Quantrill’s attack on his Baxter Springs post the previous year,
joined Company C in October 1861. He served as scout and courier for the regiment, riding
unaccompanied from Fort Scott to Fort Gibson, a distance of more than 175 miles, and fought at
Montevallo, Honey Springs, Cain Hill, Lexington, and Baxter Springs.

In mid-May, about sixty guerrillas under the command of Captain Henry Taylor returned
to Missouri from Kansas with nineteen Union prisoners. The group stopped to raid the house of

* Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative, Fredericksburg to Meridian, 270-280.

2" Curtis to Brig. Gen. L.C. Hunt, inspecting Officer, May 5, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/3, 465-466; Brig, Gen. L.C. Hunt
to Lt. Col. C.B. Comstock, Army Assistant Adjutant General, May 6, 1864, O.2. Series [:34/3. 487-88.

® Curtis to Brig. Gen. Samuel Wood, May 14, 1864, O.R. Series 1:34/3, $98; Monaghan, Civil War on the Western
Border, 300.

203


Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-9, July 9, 1971: View to the southeast. Removing concrete sidewalk
along west side of Lincoin Avenue ic locate northeast comer ci HS-9.
Note: The stone building being razed is not HS-33 and was not recom-
mended for further study in the 1967 Master Plan. HS-33 was described
as a smail frame building that was located on the east side of Lincoin
Avenue and was directly across from the city jail.

HS-9, July 1971:
South view facing the
front of the quard-
house from Fenton
Street. Lincoin
Avenue is the street in
the left of the photo-
graph. The east halt
of the excavation is
completed.



cheering Union forces.”*

Once on the scene in indian Territory, Blunt took personal command. The general led his
force, including the First Kansas (Colored) and the Indian Home Guard brigade fighting
alongside white Union soldiers, on a night march across the Arkansas River, attacking the supply
depot at Honey Springs on July 17. Five thousand Texans and Confederate Indians, supported by
four cannons, faced him, but Blunt’s twelve artillery pieces were too much for the southerners.
Aside ftom cannons, the Confederates were drastically underarmed with personal weapons.
About a quarter of the Confederate troops did not have arms, and were trained to follow the
advancing front line and pick up rifles from fallen soldiers. A morning rainstorm tumed much of
the Confederate gunpowder to useless paste, rendering what rifles the troops did have
inoperative.”

The Confederates concentrated their artillery, three 12-pound howitzers and one
experimental bronze field piece, behind the Twentieth and ‘Twenty-Ninth Texas Cavalry
Regiments, opposite the First Kansas (Colored) Regiment, which was supported by four 12-
pound Napoleons, the mainstay of the Union army. Blunt ordered the First Kansas (Colored)
forward to seize the Confederate artillery battery, and his black soldiers fixed bayonets. When the
Second Indian Home Guard Regiment accidently moved between the Kansans and their
opposition, they were immediately ordered to withdraw. The two Texas regiments saw the
withdrawing troops and assumed the federal forces were retreating and moved forward in pursuit.
The First Kansas (Colored) delivered heavy fire into the charging ‘Texans, causing the
Confederates to retreat. Although they retreated, the Texans fought a successful rearguard action,
allowing the Confederates to remove most of the supplies and artillery from Honey Springs. The
battle marked the apex of Confederate power in Indian Territory, and the Union victory opened
the way to the capture of Fort Smith and eventually all of Arkansas.*®

Despite the North’s battlefield victories, the situation for the Indians remained perilous.
Guerrillas operated across Indian [crritory, and by August the Indian agent at Fort Gibson
recommended removing the Indians back to Kansas, possibly in the Verdigris River region, citing
the enormous cost of supplying them at Fort Gibson. In addition to criticizing the failure of Blunt
and the Fort Scott command to offer adequate protection in the territory and promised escorts for
Indian Affairs supply trains, one senior Indian Affairs official complained to a superior that if the
Anny concentrated on clearing the Confederates out of Indian Territory instead of interfering
with Interior Department affairs, “the refugee Indians in Kansas might have long since been
enabled to return to their homes.” Bureaucratic wrangling hampered resolution of this pressing

* Fort Scott Post Returns, July 10, 1863: Remarks for the Month of July 1863. Company K, Third Wisconsin Cavalry,
KG 393, Army Continental Commands. Third Wisconsin Cavalry Letter Book and Order Book and Company Order Book and
Morning Reports. Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

TM Joscphy. the Civil War tn the Amevican West. 371.

* Report of Major General James G, Blunt. July 26. 1863, O.R.. :22/1 (S #32). 477; Josephy, The Civil War in the
American West, 371-372.

147



as Fort Scott’s assistant quartermaster in charge of construction for four years *”

In his first months at the fort, Swords also recognized that serious labor problems existed,
a predicament that other officers confirmed. Immediately following his arrival, Swords informed
the Army’s quartermaster general that he could not finish building the quarters and stables before
winter because he learned that the entire command possessed only three carpenters and three
brick layers, far too few for the work that awaited them. On July 13, 1842, Col. Stephen Watts
Kearny, commander of the First Dragoons, reported that two of his companies were at the Fort
Scott site, although he was disappointed to find that they had to construct their own quarters.
Moore’s companies at the post contained no skilled workers. Kearny insisted his superiors send
replacement recruits to his dragoons and that the men selected be “Masons + Carpenters, + send
them via this post without delay!” He also recommended that the Army send recruits allotted to
the other companies in his regiment to Fort Scott.* In a letter to a friend written late in 1842,
Swords complained again about his fellow officers at Fort Scott, saying “not one of them here
can draw a straight line, even with the assistance of a ruler.” Besides the inadequacies in
planning, the available labor force could not even complete the sawmill before the end of
September. In response, Swords sought permission from his superior officers to hire as many
civilian workers as he needed. A month later he requested the transfer of Thomas Higgins, a
former quartermaster sergeant who worked with Swords at Fort Leavenworth. Aside from his
experience as a forage and wagon master, the ostensible reasons for recruiting him, Swords
acknowledged Higgins as a master builder with “useful knowledge of building generally.”
Higgins gave Swords an able assistant who understood the demands of the task.

Swords needed all the expert work force he could muster. According to the July and
August rolls of Company A of the First Dragoons at Fort Scott, only seventeen of fifty-nine
enlisted men were immediately available for military duties. Six were sick in the hospital, five in
confinement for offenses, five away on detached duty; other pursuits, including post
construction, engaged the rest. Swords had twelve soldiers assigned to him and the quartermaster
department. Another fourteen worked at the sawmill. Two of the officers were available for
military duties, but the post stationed the company’s first lieutenant at the sawmill. Duty at the
mill was not the chore for officers that it was for enlisted men, as assignment to the mill offered
several opportunities for recreation, Some officers also used duty there to hide from other
obligations. Swords wrote a friend in November 1842 that William Eustis, the first lieutenant
assigned to the mill, “is sick, he is remaining there through choice — has every thing his own
way, and his horses dogs &c around him, is perfectly satisfied — is raising a pack of hounds for
his private amusement.” Three years later junior officers were still planning on being assigned to
the remote site for recreational purposes. Lt. David Russell told his brother that he intended to

4” Jesup to Swords, June 24, 1842, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm; Swords to Abraham R. Johnston, Nov.
26, 1842, Harry C. Myers, ed. From the “Crack Post of the Frontier”: Letters of Thomas and Charlotte Swords (Fort Scott:
Sekan Publications, [n.d.)), 6.

Col, Stephen Keamy to Brig, General R. Jones, Adjutant General, U.S. Army, July 13, 1842, Fort Scott National
Historic Site microfilm.

“* Capt. Thomas Swords to Major Gencral Thomas Jesup, July 22, 1842, and August 24, 1842, Fort Scott National
Historic Site microfilm.

34



1847, a soldier stationed at the post, Mathais Walker of B Company of the First Infantry, returned
from Little Rock, Arkansas, where he served as a witness during a trial. On the road, several
Osage attacked Walker, injuring him and robbing him of twenty-five dollars. Capt. Sidney
Burbank, his commanding officer, was forced to go to the Indian subagent to demand restitution
of the stolen property, an unlikely method of responding to an attack for the military. Burbank
recognized the limitations of his detachment. “In the absence of a suitable military force,”
Burbank observed, “I think this the proper course to pursue.”** It was hardly the response of an
officer who felt his troops commanded the region.

in the face of such realities, completing the post took priority, but scarce resources
impinged upon goals. The quartermaster storeroom complex was one of the first projects
completed, but although post quartermasters cited the immediate need for a stable, work on the
adjacent project did not begin until 1848. In the post plans submitted for that year, a large
enclosed compound was under construction east of the storeroom. A year later, the post requested
pemnission to build an additional stable or barn, arguing that the savings in preserving hay would
in time pay for the structure. This proposal was rejected by the Army. In June 1848, Lt. George
Wallace, Swords’ successor in the quartermaster department, forwarded estimates for the
commanding officers’ quarters to Washington, D.C. With timber scarce around the fort, Wallace
sought permission to build the quarters out of limestone instead of lumber, mistakenly assuming
that local stone would lessen the cost. In a follow-up letter, he admitted his miscalculations, but
the project was eventually canceled anyway. Officers could aspire to complete the fort, but
during the war, their chances of accomplishing their goals remained slim.*°

When the war with Mexico ended, Fort Scott’s garrison resumed its antebellum duties. In
1848, Capt. Alexander Morrow of the Sixth Infantry was named acting assistant quartermaster
when the Amny assigned one company of dragoons and one company of the Sixth Infantry to Fort
Scott. Company H of the Sixth Infantry arrived September 29, 1848, and four days later,
Company B of the Fourth Infantry closed out its three-year stay at the post. In November,
Company F of the First Dragoons arrived for a one-year deployment.” The Army units soon
resumed their prewar commitments, and on March 21, 1849, Second Lieutenant John Buford Jed
a patrol of dragoons on escort duty between Fort Smith and Santa Fe. The task kept the men
away from the post until mid-December. Morrow reported on April 6, 1850, that construction of
the post once again neared completion. Only the Commanding Officer’s quarters and the second
dragoon stable remained unbuilt. Eventually neither was constructed. The acting assistant
quartermaster reported that he could make any needed repairs using soldiers on extra duty, and
asked if he should discharge the superintendent of building and his force of civilian workers, a
proposal accepted by his superiors.**

‘5 Capt. S. Burbank, First Infantry, to Lt. Col. Wharton, First Dragoons, Commander of the Third Military Department,
May 1, 1847, Fort Scom post returns, 1846-1848, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.
Lt. Wallace, June 1848, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm,

” General Orders No. 1, from Headquarters, Sixth Military Department, Jefferson Barracks, Sept. 13, 1848, Fort Scott
National Historic Site microtiim.

Lt, Alexander Morrow to Gen. Thomas Jesup, April 6, 1850. Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

66



immediately above the town. Three brigades were stationed on the prairie surrounding Fort Scott
in August 1862, with the troop commandeers ordered to locate their camps east and south of the
town, “where a full supply of forage grass, fuel and good healthy water can be obtained.”TM!

Military necessities usually required the breakup of the regiment into companies and their
distribution where needed. When the Third Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment arrived at Fort Scott in
mid-June 1862, if went into camp and conducted small expeditions into Cedar and Vernon
counties in Missouri in pursuit of bushwhackers. One officer assigned provost duty was able to
enjoy dinner at the Fort Scott Hotel, but was soon back inside his tent, arranging its interior for
maximum comfort. Within a week heavy rains hit the area, leaving the camp “an unenviable
abode.” Soldiers used the next sunny day to dry out their blankets and clothing, but another heavy
shower and high winds the following week again threw the tents into a scattered mess.

The small garrisons surrounding Fort Scott acted as observation posts and camps for the
countless small patrols fighting the guerrillas across southwestern Missouri and Indian Territory.
They depended upon Fort Scott for additional troops for reinforcement, food, horses, and other
supplies, as well as a command center. One of the key duties of officers assigned to Fort Scott
was riding the circuit of outposts to check their watchfulness, receive updates on local conditions
and issue any orders and passwords. The duty usually proved hard and onerous. A Wisconsin.
officer related how his assignment as Officer of the Picket called for him to visit each of the
outposts, in a circular journey of more than forty miles, that brought him back to Fort Scott by 9
p.m., “my horse and self tired and hungry.”

The men protecting southeast Kansas had one advantage over their counterparts in the
Union’s field armies — stationed in a stable environment, they could visit Fort Scott for purposes
on a regular basis. In addition to satisfying the residents’ patriotic impulses to aid the Army, the
soldiers’ visits provided another important economic component of Fort Scott’s growth. A
soldier could attend a bal! sponsored by his regiment with assurances that all social decorum
would be observed, with invitations eagerly accepted by the young women of the area, or one of
the many dances staged by town residents.“*

Other popular locations for entertainment were Fort Scott’s saloons and beer halls, which
grew in number as the war went on. Most of these social events lacked the decorum of the
invitation-only bails, and many nights a visitor to Fort Scott would find “seven or eight hundred
men in federal uniforms and under the influence of Evil Spirits,” in possession of the town. “And
the night was one hell or pandemonium, as some of the oldest inhabitants said this morning, the
like was never experienced here before and it seemed that hel! had established Head Quarters at
Fort Scott.” Recognizing the financial impact of the liquor industry, the town newspaper
glowingly described the situation, noting in May 1862 that the Union Saloon was flourishing, and
“Lager flows as plentifully as water, and scores of thirsty soldiers may be constantly seen

*\ Fort Scott Western Volunteer, April 5, 1862, May 3, 1862; Fort Scott Bulletin, May 17, 1862, Aug. 30, 1862.
© Porter, A Journal of Events, Jane 18 through 28, 1862.
Porter, A Journal of Events, Oct. 9, 1863.

“ Porter, d Journal of Events, July 13, July 16, 1863.

189



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-8, Sept. 16, 1970: West side of the ground level of the Post Hospital looking north
toward the Parade Ground. Majority of the west stone chimney foundation is visible.


Missouri and Kansas, and Curtis paid a price for his stance. Conservative opposition from
Missourians persuaded Lincoln to remove him from department command in May 1863. His new
relationship with Lane returned him to presidential favor. Convinced that one commander could
not address the military problems of both states simultaneously, the president directed Secretary
of War Edwin Stanton to correct the situation, ordering him to “Please fix up the department to
which Curtis is to go.”!

Fort Scott the town finally became a fortified military complex in 1864. Lacking large
cannons or fortifications early in the war, Fort Scott’s leaders worried about holding off serious
Confederate attacks. By the third year of fighting, post commander Lt. Col. Charles W. Blair and
his garrison were well-armed. A line of rifle pits proved close-in protection for the town of Fort
Scott, while four small fortified structures (biockhouses) held large siege guns for long-distance
protection. Troops constructed the four lunettes, named after the half-moon shape of the
embankments surrounding them, of fascines, wooden bundies filled with soil. Lunette Henning,
southwest of the town and guarding the military road to Cato, held two 24-pounder siege guns
and also a subterranean magazine for ammunition. Lunette Blair, south of the post, boasted two
24-pounders overlooking the former military road to Fort Gibson. Another fortification, Lunette
Insley, unfinished through the first half of the year, lay northeast of the post. The Army located a
fourth lunette (unnamed) on the bluff overlooking the Marmaton River to protect the Neosho
Road and the western approach to Fort Scott?

Qne of the posts anchoring the District of the Border, Fort Scott in January 1864 was
home to the Second Kansas Battery (right section); Company L of the Ninth Kansas Volunteer _
Cavalry Regiment; and Companies H and K of the Tenth Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
Smaller garrisons from the Third Wisconsin Cavalry surrounded the post, with Company M at
Humboldt, Kansas; Company A, in Balltown, Missouri; Company F at Camp Insley, Missouri;
and Companies C and D at Dry Wood, Missouri. Many men were veterans, serving in uniform
since 1862. The U.S, Congress would later award Company C’s commanding officer, Lt. James
B. Pond, the Medal of Honor for his bravery leading the defense of his Baxter Springs post
against Quantrill’s raiders in October 1863.*

The army’s experiment with recruiting and maintaining Indian units continued.
Expanding their success of the previous year, the three Indian regiments supported by Fort Scott
continued to control the northern half of the Indian Territory, providing a buffer zone of
protection for Kansas. Col. William Phillips, leading the Indian Brigade, pushed into north Texas
by the middle of February 1864, but inadequate ammunition and a lack of support from white
Kansas troops operating out of Fort Smith, Arkansas, curtailed the operation. Despite his setback,

' United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, Published Under the Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert N. Scott (Washington, D.C.: Government
Printing Office, 1880-1901) (cited as O.R.), 1:22/2, 758; O.R. 1:22/2, 768; Albert Castel, Civil War Kansas: Reaping the
Whirlwind (Lavrtence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), 109-110.

? Biair to Lt, J.M. Hadley, District of the Border, Jan. 15, 1864, OLR. Series 1:34/2, 90; O.R. Series {:22/2; Troops in the
Department of Kansas, January 31, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/2, 207.

* The Union army also manned posts along the Kansas-Missouri border at Olathe, Paola, Sarcoxieville, Trading Post,
Barnesville, Coldwater Grove, lola, Lawrence, Osage Mission, Camp Plumb, Topeka, and Pleasant Grove.

196



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-17 (Powder Magazine), May
1968: East view. Establishing a grid
matrix at the possible location of
the subsurface foundation of the
Powder Magazine on the south
side of Carroll Plaza. This view
includes the 1930s WPA stone
arched entrance to the plaza at the
southeast corner. Also pictured is
the WPA stone wall that had an
east-west orientation across the
plaza's south end. It is visibie in the
tight side of this photograph.

HS-22 (Company Washhouse
and Latrine behind HS-6),
September-October 1968: West
view. Includes the northwest
perimeter of the excavation.
Buildings in the background,
from right to left, include HS-12
{Quartermaster’s Storehouse)
before resioration, HS-4
{Officers Quarters} before
restoration, and the back of the
frame house that was located
on the southeast corner of ihe
intersection of Blair and Lincoin
avenues.

315



agreements with the Creek, Chickasaw and
Choctaw nations left southeast Kansas
vuinerable. Soon after the battle of Carthage,
Missouri, on July 5, 1861, Gov. Robinson
stationed a considerable militia force at Fort
Scott, a move the town newspaper termed “an act
of tardy justice.” Kansas volunteer unionists
came to the rescue. On July 13, 1861, the Fort
Scott Democrat reported that between two
hundred and five hundred Kansas militiamen,
veteran “Jayhawkers” of numerous incursions
into Missouri, were stationed south of town under
the command of Capt. Charles R. Jennison. The
mounted men intended to remain until federal
troops telieved them. A week later, the town
learned it had been selected as an advanced
supply depot for Union troops operating in the

Nathaniel Lyon. This is his last known Southwest and a large supply train was already on
photograph, taken in 1861 before his death at the way from Fort Leavenworth. The town
Wilson's Creek. breathed a collective sigh of relief. Not only did

this mean that federal troops were not far behind,
the news brought to life the possibility of massive federal spending in the region. The newspaper
saw other ways to benefit. Predicting record corn crops that season, an editorial crowed that “If
Uncle Sam’s army should be in this neighborhood next Fall and Winter, it will make a fine
market for our farmers.” The events greatly strengthened Fort Scott’s military and economic ties
to the Union.'”

The situation at Fort Scott showed a prospect that state leaders recognized and welcomed:
the federal government appeared willing to fight for the region. Without federal resources, the
situation remained dire. J. P. Root, lieutenant governor of Kansas, asked Secretary of War
Cameron in July for more weapons, noting the state’s two regiments of volunteer troops then
serving in Missouri offered little protection for Kansas’ borders. The state was “left wholly to the
mercy of secession Missouri in the cast,” Root claimed, “and an Indian frontier on our south and
west, and not an arm or an ounce of ammunition to protect ourselves with.” Looking to Fort
Scott’s own defense after the battle of Carthage, W.C. Ransom and others from the town asked
General Nathaniel Lyon, Union military commander in Missouri, for permission to raise troops
to defend southeastern Kansas. Lyon authorized them to raise three companies of infantry for
Fort Scott. The town quickly raised companies of one hundred men each under the name of
Bourbon County Home Guards, and put them under command of Major W.R. Judson, one of the
original members of the 1857 Fort Scott Town Company and the town’s first mayor. The town
soon organized a cavalry company. The four companies served as the nucleus for the Sixth

" Fort Scott Demucrat, July 20, 1861.

103



In August 1862 the president issued General Order No. 63, which authorized the formation of
three African American regiments, subject to presidential approval. By late October the
government organized and mustered the First and Second regiments of the Louisiana Native
Guards into service, without the president’s approval but without the clear rejection he
previously evinced.”*

Kansas was ahead of the nation in its move to arm African Americans in part because of
its troubled formation. One consequence of “Bleeding Kansas” was the recruitment and
organization of Missouri fugitive slaves in separate regiments, and Kansas became the first of the
free states to encourage African American soldiers. Reflecting the abolitionist sentiment in the
state, many people, including James Lane, affirmed that putting African Americans into uniform
represented the surest means of ending slavery’s power. Far from any direct federal control, the
state could easily do as it pleased in such matters.”

Lane implemented his philosophy, and recruitment of African Americans began in
Kansas. Appointed as commissioner of recruitment for the Department of Kansas in July 1862,
Lane started raising volunteers for two regiments. Other Jayhawkers such as Charles Jennison
and James Montgomery supported Lane. On August 4, 1862, Capt. James Williams and Capt.
H.C. Seaman began recruiting across the northern and southern areas of Kansas. Many of the
large number of African Americans, including fugitive slaves from Missouri, Arkansas and the
Indian Territory, volunteered, displaying “a willing readiness to link their fate and their perils
with their white brethren.” By early August, Lane collected enough volunteers to fill four white
regiments and two African Americans ones.”!

Not everyone was happy with the policy, but Lane persisted. A July editorial in the Fort
Scott newspaper strongly opposed African American soldiers. Opponents countered by charging
that Lane and his officers kidnaped slaves from Missouri. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
warmed Lane that he lacked the authority to recruit African Americans and the Army would not
accept them into federal service, but Lane did not slow recruitment efforts. By mid-October,
nearly five hundred African Americans had volunteered, including fifty in the Fort Scott area.
The continual threat of attacks from guerrillas based in Missouri and Price’s march directly to the
east of the Kansas state line, coupled with the inability of the federal government to assign more
white troops, helped cause a change in southeast Kansas’ opposition to African American
regiments. The Fort Scott newspaper offered the recruitment drive backhanded support, noting
“we are heartily glad to be rid of them.” Enough men gathered to organize into the First Kansas
(Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment.”

® Butler to Halleck, October 24, 1862, O.R., 1:15, 158; Butler to Halleck, November 6, 1862, O.R. 1:15, 162; Foote,
The Civil War: 533-541,

» Albert Castel, Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind (authorized edition, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas,
1997), 90-94.

3! Bertin, Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation.
» Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 1861-'65 (Topeka: Kansas State Printing Company, 1896),
574-99; Fort Scott Democrat, July 26, 1862; Sheridan, “From Slavery in Missouri to Freedom in Kansas,” 43-46; Dudley Taylor

Comish, Kansas Negro Regiments in the Civil War (Topeka: State of Kansas Commission on Civil Rights, 1969), 417.

166



effort and became quartermaster of the Indian regiments."

The Indian Expedition began and ended in confusion. Operating against scattered and
unsupported irregulars, Doubleday and his white regiments initially enjoyed success, routing
Confederate forces completely at Cowskin Prairie on June 6. By the middle of the month, Blunt
estimated he had about five thousand men near Fort Scott and Indian Territory, including two
batteries of artillery and two regiments of Indians enlisted from the refugecs driven out of Indian
Territory the previous winter. The impressive numbers masked what would be a fateful lack of
leadership, Col. Weer. the expedition’s leader, traveled to Humboldt to inspect the Indian
regiments. He arrived at the post on June § to discover that Doubleday and the white troops had
already started south. Doubleday’s troops were in action on that day, routing a Confederate force
under Stand Watie at Round Grove, about eighteen miles southwest of Neosho, Missouri. The
following day, Doubleday continued his drive south, breaking up a Confederate base at Grand
River. While his white regiments continued into Indian territory, Weer, concerned with dividing
his forces in the face of the enemy, dispatched a messenger south. He ordered Doubleday to stop
where he was, reminding him that it was vital for Indians to accompany the expedition. Besides
concerns about having part of his column already in the field. Weer complained about the
complete lack of quartermaster support for Indian regiments; the wagons or supplies he requested
were not at the fort. He also expressed concern about his officers, noting that the Army assigned
a large number to other duties. Those who remained were more concerned about their next
posting or promotion than their military duties. Weer predicted the general demoralization of his
command, On June 6 Weer sought to move Indian regiments from Leroy and Humboldt to Fort
Scott for easicr outfitting, but before department commanders authorized any such move he was
on his way south. His supply situation was unresolved, compounded by a lack of regimental
records from the new and scattered units. Uncertain even of the type of guns supplied to his
Indian recruits, Weer could only ask the Fort Leavenworth quartermasters to estimate the
regiments’ previous ammunition needs and send a similar amount to Fort Scott for his eventual
use. The inadequate support meant that Weer led his troops into Indian Territory short of
ammunition and suppties."°

Weer’s expedition was not the only military operation in the region. As part of the drive
inlo Indian Territory, Missouri state militia regiments guarded the expedition’s eastern flank with
an advance into Arkansas. The militia movement opened opportunities for irregulars across
southwestern Missouri, and they increased the number and severity of their attacks, Successful
guerrilla attacks in Missouri against Union soldicrs and supply trains prompted a strong reaction.
On June 26, the government ordered field commanders to treat all captured bushwhackers as
criminals, not prisoners of war, with drumhead courts-martial and summary executions for the

'Yolagram. ilunt to Brown, dune 3. 1862, National Aschives. Record Group 393 Army Continental Commands, Vol
137. Fort Scott Bulletin, June 7, 1862; Thomas Moonlight. AAG, to Coffin, June 9, 1862, National Archives, Record Group 393
Army Continental Commands. Vol, 137.

“ Blunt 10 Schofield. June 13, 1862, National Archives, Record Group 393 Army Continental Commands. Vol. 137:
Weer to Moonlight, June 5, 1862. O.R.. £8. 418: Weer to Moonlight. Jung 7, 1862, O.R.. 1:8, 420; Weer to Moonlight. June 21,
$892, OLR. 18, 424,


Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

ose



The Army officer corps grew more professional during the early part of the century as it
adapted to the possibilities offered by the range of new technologies. The ultimate nineteenth-
century product of this technological growth was General Ulysses 8. Grant, who led Union forces
to victory in the Civil War by understanding the potential of mechanical inventions and structural
developments and adapting them to warfare. Many of Grant’s predecessors saw the usefulness of
new inventions and made them part of the Army’s arsenal. During the first half of the nineteenth
century, Army requirements underwrote mass production techniques for firearms, developed
methods of preserving foods, sponsored the advancement of America’s metallurgical industry,
and pushed improvements in steamboats, among other inventions. These adaptions played a
significant role in the success of military actions at Fort Scott in the 1840s and early 1850s,

Effective weapons and a sophisticated production and transportation system allowed the
United States to maintain a small but effective frontier military force in the face of what the
frontier population continually regarded as a significant Indian threat. Congress maintained only
10,000 Americans in uniform to defend the entire frontier coastline from Canada to Louisiana, as
well as the coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. In 1841, west of Missouri and
Arkansas, the Army outfitted only a very few uniformed soldiers: 379 dragoons stationed at Fort
Leavenworth, fifty dragoons at Fort Wayne, eighty infantry soldiers at Fort Smith, 178 dragoons
and 364 foot soldiers at Fort Gibson, and ninety-five infantrymen at Fort Towson.’ The soldiers
were part of a web of connections that stretched throughout the nation. They had one principal
responsibility, to carry out military orders. Soldiers sometimes had to build their own shelters or
plant gardens or hunt to supplement their routine Army menus, but this remained an occasional
feature of frontier living. Most garrisons could call upon farmers, sutlers, and others for food,
shelter, clothing, and other needs.*

Indian.men contended with multiple responsibilities, acting as hunters in a society
dependent upon their success as well as warriors. The Plains cultures in conflict were quick to
adapt available inventions to their awn needs. Most Indian groups, caught in subsistence farming
regimes on marginally productive lands or dependent upon an historic pattern of hunting and
gathering that relied on increasingly inconsistent buffalo hunts, lacked the population size, social
mechanisms, and resources to compete with incoming Americans. Indians shaped their societies
around the centuries-old bow and arrow until they could trade for firearms and ammunition. In
their rush to acquire new weapons from incoming Europeans and Americans, Indians across the
northern half of the nation entered the market economy and depleted natural resources such as
beaver and other pelt-producing animals. Rifles let Indians hunt more effectively, taking a great

? MLL. Brown, “Notes on U.S. Arscnals, Depots, and Martial Fircarms of the Second Seminole War,” Florida
Historical Quarterly 61, n. 4 (1983), 445-458.

*“Defense of the Wester Frontier,” letter from the Secretary of War, Apri! 1, 1840 26th Cong, Ist sess., House
Document 161 (Serial 366): R. Jones, Adjutant General. to Alexander Macomb, Commanding General in Chief, January 12,

1841, 26th Congress, 2d sess., Senate Document 104 (Serial 377), 2; George Ness Jr., The Regular Army on the Eve of the Civil
War (Baltimore, Md.: Toomey, 1990).

* Francis Paul Prucha, “Distribution of Regular Army Troops Before the Civil War,” Military Affairs 16 (Winter 1952),
169-73; Russeil F. Weigley, The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy (New York,
Macmillan, 1973)

44



Fort Leavenworth, the news editor wrote “We hope now that the families that have been driven off
will return without delay, and resume their occupations. Our good citizens ofall parties will sustain
them.

Town leaders recognized that the community’s survival depended on cooperation across
political lines. A new deputy, H.P.A. Smith, replaced the partisan Little, a sign that there was hope
for peace. Leaders planned to bring the community together late in the month through a town
meeting. “The time has arrived when the good men ofall sections must take a bold stand against
unscrupulous men,” Jones wrote in an editorial. Helping to organize the meeting were anti-slavery
figures such as John Hamilton and pro-slavery supporters including Wilson and Ransom.** Adding
urgency was the reassignment of most of the troops at Fort Scott to possible action against Mor-
mons in Utah. Only oneartillery section remained at Fort Scott.

The town meeting held on May 27, 1858, revealed that economics could supersede politics
even in the most volatile of settings. Leaders sought the best method for residents to protect their
own community, with the organizers hoping to secure “to our houses and families, peace and
safety.” Pro-slavery or free-state attitudes had ceased to be the principal motivation for the violence
that crippled the border region. The town leaders saw the disorder that threatened them as moti-
vated by more than politics, charging that “in the main, those who have raised the cry of war foud-
est, have proved the greatest thieves.”

The town soon faced one ofits most severe threats. On May 30, Deputy U.S. Marshal
Samuel Walker arrived in Fort Scott with writs for the arrest of pro-slavery leader George W.
Clarke, the one-time Indian agent, and several of his followers. A posse of about seventy-five free-
state men that included James Montgomery accompanied Walker. After a tense standoff onthe
porch of Clarke’s house, the former Officers Quarters no. 4, he surrendered, and Walker agreed to
leave him and another prisoner in Fort Scott, guarded by Army soldiers. Before the posse set off for
its return to Lecompton, Walker surprised Montgomery with a writ for his arrest, and began escort-
ing him back for trial. On the retum trip, a courier brought word to Walker that Judge Williams had
ordered the Army to release Clarke. In response, the marshal freed Montgomery, setting upa
reprisal raid upon Fort Scott.*”

Less than a week later, Montgomery’s men entered Fort Scott with the intention of burning
the hotel they saw as the focal point of the pro-slavery forces. At 2:00 a.m. on June 7, the raiders
piled hay against the Western Hotel in an attempt to burn it down, but the building failed to catch
fire. Montgomery’s men also fired about fifty shots into different buildings and homes, and report-
edly fired upon those fighting the blaze. Despite the potential for fatalities in the early morning
incident, little actual damage was done. By the end of June, Company E of the Third Artilleryjoined
the two infantry units.*

In an attempt to quell the escalating violence, Gov. James Denver ordered Capt.

* Thornas Goodrich, War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas 1854-1861 (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1998),
215-16.

» Fort Scott Democrat, May 6, 1858; Stephen Z. Stary, Jennison's Jayhawkers: A Civil War Cavalry Regiment
and its Commander (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973), 30-31.

* Fart Sco Democrat, May 20, 1858.

3? Thompson records Clarke as being arrested on the porch of the Free State Hotel. Thompson, /ort Scott: Historic
Suructure Report, 13-14; Welch, Border Warfare, 126.
8 Fort Scott Democrat, June 10, 1858; William Smith to Samucl McKitrick, February 28, 1858, History of

86



groups across the Mississippi River to lands west of Missouri and Arkansas. Federal government
officials envisioned a permanent Indian frontier separating whites from Indians, with the
expectation that partitioning the races would allow American Indians time to develop cultural
practices such as agriculture. Many hoped that such restrictions would solve the question of the
fate of Indian people, for agriculture was a skill that Americans of the first half of the nineteenth
century deemed essential to survive in a self-proclaimed “civilized” society. Plans for removal
quickly became reality. The Trade and Intercourse Act of 1834 treated the removal of Indians as
an accomplished fact; it designated all lands west of the Mississippi River not already enclosed in
states or territories as Indian Country. The act gave the War Department authority, under the
direction of the president, to use force to end or prevent conflicts between Indians and whites.
Only lines on a map separated the relocated Indians from the American settlers, and an
economic-minded Congress historically maintained as small a peacetime military as possible.
The need to police this relationship forced Congress to reorganize the nation’s frontier defense
system.'4

The existing national military force was a dismal entity to puil into a situation of such
geopolitical significance, typically underfinanced by Congress and its members treated with
scom by civilians. In the decades before the Permanent Indian Frontier’s establishment, the Army
scattered its western outposts in haphazard fashion, victim to demands from the frontier
settlements lucky enough to win deployment of soldiers, The Army housed most of the garrisons
in log barracks, temporary structures designed for abandonment when the frontier again moved
westward. Following the War of 1812. Congress financed an army of 12,000, the largest
peacetime force ever established in the young nation. The economic downturn of 1819 devastated
the country and federal officials cut the army’s size in half. Despite the manpower shortages, the
Army’s national commitments remained the same. Small and understaffed military units
continued their patrol duties across the continent, trying to quell the violence all tao usual in
border areas.'°

The American nation saw great advantages in the idea of Indian removal from Eastern
states. Such a move seemed likely to reduce friction between state and federal governments, end
the immediate and growing problem of deteriorating cross-cultural and race relations, and
eliminate the threat of violence between incoming white settlers and Indians. Removal also
solved the problems created by Georgia’s demands that Washington carry out all the provisions
of an 1802 compact that promised the extinguishing of all Indian title to lands in the state.
Relocating Indian groups to the west also resolved the potential problem of groups such as the
Cherokees, who planned to organize their own state on their lands within the state of Georgia and
seek entry into the United States.'® These simultaneously imperial and pragmatic considerations

* Prucha, The Great Father, 104-105; Francis Paul Prucha, Sword of the Republic: The United States Army on the
Frontier, 1783-1846 {Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 1986; New York : Macmillan, 1969).

* Russell F. Weigley, The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973}, 65-9; Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski, For the Common Defense: &
Military History of the United States of America (New York: The Free Press, 1994), 123-9.

\° Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West (New York: W. W.
Norton and Co., $987), 191-193: Prucha, The Great Father: 64-77.

7


HS-4 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-4 (West elevation).
tion. 1966.



List of Maps
The Frontier, 1846 00.00.0002. o cece cece ete e nee c eee eeu eueueeetveveneenaes 19
Fort Scott 1848 ............- 36-37
Kansas Territory, 1855-1859 . B
Early Civil War, 1861-1862 ..............02..0-2 00s ... 109
Holke map of January 1863 ...........60...0200 0008 137
Late Civil War, 1863-1865 . : .149
Fort Scott’s Army structures .... .179
Post-Civil War Kansas 1869-1873 2.0.0.0 c ete eeeneunees 235

iv



POST SURGEONS AND ASSISTANT SURGEONS

Josiah Simpson, Assistant Surgeon’
Joseph Walker, Assistant Surgeon

May 30, 1842 to Dec. 4, 1842
Nov.13, 1842 to Nov. 24, 1842

Dec. 4, 1842 to July 20, 1847
May 4, 1844 to June 2, 1844
July 20, 1847 to Ang. 28, 1848
August 28, 1848 to June 27, 1850
July 12, 1850 to August 1850
Oct. 13, 1850 to April 30, 1851
Joseph K. Barnes, Assistant Surgeon April 26, 1851 to Sept.1, 1852
Levi H. Holden, Assistant Surgeon Oct. 10, 1852 to April 22, 1853
L.W. Crawford, U.S. Medical Department? June 1858

Charles Brewer, U.S. Medical Department January 1861

H. Warner, Assistant Surgeon, Third Wisconsin Cavalry August 1862

W.B. Carpenter, Fifth Kansas Cavalry September 1862

H. Buckmaster, Surgeon, U.S. Volunteers October 1862 to January 1863*
J.B. Woodward, Surgeon, Tenth Kansas Volunteers* February 1863 to March 1863.
F.T. Wyans, Surgeon, Ninth Kansas April 1863 thru July 1863

A.E. Van Dwyne, Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Volunteers August 1863 thru February 1865
L.G. Armstrong, Surgeon, Forty-Eighth Wisconsin Infantry June 1865 to July 1865

R.E.Sill, Assistant Surgeon, Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry — July 1865 to September 1865

Richard French Simpson, Assistant Surgcon
William Hammond, Assistant Surgeon
Alfred W. Kennedy

POST CHAPLAINS

David Clarkson (Episcopal Chaplain)
S.S, Adair
Charles Reynolds, Second Kansas

July 26, 1850 to April 22, 1853
August 1862 to January [863
November 1863 to January 1864
March 1864 to June 18645

T.T. Allen, Forty-Bighth Wisconsin Infantry June 1865

1 Doctors at post hospitals suck as Furt Scot’s were classified as Avsistant Surgeons.

* Relieved Dr. J. Capers, citizen surgeon, June 18, 1858

“In November, Fort Scott post reports listed Bucktuaster as “In charge of convalescents en route to Fort
Leavenworth).” He was also listed as in charge of general hospital at Hort Scott. After January 1863 he served as
District Medical Director,

4 From October 1862 to January 1863, Woodward served in Fort Scort’s Gencral Hospital under
Buckmaster. In January 1863, he was assigned to “Leadquarters in the Field, Fort Scott.”

$ Listed on post reports as Acting Post Chaplain.

269



LATE CIVIL WAR

LEGEND

BATTLE SITE
FORT / TOWN
COUNTY BORDER
STATE LINE
PRICE RAID (1854)

. WESTPORT (OCT. 28, 1864)
. LAWRENCE (AUG. 21-22, 1863)

#& oN

. TRADING POST (OCT. 25, 1864)

B

| MINE CREEK (OCT. 25, 1864)
FORT LINCOLN (OCT. 25, 1864)

. LITTLE OSAGE (OCT. 25, 1864)

1863-1865

LEAVE:

SN

SPRINGFIELD
°

9.

KANSAS:

. CHARLOT’S FARM (OCT, 25, 1964)
. MARMATON MASSACRE (OCT. 25, 1864) }
» DRUM CREEK (MAY 15, 1863) \_

10. SHERWOOD (MAY 18, 1863)

BAXTER SPRINGS (OCT. 6, 1863)
12, NEWTONIA (OCT. 28, 1864)
18. CABIN CREEK (JULY 1-2, 1863)
14. CABIN CREEK (SEPT. 19, 1864)

5. HONEY SPRINGS (JULY 17, 1863)

PUBLISHED BY: FOSTER DESIGN, INC.
(800) $45-3394

INDIAN TERRITORY

~~



1855 PUBLIC AUCTION
Account of Sales of Buildings and Other Public Property at Fort Scott, Kansas Territory,
April 16, 1855

No. Names Description Amount
i Wm. Barbee Log Crib, Log ox shed, & rails enclosing

The same, near Saw Mill $ 16.00
2 John Conner 2 log huts & rails enclosing them 5.00
3 A. Masters 1 log hut near Mill bank 2.50
4 A. Masters Saw Mill 50.00
5 Wm. Barbee 1 Jog hut on hill outside of enclosure 1.50
6 Hi. T. Wilson Blacksmith shop & Roothouse,

near Sutler Store 25.00
7 James Kill Stone Sink, near Sutler Store 6.00
8 James Kill Rails enclosing 126 acre lot 65.00
9 Thomas Watkins Hay Scale House 50.00
10 BAF. Hill Rails cnclosing smail lot in front of bay

scale & 2 gates one near Hay Scale House 5.50
1} John Linn 4 log huts & rails enclosing them near

hay scale 19.50
12 Win. Barbee Log (Slaughter) hut & pump 1.00
13 John Linn Small sheds & rails enclosing, opposite

side of creek from slaughter hut 11.00
14 Robert Kill Log hut near ox yard 2,00
1S J.M. Linn Rails enclosing ox yard, with shed enclosed 13.00
16 Wm. Barbee Roothouse & Stone Sink,

S.E. corner of garrison 2.00
17 John Hamilton Rails enclosing garden & Hut, opposite

side of creek, East comer of garrison 14.00
18 John Hamilton Log hut near Bake House 6.00
19 D.F. De Wint Smail lot of rails in rear of 4" off. Qrts 4.00
20 James Kill Bake House 70,00
2) Thomas Watkins 9 large posts 4,00
22 T. F. Whitlock Qr. M. Stable & shed, Corn Crib & shops 405.00
23 H. T. Wilson Blacksmith Shop & Carpenter Shop (wood) 60.00
24 H. T. Wilson loose lumber in shop 11.00
25 James Kill Qr. Mrs. & Subsistence Store House 134.00
26 James Kiil Company quarters East corner 200.00
27 J. M. Mitchell Guardhouse 151.00
28 H. T. Wilson Well cover & posis 28.00
29 T.S. Dodge Magazine 50.00
30 T. F. Whitlock Case of drawers in hospital 20.00

291



made it difficult to accomplish much work. The post may not have looked even as finished as
Swords pictured. Lt. David Russell, a new officer assigned to Fort Scott, noted in December
1845 that none of the barracks or officers’ quarters were finished, and that “most of the officers
have to live in ‘log cabins."”*!

By 1846 the United States was at war with Mexico, and the Army transferred its officers
to meet its new commitments. Swords, promoted to major, became quartermaster of the Army of
the West. He commanded the baggage train during the Battle of San Pasqual on December 6,
1846, and when the Mexican War ended, the Army assigned him to the quartermaster-general’s
office in Washington, D.C. He served in the Civil War, earning the rank of brevet major general.
When he retired in 1869, he had seen combat in two wars, served as quartermaster in three
districts, and worked in the highest office in his division. Swords’ most enduring work, a military
post constructed in the mid-nineteenth century, still stands along the Marmaton River.

Swords’ departure changed little at Fort Scott. The names were different, but the
problems remained. The garrison decreased to fifty infantrymen as the dragoons and other
soldiers marched off to combat in California and Mexico. In December 1846, George W.
Wallace, the post’s new Acting Assistant Quartermaster, reported to Col. Henry Stanton that the
few soldiers at Fort Scott could not make significant progress on the post. Wallace asked for four
or five additional mechanics and twenty to thirty additional laborers. He had hired some
mechanics, but was obliged to raise their wages to match local pay.” Wallace found what Swords
had long ago learned: in a small post on the periphery of the nation, officers had to be
enterprising if they were to accomplish anything of significance. If they waited for their superiors
to give them the resources they needed, they were likely to wait a long time.

Fort Scott played another significant rale on the frontier: it was the economic engine that
Grove the region, the one source of consistent income for local people. The military needed much
— everything from meat and horses to building material —- and local people often provided what
they could — for a price, For the military, lacal purchases meant that the post did not have to rely
on an inconsistent supply line from the outside, Local residents could depend on payments from
the military for the cash they needed for taxes, land payments, and other economic endeavors for
which exchange did not suffice, The local people lived in western Missouri, in Bates and the
surrounding counties, and they were tradespeople typically found in a frontier economy,
including carpenters, stone masons, and housewrights. as well as farmers and traders. George
Douglass, a farmer near Deerfield, Mo., rented pasture for the government horses and mules, and
sold forage (hay and corn) to the Army to feed the livestock. The Anny purchased lumber from
the Dodge sawmill at the village of Little Osage in what is now northern Vernon County. Federal
troops away from Fort Scott also put cash into the economy. The Army had to pay transportation
fees for ferrying troops and livestack across streams and rivers. It also had to pay for the food and
lodging that were necessary to sustain small numbers of soldiers who were away from the fort on
detached service such as couriers or escorts. A symbiotic relationship bound the military and the
people of the region, one that both needed and both were sometimes reluctant to acknowledge.

“ Swords to Stanton, October 1, 1845, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm; D.A. Russell to C.1.. Russell,
December 14, 1845, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

Wallace to Stanton, December 9, 1846, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm

4]



problems, some directly induced in part by their battlefield success. As the North won a series of
battles early in the conflict, federal control extended to the Indian Territory and Arkansas. To
guard these new possessions and to compensate for the diversion of western troops to the eastern
theater and mounting combat losses, military leaders sought other sources of soldiers. The region
remained peripheral to the war effort, further accentuating the need for indigenous manpower.'*

African Americans contributed to the country’s military needs even before its creation,
serving as troops in the Revolutionary War, but discrimination emerged during peace time. The
Military Act of 1792, which restricted enlistments to “free able-bodied white male” citizens,
typified the barriers African Americans faced. Military necessity led Andrew Jackson to use
volunteer African American units in the Battle of New Orleans in 1814, but their acceptance
jasted only until the war ended. Excluded by recruiting regulations, few African Americans
served in the nation’s pre-Civil War combat units, although there were no rules prohibiting the
employment of African Americans as laborers. In 1842, Quartermaster General Thomas Jessup
reported 106 African Americans employed by his department, all slaves in Florida mainly
working as deckhands and laborers. Army engineers hired 570 African Americans that year, the
overwhelming majority serving as laborers.'*

During the war’s first years, the United States Army remained an overwhelmingly white
force, continuing its prewar tradition of excluding nonwhites. Northern populations, at first
seeing the Civil War as a battle to preserve the Union, rejected the concept of nonwhites wearing
uniforms. Politicians hoped for a short conflict, and saw any recruitment of African Americans as
antagonistic to southerners and harmful to reconciliation efforts. Senior military officers also
held that the insurrection would be short-lived. Their initial manpower estimates were low.
President Lincoln called upon the states to provide 75,000 militiamen serving for ninety days as
reinforcements for the Army’s 17,000 troops. An early rush of white volunteers flooded into
Union recruitment stations, straining the Army’s ability to organize, clothe, train, and lead the
new regiments. The confusion added new and compelling reasons to refuse African Americans
volunteers. Battlefield losses, publication of long casualty lists, and the widespread realization
that military life was boring, dangerous, and dirty soon quelled the initial surge of enthusiasm. As
government leaders finally accepted that victory required massive numbers of men, amounting to
more than 2.2 million, and resistance to conscription became a feature of wartime life in the
North, the hunt began for other sources for troops. Soon American Indians and African
Americans received the opportunity to serve.'®

The earliest deployment of minorities in Civil War uniforms came in the Union Navy,
where African Americans served beginning in September 1861. Many African Americans

“ Wiley Briton, The Union Indian Brigade in the Civil War (Kansas City, Mo.: Franklin Hudson, 1922); Thomas
Dunlay, Wolves for the Blue Soldiers: Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army, 1860-1890 (Lincoin:
University of Nebraska Press, 1982).

'° Morris J. MacGregor and Bernard Nalty, eds., Blacks in the United States Armed Forces: Basic Documents, Vol. !:
A Time of Siavery (Wilmington, Del.: Scholariy Resources, 1977).

° For a general history of African Americans in the Civil War, see Dudiey Taylot Comish, The Sable Arm: Black
Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987), Joseph T. Glatthaar, Forged in Battle. The
Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers (Now York: The Free Press, 1990).

160



institution and by the middle of the nineteenth century American feelings and thoughts about the
country’s black inhabitants remained diverse. A national abolition movement faced fears thata
successful campaign might threaten the Union. To forestall the crisis, Congress simply did notact,
opting to leave the issue of slavery upto local determination under the principle of popular sover-
eignty. This idea, codified in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which became law on May 26, 1854, set
the stage for the border war for control of Kansas. The legislation, crafted by “The Little Giant,”
Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, upset the politica! balance created by the Missouri Compromise of 1820
and the Compromise of 1850. Itreplaced the imposed balance of slave states and free states
joining the Union with the concept of popular sovereignty. Douglas’ method of evading the Missouri
Compromise’s structured symmetry allowed residents of incoming territories to determine whether
they would have slavery?

In mid-century Kansas, an unrelated but interwoven pair of problems obstructed progress
onthe question of slavery. During the first half of the 1850s, siavery served asa diversion from the
acquisition of the Indian lands in the eastern Kansas Territory. Political questions dominated the
era’s newspapers arid congressional reports, but the overwhelming majority of whites traveling west
were seeking land-—and as far as they were concerned, questions of Indian ownership and treaties
were far less important than that quest. It would take twenty years (1853 to 1873) to remove the
majority of the Indians from eastern Kansas.*

Notall the new American inhabitants ignored the era’s hottest political controversy. The
early settlers of Bourbon County, particularly those who moved west from Missouri, brought pro-
slavery sentiments along with their mules and horses. Before the establishment of the Kansas
Territory, slavery was legal in many areas of the Indian Territory and many Army officers owned
slaves. Even at Fort Scott, on the edge of the nation. some officers owned slaves or expressed pro-
slavery attitudes. Capt. Thomas Swords, responsible for overseeing construction of Fort Scott,
asked a friend in 1843: “What will you say to see me come jogging along with a wife, halfa dozen
negros and sundry horses, many colts, cows &c to Fort Gibson.” Lt. Richard Ewell told his sister
that he intended to purchase a servant in the future, a plan he believed would save him money. Hiero
Wilson, the former civilian post sutler at Fort Scott, owned six slaves when the Army abandoned
the postin 1853. Four years after the military departed, thirty slaves lived in Bourbon County.
Slave-holding had become part of life on the Missouri-Kansas border and Fort Scott adjoinedits
expansion. Location thrust eastern Kansas and Fort Scott into the very center of the leading national
issue of the 1830s. Despite the limited prospects for labor-intensive, plantation style agriculture on
the plains, the extension of slavery became an important issue in the Kansas Territory°

Missouri was the cusp of one side of sectional confrontation. After entering the unionas a
slave state under the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the state became the vanguard of slavery’s

3 James A. Rawley, Race and Politics: “Bleeding Kansas and the Coming of the Civil War (Philadelphia:
Lippincott, 1969)

* Craig Miner and William 6. Unrau, The End of Indian Kansas: A Study of Cultural Revolution, 1854-1871
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1990), 3-6.

* Thomas Swords to Lt. Abraham Johnston, March $, 1843, printed in From the Crack Post of the Frontier:
Letters of Thomas and Charloite Swords, Harry C. Myers, ed. (Fort Scott: Sekan Publications, n.d.), 11; Richard Ewell,
letter to Rebecca L, Ewell, April 10, 1842, Richard Ewell file, Fort Scott National Historic Site Archive; Charles Hart, “The

Natural Limits of Slavery Expansion: Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 34 (Spring 1968), 32-50.

72



sent Companies E and F of the First U.S. Cavalry,
under the command of Capt. Samuel D. Sturgis. The
mounted troops arrived in Fort Scott on December 21
for atwo-week stay, in time to avert an attack on the
town by reinforced Free-State forces. The pro-slavery
elements no longer had the Jaw on their side. The Free-
State legislature authorized a militiaon December 17,
and anti-slavery forces promptly allied themselves with
it. Leading the new army was Major General James H.
Lane, who soon acquired the sobriquet, the “Grim
Chieftain” of Kansas. Lane saw opportunities in aboli-
tion. Born in Indiana in 1814, he practiced law before
fighting in the Mexican War. He later served in Con-~
gress where his support of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
cost him his seat. Lane then moved to Kansas Territory
in hope of organizing the Democratic Party and securing
another position of importance. Using his charisma and
commanding presence, Lane won control of the party’s
military forces and replaced Robinson as the most
James Lane, pictured on a calling card popu- influential Free-State figure inKansas. He shaped the
lar in Washington, D.C, direction of the Free-State’s military action during the
remainder of Bleeding Kansas.”*

Fort Scott grew into the most significant town in the southeastern part of the Kansas Terri-
tory and pro-slavery supporters continued to dominate its leadership positions. The Kansas and
Gulf Railroad Company organized on January 27, 1858, with Judge Joseph Williams as president,
Ransom of the Land Office as vice president, and George A. Crawford, president of the Fort Scott
Town Company and general land agent, as treasurer. The Fort Scott Democrat, with James E.
Jones serving as editor, began to publish at the same time. The first editorial proclaimed that while
the newspaper did not advocate slavery in Kansas, “we shail boldly defend it, when accasion may
require, where it exists or may be adopted by a sovereign state, as the constitutional right ofsuch
state.” Slaves, owned by U.S. Army officers, had been present at the former military post between
1842 and 1853. In 1857, the Bourbon County Courthouse recorded the sale of a black woman
named Lucinda to Wiley Patterson of Bourbon County. Also new in 1858 were the first free
African Americans to settle in the town. Two brothers, Pete and Jess Slavins, worked for them-
selves. Pete was a barber and Jess hired out asa servant.

The Democrat had more than slavery onits editorial agenda; boosterism and community
development also filled the news columnsas the town’s economic potential developed. The editor
asked in January if immediate action would prevent “our country friends, and the public generly
{sic), from using the trees in ‘Carroll Plaza’ forhitching posts? There is not west of the ‘Fathers of
the Waters’ so beautiful a Park to be found.” The Plaza was the former parade ground of the

Kansas?” 128.
¥ Welch, Border Warfare, 44-48.

81


417/D-33
fort Scott

A Historic Resource Study
of Fort Scott National Historic Site

National Park Service
Contract 1443CX605097013

VABNED

fi)

i234 NATIONAL
PARK

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By Daniel J. Holder
and Hal K. Rothman

J]


garrison at Mound City, about twenty miles north of Fort Scott.?*

The situation seemed dire, and Lane sought to maintain high spirits as he begged for the
resources to counter the Confederate threat. Again asking for more troops, Lane promised that his
“little force” would do its best to defend the state. His fear showed. “Fort Leavenworth and
Kansas should be defended from this point,” he wrote with passion, “and the idea of holding
artillery to rust at Fort Leavenworth does not strike me with any favor.” Reports of a large
Confederate force, numbering almost 6,000 and located about thirty-five miles away, reached
Lane. Only two thousand troops were stationed at Fort Scott, and the town lacked artillery.
Seeking to reassure the civilian population, the Fort Scott Democrat boasted “Our city presents
the appearance of one grand military camp ... the measured tread of the sentinel and the tramp of
cavalry may be heard at all times of the day and night.”

Believing that Lane sought to turn a military problem into a political windfall, many
Kansans tried to rebut the dire picture he offered. Gov. Charles Robinson remained Lane’s
bitterest enemy, and he countered Lane by insisting the senator exaggerated the Confederate
threat. The fastest way to peace along the border, he believed, was to move Lane’s forces into the
state’s interior, where they could not antagonize Missourians. Robinson wrote Major General
John Frémont, the district commander that “what we have to fear, and do fear, is that Lane's
brigade will get up 4 war by going over the line, committing depredations, and then returning into
our State.” Such an endeavor might unite successionist and Union Missouri men against the
federal government. Before Frémont could respond to Robinson’s charges, they all came true.?”

The threat emanated from the aftermath of Wilson’s Creek. After his small victory,
McCulloch and his troops headed south to Arkansas. Price left Springfield with about ten
thousand Missouri militiamen in pursuit of a number of objectives. The principal intention of the
raid was to clear the border counties of jayhawking Kansans. In addition, the Confederates
sought to attack Lexington, in north-central Missouri. Price also sought to open an invasion route
north to the Missouri River, allowing him to disrupt federal communications with its Pacific
possessions. As Price’s forces moved north, the commander of his advance guard reported the
federal concentration around Fort Scott, warning that reinforecments were necessary. Price left
Springfield with rest of his army of about 6,000 on August 25, 1861, heading west and encamped
near Nevada by the end of the month, Lane concluded that Fort Scott was the target of the
advancing army. In a frantic request for reinforcements from Fort Leavenworth, he estimated that
between six thousand and ten thousand of Price’s men were marching toward him, writing that “I
am compelled to make a stand here, or give up Kansas to disgrace and destruction,””*

The Kansans’ wait for the approaching enemy did not last long. Lanc sent out a cavalry
detachment of about six hundred men on September 2 to learn the whereabouts of the

2 ane to Prince, August 25, 1861, O.R, 1:3, 454-55.

* Lane to Prince, August 24, 1861, O.2., 1:3, 453; Lane to Prince. August 29, 1861, O.R., 1;3, 465; Fort Scott
Democrat, August 24, 1861.

”” Robinson to Frémont, September 1, 1861, O.R. 1:3, 468-69

2 Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border, 184; Lane to Capt. Prince, September 3, 1861, O.R,, [;3, 163; Cory,
“The Sixth Kansas Cavalry and Its Commander,” 218-19.

107


own compromise solution, Pond reported that he divided the contested field of grass in half and
ordered the two sides to only cut grass on theit side of the line.”’

The hospital buildings were among the more important facilities housed at Fort Scott, as
the post offered the most advanced medical department between Fort Leavenworth and Fort
Gibson. The Army was slow to develop a system for caring for its wounded during the early
years of the war, and soldiers serving in southeast Kansas were fortunate to have a functioning
hospital at the post. The main hospital building was a two-story frame structure, with dimensions
of 32 by 48 feet. Its most notable feature was a 10-foot wide porch that ran around the main
floor, above the ground-level basement. A hall and stairway divided the main floor into two
wards, The basement held six rooms. After the Army left Fort Scott in 1855, the townspeople
bought the hospital, and used the building for public events, including a schoo! and as a meeting
hail for religious preachers. Town residents, including a lawyer, members of a militia group, and
a newspaper owner, rented rooms in the building.”

As sectional violence erupted in the years known as “Bleeding Kansas,” federal troops
returned to the town of Fort Scott to help maintain order, and the units brought their own doctors
with them. Charles Brewer, an assistant surgeon in the Army’s Medical Department,
accompanied Capt. Nathaniel Lyon when the government assigned Army units to the town of
Fort Scott in January 1861. Franklin Irish, a surgeon working under contract to the Sixth Kansas
Cavalry, served at the Camp Scott hospital for $100 per month.”

After the Civil War broke out, the Army rented back the building and began using the
former Fort Scott hospital for its original purpose. By June 1862, the military had assumed
contro! of the hospital, designating it as a post hospital. It was responsible for treating injured and
wounded soldiers from the immediate vicinity. Union armies on the march had an equivalent
facility ran by each individual regiment known as a field hospital. Medical personnel typically
sent patients from the field hospitals after they stabilized their wounds or illnesses for additional
treatment in the Army’s general hospitals, a classification that signified their admission of
patients whatever their particular regiment or post. As fighting spread across the region
surrounding Fort Scott during the final months of 1862, the Army changed Fort Scott’s
designation to a general hospital, the only one south of Fort Leavenworth. To increase the bed
capacity, the government rented nearby buildings, including the post’s former guardhouse and
infantry barracks, from their civilian owners. The general hospital’s sick list frequently exceeded
five hundred. Displaying the hometown boosterism often called up in peacetime to attract
settlers, the Fort Scott newspaper boasted in April that the hospital wards were kept clean and
well ventilated, “and we venture to say that few hospitals in the country are better conducted.”

| Affidavit of John Raynolds sworn to William Margrave, Justice of the Peace, Sept. 2, 1864; Revort of Lt. Pond, Fort
McKean, Sept. 9, 1864, Third Wisconsin, 108-109.

? Erwin Thompson, Fort Scott Historic Structure Report, Park I: Historical Data Section (Washington, D.C.:
National Park Service, Division of History, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, 1968), 43-48.

® Spcciat Order 176, dated December 27, 1860, Roll 19, Records of Adjutant General, Post Returns, Fort Scott
National Historic Site archives microfilm, frame 410; ibid,, Post retum, August 1861,

* Fort Scott Bulletin, June 7, 1862; Fort Scott Western Volunteer, April 5, 1862.

181



or its commander.”®

Fort Scott’s officers believed themselves in danger from two directions. Besides the
Confederate threat from Arkansas, Union commanders thought that Cherokee Indians under Col.
Stand Watie and guerrillas led by Capt. T.R. Livingston approached Baxter Springs, south of Fort
Scott. Blunt, Salomon’s immediate superior, Jearned of the Confederate move himsclf when
south of Osage Mission on September 25, Watie’s Cherokees captured several Osage scouts and
released them several hours later. When the scouts returned to Blunt’s headquarters at Fort Scott,
they told him that Watie planned to reach the mission by the next day. Salomon, commanding the
First Brigade of the Army of Kansas, split his forces at Fort Scott, ordering troops sent southeast
from Fort Scott to Carthage, Missouri, while sending Col. William F. Cloud’s Third Brigade
about thirty miles southwest to the Osage Mission, in Neosho County. The three or four buildings
that made up the complex. southeast of Erie and near modern-day St. Paul, were on the road that
ran from Lawrence and Humboldt, Kansas, to Fort Gibson, in the Indian Territory.”

The Confederate invasion was real, and from a Union point of view, impressive in size
and scope. Confederates concentrated what the Union scouts estimated to be cight thousand men
at Newtonia, Missouri. To meet this threat, Union forces planned to unite at Sarcoxie and then
advance. Curtis ordered Schofield to support the Union response, and ordered Blunt to act under
Schofield’s direction. One of Salomon’s reconnaissance patrols, from the Ninth Kansas,
discovered Confederates entrenched in strong positions at Newtonia. Salomon reinforced the
patrol, ordering units from the Sixth Kansas and Third Indian Home Guard sent into action. His
troops moved toward the smaf] southwestern Missouri town from the north, spreading out to east
and west. The Union assaults were successful initially, but Confederate reinforcements
eventually forced the federal troops to retreat. After regrouping, Blunt's Kansas troops joined
with Missouri troops and drove Rains and the Confederates out of their fortifications and back to
Arkansas. Confederate Jeaders ordered Indian regiments and one artillery battery under Col.
Douglas Cooper on October 15 to attack Fort Scott to divert Schofield’s pursuit of Rains. Blunt,
in hot pussuit of the Southern detachment, caught up with them a week later and defeated them at
the battle of Old Port Wayne, near Maysville, Arkansas, on October 22, 1862.”*

With cold weather approaching, Union forces began to settle down in winter camps in
Kansas and Missouri. The Third Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment returned to its Fort Scott camp
early in October alter action in Missouri. The Sixth Kansas, one of the regiments that chased
Cooper at Old Fort Wayne, moved to Camp Babcock, on Flint Creek near the Arkansas border,
where it waited for commissary supplies from Fort Scott. The Eleventh Kansas Volunteer
Cavalry, mustered into federal service at Fort Leavenworth two months before the battle at Old

% Report of Col. Douglas Hf, Cooper, September 30, 1862. O.8.. 1:13, 296-98; Edwin C, Bears. “The Army of the
Frontier's First Campaign: The Contederates Win at Newtonia.” Missourt Historical Review 60. n. 3 (April 1966), 283-284:
OR. 33. 672.

*? Weer to Salomon, September 26. 1862. O.R.. 1:13. 671-672: Michael E. Banas‘k. ed.. Reluctant Cannaneer: The

Diary of Robert T. McMahan of the Tweniy-jifih Independent Ohio Light Artillery (lowa City. lowe: Camp Pope Bookstore.
2000), 40

TM Report of Bri
Western Border, 257.

ier General Douglas Cooper report, Oct 22. 1862. O.R. 1:8. 3335, Monaghan. Civil War on the



the end of 1861 totaled about 440 men in fourteen companies, but most African Americans
served away from the fighting. In 1862, Confederate regiments hired four cooks per company,
each paid $15 a month. The Confederate quartermaster department hired African Americans
teamsters, and they also served as hospital stewards, ambulance drivers, and stretcher bearers.
Hundreds of slaves worked on Southern railroads, in armories, and on defensive fortifications.
Even out of uniform, African Americans proved crucial to the southern cause, and northern
military leaders began joining the abolitionists’ push to free slaves as the magnitude of their
contribution became apparent. As the war’s fortunes turned against them, Confederate officials
considered wide-scale recruiting of African Americans for combat troops. The southern Congress
passed such legislation in March 1865, authorizing the enlistment of 200,000 with the promise of
emancipation if they remained loyal throughout the war. The war ended before the Confederacy
could organize any units.*

Southerners had few qualms about recruiting Indian troops. Following the outbreak of
hostilities, leaders of the Confederate States of America considered seizing controi of the Indian
Territory and using Indians as a source of military troops in the West. By May 13, 1861,
Confederate leaders authorized Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch to lead three regiments
from Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana into Indian Territory and ordered Southern agents to recruit
and organize three Indian regiments.’

Other attempts at military alliance followed. A day after issuing orders to McCulloch,
Secretary of War Leroy Walker sent David Hubbard, superintendent of Indian Affairs, to Indian
Territory in hopes of securing tribal allegiances. Walker believed that Hubbard must convince the
Indians that “their cause has become our cause.” On May 20, 1861, two Missouri State Militia
officials proposed raising an Indian army. The men told Jefferson Davis, president of the
Confederate States of America, that the Cherokees and other Indian Territory occupants owned
slaves and believed Indian “interests and feelings are wholly with the South.” They predicted that
six white regiments raised in Texas and Louisiana, combined with the South’s natural allies in
Indian Territory, could split the eastern United States from its Pacific Coast states by driving the
Union army out of Kansas, Missouri, and Colorado, Despite such optimism, a consistent lack of
arms crippled Confederate attempts to organize the Indian Territory population into reliable
military regiments.!°

Confederate Indian units joined the Confederate advance into Missouri in the late summer
of 1861. In August, the Choctaw and Chickasaw mounted rifle regiments made up one-fifth of
Ben McCulloch’s command that pushed Union forces out of central Missouri, a campaign that

* Hondon B. Hargrove, Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War (Jefferson, N.C.; McFarland & Company, 1988), 1-6;
Noah Andre Trudean, Like Mer of War: Black Troaps in the Civil War, 1862-1865 (Roston: Little, Brown, 1998), 1-10.

° Annic Heloise Abel, Te American Indian as Participant in the Civil War, 1862-1865 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark,
1919; paperback reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992, with a new title: The American Indiatt in the Civil War,
1862-1865) and The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1925; paperback edition,
University of Nebraska Press, 1992); Robert L. Duncan, Re(uctant General: The Life and Times of Albert Pike (New York: E.P.
Dutton, 1961); Arrel M. Gibson, “Confederates on the Plains: The Pike Mission to the Wichita Agency,” Grear Plains Quarterly
4 (Fall $964), 7-16,

'° Walker to Hubbard, May 14, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 577-578; FJ. Marshall and R. R. Weightman to Jefferson Davis, May
20, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 579.

158



Illustrations

List of Photographs

Prairie landscape of eastern Kansas 2... cee t eee neces 2
Osage Indians .........-... 02 e 0c cece cee 24
1839 solicitation for work on military road . . an
Stephen W. Kearny ........-....2..000.4. ..24
Benjamin D. Moore ..
Winfield Scott ....
Thomas Swords ...
Dragoon firearms . .
Hiero T. Wilson .. .

Wilson’s sutler book . . . 50
Surgeon Joseph K. Barnes .. - 53
John Hamilton ........ ..75
James Montgomery -.79
James Lane ...... 6. . cscs .. 81
Marais des Cygnes Massacre . 84
“Le Marais du Cygne” by John Greenleaf Whittier . -. 85
Peace convention at Fort Scott...............055 - 88

Gene Campbell letter to James Montgomery ..........

Fort Scott Democrat account of Montgomery’s 1858 raid . -.91
James H. Lane 2.0... cee eee cee etcetera .. 97
James Blunt .... 98
Sterling Price ... 2.99
Charles W. Biair . . 100
Nathaniel Lyon. . ...103
Benjamin McCulloch ........ .. 104
James Lane and the Indians . «413
Samuel R. Curtis 20.0.2... 2c eee eee eee eee 2119
Military and civilian personnel on Wail Street ... . 122
Cpl. George McCoon, Third Wisconsin Cavalry . . - 143
William Quantrill 6.0.0.0. cece eee cece ee -151
First Kansas (Colored) Infantry Regiment at Island Mound . . . 167

First Kansas Independent Light Artillery Battery (Colored) .. .. 169
Fort Scott civilians... 0.0.0... eee cece eee e eee enna 1.472
Quartermaster Quadrangle ........ . 178
Union Army band at parade ground . 201
John S. Marmaduke ............. ..- 211
William Cabel ............0-200. .211
Union Monitor Extra, Oct. 27, 1864 . 213
Post Hospital in 1865 .............. «222
James F. Joy... 2.00 eee ee eee 1.238
Artist’s rendering of Fort Scott, 1871 ............ 2. 243
Missouri, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad locomotive... 00.06... cece teeter eee ene ee 244

iii



winding their way to Caulkin’s old stand on Bigler Street, now kept by Harman & Marble.” Two
months later, another large saloon was being constructed on Bigler Street, with “the handsomest
toom of the kind in Southem Kansas.” *

To supplement their Army rations, soldiers had access to sutler stores, run by private
merchants under contract to the government. Typical advertisement for sutler stores boasted of
the wide array of goods available, including military blouses, dress coats, bridles, and other
goods designed to make the trooper’s life a little easier. Many of Fort Scott’s businessmen sought
out these lucrative contracts. James Thorington, who operated the town business of Thorington,
Morley & Co., before the war returned to Fort Scott in September 1863 to operate the post
sutler’s store. The following month longtime Fort Scott resident Alexander McDonald ieft Fort
Scott after receiving the appointment of post sutler at Fort Smith.

Soldiers also looked to the civilian market for other needs, and Fort Scott merchants
quickly moved to satisfy those demands. The town had a studio photographer in business by May
1862, boasting of a new installed skylight, “which enables him to take even finer pictures than he
has been in the habit of doing.” A local printing office advertised that it had on hand certificates
of disability, final statements, and discharge and descriptive list certificates, all correctly printed
and available for a reasonable price. By July 1862, one of Fort Scott’s blacksmith shops had
doubled in size due to increased business, and the local shoe and boot shop also reported an
increased work load. By August, the town paper would proudly boast of the town’s expansion,
reporting Scott Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares, was filling up rapidly with new
businesses. Three buildings were then under construction on the street, to house a meat market,
carriage and blacksmith shop, and a shoe shop. Increased economic development carried over to
the newspaper that relied on local businesses for advertisement revenues, and by September the
Bulletin had also expanded in size."”

The military presence also provided numerous entertainment possibilities for the civilians
in town. Daily Army events, including the arrival of couriers, massive expeditions saddling up,
patrols mounted and returning with tales of combat, huge wagon trains forming along combined
with the occasional escaping team of mules. Official reviews of the troops were a continual
spectacle, allowing the town to show its best side to visiting dignitaries. When Gen. Blunt
inspected his command, a large number of spectators watched as he reviewed the post’s garrison
of two regiments of infantry, two batteries of artillery, and about fifteen hundred cavalry. The
townspeople were also often entertained by regimental band concerts and special military
displays, including a wagon review on the prairie south of town. About three hundred wagons
performed a series of maneuvers, including drawing up all of the vehicles into a massive corral in
practice for repelling attackers.”

Fort Scott’s roving patrols offered protection to the Union cause across a large part of

© Fort Scott Western Volunteer, March 31, 1862; Fort Scott Bulletin, July 26, 1862.
“ Fort Scott Union Monitor, Sept. 24, 1863; Oct. 1, 1863.
* Fort Scott Bulletin, May 24, 1862, May 31, 1862; Wyandot Gazette, Sept. 13, 1862.

“ Fort Scott Bulletin, Aug, 16, 1862, June 28, 1862.

190


attacking and capturing Fort Scott. Following the Union victory at
Westport, Price’s men headed south in full retreat and federal forces
followed closely. Price “will have no time to cal] at Fort Scott,” Blunt
observed, “but if he should you must fight him to the last extremity. We
will be close upon his heels.” Late in the afternoon, Union commanders
decided to send the militia units from northern Kansas back home,
handing pursuit of Price over to Blunt’s District of Southern Kansas and
Maj. General Alfred Pleasonton and his mounted cavalrymen who had
pursued Price from Jefferson City, Missouri.**

The Union pursuit of Price started immediately. Slowed by the
wagon train, Price’s columns moved south down the former Fort
Leavenworth-Fort Scott military road only thirty-three miles, crossing
into Kansas at West Point and reaching the village of Trading Post late
on October 24, 1864. Curtis was still unsure of Price’s intentions at
midnight, warning the commander at Paola that the Confederates might
try to advance against Fort Scott, but he hoped to pressure them enough
to deter any attacks. Pickets from the two forces made contact late that
night, and the Union commanders decided to attack in the morning.
When the soldiers moved out in the first light of day on October 25,,
they saw the bulk of the Confederates already moving south across the
Marais des Cygnes River, but the retreating troops left behind their

breakfasts and much of their supplies. The opposing forces began the
General John S. day’s long string of combat actions at Trading Post, around daylight.
Marmaduke, above, and . an . .
General William Cabell, S0on after, troops were also engaged in a skirmish at Mound City, with
Confederate officers that action lasting from approximately 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. The
captured at Mine Creek. Southern column continued marching south. The Union forces

approached the rear guard of Price’s army at approximately 11:30 a.m.
as it was crossing a stream named Mine Creek, approximately six miles south of Trading Post.
Price ordered two of his divisions to advance to counter the threat, but charging Union cavalry
troopers smashed into the Confederates before they could fully form up. This action, with about
2,700 mounted Union soldiers attacking the six thousand troops that made up the rear guard of
Price’s army as it defended the jammed Confederate supply wagons crossing the stream, was the
largest Civil War engagement fought in Kansas. The cavalry charge led to the capture of about
six hundred men and two senior officers, brigadier generals John S. Marmaduke and William L.
Cabell. Two soldiers from the Third lowa Cavalry Regiment, Private James Dunlavy, who
captured Marmaduke, and Sergeant Calvaly Young, who secured Cabell, received the Medal of

* Jay Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985; Boston: Lite,
Brown, 1955), 329-36; Reports of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, No. 88, Price’s Missouri Expedition, Dec. 28, 1864, O.R,, Series
1:41/1, 636-37.

211



HS-34 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-34, building ruins (Northeast elevation), formerly located between the northwest corner of Post Headquar-

ters and the service road. Circa 1970s.

HS-34 (Southeast elevation). NPS Midwest Archeology center field in-
vestigation, 1986. Results determined that the ruins were of an early
iwentieth-century structure. Therefore the above-ground ruins were re-
moved and the subsurface foundation was left in situ.

375

a A "he: Si
HS-34 (East elevation), NPS Arche-
ologist Bob Nickel at archeological

trench. 1986,



Confederates just when Price was moving his forces forward. The advancing Confederates
encountered the dug-in Northern troops in the forest surrounding Big Dry Wood Creek, Missouri,
about twelve miles east of Fort Scott. Beginning about 4:00 p.m., the Kansans opened fire upon
Price’s small advance guard. After an hour-long skirmish, the Northerners retreated, suffering
four fatalities and the loss of eighty-four mules. This engagement became known as the Battle of
the Mules or the Battle of Drywood. The Confederates, regarding the event as a “trifle,”
continued toward Lexington. The retreating Kansans moved back to the bluffs on the east side of
the town and raised the alarm in Fort Scott. Around midnight Lane decided to move twelve miles
north to Fort Lincoln, taking just the ammunition and provisions that his soldiers could carry
away. He was going to burn Fort Scott to prevent it from being captured by the advancing rebels.
Many of his troops used the opportunity to plunder the town before leaving. The retreat saved the
town, as Price decided “he did not want to invade Kansas unless her citizens shall provoke me to
do so by committing renewed outrages.” The abandonment of Fort Scott relieved him from any
duty to move into Kansas.*

As part of his defensive efforts, Lane left eight hundred men at Fort Scott. Earlier he had
ordered six stockades built along the southern border, at Humboldt and Le Roy, on Turkey
Creek, and on the Verdigris, Walnut, and Fail rivers. A system of signals to alert the county in
case of an invasion supported the small posts. The threatened invasion from Missouri pulled
away the militia unit at Humboldt, about forty miles west of Fort Scott. On September 8, 1861,
an Indian trader named John Matthews led a group of bushwhackers and Indians against the
defenseless town of Humboldt. The band of about one hundred and fifty men stole property and
seized blacks on the pretense they were escaped slaves to be returned to their legal owners.
During their escape to the Indian Territory, a detachment of the Sixth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry
commanded by Lieut. Col. James G. Blunt pursued the group. The cavalry unit killed Matthews
and another member of the band and captured two prisoners.*°

Lane stayed in Fort Lincoln, unswayed by a deserter’s report that the Confederates were
moving north. He remained convinced that Price was moving north solely for the purpose of
attacking him from the rear. Within two weeks Lane veered from larger geopolitical objectives
and returned to fighting the war for his own economic and personal goals. He sent his troops out
of Fort Lincoln into Missouri for the twin purposes of avenging the Humboldt raid and chasing
Price’s force. As an excuse for the raid he emphasized the latter objective, telling the Army
command at Fort Leavenworth “with a handful of men and but little artillery, 1 propose to pursue
far enough to threaten their rear and confuse them.” Once his column of about twelve bundred
infantry, eight hundred cavalry and two pieces of artillery crossed into Missouri, leaving about
two hundred mounted troops at Fort Scott and three hundred foot soldiers at Fort Lincoln, Lane
quickly reverted to his jayhawking past as he encouraged the plundering of property and freeing
of Missouri slaves. Despite the pleas for reinforcements from Sturgis, in command of the federal
forces still facing Price, Lane gave up his military pursuit. Once across the state line he left the

” Topeka State Record, September 7, 1861; Fort Scott Democrat, September 21, 1861; Price to Jackson, September 4,
1861, O.R, 1:53, 435-36; Castel. A Frontier State at War, 52.

* Lane to Prince, September 12, 1861, O.R, I: 3, 490; Fort Scott Democrat, September 21, 1861: Blunt, “Gencral
Blunt’s Account of His Civil War Experiences,” 211-63

108


Zachary Taylor, the commanding officer of the
Second Military Department, noted the problem
and advised his superiors in Washington, D.C.,
that even though he began preliminary work on
the new post, he decided against “a personal
examination.” The potential political
ramifications were too great to risk the trip.2” On
March 13, 1842, Taylor sent Col. Mason of the
First Dragoons from Fort Gibson to lead a
reconnaissance patrol that sought to establish a
post on the road between Fort Gibson and Fort
Leavenworth. The health problems that plagued
forts Gibson and Wayne inspired Taylor to order
a medical officer, Capt. Jacob Rhett Motte, to
accompany the expedition and assist in finding a
healthy location for the post. Under a new set of
orders issued two months later, Taylor’s
headquarters instructed dragoon Captain
Benjamin Daviss Moore and Motte to assess a
location on Spring River, which crossed the Capt. Benjamin Daviss Moore, who helpe
Missouri state line just north of Kansas’s present —_getermine Fort Scott's location and served as
southern boundary, and purchase it for less than _first post commander.

$1,000.** If that site could not be secured, Moore

was to examine the surrounding area for a suitable location. In the event none were found, he was
to continue to scour the area for possible sites within the boundary of Taylor’s Second Military
District. If he still could not find a suitable location, Moore was to move his command to the
Marmaton River site, even though the location was within the jurisdiction of the First Military
District. In a note to his Washington, D.C., superiors, Taylor acknowledged that the Marmaton
site “is understood to combine great advantages, and it perhaps as eligible for the protection of

»” Brig. General Zachury Taylor to the Adjutant General of the Army, March 11, 1842, M1302, Roll 1, Frame 0660,
231142, DD, Fort Scott Nationai Historic Site microfilm.

> Motte was familiar with frontier illnesses from the patient's viewpoint. While serving in the South during the Second
Seminole War, he came down with typhoid fever and was lefi by his command to recover in a log house just north of the Florida
border for two months. Mary C. Gillen, The Army Medical Deparrment, 1818-1865 (Washington, D.C,; Center of Military
History, United States Army), 69, W. W.S. Bliss, Assistant Adjutant General to Lt. Col. Richard Mason, March 13, 1842, Fort
Scott National Historic Site Microfilm M1302, Roll 1, Frame 0739, B31342. DD: Benjamin Daviss Moore came to the dragoons
through an unusual route. Appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy in 1829, he resigned to join the mounted rangers as a first
fieutenant in 1832. He joined the First Dragoons in 1833 and was appointed captain in 1837. After his reconnaissance of possible
fort sites. he founded Jort Scott while commanding Companies A and C of the First Dragoons in May 1842, and was post
commander until relieved by Major Graham of the Fourth infantry. ie was killed in California in the battle of San Pasqual in
December 1846. Heitman. Historical Register, 721.

29


Fort Scott, Ka sas, Oclober 27, 1864. <

& could not get here. Then: ail bope{ To day we agy“or
waa-gone, Women and children to- ! extra.” oom
gether with u few cowardly mén,were ipo = ge

flying inal! divections, and the Tite ap an. business,” aving:

| bandfull of heroesieft bore had nerved jwuch » condition that it oxctuke

}themmelves for a death struggle! ly-sil day wi jestiorgapmpsee a:

B iayuine. seven thatisard robots, whom obher monde 2 bat, besa. “

were understood to be just over thes Joy a rash? of 94 ~

ike north, cast and want of towne as ny abtecu ative but

= Fortscotrcsu'd tben have been bought! susll resume pashest:

| fora very etnall -ebnaideratin. Te) sured

| ean perhape the darkest bow that} We aro ide b
pmany of eur cihzene had over “wet |for che Yollawmiihe lis,
jnonted. Bat the 6d adaye that tho

| te the Sha

4,

ores
Ssivurad

Sout of the ger
Razridly I"

f | Ospr B
Murry Phy to

aced, hia men fly’ ava ‘kiboen z
beer kiled: wad onions Hee badinven

i wWictarious SrMay,. RC
PEN VIRCES OF ARTILLERY AND OTHER PthasCol, Biair wauld by hore in wen. a ay i
vane TROPHEES! “LLY fifibaies, “A proper deerijtion of 1 SATe pera, oat i
: — [oie ni velw ion sn rhe, fasitee OF the een Auburn. he foliomnc
KANSAS OUT OF DANGER!!! | people would besa” impormbiliny {Were from rete *
° — | Ore long and load oheur zrested the from Copetufidre amang the kiled =
* gail Beil to Curtin, Pleasontoa, Blunt. reception of cho wvws, bythe man,!  Lieat Cole
+ Sanborn, MeNeil, and *heir ofivers and tho’ wouren aud chilaen Jemped up! tanaly, HG, ¥
Soldiess of tho army, and to the Kansas! sid clapped theie. Hunde’: many. of H. . Saville: Lense:
Vaudfitia ! Another glorions vicuory thom shed ing’ ware foe jy. ‘The! Neocron ie
“bepu gained, and t them ure due the | quict, shat had pruvailed, cave, place! sau saver - supped
otlermal gratitude of Kumaus, Moasowi, to renawed acuisi » and lite ond ‘belie weard beotlene eakeee ae tee
said the whwle nution, Joy to Kansae und | andemonsteative buy: «orn expidision / Be Bear rduehia-taen te ceo" 3
“Missouri, tor their savivrs huve come, | of oar met Dredee forth jn Bacaatrot He toh behibd Gbuhee haar ehing.
Sand chatr onomies are gone! lable excitemen:, not only an account | Bat tel bebidd no inn 7
jAfe havo the plewureof recording one of svi safety, bis of the great vicun |*@# them thot o wre pitten, th
ore ot rit series of witories |1y hat had evn sined, Tho ladies, SICH the shoe weber ny
that have ever been won on thi: coati-| shuhad remained, rvabed to the! "@. Crowe, Lr Pattie nek kor.
nent kitchens, and until mdnccbt, und all Oook—bave’ arrived, having eveapod
. At would be filly w atrempt a full | the next day, toiled over their Stover, | Foto Price yesterday morning.
desuristiow of che aitair to-duy, for wa | preparing odibies for the wea Fy and] Seah Mots ba “
«Rave Doitber time, space, Bur Une pat | Pasenaved soldivrs, ss Ihey dripped! yy gud that wich oer classes, the
Meulars. Suifien it to say that the vio-|in. tu wae a day of oxeitement, ¢ . reseniat i army ny
“firing Mon near te ‘Krauins Most, and | pala and pleavura to our eitizen, and “orale ia reprongntol ithe army .
‘dhe Marunaton, werd comptow, resulting jone which will he remembered by ;bere. Sevoralsrora Prensuntor.'s vite
wiv the eaprure of Gen'ls Murmacuke &| many of them as the most critical pee! mand have called on aa, Among ine
Label, Sour Coloncis, any Amonar vf [tiod of" their tivey, rest Lneut, Thomvon,” the Genersi’s
Other officers and prrvates;—~iu all abwut ! ~ AY up, toplea, sticls tu bis
. £0 thousand, iwcludingy whit were cup ! ATMENT. 1A eed heleaeoot wy? & general
cured yesterdayertogeruer with nine or’ ‘The treatment or prisynors. in the | apd, ai ees ed to. handie ihe
ten pieces of artery, “fhe number of hunds of Price's men, is represented forder. Be tourn: . , ins
Prices tronps is oxtiniated ab twenry-ve' by tb ho have | -shouting stick” befare ho wert imo
oo thousand. about 15,00 of whom | DY Uhoke who havo escaped, as of she! 1 aimy,and 30 far the Jobuay Rois
wero cngaye), while our fercey ongagoa | Most braral character, have failed to knock'bia “form” invo
against hom, were nob over 5,000,/ Ls ibrée days'they wero foreed.to. 5% He ina “pay and festive cuas'TM
Thecavatty ebarge muse when thegins| marel, on four, over one hundred Pi” Hele ‘gas ‘bi -
Whe we aaa Mepreteuted be officers mites; and in the retreas on the tavu| 39d We" this, t0 offer him oar war
ae Mobiaday. thor-truveltidevard Syinic.imvtaunbend waleome bit to. thisS.

Fort Scott Union Monitor, Extra Edition, Oct. 27, 1864

re

sy and Jotur



A Harpers Weekly drawing of 1858 documents “a peace convention at Fort Scott, Kansas.” The sketch
shows an imminent confrontation, apparently on the porch of the former enlisted barracks north of the post
hospital. The former barracks was known as the Wester or pro-slavery hotel.

With firmer prospects for peace, Bourbon County settlers tried to return to the normal
rhythms of agricultural life. A change in federal policy made this transition easier. In June 1858, the
Land Office Department recognized settlements on the New York Indian reservation. Ina policy
that typified American land law, the government permitted squatters to acquire title to land that they
improved. In the following month, area farmers began the arduous process of resuscitating their
livelihood. A man named Wimsett, who lived west of Fort Scott, planted an experimental field of
winter wheat. The Democrat predicted that “when Bourbon county should be dotted over with
such lovely sights as this, it would be conclusive evidence that the farmer has returned to his plow,
and that our people would make war no more.”#

The newspaper was prematurely optimistic. Title to the lands seemed imminent, but clearing
iegai hurdles proved more difficult. In August, the Senate passed a bill to allow title to the New
York Indian lands, but the House of Representatives, occupied with the Lecompton Constitution,
failed to act. Lobbyists such as George A. Crawford, president of the Fort Scott Town Company,
anticipated success during the next session. Federal officials guaranteed that the New York Indians
could no longer claim these lands and indicated that settlers who made improvements could likely
secure title to 320 acres, Legal action finally extinguished the Indian claims the following February,

Scott Democrat, June 17, 1858: George H. Hopkins, Autobiography handwritten manuscript, Folder “Misc., Hopkins,

88


Clark Company, 1955.

Zornow, William Frank. Kansas: A History of the Jayhawk State, Norman: University of Okla-
homa Press, 1957.

Newspapers

Fort Scott Bulletin, 1862-1863

Fort Scott Daily Monitor, 1864-1865
Fort Scott Democrat, 1858-1861
Fori Scott Press, 1868-1869

Fort Scott Tribune Monitor, 1909
Fort Scott Union Monitor, 1863-1864
Fort Scott Weekly Press, 1869.

Fort Scott Western Volunteer, 1862
Leavenworth Daily Times, \862
Lawrence Herald of Freedom, \859
Missouri Republican, 1864

Topeka State Journal, 1861

Topeka State Record, 1861
Workingman’s Journal. 1869
Wyandot Gazette, }862

Unpublished Works
Ast, Kevin (Brother Matthew), Divided We Stand: Osage Leadership Before Removal. M.A. thesis,
Wichita State University, 1991.

Bacon, Allison. From Prairie to Town: The Cultural Landscape of Fort Scott, Kansas, From the 1830s to
the 1900s. M.A. thesis, Wichita State University, 1993.
Brown, Lula Lemmon. Cherokee Neutral Lands Controversy. M.A. thesis, University of Colorado, 1923.

Childress, David T. The Army in Transition: The United States Army, 1815-1846. Ph.D. dissertation,
Mississippi State University, 1974.

Gamble, Richard D. Garrison Life at Frontier Military Posts, 1836-60. Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Okiahoma, 1956.

Holder, Dauicl J. Changes in Attitude: Army Officers and Indian Policy in Kansas During the Mid-
Nineteenth Century. M.A. thesis, Wichita State University, i991.

Huff, James Paul. Fort Scotr's Regiment: The Sixth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, 1861-1865. M.A. thesis,
Pittsburg State University, 1987.

Keuchel, Edward. The Railway System of Fort Scott: A Study of the Impact of Railroad Development
upon a Southeastern Kansas Community, 1867-1883. M.A. thesis, University of Kansas, 1961.

Miner, H. Craig, The Border Tier Line: A History of the Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad,
1865-1870. M.A. thesis, Wichita State University, 1967.

Murphy, John. Pisto!l’s Legacy: Sutlers, Post Traders, and the American Army, 1820-95. Ph.D, disserta-
tion, University of Tilinois-Urbana, 1993.

392



the country. That spring, Grant implemented his strategy of attacking the Confederacy on four
coordinated fronts. As part of that campaign, federal forces under Gen. Nathaniel Banks and
Admiral David Porter pushed up the Red River to take Shreveport, Louisiana, intending to march
into east Texas. The expedition proved a total disaster, in large part a result of the incompetence
of Banks, a former congressman and governor of Massachusetts with no previous military
experience, The Red River campaign caused most of the regular Confederate forces operating
west of the Mississippi River to be moved south, away from Kansas and Fort Scott. In Missouri,
most bushwhackers were busy north of the Missouri River and east of Kansas City, leaving the
southwestern corner of the state relatively calm.”

Indian Territory remained a minor theater and senior federal leaders still sought to wage
war as cheaply as possible. The major Union offensive force continued to be the three Indian
regiments formed early in 1862, which the Army organized as the Indian Brigade and stationed at
Fort Gibson, Commanded by Col. William A. Phillips, the all-Indian force exerted federal
control over the northern half of Indian Territory, its reach limited by the less-than-adequate
supplies it received from Fort Scott. Hampered by small numbers of wagons and animal teams to
haul the food and supplies needed by his men, Phillips continually pressed Fort Scott for more
supplies. Early in March he sent a small number of his wagons north, hoping to get five or six
wagons “loaded with the most needful quartermaster's stores, pantaloons, socks, and shoes,” as
well as several wagons full of sugar, coffee, molasses, desiccated potatoes and other food stores.
He also made several recommendations for reorganization of the brigade, including providing
horses for all the soldiers in the Third Indian Regiment, furnishing a paymaster to pay his
soldiers, and asking for the fulfillment of promises Union generals and the Secretary of the
Interior made to his men. To bolster their combat effectiveness, Phillips also sought a minimum
of two white officers for each company, but recommended against dismissing all Indian officers,
arguing that they had proved very useful in battle and in preventing desertions."!

Federal commanders recognized the usefulness of the Indian regiments as a buffer, but a
combination of military necessity and their sense of the region’s lack of importance precluded
providing any more than small amounts of support. Curtis promised to send food and supplies
south from Fort Scott and up the Arkansas River, but declined to offer protection for all of the
Union Indian sympathizers trying to return to their farms. Curtis explained the strategic goal of
driving the main Confederate forces south was more important than protecting private
agricultural interests from guerrilla attack. He noted that Union forces were committed to fight
the rebellion wherever it appeared, and “protection should be and must be given to loyal persons
as far as we can.” Curtis reported on the situation to the Secretary of the Interior, telling John P.
Usher that without more troops he could not protect the population of Indian Territory.'?

Kansas commanders fuily recognized that renewed violence was likely at any moment

'° Shelby Foote, The Civil War: 4 Narrative, Fredericksburg to Meridian (New York: Random House, 1963), 389-405.

\ Phillips to Curtis, March 7, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/2, 524; Phillips to Curtis, March 7, 1864, O.R, Series [:34/2,
525.

" Curtis to Usher, March 10, O.8., Series :34/2, $57-58; Curtis to Phillips, March 9, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/2, 538-
39.

199



secured ahold on the community.

While Anderson vividly described the tension of “Bleeding Kansas,” noting how formore
than three months alarms of possible attacks constantly interrupted his work, the economic attrac-
tiveness of the state praved more irresistible. Writing to his brother, Anderson reported “I was
offered $500 for my claim this winter but this is no time to sell. Claims will be in great demand in the
spring. We have had no winter here until in this month and this would be called pleasant in Iowa. ...
Tel John Clinton that ifhe wants a claim in Kansas he had better come early this spring. There is
good chances here yet and the prettiest county he ever looked at. If] sell my claim I shall take
another,”

Federal troops returned to southeast Kansas to counter arenewed threat of violence. Two
companies of the First U.S. Cavalry, commanded by Capt. George T. Anderson and Lt. Ned
Ingraham, arrived at Fort Scott on February 26, 1858, The Democrat welcomed the troops, likely
seeing them as support for the pro-slavery camp. “It is hoped and expected,” an editorial read, “that
they will be permitted to remain until the Kansas troubles are ended.” The federal troops’ arrival
was timely. A man named Pharis on the Osage River reported being threatened by an armed gang,
Linn County residents reported more stolen horses, and settlers fleeing south “brought news of the
assembling of bodies of armed men from the northward who were marching with cannon upon Fort
Scott.” Acknowledging the Army’s neutral role, the Democrat also noted that “the army is here, not
to prosecute or annoy the innocent, but to serve as a posse in assiting [sic] the officers of the lawin
preserving the peace and in punishing crime committed by men of all parties.” Remnants of Fort
Scott’s political structure still allied with the pro-slavery camp made neutrality unlikely. Upon the
troops’ arrival, Anderson reported to Judge Williams and Marshal Little, Bourbon County’s ac-
knowledged representatives of the law, leading free-state supporters to claim that the federal troops
were supporting the pra-slavery forces.”!

The troops’ actions soon confirmed the fears of free-staters. In March, Anderson and Little
led the soldiers against Montgomery’s band, which was raiding isolated pro-slavery supporters who
lived near the Marmaton River. Late in the next month, the combined contingent patrolled the
Marmaton Valley in pursuit of the free-state force. During a chase, gunfire erupted, seriously
wounding a dragoon, Alvin Satterwaite, and killing Anderson’s horse. Satterwaite died two days
later. The Democrat lamented his loss and fixed blame: “It is right that those who shot him should
know that he came from the North,” adding that “he was a favorite in the company, a young man of
studious habits, liberal education, the son ofarespectable Philadelphian.’””

Violence continued across the region, although the controversy over slavery did not spark
all of the attacks. One of the most significant incidents, the Marais des Cygnes Massacre of May
19, 1858, shocked Linn County and the rest of Kansas and the nation. Montgomery’s earlier raids
through the region forced Charles Hamilton, apro-slavery supporter living in Linn County near the
Missouri border, away from hishome. Hamilton returned at the head of about twenty or thirty-five
men, and captured twenty men. After an impromptutrial, he released all but eleven, although none
of those men had taken part in any border disturbances, and nine of them were National Demo-

Scot Democrat, May 6, 1858.
» Fort Scott Democrat, May 8, 1858.
"Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, 1068; Fart Scott Democrat, March 4, 1858.

83


line of separation between Indian country and westward-moving settlers, became obsolete. After
1853, as expansion pressed westward, Fort Scott no longer guarded a boundary between settlers
and native peoples

Military action aimed at subduing American Indians became a common feature of
antebellum life, but the Army could not ignore developing international issues. During the era of
expansion across the continent, the United States also sought to define its Manifest Destiny in
globat terms, grappling with Spain, Mexico, and Great Britain. Assuming new missions, the
post’s garrison supported American military expeditions on the Plains before 1846. In that year,
when war with Mexico erupted, troops from Fort Scott turned away from Indian patrols and
joined other Army regiments pursuing what many Americans saw as their national destiny. With
the frontier line far to the west in 1853, the Army abandoned the post of Fort Scott. Following
the public sale of the former government buildings two years later, the town that kept the military
name occupied the same buildings and began its rise to regional economic power.

First established to help maintain peace on the frontier between whites and Indians, the
Amny outpost at Fort Scott became more than a military response to western problems. During
the nineteenth century, Americans continually looked westward. The country's frontiers
expanded at a faster pace than did the ability of political leaders to plan for expansion, and
national ideas about western development and the handling of Indian peoples inevitably lagged
behind settlement. Other issues soon eclipsed those frontier problems. The time’s social, political
and economic issues reached across the Plains and engulfed Fort Scott’s officers and soldiers.
Their post stood at the convergence of the country's three main sections, where South, North, and
West met. National problems compelled decisions and debates in cities and along the nation’s
peripheries, in the Astor Hotel bookstore in New York City frequented by such luminaries as
Edgar Allan Poe and the aging Albert Gallatin, and on the overlook above the Marmaton River.
The frontier mixing of regional tensions, caused by immigrants who often brought along their
political philosophies as they moved into the new lands, shaped the territory of Kansas.

In all of the national struggle over slavery, no place came to epitomize the inhumanity of
human to human more than “Bleeding Kansas.” There, zealots of all persuasions inflicted
violence upon one another in the name of causes that each side believed just. Regional strains
finally grew together into the Civil War, the culmination of three-quarters of a century of tension
within a national structure built upon inherent fissures. The compact fort above the Marmaton
River built on land close to the slave-holding states of Missouri and Arkansas offered a clear
view of the various trajectories that collided as mid-century approached. As tensions over the
status of African-Americans heightened, the regional farming community of what would become
Bourbon County grew up around the border town of Fort Scott, developing such a sizable
infrastructure that by 1861 the return of a much larger Army presence became possible. Built in a
location where it could provide security for two different culture groups, Fort Scott proved to be
a key regional player in the much larger national conflict over the future of a third.”

The conflict over slavery, fundamental to the nation’s future, gave the town of Fort Scott
a new importance after the Army’s mission to control American Indians in eastern Kansas faded.

> C.E. Cory, “Slavery in Kansas.” Kansas Historical Collections 7 (1903-1902): 229-242; Elmer LeRoy Craik,
“Southern Interest in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1858," Kansas Historical Collections 15 (1919-1922): 334-450.

11



the post. The Union Army hoped to avoid repeating the disaster of 1863, when Confederate
raiders drove the refugees off their farms and into the protection of Fort Gibson. With Stand
Watie’s raiders roaming the countryside and only the weakened and poorly supported Indian
Regiments for protection, the refugees were in a precarious position. They could hardly afford
further hardships. Their situation became even more desperate. On the same day they arrived at
Fort Gibson, Watie’s Confederate Indians captured the steamboat Williams as it headed up the
Arkansas River with tons of supplies for the Indians. The refugees arrived at Fort Gibson too late
in the year to plant crops. The prospect of starvation and mass chaos loomed.

Despite its remote location and continued Union battlefield successes, Fort Scott and the
rest of eastern Kansas remained vulnerable to Confederate attack from Arkansas and north
Texas. Curtis’ department relied on warnings from pro-Union farmers and citizens along the
borders as well as scouting reports sent from the small outposts surrounding Fort Scott for early
warning of Confederate movement. Federal patrols roved across western Missouri, eastern
Kansas and the Indian Territory, suppling information on the many bands of guerrillas and
bushwhackers operating in the region. A typical scouting report forwarded in July from Fort
Scott through Curtis to the Department of Missouri reported about two hundred Confederate
recruits gathered at bases along Clear Creek, east of Fort Scott, with another three hundred
operating south of the Kansas post. The report warned that Confederate commanders Joseph
Shelby and Sidney Jackman were in northem Arkansas and preparing to gather up these recruits,
clearly a precursor of some kind of military action.”*®

Those warnings soon proved true. During September, Confederate Gen. Sterling Price
unleashed 12,000 cavalrymen and infantry soldiers on Missouri in one more campaign to capture
the state for the Confederacy. The attack became the greatest military threat to Kansas during the
war. Price hoped to acquire weapons, supplies and recruits after he marched through eastern
Missouri and captured St, Louis. However, Union resistance changed his plans, so he advanced
through the center of the state along the Missouri River to Kansas City in hopes of capturing Fort
Leavenworth. Further Union resistance forced Price and his army south through eastern Kansas.
He again modified his plans, and now hoped to capture Fort Scott, all of the Union supplies and
destroying its warehouses. The ultimate political goal was to pull Missouri into the Confederacy
by sparking an uprising among secessionist supporters across Missouri, pushing the state out of
the Union in time to help defeat Lincoln’s reelection bid, Sherman’s capture of Atlanta on
September 2 devastated Southern morale and made Lincoln’s reelection a guarantee that the war
would end in a Union victory. Confederates hoped that detaching Missouri from the Union would.
provide an impetus to slow the northern advance.

Fort Scott played a crucial role before, during, and after the campaign, relaying
reconnaissance reports on Price’s advance, serving as a muster point for militia units across the
southeast corner of the state, and supplying troops with food, ammunition, and forage during
their final pursuit of Price as he fled south toward Arkansas.””

Price’s army faced severe constraints as the general began his march. Gathering his forces

* Curtis to Rosecrans, July 8, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/2, 92.

® Gov. Thomas Reynolds to Gen. Sterling Price and Col. Trusten Polk, June 27, 1864, O.R, Series [:34/4, 696.

205



gardens, growing a variety of plants and even
some fruit trees. Charlotte Swords, wife of the
fort’s assistant quartermaster, mentioned peach
trees in a letter to a friend, possibly referring to
the individual gardens grown behind the officers’
quarters. The large hospital garden provided the
Post Surgeon and patients with fresh fruit and
vegetables, what one observer called “a
sufficiency of esculents during the spring and
summer.”* Despite Army hopes for self-
sufficiency, the post consistently ran short of
vegetables and fruits.

Whether the post garden or a small
officer’s plot, any farming endeavor relied on
rain. The Army constructed the post during an era
of abundant rainfall on the Plains. It was the tail
end of the Little Ice Age, a cooling phenomenon
that began in the 1500 and lasted until about
1850. As a result, rainfall totals consistently
supported unirrigated agriculture. The post
surgeon, in charge of collecting weather data,
noted that 1851 was an excellent year for
precipitation, with the post recording 19.66 inches of rain, a vast improvement over the year
before, when the medical department measured 15.64 inches total. The heavier rainfalls in 1849
(31.02 inches) and 1848 (21.37 inches) produced a series of luxuriant vegetation and abundant
harvests as well as an undeserved confidence in the dependability of rainfall 10 the Fort Scott
area.”

When farming endeavors were successful, the vegetables and fruits from the post gardens
became an essential component of the garrison’s health. After the 1845 dragoon expedition to the
Rockies, the assistant surgeon at Fort Scott noted the deficiencies of the returning troopers’
military diet. On patrol, the men lived on commissary rations that they brought along — mainly
barreled pork or beef and flour, supplemented by whatever meat could be brought in by hunters.
‘There were few vegetables in the diet, and the soldiers lacked familiarity with the region and
available foodstuffs, If there were edible wild plants, soldiers rarely recognized them. Fort Scott
offered a much better variety of food. Once the patrol arrived at the post, “they indulged in a
variety of vegetables & watermelons, musk melons, green apples &c &c to an unlimited extent,”

Surgeon Joseph K. Barnes, in a photograph
taken after his Fort Scott service

+ George Croghan, “Inspection Report, Fort Scott, July 8, 1844,” Fort Scott National Historic Site Archives: Joseph K.
Barnes, “Medical Topography and Diseases of Fort Scott,” in Report on the Sickness and Mortality Among the Troops in the
Middle Division (1852), Fort Scott National Historic Site Archives; Quarterly Report of the Sick & Wounded at Fort Scott, Mo.,
for the Quarter Ending Scptember 30th 1852, Frame $4, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

?5 Quarterly Report of the Sick & Wounded at Fort Scott, Mo., for the Quarter Ending September 30th 1852, Frame $4,
Ilospital Records, Fort Scott National Historic Site Archives,

33



Fort Scott National Historic Site

formar Post Hospital in 1873.

8,

HS:

335


opportunity to take the field with cannons. The Army sought recruits for the First Kansas
Independent Light Artillery Battery (Colored) in Fort Scott and Fort Leavenworth between July
and December of 1864. First Lieutenant William D. Matthews was one of the three African
American officers assigned to organize this unit and he opened a recruiting office in Fort Scott
during August of 1864. In 1862 Lieutenant Matthews recruited a company of African Americans
for the First Kansas (Colored) Infantry Regiment, but the Army refused to commission him as an
officer because the government had not authorized the War Department to accept black officers
into the Army. Mustered in at Fort Leavenworth in January of 1865 and commanded by Captain
H. Ford Douglass, the Independent Colored Battery was the first all-African American unit in the
United States Army.**

At the war’s midpoint, the political objectives of restoring the union had shifted to ending
slavery across the nation, and African Americans became a crucial element in that movement.
Despite the growing influence of the anti-abolitionist movement, the use of African American
troops in Kansas was the result of military necessity, not political pressures. Short of manpower
in the West, the Union Army turned to other minorities. The recruitment of Indian regiments was
also the result of military necessity. The Army eventually removed its initial limitations to their
fighting in defense of their homes and not against white troops and they fought in Arkansas. Fort
Scott was in a unique position to serve as the mustering point for the minority regiments. The
state’s frontier status had a limited white population; political circumstances arising from its
location near slave owners and Indian Territory provided a ready source of recruits; military and
political leaders in Kansas benefitted from the state’s distance from senior officials in
Washington, D.C.; and Fort Scott had a ready supply of officers, ammunition and other military
necessities in place for supporting white regiments. Concentrating its efforts in the East forced
the Union Army in the Trans-Mississippi region to fight an aggressive Confederacy with limited
local resources. Thanks to the slave population of Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory,
and the refugee Indian population driven into Kansas, Fort Scott was positioned to assist in
overcoming that shortage.

TM Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansus, 1861='65, 17.

170


1865 PUBLIC AUCTION

All of the structures built in Fort Scott by the Army were sold by the Quartermaster Depart-
ment late in 1865. The structures were described in two documents: a notice advertising the sale,
and a complaint filed by several Fort Scott residents, led by Hiero T. Wilson, concerning the rent
paid on the land occupied by the buildings. According to an Army investigation, the land owners
assumed they would come into possession of the improvements at the end of hostilitics.!

1. Post stable, 71 by 25 feet, shed attached, located on Block 121

2. Mess house, 55 by 20 ¥ fect, 10 feet high, boards set upright and battened, shingle roof, 2 rooms
plastered, 10-foot shed attached, on Block 137

3. House, for Keeper of Mess house, 32 by 16 feet, 10 feet high, boards, set upright and battened,
shingle roof, 2 rooms plastered, on Block 137

4, Forage Office, 26 by 14 feet, 10 feet bigh, weather boarded, shingle roof, 2 rooms plastered, in
forage yard, Blocks 65 and 127-28

5. Two corn cribs, 28 by 12 feet each, 10 feet high, boards set upright and battened, shingle roof,
in forage yard, Blocks 65 and 127-28

6. Four corn cribs, 30 by 12 feet each, 10 feet high, lathed, shingle roof, in forage yard, Blocks 65
and 127-28

7. Hay Press Building, 60 by 38 % feet, 14 feet high, boards set upright, shingle roof, pine floor in
loft, located in forage yard, Blocks 65 and 127-28

8. Fence, around forage yard, 1,932 by 5 % feet, solid plank, Blocks 65 and 127-28

9. Military Prison, 80 by 20 feet, 15 feet high, 2 floors, logs 8 inches thick, shingle roof, located on
the 80 acres donated to government

10. Prison Office, 16 by 12 feet, 9 feet high, weather boarded, shingle roof, one room plastered,
located on the 80 acres donated to government

11. Fuel Office, (8 by 14 feet, 9 feet high, boards set upright and battened, shingle roof, 2 rooms
plastered, located in the wood and coal yard, Blocks 65, 66 and 68

12. lee House, 37 by 50 feet, 10 feet high, planks laid length-wise inside and out, shingle roof,
located on Block 1 (near old Officers Row)

13. Blacksmith Shop, 40 by 26 feet, 10 feet high, boards sct upright and battened, shingle roof, on
Block 3 (on southeast side of the old parade)

14. Store House, 40 by 17 feet, 10 feet high, boards set upright and battened, shingle roof, attached
to the blacksmith shop, Block 3

15. Building, 50 by 27 feet, 10 feet high, boards sct upright and battened, shingle roof, attached to
the blacksmith shop, Block 3

‘ Unidentified newspaper clipping, Nov. 24, 1865. cited in Erwin Thompson, Fort Scott, Kansas: Site Identification
and Evaluation (Washington, D.C.: Division of History, National Park Service, 1967), 194-96,

295


Chapter Five:
“If we surrender, it is the end of us”

Southeastern Kansas Goes to War, 1861

The historical vectors pointing at Fort Scott before and during the Civil War had as many
political elements as military ones. While President Abraham Lincoln led the fight to preserve
the Union and bands of Kansans raided Missouri communities for revenge and plunder, men
such as Senator James H. Lane battled Governor Charles Robinson for control of army patronage
appointments and quartermaster contracts, the Confederate war effort across Missouri splintered
over incompatible objectives, Indian tribes to the south of Kansas ripped apart into pro- and anti-
slavery factions, and the spreading violence unwillingly pulled in neutral settlers living on both
sides of the Kansas-Missouri border. Politics eventually amplified the pain of war felt by the
townspeople of Fort Scott and determined the course laid down by Lane, the man whose actions
largely determined the progress of war in Southeast Kansas throughout 1861.

The town of Fort Scott, which acted as Lane’s base during the war’s first year, played
small, yet significant roles in tenuously holding Missouri in the Union, helping defend Kansas
from military attack, and guarding a major Northern military transportation route. Enemy forces
threatened the town several times, but it never came directly under enemy fire. Its success as a
military post helped to stabilize the environs of Fort Scott and southeast Kansas. Instead of
serious military threats, Fort Scott commanders had to deal with widespread guerrilla activity,
with partisan aggression fueled by more than a decade of violence.'

The death toll caused by the five violent years of “Bleeding Kansas” continued to mount
after statehood, as Missourians and Kansans crossed and recrossed the state line to exact revenge
for past deeds and present outrages. Southeast Kansas, far from the federal installations at Forts
Leavenworth and Riley that might have helped maintain control along the state border, remained
especially vulnerable to Confederate guerrilla and troop incursions from Missouri, Arkansas, and
the Indian Territory. Without nearby federa) troops, irregular bands could easily slip across the
border to satisfy personal grudges, The government allotted much of the available manpower to
serve in the rapidly expanding Union Army, leaving the state government limited resources for
raising local militia units, An overall lack of military organization, weapons and equipment for
the local militia units compounded the manpower problems, which caused dramatic rifts among
Kansas’ political leaders.

Although during the first year of the war the town of Fort Scott lacked an army post, it
soon felt the effects of these chaotic military circumstances, Several of the town’s buildings
served as headquarters or storage space. Troops billeted in tents near the Marmaton River and on
the prairie to the west and south. Even before the Army formally reestablished Fort Scott in

* Stephen Z, Starr, The Union Cavairy in the Civil War: Volume Lil: The War in the West, 1861-/865 (Baton Rouge:
Lonisiana State University Press, 1985), 174-75; Richard §. Brownlee, Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Activity in the
West, 1861-1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1958).

95



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

Oe
building

et

a g ca
e 1971: Excavation of the west side of the

HS-7, Jun

foundation. View looking west, with KG&E building, KG&E
substation and roof of Bruce Marble Works in the back-
ground.

HS-7, June 25, 1971:
Excavating southwest
corner of the building
foundation. View
fooking west.
Marmaton Avenue
going from teft (south)
to right (north) almost
immediately adjacent
to the west side of the
building foundation.
KG&E building and
substation in back-
ground.

303



‘The military supported the medical facilities in ways other than building tents on the
fort’s parade grounds. In January 1863 the quartermaster department ordered construction of a
large icehouse in Fort Scott to store away ice for the hospital’s summer use, Three months later
District of Kansas authorized the quartermasters at Fort Leavenworth to provide ten ambulances
with teams and drivers for Fort Scott. Labor continued to be the hospital’s biggest problem and
regiments stationed near the post continued to provide the bulk of the labor force. In August
1863, their regiments assigned one soldier from the Second Colorado Infantry and another from
the Third Wisconsin Cavalry to act as nurses. One man from the Second Indian Home Guards
and two from Third Wisconsin served as cooks, a Third Wisconsin solder acted as ward master,
and the Tenth Kansas Infantry supplied the hospital steward. In that month the hospital reported
holding one hundred and four beds, with eighty of them in tents. Eighty-four men were sick, and
another ten wounded, Seeking to provide additional stability and competence to the work force,
in October the War Department ordered all men detailed for hospital duty sent back to their
tegiments, to be replaced as nurses and cooks by convalescent patients.*°

The ultimate test of Fort Scott’s hospital department came late in 1864, as surgeons and
medical staff were called upon to treat the wounded from Gen. Sterling Price’s raid through
western Missouri. On October 23, when Price was approaching Kansas City before fighting at
Westport, Fort Scott held one hundred and seven patients, with all but fourteen sick. Those
numbers remained fairly constant until October 26, one day after Union and Confederate forces
met in Kansas’ largest military engagement, Mine Creek, when thirty-four soldiers were
admitted, with twenty-seven having gunshot wounds. They joined the ninety-four sick patients
already in the wards. Twenty-six more Union and Confederate soldiers were admitted the
following day, with fourteen reporting gunshot wounds. The Fort Scott medical staff added more
tents and beds on October 28 to bring capacity to two hundred. Reflecting the cavalry nature of
Mine Creek, three men were admitted on October 30 with saber cuts, along with cight listed with
gunshot wounds. By November 26, the hospital stretched its capacity to two hundred and fifty
beds, holding one hundred and twenty-three ill patients and eighty-three wounded men. Healed
Union patients were quickly released and returned to their regiments, and on December 1, the
hospital held just ninety-eight sick men and forty wounded soldiers. Nine Confederate prisoners
had recovered enough on that date to be sent to the military prison in Fort Scott. Two days later
the hospital’s capacity was reduced by fifty beds.*!

For far too many soldiers, the post hospital was just the final step before their death and
interment in the nearest plot. Most of the dead were laid to rest at Fort Scott National Cemetery,
a new area developed in direct response to changes in American attitudes. The early nineteenth
century saw a revolution in the way that Americans viewed death and attended to their lost ones.
The frontier grave sites and small private plots in colonial homesteads gave way to graveyards

*° Fort Scott Bulletin, January 16, 1863; Capt, H.G. Loring to Maj. L.C. Easton, April 11, 1864, National Archive RG
94 Entry 393 Vol. 138, Page 604, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives; Morning Repori of Sick and Wounded in General
Hospital, Fort Scott, Kansas, Roll 8, Records of Adjutam Gencral, Fort Scott Post Returns June 1842 to Api. 1853; June 1858;
January 1861 to September 1865, Record Group 94, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

* Fort Scott Daily Monitor, Nov. 3, 1864; Morning Report of Sick and Wounded in Generat Hospital, Fort Scott,
Kansas, Roll 8, Records of Adjutant General, Port Scott Post Returns June $842 to Api. 1853; June 1858; January 1861 to
September 1865, Record Group 94, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

184



Epilogue

Fort Scott National Historic Site

1980 aerial overview (Northwest view).

259



FORT SCOTT’S
COMMANDING OFFICERS

Frontier Years

Capt. Benjamin D. Moore, First Dragoons
Capt. William M. Graham, Fourth Infantry
Capt. Sidney Burbank, First Infantry

Capt. Thomas Swords, First Dragoons

Capt. Sidney Burbank, First Infantry

Capt. Albemarle Cady, Sixth Infantry

Capt. Alexander Morrow, Sixth Infantry

Maj. Philip R. Thompson, First Dragoons
Capt. Alexander Morrow, Sixth Infantry
Assistant Surgeon Alfred W. Kennedy

Capt. Albemarle Cady, Sixth Infantry

First Lt. Thomas Hendrickson, Sixth Infantry
Major Winslow F. Sanderson, Mounted Riflemen
Capt. Michael Van Buren, Mounted Riflemen

Bleeding Kansas

Capt. Samuel D. Sturgis, First Cavalry

Capt. George Anderson, First Cavalry

Lt. John B. Shinn, Third Artillery

Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, Second Infantry

Gen. William Harney, Department of the West
Capt. William Steele, Second Dragoons

Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, Second Infantry

Civil War

Lt. Col. W.H. Emory, Sixth Cavairy

Col. Charles Doubleday, Second Ohio Cavalry
Major B.S. Henning, Third Wisconsin Cavalry
Major. Charles W. Blair, Second Kansas Volunteers
Capt. D.C. Vittum, Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Capt. Robert Carpenter, Third Wisconsin Cavairy
Col. W.B. Pearsall, Forty-Eighth Wisconsin Infantry

Lt. Col. Henry Shears, Forty-Eighth Wisconsin Infantry

Capt. Nathaniel Vose, Seventeenth Ufinois Cavalry

May 30, 1842 to Oct. 23, 1842
Oct. 23, 1842 to July 21, 1845
July 21, 1845 to Dec. 18, 1845
Dec. 18, 1845 to April 19, 1846
April 19, 1846 to Sept. 30, 1848
Sept. 30, 1848 to Feb. 6, 1849
February 6, 1849 to June 6, 1849
June 6, 1849 to April 7, 1850
April 7, 1850 to Oct. $3, 1850
Oct. 13 to Nov. 24, 1850

Nov. 24, 1850 to Oct. 6, 1852
Oct. 6 to Nov. 2, 1852

Nov. 2, 1852 to Jan. 6, 1853
Jan. 6 to April 22, 1853

Dec. 22, 1857 to Jan. 10, 1858
Feb. 1858 to May 1858

May 17, 1858 to June 9, [858
June 9, 1858 to Aug. 5, 1858
Dec. 3, 1860 to Dec. 11, 1860
Dec. 11, 1860 to Dec. 20, 1860
Dec. 20, 1860 to Feb. 1, 1861

August 1861

March 1862 to August 1862
August 1862 to April 1863

April 1863 to December 1864
December 1864 to February 1865
February 1865 to March 1865
May 1865 to July 1865

July 1865 to August 1865

August 1865 to October 1865


Eade

ais setae as See ee Bea ene al
The First Kansas Independent Light Artillery Battery (Colored), the first all-African American unit in the
United States Army, training at Fort Leavenworth in 1865.

1863. Even after they proved themselves in combat, the Army’s African American regiments
often found themselves fighting their own government as well as the Confederates.

Six months after the First Kansas (Colored) Infantry Regiment entered federal service, the
Army authorized another Kansas regiment of African Americans. Like its predecessor, most of
the Second Kansas (Colored ) Infantry Regiment came from the state’s larger population areas
along the eastern border, including Leavenworth and Wyandotte, with one company manned by
Missouri volunteers. The government mustered the companies into federal service at Fort Scott
as they filled, taking from August to mid-October. Applying the lessons learned from the Indian
expedition, the regiment’s officers were enlisted men recruited from battle-hardened regiments.
Samuel J. Crawford, who became a governor of Kansas after the war, was the unit’s commander,
The regiment’s first deployment came two days after K Company mustered, when commanders
assigned it to escort a large supply train from Fort Scott to Fort Smith, Arkansas.?”

The early success of African Americans in uniform allowed the Army to expand its use of
the minority troops. After proving their worth as infantry troops, African Americans received the

* Special Orders No. 28, Headquarters, District of the Frontier, Fort Blunt, August 16, 1863, Record Group 393 Army
Continental Commands, Cos A-K 79th Inf. (Ist Kansas (Colored) Volunteer Infantry), Fort Scott National Historic Site
microfilm Roll 2, frames 1685, 1680, 1600.

* Comish, Kansas Negro Regiments, 12-13; Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 1861-65; Burke,
Official Military History of Kansas Regiments, 423-30.

169



res Kotirl “One ae ee
An artist's rendering of Fort Scott in 1871, showing the former officers’ quarters to the right of a tree-
lined Carroll Plaza. At the bottom, from left, are the former post headquarters building and dragoon
barracks and stables, while to the right, from bottom, are an infantry barracks building, post hospital and
guardhouse. Above the plaza are outbuildings and the other former infantry building.

for restrained responses in a civilian situation. One of the command’s first general orders, issued
in September 1869, reminded the officers that the conflict they faced was inherently civilian in
nature. At the first sign of conflict, detachments were to peacefully force their way between the
Leaguers and the railroad crews, resorting to violence only upon the order of the civilian
authority. Officers were subordinate to civil authorities at all times and were to receive written
instructions before arresting anyone.'*

The federai troops entered the conflict ostensibly as a neutral force dispatched simply to
maintain the peace. but their fealty to Joy and the railroads was unmistakable. MRFS&G workers
built four temporary barracks along the railroad line for the soldiers. The railroad paid for the
buildings. Troops worked as laborers on the structures under the command of railroad engineers.
At first troop shortages affected the situation. The Army sent a company of men from the Second
US. Artillery Regiment to southeast Kansas without their heavy weapons, instead mounting the
men on horses and using them as cavalry troops. By December, the Sixth Infantry troops were
reinforced with experienced horsemen as Company A of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry, a few years
away from Little Bighorn, replaced the mounted artillerists. Roy stationed one infantry company

General Orders No. 2, Sept. 10, 1869, Roll 21, Post of Southeast Kansas: Orders, Special Orders and Endorsements
Sent, 1869 to 1873.

243



HS-4 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-4 west half (So
never replaced. 1966.

: i z z fe f (i a
elevation). The east haif of this building was destroyed by fire in 1945 and was.

Restored HS-4, front
(HS-32}. 1976.

331



expansion, the prototype for extension to all Western territories. By federal law, congressional
legislation could not restrict the peculiar institution there, and a large portion of the state population
supported slavery and states’ rights. Missourians sought to export their way of life, and the Kansas-
Nebraska Act of 1854, which permitted the citizens of the territory to choose slave or free-state
status, gave them the opportunity. Abolitionists and free state advocates had other ideas. They
intended to populate the Kansas Territory to bring it into the nation as a free state and a large
abolitionist contingent made the state a hotbed of anti-slavery sentiment. In addition to the strong,
slave presence on its eastern border, Kansas’ free-state and abolitionist movements had to deal
with additional slave support from its southern neighbor, the Indian Territory now Okiahoma, where
many Indians, especially the Cherokee, owned slaves.*

The political crisis over slavery became the nation’s focal point. The conflict on the Kansas-
Missouri border known colloquially as “Bleeding Kansas” became no jess than acontest for the
nation’s soul. Some of the most militant participants lived in the southeastern part of the Kansas
Territory. Before the abolitionist John Brown found national fame for his failed attemptto spark a
slave uprising by raiding the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, he made his homein
Osawatomie, asmall town in Miami County about fifty miles north of Fort Scott. Throughout the
territorial period, Missourians committed to ensuring Kansas joined the Union with laws protecting
slavery crossed the border and terrorized homesteads. No less zealous in pursuit of their objectives
than Brown, the pro-slavers resorted to any tactic they could to intimidate “free soilers.” Brown and
others responded in kind and the Kansas Territory became the scene ofa conflict that foreshad-
owed the Civil War. The threat of insurrection in Kansas became so serious that in 1855, the
government stationed 25 percent of the active U.S. Army force in the territory. One year later
President Pierce increased troop strength there to half ofall federal soldiers.’

When Pierce proclaimed Kansas a territory on May 30, 1854, he created a laboratory that
exposed the national fractures over slavery. Political problems dogged the new territorial govern-
ment from its inception. The first governor, Andrew Reeder, acorpulent Pennsylvanian with dark
blue eyes and iron-grey hair, faced jeopardy from the momenthe arrived. The proximity ofneigh-
boring Missouri increased the chances ofa pro-slavery legislature ifa quick vote took place before
a flood of emigrants from northern states arrived. Reeder thwarted pro-slavery goals when he opted
to hoida special election to select a delegate to Congress instead ofa general vote for delegates to
the territorial legislature. The action incensed slavery advocates and allied politicians claimed Reeder
was too slow in making Kansas a slave state. President Pierce received recommendations for the
governor’s removal as early as December 1854.5

Reeder ordered a territorial census on January 22, 1855. The southern four-fifths of Bour-

¢ Gunja SenGupta, For God and Mammon: Evangelicals und Entrepreneurs, Masters and Slaves in Territorial
Kansas, 1854-7860 (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1996); James R. Shortridge, “People of the New Frontier:
Kansas Population Origins, 1863," Kansas History t4 (Autumn 1991), 162-185.

” Stephen B. Oates, To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown (NY: Harper and Row, 1970),
James Rawley, Race and Politics: “Bleeding Kansas” and the Coming of the Civil War (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.,
1969); Laurie, “Filling the Breach,” 154.

* Homer E, Socolofsky, Kansas Governors (Lawrence; University of Kansas Press, 1990), 33-35; Eric Corder,
Prelude to Civit War: Kansas-Missouri, 1834-61 (Voronto, Ontario: Collier-Macmillan Canada L.td., 1970}, 22-23; Jeffrey
Rogers flummel, Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War (Chicago: Open Court,
1996).

74



Tailroad system. Joy agreed to pay $75,000 cash within ten days of ratification of the sale and
remainder in time payments.* Squatters had become an issue for a private landowner, not for
government agencies.

On July 25, 1866, the K&NV won federal heip through the influence of its lobbyists
working in Washington, D.C., and became a serious contender in the competition for
constructing tracks to the Gulf. One railroad lobbyist, James Blunt, was the former commander
of the military forces in southern Kansas during the war. President Andrew Johnson approved an
act of Congress entitled “An act granting lands to the State of Kansas to aid in the construction of
the Kansas & Neosho Valley Railroad and its extension to Red River.” The legislation authorized
the line’s continuation through Indian Territory to the northern line of Texas. To finance
construction, the federal bill granted ten sections of land per mile through Kansas and the Indian
Territory after the Indian titles were extinguished. The K&NV also won permission to negotiate
with Indian tribes for the purchase of additional lands, In addition to the federal largess, Kansas
granted the company the proceeds from the sale of 125,000 acres of land.’

The K&NV still faced difficult financial conditions. Two years later, the board of
directors asked Bourbon County if the bonds approved by the voters could be issued to the
company but held in trust until the tracks reached Fort Scott. Bourbon County remained adamant.
It agreed to support the K&NV if construction reached Fort Scott within two years and the line’s
name was changed to the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf (MRFS&G) Railroad Company.
Strapped, the KENV had little choice. The rail line opened to Olathe on December 16, 1868. In
November 1869, construction of tracks reached Bourbon County. The Fort Scott Monitor
reported on November 10 that “The pile driving is nearly completed for the railroad bridge across
the Marmaton River.” On December 7, 1869, the first train arrived at Fort Scott, pulling cars
Jaden with merchandise. One of the first items unloaded was a car of lath board, used for the new
three-story Gulf Hotel already under construction in town. The line eventuaily became one of the
great coal-carrying railroads in the nation, supplying Kansas City with coal dug from mines
across southeast Kansas. Lines to the state’s southern boundary, three miles south of Baxter
Springs, were completed May 2, 1870. After working for a competing railroad, B.S. Henning, the
former Fort Scott post commander with the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, became general
superintendent of the MRFS&G railroad line. Fort Scott’s dreams of railroad glory grew even
brighter a year later, when the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad reached town.'®

Three years after the end of the Civil War, three railroad companies had organized with
the same objective: to control rail traffic to the Gulf of Mexico. Proponents and lobbyists of the
three lines introduced bills in Congress to secure right-of-way through Indian territory for their
own lines. The location of tribal land in Indian Territory realistically limited the number of
railroads that could enter from Kansas to one. Unwilling to politicize the selection process, the
federal government instead opted for a race. The first company to reach the southem border of
the state within the limits of the Neosho valley would earn the right of way and a conditional land

* Brown, Cherokee Neutral Lands Controversy, 6-10.
° Banwart, Rails, Rivalry and Romance, 2-3.

"Ibid, 7, 13.



an affront. Their families, homes, and businesses were at risk, threatened by raids from the south.
They pressured the military to do more for them. In January, Col. Phillips, commander of the
Indian Brigade, bypassed the military chain of command to present his picture of the Indian
Territory situation to Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War. Phillips reported that the
Confederates held numerical superiority in Indian soldiers and artillery, backed by a brigade of
Arkansas and Texas troops. Military requirements elsewhere had already forced the transfer of
two regiments, he stated, and the planned evacuation of Fort Smith would further weaken his
command. Phillips declined to offer his recommendation about the Indian Territory, but he
predicted he could continue to hold it, if'an infantry regiment, artillery battery, and enough
mounts for half his men were sent to his brigade. If the Union declined to maintain a foothold in
the northern half of Indian Territory, he warned, the Confederates would have a free hand to turn
the whole region against the North.*

Despite Northern military successes, Fort Scott’s perceived vulnerabilities continued to
worry Union leaders, On February 1, concern over Fort Scott’s vulnerability to attack led military
leaders to prepare for the construction of new fortifications overlooking the town. Army
engineers designed the new breastworks to surround twelve acres containing barracks,
quartermasters’ office and warehouses, stables, and headquarters and mechanics buildings. Army
engineers selected a hill to the southeast of the town as the best location. The new fort was to use
lumber shipped south from Fort Leavenworth, since the available amounts of timber were
predicted to be inadequate for the huge amounts required.*

Not all of Phillips’ perceived enemies were to the south. The longtime commander of the
Indian Brigade officially condemned two Fort Scott officers. Capt. David S. Vittum of the Third
Wisconsin Cavalry served as provost marshal for southern Kansas. Phillips bitterly wrote to Maj.
Gen. Francis Herron, one of the region’s senior officers, “Only think of one of the most noted
cattle thieves being police officer on the border.” Blair also drew criticism from Phillips, who
warned that “I have plenty in my hands, but think I ought to prefer charges and push the matter
against both of them and others.” Some of those others were government contractors working out
of Fort Gibson, including former Fort Scott merchant A. McDonald. Phillips claimed to have
evidence showing McDonald and Indian Superintendent William G. Coffin were involved in a
huge swindle of Indians, taking corn shipped south from Fort Scott on one contract and selling it
on another. Corn seized from Confederate sources and furnished to the Cherokees in the spring
of 1864 had been planted and successfully harvested, Phillips wrote, but Coffin convinced
federal officials to allocate another $200,000 to feed the supposedly starving Indians. The Indian
superintendent then authorized McDonald & Company to furnish com at $7 a bushel, while the
contractor’s agents bought up local supplies for the contract at $2 to $2.50 a bushel. Phillips also
accused the two men of prohibiting Indians from killing contraband cattle, instead forcing them
to purchase beef from McDonald, who was relying upon those very same contraband animals for
his contract to supply beef to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.’

5 Phillips to Secretary of War, Jan. 8, 1865, O.R., 1:48/1, 456-7.
° McPherson, Bautle Cry of Freedom, 807-830; Fort Scou Daily Monitar, Feb. 1, 1865.

’ Phillips to Herron, Jan. 16, 1865, O.R., 1:48/1, 542.

219



apply for mill duty and asked that he mail out a double-barreled shotgun, rifle and hunting jacket.
These mill schemes did not help Swords complete construction of the post.”

The War Department soon added more worries for Swords. Infantry was the least
expensive branch of the Army and it remained the mainstay of the westem frontier. The lack of
infantry at Fort Scott limited the response of the dragoons to situations at any distance from the
post. Dragoons had to perform all the routine tasks that usually fell to the infantry and as a result,
could not mount their full strength in military situations. To counteract that limitation, Kearny
proposed that the Army station a company of infantry at the post. Tight military budgets made
the deployment of infantry more economical than using horses, but several years of experience
with infantry fighting mounted Indians demonstrated to Army leaders the value of troops on
horseback. The Secretary of War noted in his 1842 report that “The very nature of the service
required renders the employment of mounted men indispensable. The rapidity of their
movements is the element which gives to us the advantage in any collision with the Indians.”

In an attempt to balance the economics of the infantry with the effectiveness of mounted
troops, the Army ordered the deployment of one company of infantry to Fort Scott to
complement the dragoon force. This decision made Swords responsible for the construction of
another set of structures. On October 26, 1842, Swords received orders to build quarters for the
infantry immediately.” By mid-December 1842, Swords had completed designing the general
layout of Fort Scott. He arranged the buildings around a parade ground 474 feet long, with
framing and weather-boarding planned for all the structures under construction. A drought that
began in the summer slowed progress and dry conditions showed no sign of ending. Swords
hoped that rains would boost the water flow in Mill Creek enough to “raise the stream as the mill
is pronounced by judges to be a very superior piece of workmanship and is warranted to put out
5000 to 6000 feet of plank per day.” Despite his optimistic projections, the mill never
consistently provided the output he needed.

Construction work at Fort Scott continued through 1843 and 1844, always hampered by
lack of trained workmen and questions about trimming the Army’s budget for projects such as
Fort Scott. Washington’s view of the fort’s progress was normally optimistic. In the annual report
of 1843, Thomas Jesup, the Quartermaster General, noted that Fort Scott’s “quarters, barracks,
hospital and other buildings, were, at the last report, in such a state of forwardness that no doubt
is entertained of the completion of all these buildings by the close of the year.” The next year he
reported that construction was still in progress, being delayed becausc other duties called off
troops. The post work force had nearly completed two blocks of officers’ quarters and three
soldiers’ barracks, and had stockpiled materials for another set of officers’ quarters. He

* Muster Roll, Company A, First Dragoons, July and August 1842. Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm:
Swords to Abraham R. Johnston, November 26, 1842, quoted in Myers, From the “Crack Post, 6-7; David Schafer, “Everybody
Here Is Hunting Mad," Kansas Wildlife and Parks $1, n. 6 (November 1994 ): 23; Lt, David Russel? to C.L. Russell, December
14, 1845, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

*' Keamy to Brig. General R. Jones, Adjutant General, Sept. 18, 1842. Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm;
Report of the Secretary of War, November 26, 1842, 27th Cong, 3d sess., House Document 2: 177-78.

* Jesup to Swords, October 26, 1842, M745, Roll 17, Page 524, TJ102642, 2, Fort Scott National Historic Site
microfilm.

35



Other instances of military justice were not as formal as courts martial. Officers on patrol
in bushwhacker country surrounding the post were often under orders to execute captured
guerrillas, a sentence carried out by a Third Wisconsin patrol in April 1863. After a quick trial in
the field, an officer assigned to execute the sentence took two men from the companies making
up the patrol, led the three condemned prisoners to the road in front of his detail, and read the
sentence. “The doomed men made no reply,” he recorded in his diary, “but started to run when.
the boys fired upon them with their carbines killing them instantly.” The Army was not the only
dispenser of justice. Two soldiers accused of raping a Fort Scott woman in front of her daughter
were in the town jail awaiting trial when a civilian mob broke in, seized the pair, and lynched
them."

Law enforcement concems were not just a matter for provost marshals. Fort Scott’s
officers were often forced to act as guardians of the rights of the civilian population against
crimes committed by soldiers. When a military board convicted a soldier from the Fifth Kansas
Regiment of stealing a widow’s watch in Carthage, Missouri, it sentenced him to have half of his
head shaved. It also ordered him sent to solitary confinement, and finally drummed him out of
the service. After seven Third Wisconsin Cavalry troopers acting as escort to the acting clerk of
the District Court ai Carthage, Mo., stole a gold watch valued at $100 and other items from the
clerk, Col. Charles Blair, Fort Scott’s commander, issued a strong rebuke to the company
commander. He warned the soldiers must immediately return the stolen articles, or “the men will
be tured over to the tender mercies of the State militia for trial or execution.” In a follow-up
letter to the company, Blair ordered the officer to provide a messenger to return the stolen
objects, cautioning him to assign “some messenger who will take them and the Stolen property
through to Capt. Sutherland and return without stealing anything also.”

The government also called upon the military to handle civilians suspected of treasonous
activities. An officer serving in one of the outposts surrounding Fort Scott captured a
Confederate sympathizer in mid-August 1863 and, concluding that allowing him to remain free
was too dangerous, sent him into the main post for trial. Two days later a patro! captured two
suspected bushwhackers. They joined the first suspected sympathizer on the road to Fort Scott
for a military trial.”

With the influence of peacetime law agents diminished by the war, arguments between
civilians sometimes pulled in Army officers. One man, Jobn Raynolds, on September 2, 1864,
swore out an affidavit stating he had a contract to deliver fifty tons of hay to the U.S. government
on land for which he was the agent, complaining that three men entered the field and took the
grass he had cut. Lt. James B. Pond of the Third Wisconsin investigated and determined
Southern sympathizers owned the land and Raynolds had no jegal claim to the hay. Forging his

October 1865, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives...
** Porter, A Journal of Events, April 4, 1863; Fort Scott Bulletin, May 31, 1862.

Col. Charles Blair to Lt. Pond, Sept. 16, 1864, and Blair to Pond, Sept. 17, 1864, Record Group 393 Army
Continental Commands, Third Wisconsin Cavalry Letter Book and Order Book and Company Order Book and Morning Reports,
Fort Scott Nationat Historic Site microfilm Roil 2, pg. 107: Fort Scott Western Volunteer, March 31, 1862.

® Porter, A Journal of Events, Aug. 17, 1863.

180



many as seven thousand Indians under Stand Watie were moving north to attack settlements
across Kansas’ Neosho Valley. Downplaying the effectiveness of the Union garrisons at Fort
Smith and Fort Gibson, Blunt requested more troops to guard the state’s southern border, a
recommendation that was promptly rejected.'! .

Dodge soon found himself embroiled in the turmoil of the Indian Territory. Phillips
sought help from the commander of the Department of Missouri to stop what he saw as the “evils
that have assumed fearful proportions,” namely the continued driving of stolen cattle north into
Kansas. In addition to criticizing Coffin, the local Indian agent, for his involvement in the cattle
stealing, Phillips cited two instances involving Capt. Vittum of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry. In
April, Phillips wrote, Vittum allegedly entered Indian Territory escorting a supply train and on
his return north drove a herd of five hundred to six hundred animals. In late May, he reportedly
was accompanying two officers to Fort Smith and, again on his return, took back a large number
of cattle. Restating the concerns expressed earlier to Stanton, Phillips noted to Dodge that Vittum
was now the provost marshal assigned to Fort Scott, “which will give you an idea of the police
regulations on the northern border of the nation, on which I have to lean.” Previous complaints to
Curtis about cattle theft had been rejected on the grounds that rustling was a civil matter.
Although most Kansas-based soldiers regarded the Indian Territory as enemy country, Phillips
said he could stop the degradations, if he could get the senior commanders to derail “the
nefarious system which appears to have a thorough organization in the State of Kansas.”

Although the real threat of a Confederate attack on Fort Scott was minimal in the months
following Price’s invasion of 1864, the perception that the past remained vulnerable lingered on,
and the Army continued efforts to improve regional security. It assigned Lt. Robinson of the
Engineer Corps to Fort Scott to supervise construction of the new fortification southeast of the
city. Even without the influx of more federal dollars for construction, the Army base at Fort Scott
exerted a strong influence on the local economy. The post quartermaster stored about 70,000
bushels of corn in the forage yard, most of which the town newspaper proudly reported, had been
grown in the county.”?

At the end of February, Fort Scott remained in Sub-District 2 of the District of South
Kansas, Col. Charles Blair, former post commander, was in charge of the subdistrict, leaving
Capt. Robert Carpenter in charge of Fort Scott. The principal offensive arm at the post came
from the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry, with companies B, D, E, F, I:and K in the garrison, A section
of the Second Battery of the Kansas Light Artillery furnished heavy firepower. Surrounding Fort
Scott to the south and east were smail detachments from the Fifteenth Kansas and the Third
Wisconsin Cavalry encamped in Missouri at Fort Curtis, Fort Hamer, Fort Insley, and in Kansas
sub-posts at Humboldt, Fort McKean, Marmaton, Mound City, Pawnee Station, and Trading

" Bhunt to Dodge, Feb. 14, 1865. O.8., 1:48/1, 54-52.

” Phitlips to Maj. Gen, Edward R.S, Canby, commander of the Military Division of West Mississippi, Feb. 16, 1865,
OWR,, 1:48/1, 870-72,

® Fort Scott Daily Monitor, Feb. 18, Feb. 22, 1865.

221



D
gf Model 1536 Johnson Pintlock Pistol

Some Dragoon firearms used by Fort Scott troops (From The
House Soldier, 1776-1943, Vol. 1, by Randy Steffen. Copyright ©
1977 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. Reprinted by
Permission. All rights reserved.)

while mounted on borseback.'°

allowing the powder and bullet to
be inserted into the bore of the
receiver. Dragoons poured the
powder from the paper cartridge
into the receiver and then tamped
the bullet into place with the
ramrod or a small finger. The
receiver was then closed and the
weapon primed by placing a
percussion cap onto its holder
and the carbine was ready for
firing. The .54 caliber bullets
weighed one-half ounce. Some
carbines had bayonets that
retracted into a recessed slot
below the barrel, while others
held ramrods. The dragoons also
carried the 1836 Johnson single-
shot muzzle loading percussion
pistol and the 1840 heavy
dragoon sabre, commonly named
“Old Wristbreaker.” With this
complement of arms, Dragoons
were very effective fighters —
after they mastered the intricacies
of loading their potent arsenal

Officers serving across the American continent enjoyed more than superiority in weapons
and logistical support over Indian opponents. As did institutions across the country, the Army
was beginning to experience what historian Walter Millis termed “the managerial revolution,”
the growth of a control structure that allowed for efficient, effective, and fast utilization of a large
organization. In previous wars, improvised command structures and confusion over exactly who
was in charge of what hampered the military’s effectiveness. Using the lessons learned from
battlefield defeats in the War of 1812, Congress passed legislation in 1816 and 1818 to create a
General Staff to coordinate Army strategy. Operational command of the country’s regions shifted
to designated officers in charge of districts and departments, with the Secretary of War providing
overall coordination. In 182] the brilliant John C. Calhoun, one of the century’s most effective
War Department leaders, created the post of commanding general of the amy, finally
establishing the principal of one overall leader. A ceritralized command structure also led to a
standardized method of instruction for recruits and officers. The 1841 publication of Cavalry

Randy Steffen, The Horse Soldier 1776-1943: Vol. f, The Revolution, the War of 1812, the Early Frontier 1776-

4850 (Norman; University of Oklahoma Press. 1977), 131-134,

47


southeastern Kansas’ eventual role as refugee station for thousands of African Americans and
Indians. For the rest of the state, Fort Scott stood as a guardian to Confederate invasion from

Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory.“

* Trego to his wife, Nov. 12, 1961, “The Leitors of Joseph T. Trego,” Part Il, 298.

116



severe to punitive, deserters ran great risk when they fled.”

Military justice affected more than just the enlisted men. The frontier army’s officers
were also subject to sanction, but more often they were such a scarce commodity that instead
they sat in judgment on the many military courts that administered justice. Officers took part in
trials on both sides of the bench, many of which resulted from military regulations which
outlawed dueling and forced gentiemen to seek satisfaction for imagined or real slights from the
courts. One near-continuous drain on the command structure at Fort Scott was the demand for
officers and enlisted men to attend courts-martial as judges or witnesses. Officers from the fort
traveled to nearby posts such as forts Leavenworth, Wayne, and Gibson and distant ones that
included Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis and West Point, New York. The Army maintained two
levels of courts-martial for its commissioned officers. A post commander administered hearings
for lesser offenses. More serious charges required that the president of the United States, a
general commanding an Army or a colonel leading a separate department convene a general
court-martial, a board that required anywhere from five to thirteen officers to sit as judges. When
such a board found a defendant guilty, it also fixed the punishment.”

Between calls for detached duty such as courts martial, officers attended to the more
mundane features of garrison life. Supplying their isolated posts proved to be one of the most
important and difficult of tasks. Provisioning required local efforts as well as military supplies.
The post’s gardens provided vegetables and fruit, likely the only regular source of such
commodities in soldiers’ diets. Purchases from Missouri farmers and the post sutler sometimes
supplemented Fort Scott’s stores of fresh vegetables and fruits, but market demands and
unreliable transportation meant that the military could not rely on farmers’ surplus. Army
regulations ordered the post garrisons to plant and maintain gardens during two separate phases,
from 1818 to 1833 and again from 1851 to 1854. Gardens offered two advantages: they provided
much needed nutrition and the economic benefits of raising food locally also added incentive for
the financially strapped Army.

Before 1853, post commanders determined the enthusiasm for crops at Fort Scott.2? On
July 8, 1844, as part of an inspection of frontier forts, Colonel Croghan described the post
gardens at Fort Scott as following: “Messing: The post gardens being good, the fare is equal to
every wish of the soldier.” The exact location of the plots remain unknown, although a medical
report identifies a one-hundred-acre cornfield adjoining the post on the south. Fort Scott’s
inability to reliably and consistently raise crops can be ascribed to poor weather conditions, the
average soldier’s lack of experience in farming, and the lack of manpower for field work, with
many soldiers patrolling or assigned other duties. Officers stationed at the post also maintained

3! William McAnaney, “Desertion in the United States Army,” Military Service Institution of the United States 10
(September 1889), 450-478; MeCalltey, Army of Manifest Destiny, 110; Francis Paul Prucha, The Sword of the Republic: The
United States Army on the Frontier, 1783-1846 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969); Leo Oliva, Fort Scott: Courage
and Conflict on the Border (Topeka: Kansas State Historical Sociery, 1994), 57.

2 McCaffrey, Army of Manifest Destiny, 107-110.

® Coffman, The Old Army: 168-170; Miller J. Stewart, “To Plow, w Sow, to Reap, to Maw: The U.S. Army
Agriculture Program,” Nebraska History 63, n, 2 (1982), 194-215; Allison Bacon, From Prairie to Town: The Cultural
Landscape of Fort Scott, Kansas, From the 1830s to the 1900s (M.A. thesis, Wichita State University, 1993).

52


Joe Ury, a former Union scout employed at Fort Scott, about thirty-five miles southeast of the
post, Neighbors passed word of the attack to a detachment of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry
Regiment stationed at Fort McKean near Morris’ Mill on the Drywood Creek. Assuming it was a
small band of guerrillas, a five-man patrol responded. Reaching the Ury house but greatly
outnumbered, Pond and two other troopers successfully attacked Taylor’s men while the other
two soldiers retuned for reinforcements. The unexpected charge freed all the prisoners except
Ury’s father, killed by the bushwhackers. Units of the Third Wisconsin and the Fifteenth Kansas
pursued the fleeing guerrillas for fifty miles, killing five. According to newspaper accounts, an
insufficient number of firearms prevented the soldiers from killing more of the bushwhackers.
James Pond nominated his brother for the Medal of Honor, which he eventually received.”

With Northern military and political leaders concentrating on the war in the East, supplies
and men went there first, leading to Western grievances about inadequate support. The complaint
about inadequate supplies was not unusual among the Kansas garrisons. Posts across the region,
including Fort Scott, were chronically short of reliable weapons and horses, two essentials for
combat in a theater that featured long-distance marches and short, intense battles. The Eleventh
Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, listed in May 1864 as having twenty-one officers and 644
enlisted men ready for action in the field, was short 149 rifles. Another fourteen weapons were
unserviceable. The Third Wisconsin Cavalry companies assigned to southeast Kansas, reduced in
number to 205 after two full years of service, were missing twenty-two rifles for its toopers and
listed another twenty weapons as unserviceable. Fort Scott’s supply of horses was almost as poor.
The Fifteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, 622 officers and men, had only 483 horses
for the regiment, while the Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry Regiment had only ninety-five horses for its
178 officers and men. The shortages continually hampered the North’s military effectiveness in
the area, and most likely prevented an early solution to the guerrilla and Indian problems.”

The lack of guns and horses reflected the diminished significance of the western theater
as the war in the East heated up. Political pressure by Republicans for military victories increased
after June 8, when James Lane, the U.S. Senator from Kansas, nominated Abraham Lincoln as
the party’s candidate for the presidency again. Lee and his men slipped into the safety of the
fortifications surrounding Richmond and Petersburg, denying Grant’s plans to crush the Army of
Northern Virginia. The resulting siege lasted ten months. On June 23, Grant proposed to Halleck
that the North concentrate all available Union strength against Confederate armies east of the
Mississippi River, recommending that “West of the Mississippi 1 would not attempt anything
until the rebellion east of it is entirely subdued.””

Kansas commanders hoped for a quiet spring, but the situation in Indian Territory grew
potentially worse. Hundreds of refugee indians who left their camps near Fort Scott in May
arrived at Fort Gibson in mid-Iune. They joined thousands of refugees already camped around

2 William G. Cutler, History of the State of Nebraska (The Western Historical Company, A. T. Andreas, Proprietor,
Chicago, IL, 1882); Col. Charles Blair to Capt. George S. Hampton, District of Southern Kansas, May 16, 1864, O.2. Series
§:34/1, 936-37; Porter, 4 Journal of Events, May 16, 1864; Fort Scott Daily Monitor, May 21 1864,

* Inspection Report of Brig. Gen. Thomas J. McKean, May 1864, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

5 Grant to Halleck, June 23, 1864, O.R,, Series 1:34/4, 14-15.

204



A portion of the Halke map printed Jan. 28. 1863, showing how the existing defenses | guarded the town's
southwest, southeast and northeast approaches. The post's parade ground is marked by a small
American flag in the middle of the map.



Fort Scott’s Structures

Fort Scott National Historic Site provides an example of a U.S. Army post on the nation’s
frontier from 1842 to 1853 by combining original buildings with reconstructed structures. The post
survived threats of conquest during the Civil War, but many of its buildings later fell victim to remodeling
orremoval for residential or commercial reasons; others were destroyed by fire. The town of Fort Scott
became interested in restoring the fort to its original appearance in the 1950s, the start of restoration and
reconstruction that led to the 1965 establishment of Fort Scott Historical Area, a joint project with the
town and the National Park Service. Congress established Fort Scott National Historic Site in 1978. Its
enabling legislation states the site, through its buildings and interpretative services provided by the
Nataional Park Service, will “commemorate the role that Fort Scott played in the opening of the west,
the Civil War and the strife that preceded the Civil War in the state of Kansas.”

Building Description Park Service Designation
Officers Quarters No. 1 HS-1

Officers Quarters No. 2 HS-2

Officers Quarters No. 3 HS-3

Officers Quarters No. 4
Enlisted (Dragoons) Barracks
Enlisted (Dragoons) Barracks
Enlisted (Infantry) Barracks .
Hospital ..
Guardhouse .
Dragoon Stables
Ordnance and Post Headquarters
Quartermaster Storerooms .....
Quartermaster Stable
Bake Shop...
Well Canopy
Flag Pole ..
Magazine
Lunette Blair..........
Company Wash House and Latrine
Stone Building
Carriage [louse Behind Officers Quarters No.
Carriage House Behind Officers Quarters No. 4
House’
Stone Building
Outbuildings behind HS-1
Outbuildings behind HS-2 ..

* Believed by Frwin Thompson. in Fort Scott, Kansas, Sie (dentificution and Evaluation, to have been constructed
after 1855.

4 Determined in urban renewal period (1965-1970) to be non-historic to park’s fort historic period. Structure was razed.
} Determined to be of early twentieth-century construction during an archeological investigation in the [980s

319



Tactics by the War Department, which led to common maneuvers among mounted troops, helped
dragoon training. During the 1840s, the instruction, protocals, and command procedures
underwent similar modification. Small conflicts across the Plains abounded, and in these local
affairs leaders learned to exploit the possibilities of transporting and supplying troops by
steamboat. The real fruits of these efforts became visible during and after the American Civil
War, when large armies took to the field for campaigns lasting months, armed, clothed and fed
by enormous supply trains, and coordinated by faraway officers and political leaders.!!

The prospects of Indian-settler conflict sparked the initial call for a mititary post in what
would become southeastern Kansas, and the Army's Quartermaster and Ordnance Departments
furnished the material to build it and the arms to protect it. Nearly everything else at Fort Scott
depended upon the enlisted ranks — the men who built the fort and patrolled the trails to fulfill
its mission. Enlisted men were the backbone of any post, and Fort Scott was no exception. When
fort personnel accomplished tasks, it was with the sweat and strength of soldiers. The problems
that arose usually involved either the lack of enlisted labor, soldiers’ health problems, or the
simple difficulties of compelling labor from recalcitrant individuals on the nation’s periphery.”

The daily routine for the soldiers stationed at Fort Scott varied little. Bugle cal!s defined
the day with a series of distinct tunes, the routine occurring in a never-ending and consistent
sequence. During a typical day at Fort Scott, the call for reveilie came at daybreak, followed
fifteen minutes later by stable call, the time for dragoons to clean the stables and feed and prepare
their horses for the morning’s activities. Sick call followed at 7:10. The call to breakfast came at
7:30, signaling the day’s first post-wide activity. Throughout the remainder of the morning,
troopers heard bugle calls announcing fatigue call summoning the men assigned extra duty, guard
call for those standing watch, and orderly call. Dinner call came at noon, with the day’s second
fatigue call coming an hour later. The afternoon stable call came at 1:30. Retreat, marking the
end of the work day, sounded at sunset, and the tattoo call at 9:00 p.m. marked the time for
troopers to be in their quarters. Regulations required only the watch detail, those on guard duty,
to remain awake after the sun went down. The soldiers usually stood for two hours at an assigned
post, followed by four hours of fitful sleep fully clothed in case an alarm sounded."”?

Often the morning sick call provided the greatest variation in the daily routine. As did
most other Army outposts, Fort Scott has a hospital that was the responsibility of a surgeon or an
assistant surgeon, Regiments typically assigned the worst of their enlisted men to the hospital as
either attendants or cooks, The hospital building received priority during post construction, and
by 1848 it was completed, except for porches and two smali outbuildings.” A line of the ill, the

" Millis, Arms and Men, 131-211; Allan Millett and Peter Maslowski, For the Common Defense: A Military History of
the United States of America (NY: Free Press, 1994), 117-122; Skelton, “The Commanding General and the Problem of
Command.”

" Coffman, The Old Army, 210-211.

® Post Records of Fort Leavenworth, January 26, 1850, as quoted in James H. Carleton, The Prairie Logbooks.
Dragoon Campaigns to the Pawnee Villages in 1844 and to the Rocky Mountains in 1845 (Chicago: Caxon Club, 1943): xi.

* Coffman, The Old Army: 182-191; Erwin Thompson, Fort Scott Historic Structures Report, Part If: Historical Data
Section (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1968), 43-44.

48



memories of “Bleeding Kansas.” The jayhawking past of Charles Jennison, assigned to lead a
column hounding the Confederates through Missouri and into Arkansas, resurfaced, as several
dozen officers serving in his brigade signed a formal complaint protesting the “indiscriminate
pilfering and robbing of private citizens, and especially of defenseless women and children, that
has marked the line of march of this division.” A week later, Blunt ordered Jennison’s troops
back to where they were before Price’s raid, citing the “difficulty among the troops at Fort Scott.”
Although their efforts had defeated the Confederate invasion, Union leaders prepared for another
enemy drive. On November 25, Curtis recommended that in the future the Army divide the
border force protecting southeast Kansas between Paola and Fort Scott.”

Winter brought an end to fighting in the field and the bureaucratic infighting resumed.
The Army reorganized Kansas again in December, reconstituting the District of South Kansas on
December 6, One subunit, comprising the counties of Bourbon, Allen, Woodson, Greenwood,
and Butler, and all territory south to the southern boundary of Kansas and the military outposts of
Fort Scott, was designated District No. 2, headquartered at Fort Scott and commanded by
Colonet Charles W. Blair, Fourteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. Two days later, Blunt initiated
an investigation of reports of outrages and vandalism committed by Jennison’s forces in
northwest Arkansas during their return to Fort Scott. By way of a response, Jennison complained
to Blunt about the small number of men in his new command, saying he deserved to lead more
than two hundred and fifty men. He blamed his new subordinate position on his refusal to follow
James Lane’s lead in military contracts and demanded the Army allow him to resign. Blunt
answered that Jennison should accept his orders, whatever they might be, and observed that the
conduct of his command as it returned from the Arkansas River was a disgrace to Kansas. The
next day Blunt relieved Jennison from command of the subdistrict and placed him under arrest.”

The most dangerous period in Fort Scott’s history passed quickly. The Confederates had
finally seen Fort Scott, but only as prisoners brought in afier the battle of Mine Creek. Decisive
Union action all along the Kansas-Missouri border, aided by supplies provided by Fort Scott,
defeated Price’s plans to level the town and its warehouses. Retreating south, Price’s column lost
even more men and supplies to the pursuing federal forces, kept well supplied by regular wagon
trains sent out from Fort Scott. The post had survived its most serious test.

2 Blunt to Hampton, Nov, 23, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/4, 660; Curtis to Lt. Robinson, Nov, 25, 1864, O.R., Series
41/4, 683.

% General Orders n. 32, District of South Kansas, Dec. 6, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/4, 783; Blunt to Brig, Gen. .M.
Thayer, Dec. 8, 1864, O.R, Series 1:41/4, 798-99; Jennison to Capt. George S. Hampton, Dec, 10, 1864, 0.2, Series 1:41/4, 843;
Blunt to Jennison, Dec. 11, 1864, O.R., Series £:41/4, 844-46,

215



Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-9, June 1971:
View to the south.
Northeast corner of
original foundation
uncovered. Lincaln
Avenue to the left
and the intersection
of Lincoln Avenue
and Market Street in
the center of the
background.

HS-9, June 1971: View
to the southwest.
Foundation of the
original guardhouse
uncovered. HS-8 (Post
Hospital/Visitor Center)
covered with galvanized
tin roofing is at extreme



gathered at Mound City and Fort Scott would be more valuable in northeast Kansas. “I do not
believe Price will venture north of the Kansas River,” Blunt predicted, “but will strike as far up
on the south side of the river as he can.” Curtis answered frostily: “Of course Price is to be met;
when and where will depend on his position and our collection and organization. This latter
business should occupy your whole attention now.’**

At Fort Scott, preparations for an attack were under way. Residents organized three
armed militia companies that were ready for duty and the Army organized another company out
of the post’s quartermaster employees. In addition, the town waited for another four companies
filled with men from the surrounding county. An African-American officer, First Lieut. William
D. Mathews, in Fort Scott to recruit soldiers for the Kansas Colored Independent Light Artillery
Battery, commanded another militia company of about one hundred African American citizens.
Along the Kansas border, nearly 10,000 men served in militia units; another 2,600 guarded
interior sites. Poorly armed and with minimal military training, for the great majority their only
uniform was a red badge pinned to their hats.”

Kansans were unsure of Price’s objectives in the state, but many military leaders believed
Fort Scott was one of the key targets. “It is very probable that Price will move in the direction of
Fort Scott,” Jennison warmed Blair on October 11, “for the purpose of getting from that place a
sufficient amount of subsistence for his conunand.” The post commander needed to keep scouts
out in all directions. All businesses in town were closed and Blair ordered all male citizens
between sixteen and sixty to report to their militia companies.“

By October 12, Price threatened the federal garrison in Lexington, Missouri, about thirty
miles east of Kansas City. Seeking to balance the twin needs to defend Kansas City and southeast
Kansas, Army leaders ordered Blunt to leave between eight hundred and one thousand men at
Fort Scott and send the rest north. Blunt told Jennison that the post garrison should be infantry,
comprising those least acceptable for field duty such as African Americans and quartermaster
employees. He also ordered the transfer of one thousand rifles and one hundred rounds of
aromunition for each weapon for the defense of Kansas City and the north. The Army instructed
Blair and his men to move from Fort Scott to Mound City the following day. After placing
Captain Vittwn of Third Wisconsin Cavalry, in command at the post, Blair left Fort Scott and
headed north with almost one thousand men.*!

Several Kansas leaders still saw hints that Fort Scott remained a primary Confederate
target. On October 14, Jennison forwarded a report from scouts that a large Confederate force

** Special Orders No. 215, Department of Kansas, Oct. 10, 1864, O.R., Series {:41/3, 764; C.S. Charlot to Lane, Oct.
10, 1864, O.R., Series [:41/3, 769; Blunt to Curtis, Oct. U1, 864. Curtis to Blunt, Oct. 11, 1864, 0.R., Series 1:41/3, 794..

* Blair to Curtis, Oct. 11, 1864, O.R., Series 1:4 1/3, 795; Castel, Civil War Kansas, 189.
“ Jenison to Blair, Oct, 1k, (864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 796.

“" Curtis to Blunt, Oct. 12, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 823; Bhint to Jenison, Oct, 13, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 847;
Lt. Joseph Mackle, First Sub-District of Kansas, to Blair, Oct. 13, 1864, O.R, Series (:41/3, 848; Reports of Col. Charles W.
Blair, Nov, 25, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/1, 596; Accompanying Blair were Companies A, C. D, F, and M, Third Wisconsin
Cavalry; Companies D, E, and L, Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry; Company D; Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry; right section Second Kansas
Battery; four howitzers and an ordnance train, Company E, Fourteenth Kansas Cavairy; Liewtenant-Colonel Eves’ battalion of
Bourbon County militia, and Capt. John Wilson's company of independent cavalry scouts.

209



HS-9 Fort Scott National Historic Site

The new city jail constructed in 1906 that replaced the original post guardhouse (Northeast elevation), The city
razed this building during the 1965-1970 Fort Scott Urban Renewal Project. Circa 1955.

HS-9: Post
Guardhouse
foundation,
reconstruction in
progress (East
view). 1974,



Chapter Eleven:
Fort Scott and the Union Effort, 1865

- President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection in November 1864 signaled the North’s resolve
to continue fighting until the rebellion of the Southern states was crushed. The signs of imminent
victory were everywhere. The Democratic Party’s peace effort, which offered Southern leaders a
hope of a negotiated settlement, crumbled in the face of a string of federal! victories that included
Gen. Sterling Price’s failed campaign in Missouri late in 1864. The South’s economic situation
received another and nearly final serious blow on Jan. 15, 1865, when Confederate ships running
the Union blockade lost their last seaport. The capture of Fort Fisher, guarding Wilmington,
N.C., ended all European imports into the South, and helped diminish the south’s military threat.
As 1865 began, Lincoln and his strategists recognized that their focus would soon shift to
rebuilding the nation and reintegrating the South into the new Union. The question that remained
was only when the South would capitulate.

The military forces that once had threatened the North across half a continent now were
surrounded. The Confederacy’s remaining hopes for independence rested with the Army of
Northern Virginia. Battlefield defeats pushed General Robert E. Lee’s army of 55,000 soldiers
into the miles of fortifications surrounding Petersburg, severely limiting offensive operations.
After General William Sherman’s devastating march across Georgia and Phil Sheridan’s equally
crippling drive across the Shenandoah Valley, the Carolinas were the only source of food
available to Confederate armies. In light of the increasing gloomy war news, desertion became a
serious problem to Lee’s army, especially among units raised in North Carolina as the men fled
to protect their homes and families.’

The Confederate campaigns that had periodicaily threatened Missouri and Kansas and
other Midwest states faded away as the South focused its energy on protecting Virginia and the
Carolinas. As they came to understand that the war was coming to an end, Kansans sought to
resume their lives even as the fighting continued. When Price and his scattered command were
driven south of the Arkansas River into Arkansas, the Kansas militia ordered to the border
counties returned home. The state’s Republican Party followed the national lead when it posted
overwhelming victories in the November elections, electing Chase County resident Samuel J.
Crawford governor and returning most of James Lane’s supporters to the state senate, ensuring
his reelection to the U.S. Senate. Before leaving for Topeka, Crawford had to resign as
commander of the Second Kansas (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment.”

Impending victory led to a broadening of Fort Scott’s obligations. As the Union’s
battlefield successes continued, the combat-hardened veterans camped along the Marmaton River
tumed their attention to the renewed threat of bands of guerrillas and the ongoing problem of

‘James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civii War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 845-6.

? Albert Castel, Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), 197-200.

217



to Lawrence backed by more men and two pieces of artillery. The group destroyed two newspaper
offices anda hotel, and some men broke into several stores and destroyed free-state leader Charles
Robinson’s house. Two days later, ina direct response to the attack on Lawrence, John Brown led
four of his sons and two other men ona rampage through Frankdin County in May 1856. They killed
four unarmed settlers in what the pro-slavery press labeled the “Pottawatomie Massacre.” In
retaliation, pro-slavery forces attacked Osawatomie, where Brown lived, killing one ofhis sons."

Seeking an escape from the violence, many Kansans fled the northern tiers of counties and
sought new opportunities in the southeastern half of the territory. Inresponse to free-state settlement
inthe southeastern part of the Kansas Territory, southerners tried to populate the region with their
own supporters. George W. Jones led a group of about thirty men to Bourbon County in spring
1856, organized by the Southern Emigrant Aid Society. Many pro-slavery men belonged to “Dark.
Lantern Societies” or “Blue Lodges,” secret groups organized to push free-state settlers from the
territory. The pro-slavery men in July began pressuring free-state supporters to leave the county,
hoping for political victory fortheir cause as well as economic advancement by assuming ownership
of the now-vacant properties. Separated by ideological differences, both pro-slavery and free-state
adherents often fought in the courtroom as well in the field, masking their political agendas behind
writs and lawsuits.

Because of the series of pro-slavery territorial governors, the Army played a partisan, pro-
slavery role in assisting state and local law agencies, both in northern Kansas and later in the south-
eastern counties. The free-state legislature selected a governor, Charles Robinson, who pro-slavery
Sheriff Samuel Jones promptly arrested. United States troops held Robinson and other free-state
political leaders at Lecornpton for four months on suspicion ofhigh treason for their involvement in
the free-state legislature. When the free-state legislature convened its July 1856 session, the threat
ofpro-slavery attack ominously loomed. Col. Sumner led eleven companies of dragoons to posi-
tions to the north and south of Topeka. When the legislators inquired of Sumner’s intent, he told
them thatifthey met, “the authorities ofthe general government should be compelled to use coercive
measures to prevent the assemblage of that Legislature. Sumner rode to the legislature’s meeting hall
at the head of two hundred dragoons, with a pair of cannons ready for action. He told the delegates
that although the action was the most painful ofhis life, under a presidential proclamation, he was
ordering the legislature to disperse. In fear of the pro-slavery forces, the delegates cheered the
dragoon officer and as he departed, they dispersed.!*

Continuing violence across Kansas prompted more federal intervention. Pro-slavery forces
demanded Shannon's resignation, and President Pierce replaced him with John W, Geary of
Pennsylvania in September 1856. The new governor was prepared for the situation —he was a
veteran of the Mexican War and had fought vigilantes as San Francisco’s first mayor. Atabout the
same time, Gen. Persifor F. Smith replaced Col. Sumner at Fort Leavenworth. The forces under

Kansas?; Political Killings in Kansus Territory, 1854-{861,” Kansas History 18, n. 2 (Summer 1995): £26-£29; Affen
Crafton, Free State Fortress: The First Ten Years of the History af Lawrence, Kanans (Lawrence, Kans.: World Co., 1954);
Carolyn Berneking, ed., “A Look at Early Lawrence: Letters From Robert Gaston Elliot,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 43
(Autumn 1977); 282-296,

4 James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civit War Fra (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988),
148-150; G. Murlin Welch, Border Warfare in Southeastern Kansas, 1856-1859 (Pleasanton, Kans,; Linn County Publish-
ers, 1977), 13.

77


HS-i5 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-15, Well Canopy. Second reconstructed well canopy (Southwest elevation). 1980. Background: restored
buildings, left to right, HS-4 (Officers Quarters) and HS-12 (Quartermaster Storehouse).



Archeology

Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-13, Quartermaster's
Quadrangle, April-July
1972: South view of the
118-foot trench of the
west perimeter footing
foundation. Trench
commenced at the
northwest corner of HS-
30 with a north-to-south
orientation. Trench is
paraliel to the north/south
municipal alley which
was behind, to the east,
of the Quartermaster’s
Storehouse (HS-12) and
the reconstructed
Infantry Barracks (HS-6).

HS-13, Quartermasier’s
Quadrangle, 1972: West
view. Removal of
groundcover on top of the
south perimeter footing
foundation of HS-13. This
trench was 100 feet long,
with an east-to-west
orientation. Trench
commenced at the
southeast comer of HS-
30, which is the stone
structure in the photo-

graph.



Nathaniel Lyon of the Second Infantry and two companies of infantry out of Fort Leavenworth and
assigned them to Fort Scott to relieve the company of artillery garrisoned there. Lyon’s orders
placed him and his troops under the civilian control of Judge Williams or the deputy marshal. Inhis
report after arriving in southeast Kansas Territory in early June, Lyon told his military superiorsat
Fort Leavenworth that after crossing the Big Blue River, about twenty miles north of the Marmaton
River, he found mostly deserted houses, Many remaining residents banded together for protection
against both pro-slavery and free-state forces, Lyon noted, adding that according to local sources,
“most of the people, in this region, are armed, organized, and on the alert” to repel any intruder.”
Lyon also recognized the threat arbitrary violence posed to settlement in the area. The armed
incursions across southeastern part of the Kansas Territory interrupted area farming for at least fifty
miles north of Fort Scott. As a consequence, the price of agricultural products rose, and people in
the area feared any stranger who happened by. No social order existed, and the captain thought the
only resolation would be the permanent presence of federal troops in the area.

Committing federal forces to calm the domestic violence introduced new problems. Lyon
informed Denver, the territorial governor, that the forces fighting in Bourbon County and Fort Scott
took advantage of the federal presence. Armed parties left town, committed acts of violence in the
countryside and fled to the refuge of Fort Scott; pursuers would not pursue them because of the
military. In addition, he wrote, the nature of the conflict forced his troops to remain in close contact
with area residents and opened them up to “appeal to the political sympathies of the Soldier in
behalf of the respective parties, whereby a corruption is engendered in the ranks difficult to reach
and correct.” Such actions, he warned, could shatter the notion of the Army as impartial arbiter, as
the keeper of order in the chaos of Bleeding Kansas. After holding a conférence with Montgomery
on his way south, the governor arrived at Fort Scott on June 15 to try to mediate a negotiated
settlement, Lyon found Governor Denver a “frank, high-toned gentleman,” and the governor
mustered all the authority its office gave him. He met with different groups in hopes of achieving
resolution. “Ranting demagogues and office seekers” threatened to disrupt the process, Lyon noted,
although residents craved peace. Denver proposed that if all the armed bands dispersed and the
citizens kept the peace, he would withdraw the federal troops and suspend all writs until a proper
tribunai could review them. Robinson, who accompanied the governor, accepted the blame for the
chaos. “As the Free State men were in a large majority in the Territory,” Robinson allowed, “they
were responsible for al] the disturbances, and should long ago have taken steps to have prohibited
them.” After one meeting, Lyon said, area people seemed to support Denver's proposals for
quelling the violence, Eventually, as Fort Scott resident George Hopkins remembered, the opposing
parties “agreed with the officials to let all bygones be bygones and all live up to the laws from thence
forward.” Denver left Fort Scott the next day."

Bourbon County ~ Fort Scott, Collection 688, Kansas State Historical Society, Welch, Border Warfare, 125-126; Fort Scot
Democrat, Jung 10, 1858; U.S. Army Records of Kansas Military Posts, 1842-1869, Microfilm Box 260 —- Fort Scott
Records, Post Returns June 1842-March 1871, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, RG 94, Kansas State Historical
Society.

» Fort Scatt Democrat, May 27, 1858; Capt. N. Lyon to Maj. T.W, Sherman, Commanding Fort Leavenworth,
June 10, 1858, Fort Scott National Historical Site Archives; Welch, Border Warfare, 120.

“ Capt. N. Lyon to Gov, J.W. Denver, June 13, 1858, Fort Scott National Historic Site Archives; Capt, N. Lyon
to Maj. T.W, Sherman, Commanding Fort Leavenworth, June 15, 1858, Fort Scott National Historic Site Archives; Fort

87



Salaries paid to local civilian workers were hardly the only contribution that the Army
made to the area. The construction of Fort Scott required more materials than its soldiers could
produce and that demand drove the regional economy. In July 1842, Swords advertised in the
Missourian newspaper in Independence, about ninety miles northeast of the post, for necessary
materials. These included one hundred thousand well-burnt bricks, delivered at the rate of no less
then twenty-five thousand each month. He also sought five hundred thousand laths for plastering
wails, delivered in lots of one hundred thousand monthly, and three-hundred thousand shingles,
with half available for monthly delivery. In September and October of 1842, Swords paid N.
Beardslee $74.25 for delivering fifty thousand shingles each of the months, at the rate of $2.97
per thousand.® On the frontier, this was real money, hard cash, an always scarce commodity.

The needs of the post were vast. In addition to building materials, the Army bought food,
animals, and feed. On July 31, 1842, Swords purchased five hundred fifty-seven and one quarter
bushels of corn from William Pryor for $313.45; in September he spent $85.37 for one hundred
fifty seven and three-quarters bushels of corn from Edward L. Chouteau, and he bought three
yoke of oxen at $40 each along with two ox chains for $130.76 from John Shirley.“ There was
no better source of currency on the frontier than the military, nor was it any surprise that the
residents of Arkansas had lobbied so hard for the return of their fort. In addition to the purely
military buildings, the new outpost also had a sutler’s story. The merchant, operating under
contract to the Army, offered goods to the fort’s officers and men. In addition, he provided
settlers in western Missouri with another market for their goods, and also maintained a source of
manufactured items available for purchase.

Economic factors, which made all of the Army’s posts extremely desirable for frontier
communities, provided settlers in the region with a consistent source of capital, but Fort Scott
was built to provide a military presence. The concept of an inviolate Indian country marked by a
Permanent Indian Frontier had fallen apart, and the Army increasingly saw its mission as
controlling Indian reactions to settlers’ provocations. Between 1833 and 1844, the Army built
fifteen new posts, although most proved temporary in nature. The fear of war between the two
cultures remained constant. Increasing white presence across the Plains continued to threaten the
region’s Indian population and forced the Army to send its dragoons to persuade Indians not to
fight the onslaught. Fort Scott’s troops played a role in these maneuvers, but it was war with
Mexico in 1846 that shifted national attention from Indian attacks on the Plains to international
tensions on the nation’s southern border. When combat came, the increased professionalism of
the Army’s officer ranks proved decisive.

© Fort Scott National Historic Site, Quartermaster Records, Frame 849, 286.

Quartermaster Abstracts, Records of the General Accounting Office, 3rd Quarter 1842 ~ 3rd Quarter 1843; Roll; 01,
Frame No: 85; Roll: 01 Prame No: &7; Roll: 01 Frame 90

Beers, The Western Military Frontier, }72-(16; Coffman, The Old Army, 102-3.

42



Vernon County, Missouri, on August 5, but the 1,500 Confederates pushed back the much
smaller Union party. At Fort Scott, Maj. B.S. Henning reported that a large force threatened the
post, a situation worsened by his total lack of artillery. Henning cautioned that the Indian
expedition could not abandon Fort Scott, the source of its supplies. Confederates again exploited
the poor communications. weak leadership, and general uncertainty of the Cnion attempt to take
back Indian territory.”

Fort Scott’s position on Missouri’s flank became a crucial part in defeating this newest
Confederate threat. Early in August, southern sympathizers and guerrillas took the offensive
across Missouri. On August 11, William Clark Quantrill captured Independence, just east of
Kansas City. A Confederate force of 1,500 led by Colonel John T. Coffee avoided a powerful
Union patrol near Springfield, and scouts reported that the column headed north, possibly toward
a rendezvous with Quantrill. Army commanders sent two Missouri state detachments to block
Coffee’s advance, and Maj. General John Schofield ordered Blunt to cut off any Confederate
retreat. Blunt was in Fort Scott on the day Quantrill attacked Independence, and delivered a
speech following James Lane’s “war talk” to the large crowd gathered in front of the Fort Scot
Hotel. Two days later, Blunt reviewed the troops at Fort Scott, with two infantry regiments. two
batteries of artillery and about 1,500 mounted troops marching past, before leading them against
the Confederates. On August 14, Coffee's force, reinforced to about 4,500 by southern
sympathizers who joined the successful column, defeated one of the Missouri detachments near
Lone Jack, about twenty-five miles south of Independence. and marched on Lexington, east of
Independence. Aware of Blunt’s pursuit, Coffee gave up plans to attack Lexington and retreated
south to Arkansas, with Blunt’s forces in pursuit. The Kansans ended their march back at Fort
Scott on August 22, covering almost three hundred miles in six days.

Confederate leaders soon granted new significance to the uncertain situation in the
western theater. After the battle of the Seven Days in the eastern theater late in June, Confederate
General Robert E. Lee reorganized the Army of Northern Virginia, shipping several generals
deemed inadequate in combat to less crucial commands in the West. He assigned Major General
Theophilus H. Holmes to lead the Trans-Mississippi Department, replacing Major General
Thomas Hindman, who {ee reassigned to the District of Arkansas. Learning of Confederate
successes at Independence and Lone Jack, Hindman planned to join forces with the withdrawing
force for another attempt to conquer Missouri. He organized several regiments of exiled
Missourians and called on Brigadier General Albert Pike, the special agent assigned to secure the
support of the several tribes, to bring his Indian troops back to the fray. Pike was a Bostonian
who won antebellum fame in a victorious lawsuit on behalf of the Creek nation and who
captained Arkansas volunteers in the Mexican War. Less than a month after Southern batteries
opened fire on Fort Sumter in April 1861, Pike proposed to Robert W, Johnson, Arkansas”

lenning to Lt. Block: AAG, Indian Expedition, August 6, 1862. “Old Book 981-982. 988-992, Bound as 394
Depr. Mo.” Roll 25. Department of Missouri Telegraphs. Orders. Etc.. Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

2 William & Connelley. Quanmrill aid the Border War (Cedar Rapids. lowe: The Torch Press. 1910): Report of Maj.
Benjamin S. enning. Third Wisconsin Cavalry, August 6. 1862, O.8., 1:8, 210-211, Henning to Lieutenant Blocki. Acting
Assistamt Adjutant-General. Indian Expedition. August 6. 1862. O.R. Report of Brigadier General John M. Schoficid,
no date. O.R.. 1:15-16; J.M. Graham to Stanton. August 28. 862. 2.8.. [:8. 600: Fort Scout Bulletin, August 16. 1862.

128



1862 Missouri’s population would eagerly look forward to peace and would not cause trouble, if
Union officials could rein in the jayhawkers.”

The year’s military activities had not yet ended. Hearing rumors that the rebel Missouri
legislature was meeting in Springfield, Major General John Frémont sent a small cavalry
detachment into the town on October 25, routing the small Confederate force there. Frémont and
the main body of his army entered town two days later. After the Confederate victory at Wilson’s
Creek, McCulloch increased his army strength in preparation for an attack on Fort Scott and Fort
Lincoln, but while he concentrated troops near the Kansas border, Price informed him of
Frémont’s advance upon Springfield. Torn, McCulloch made the responsible decision and
withdrew to defend his supply lines from Arkansas. Lincoln seemed prophetic.”

The lack of overall Confederate organization and hierarchy again hampered their
offensive activities. On October 26, McCulloch urged Price to unite their commands to face
Frémont, but the Missouri commander had greater aspirations than simply winning one summer
batile. On November 7, Price asked General Albert Sidney Johnston, commander of Confederate
forces in the western theater, for permission to strike against St. Louis, for Frémont’s large
expedition to Springfield left St. Louis almost undefended. At the same time, he and McCulloch
staged a diversionary move by attacking Springfield. Price repeated his vision of a Confederate
attack on St. Louis in a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis two days later, saying
“Missouri stretches her hands to her kindred blood of the South as an infant child tums its
imploring eyes to a mother. Give us a chance to show our fidelity.” On November 10 and 11,
McCulloch and Price exchanged plans. Price wanted to fight Frémont and the federal army there
in central Missouri, while McCulloch sought to draw the Northern forces away from his supply
depots and fight further south. He proposed that his troops fall back to Arkansas and Price’s
command drop back to southern Missouri. In the face of overwhelming federal strength, Price
finally concurred and on November 15, he ordered his army south to Newtonia, in far
southwestern Missouri.*®

Hoping to overcome organization friction that hampered its war efforts, the Union
reorganized its West, Cumberland, and Ohio departments late in 1861. As part of the
administrative shuffle, Washington officials finally acceded to Lane’s wishes for a separate
command for his state and on November 13 created the Department of Kansas, which included
the Indian Territory, Colorado, and Nebraska. However, Lane had planned to be the one in
control of the new military organization. Instead, bowing to opposition from Missouri residents
over appointing such a notorious jayhawker, Lincoln took Hunter out of the Department of
Missouri and named him the new Kansas commander.”

* Lincoln to Hunter, October 24, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 353-554,
37 McCulloch to Benjamin, December 22, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 747-748,

** Price to McCulloch, October 26, 1861, O.R., J:3, 227-728; Price to Johnston, November 7, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 731-732;
Price to Davis, November 10, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 735-736; Price to McCulloch, November 10, 1861, and McCulloch to Price,
November 11, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 737-739,

» General Orders No. 97, Headquarters of the Army. November 9, 1861, 0.2 , 1:3, 567; McCulloch to $. Cooper,
Adjutant and Inspector General, C.S.A., November 19, 186], O.R., 1:3, 742-743.

112



a native of Kentucky, served with the Second Dragoons when he was stationed at Fort Scott from
1848 to 1849. Fourteen years later, the then-brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers commanded the
two brigades of mounted troops that initiated the fighting on July 1, 1863, the first of three days
fighting at Gettysburg. His quick recognition of the situation and spirited command in defense
helped hold back Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill’s divisions, allowing time for the Union Army to regroup and
fortify the heights south of the town.®

Captain Sidney Burbank of the First Infantry Regiment commanded Fort Scott for half of
1845 and from April 1846 to September 1848. In the Civil War, he became a lieutenant colonel in
the Thirteenth Infantry, joining the Second Infantry as a colonel in September 1862. Burbank
served on administrative duties until May 1863, when he was given regimental command. He led
them into combat at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Burbank’s men fought in the Wheatfield on
the second day of Gettyburg, suffering almost 50 percent casualties as they delayed Lt. Gen. James
Longstreet’s advance. The regiment won praise for its steadiness under fire, and provided time for
the Union army to push troops up Lo the top of Round Top and Little Round Top. Burbank won a
brevet promotion to brigadier general for his performance.

Leading one of Lee’s corps at Gettysburg was Maj. Gen. Richard S. Ewell. After graduat-
ing from West Point in 1840 thirteenth in the class of forty-two, where he was a classmate of
William T. Sherman, Ewell was assigned to the First Dragoons and stationed at Fort Scott inter-
mittenUy with escort and patrol duties from 1842 to 1845. After serving in the war against Mexico,
Ewell returned to frontier duties, serving across the west. He resigned his commission May 7,
1861, to join the Confederacy, and began service as a lieutenant colonel in the Corps of Cavalry.
Ewell, known to his men as “Old Baldy,” saw action at First Bull Run before serving under Maj.
Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Ewell fought at Seven
Days and Cedar Mountain before losing a leg at Groveton, one of the opening struggles in Second
Bull Run. After a year-long recovery, he returned to duty and was promoted to commander of part
of Jackson’s old corps after his former commander was killed at Chancellorsville in May. At the
second battle of Winchester he won a stunning victory and stirred memories of Jackson, but his
reputation was destroyed at Gettysburg. Arriving late on the first day, his troops crushed the right
flank of the Union army and pushed the survivors back through the city’s streets. On the verge of
victory, Jackson’s fighting spirit suddenly left Eweil, and he rejected subordinates’ pleas to
advance onto the heights of Cemetery Ridge and Culp Hill, handing the tactical advantage to the
North. During the second day’s fighting, Lee ordered Ewell’s corps to advance in support of
Longstreet’s attack, but again Ewell failed in a crucial moment. After the Confederate retreat back
to Virginia, Ewell recorded several minor victories, but wounds and other injuries forced him
from field duty. From June 27, 1864, to the end of the war, he commanded the Department of
Richmond. Following the conflict, he retired to a Tennessee farm.®

Another veteran of the Mounted Rifles who served with the regiment al Fort Scott from
1852 to 1853, Lieutenant Laurence Simmons Baker followed his native North Carolina out of the

* Bdward G. Longacre. Gencral Johu Buford (Conshohocken, PA : Combined Books, 1995): Warren W. Hassler, Jr.,
Crisis at the Crossroads: The First Day at Gettysburg (Uuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1970).



Lane’s Indian expedition, which had been kept from them because Lane presumed they would
express dissent. Lane’s supporters lied to Lincoin about “I.ane’s great Southern expedition,”
Hunter told Halleck on February 8. As far as national leaders were concemed, “the Kansas
Senator would seem to have effectually ‘jayhawked’ out of the minds of the War Department any
knowledge or remembrance of the general commanding this department.” Lane and his
supporters confused the issue, claiming that the senator retained command of the expedition.
Growing uneasy over Lane’s expanding adventure, Ifalleck countermanded any orders for troop
movements that did not come from the Adjutant-General. The army finally succeeded in
controlling the expedition, and Lane resigned his Army commission when he found his power
curtailed, returning to the Senate. By the end of the month. the Army regained control over the
Indian expedition and several Fort Leavenworth regiments that were part of the force were on the
road to Fort Scott.’

The Union Army returned to Fort Scott in March, building up a supply depot for its
widely scattered garrisons. As the mountains of military stores grew, the defense of the post
became more crucial, and Lieutenant Charles H. Haynes of Co. D. of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry
Regiment built fortifications. Bluffs and waterways protected three sides of Fort Scott, but the
south remained vulnerable to attack across a wide expanse of open prairie traversed by the major
roads that entered Fort Scott. Construction took time, and cannons for defense remained scarce
across the department. In the face of continuing violence from both armies and irregulars, Union
sympathizers often left their farms along the Missouri-Kansas border, leaving the fort with an
inadequate warning system in case of Confederate raids.

In the middle of March, the only Kansas unils prepared for active service in the state were
the First Infantry Regiment, Sixth Cavalry Regiment, and the First Kansas Light Artillery
Battery, all based at Fort Scott, and the Eighth Regiment. which served as a police force scattered
across the border counties. Military leaders sent Jennison and the Seventh Kansas, known for its
jayhawking, to Humboldt, seventy-five miles west of the Missouri border. In preparation for the
proposed Indian expedition, Army commanders stationed regiments from other states, including
the Ninth, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Wisconsin infantry regiments, the Second Ohio cavalry
regiment and Rabb’s Indiana Battery around Fort Scott.$

As the Army concentrated forces in southeast Kansas, the shortcomings of the garrison at
Fort Scott became more apparent. By the time Hunter assumed command of the department,
Lane’s limits as a military commander were well known, A member of the Adjutant General's
office who inspected Fort Scott in early 1862 reported that Lane’s Kansas Brigade was in worse
condition than even during their first week in the army. The camps around the town of Fort Scott
— the Twelfth and Thirteenth Wisconsin Cavalry regiments to the west, near the Marmaton
river, Rabb’s Battery and the First Kansas to the south; and the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry and

7 Hunter to Halleck, February 8. 1862. O.R., 1:8. 829-830: Halleck to Hunter. February 13. 1862. O.R., (:8. 554-555:
MeCletlan to Halleck, February 13, 1862. O.R.. 1:8. Lincoln to Hunter and Lane. February 16, 1862. O.8., 8, 551; Charles
falpine. Major and Assistant Adjutant General. to Deitzier. February 28, 1862. O.R., 1:8. 374-575; Jay Monaghan, Civil War on
the Western Border 1854-1865 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985. Boston: Lite, Brown, 1955), 252-60; Castel.
Cwil War Kansas, 97-99.

* alpine to Haileck. March 14. 1862. 0... 1:8. 615.

121


under Stand Watie was between Fort Gibson and Fort Scott. He recommended stationing a larger
defensive force at Fort Scott as soon as possible. “There is a large amount of Government
stores,” he observed, “at that post that may fall into the hands of the rebels if not properly
attended to.” The warehouses at Fort Scott were also on the mind of Capt. Merritt Insley, the post
quartermaster. On October 20, he wrote to the Department of Kansas, warning them that “It
seems to me you are leaving this post an easy conquest for the enemy. There are $4,000,000
worth of public property to be protected or Jost,

The Confederate column moved westward, and by October 22 it had broken through the
main Union position on the Big Blue River, outside Kansas City. Curtis had already prepared for
a Union withdrawal. He told his subordinates that when Price began moving to the southwest, “I
want the militia and everything moving by the best lines toward Fort Scott, so as to head him off
from our border posts — Paola, Mound City, or Fort Scott.” On October 22, Union headquarters
in Lexington, Missouri, sent two separate couriers south to warn Fort Scott of the potential for
attack. Fort Leavenworth’s commanding officer issued his own warning to the post, informing
Insley that Price bad broken through the Union line and the Confederate column was eight miles
south of Kansas City. The Fort Leavenworth officer suggested the Fort Scott quartermaster move
all the teams and wagons he could away from the post to the north and west. Curtis quickly
countermanded those suggestions, ordering Insley to remain. “Stand,” his order barked. “The
enemy is flying, closely pursued. Your only safety is to remain and keep everything in the
forts."

in addition to the invasion of eastern Kansas by Price’s army, another Confederate raid
occurred near Fort Scott. On the night of October 22, about sixty bushwhackers attacked the
town of Marmaton, west of the post, killing five people and burning several businesses, houses,
and churches. Newspaper reports called this engagement the Marmaton Massacre. but it was not
part of Price’s campaign. Fort Scott sent out soldiers in pursuit but the bushwhackers escaped
unharmed. They later attacked a refugee train heading north from Fort Gibson, robbing and
burning several wagons.

Price continued to advance but afier the daylong battle of Westport on October 23, Union
commanders judged him to be more anxious to retreat to Arkansas than to attack Fort Scott. Just
before the battle, Price had been ready to detach one of his units under Shelby for the purpose of

* Jennison to Capt. George Hampton, Oct. 14, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 871; Insley to Maj. $.S. Curtis, Oct. 20, 1864.
OR, Series 41/4, 150.

* Curtis to Gen. George Dietzler, Oct. 21, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/4, 166; Col. Jobn Du Bois to Commanding Officer,
Springfield, Mo., Oct, 22, 1864, O.8., Series 1:41/4, 169; Brig, Genera! Thomas Davies to insiey, Curtis to insley, Oct. 22, 1864,
OR, Series 1:41/4, 194. The border battles had always been intenscly personal. Mast of the fighters and their families lost
selatives in the decade-loug struggle and much bittemess remained. During the near panic brought on by Price’s autumn raid,
Curtis informed his wife that “Ir is certain that among the rebels killed yesterday the notorious Todd, one of the murderers of our
SoD, Was one among many who were killed. Their loss was much heavier than mine. They are retreating southwest, but fighting
us hard.” The Curtis’ son was killed the previous October at Baxter Springs during Quantriil’s attack on Blunt's escort. Curtis to
Mrs. Curtis, Oct, 22, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/4, 190.

“ City Directory and Business Mirror for 1865-66 (Fort Scott: Monitor Book and Job Office [n.d.}); Blunt to Insley,
Oct, 23, 1864, O.R., Series J:41/4, 209.

210


guilty.” The orders subsumed larger objectives in the chaos of individual retribution.

Returning the refugee Indians to their homes remained a focus of the Army’s strategy and
Weer’s initial actions furthered that goal. Blunt advised Weer to locate Cherokee leader John
Ross and discuss the status of the tribe’s allegiance with the United States. The nation was
willing to fulfill its reaty obligations. including payment of annuities, to the Cherokee if they
remained loyal. Weer’s directive became casier to fulfill when Stand Watie’s men retreated south
after their defeat at Cowskin Creek. After defeating a small Confederate force at Locust Grove on
July 3, Weer’s expedition reached Tahlequah, the Cherokee capital, without incident on July 14.
and captured Ross. While part of Weer’s command continued south toward Fort Gibson,
hundreds of Indians flocked to the Union camp, most seeking protection. A large number of
Cherokees wanted to enlist and Weer initiated the organization of the Third Regiment of Indian
Home Guards for his expedition. Col. William A. Phillips commanded the unit, and its
organization was completed at Carthage, Missouri, on September 16, 1862. Union conquest of
the Indian Territory seemed an achievable goal.

The Union presence in indian Territory remained precarious. Its total force of about 6,000
soldiers operating against unsupported guerrillas provided a strong position, but as the column
advanced south, its supply lines back to Fort Scott lengthened. Before June ended, Weer
complained of shortages in salt and medical supplies, and food shortages loomed. “Bacon is also |
a stranger to us,” he wrote. Fart Scott's garrison of three cavalry companies was too small to
supply adequate protection for the southbound trains and resupply efforts were furtive and
tenuous. The operation seemed likely to bog down over material concerns.

Weer’s advance faced another major threat. Reports of Confederate forces concentrated to
his east drew the commander’s attention. Army commanders dispatched Union forces once
positioned to protect his advance to the Mississippi River, leaving his flank vulnerable. The
threat changed military policy. Blunt ordered Weer to control as much ground as possible, and
told him to accept any and ali volunteers. despite their color. Blunt lacked the resources to
support these volunteers; Weer’s supply train could issue them rations, but their arms could only
come from captured Confederates. Confident that Confederate lies had misled the Indians, Blunt
expected that Cherokees who supported the South would shift allegiances once the Union Army
reestablished control. He extolled the performance of the Union Indian regiments who served,
telling Secretary of War Edwin Stanton that the new men “have more than met my expectations
as efficient soldiers.” Fort Leavenworth merchants were pleased with Weer’s advance. Reviving
prewar business arrangements with the Indian Territory was a priority, and Blunt’s position
assured them of rapid resumption of trade. By the middle of July, although the military situation
remained unresolved, the department commander authorized what he called “some responsible

“ Thomas Moonlight. by Order of Blunt, June 26. 1862. 0.8.. 1:8. 451

' Blunt to Weer. July 12. 1862. National Archives, Record Group 393 Army Continental Commands, Vol. 137:
Laurence M. Haupiman, Between Two Fires. American Indians in the Civil War (New York, The Free Press, 1995). 48-30; Weer
wo Greena, July 13. 1862. O.2.. 1:8, 473: Monaghan, Crvif War on the Western Border, 253-34.

126



GITy / TOWN

US. ARMY GARRISON
COUNTY BORDER:
‘STATE UNE

‘MISSOURI, KANSAS &
TEXAS RAILROAD

LEAVENWORTH, LAWRENCE &
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MISSOURI RIVER, FORT SCOTT
GULF RALROADS

ARRIVAL OF RAILROAD

LEGEND

PUBLISHED BY: FOSTER DESIGN, INC.
(800) 946-3394

POST-CIVIL WAR
KANSAS 1869-1873

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(MAY 7870)

235



barracks to hold 1,200 troops.

While commanders worried about grand military strategy, the lower ranks suffered
through the everyday miseries of field duty. One Third Wisconsin Cavairy lieutenant garrisoned
at Fort Insley in Missouri hoped for the end of the spring rains, allowing the season of 2 soldiers
bliss” to return, “with the dense thicket serving as the lair for the bush-whacking gentry to
occupy our attention and the escorting of Major Genls, trains and Pay masters to Forts Gibson.
and Smith.” Life was equally unidyllic at Fort Scott, with Blair complaining again to the district
command about his post’s lack of horses. On March 25 he reported that he could not dispatch
mounted patrols because of the shortages. Responding to an order from Blunt to send two
companies to Missouri, Blair stated he was still waiting for the eight hundred horses he had
requested earlier, and that he could not even mount half a company. Blunt directed him to
combine squadrons from all his companies to make up the required patrol, promising to send him
the horses as soon as possible. In addition to the mounts, Blunt also pledged six companies of
infantry to Fort Scott, leading Blair to respond that such reinforcements would make him “the
happiest man alive, for then I can do post duty as it ought to be done, ” and send his cavalry on
border patrols and to stop cattle trafficking.'*

As warmer weather approached, military action revived after the inactivity of winter. In
the region surrounding Fort Scott that signaled bushwhacking season and the attendant panic it
invariably caused. By the end of March, Blunt was passing along the year’s first intelligence
reports of guerrillas passing through southwest Missouri. The Department of Missouri asked
Blunt how much spare cavalry he had for border work, and directed him to coordinate with his
counterpart to the east to maximize the federal troops’ effectiveness. As part of the periodic army
reorganization, Fort Leavenworth ordered one section of the Ninth Wisconsin Battery to Fort
Scott, to replace the section of the Second Kansas Battery stationed there since December 1862."°

Despite the impending success in the east as Grant pursued Lee, southern Kansas
commanders remained conscious of the dangers surrounding them. Under heavy pressure from
Dodge, on April 1, Blunt led his command against the bushwhackers invading southwestern
Missouri. To the south of Fort Scott, Col. Phillips sought to reduce Indian dependence on Army
supplies, and had the idle men of his command assisting indian refugees in planting crops.
Kansas cattle thieves had removed most of the available animals from the northern half of the
Indian Territory, Phillips reported, forcing the Indian Brigade to drive replacement herds up from
the south. Hoping to eventually end the continued reliance, Phillips also requested another year’s
supply of seeds for the Indians."”

Lee and his Army of Northem Virginia finally ran out of options on April 9, and the
South’s foremost military commander surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House,

'S March 26, 1865, Charles W. Porter, 4 Journal of Events in the Life of Charles W. Porter, While in the Service of the
United States During the Rebellion. Manuscript, Fort Scott National Historic Site; Blair to Blunt, March 25, 1863, O.R., 1:48/1,
1258,

+ Blunt to Dodge, March 30, 1865, Special Orders No. 66, District of North Kansas, March 30, 1865, O.R., 1:48/1,
1299.

” Blunt to Dodge, April 1, 1865, O.8., 1:48/2, 1; Phillips to Maj. Gen. J. J. Reynolds, April 4, 1865, O.R., 1:48/2, 27-

223



hundred refugees fled westward from Missouri every day. “They emigrate during the night,”
Chase wrote, “in squads and families, accompanied generally by a span of good mules and a
lumber wagon with what ever portables they can seize upon.”*

Chase compared the refugees to local settlers, and looked with favor on the whites’
efforts. He met George Crawford, who emigrated to the region in 1857 and bought a farm
adjoining the fort. For three years, Crawford remembered, he could do little except farm and
hope for future opportunities. “But the rebellion came, and with soldiers came the business men.
He immediately laid off his farm into jots, and sold them as fast as he could make out his deeds. I
remarked that good luck had followed his three years of the blues. “Yes,” he said. ‘I’m in town
now.’ Today he is selling his lots from $50 to $500 each. His farm is yielding untold profits, and
he is in the very midst of the fastest society.”

The Union Army continued to develop a permanent military presence in southeast
Kansas. Troops at Fort Scott were ordered to establish a permanent outpost at Baxter Springs
near the state’s southern border on the Old Military Road in mid-August. The garrison was
commanded by Lieut. James B. Pond, Third Wisconsin Cavalry, and consisted of 150 soldiers
from two regiments. It included one company from the Second Kansas (Colored) Volunteer
Infantry and two companies from the Third Wisconsin Cavalry. The purpose of this outpost was
to protect a mail/relay station, provide additional security to military convoys traveling to and
from forts Gibson and Smith and to curtail guerrilla operations in the area. If additional
protection was needed, the Department of Kansas authorized Pond to muster in loyal Osage
Indians living in the vicinity of the Catholic Mission near present day St. Paul, Kansas.*°

The horror of “Bleeding Kansas” returned to Lawrence on August 21, 1863, when
William Quantrill’s irregulars looted and burned the city, known a few years earlier as the center
of Kansas abolitionism. Eluding Union patrois stationed on the border, the large force raced into
the unprotected city at five o’clock in the morning, indiscriminately killing more than one
hundred and fifty civilians. Seventeen recruits of the Fourteenth Kansas were trampled to death,
while most of the black recruits at a nearby encampment escaped. One of Quantrill’s main
targets, James Lane, slipped out of his house clad only in his nightshirt to safety in a nearby
comfield. As the guerrillas rode through the town looting and killing, they yelled out “Jennison,”
“Butler,” and “Osceola,” as their reasons for the raid. The four hundred and fifty men
commanded by Quantrill withdrew into Missouri, where they skirmished with units of the Third
Wisconsin Cavalry at the end of August but escaped with minimal casualties.**

% Tbid.

tid.

> Blair to Pond, August 16, 1863, RG 393, Army Continental Commands, Third Wisconsin Cavalry Letter Book and
Order Book and Company Order Book and Moming Reports. Fort Scott National Historic Site archives, 23; History of Vernon '
County, Missouri, Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources. Including a History of its
Townships, Towns and Villages, Together with Condensed History of Missouri; A Reliable and Detailed History of Vernon
County — its Pioneer Record, Resources, Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens; General and Local Statistics of Great
Value; incidents and Reminiscences (Si. Louis, MO, Brown & Co., 1887), 321; Ramp, The Civil War in the Indian Territory, 39,

% albert Castel, Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), 124-143.

150



regiments at Fort Gibson in December, but the Confederates were driven off. ”

The Army’s efforts to professionalize the war by imposing its organizational structure and
regulations over the state’s military forces continued to produce success on the battlefield. After
three years of conflict, Fort Scott had grown into a well-organized supply and mustering site,
ringed by protective subposts and connected to superior officers by telegraph lines. What had
been a disorganized, dirty encampment for men led by James Lane had been tumed into a post
containing warehouses full of quartermaster and commissary supplies, protected by a ring of
siege guns and well-built fortifications. The post’s economic benefits continued to reverberate
through Bourbon County and the rest of southeast Kansas, while the troops’ paychecks fueled the
development of Fort Scott. While the North had seized the momentum in the Civil War, Fort
Scott stood ready for any further Confederate offensives.

* AG, Proctor, Late Special Indian Agent, to Coffin, November 28, 1863, Anaual Report of the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, Report of the Secretary of the Interior, serial 1184, vol. 3, * sess, 38" Congress (Washington, D.C.: Government
Printing Office, 1864), 340-341.

154



HS-9 Fort Scott National Historic Site

ie 2s ay pe : i

ost Guardhouse, reconstruction in progress. View photo-
graphed between Post Hospital and Guardhouse (Southwest
elevation). April 4, 1975.

is

HS-9: Post Guardhouse, reconstruction in progress. Foreground: concrete slab porch foundation. View from
Carroll Plaza {Northwest elevation). May 1975.

343



Table of Contents

One: Fissures and Fractures; The World of Fort Scott 2.0.0.0... 6 000 c cece e eee eee 1
Two: The Fort on the Frontier... 1.26... ccc cece ee ee teen cee re eens 13
Three: Fort Scott and the Changing Military, 1842-1853 2.0.0.0... 200 occ cece eee eee 43

Four: Southeastern Kansas and the Question of Slavery . .

Five: Southeastern Kansas Goes to War, 1861 ... : 2.95
Six: The U.S. Army Returns to Fort Scott, 1862 0... 0.6.60 06sec eee cece eee eee eee 7
Seven: Fort Scott at the Midpoint, 1863 20... ee ee eee eee eee 433
Eight: Raising Regiments al Fort Scott... 2.06. e ene 155
Nine: Supplies, Service, and Succor .. 2.2.0... cece eee ee 171
Ten: Fort Scott and the War, 1864 2... 0... ccc cc ccc cece cere ence eee eeeeeees 195
Eleven: Fort Scott and the Union Effort, 1865 2.0.02... e eee tee eee 217
Twelve: Fort Scott and the Railroads... 2.2.6... eee c eect ene eee e en eees 233
Epilogue... een b eee nen b bene e erence tebe bnees 249
Appendices

1. Fort Scott’s Commanding Officers, 1842-1873 ...... 26-0. cece cece cece eee eee ee 267
2. Post Surgeons

3. Post Chaplains
4. Officers stationed at Fort Scott, 1842-1853
5. Post-Fort Scott Careers... 0.00. ee cee ect neces
6. Units Assigned to Fort Scott, 1842-1873 ..
7.1855 Auction... ee eee etree net e net en eee
8. 1865 Auction

9. 1865 Special Quartermaster Dept. Report on Vacant Lots & Property . 297
10. Fort Scott Archeological Research 2.2 299
11. Fort Scott’s Structures 2... 6.6660 cece cece cence cee e ett eeee 319
Bibliography .... 0... cece cee eee ence reer eee nent n eens nee nenee 379
Bc 395



Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

253



Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

1972 Aerial overview (Northwest view).

257



June 1863

July 1863

August 1863

Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Sixth Kansas Cavalry
Second Kansas Battery
12th Kansas Infantry
Second Kansas Cavalry
Third Wisconsin Cavalry
Sixth Kansas Cavalry
Second Kansas Battery

Ninth Kansas Cavalry

Fourteenth Kansas Cavalry

Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Indian Home Guard
Second Kansas Battery
Eighty-Third U.S.C.T.

Sixth Kansas Cavalry
Ninth Kansas Cavalry

November 1863

Tenth Kansas Infantry

Ninth Kansas Cavalry
Eleventh Kansas Cavalry

Co.B
Co.C
Co.G
Co.H
Co.1
Co.M
Co.L

Co.B
Co.E
Co. F

Co.C
Co. F
Co.D
Co.L
Right Section
Co. D

Co. A
Co. B

?
omnmyvopam

Co.
Right Section

284



arms.”

Aside from the normal duty of providing escorts for military supply trains, such as a May
19 patro} that entailed thirty men from the Third Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment conveying a
supply train to Baxter Springs, Fort Scott’s soldiers were often called upon to guard civilians
traveling in the region. In April. Blair ordered the Third Wisconsin to provide “a sufficient
escort” for Dr. Gilpatrick on his way to Neosho, io “go as Dr. Gilpatrick desires and when.” A
week later, the regiment provided an escort for “Messrs. McDonald, White and Party,” who
transported refugee goods to Neosho. Some escorts were smailer than others. as when a guard of
three or four men accompanied a civilian traveling to Greenfield, Missouri, in December, or
when one noncommissioned officer was detailed to accompany a representative of Barton and
Jasper counties, Missouri, as far as Springfield, Missouri, on Nov. 334

While accumulating the troops for a full-scale push against the Union positions in Indian
Territory, Confederate partisans sought to weaken the enemy by cutting communications with
Fort Scott. On May 24-25, southern soldiers attacked the Union escort for a supply train to Fort
Gibson, although federal troops eventually reached the post. In a major drive to force out the
enemy, the Confederate leadership assembled about six thousand men at Honey Springs under
General D.H. Cooper’s command, Upon receiving word of the planned attack, General James
Blunt ordered supplies and troops sent south from Fort Scott. In early June, he ordered the First
Kansas (Colored) Infantry, Second Colorado Infantry, and a section of the Second Kansas Battery
south to Fort Gibson to reinforce Phillips’ command, a dramatic change in Union Army policy of
whites directly helping Indian refugecs. On the way south, the troops served as an escort for a
supply train of three hundred commissary wagons sent south to Fort Gibson.”

In addition to distant threats, guerrillas operating near the post became a constant menace.
Partisans commanded by Livingston attacked a small Fort Scott detachment guarding a grazing
herd on June 8, the same band that killed several Union men the previous month. One man from
the Second Kansas Light Artillery battery was reported killed, and two taken ptisoner. The report
of guerrillas operating in the Fort Scott area usually prompted a patrol. One scout of about forty
men from the Third Wisconsin Cavalry in July 1863, left for Balltown, Missouri, northeast of the
post in response to word of bushwhackers known locally as “Knights of the brush.” Moving
slowly in the summer heat to keep their horses in good condition, the patrol took a little more
than a day to travel the twenty-two miles. Union sympathizers in the area often provided
information on the guerriila’s base and movements. Afier a day of fruitless scarching, the Fort
Scott detachment learned that another Third Wisconsin company met a guerrilla unit cast of
BalJtown, killing two of the group at the cast of one soldicr and temporarily chasing “the Knight

”" Bartles. "Massacre of Confederates by Osage Indians in 1863.” 62-66.

°\ Major Charles W. Blair. to Lt. James B. Pond. May 19, 1863: By Order. C. W. Blair. April 12. 1863: Blair 10
Communding Officer. Co. C, April 17, 1863: M.M. Ehte, Past Adjutant, to Pond, November 3; Blair to Pond, December 14.
1863, all from RG 393, Army Continental! Commands, Third Wisconsin Cavalry Letter Book and Order Book and Company
Order Book and Morning Reports. Roll 24. Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

® LeRoy EL. Fischer. “Indian [erritory’s Gettysburg: The Battie of |loney Springs.” Oklahoma Today 21.0. 1 (Winter
1970-71), 15-18, Charles Freeman, “The Battle of Honey Springs.” The Chronicles of Oklahoma 13. n, 2 (June 1935), 154-168.

144



twenty-five miles from Fort Scott, Lyon split his small army into two columns. He led three
thousand men against the enemy and sent about 1,000 men commanded by Col. Franz Siegel
around the Confederate flank, hoping to trap McCulloch’s army of ten thousand. Lyon assigned
the 1,400 men of First and Second Kansas regiments to the Fourth Brigade, under his command.
The First Kansas occupied a key position in the front line, repulsing Confederate attacks for two
hours, before it charged the enemy encampment and pushed back the Confederates before
withdrawing in the face of a threat on their flank. At the same time as the First Kansas was
returning to its lines, the Second Kansas, led by Lyon, was advancing to the front when
Confederate forces ambushed it, hitting the Kansans with heavy gunfire. The attack killed Lyon.
Maj. Samuel D. Sturgis of the First Kansas Infantry succeeded him in overall Union command.
The gunfire also wounded the Second Kansas’ commander, and the regiment withdrew and
reformed under Col. Charles Blair. By early afternoon the Confederates withdrew, but Sturgis
realized that combat had exhausted his men and his ammunition was low. He ordered a retreat to
Springfield. Casualties at Wilson’s Creek amounted to more than 23 percent of all engaged. Out
of the 644 men in the First Kansas Volunteer infantry Regiment, seventy-seven died at Wilson’s
Creek and one hundred and eighty-seven were wounded, testimony to the intensity of their part of
the battle. In reserve for part of the fight, the Second Kansas lost five men killed and fifty-nine
wounded. The Confederates were too disorganized and ill-equipped to pursue Sturgis’ retreat.
Although the Southerners eventually followed up victory by conducting a campaign as far north
as Lexington, Missouri, and claiming control over much of southwestern Missouri, Lyon’s
sacrifice provided time to organize a pro-Union government in the state, keeping it within the
federal camp.”!

As the Confederate column advanced toward northwestern Missouri, Lane, then operating
out of Fort Leavenworth, perceived this movement as a new threat to eastern Kansas. He
requested reinforcements, supplies, and artillery for Fort Scott, adding a demand for at least three
regiments to reinforce the town. Lane received immediate help in the form of a large government
supply train intended for Lyon that reached Fort Scott in mid-August, but little else. Dissatisfied,
Lane asked Major Prince, commander of Fort Leavenworth, for permission to raise more troops.
Five more companies were organized and accepted into federal service for service in southeast
Kansas, and another supply train of forty-three wagons soon left Fort Leavenworth. Lane,
anxious to locate his military power base far from Fort Leavenworth and the regular army, saw
southeastern Kansas as an opportune site for empire building, justifying his stance later that
month by noting that “The point to defend Fort Leavenworth is in the neighborhood of Fort
Scott.” Lane arrived at Fort Scott on August 19 as military commander. Among his commanders
operating out of Fort Scott were former jayhawk leaders Jennison and James Montgomery.
Townspeople heralded his arrival, with the Democrat cheering that “The energy of Gen. Lane in
concentrating the Government forces at this point in so short a period, is worthy of all praise. Red

*' Report of Maj. John M. Schofield, O.R., 1:3, 57-64; Report of Maj. John A. Halderman, O.R., 1-3, 82-3; Report of Lt.
Col. Charles W, Blair, O.2., 1:3, 84-5; Hans C. Adamson, Rebellion in Missouri, 1861; Nathaniel Lyon and his Army of the West
(Philadelphia: Chilton, 1961); Christopher Phillips, Damned Yankee: The Life of Nathaniel Lyon (Columbia: University of
Missouri, 1990): Topeka State Journal, August 10, 1861; Albert Greene, “On the Battle of Wilson Creek,” Transactions of the
Kansas State Historical Society 5 (1889-1896): 116-27; Report of Maj. $.D. Sturgis, O.R., 1:3, 71.

105



HS-19 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-19, Lunette Blair (South elevation), relocated to the northeast comer of Carroll
Plaza. Circa 1930s. Note buildings, left to right, HS-2 (Officers Quarters staircase)
and HS-4 (Officers Quarters).

HS-19, Lunette Blair (East elevation). Moved to northeast corner of Carroll Plaza in front of the site of
the former Infantry Barracks (present HS-6 reconstructed). Circa 1950s.

368



Motte, Jacob Rhett 29
Mound City, Bartle 211
Mounted Rangers 56

Neill, Thomas 246

Neosho Valley 115

Newtonia, Missouri, 1862 Battle (29, 214

Ninth Wisconsin Battery 223

Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment 121.
17

Old Fort Wayne, Batile 130
Opothleyahola 115

“Order Number 11" 154, 193
Oregon ‘Trai! 67

Osceola, Missouri 110

Pea Ridge, Arkansas 120, 159

Permanent Indian Frontier 7, 10, 14, 17, 18, 42, 54,
67, 68; Moves West 27

Philtips, William 126, 139, 140, 196-297, 199, 218,
219, 221, 223

Pike, Athert 128-129, 159

Pike, Zebulon 4, 5

Pleasonton. Alfred 211, 212, 214

Poison Spring 202

Pond, George 203-204

Pond, James 150, 152, 180-181, 193, 196

Post Hospital, {855 Purchase 76, Army Reactivation
and Expansion [38

Post of Southeast Kansas, Abandoned 247; And
Town of Fort Scott 244-245; Established
242: Troops 246

Prairie Grove, Arkansas 132

Price, Sterling 99-100, 101-102, 104, 107, 110, LIL
142, 118-120, 217, 218; 1864 Raid 195-197,
205-206; Attacks Kansas City 210; Burns
Wagons al Deerfield 212; Mine Creek 211;
Targeting Fort Scott 209; Westport 210

Quantrill, Willian Clark 128, 131, 150-152, 200, 227

Rabb’s Indiana Artillery Battery 121
Ransom, W.C, 163

Red River Expedition, 199, 203
Reeder, Andrew 74-75

Regiment of Mounted Rifles 21, 67, 69
Ritchie, John 162

Robinson, Charles 77, 95, 107
Rogers, Joscph 39

Ross, John 1}4, 125-126, 135

Roy, James P. 233, 242

Russell, David 34, 41

Salomon, Frederick 127, 130, (71

Santa Ke ‘Trail 59, 67

Schofield, John 128, 129, 145, 152

Scou, Winfield 26, 30

Second Battery Light Artillery 156

Second Indian Home Guard Regiment 115, 162, 163

Second Indiana Battery 171

Second Kansas Battery 218, 223

Second Kansas (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regi-
ment 50, 152, 153, 169, 174; Jenkin’s Ferry :
Named 83" United States Colored Infantry
Regiment 168

Second Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 129

Second Ghio Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 121, (22,
131, 171, 177

Second U.S. Artillery Regiment 342

Second U.S. Infantry Regiment 6

Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry 228, 230

Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 27, 120-
t2t

Seventh U.S, Cavalry 243

Shannon, Wilson 76

Shelby, Jo 208, Ordered to Attack Fort Scott 211

Siegel, Franz 102, 105

Shennan, Thomas 165

Simpson, Josiah 58

Sixteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 188

Sixth U.S. Infantry 66, 242

Sixth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 101, 103-
104, 108, 120-(21, 132, 195-156

Slavery 11, 12, 110-111, As National Issue 96

Snively, Jacob 59-60

Spencer, John 18

Sturgis, Samuel! D, 105

Summers, John 179

Sutlers 49-56, 190

Swords, Thomas 58, 67, 72; Army Career 33; Design
of Fort Scott 33; Mexican-American War 63,
64-65; Quartermaster of Army of the West 4!

Taylor, Henry 227

Taylor, Zachary 28, 29, 62-63

Tenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 106, 123,
17, 178, 196

Terrett, Burdett 58, 61

Third Artillery 86

Third Indian Home Guard Regiment 126, 145, 163

Third Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment 97

Third Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment 123, 130, 189,
196, 218, 225-226, 226

‘Thirteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 130-
131, 146

Trade and Intercourse Act 7, 23, 24

‘Lrading Post, Kansas 176, 211

398



The Archeology of Fort Scott

Kansas State Historical Socicty conducted a series of archeological investigations at Fort Scott
from 1968 to 1972. All of the excavations were under the direct supervision of Thomas P. Barr, Society
archeologist. Thomas A. Witty, Jr., state archeologist, was overall project supervisor. The archeological
investigations were just part of the Society’s contributions; during the 1970s, Barr was intensively in-
volved in the structure’s restoration and reconstruction of the post’s structures.’

1968; The research contract of 1968 specified that the Society was to lest and/or excavate Historic
Structures | through 17, 30, 31 and 32. The work was to serve as an aid in locating and delineating
structural features for eventual stabilization, restoration, or reconstruction. A Society archeologist first
formally visited Fort Scott on Feb. J2, 1968. The Society undertook its firsi excavations during May
1968. The work centered around the suspected location of HS-17, the Powder Magazine. Excavation
revealed portions of the footing trench of an octagonal structure.

1968-69: The Saciety resumed its investigations at Fort Scott in September 1968, and worked
until the following January. The first structure investigated was the east half of HS-4, Officer's Quarters
no. 4. A second officer’s quarters, HS-3, was investigated after removal in November 1968 of a house
built on the site around 1900. Society archeologists also rescarched the location of HS-11, the Post
Headquarters and Ordnance Storehouse. Construction of basements had eradicated most of the original
foundations for both buildings, but portions of the foundation walls and footings were studied. Archeol-
ogy crews investigated the area east of HS-6 and found secondary structures associated with the Infan-
try Barracks, including a latrine drainage system. Excavations around the Hospital Building, HS-8, un-
covered the flagstone verandah surrounding the building. Work near the alleged location of HS-33, the
wagon scale house, found isolated artifacts but no evidence of a building foundation.

1970: A short field season in September provided Park Service historical architects with informa-
tion about four fort structures. Excavations inside HS-8 identified stone and brick remnants of the chim-
ney foundations. Researchers conducted a preliminary investigation near HS-[5, the Well Canopy, while
areconnaisance of HS-14, the Bake House, uncovered an oven foundation.

1971: Extensive excavations {rom June through August focused on three structures: HS-6 and HS-
7, the Infantry Barracks, and HS-9, the Guardhouse. Archeologists found a number of in situ artifacts at
HS-9. Construction had heavily damaged the foundation structure for the two barracks buildings, but
portions of the original structures were found.

1972; From April through July, Society archeologists led excavations at HS-5, the Dragoon Bar-
racks, HS-10, Dragoon Stables, HS-13, Quartermaster Stables, HS-15, and HS- 16, the Flagpole. The
entire stone footings for HS-5 were found to be nearly complete, while modern construction had. eradi-
cated all but the northeast corner of HS-10. Archeological investigations near HS-13 were limited to
cross-section tests. Excavations near HS-15 revealed major portions of the foundation, while investiga-
tions in the presumed location of HS-16 failed to find evidence of a flagpole foundation.

‘John D. Reynolds, Archeological Investigations at Old Fort Scott, 1480302, Fort Scott, Kansas.
1968 to 1972. Omaha, NE: National Park Service, Midwest Region, April 1983.
299


Little, Brown and Company, 1998.

Unrau, William . Jndians of Kansas: The Euro-American Invasion and Conquest of Indian
Kansas. Topeka: Kansas State Historical Society, 1991.

. White Man's Wicked Water: The Alcohal Trade and Prohibition in Indian Country,

£802-1892. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996.

Vaughan, Robert. Blood on the Plains: An Epic of the Kansas-Missouri Border Wars, New York:
Saint Martin’s Press, Incorporated, 1997,

Voegeli, V. Jacque. Free But Not Equal: The Midwest and the Negro in the Civil War, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1967.

Waites, Reuben Gold, ed. Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Volume 17: Part IV of James’
Account of S.H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820. Cleveland: Arthur H, Clark Company, 1905.

Wallace, Andrew. The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians. New York: Hill and
Wang, 1993.

Walton, George. Sentinel of the Plains: Fort Leavenworth and the American West. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973.

Webb, James Josiah. Adventures in the Santa Fe Trade, 1844-1847. Lincoln: University of Ne-
braska Press, 1995.

Weber, David J. The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982.

Weaver, John E. and EW. Albertson. Grasslands of the Great Plains: Their Nature and Use
Lincoln, Nebr: Johnsen Publishing Co., 1956.

Wedel, Waldo R. Prehistoric Man on the Great Plains, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1961.

Weigley, Russell F. The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and
Policy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973.

West, Elliott. The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado, Lawxence:
University of Kansas Press, 1998.

. The Way to the West: Essays on the Central Plains. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 1995.

White, Richard H. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes
Region, 1650-1815, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Wilder, Daniel Webster. The Annals of Kansas. Topeka, Kans.; reprint, New York: Arno Press,
1975,

Williams, T. Harry. The History of American Wars, from 1745 to 1918, New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1981,

Wills, Garry. Lincoln at Getzysburg: The Words that Remade America, New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1992.

Winders, Richard Bruce. Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican
War. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997.

Wooster, Robert. Soldiers, Sutlers, and Settlers: Garrison Life on the Texas Frontier. College
Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1987.

Young, Otis LE. The West of Philip Si. George Cooke, 1805-1895. Glendale, Ca., The Arthur H.

391


65

67

69
70
71
72
73
74

S.A. Williams
BF. Hill

A. Hornbeck
Wm. Barbee
BF. Hill

D. Bloomfield
T.F. Whitlock
Cash

Cash

J, Conner

Ladder

Botties

Tables & Benches in North Brks
Tables & Benches in West Brks

Tables & Benches in East Brks

10 Bunks in East Brks

Small lot Stair posts

Small table in Hosp

2 old Sabre blades

Boxes &c belonging to Co. A, 1" Drags

Deduct 5% Auctions fee

1,00
1.00
3.00
4.00
1,00
1.00
5.00
50

50

4,50

$4,666.00
233.30
$4,432.70


As the officer in charge of a smal! detachment, he protected the baggage train at the rear of the
column at San Pasqual. He also sailed to the Hawaiian Islands in search of military supplies.
While the column was returning east he had the unusual task of taking charge of the burial detail
for the Donner party, the unfortunate wagon train caught in early winter snows in the Sierra
Nevada Mountains, before leading the Army column back to Fort Leavenworth in 1847.2

Following the fal! of Mexico City late in 1847, the war ended. The U.S. Army still faced
bandits and guerrillas in the Mexican interior, but the bulk of American soldiers went home.
Volunteers received warm welcomes from their neighbors while regular troops quietly returned
to their frontier posts and resumed their garrison routines, Mexico and the United States
eventually signed a peace agreement, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave the United
States lands claimed by Texas above the Rio Grande and the territories of New Mexico and
California for a payment of $15 million. At a cost of 1,721 American lives in battle and an
additional 11,155 who died of disease, the citizens of the United States acquired almost 1.2
million square miles of land and the United States Army proved its mettle and acquired new
responsibilities and commitments.”

The immediate combat demands of the Mexican War slowed the construction of new
buildings and posts far from the fighting. The Army continued to garrison its posts across the
American West throughout the war, but few improvements occurred while the war continued.
The military simply had other priorities, and with the rapid success of American soldiers in
acquiring new territories, the viability of some posts came into question. By December 1846, it
appeared likely that the United States would expand to the Pacific Ocean. Questioning the needs
for improvements at forts that had once been close to the international border, but now appeared
likely to be far from their new location became a congressional pastime.

At the still-incomplete Fort Scott, construction continued throughout the war, although
the effort was hampered by a lack of personnel. From June 1846 to September 1848, only
Company B of the First Infantry was stationed at the post, and typically its roster carried less than
fifty men. With myriad military responsibilities and insufficient work power, the soldiers
accomplished what they could. The depleted post remained responsible for military matters,
providing escorts for convoys on the Santa Fe trail for the next several years, as well as
maintaining the military road.TM As a result, construction on post buildings progressed
intermittently.

Nor could the post exert influence on the region as it had in the days of the Plains patrols.
Military response to situations revealed how ineffectual post officers believed their force, In

? Swords wrote in his official report that “We collected and buried the remains of those that had perished from hunger:
some of the skeletons were entire; parts of others were found, the flesh having been consumed by the last survivors.” Extracts
From American State Papers on Military Affairs from 1818 -1817 and from Annual Reports of the Quartermaster General fram
1818 to 1915, Bearing upon Operations of the Quartermaster Department. Compiled by Robert E. Fugit, 1916, p. 231, sheet
42. Fort Scott National Historic Site Archives.

* Richard Griswold del Castillo, The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1990).

* William Chalfant, Dangerous Passage: The Santa Fe Trail and the Mexican War (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1994).

65


common to posts such as Fort Scott. Life was never easy at a frontier fort. The work was hard
and long, the diversions few and usually venal, low, or dangerous, and there were few
opportunities for soldiers to improve their lot. Soldiers enlisted for a range of reasons. For some
it provided an opportunity for three meals a day; others fled some personal or economic
catastrophe at home. Many were recent immigrants, likely as unaware of the nature of military
service on the frontier as they were of the idioms of the English language in the mid-nineteenth
century. Few among the enlisted men found military life, especially at a post such as Fort Scott,
to their liking. Most simply endured their time in uniform, surely counting the days and even the
minutes until they mustered out.”

As a result, morale was an ongoing problem. Army commanders attempted to keep the
men too busy to be bored, assigning work projects and scheduling periods of drill and
inspections, but there was simply no military solution to the problem. Maj. William Graham, Fort
Scott’s second commander, sought to keep the garrison occupied with military duties. His efforts
impressed Army Inspector General George Croghan, who noted after his July 1844 inspection
that “two thirds of the Companies were engaged in extra or daily duty,” which left little time for
boredom. Despite the best efforts of the officers, soldiers continued to complain about their
situation, and the instances of low morale led directly to desertion. For those men trapped by
credit problems, unhappy with military life or anxious to return to civilian life early, running
away from the Army provided a way out. The high desertion rate demonstrated how viable an
option this was, and many people simply used their enlistment as a means of securing
transportation to the frontier, departing the service as soon after as they could. On average the
antebellum Army lost around 20 percent of its roster to desertion every year. At Fort Scott, the
numbers were slightly lower, in large degree because in the surrounding Indian Territory there
were few places in which to run, and not many economic opportunities that could compare to the
gold fields of California or Denver. Between 1842 and 1846, post commanders recorded thirty-
four desertions. In May 1842, the first month of post returns, six deserted, the highest single
monthly total. This surely reflected the difficulty of life at post without barracks and the other
basics to which even the lowest-ranked soldiers were accustomed.”

Penalties for desertion from the Army were severe. Execution was within the realm of
proscribed punishment, although those captured and convicted of the crime rarely received such
extreme sanction. A more likely sentence included shaving the offender’s head, marking his body
on the back or hip with a tattoo “D” for deserter, and whipping the man before driving him from
camp. A military panel sentenced one Fort Scott soldier convicted of desertion to be lashed with
rawhide and fined six months pay, a typical sanction. Army regulations also called for the
payment of a bounty paid for the return of dead or alive deserters. With sanctions ranging from

” Gamble, Garrison Life at Hrontier Military Posts, John Murphy, Pistol’s Legacy: Sutlers, Post Traders, and the
American Army, 1820-95, Ph.D. diss., University of Iinois -Urbana, 1993).

* George Croghan, Army Life on the Western Frontier; Selections from the Official Reports Made Between 1826 and
1845, Francis Paul Prucha, ed. (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1958); Coffman, The Old Army, 193-96; James M.
McCafirey, Army of Manifest Destiny: The American Soldier in the Mexican War, 1846-1848 (New York: New York University
Press, 1992), 109-112; Fort Scott post returns, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

34


February 1863
Third Wisconsin Cavalry

12th Kansas Infantry

Second Kansas Battery
March 1863
Third Wisconsin Cavalry

12th Kansas Infantry

Second Kansas Battery

April 1863
Third Wisconsin Cavalry
12th Kansas Infantry
Ninth Kansas Cavalry
Second Kansas Cavalry
Second Kansas Battery
May 1863

Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Sixth Kansas Cavalry
13th Kansas Cavalry
12th Kansas Infantry

Second Colorado Infantry

Co.C

Co.G

Co. 1

Co.M

Co. B

Co. E

Co. F

Center Section

Co.C
Co.G
Co.M
Co. B
Co. E
Co. F
Center Section

Co. C
Co. G
Co.M
Co.B
Co. E
Co. F
Co.G

Center Section

Co. C
Co. G.
Co. 1

Co.M

CoB
CoE
Co. F
Six Companies

283


numbers of immense warehouses scattered across
the North. Large staging areas for gathering and
distributing supplies — known as general depots
— operated in New York, St. Louis, Fort
Leavenworth, and San Francisco, under the
command of the associated geographic
department. St. Louis was the most important
general depot in the trans-Mississippi region.
Smaller depots, such as Fort Scott, were found
within a military department, drawing supplies
from the nearest general depot while under the
control of the department’s military commander?
Economic interests often became involved
in the military considerations for establishing
supply depots. The Army had built a wide range
of new buildings throughout Fort Scott, and
continually fueled the area’s economic engine.
Directly to the west of town, the Army built a
wood and coal yard, and to the southeast troops
constructed a forage yard, com cribs, hay press
and the forage master’s office. About a quarter-
mile south of the hospital were the post stables.
The Army also rented buildings and property for
: : % stables and other structures, taking up most of the
Fort Scott's civilian population, includingthese  tOWn’s available space. By May 1862, riding the
women shopping in a downtown store, enjoyed crests of government spending, the town
the fruits of federal dollars pouring into southeast newspaper was calling for construction of more
Kansas. commissary and quartermaster buildings. It noted
the expenditures would “relieve our citizens from
a great inconvenience now felt for want of room, every house in the town that can be obtained for
that purpose being filled with Uncle Sam’s property.” Fort Scott residents had to deal with
criticism from competing merchants in Fort Leavenworth. In November 1862, the Leavenworth
Bulletin and the Missouri Republican charged that the northern Army post could easily handle
the region’s military needs, especially since Fort Scott consisted of little more than “some half
dozen dilapidated wooden sun houses situated on the open prairie,” totally lacking in
fortifications. In response, the Fort Scott Bulletin attacked those “pecuniarily interested” in Fort
Leavenworth’s supply and transportation business, answering that in fact Fort Scott possessed
some of the region’s finest military storehouses, equal to any at Fort Leavenworth. The southeast
Kansas town, guarded by the Army of the Frontier, was well protected, and well situated to
supply troops nearby and further south, the newspaper thundered. If the government moved Fort

> Ema Risch, Quartermaster Support of the Army: 4 History of the Corps 1775-1939 (Washington, D.C.
Quartermaster Historian's Office, Office of the Quartermaster General, 1962).

172



planter in Chariton County, just north of the Missouri River, where he owned several dozen
slaves. He entered political life in 1842, serving in the state legislature and then the U.S. House
of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party. Price resigned from Congress when the
Mexican War began, serving as colonel in a regiment of Missouri volunteers who saw duty in
New Mexico. Success against Pueblo Indians and Mexicans brought a brevet promotion to
brigadier general. He sided with the pro-slavery faction of the state’s Democratic Party, and won
the gubematorial election in 1854. Officially he did nothing during his term in office to aid
Missouri’s “Border Ruffians” during the violence of Bleeding Kansas, but he also did little to
prevent their invasions. After failing to win a seat in the U.S, Senate following his term as
governor, Price returned to his tobacco farm. During the 1860 presidential campaign, he
supported Stephen Douglas, combining his pro-slavery philosophy with a rejection of secession
except if necessary to protect the South,"

While Missouri went to war, its neighbor to the west also made preparations for conflict.
Across Kansas, militia companies formed and began drills. Fort Scott, so near the Missouri
border, was in the first wave. On May 1, a host of Fort
Scott citizens met in town councilman Charles W. Blair’s
office. In an early burst of patriotic fervor, the townspeople
agreed to form two companies of volunteers, electing Blair
and A. McDonald, a local merchant, as the two captains.
When Arkansas joined the Confederate states on May 18,
pro-Union Kansas’ defenses faced an even greater threat.
Fort Scott’s town leaders soon reorganized the companies,
forming one company of light infantry according to bylaws
passed on May 20. Blair, an Ohio native who emigrated to
Fort Scott in 1859, commanded the unit. John Hamilton,
the Dragoon sergeant who helped build Fort Scott more
than twenty-five years earlier, led the training and drilling
for the sixty-three men of the “Frontier Guard.” The Fort
Scott Demacrat touted the local military unit, noting that
“in case of foreign invasion, it moves with as much alacrity
Charles W. Blair as any other, to resist the common foe.” While hardly the

highest praise, the paper lavished its hopes on the unit:

“Fortune, honor and victory is our parting prayer for the Frontier Guard.” Defending their homes
and defending the Union were entirely different activitics, a fact that became apparent on the
Guard’s subsequent march north to join the Army in Lawrence, Kansas. Many men left the ranks
along the way or backed out once they arrived at the federal mustering site in Lawrence."

Kansas’ initial contributions to the war effort, the First and Second Kansas Volunteer
Infantry Regiments, were “90 day men,” volunteers with expectations of a short war. The Army
garrisoned the First Kansas at Fort Leavenworth from May 20 to June 3. 1861, and based the

TM Albert Castel. General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West (Baton Rouge: Louisiatta State University Press,
1968). 1-9.

* Fort Scatt Democrat. May 18 and May 25. 1861.

100



Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

ees

oe ee ub, Seas: oR Mn ln baka
Infantry Barracks (HS-6). Archeolagical excavation (North view). Note: in the background |s the porch of the
former Quartermaster storehouse when it was used as a private residence, July 1971.

263



hope Genl. Taylor may be induced to interfere in their behalf in time to prevent the sacrifice of
their property.””’ Taylor, commanding the southern military district, recommended to Capt.
Benjamin Moore at Fort Scott that the wagons and teams be restored to their owners, writing that
“the power to seize wagons is certainly not expressly given in the intercourse law.” The idea was
merely a suggestion to a fellow officer, Taylor wrote, who sought to keep Moore from the
“unpleasant consequences of a civil suit,” a frequently used option in a frontier environment that
opposed federal intervention in what it saw as a local affair. The Trade and Intercourse Acts
never successfully stopped the liquor trafficking across the permanent Indian frontier, a situation
that hampered Fort Scott and ail other Army posts throughout the West.

in the middle of the nineteenth century, changing borders and circumstances resulted in
new needs and declining uses for the Army’s posts. Fort Scott followed a cycle of use and
abandonment, a feature common to western military posts. The optimal location of forts along
the frontier depended upon local needs, Army requirements, and perceived defense requirements.
This meant that the military built forts hastily and usually abandoned them with equal speed.
Communities did spring up around forts, but they had no more guarantee of permanence than did
the forts themselves. Instrumental and tactical rather than harbingers of a future, military forts
were among the most transitory institutions created on the frontier.

Through all these transitions, Fort Leavenworth remained the bulwark of the military
presence on the frontier. In 1826, William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs, recommended
building a post just west of the Missouri border to protect the Osage and Kansas Indians, calling
the fort one of the obligations derived from the treaty the Indians signed the previous year. At the
same time, traders demanded military escorts for caravans heading to Santa Fe. Sen. Thomas
Hart Benton of Missouri took up their cause, and on March 7, 1827, the Army’s adjutant general
ordered the establishment of a post near the mouth of the Little Platte River. Col. Henry
Leavenworth selected a site on the western bank of the Missouri River near the Little Platte and
his soldiers began construction. Outbreaks of disease forced temporary abandonment in 1828 and
1829, but the Army quickly reactivated the post. The Sixth Infantry initially garrisoned Fort
Leavenworth, but Col. Henry Dodge and his dragoons joined the soldiers in 1834, It remained
one of the Army’s principal supply posts for exploration parties and military expeditions
throughout the nineteenth century.”

Unlike Fort Leavenworth, Fort Scott could never claim permanence. It was an outlier that
grew out of earlier forts that wound their way west. The Army abandoned Fort Coffee, about two
hundred and twenty miles south of Fort Scott on the Arkansas River, on October 19, 1835. The
command shifted to a new post, Fort Wayne, first established in 1838 as Camp Illinois near the
spot where the Illinois River crossed Arkansas’s western boundary. As the area filled with whites
and Indians, the Army relocated the fort on Spavinaw Creek. The Army designed the post to

” R.H. Calloway and John B. Luce to Capt. William Armstrong, June 26, 1842, Fort Scott National Historic Site
‘microfilm.

* W.W.S, Bliss, Assistant Adjutant General to Capt. B.D. Moore, July 18, 1842, M1302, Roll 1, Frame 0749, B71842,
DD, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

» Beers, The Western Military Frontier: 94-95, Maurice Matloff, gencral editor, American Military History
(Washington, D.C., General Printing Officc, 1983; Washington, Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Army; 1973), 161,

25


themselves,” since federal troops were to be withdrawn from the area in the near future.*?

With the end of hostilities, Fort Scott, once a place to enlist, became a demobilization
center. On June 16, Capt. L.F. Wyman of the Second U.S. Volunteers was appointed Assistant
Commissioner of Musters for the District of South Kansas, with headquarters at the post, to help
efficiently dismantle the huge army of the past four years. A week after the Army began its initial
demobilization, Cherokee leader Stand Watie surrendered his Confederate forces, comprising
Cherokee, Creek, and Osage Indians, to Union officers at Doaksville, near Fort Towson, Indian
Territory, becoming the last organized Confederate force to officially surrender in the Civil
War?

Aside from shedding the majority of its troops, the peacetime Army undertook a number
of changes. On June 26, one of the most familiar figures involved in the war effort in southeast
Kansas, Capt. Theodore Bowles replaced Capt. Merritt N. Insley, as depot quartermaster at Fort
Scott. The Army began a complete reorganization the next day, ending the Department of the
Missouri’s independent status and shifting it under the Military Division of the Mississippi,
commanded by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. The District of Kansas, formed by merging the
former separate districts of North and South Kansas, was organized the following day, with Brig.
Gen. Robert B. Mitchell in command.

The town of Fort Scott had to undergo its own reorganization with the end of hostilities.
The Army had taken control of many privately owned lots throughout the town, some of them
occupied since June 1862. With the war over, the town now had to address these properties and
the structures built on them. No formal mechanism for compensating the property owners
existed, but Insley urged that the Army provide reasonable compensation. Hiero T. Wilson, the
former post sutler and now one of the town’s leading citizens, owned most of the lots, which
were used for forage and coal yards, corrals and stables, blacksmith shops, and camping grounds
for the many regiments based at Fort Scott during the war years. The owners had to wait several
months for a resolution.*

Over the next several months, reports of financial irregularities surfaced at Fort Scott that
affected two organizations. On July 9, the Secretary of War ordered the mustering out of the First
Kansas Independent Colored Light Artillery Battery, sparked by rumors that the regiment’s
officers owed money to the enlisted men of their command, a violation of Army regulations. The
War Department instructed the Department of Missouri to ensure that the debt amounts were
entered upon the final muster report of the officers, and that no final government payouts be
made until the debts were paid off. In September, Col. J.A. Potter submitted a report to
Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs, detailing several instances of concern involving
quartermaster accounts, including transportation contracts, the sale of federal lands surrounding
Fort Leavenworth, and contracts handled at Fort Scott. Potter expressed confusion over the

* Orders to companies C, D, E, and G, Scventecnth Illinois Cavalry, from Fort Scott, June 3, 1865, O.R, 1:48/2, 785-

3 Maj. Williams Gould to Office of Assistant Commissioner of Musters, Fort Leavenworth, Junc 16, 1865, File
16FUN65A.ape, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives, FOSC. 12500 Page 27, No. 20.

* Insley to Maj. Gen, M.C. Meigs, June 30, 1865, File Insley.ape, National Archives microfilm No. 3, Frame 365, Fort
Scott National Historic Site archives

229



reflect Fort Scott’s participation. The first action
taken by the commissioners of Bourbon County
came in November] 865, when a county election
was authorized to vote upon a petition for
subscribing $150,000 in bonds to the Kansas &
Neosho Valley Railroad Company and
purchasing the same amount in company stock. In
a December election, voters favored the proposal
705 to 220, but within a year county
commissioners resolved that the railroad name’s
had not been changed and refused to issue the
bonds. Despite the setback in southeast Kansas,
work commenced on the road at Kansas City in
the spring of 1866, and during that year the
grading and bridging were completed to Olathe,
twenty-one miles away.

In the face of continued and uncontrolled
entry of white settlers, the Cherokee people‘in
mid-1866 voted to sell their Kansas lands. The

he aan ent Cherokees made the Secretary of the Interior their

Burlington and Quincy failroad and @ wallcknown agent for the sale, stipulating that the lands ‘would
iand speculator. not be sold for less than $1.25 an acre, excluding

mineral lands, to settlers with claims under

preemption laws. Those settlers who made
improvements to the value of fifty dollars on personally occupied agricultural lands were, after
appropriate proof, entitled to buy at the appraised value the land that included these
improvements. Relying on past experience across the West, settlers in the Neutral Lands
expected to obtain title to their holdings under provisions of the Preemption Law of 1841, which
permitted the sale of public lands at $1.25 an acre, and the Homestead Law of 1862, which
allowed acquisition of a one-hundred-and-sixty-acre tract of public land on condition of
settlement, cultivation, and occupancy. Of the 800,000 acres that made up the Neutral Lands, the
settlers claimed a litte more than 154,000 acres,”

Rather than permit the kind of settlement envisioned by the Preemption Law and the
Homestead Act, the situation in the Neutral Lands led to the consolidation of land ownership.
Recognizing the difficulty of selling off such a huge tract in 160-acre increments and in an effort
to minimize Indian-white problems in the area, the Secretary of the Interior secured the
Cherokees’ agreement io sell the Neutral Lands in one piece for not less than $800,000 in cash.
That order was modified in July 1866, and the secretary was permitted to sell all unclaimed lands
in one block at a minimum price of $1 an acre if such a contract could be negotiated, On Oct. 19,
1867, Secretary of the Interior Orville Browning sold the neutral lands to James F. Joy of Detroit,
Michigan, a nationally known speculator and president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy

>

” Lula Lemmon Brown, Cherokee Neutral Lands Controversy (M.A. thesis, University of Colorado, 1923): 6-10,

238



the unit organized, Congress authorized an expansion to a full regiment on March 2, 1833. This
became the First Dragoons, an elite unit that traveled on horseback but dismounted to fight. The
Army selected Dodge to lead the new unit.'®

The new threats encountered on the Plains in the 1820s and 1830s led to Congress
authorizing the formation of a new dragoon regiment on March 2, 1833, under the Act for the
More Perfect Defense of the Frontier. The legislation called for ten mounted companies of sixty
privates. Unlike the infantry and artillery units of the time, which relied on immigrants for a
significant portion of their strength, dragoons had to be American citizens “whose size, figure,
and early pursuits may best qualify them for mounted soldiers.” Recruiting stations were set up
across the country in an attempt to draw from all regions, eliminating any sectional biases. Many
horse-mounted troops received higher pay than their infantry and artillery counterparts. The
Army paid Dragoon privates eight dollars a month in 1841, a dollar more than privates in the
other branches, while the colonel of the dragoon regiment received ninety dollars 2 month, as
compared with the seventy-five dollars infantry and artillery colonels received. First sergeants
and sergeant majors alike received sixteen and seventeen dollars a month respectively.’° Dragoon
duty was advantageous financially for most soldiers, as well as more prestigious.

The troops stationed at Fort Scott and other posts in the Indian Territory presented a
rainbow of colors when wearing dress uniforms for ceremonial parades and full inspections.
Dragoon uniforms were trimmed in yellow piping, with brass buttons on coats and jackets.
Uniforms bedecked with white wool piping and pewter buttons distinguished infantry officers
from their counterparts. Even the buttons distinguished the individual branches, with all infantry
uniforms bearing an eagle clutching a shield with the letter “I” stamped in the center;
artillerymen wore the letter “A” and the dragoons bore the letter “D.” Later, when another horse-
mounted unit, the Regiment of Mounted Rifles, served on the Plains, its members were set apart
by their dragoon-style jackets with eagle buttons with the letter “R” and dark-blue wool trousers.
Officers and sergeants also sported one-and-a-half-inch-wide stripes on their pants marking their
branch: yellow for dragoons, white for infantry and red for artillery. Enlisted men received the
clothes from the government, while officers were responsible for buying their own uniforms.!”

The regular Army played a leading role, but it was not the only military power on the
frontier. The United States long relied upon citizen-soldiers in times of crisis. Militia units drew
upon the colonial tradition that obligated all males to military service during emergencies. During
extended periods of peace, the general obligation dissipated, and in its place cities, trade
organizations, and friends created militia units that used private funds for equipment and
clothing. The militia units were the nation’s main source of reserve strength for the regular Army
until after the Mexican War, when military leaders came to rely on volunteer units raised by the
states for federal service. Inadequate training and lack of professional leadership left both militia

'S Weigley, History of the United States Army, 158-59,

'* Prucha, Sword of the Republic, 245-248; Millett and Maslowski, For she Common Defense: Sohn Philip Langellier,
“Sabers, Saddles and Shakos: The Formative Years of the Regiment of Dragoons, 1833-1846," Gateway Heritage 4, n. 1 (1983):
38-48; Winders, Mr. Polk's Army, 122.

"Winders, Mr. Polk's Army, 104-106.

21



Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment."*

Although pleased with local militia recruitment, the Union response to the Confederate
threats did not live up the expectations of the people of Fort Scott. In August 1861, Major
General George B. McClellan offered his overall plan for prosecuting the war. He suggested that
Kansas and Nebraska serve as a base for an expedition through Indian Territory to west Texas. A
federal presence there “like a similar sentiment in Western Virginia,” the general wrote Abraham
Lincoln, “will, if protected, ultimately organize that section into a free State.” McClellan was
notoriously indecisive; within two months he dropped his plans for the West, leaving western
states such as Missouri with just enough troops for defensive purposes, and concentrated Union
forces in the Army of the Potomac. The Trans-Mississippi West remained a secondary theater of
operations throughout the war.!*

From southwestern Missouri, Confederate forces under generals Sterling Price and
Benjamin McCulloch pushed northward across Missouri,
threatening the state’s continuation in Union ranks. Leaving Fort
Leavenworth in mid-August, Lane headed south to Fort Scott,
where he assumed command of men in the Third, Fourth, and
Fifth Kansas regiments operating as the Kansas Brigade. The
jayhawking element continued to dominate military regulations,
as discipline remained noticeably absent in the camps that lay
scattered around Fort Scott. Convinced the town, surrounded by
hills, was indefensible, Lane immediately planned for a fallback
position and ordered the construction of Fort Lincoln, twelve
miles north of Fort Scoit on the north bank of the Little Osage
River.”

Fort Scott faced its first direct military threat as the
conflict escalated. Continuing his summer campaign to drive
Confederate forces out of central Missouri, Lyon and his Army
of the West advanced to Springfield. Price’s state militia units
joined Confederate troops led by McCulloch, and the
maneuvering began. As the armies marched across southwestern Missouri, news trickled in of a
Confederate victory at Bull Run, fought three weeks earlier in Virginia. The reports of the Union
defeat increased resolve among the Missouri and Kansas volunteers, including the First and
Second Kansas infantry regiments. It “produced intense feeling, and some of our boys who have
been wishing for their three months to expire, declare they will not leave as ‘long as a bean
remains in the commissary,” reported a Topeka newspaper. Early on August 10, 1861, at
Wilson’s Creek, about ten miles southwest of Springfield, Missouri, and about one hundred and

Benjamin McCulloch

"8 Root to Cameron, July 22, 1861; O.R,, 1:3, 405; William G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas (Chicago: A.T.
Andreas, 1883).

Memorandum from General George MeCiclian to President Abraham Lincoln, August 4, 1861, and McClellan to
Secretary of War Henry Camcron, October 1861, O.R., 1:5, 7-10.

© Castel, Civil War Kansas, 50-33

104



HS-16 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-16: Flagpole. Site of tlagpole
at center of Parade Ground, with
partially assembled flagpole
(Southwest elevation). Septem-
ber 1981. Background, left to
right, HS-12 (Quartermaster
Storehouse), HS-30 (Quarter.
master Bullding), and HS-6
(Infantry Barracks).

HS-16, Flagpole.
Excavating foundation
for subsurface flagpole
base (Southwest

elevation). Back-

ground: Assembled
flagpole. September

H§-16: Flagpole. Construction of footer foundation to support above-ground platform surrounding
base of flagpole (South elevation). Background, left to right, HS-2 (Officers Quarters}, HS-15 (Welt
Canopy), and HS-32 (Carriage House).

362



working in the nation’s merchant and fishing fleets found a home in the naval service because
they possessed the technical skills needed to operate ships. The rapidly expanding Navy, which
soared from 76 vessels in March 1860 to 671 in December 1861, also remained the only military
branch that would accept African American volunteers. Many slaves escaped to freedom onboard
naval ships, and several Northern ship commanders recommended their employment. On
September 16, 1861, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Weiles authorized the enlistment of fugitives
into the Navy if officers saw a need for their services. The cramped quarters onboard the ships
reduced discrimination and segregation, and African Americans typically slept and ate in
common quarters with their white counterparts; many African Americans won advancement in
rank and supervised white sailors. By the end of the Civil War African Americans made up a
quarter of total naval personnel.'”

Political and socia} inhibitions delayed recruitment of African Americans in the Army,
but Indian soldiers found quicker acceptance. The limited success of the Confederate Indian
participation in the battles of Wilson’s Creek and Pea Ridge was only one factor that led to
organization of Union Indian units. James Lane had long advocated recruiting such regiments,
and by 1862 influential voices such as General David Hunter, former commander of the Kansas
department, and Williara P. Dole, Lincoln’s Commissioner of Indian Affairs, joined him. Indian
regiments were an obvious solution to the ongoing troop shortage in the West. The growing
numbers of Indians in refugee camps and smail reservations across Kansas provided a fertile
source of recruits, especially when many displaced Indians were excited to fight to reclaim their
homes. The Army established a large refugee camp and military staging area about twelve miles
south of Fort Scott, where the old military road crossed the Drywood Creek. Quartermasters used
the area as a rendezvous and point of departure for southbound convoys, allowing the jong
formations of mule- and ox-drawn wagons room to line up while they awaited escorts. Convoys
coming back from Indian Territory transported wounded Union soldiers and captured
Confederate as well as white, Indian and African American refugees. Wagons typically carried
these refugees as far as Drywood Creek, where a refugee camp formed on the north side of the
creek. Under orders from commanders at Fort Scott, the district quartermaster stationed at the
post provided the refugees with subsistence, shelter, clothing, and blankets. Other large
concentrations of Indian refugees formed to the west of Fort Scott in the Neosho River valley,
near Humboidt, lola, Leroy, Fall River and Walnut, Kansas. Compounding the Indian problem
was the absence of federal agents near their assigned tribes, with the men joining either the
Confederacy or unwilling to place themselves in physical danger by remaining in Indian
Territory. In a typical example, the Osage agent relocated to the town of Fort Scott when the war
broke out. As the Union gradually regained control over Indian Territory, the federal government

"7 Martha S. Putney, Black Sailors: Afro-American Merchant Seamen and Whalemen Prior to the Civil War (New
York: Greenwood Press, 1987); W. Jeffrey Bolster, Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997); Herbert Aptheker, “The Negro in the Union Navy,” Journal uf Negro History 32 (April
1947}, 169-70; Joe H. Mays, Black Americans and Their Contributions Toward Union Victory in the American Civil War, 1861-
4863 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984), 59-68.

161



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-22, September-October 1968:
North view. Includes north half of
the excavation. Features, from top
to bottom, include stane-linad rect-

HS-22, September-October 1988: West angular latrine pit, circular rock-
view. Includes the northwest perimeter of lined shaft, north section of two-
the excavation with a full front and the room washhouse. HS-30 (stone
east side of HS-12 before restoration. building) is in the upper right-hand

corner. North/south municipal atiey
is immediately to the east (right) |
of the excavation.

HS-22, September-October 1968: North view of the
rectangular stone-lined Jatrine pit.

316



28-47,

Sherow, James E.“Workings of the Geodialectic: High Plains Indians and Their Horses in the
Region of the Arkansas River Valley, 1800-1870.” Environmental History Review 16, n. 2
(Summer 1992): 61-84.

Shortridge, James R. “People of the New Frontier: Kansas Population Origins, 1865.” Kansas
History 14 (Autumn 1991): 162-185,

Skelton, William. “The Commanding General and the Problem of Command in the United States
Army, 1821-1841.” Military Affairs 34 (December 1970); 117-22.

. “Officers and Politicians: The Origins of Army Politics in the United States before the
Civil War.” Armed Forces and Society 6, 0. 1 (1979); 22-48.

Speer, John I. “The Burning of Osceola, Mo., by Lane and the Quantrill Massacre Contrasted.”
Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society 6 (1897-1900): 305-12.

Stewart, Miller J .““To Plow, to Sow, to Reap, to Mow: The U.S. Army Agriculture Program,”
Nebraska History 63, n. 2 (1982): 194-215.

Trennert, Robert A. “Indian Policy on the Santa Fe Trail: The Fitzpatrick Controversy of 1847-
1848.” Kansas History \, n, 4 (1978): 243-253.

Wade, Arthur P. “Forts and Mounted Rifles Along the Oregon Trail.” Kansas Quarterly 10, n. 3
(1978): 3-15.

Walker, Wayne. “Nathan Boone: The Forgotten Hero of Missouri.” Journal of the West 18, n. 2
(1979): 85-94.

Watts, Dale E. “How Bloody was Bleeding Kansas?: Political Killings in Kansas Territory, 1854-
1861.” Kansas History 18, n. 2 Summer 1995): 126-129.

White, Richard H. “The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux in the Eigh-
teenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” Journal of American History 65, n, 2 (September 1978):
319-43.

Young, Otis. ““ Dragoons on the Santa Fe Trail in the Autumn of 1843.” Chronicles of Oklahoma
32, n. 1 (Spring 1954): 42-51.

Books

Abel, Annie Heloise. The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War, 1862-1805, Cleveland:
Arthur H. Clark, 1919; paperback reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992, with
anew litle: The American Indian in the Civil War, 1862-1865.

. The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark,
1925; paperback edition, University of Nebraska Press, 1992.

Adams, George Worthington. Ductors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the
Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980.

Adamson, Hans C. Rebellion in Missouri, 186]; Nathaniel Lyon and his Army of the West.
Philadeiphia: Chilton, 1961.

Astor, Gerald. The Right to Fight: A History of African Americans in the Military. Novato,
Calif: Presidio, 1998.

Banasik, Michael! E., ed., Reluctant Cannoneer: The Diary of Robert T. McMahan of the Twenty-
383



serious Indian war until 1864."

While African Americans could serve in United States warships, political concerns,
chiefiy Lincoln’s desire to keep the four border states in the Union camp, initially prevented the
widespread use of slaves in the army. The president regarded the Confederacy as a group of
rebelling states rather than a nation seeking independence. He believed the United States
Constitution limited his legal right to confiscate a citizen’s property without compensation. The
testrictions also included freebom African Americans. When a group of northem freemen sought q
the right to enlist, Secretary of War Simon Cameron declined their services, saying that his
department had no intentions of recruiting “any colored soldiers.” Cameron did display some
signs of support for recruiting African Americans in his annual report for 1861, but before he
could advance this idea the federal government assigned him as minister to Russia on January 11,
1862.4

For the most part, military officers faithfully adhered to the administration’ s anti-
abolitionist stance, although some bent presidential directives to suit their purposes. Dissenters
came from two camps. Some held avid anti-slavery beliefs; others felt that slaves were a military
resource that the Army should deny to the Confederacy. During spring 1861, Gen. Benjamin
Butler gave asylum to several runaway slaves in Virginia, refusing to return them to their owners.
Since Virginia claimed no longer to be part of the United States, he reasoned, federal laws did
not apply to it. Beyond starting a legal precedent, Butler added to the complicated Civil War
lexicon when he declared the newly freed fugitives “contrabands of war.” Newspapers across the
North used the phrase and it came to be applied to all slaves who crossed into Union territory.
Congress approved the reasoning in the First Confiscation Act of August 1861, which punished
treason by confiscation of property. The act forfeited ownership rights of anyone who permitted
slaves to work for the Confederate war effort. The act left the slaves’ legal status in limbo,
releasing them from their owners but denying them actual legal freedom. The increasing flood of
African Americans refugees seeking protection in the North heightened both public and
government awareness that depriving the South of African American service could only help
Union chances of victory.”

Major General John C. Frémont, the well-known pre-war explorer commanding the
Western Department, promoted his own anti-slavery policy. On Aug. 30, 1861, he proclaimed
that all slaves held by people in rebellion to the United States to be free men. Less than two
weeks later, Lincoln rescinded the proclamation, telling Frémont the general overstepped his
authority. The Union defeat at Bull Run helped spark a change in national attitudes, as visions of
aswift war evaporated and Army officers sought new ways to cripple the South’s war machine.
On the political front, abolitionists won more support for their battle against slavery. The federal
government soon modified its stance, broadening the limitations of Lincoln’s restrictions and

® Henning to Capt. Stauhope, 2nd Ohio, October 6, 1862, “Old Book 981-82, 988-92. Bound as 394 Dept. Mo.” Roll
25, page 54, Department of Missouri Telegraph, Orders, Etc., Fort Scott National Historic Site archives; Henning to Col. N.P.
Chipman, November 13, 1862, O.2., 18, 790.

** Cameron to Jacob Dodson, O.R. 3:1, 107, 133; Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), 121-147.

Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative (New York: Random House, 1958), 95-96,

164



Americans. The Army finally accepted Lane’s African American soldiers of the First Kansas
(Colored )Volunteer Infantry Regiment into federal service on January 13, 1863, initially forming
a battalion of six companies at Fort Scott. By May 2, the government organized four more
companies and the Army ordered the now-complete regiment to Baxter Springs. In addition to
freeing all those held as slaves in states involved in the rebellion, the Emancipation Proclamation
publicly endorsed the idea of recruiting African American soldiers. In May 1863, the government
established the Bureau for Colored Troops to regulate the recruitment and organization of
African American units. The Army mustered in the first regiment of U.S. Colored Troops in
Washington, D.C., on June 30, 1863. In 1864, after numerous African American Regiments had
entered the Union Army, there was a major reorganization of all the black units, The government
redesignated all of the state regiments as United States Colored Troops. The First Kansas
(Colored)Volunteer Infantry Regiment became the 79th United States Colored Infantry Regiment
and the Second Kansas (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment became the 83rd United States
Colored Infantry Regiment. The federal government still classified them as volunteer regiments,
but they now represented the United States, not any one state.**

Life for African Americans in the Army paralleled the boring and tedious experience of
their white counterparts. Some of the First Kansas (Colored) men, like their counterparts in white
regiments, entered service at too young an age, aided by zealous recruiters willing to accept any
and all volunteers. If Army officers discovered them, the government dropped the underage
recruits from the company rolls and returned them to their parents. Beyond the hazards of the
battlefield, African American regiments encountered problems with their own army. One of the
most decisive issues was collecting equal pay with their white and Indian counterparts. Privates
in all other units received $13 a month and an allowance in clothing of $3.50 a month and one
ration each. However, under the 1862 militia act, the Army paid African Americans $10 a month,
three dollars of which could be in clothing. African Americans protested the pay inequality until
Congress in 1864 authorized all of those mustered into federal service to receive “the same
uniform, clothing, arms, equipments, camp equipage, rations, medical and hospital attendants pay
and emoluments, other than bounty.” The government did not completely address the pay
inequity until March 1865, when Congress authorized retroactive pay to African Americans units
whose members had not received their promised pay.°

Salary discrimination, combined with many cases of difficulty in getting paid at all, drove
many early volunteers to desert. Often commanders dispatched the First Kansas (Colored)
regimental chaplain, G.W. Hutchinson, to find the missing soldiers. Throughout the Army,
African American soldiers continually provided more than their share of fatigue duties. In some
instances, officers ordered them to set up and police the camps of neighboring white regiments.
The Kansas troops ran into their own examples of discrimination. The regimental commander
prohibited the unauthorized use of African Americans as cooks and waiters for officers in July

Burke, Official Military History of Kansas Regiments: 407-10.

> An Act to Amend the Act Calling Forth the Militia to Execute the Laws of the Union, July 17, 1862, U.S. Statutes at
Large, cited in MacGregor and Nalty, Blacks in the United States Armed Forces, Vol. IJ: 25, Law of 15 June 1864, U.S. Statutes
at Large, cited in MacGregor and Nalty. Blacks in the United States Armed Forces, Vol. i: 337; U.S. Statutes at Large, March 3,
1865, cited in MacGregor and Nalty, Blacks in the United States Armed Forces, Vol. /: 160.

168



hospital enjoyed full staffing throughout the post’s existence.**

Building Fort Scott required a dedicated officer who understood construction and had the
vision to plan a fort upon which the military could rely. That task fell to Capt. Thomas Swords,
who was serving at Fort Leavenworth with the First Dragoons when he received orders to Fort
Scott on June 24, 1842. Swords was unenthusiastic about the appointment and to placate this
valuable officer, his superior, Quartermaster General Thomas J. Jesup, promised that “as soon as
an Officer of the Department becomes disposable, I will send one to relieve you in this duty.”
Swords packed his bags and headed for the new post, unaware that Jesup would never fulfill his
promise.

Swords was the prototypical antebellum officer. Bor in New York City in 1806, he
graduated from West Point in 1829 along with classmate Robert E. Lee, and the Army posted
him to the Fourth Infantry in time to see serious military action. He served in the Cherokee
campaigns and in Army garrisons across the West and in Florida until March 4, 1833, when the
government promoted him to first lieutenant of the First Dragoons. Swords became an assistant
quartermaster late in the next year and spent the next eight years at Fort Leavenworth, earning
promotion to captain in 1837, although not without some blemishes on his service record. While
escorting a detachment of recruits from Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, an outbreak of malaria
forced him to spend his own money to hire a doctor to accompany the group to Fort
Leavenworth. The government crushed his expectations of a swift reimbursement, and he
submitted a harsh letter ta the Army surgeon general along with another invoice. Swords finally
received the reimbursement, but he seemed to harbor an anti-Army attitude after that. A few
months after his arrival, the Army arrested him for challenging another officer to a duel, although
the resulting court-martial board allowed him to remain in the Army. The temperamental officer
was up in front of another court martial within a year, again for challenging an officer to a duel.
This time the court convicted him and ordered his dismissal from the service, but his sentence
was remitted due to his good character. He served at Fort Leavenworth until 1842, when Jesup
transferred him to Fort Scott.

There he faced an enormous challenge. Arriving on the Marmaton River in July, Swords
found only the semblance of a post. Dragoons lived in tents and log cabins, as no permanent
structures had been erected. He took charge of the work and was responsible for the design and
construction of most of Fort Scott’s structures. The task was arduous and lonely. Almost from
the first month of his new assignment, Swords felt trapped at Fort Scott. His obligations were
overwhelming, and the help he needed generally unavailable. The post seemed bleak to this
officer, and in a letter to a friend he feared the Army would never permit him to leave, writing
“In my order sending me here they say it would be temporary, as I would be relieved as saon as
an officer of the Dept. could be spared from other duty, but as so many are sent to company duty
I despair of getting away until the work is completed. Swords’ concems proved valid. He served

* Joseph K. Burnes, “Medical Topography and Diseases of Fort Scott,” in Report on the Sickness and Mortality

Among the Troops ta the Middle Division (1852), Fort Scott National Historic Site Archives; Gillett, The Army Medical
Department, 1818-1865, 74-75

“ George Walton, Sentinel of the Plains: Fort Leavenworth and the American West (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-
Hali, 1973), 46-49.

33



to antagonize the citizens of Kansas.*

The vast distances of the West diluted the importance of fortifications but there were
some fortified locations in southeast Kansas early in the war. Fort Lincoin was one of the earliest,
constructed in September 1861. Lane placed the post there to protect the ford where the 1859
road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Scott crossed the Little Osage River. After the threat from
Price passed in 1861, Fort Lincoln assumed new duties, becoming a structure to keep people in,
rather than out. Fort Lincoln eventually housed a prison that was an annex to the larger military
prison in Fort Scott, along with its own hospital, stables and post office, all protected by
breastworks. The First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment camped near Fort Lincoln
late in 1862 as it underwent regimental organization, and lived at Camp William Phillips, named
after the commander of the Indian Brigade. The following year, when the Second Kansas Colored
Volunteer Infantry Regiment organized, the Army based it near Fort Lincoln, at Camp
Emancipation.’

When the Army reactivated Fort Scott as a post in 1862, it prepared serious defensive
measures to protect the headquarters and main supply point for the Department of the West and
the Army of the Frontier. By the following year, four defensive works guarded the approaches to
the town of Fort Scott. Two of the blockhouses inside the city limits, lunettes Blair and Henning,
overlooked the southerly roads including the old military trail to Fort Gibson. Lunette Insley
guarded the post’s northeast corner and the Marmaton’s river crossing and a fourth fortification
on Fort Scott's westem edge overlooked the road to Neosho.

Despite the impressive looking structures, the fort’s protection was incomplete without
heavy artillery, and the big guns were late on the scene. The blockhouses were two stories high,
protected by long wooden patisades, but the post’s armaments were limited to light field artillery
until three heavy cannons arrived in the spring of 1863. By September the Army mounted four
heavy siege cannons for the town’s protection. Engineers placed one at each blockhouse, and
guarded the blockhouse with a line of rifle pits. Men from several regiments worked on the
fortifications under the command of Capt. Charles H. Haynes, including three noncommissioned
officers from the Second Battery assigned to the project from January through June 1863. The
First Kansas Colored regiment supplied many fatigue parties for the hard Jabor. Because of the
strenuous labor involved, the post commander authorized a ration of whiskey for the workers. In
mid-June, Capt. J.M. Steele, Co. E, Twelfth Kansas, replaced Haynes, with orders to complete
Lunette Blair and the rifle pits as quickly as possible.*

The subposts that surrounded Fort Scott housed small garrisons, some to fight guerrilla

§ albert Castel, Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), 49-52.

7 Consolidated Report, First Regiment, Infantry, Kansas Colored Volunteer. October 1862, Fort Scott National Historic
Site archives: A.W. Pickering to Gov, Carney, Apri} 29, 1863, Carney file, Kansas Historical Society.

* Fort Scott post rctums, May !863, National Archives, Microcopy No. 617, Retwens from U.S. Military Posts
1800-1916, Rol! 1137, Fort Scott, Kansas, January 186] — October 1865, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives; Remarks
for the Month of January, Second Battery, January 26, 1863 Fort Scott National Historic Site archives microfilm; Special Order
‘No. 11, March 1, 1863, Fort Scott National Archives microfilm, frame 1640; By Order of Charles M. Blaiz, Major, 2 Kansas,
Speciat Orders No.7, Headquarters Fort Scott, June 17, 1862, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives microfilm no. 275, frame
880; Col. Charles Blair, March 26, 1864, RG 393, Part I], Vol. 395, Entry 3348, p. 24-5, National Archives.

174



September 1862

Third Wisconsin Cavalry Co. F
Co.I
Co.M

First U.S. Infantry Co.E
Co. F

Second Battery Light Artillery

October 1862

First U.S. Infantry Co.E
Co. F

Third Wisconsin Cavalry Co.I
Co.M

Second Battery Light Artillery
November 1862
First U.S. Infantry Co.
Co.
Third Wisconsin Cavalry Co.
Co.
Co.
Co.
Second Battery Light Artillery
December 1862
First U.S. Infantry CoE
Co. F
Third Wisconsin Cavalry Co. C
Co. G
Co.l
Co.M
Second Kansas Battery Center Section

zr-aatntm

1863
January 1863
First U.S. Infantry CoE
Co. F
Third Wisconsin Cavalry Co. C
Co. G
Co.
Co.M
Sccond Kansas Battery Center Section

CG


Klunder, Willard C. Lewis Cass and the Politics of Moderation. Kent, Ohio: Kent State Univer-
sity Press, 1996.

Knight, Wilfred. Red Fox: Stand Watie and the Confederate Indian Nations During the Civil War
Years in Indian Territory. Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1988.

Leckie, Robert. From Sea to Shining Sea: From the War of 1812 to the Mexican War, The Saga
of America’s Expansion. New York: HarperCollins, (993.

Leland, Joy. Firewater Myths. North American Indian Drinking and Alcohol Addiction. New
Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Center for Alcohol Studies, 1976.

Leonard, Elizabeth D. Ali the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies. New York:
W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.

Levine, Bruce C. Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of Civil War. New York: Hill and Wang,
1992.

Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West.
New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1987.

MacCloskey, Monro. Hallowed Ground: Our National Cemeteries. New York: R. Rosen Press,
1968.

MacGregor, Morris J. and Bernard Nalty, eds, Blacks in the United States Armed Forces: Basic
Documents, Vol. 1: A Time of Slavery. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1977.

Mancall, Peter. Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
University Press, 1995.

Mays, Joe H, Black Americans and Their Contributions Toward Union Victory in the American
Civil War, 1861-1865, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1984.

McCaffrey, James M. Army of Manifest Destiny: The American Soldier in the Mexican War,
1846-1848. New York: New York University Press, 1992.

McGinnis, Anthony. Counting Coup and Cutting Horses: Intertribal Warfare on the Northern
Plains, 1738-1889. Evergreen, Colo.: Cordillera Press, 1990.

McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1988.

———. The Negro’s Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted During the War for the
Union. New York: Pantheon Books, 1965.

———.. The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Recenstruc-
tion. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964.

Merk, Frederick. History of the Westward Movement. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.

Milletc, Allan R. and Peter Maslowski. For the Common Defense: A Military History of the
United States of America. New York: The Free Press, 1994.

Miller, Darlis A. ed., Above a Conunon Soldier: Frank and Mary Clarke in the American West
and Civil War, revised edition. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1997.

Miner, II. Craig and William E. Unrau. The End of Indian Kansas: A Study of Cultural Revolu-
tion, 1854-1871, Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1978.

Monaghan, Jay. Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1985: Boston: Little, Brown, 1955.

Morvison, Michael A. Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the
Coming of the Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

388



HS-36 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-36, Stone Outbuilding (North elevation). Original storage building behind HS-2 before restoration during
Historic Buliding Survey. 1966.

377


Chapter Twelve:
Fort Scott and the Railroads

Fort Scott’s final military role came in the years following the Civil War, when the
United States Army entered into a period of protecting the business and commercial interests of
the nation in a time of increasing labor unrest. One example of its new duties was its mission to
protect the construction of railroads in southeastern Kansas, not from hostile Indians, but from
white settlers. The Civil War was a triumph of technology as well as ideology. The physical plant
of the North, its factories, ports, and railroads, were instrumental in providing the material that
allowed the Union army to subdue the South. The war consolidated economic power and fostered
great fortunes. In its aftermath that model translated onto the plains, as the completion of the
transcontinental railroad promoted the building of hundreds of other stee) roads, all of which
served to create the physical links that the concept of union promised. The Kansas-Missouri
border area participated in the national boom that followed the end of the war. The great
transcontinental railroad lines proposed to link the country’s two coasts never passed near Fort
Scott, but regional businessmen had dreams of capitalizing on tracks laid north to south,
connecting the Midwest with the Gulf Coast. While national attention in 1865 focused on the
Union Pacific’s transcontinental construction, Kansas City investors looked to capitalize on
north-south business.

In western Missouri and eastern Kansas, railroad development was linked with the idea of
expanding the regional market. The booming town of Kansas City, astride the Kansas-Missouri
border, looked to Texas as a new railroad destination, and plans for north-south rail construction
were developed. Traversing the 800,000-acre Cherokee Neutral Lands south of Fort Scott proved
an obstacle until the land was ceded back to the United States in 1866. Railroad construction
began on the Kansas and Neosho Valley line, called the Border Tier line after 1868 since it ran
along the Kansas-Missouri border. Reflecting the ambition of its directors, the line was then
renamed the Missouri River, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railroad. Such objectives faced steely-eyed
locals, who in the best American tradition, claimed the lands through which the rails passed as
their own. The Cherokee Neutral Land League, the collective name for several militant
organizations representing settlers wha lived between Fort Scott and Baxter Springs, offered a
squatter’s rationale for their ownership: they lived on the land, they improved it, and their
presence made it theirs. Their ultimate aim was to force the railroad company to compensate
them for their homes at the rate of $1.25 an acre. The settlers who formed the Land League stood
willing to fight to defend their claims. They threatened any railroad worker whom they caught
trespassing with bodily harm. Settlers disrupted line construction by burning railroad ties,
harassing workers, and refusing to sell supplies such as tumber or rock.!

' Craig Miner, “Border Frontier: The Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad in the Cherokee Neutral Lands,
1868-1870." Kansas Historical Quarterly 35, n. 2 (Summer 1969): 105-130; Donald D, Banwart, Rails. Rivalry and Romance: A
Review of Bourbon County, Kansas and Her Railroad Nostalgia in Words and Pictures, 1864-1980 (Fort Scott: Historic
Preservation Association of Bourbon County, 1982); Edward Keuchel, The Railway System of Fort Scott: A Study of the Impact

233



Lane’s military future continued to look dim, although he retained the most important
political connections. On November 19, Lincoln named Henry M. Halleck commander of the
Department of Missouri, which controlled the Department of Kansas. A month later Halleck was
complaining to General-in-Chief of the Army George B. McClellan about the jayhawking
Kansans, noting that “The conduct of the forces under Lane and Jennison has done more for the
enemy in this State than could have been accomplished by 20,000 of his own army.” Halleck had
heard some rumors of Lane’s promotion to brigadier general, but he could not “conceive of a
more injudicious appointment. It will take 20,000 men to counteract its effect in this State, and,
moreover, is offering a premium for rascality and robbing generally.” Lincoln read the message,
noting that while it was an excellent letter, “I am sorry General Halleck is so unfavorably
impressed with General Lane.” The president declined to take any action against Lane.”

Outside the political battlefield, soldiers in gray were not the only threat to Kansas. Both
Union and Confederate leaders were concerned with the Indian Territory, but the southern
government, concerned with its western flank and seeing an opportunity for easy success, made
the first serious effort to capture Indian allegiance. Many of the groups living in Indian Territory,
principally the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw, had brought the white tradition of slavery
with them when the federal government relocated them from their homelands in the South. The
white man’s conflict soon produced a parallel version among the tribes that would affect Fort
Scott and southeast Kansas. Confederate agents sent to the Indian Territory secured treaties with
many of the Five Civilized Tribes, but John Ross and the Cherokees sought to remain neutral.
This newest struggle was a continuation of the conflict that erupted during the Cherokee’s
removal from Georgia and the Southeast more than twenty years earlier. Cherokees led by Ross
who opposed the move to Indian Territory tended to favor honoring treaty provisions with the
federal government while mixed-blood members coalesced around Stand Watie, whose family
had favored removal in hopes of securing better terms in their new land. Watie's Southern
sympathies made him the natural target for Confederate agents. Eventually Stand Watie
organized a regiment of Confederate cavalry, the First Cherokee Mounted Rifles, and became a
brigadier general in the Confederate Army. Ross, fearing loss of tribal power, eventually agreed
to Confederate promises for the Cherokees and signed a treaty of alliance. However, Ross and
many of his warriors switched their allegiance to the United States after their capture by the
Union Army. *)

The Cherokees were not the only one of the Five Civilized Tribes to splinter over the
question of Southern allegiances. Also torn by the political controversy were Creeks and
Seminoles. Confederate agents organized two regiments of Confederate cavalry consisting of
Creek warriors in 1861 and 1862. Many tribal members opposed any conflict, and hundreds fled
Indian Territory right behind the withdrawing federal troops in April 1861. Other members of the
Creek tribe, also continuing a conflict stretching from their removal from the Southeast, stayed in

® Halleck to McClellan, December 19, 1861, O.2., 1: 8, 447-450.

* Laurence M, Hauptman, Benween Two Fires; American Indians in the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1995),
41-64; Edward E, Dale and Gaston Litton, Cherokee Cavaliers: Forty Years of Cherokee History as Told in Correspondence of
the Ridge-Watie-Boudinat Family (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1939); Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border,
209-218.

114



Sifth Independent Ohio Light Anillery. lowa City, lowa: Camp Pope Bookstore, 2000.

. Embattled Arkansas: The Prairie Grove Campaign of 1862. Wilmington, N.C.:
Broadtfoot Publishing Co., 1998.

Banwart, Donald D. Rails, Rivalry and Romance: A Review of Bourbon County, Kansas and Her
Railroad Nostalgia in Words and Pictures, 1864-1980. Fort Scott, Kans.: Historic Preserva-
tion Assvuciation of Bourbon County, 1982.

Bartlett, Irving H. John C. Calhoun: A Biography. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993.

Bauer, K. Jack The Mexican War, 1846-1848. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1974.

Beers, Henry Putney. The Western Military Frontier, 1815-1846. Philadelphia: Porcupine Press,
1975.

Bertin, Ira, ed. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867; Series Il: The
Black Military Experience. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Boister, W. Jeffrey. Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1997.

Britton, Wiley. The Civil War on the Border: A Narrative of Operations in Missouri, Kansas,
Arkansas and the Indian Territory During the Years 1861-62. New York: G. P. Putnam’s,
1899,

. Memoirs of the Rebellion on the Border, 1863. Chicago: Cushing, Thomas & Co., 1882.

. The Union Indian Brigade in the Civil War, Kansas City, Mo.: F. Hudson Publishing,
1922.

Brownlee, Richard S. Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Activity in the West, 1861-
4865, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1958.

Buchanan, Rex, ed. Kansas Geology: An Intreduction io Landscapes, Rocks, Minerals, and
Fossils. Lawrence, Kans.: Published for the Kansas Geological Survey by the University
Press of Kansas, 1984,

Burke, William S., comp. Official Military History of Kansas Regiments During the War for the
Suppression of the Great Rebellion. Leavenworth, Kans.: W.S. Burke, 1870.

Bums, Louis F. A History of the Osage People. Fallbrook, Calif.: Ciga Press, 1989.

Castel, Albert. Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas,
1997.

. General Sierling Price and the Civil War in the West, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1968.

Catlin, George, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North Ameri-
can Indians. Written During Eight Years’ Travel amongst the Wildest Tribes of Indians in
North America. In 1832, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39, Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1965;
New York, Wiley and Putnam, 184].

Carleton, James BH. The Prairie Logbooks, Dragoon Campaigns to the Pawnee Villages in 1844
and to the Rocky Mountains in 1845. Edited by Louis Pelzer. Chicago: Caxon Club, 1943;
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.

Chalfant, William. Dangerous Passage: The Santa Fe Trail and the Mexicun War. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.

City Directory and Business Mirror for 1865-66, Fort Scott: Monitor Book and Job Office [n.d.j.

Clarke, Dwight L. Stephen Kearny: Soldier of the West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1961.

384



OFFICERS ASSIGNED, 1842-1853

Baker, Lt. Laurence Simmons, Mounted Rifles
Barnes, Joseph, Surgeon

Berry, Lt. Benjamin A.. Fourth Infaniry
Brewerton, Lt. George D., First Infantry*
Buford, Lt. John, First Dragoons

Burbank, Capi. Sidney, First Infantry

Cady, Capt. Albemarle. Sixth Infantry
Caldwell, Lt. James Nelson, First Infantry*
Carleton, Lt. James, First Dragoons

Carr, Lt. Eugene A., Mounted Rifles
Chapman, Lt. Orren, First Dragoons

Chilton, Lt. Robert Hall, First Dragoons*
Clark, Lt. Darius D., Sixth Infanuy

Claiborne, Lt. Thomas, Mounted Rifles
Clarkson, David, Chaplin

Cochrane, Lt. Richard E., Fourth Infantry
Ewell, Lt. Richard Stoddard, First Dragoons
Eustis, Capt. William, First Dragoons
Gordon, Lt. George Henry. Mounted Rifles
Graham, Capt. William Montrose, Fourth lafantry
Hammond, L1. Marcus C.M., Fourth Infantry*
Hammond, William, Surgeon

Hendrickson, Lt. Thomas, Mounted Rifles
Holden, Levi H., Surgeon

Holloway, Lt. fdmunds Balard, Fourth Infantry
Hoskins, Lt. Charles, Fourth Infantry
Kennedy, Alfred W., Surgeon

Kirkham, Capt. Ralph W., Sixth Infantry*
Love, Lt. John, First Dragoons

MeCall, Capt. George Archibald, Fourth Infantry
Moore, Capt. Benjamin D., First Dragoons
Morris, Lt, Robert M., Mounted Rifles*
Morrow, Lt. Alexander, Sixth Infantry!
Norton, Lt. Allen Higbee. Fourth Infantry
Patterson, Lt. Robert Emmet, Mounted Rifles
Russell, Lt. David A., First Infantry

* Assigned, bui not present for duty at Fort Scott

' Died at Fort Scoit.

1852-53
1851-52
1843-45
1848

1848-49
1845-48
1848-52
1845-47
1845-46
1852-53
1848-50
1842

1851-53
1852-53
1850-53
1843-45
1842-46
1842-46
{852-53
1842-45
1842

1847-48
1852-53
1852-53
1843-45
1844-45
1848-51

1842-43
1843-45
1842-43
1851

1848-50
1843-45
1852-53
1845-46


Missouri.

The third element of the refugee problem was hundreds of African Americans, many of
whom had escaped from owners in Missouri and Arkansas. Others were freed during jayhawking
raids. By 1863, a number of contrabands lived in a ravine called Buck Run which held a small
stream bordered with a thick growth of timber. Many of the African Americans found
employment with Army officers, and some developed close relationships. James B. Pond, a
lieutenant serving in the Third Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment, hired a former contraband named
Ike as his servant, praising his qualities as a cook as well as a well-trained servant. At the Fort
Scott refugee camp, Ike met a woman from the plantation where he was raised and wanted to
marry her, if Pond would allow her to become one of the camp laundresses. Pond approved, but
before the nuptials another former slave wooed and won the woman. Pond’s advice to Ike was to
kill the new suitor, which Ike did. After he was identified, imprisoned, and sentenced to death for
the murder, Pond raced to Topeka and obtained a pardon from his friend, Gov. Thomas Carney.
Ike stayed in Pond’s service for several years after the war, enjoying one of the more comfortable
routes out of the refugee camps. Many of the men joined the Union Army and served in the
Indian Home Guard Regiments or the First and Second Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry
Regiments. Most of the others would only leave the camps with the conclusion of hostilities in
1865.

The men and officers serving in the outposts surrounding southeast Kansas had a
significant material advantage over their uniformed and civilian foes. Confederate military forces
were continually hampered by an inadequate supply system, and the bushwhackers who fought
for the Southern cause were dependent upon area civilians for food and war supplies, 2
dependence crippled after Order Number 11 depopulated many border counties. In contrast,
Union troops could rely upon a steady stream of supplies pouring out of Fort Scott. Wounded
soldiers had a large medical center to attend them. Their animals were replaced or administered
to while they could find comfort in the civilian facilities that sprang up around the military
activities. Amid all the instability of the border area, the federal forces benefitted from Fort
Scott’s abundant facilities, resources developed in response to federal dollars and early Army
needs.

% Curtis to Lincoln, Feb. 24, 1864, O.2., Series I, 34/2, 460-61.

**C.M Chase file, Kansas State Historical Society archives; Entry for Aug. 19, 1863, Lela Barnes, ed. “An Editor
Looks at Early-day Kansas, the Letters of Charles Monroe Chase,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 26 (Summer 1960), 113-151;
James B. Pond, “Memoirs of Co, C - 3rd Wis Cav.”

193


HS-10 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-10 Dragoon Stables (Southeast elevation). HS-5, reconstructed Dragoon Barracks, right. 1979.

347



Post of Southeastern Kansas

Major James Roy, Sixth Infantry!
Capt. Samuel Robbins, Seventh Cavalry
Capt. John Poland, Sixth Infantry

Capt. John Upham, Sixth Cavalry
Major Lewis Merrill, Seventh Cavalry
Capt. Edwin Ames, Sixth Infantry
Capt. John Poland, Sixth Infantry

Capt. Edwin Ames, Sixth Infantry
Capt. John Poland, Sixth Infantry

Lt. Col. Thomas Neill, Sixth Cavalry
Capt. John Upham, Sixth Cavalry
Capt. Edmund Butler, Fifth Infantry
Capt. John Upham, Sixth Cavalry?
Capt. Andrew Bennett, Fifth Infantry
Lt. Col. Thomas Neiil, Sixth Cavalry
Major John Upham, Sixth Cavalry

December 1869 to April 1870
April 1870 to July 1870

July 1870 to August 1870
August 1870 to November 1870
November 1870 to March 1871
March 1871

March 1871 to June 1871

June 1871 to July 1871

July 1871

July 1871 to December 187!
December 1871 to March 1872
March 1872 to June 1872

June 1872 to October 1872
October 1872 to November 1872
November 1872 to March 1873
March 1873 to April 1873

* Roy commanded a detachment of the Sixth Infantry at Fort Scott beginning on August 19, 1869,

* During this period, Upham was promoted to major.


Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

base lla S sf it
MK&T Freight Depot and cattle shipping pens (Northwest view), Note: background, Crawford Foundry, Marmaton
River Bridge and Bell Town. 1873.

Former Officers Quarters No. 3 {ieft) and No. 4, photographed from the porch of the former
Infantry Barracks (HS-6). Note: intersection shown is Blair and Lincoln avenues and north-
east corer of fenced Carroll Plaza. Early 1880s.

261



Union on May 10, !861. The West Point graduate, class of 1851, was appointed a lieutenant
colonel of cavalry in command of the Ninth North Carolina Cavalry, and served under Gen. I.E.B.
Stuart. After promotion to colonel in March 1862, Baker fought at Second Manassas, Sharpsburg,
Frederick City, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. His bravery at Brandy Station in June 1863,
where he was seriously wounded, brought a promotion to brigadier general. He was assigned to
the War Department of the Second Military District of South Carolina in 1864. He commanded
troops that confronted Sherman at Savannah and August in late 1864. After fighting Sherman, Baker
was given departmental command in North Carolina. He surrendered after Richmond fell and was
paroled in May 1865, going on to a career in life insurance and farming after the war, and dying on
April 10, 1907."

Graduated from West Point in 1837, Lieutenant Robert Hall Chilton served at Fort Scott as
a second lieutenant in Company C, First Dragoons, from May 30, 1842 to May 2, 1843. Named a
lieutenant colonel in the Confederate army, he joined Lee’s staff a few days after Lee took over the
Army of Northern Virginia. Chilton rose to head the staff, and acted as such during the battles of
the Seven Days, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg.
Named a brigadier general late in 1862, he reverted to his previous rank of lieutenant colonel
when the Confederate Senate refused to confirm the appointment. Disappointed by the rejection, he
continued to serve Lee for another year, but his request of relief from field duty was finally ap-
proved on April 1, 1864, and he spent the remainder of the war in Richmond as an inspector. After
Appomattox, he moved to Georgia and ran a manufacturing firm, dying in 1879.

A Missoun native, Captain John G. Walker was assigned to the Mounted Rifles when he
was stationed at Fort Scott from Nov. 1, 1852 to April 22, 1853. He resigned from the Army in
1861 to be commissioned major of Confederate cavalry, winning promotion to brigadier general in
January 1862. During the Second Bull Run campaign, Walker served as division commander in
Southside, Va., joining the Army of Northern Virginia for the Antietam campaign. In November
1862, he was promoted to the rank of major general, and over the next two years he commanded a
division in the District of West Louisiana. Walker later commanded the district and later was in
charge of the combined district of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Immediately after the war he
fled to Mexico, eventually returning to become a U.S. diplomat in Colombia. He died July 20,
1893.)

Other men served the Confederacy with less distinction. Lieutenant Thomas Claiborne,
who served in the Regiment of Mounted Rifles when he was stationed at Fort Scou from 1852 to
1853, joined the Confederacy in May 1861, and served in the cavalry through the war, Licutenant
Ednounds Balard Holloway served with Company C of the Fourth Infantry Regiment when he was
stationed at Fort Scott from 1843 to 1845. In May 1861 he resigned from the U.S. Army and joined
the Confederate forces in Missouri as a member of the Missouri State Guard. He was accidently
killed on June 17, 1861.

° Percy G. Hamlin, The Making of a Soldier: Letters of General R.S, Ewell (Richmond, Va., Whittet and Shepperson,
1935}, Donald C. Pfanz. Richard S. Eweil: A Soldier's Life (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998).

" Jon L. Wakelyn. Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy (Westpost, Comn.: Greenwood Press, 1977), $5.

" Mark M Boatnes, The Civil War Dictionary, rev. ed, (New York; David McKay Company, 1988). 885.

278



contraption allowing him to cook breakfast at the same time that he warmed up his tent.?

Fort Scott regained a degree of military importance lost the previous year in an Army
reorganization on April 20, when the Army established the First Subdistrict of Kansas that
consisted of everything south of the Kansas River, with headquarters at Fort Scott. Blair retained
command. Two days later, Blunt ordered Blair to call into Fort Scott all the detachments of the
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry serving in outlying posts to prepare for the regiment’s move to
Arkansas. At the same time, new threats mixed with optimistic news surfaced. Union garrisons in
southwest Missouri reported a band of about fifty guerrillas heading north, and new reports of a
planned raid by Stand Watie into the Neosho Valley west of Fort Scott reached Kansas.
Providing evidence that the Confederacy was collapsing, information from Fort Gibson indicated
that many of the Southern soldiers in Texas were fleeing south into Mexico, with “a great
ferment and many deserters” among those serving in the southeast corner of the state. The
message also noted that all of the white Southern troops had pulled out of Indian Territory. Stand
Watie was reported to still be leading a few hundred men in the region, but spring floods kept the
Arkansas River high, blocking his way north, and no other Confederate forces had been able to
cross.*

By the first week of May, Fort Scott definitely took on a distinctive Wisconsin air as the
Forty-Eighth Wisconsin Infantry Regiment arrived to replace the mounted soldiers of the Third
Wisconsin Cavalry, ending the cavalry regiment’s stay that began in June 1862. The post was
also home to one section of the Wisconsin Light Artillery as well as the temporary base for five
cavalry companies from the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry. Another company of the Fifteenth Kansas
Cavalry was stationed about thirty-five miles north of Fort Scott at Trading Post. Col. Charles
Blair, still commanding the post, reported posting two companies of the Fifteenth Kansas
Cavalry at Humboldt and another at Marmaton, with another five companies massed at Fort Scott
in preparation for their move to Little Rock. He had four Third Wisconsin Cavalry companies
still on outpost duty in Missouri with the rest on detached duty near Kansas City. Six companies
of the Forty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry were garrisoned at Fort Scott, with another detachment
stationed at Mound City. Blair also had one section of the Ninth Wisconsin Battery at the post.
The newly arrived Wisconsin soldiers were quickly put to use, building the new fortifications
southeast of town early in the day, and drilling in the afternoon. One soldier noted that the town
of Fort Scott had a few citizens pursuing legitimate business and a few Army officers
permanently stationed there, adding that “the balance of the population is made up of soldiers,
speculators, gamblers, thieves, prostitutes and rebel refugees all trying to rob the government and
each other.” Many of the civilians engaged in separating soldiers from their pay lived in tents on
the outskirts of the town.”>

Despite the surrender of Lee’s army, irregular forces still roamed the Kansas-Missouri

® April 18, 1865, Charles Felkner Collection, $C2026, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Transcript in Fort Scott
National Historical Site archives,

* General Orders No. 5, District of South Kansas, April 20, 1865, O.R., 1:48/2, 147; Blunt to Blair, April 22, 1865,
OR, 1-48/2, 161; Dodge to Blair, April 21, 1865, OR, 1:48/2, 153; Brig. Gen. Cyrus Bussey to Pope, April 23, 1865, O.R.,
1:48/2, 163-4.

* May 2, 1865, Felkner Collection, $C2026, Wisconsin Historical Society.

226



exert an unequaled influence in his adopted state. His Indian expedition of the previous summer
proved a strategic failure, but his choice for a military leader in Kansas, James G. Blunt,
remained in command of the area. and Lane continued to receive the patronage benefits of newly
formed Kansas regiments, including officers’ commissions for the newly organized black and
Indian regiments. Antagonisms across the border counties of Kansas and Missouri continued
outside of the battlefield. Cravings for revenge sparked during the years of “Bleeding Kansas”
remained strong, and Army officers stationed in Kansas addressed a range of different military
problems: large numbers of irregular troops, Confederate deserters joined with civilians seeking
personal plunder along the border counties, sympathizers fighting surreptitiously for the South,
Indians to the south waging their own civil war, in addition to continually reorganized uniformed
Confederate armies threatening from Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri.’

Located adjacent to Missouri and the Indian Territory. Fort Scott's military commanders
faced threats from multiple directions, but some of the most serious problems were internal.
After the failure of the 1862 Indian expedition, thousands of Indian refugees fled north to
southeastern Kansas. Hundreds who accompanied the Indian troops were joined by many more
seeking federal protection from Southern sympathizers. The overwhelming majority of the
refugees arrived in Kansas destitute, and many local merchants capitalized on the opportunity to
sell necessities to the Indians, relying on federal funding for repayment. Most of the relief funds
came from trusts held by the government for several of the southern Indian tribes. National
politics, especially concern for the war's progress, combined with entrepreneurs’ greed to keep
them in a bereft condition, Not everyone benefitted from the refugees, and as the number of
refugee Indians soared, calls for their speedy return to Indian Territory also increased. By
December 1862. the Bureau of Indian Affairs had spent $193.000 on subsistence for Indian
refugees in Kansas, reinforcing congressional demands for their early return, but Washington,
D.C., failed to provide the means to accomplish that end. Aside from the displaced Indians, other
groups seeking the Indians’ quick return to the south included the Department of the Interior,
which bore the responsibility for feeding and housing their charges while they were in Kansas
camps: the Army, which hoped to tap that manpower to secure its control of Indian Territory; and
whites in Kansas seeking to clear Indian title to lands.”

Indians joined with Union officers to push for a speedy retum to Indian Territory.
Cherokee leader John Ross met with Lincoln in September 1862, seeking to regain federal
financial and military support by explaining the Indian defection to the Confederacy. Ross argued
that the federal government failed to meet its treaty provisions guarantecing to protect the Indian
nations from “domestic strife and foreign enemies.” General Samuel Curtis, when queried in

‘ Por more on Confedgrate indian troops. see W. Craig Gaines. The Confederate Cherokees: John Drew's Regiment of
Mounted Rifics (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), Larry C. Rampp. The Civil War in the Indian Territory
(Austin, TX: Presidial Press, 1975). Books focusing on Stand Watie include Kenny A. Franks’ Stand Watie and the Agony of the
Cherokee Nation (Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1979) and Frederick Cunningham's General Stand Watie’s
Confederate Indians (San Antonio. Texas: The Naylor Company, 1959): James G. Blunt, “General Blunt's Account of his Civil
War Experiences,” Kansas Historical Quarierly ! (May 1932), 211-63.

* David A. Nichols. Lincoln and the Indians: Civil War Policy and Politics (Columoia: University ef Missouri Press.
1978). 25-64, Annual Report of the Commissionet of Indian Affairs. Report of the Secretary of the Interior. serial 1184. vol. 3.
1 sass. 38" Congress (Washington. D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1864), 142

135



ending July 31, 1863, the Quartermaster Department alone spent almost $97,000 at Fort Scott.
During that year, teamsters operating out of Fort Scott moved 846 tons of subsistence items, 72
tons of ordnance, 20] tons of quartermaster supplies, and seven tons for the hospital department.
Insley regularly employed an average of two hundred and fifty wagons and teams transporting
supplies to the Army of the Frontier and the command at Fort Blunt (another name for Fort
Gibson) in Indian Territory."

Federal patrols seized hundreds of animals and wagons as well as tons of crops from
suspected Confederate sympathizers across Missouri, Arkansas, and the indian Territory, and the
Army developed a formal procedure for inventorying and disposing those seizures. Detailing his
activities for the year ending June 30, 1863, Insley reported receiving as contraband 294 horses,
670 mules, 320 ponies, colts and asses, five wagons, seventy-two oxen, 2,824 mixed cattle,
17,531 bushels of cor and 457 tons of hay. The items had a total value of $40,000. The Army
sold the stock and wagons at public auction at Fort Scott for $20,051.20, with the money
expended at the depot, while government animals consumed the captured hay and corn.

Throughout the Civil War years, overiand transportation remained the principal method
of moving Army men and materials. One of the original reasons for establishing Fort Scott in
1842 was the protection it offered to the military road marked out between Fort Leavenworth and
Fort Gibson, and those responsibilities only increased after 1861. New construction
supplemented the initial north-south road adjacent to the town. In 1859, the federal government
constructed a new road that went north through Mapleton, Fort Lincoln and Mound City to Fort
Leavenworth. This road was approximately 12-15 miles west of the original military road.
During the Civil War, the Army built a more direct, safer road south of Trading Post to Fort
Scott. This road eliminated the use of a dangerous section of the original military road that was
very close to Missouri on which Union military traffic was subject to guerrilla attacks, Fort Scott
also had trails and roads leading to the subposts surrounding Fort Scott, including Trading Post,
Ottawa, Iola, Garnett, Humboldt, Osage Mission, and Baxter Springs in Kansas and Missouri
towns Nevada, Deerfield, Lambert’s Ford, Adamson’s Ford, Drywood, Balltown, and Lamar.

Amny quartermasters were responsible for supervising the construction of all buildings
and structures erected on rented lots during Civil War in the town of Fort Scott, since the Army
considered such construction temporary, and not the responsibility of the Engineer Department.
The Army in the 1840s built some buildings rented by the Civil War quartermasters. Commissary
officers took over the former dragoon stables early in 1862 and the stalls were removed so the
building could be used as a warehouse for stores, giving the building the capacity for a million
tations, most prominently hard bread. After taking control of the large building, the Army
installed a new roof. Quartermaster crews built structures on rented plots for other military
purposes, including 2 large blacksmith shop on the east side of the parade grounds, an ice house,
and a saw and com mill on Mill Creek three miles west of town using equipment brought in from
Missouri. The Army also rented larger lots outside Fort Scott, including eighty acres leased from
former post sutler Hiero T. Wilson for use as a camping ground, military prison and guardhouse,
and another eighty acres rented from J.E. Dillon for a corral. Directly to the west of the post was

" Fart Scott Bulletin, June 7, 1862, June 28, 1862, August 16, 1862; Major L.C. Easton to Gen. M.C, Meigs, Sept. 21,
1863, OR, 1:53, 751.

176



16. Shed, attached to No. 15, for shoeing horses, 27 by 12 feet, planked and shingled, Block 3

17. Repairing Shop, 50 by 16 feet, 10 fee high, boards sct upright and battened, shingle roof. (This
may have been the wagon shop, if so it was also on Block 3; if not, location unknown)

18. Storeroom Shed, 26 by 16 feet, 10 feet high, boards set upright and battened, shingle roof,
location unknown

19, Fence, around fuel yard, 1,290 by 5 six-inch boards high, Blocks 65, 66 and 68

20, Sexton’s Building, 14 by 14 feet, 9 feet high, boards sct upright and battened, shingle roof,
located in military (national) cemetery

21. Corrals, located on the 80 donated acres

22. Lunette Henning, composed of log blockhouse, octagonal, 14-foot diameter, 2 floors, weather-
boarded, shingle roof, enclosed by a log palisade, 342 feet long, 9 feet high (6% feet above
ground), 6 inches thick, located near present intersection of Second and National

23. Lunette Insley, composed of a “double” log blockhouse, 32 by 20 fect, 15 feet high, 2 floors,
weather-boarded, shingle roof, enclosed by a log palisade 326 feet long, 9 feet high (6%
feet above ground, 6 inches thick, near point of the bluff on which old fort was located.
Site obliterated.

24, Hospital, for civilian employees, 32 by 16 feet, 10 feet high, boards set upright and battened,
shingle roof, 2 rooms plastered, location unknown

25. Stable for mules, 171 by 24 feet, 10 feet high, boards set upright and battened, shingle roof, a
12-foot shed attached, location unknown

Depot Quartermaster Office’

‘National Archives Microfilm No. 3, Frame 365-66, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

296


HS-10 Fort Scott National Historic Site

H&-10 Dragoon Stables (South elevation). HS-2, Officers Quarters at right. 1979.

H&-10 Dragoon Stables (Southwest elevation). HS-5, Dragoon Barracks, at left, and HS-7, Infantry Barracks at
right. 1979.

346



HS8-19 Fort Scott National Historic Site

*
i Ea

HS-19, Lunette Biair, the relocated Civil War blockhouse (South elevation). Circa 1920s. Formerly located on
Carroll Plaza (Parade Ground) between the present reconstructed Powder Magazine and the Post Hospital/
Visitor Center.

367



emigrant Indians, it failed to encounter either Pawnee or Comanche, both considered particularly
hostile to relocated Indians. A second expedition, commanded by Lt. Col. James Many, departed
in May 1833 with two companies of infaniry and the three companies of rangers, but after
chasing a group of Pawnees who kidnaped a ranger, the patrol retumed without encountering
Plains peaple.” The theory of intimidating Indians with a military presence proved more difficult
than officers and political leaders imagined.

Authorization of a dragoon regiment in March 1833 spurred further military efforts on the
Plains. During the early years of the unit’s existence, most dragoons along the Missouri-Arkansas
border were stationed at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Gibson. They soon made their presence felt
across the West. In 1834, Colonel Henry Dodge led an expedition from Fort Gibson to Pawnee
villages located within the Cherokee Nation, inviting tribal representatives to attend peace
negotiations in Washington, D.C. A year later, Dodge led about one hundred dragoons to the
Rocky Mountains, marching along the Platte River in what is now Nebraska and meeting with
Otoes, Omahas, and Pawnees. The trip covered more than sixteen hundred miles and displayed
the reach of American power. Another Army officer with years of frontier experience, Lt. Col.
Stephen Watts Kearny, commanded four dragoon companies on a patrol up the Missouri early in
1839, an expedition “which had the effect of quieting the apprehensions of difficulty in that
quarter,” Gen. Alexander Macomb, the Army’s senior officer, reported. Later that year, Kearny
and five dragoon companies traveled south on the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson military road
when news of trouble in the Cherokee Nation arose. The troops rode past the future site of Fort
Scott and on to Fort Wayne. Finding no disturbances, they returned north. The dragoons and the
professionalism they demonstrated may have been a factor that induced groups of Comanches,
Kiowas, and Pawnees to conclude peace treaties with the incoming Americans.”

Changing political and military demands forced the Army to continually shift its units
around the frontier. During 1842, the Army first based troops at the site it selected for Fort Scott.
Original plans called for two companies of dragoons and one infantry company to be located on
the Marmaton River, but the expense of mounted troops soon convinced the Army to increase the
number of infantry companies instead of the more costly dragoons. Fort Scott and the other
frontier forts of the 1840s remained secondary to the main post on the Plains, Fort Leavenworth,
which enjoyed a central location and almost year-round access to steamboats carrying supplies
and men up the Missouri River. A large portion of the First Dragoons regiment stationed in the
West was based there, and Fort Scott typically quartered at least one company of mounted troops.
Companies A and C of the First Dragoons became the initial contingent based at Fort Scott, the
120 men arriving from Fort Wayne on May 30, 1842. In October, Company D of the Fourth
Infantry marched to the Marmaton River posi. Another shift in deployment took place the
following May, when Captain Benjamin Daviss Moore and Company C of the dragoons were

* Irving made the journey the basis for his story “A Tour of the Prairies,” published in 1835; Henry Putney Beers, The
Western Military Frontier, 1815-1846 (Philadelphia: Porcupine Press, 1975), 100-103.

* James Hildreth, Dragoon Campaign ta the Rocky Mountains (New York: Arno Press, 1973); Prucha, Sword of the
Republic, 373-375; Hugh Evans, “The Journal of Hugh Evans, Covering the First and Second Campaigns of the United States
Dragoon Regiment in 1834 and 1835,” ed. by Grant Foreman and Fred Perrine, Chronicles of Oklahoma 3 (September 1925),
175-215; Beers, The Western Military Frontier, 109-114; “Repomt of the Major General Commanding the Army,” Nov. 27, 1839,
26 Cong., !* sess., Sen. Doc. | (Serial 354), 56; Macomb was the Army’s senior general from 1828 until his death in 1841

57


African Americans back with them into Kansas, both in its ranks serving as laborers and in
separate wagon trains. Officials distributed the former slaves throughout southern Kansas as
laborers to replace white Kansans serving in the military. Defending himself against allegations
of illegality in holding political and military office, Lane recommended that the federal
government form a new military department, composed of Kansas, the Indian country, and part
of Arkansas. He would cheerfully accept command of the department, and in return would resign
his Senate seat.”

The approaching winter season sparked hopes of lessened violence along the border, but
fears of an invasion lingered in Kansas. General John Pope, commander of the Second Division,
Amny of Southwest Missouri, feared that Price, in search of ammunition for his army, was
retreating slowly to the southwest and might threaten Fort Scott, which held considerable
amounts of ammunition and rations. The armies that had caused so much anxiety across Kansas
~— the Missouri militia units under Price and the Confederate troops led by McCulloch —
remained two separate commands, Although the two leaders had cooperated on several
campaigns, they had entirely different responsibilities guiding their decisions. Price desperately
wanted to drive the Union forces out of his state; the Confederate government assigned
McCulloch the responsibility to protect Indian Territory.**

Throughout late October, the disparity continued, with different sections of Kansas the
principal targets. Price wrote to McCulloch, telling him of his plans to ignore southeastern
Kansas temporarily in favor of another advance to the Missouri River and seizure of the Hannibal
and St. Joseph Railroad, isolating Kansas from the rest of the Union. The Missouri general saw
Lawrence and central Kansas as the war’s pivotal points, saying “It is there that abolitionism
reigns; it is there her wealth is held; it is there her fighting men are raised; in short, it is the center
from which all her depredations upon Southem rights and Southem property radiate.” An attack
in southern Kansas, Price argued, even if successful, would allow reinforcements to flow into the
northern part of the state, leading to ultimate Confederate defeat. More concerned with Indian
Territory, McCulloch looked southward, urging the destruction of southern Kansas, arguing that
the Indian Territory could not be secure until Southern sympathizers assumed control of the
region.

Lane’s jayhawking activities became even more idiosyncratic with the impending arrival
of winter. Price withdrew from Lexington in October as the Confederates began looking for a
winter camp. Northern regiments started in pursuit, but within ten days, Lincoln ordered Hunter,
Frémont’s replacement, to halt his pursuit of Price, who by now was in Arkansas, and instead
regroup his scattered forces. By concentrating soldiers at Rolla and Sedalia and coordinating their
efforts with Lane at Fort Scott, the president predicted it would be easy to concentrate and repel
any army returning north into Missouri for the remainder of the year. Lincoln expected that by

® Lane to Lincoln, October 9, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 528-529; Lane to Sturgis, October 3, 1861, O.R., (3, 516; Castel, Civil
War Kansas, 55-57.

3" Pope to Eaton, October 8, 1861, O.R, 1:3, 527-28.

* Price to McCulloch, October 23, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 722; McCulloch to Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of
War, October 14, 1861, O.R., 1:3, 718-719.

11


bon County were placed in the Sixth District for voting purposes, with Fort Scott’s former hospital
building designated as the polling place. William Barbee compiled the district census list in January
and February, counting a southeast Kansas population of 249 voters in eleven complete counties
and parts ofnine others. When finally held, the election of a territorial legislature proved a fiasco.
The census showed 2,905 qualified voters living in the territory out of a total population of 8,601.
On March 30, 1855, when the territory held legislative elections, 6,307 ballots were cast. Pro-
slavery delegates dominated the newly elected body by the margin of thirty-six to three, earning it
the free-state title of the “Bogus Legislature.” A fier officials uncovered several instances of voter
fraud, Reeder ordered a second election in about one-third of the districts on May 22, 1855. When.
the legislature convened on July 2, one ofits first acts was to throw outall free-state candidates who
won in the May election and seat the pro-slavery delegates who earlier
won seats. After relocating to Shawnee Mission, the legislature voted to
adopt Missouri’s slave laws for Kansas. Despite victories at the polls,
pro-slavery forces still sought Reeder’ s ouster. Pierce finally yielded to
the attacks on July 28 that charged him with irregularities in the purchase
of Indian lands and removed him from office. Reeder stayed in the
territory for another year, during which a series of threats upon his life
from Missourians drove him into the free-state coalition.’

Inresponse to the reports of outrageous voting fraud during the
elections held in Kansas Territory, Congress established a special
comunittee to examine the situation. Legislators interviewed many of
those involved in the elections, including several people from Fort Scott.
John Hamilton, who as a dragoon sergeant helped build the post and
lateras a civilian living in Fort Scott was a Free State legislative candi-
date, testified he saw as many as one hundred and fifty strangers at the polls in the former hospital
building on election day. Most came west from Missouri on horseback and wagon, he said. Two
men warned Hamilton that ifhe contested the election, “it would certainly be detrimental to the
interests of myselfand family,” he recounted. Another Fort Scott resident, Emory B. Cook, told
investigators that one of the strangers told him “it seemed to be understood that the north was
imposing on the south, and they were going to try to keep up with them.” Testifying for the opposi-
tion, John Anderson, a pro-slavery candidate who won his election, testified that a “current and
credited rumor” placed a body of armed men from the Emigrant Aid Society in Fort Scott to control
the voting. Many Missourians, he explained, came to counter that threat. The rancor and partisan-
ship were both obvious and hard to assess, Few U.S. territories endured such contentiousness and
deceit when they formed their first legislature.!?

John Hamilton

° The territorial census also listed 192 staves in Kansas, with eleven in the Sixth District, Alfred Thayer Andreas
and William G, Cutler, The History of the State of Kansas, two vols. (Chicago, A. T. Andreas, 1883. Reprinted in 1976), 94;
Ronald Vern Jackson, Gary R. Teeples, and David Schaerermeyer, eds. Kansas 1855 Territorial Census Index (Bountiful,
Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1977).

‘ United States Congress, Report of The Special Committee Appointed to Investigate the Troubles in Kansas; With
the Views of the Minority. House of Representatives, 34° Cong., 1* sess., Report n. 200, 235-245: President James Buchanan,
message to Congress, January 24, 1856, Journal of the Senate of the United Staies af America, Being the First and Second

Sessions of the Thirty-Fourth Congress (Washington, D.C.: A.O.P. Nicholson, Senate Printer, 1856), 64, 68-69.

75


HS-1 Fort Scott National Historic Site

320



“In view of all the facts upon the subject under consideration I
respectfully recommend the abandonment of this place [Fort
Wayne] and the establishment of a post in what has been called
the neutral ground (now belonging to the Cherokees) between
the Osage Indians and the State of Missouri — at some point
about 100 miles south of Fort Leavenworth; perhaps near where
the Military road crosses the Marmiton would be a good site.”

Maj. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Eighth Infantry
to J.C. Spencer, Secretary of War, January 9, 1842

River, reaching the spot May 30.

Fort Wayne was not alone in facing relocation on the frontier during the middle of the
nineteenth century. In 1836, Congress and the War Department evaluated another of the
seemingly endless reorganizations of the frontier. The constant shifting of the line of settlement
meant that even as carlier forts were completed, some became obsolete. Fort Leavenworth
remained in a favorable location in 1836, but the westward movement of white settlements and
new immigrant Indian communities meant that forts Towson, Gibson, and Coffee lost their
usefulness. They too faced closure and relocation.

The saga of Fort Gibson, onc of the strongest points on the southern end of the line of
frontier posts, typified the reasons forts moved to new locations. Established in April 1824, when
the garrison of Fort Smith moved eighty miles upstream to a site three miles from the mouths of
the Grand and Verdigris rivers, Fort Gibson was named in honor of George Gibson, Commissary
General of the United States. With a garrison of about 250 men of the Seventh Infantry under the
command of Col. Matthew Arbuckle, the post was a formidable presence on the Indian frontier.
Yet there was a genuine problem with its location: the Army had sited the fort in the swampy
lowlands that settlers typically avoided because of the risk of bilious fever. During the nine years
from its founding to 1833, almost five hundred soldiers died of illness at Fort Gibson, which
acquired the sobriquet “the graveyard of the army.” This phenomenal mortality rate suggested
that Fort Gibson might be more effective were it moved to a location where its soldiers were less
likely to succumb to disease.

Western settlers agreed that the Army should move Fort Gibson, but for an entirely
different set of reasons. On March 21, 1836, the Arkansas legislature offered the House
Committee on Military Affairs a memorial that favored the movement of Fort Gibson to the
boundary between that state and Indian Territory to the west, as area residents sought increased
protection against what they perccived as an Indian threat. On May 14, the Quartermaster

» R. Joues, Adjutant General, to Brig, General Zachary Taylor, February 10, 1842. Nationa! Archives, Record Group
94. Records of the AGO, Letters Sent. Vol. 8: 7-8; Grant Foreman, ed, A Traveler in Indian Territory: The Journal of Ethan
Allen Hitchcock (Cedar Rapids, lowa: Torch Press, 1935}; Littlefield and Underhill. “Fort Wayne and Border Violence,” 8-13.

27



HS-10 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-10 Dragoon Stables (Northeast elevation). View from Carroll Plaza/Parade Ground. 1979.

HS-10, reconstructed Dragoon Stables (Northeast elevation). View from Parade Ground, 1980.
348



built a new saw mill. The town of Fort Scott again was incorporated on February 27, 1860, after
the new legislature ruled invalid the 1855 incorporation by the “Bogus Legislature,” and the town
company finally received land titles that September. The area quickly became populous. Ina census
taken in 1860, the squatters on the New York Indian reservation land numbered 2,202, vastly
outnumbering the fifty Indians settled there.* With the end of open hostilities, the town could
continue its initial purpose: creating economic opportunity for settlers and others who wished to
develop the area.

The statehood drive for Kansas continued. On February 12, 1860, members of Congress
introduced an admissions bill in the House of Representatives, followed two days later by a similar
measure in the Senate. Some in the Democratic Party questioned whether or not the territory had
sufficient population to qualify as a state, while others opposed measure because of the proposed
boundaries. Congress eventually tabled the bill for the remainder of the session. A fifth territorial
legislature convened during the year revised the federal census figures upward to more than
100,000 people — sufficient for statehood. The Republican victory in the national elections of
November 1860, coupled with the withdrawal of a number of Southern senators finally brought
about approval there on January 21, 1861. A week later the House passed the admission bil] and
on January 29, 1861, outgoing President Buchanan signed the bill that made Kansas the thirty-
fourth state.

Peace was still an unstable commodity in Fort Scott as 1860 closed. James Montgomery
was among those seeking a settlement on their own terms. In a November letter, the Jayhawk
leader noted that “AII that is needed here, to make the times interesting, is the presence of United
States Troops. I told the Gov. privately that their presence here would be considered insulting to our
dignity as free-born American citizens.” A newspaper reporter in the town during the public land
sale of Dec. 3 personally witnessed what he termed “a hotbed of Southem hatred and proslavery
vindictiveness.” Observing a small force of dragoons and infantry transferred down from Fort
Leavenworth to maintain the peace for the sale, William Hutchinson visited the former parade
grounds, where he was surrounded by bayonets. Upon retreating to the hotel, Hutchinson encoun-
tered “a wild and angered mob that threatened and swore at me.” A fier a full day of this treatment,
he finally realized “that Fort Scott was not likely to be a healthy place for me.”

Southern domination of national affairs served as the foundation for the continuation of the
Union — as long as the region retained power at the federal Jevel, the South had genuine reasons to
remain a part of the republic. Yet throughout the 1850s, southerners lost much ground in national
affairs. The imminent threat of loss of power helped make secession look more inviting. It seemed a
better option than becoming subservient to the North. Political change began the process. Southern-
ers lost key northem allies as the fallout from the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act caught
Democrats across the North. In the wake of the bill’s passage, popular indignation in the northern

® Stampp, America in 1857, 324-31; Zomow, Kansas, 77-8.

* Richards, Headquarters House, 24-25; Welch, Border Warfare, 200-16.

+! Zornow, Kansas, 80-1.

Erwin N. Thompson, Fort Scout, Kansas: Site Identification and Evaluation (Washington, D.C.: National Park
Service, Division of History, 1967), 82; Miner and Unrau, The End of Indian Kansas, 115.

* Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, 179

+ James Montgomery to George L. Stearns, November 27, 1860, Folder “Correspondence/Misc. Papers, 1860,

93


HS-14 Fort Scott National Historic Site

ati
ed
ey Bie i

Me

HS-14, Post Bakery, construction of bake oven and interior chimney (West
elevation). 1974.

HS-14, Post Bakery, restoration in progress. Exterior walls
pleted (Southeast elevation}. 1974,



drove the policy initiatives of those who dealt with Indian issues in their daily lives.

Idealists believed the goal of removal was a good one, but for an entirely different set of
reasons. Northem humanitarians saw Indian removal to the lands west of Missouri as the only
means of saving Indians from the detrimental effects of association with white society. Distant
homes provided time to “civilize” Indians to white standards, to keep native peoples from the
dregs of American society, the gun-traders and whiskey-peddlers who flocked to the fringes of
society, and to acculturate Indians to concepts such as private property and individual
aggrandizement. Humanitarians harbored even greater fears than the mere corruption of Indians.
Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan Territory, argued in January 1830 that removal was the “only
means of preserving the Indians from that utter extinction which threatens them.” Americans felt
social, economic and political pressure to move the Indians west, and that desire proved
unstoppable. Eventually the federal government forcibly moved more than ten thousand Indians
to what would become eastern Kansas. The new emigrants lived on lands ceded by the Kansas
and Osage peoples in 1825 to some of the Easter tribes, including Potawatomi, Miami, Shawnee
and Delaware.”

The future state of Kansas was not the only destination for the forced migrations. The
best-known instance of removal, Congress ordered the Five Civilized Tribes — the Cherokees,
Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles — pushed from lands in southern states between
1830 and 1835 and sent to what would become the state of Oklahoma. In this most brutal of
Telocations, innumerable Indians died of disease, hunger, exhaustion, and cold. The Indians had
to resuscitate much of the culture and civilization of all five peoples within the new country.
Almost sixty thousand refugees settled on the land the federal government granted the Cherokee
Nation in Indian Territory. In addition, federal officials granted the Cherokees additional
territory that became known as the Cherokee Strip, to separate them from the Osage to the
north.”

Fort Scott resulted from a failed vision of maintaining order in the vast chaos and space
of expansion. In 1836, Cass, then Secretary of War, proposed that Congress authorize the
construction of a line of forts and connecting military roads running parallel to the Mississippi
River. Beginning at Fort Snelling in what is now Minnesota and stretching through Indian
Territory in what is now Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and into Louisiana. the line of forts was
to create a border between two worlds designed never to intersect. The reasons behind the choice
to withhold so much land from white settlement were obvious in the context of the time.
Americans in the 1830s regarded the Plains as useless, throwaway lands not worthy of their
attention from either an economic or a scenic perspective. In 1832, following up on a generation
of exploration that denigrated the Plains, the famous American artist and ethnographer George
Catlin recommended making the Plains into a park for Indians and buffalo. This cession was

¥ Quoted in Brian W. Dippic, The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and U.S. Indian Policy (Middletown, Conn:
Wesleyan University Press, 1982): 62; Unrau, indians of Kansas, 31; for Lewis Cass, see Willard C. Klunder, Lewis Cass and
the Politics of Moderation (Kam, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1996); John C. Spencer, Secretary of War, November 26,
1842, 27th Cong., 34 sess., House Document 2.

" Wallace, The Long Bitier Trail.



When state teaders organized Bourbon County on September 12, 1855, most ofthe
territory’s attention focused on conflicts near Lawrence and Topeka. Most of the early settlers in
the county hailed from pro-slavery Missouri. The vast majority lived on lands that still legally be-
longed to Indians, exchanged by treaty for their lands in Wisconsin. Only in June 1858, aftera
federal land survey, could the government recognize preemption claims on New York Indian lands.
Congressional approval for the legal sale of the Indian lands was not even aremote possibility. The
Army had already made the public aware of this problem. On April 16, 1855, the same day that
Wilson Shannon, an Ohio Democrat, became the new territorial governor, the public sale of build-
ings at Fort Scott took place. Major Marshall Howe of the Second Dragoons conducted the unique
auction, informing bidders that the federal government was selling the structures, notthe underlying
properties. Because of treaty restrictions with the New York Indians, the Army never established a
military reservation around Fort Scott and the Army did not hold title to the land.!’ Forsome
buyers, the situation presented a quandary but most were thrilled to have the opportunity to pur-
chase such sturdy structures built at great expense, trusting that a future survey would give them the
opportunity to buy the underlying land.

Despite chaos in the Kansas territory, Bourbon County’s formation followed entirely typical
patterns. The first county commissioners, former post sutler Hiero T. Wilson and land speculator
Charles B. Wingfield, both enjoyed wealth and a long history in the region. The first territorial
legislature incorporated the town of Fort Scott in 1855, When the Democratic Southern Kansas
circulated at Fort Scott laterin the year, it became the first newspaper published in thenew county.
Inthe fail of 1855, Fort Scott’ s residents undertook a public subscription drive and purchased the
former hospital, turning itinto the community’s first public building. As these institutions ofcommu-
nity took shape, a pretense of normality pervaded Bourbon County. A look beneath the surface
revealed how unusual the process really was. Most of the city residents, including slave-owner
Wilson, supported the South’s position, while a growing number of county residents supported free-
state principals, leading to fissures in the area’s cohesiveness.

Later in 1855 the political machinations turned violent innorthem Kansas, as the so-called
“Wakarusa War” erupted on Nov. 21, with the shooting of free-state supporter Charles W. Dow,
ten miles south of Lawrence. Only one other person died in the “Wakarusa War” other than Dow,
but the Eastern press magnified events and the situation in Kansas started to receive great amounts
of publicity. Hostilities erupted again the following spring, as free-state newspapers in Lawrence
spent the winter continuing their attacks on the pro-slavery movement. A Douglas County grand
jury stacked with pro-slavery supporters voted May 5 that the newspapers were nuisances. The
jury called for their removal. On May 21, 1856, adeputy U.S. marshal, accompanied by alarge
posse, rode into Lawrence and peacefully arrested three men. Soon after, the law officer returned

“ Leo Oliva, “Frontier Forts and the Settlement of Western Kansas,” in Kansas and the West: Bicentennial Essays
in Honor of Nyle H. Miller, Forrest Blackburn, Edgar Landsdorf, Robert Richmond, Joseph Snel and Homer Socolofsky, eds.
(Topeka: Kansas State Historical Society, 1976), 59-74.

* Fort Scott acted as the county seat until the border vioience of 1858 forced its removal to Marmaton for four
years. Andreas, The History of the State of Kansas, 1072-1074; Ralph Richards, The Forts of Fort Scott and the Fateful
Borderland {Kansas City, Mo.: Lowell Press, 1976), 55.

” Gilmore, “Total War on the Missouri Border,” 72; Corder, Pretude to Civil War, 41, 80-84, Some historians
blame economics for the Wakarusa War, and other conflicts during the decade, with late-arriving non-slave-holding whites
protesting the early pre-emption of lands by slavery-supporting Missourians; Dale E. Watts, “How Bloody was Bleeding

76



military post, and it had become the focal point for the community. Among the newspaper’s adver-
tisers was J.H. McKay, who described the Western Hotel at the southwest comer of Fort Scott’s
town square, as “newly fitted up and elegantly furnished” for “the reception, accommodation and
comfort of guests.” The hotel also accommodated guests’ horses, the advertisement promised, in
the old dragoon stables. Competing with the Western Hotel was the Fort Scott Hotel, the former
officers’ quarters in the northwest corner of the square. In another transaction, C. P. Bullockrana
series ofads seeking to sell “the splendid Dwelling House,” the old commissary building. Aside fom
aland office, the former dragoon barracks housed tailor Daniel Funk, Mr. Maxwell’s drug store
and Dr. Americus J. Carter, who advertised the office “where he is ready at all times for profes-
sional engagements.” The former sutler, Hiero T. Wilson, advertised “a large and general assortment
ofreasonable, stable and fancy dry goods” on hand at his store, still located west of the fort.

Unlike his unfavorable characterization of Judge Williams, Ransom held ahigh opinion of
George Clarke, his co-worker at the Fort Scott land office. Clarke, despite involvement in the
deaths of two men outside Lawrence in 1856, was “a high-minded honorable chivalrous man,
incapable, I think of a low mean act.” Clarke’s actions proved him in Ransom’s eyes to be “an
uncompromising democrat of the right stripe—nota pro-slavery man merely, but a true democrat
upon broad, national, constitutional grounds.” Ransom pinned is hopes on those “democrats,”
predicting that while “such miscreant villains and traitors as Jim Lane and his coadjutors,” might push
forarebellion, the military would put it down. As for the Republican Party, Ransom confidently
expected its conservative members to “submit quietly to a state government, organized under our
constitution, with the sanction and authority of the general government,”

Southeast Kansas’ swelling population foreshadowed transformation of its political struc-
ture. By 1858, free-soil forces finally unseated the pro-slavery minority that long controlled Linn
County, although three anti-slavery men died in a shootout with U.S. Deputy Marshal Andrew
Russell on January 20. Bourbon County soon underwent a similar revolution. On February 10,
1858, Montgomery and O.P. Bayne led Free-State forces, known locally as the “Osages” because
they lived in the Little Osage River Valley in northern Bourbon County, to Fort Scott after a free-
state man reported men from the town robbed him, The two companies, also knownas the “Kansas
Militia,” marched on Fort Scott, but by the time the group of forty arrived, the “bloody villains had
heard of our coming and all fled into the state that night,” wrote participant L.G. Anderson.2* The
invasion forced pro-slavery families to flee. As Montgomery and his men enjoyed the city’s hospi-
tality, confusion over allegiances reigned. Jones, editor of the Democrat, complained that pro-
slavery forces believed the Fort Scott Hotel, where he resided, was the headquarters of the town’s
abolitionist movement. Jones refuted that claim, noting that he and the other occupants of the hotel
“are all of that class of democrats, who think Kansas is designed by nature and the people, fora
free state— not an Abolition state — but a National Democratic State.” The free-staters finally

* Thompson, Fort Scout, 84; Cutler, History of the State of Kansas. 1006.

* Fort Scott Democrat, January 27, 1858, January 27, 1858; February 25, 1858,

7” Epaproditus Ransom to Lewis Cass, March 25, 1858, Folder “Misc. — Ransom, Epaphroditus,” Miscellaneous
Collections, Ra-Rea, Manuscript Collections, Kansas State Historical Society.
z * L.A. Anderson to his brother, February 17, 1858, Folder “1858,” papers of Richard Hinton, Box 1, Correspon-
dence and Miscellaneous Papers, 1850-1860, Kansas State Historical Society
® Eloise Frisbic Robbins, “The Original Military Post Road Between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Scot,” Kansas History 1,
n. 2 (Summer 1978), 99; Waits, “How Bloody was Bleeding Kansas?” 129; Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, 1068; Fort

82


the subpost were also seeking surrender terms. Capt. Curtis Johnson, commanding the unit,
offered terms similar to those granted Lee’s men at Appomattox. The border counties finally
received even better news by the end of the month, when Kansans iearned that Lt. Gen. Kirby
Smith, commanding the Confederate Military Division of the Southwest, had surrendered all of
the troops under his command on May 26. Three days later, they heard that three companies of
the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry had been assigned to replace the Wisconsin infantrymen at Fort
Scott. News soon reached Kansas that William Clarke Quantrill had been mortally wounded by
federal troops in Spencer County, Kentucky, on May 29. The instigator of the 1863 Lawrence
massacre died of his injuries within two weeks.”

As the Confederate danger eased, stopping the theft of cattle became a high priority for
Union forces in Kansas. The Creek Indian agency operating in Fort Gibson called for an end to
illega) cattle drives from Indian Territory. Blunt again ordered Blair and his entire First Sub-
District command to seize all cattle taken from Indian Territory and hold all involved parties for
trial and punishment. Blair lost most of his military support in the Indian Territory on May 31,
when all three Indian regiments were mustered out of service. That same day, Fort Scott’s
General Hospital was officially downsized to a post hospital, transferring forty-three patients in
the paperwork transaction?

Fort Scott’s hospital quickly completed the downsizing adjustment. By June 6, L.G.
Armstrong, the regimental surgeon from the Forty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry in charge of the
facility, could report that the post hospital was responsible for a total of 762 soldiers from his
own regiment, the Ninth Wisconsin Battery, and the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry. The three
regiments had surgeon’s cali every day, each with its own designated time. Capacity of the
hospital was sixty beds, with enough bedding still on hand for another hundred beds if needed.
Most of the forty-five patients admitted were from Forts Gibson and Smith, and the surgeon
estimated that the daily count stood to remain between thirty and sixty, depending upon the
number left by troops marching through Fort Scott.”

The slow transition to a society at peace continued over the next several years, Across the
South the reconstruction efforts began, as federa) military rule supplanted the Confederate
government. The West had its own set of problems to settle. As the Seventeenth IIlinois Cavairy
Regiment detachment operating out of Fort Scott settled into their new outposts after their arrival
in July 1865, senior commanders issued directives on how to handle problems in the still-volatile
border counties, where memories of a decade of strife over the slavery issue still lingered. No one
was to be arrested for opposing local leaders or political efforts, but people could be charged with
disloyalty to the national government. Unit commanders were ordered to aid civil authorities
when necessary, and encourage Missouri citizens “to begin to do something toward taking care of

» Johnson to Blair, May 25, i865, O.R., 1:48/2, $96; Blunt to Maj. Gen. J.J. Reynolds, May 16, 1865, O.R, 1:48/2,
468-9 Special Orders No. 106, District of North Kansas, May 29, 1865, O.R., 1:48/2, 669.

* George Cutler, Creek agent, io Biunt, May 27, 1865, O.R., 1:48/2, 637-7; Roll 8, Records of Adjutant General, Fort
Scott Post Retums June 1842 to Apl. 1853; June 1858; jan. 1861 to Sept. 1865, Record Group 94, Fort Scott National Historic
Site archives...

5! armstrong to Surgeon A.M. Wilder, June 6, 1865, Fort Scott National Historic Site Archives, FOSC 12500 Page 9 &
10, No. 7.

228



HS-11 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-11, reconstructed Post Headquarters/Ordnance Storeroom. Recanstruction completed in 1980 (South-
west elevation), 1985.

351


HS-2 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-2, front view of the Goodjander Home (South elevation), circa 1900.

325



the south bank of the Missouri River
approximately 40 miles east of the
mouth of the Kansas River. About this
time Tecumseh, the great Shawnee
leader, visited the Osage viilages to
promote his vision of a pan-Indian
confederacy. His vision proved futile, at
least in Osage country, for also in 1808,
the Osage negotiated a treaty ceding all
lands north of the Arkansas River and
east of a north-south line intersecting at
Fort Osage, a total of fifty-two million
acres. Moving to lands in southeastern
Kansas, the Osage began a precipitous
decline.‘

The cession of 1808 was only
the beginning of the end of Osage
autonomy, as Americans coveted more
of their land. The pressure continued,
and on June 2, 1825, William Clark,
now superintendent of Indian Affairs,
negotiated a new land treaty with the
Osage. They agreed to cede a strip of
land between the Arkansas and Missouri
rivers in the eastern part of what later
became Kansas to the United States.

: i" Osage indians, as drawn by George Catlin.
American desire for land extended to et y 9

neighboring people as well. The

following day, Clark concluded a treaty with the Kansa Indians for lands north of Osage lands.
Under the pressure of the expanding American republic, Indian hegemony on the Plains was
quickly ending.”

The lands that would become home to thousands of Indians and later the state of Kansas
became United States property as part of the 1803 transaction that set the tone and direction of
the nation’s future. Acquisition of the Louisiana Territory added more than 1,160,577 square
miles to the United States, much of it not surveyed by any European. As befit a nation with
limited organization and resources that lacked its own surveying organization, the federal
government called upon the military to explore and map the lands recently acquired. The
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark expedition of 1804-1806 provided an initial glimpse of the

* Rollings, The Osage: Janes R. Christianson, “The Eatly Osage — ‘The Ishmaelites of the Savages,” Kansas History
Hn. 1 (Sprinig 1988); 2-21; Unrau, Indians of Kansas, 37, 45,

* Rollings, The Osage; H. Craig Miner and William E, Unraut. The End of Indian Kansas: A Study of Cultural
Revolution, 1854-1871 (Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1978), 2-24.

4


HS-2 Fort Scott National Historic Site
|
|
]
!

HS-2 (West elevation),
Front view photo-
graphed from Carroll
Plaza. HS-1 east
exterior staircase in
tower left corner of
photograph.



Confederates to advance unmolested and instead informed Fort Leavenworth that he intended to
clear Southern sympathizers out of the Osage Valley. He marched east to Papinsville, and north
to the Missouri towns of Butler, Harrisonville, Osceola, and Clinton.*'

The Kansas forces ran into Confederate troops at Morristown, on the Missouri side of the
border east of Paola, Kansas, on September 17, 1861. About six hundred men of the Fifth Kansas
Regiment overran an encampment, killing seven and capturing the enemy’s equipment and
horses. Lane and his men marched onto Osceola, a town of about 2,500 on the Osage River
southwest of Morristown, and away from Price’s men, then completing a week-long siege of
Lexington, east of Kansas City. The forces commanded by Lane all but destroyed the small
Missouri town. In his battle report of September 17, Lane wrote of how enemy forces ambushed
his command on the approaches to Osceola and was forced to shell the town, although “in doing
so the place was burned to ashes, with an immense amount of stores of all descriptions.” In
reality, as one participant described it, after “a litte brush with the enemy” Lane’s men “obtained
all the horses, mules, wagons and niggers; loaded the wagons with valuebles [sic] from the
numerous well supplied stores, and then set fire to the infernal town it was bumed to the
ground.” According to another account, the large haul of plunder included a piano and a number
of silk dresses that Lane himself claimed. The Union force marched away herding four hundred
cattle and escorting two hundred blacks to freedom in Kansas. A week later, Lane reinforced his
military justification for the attack, although in his report to Frémont he described Osceola not as
a military target but rather “the depot of traitors for Southwestern Missouri.” Ordered to Kansas
City for a joint operation against Price, Lane and Sturgis quarreled over rank. By the time they
settled the dispute and Frémont ordered a new advance, Price had completed his raid and was
returming to southern Missouri. When the Union columns advanced upon Price’s camp at
Springfield, Frémont refused to attack, although he outnumbered the Confederate force. On
November 2, Lincoln, upset with his commander’s lack of initiative, replaced Frémont with
Major General David Hunter.”

Leaving his column to return to Kansas and answer the growing number of allegations
about his conduct, Lane defended his actions. To audiences in Lawrence and other Kansas cities,
he labeled his actions of seizing and freeing slaves the best and fastest way to end the rebellion.
Lane also wrote to fellow military leader Samuel Sturgis, asserting that he followed his orders.
He did not, he emphatically claimed, pursue higher rank or seek to free Missouri slaves. The
slavery issue would resolve itself, Lane believed, when the U.S. Army changed its policy of
returning runaway slaves to their owners. A staunch abolitionist since the days of Bleeding
Kansas,” Lane insisted that depriving the South of its property was only just. “Confiscation of
slaves and other property which can be made useful to the Army,” he wrote, “should follow
treason as the thunder peal follows the lightning flash.” His returning troops brought scores of

*! Sturgis to Captain John C. Kelton, September 9, 1861, and Lane to Prince, September 10, 1861, O.2., 1:3, 475, 483.
485; Castel, Civil War Kansas, 53-57.

® Reports of Brig. General James H. Lane, September 17, 1861 and September 24, 1861, O.2., 1:3, 196; Lane to
Frémont, September 24, 1861, O.2., 1:3, 506: Trego to his wife, September 5, 1961, “The Lenters of Joseph T. Trego,” Part I,
295; Castel, Civil War Kansas, 54; John }. Speer, “The Burning of Osceola, Mo., by Lane and the Quantrill Massacre
Contrasted,” Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society 6 (1897-1900); 305-12.

110



HS-11 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-11, Post Headquarters. Reconstruction in progress (Southwest elevation). HS-1, Officers Quarters, at
right. 1979.

ss (Southeast elevation

350



the free-soil men setup a “squatters” court” with free-state judges and jurymen, and appealed to
Montgomery and his armed men for assistance. The emigrants also formed “wide-awake” societies
to counter the attacks of pro-slavery’s dark lantern lodges.”

The test of the law’s impartiality in Bourbon County came on October 19, 1857, when
Associate Justice Williams banged the gavel in the south room of the land office building to convene
the opening session of the court’s first term. Williams, clerk S.A. Williams, and JohnH, Little, the
deputy marshal, and the members of the grand jury summoned during that first term were all gus-
pected of pro-slavery sympathies by many in the free-state camp. While viewed asa unified threat
to the free-state cause, the South’s supporters had their differences. Ransom, the Fort Scott Land
Office Receiver during the late 1850s, was an extreme pro-Southern sympathizer who did not
regard the judge as wholly sensitive to his cause. He characterized Williams as “a kind, amiable
good hearted man, of good social qualities, but a very weak, Silly vain old man, with very little talent
or attainment, scarcely the ability of acommon county court lawyer.”*!

The courtroom did not help lessen regional tensions. Free-State supporters faced trespass-
ing charges in front of Williams, as well as accusations that they cut trees on Indian lands, acommon
practice among area settlers. Prosecutors also charged them with violations of the Rebellion Act,
legislation passed by the pro-slavery legislature in February 1857 that made it unlawful for two or
More persons to combine for the purpose of resisting the enforcement of the law.” The unsympa-
thetic court convicted most of them, and the disposition of such cases brought the legitimacy of
authority into question again and set the stage for more armed conflict.

The conflict moved out of the courtroom in December 1857, Deputy Marshall Little left
Fort Scott with a posse of between thirty and forty men to capture a squatters’ court operating at
the home of O.P. Bayne, located a few miles west of where the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Scott
military road crossed the Little Osage River. The Free-State contingent outnumbered Little’s band
and the pro-slavery forces could neither make arrests nor close down the squatters’ court. Pro-
slavery forces heid atown meeting in Fort Scott, passing aresolution that the armed body of men,
gathered in their “fort” on the Little Osage River, constituted a military threat. The Fort Scott
residents demanded an end to the court, and called upon the governor to send troops. They also
appointed a vigilance committee, which included Little and Wilson. A fier increasing tensions be-
tween the factions, armed groups met again near Bayne’ s house. In the resulting fight, the defenders
killed three pro-slavery men and another died during the retreat. The pro-slavery posse, its numbers
swelling to 150, returned the next day, only to discover that the occupants of Bayne’s fort had
moved north.”

Intesponse to the Fort Scott vigilance committee’s call for assistance, Fort Leavenworth

identification, 37-90; Corder, Prelude to Civil War, 131-133.

” Weich, Border Warfare, 36-37.

2\ Epaproditus Ransom to Lewis Cass, March 25, 1858, Folder “Misc. — Ransom, Epaphroditus,” Miscellaneous
Collections, Ra-Rea, Manuscript Collections, Kansas State Historical Society. Despite Ransom’s accusations, Williams had
a strong judicial background. The Pennsylvania native wes appointed associate justice of lowa Territory in 1833 and served
until 1847, when lowe became a state, He then served as chief justice for a year. In 1849 he began a six-year period on the
supreme court. He served as associate justice of the Kansas territory until January 1861. He resided at Fort Scott, where he
acquired some property, until his dcath there in 1870.

® Thompson, Fort Scott, 87; Welch, Border Warfare, 38.

® Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, 1067; Welch, Border Warfare, 40-46; Watts, “How Bloody was Bleeding

80


property and added it to the cemetery. 7°

One of the more popular officers in the Union Army was the paymaster, responsible for
paying off the Regular Army and state troops serving in federal service, as well as the scouts,
spies and detectives employed by the Army. It was uncommon for the troops to be paid on a
Teguilar basis, mainly due to the distances between posts. The paymaster’s arrival was cause for
celebration both for the soldier being paid and the merchant all too ready to relieve him of that
money. When a paymaster arrived at Fort Scott in June 1862 with a quantity of “Green Backs”
for the troops, the town newspaper proclaimed him to be “a welcome visitor.” The usual routine
of Army pay days involved receiving the money and spending the money as quickly as possible.
A Third Wisconsin officer on outpost duty reported being ordered into Fort Scott to meet the
paymaster. With money in hand, he recorded, “Many of the boys soon became intoxicated as
usual on Payday and of course could not return to camp. I remained in the Fort to night to bring
the inebriates to camp on the morrow.”

After recovering from the excesses of paydays, the troops returned to the normal duties of
military life, including maintaining the animals that their lives often depended upon. The harses
that carried the troopers and pulled their wagons were always in short supply, and Fort Scott
continually purchased new animals while soldiers were restoring the health of veteran mounts in
the prairie grass surrounding the post. The large complex of corrals, blacksmith shops, and feed
troughs to the southeast of the post’s parade grounds helped maintain the horses used by cavalry
and artillery units, scouts and couriers, and officers. Many men developed close bonds to their
mounts and were reluctant to exchange them for new horses. One Wisconsin officer recorded in
his diary the sad duty of turning in the horse he drew when he entered service, noting that “I was
sorry to part company with him who had carried me on many long marches enduring hunger,
thirst, heat and cold, besides wounds from rebel bullets. Yet he was ever ready to go. I thought
the dictates of humanity demanded that I shouid give him rest.” It was common for deserted
soldiers to use their government animals for escape, and the Army was eager to get both the
deserter and his horse back. The First Kansas Cavalry put out a $150 reward for the apprehension
of a trooper who deserted in March 1862, adding another $50 for the return of the horse, “a
stallion with one star, a Canadian look, fair size.”*

Another staple of prewar Army life, the laundress system of cleaning and maintaining
uniforms, proved a continual irritant to Fort Scott’s commanders. The laundresses of Fort Scott
were part of a long military tradition. George Washington’s army restricted camp followers to
those with connection to a serving soldier. Many of the women in camp supplemented their
family income by washing soldiers’ clothes. The United States Army formalized the position of
laundress in 1802. Army regulations issued in 1841 allowed four women per company to work as
washerwomen, and they were to receive one ration per day, with their prices for washing clothes

% Fort Scott Bulletin, August 16, 1862; Sept. 9, 1864; “Bivouac of the Dead,” newspaper article, undated, no
publication information. Bourbon County Clippings, Vol. 2 (1905-1950), Kansas State Historical Society; “Fort Scott
Presbyterians Celebrate 50" Anniversary,” Fort Scott Tribune Monitor, October 6, 1909.

” Fort Scott Bulletin, Sune 7, 1862; Porter, 4 Journal of Events, Sept. 29, 1863.

* Porter, A Journal of Events, Nav. 25, 1863; National Archives, Record Group 94, Bound Regt Records, Seventh
Kansas Cavalry, Order Book, March 6, 1862.

187



tape is abolished in his Brigade.””

The situation in southeast Kansas worsened over the next several weeks, and rumors of
Confederate advances heightened the already thick tension. Some of Fort Scott’s residents left
town and government wagons began moving military stores to safety. Some Union officers took
advantage of the situation to confiscate homes of southern sympathizers throughout the town.
Joseph Trego, an officer serving in the Tenth Kansas Cavalry at Fort Scott, wrote his wife that he
and seven other officers, with “four soldiers as servants and a contraband wench for cook are
occupying the house where Mr [Judge Joseph] Williams was living. The parlor and one bed room
are richly furnished, fine paintings & engravings on the walls, spring bottom sofa, divan, chairs,
&c. A good piano which Zoulasky is now amusing himself with. Preserves & jellies, magazines
& books/s} and everything we want are here, so you see we are living high at present.” The
optimistic spitit was not wide spread. The Topeka State Record warned that if Missouri fell to the
Confederate armies, “then the bloody scenes of ‘56, only in a ten fold aggravated degree, will be
re-enacted upon our soil.” The newspaper noted that about half of the volunteers raised by
Kansas were with the federal forces withdrawing northward in Missouri, away from their home
state, and “while we have every confidence in the other half, who are now near Ft. Scott, under
Gen. Lane, yet they are not superhuman.” Lane eventually amassed about two thousand men
around the town of Fort Scott, a force almost increased by an offer from a group of Osage Indians
who came to Fort Scott offering their services to the Union camp. The offer was apparently
declined.”

At the same time as his troops were concentrating around Fort Scott, Lane was making a
series of defensive plans. One of his scouting parties, led by Montgomery, sent a message telling
Lane that two groups of Confederate troops — one of one thousand men and the other “4,000
picked men” — were advancing on Fort Scott. Lane planned to defend southeastern Kansas by
leaving Fort Scott and withdrawing twelve miles north to the Little Osage River, where the rough
fortification he called Fort Lincoln was complete. At the same time, he detailed about one
hundred men at Fort Scott to dig entrenchments, and made plans for the burning of the town in
the event of his forced withdrawal. Lane reported on August 25 that he had about twelve hundred
men at Fort Scott, half of them mounted. His defensive arrangements all lay north of the town of
Fort Scott, as he established a series of area outposts, including forty men at a post on Fish Creek
three miles south of the Little Osage, another one hundred men five miles away at Bamesville,
twelve miles northeast of Fort Scott on the military road to Fort Leavenworth, and another small

» Fort Scort Democrat, July 13, 1861, cited in Thompson, Fort Scott Kansas: Site Identification, 117-119; Kansas
Adjutant General, Official Military History of Kansas Regiments During the War for the Suppression of the Great Rebellion
(Topeka: State Printing Office, 1896), 73; Lane to Frémont, August 16, 1861, and Prince to Lane, August 15, 1861, O.R., 13,
446; Topeka State Record, August 17, 1861; Castel, Civil War Kansas, 37-64; Fort Scott Democrat, August 24, 1861.

* The men were living in what later became known at the Wilson/Goodiander Home, which now has the Park Service
designation HS-2. Edgar Langsdorf’, editor, “The Letters of Joseph H. Trego, 1857-1864, Linn County Pioneer, Part I, 1857,
1858,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 19 (May 1951): 11332.

* Topeka State Record, August 24, 1861; Joseph H. Trego to his wife, September 5, 1861, “The Letters of Joseph T.
Trego, 1857-1864, Linn County Pioneer: Part Two, 1861, 1862,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 19, n. 3 (August 1951): 113-224;
Fort Scott Democrat, August 24, 1861

106


Heese sided ance wlan nin orarebinmatrig cats

Bis
a
Ais
i
as
4

§
t

f
§
ae
¥
y
a
t

bang Boe oom.

1858, recounting Montomery's raid.

engaged to Gene Campbell, who understandably was
distraught over the killing. In a move that only grief and the
familiarity of the people in southeastern Kansas with each
other can explain, she wrote Montgomery a personal letter,
simultaneously plaintive and threatening. Did Montgomery
realize “the anguish you have caused” the young woman
wrote? She asserted her fiancé’s character: “If you did kill his
body you can’t touch his soul.” Campbell added threats to her
missive. She could fire a pisto! and “send some of you to the
place where theirs {sic} weeping and knashing of teeth.TM* The
combination of grief and anger most clearly articulated the pain
of life in Bleeding Kansas.

Following Montgomery’s raid, Bourbon County again
descended into chaos. Fort Scott residents sent a group to
Lecompton to discuss defensive measures with Gov. Medary,
seeking martial law and federal troops. As they discussed the
situation, armed free-state bands constructed forts on the Little
Osage River and near Paris in Linn County. Raids also
continued throughout Bourbon and Linn Counties.*” No
authority widely held as legitimate could be found. Any
pretense of order disappeared in partisanship. There were two
governments and two societies and they fought each other with
ferocity. Bleeding Kansas had become a war in all but name.
Voters returned to the polls on January 4, 1859, to vote for
state offices established by the Lecompton constitution and
only then had a chance to participate in a referendum as
authorized by the special December legislative session. State
residents voted overwhelmingly against the constitution, with
10,266 favoring rejection, 138 voting for the constitution
without slavery, and 23 supporting the slavery provision.
Neither the December nor January results accurately reflected
Kansans’ position on slavery, since the free-state supporters
boycotted the first election and pro-slavery forces ignored the
second.*

Bowing to southern interests, President Buchanan
disallowed the results of the January balloting and submitted
the Lecompton constitution to Congress as the basis for

*§ Fort Scott Democrat, December 23, 1858; Lawrence Herald of
Freedom, January 8, 1859, Welch, Border Warfare,187-190; Hopkins,
autobiography, Kansus State Historical Society.

* Gene Campbell to James Montgomery, January 4, 1859, Fort Scott
National Historical Site Archives.

“Welch, Border Warfare, 187-191; Fort Scot Democrat, February 3,

91


many of them to work projects
around the area, under the
supervision of the post’s officer of
the guard. The post also used Fort
Lincoln as a prison, assigning
many women suspected of
Confederate sympathies to that
enclosure, where they could be
separated from the men. A smaller
blockhouse in Humboldt was also
used to hold prisoners.

Fort Scott offered several
advantages as a site for carrying
out the demands of the military
justice system, including having
many officers available to sit on
court martial boards and other
commissions. The Army’s legal
system had to deal with several
issues at the post, including typical
matters of military discipline, new
legal issues brought on by the
rebellion, and civilian issues
broughi into the military system by
the war. Court-martial boards
often had to levy the extreme
punishment of death, but
executions were the exception in
Kansas, with only four men put to
death in the state during the war.
In October 1862, Fort Scott’s officers tried Private John Summers, of Company E, Second
Kansas Cavalry, for desertion from two Union units. The board sentenced him to death and a
firing squad executed him May 13, 1863, on the open prairie east of Fort Scott. The full garrison
of the post was assembled in dress uniform to witness the proceedings. The same month that
Summers was executed, the Army assembled a court-martial board to try Claudius Columbus
Frizell, accused of robbing and murdering Augustus Baker of Vernon County, Missouri, the
previous May. The board convicted Frizell of both charges. An Army squad hanged Frizeil in a
public execution south of Fort Scott, where the present Bourbon County Courthouse is located.'”

The U.S. Army's presance in Fart Scott. From Erwin N.
Thompson, Fort Scott, Kansas: Site identification and Evaluation

* Col. Charles Biair, March 26. 1864, RG 393, Part Il, Vol. 395, Entry 3348, p. 24-5, National Archives

" William F. Fox, Regimental Losses in The American Civil War, 186]-1865 (Albany, N.Y.: Albany Publishing
Company. 1889), 534; Orders No. 1, Co}. Charles Blair, May 9, 1863, RG 94, 12th Kansas, Regimental Leuter & Order Book,
Fort Scott National Historic Site archives; Post Returns, May 1863, Fost Scott, Roll 16, Fort Scott Post Retums, January i861 to

179



Ait. s
Fort Scot's
Circa 1865.

Despite the horrendous casualties inflicted by artillery and rifles on the battlefield,
illnesses were much more likely to kill or disable the average soldier. About 300,000 Union
soldiers died in the Civil War, with only a third dying in combat. Federal doctors treated 400,000
men for wounds or injuries, and another six million for illness. Fort Scott followed this general
pattern. Throughout the hospital’s use by the Army, il! soldiers usually outnumbered wounded
patients by a factor of at least two to one. Even during October and November 1864, when the
largest Civil War battle fought on Kansas soil took place about thirty miles north of the post,
there were consistently about twice as many sick patients in the hospital than wounded ones.*®

The Fort Scott hospital represented the best available medical facility in southeast
Kansas, but that was only in comparison to the primitive levels of care offered in the area. In
May 1862, the two wards on the hospital’s main floor contained twenty-seven iron bed stands,
the same number of fabric mattress coverings, twenty-five linen sheets, cight cotton sheets, five
linen and seventeen cotton pillow slips, twenty feather pillows, eleven straw pillows, seventeen
quilts, ten blankets, four chairs, one clock, two tables, and ten spit boxes. In the hallway
separating the wards were ten chamber pots, two more bed stands, and a pair of urine jugs.
Among the equipment in the surgeon’s room was one old amputation case, identified as “in very

* George Worthington Adams, Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army ia the Civil War (Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980), 3-3.

182



transportation artery between 1854 and 1875.

While stationed on the frontier, the regiments of horse soldiers and infantry carried out a
variety of missions. Aside from marches aimed at impressing potentially hostile Indians, foot-
mounted and dragoon columns carried out surveying and reconnaissance missions, and also
guarded national interests by placing American troops near potential foreign problems. These
included controversies with Great Britain over Oregon and with Mexico concerning the
annexation of Texas. One of the Army’s principal duties became protecting the growing
commercial traffic across the West. Patrols from Fort Scott and other posts took responsibility
for maintaining order along the Santa Fe Trail to the U.S.-Mexico border, then at the Arkansas
River. At the river, the merchant convoys occasionally met their Mexican escorts who provided
protection to Santa Fe. Most civilian caravans had to guarantee their own safety until they
reached the upper Canadian River, 250 miles away.

Trading on the trail from Missouri to New Mexico began soon after the route was first
used by European merchants in the 1790s, but Spanish commercial restrictions constrained the
quantity of goods that flowed back and forth. When Mexico declared its independence and
removed most customs restrictions in 1821, ever-increasing amounts of trade goods arrived in
Santa Fe. Three groups of American merchants reached Santa Fe that first year, carrying cloth,
tools, household goods, and other manufactured merchandise. They and the traders who followed
were able to undersell the Mexican competitors who had to ship in their goods from Chihuahua,
far to the south of Santa Fe. In exchange for their goods, Americans carried back silver and also
found a ready market in Missouri for the mules that transported the specie. According to Josiah
Gregg’s classic Commerce of the Prairies, imports from the United States between 1828 and
1843 averaged $145,000 a year. The lucrative trade flourished and helped promote the growth of
related industries at the trail’s end and along the route.*”

Military action to protect the trail remained intermittent. Following the 1834 patrol to
Santa Fe, the Army furnished no protection on the trail for almost a decade. Dragoons returned to
escort duties in 1843, just in time to become involved in a complicated international situation
between Mexico and the Republic of Texas. Two hundred dragoons commanded by Captain
Philip St. George Cooke formed the escort for a Mexican-bound caravan. The condition of the
new nation of Texas in the 1840s was bleak —~ the treasury was empty, while its leaders
remained proud, boastful, and desperately seeking remedies. In 1841, an expedition tried to
invade New Mexico, but got lost in the Jomada del Muerto, the fierce desert east of the Rio
Grande. By 1843, Texans were prowling for land and money to redeem their state’s debts. Jacob
Snively, the former secretary of war for the republic, organized a raiding party to attack rich
Mexican merchants on the Santa Fe Trail. Averring that the merchants routinely crossed Texas
without paying customs duties, the republic’s legislature granted the mounted raiders authority to
operate against Mexican traders on any portion of the Santa Fe trail claimed by Texas. In the
spring of 1843, Snively led 175 Texans to the Arkansas River in what is now Kansas.

” David J. Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1982), 125-30. Aside from Gregy’s Commerce of the Prairies (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1954), an exciting narrative of life as a Santa Fe traii merchant can be found in James Josiah Webb’s
Adventures in the Santa Fe Trade, 1844-1847 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995}; Leo Oliva, Soldiers on the Santa
Fe Trail (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967), 40.

59



This new policy had not come without a cost in lives, both Indian and white. Since the
start of the century, the American Army faced three major threats to frontier security, two in
Florida and another in Ulinois, while the nation continued its policy of Indian removal. During
the first three decades of the century, battles occurred across the continent as white settlements
extended west, and after each military or treaty victory, federal policy makers returned to their
plans for isolating Indians. The country’s dramatic expansion from 1845 to 1848 ended that
dream forever, as the addition of Texas (1845), Oregon territory (1846) and California (1848)
forced the United States to obtain safe transcontinental routes to its new possessions.

Despite the fears of many frontier settlements, relocated people such as the Cherokees
and Choctaws proved to be more than capable of defending their interests in their new home.
Since many of the immigrant Indians came from agricultural backgrounds, they were comfortable
on the Plains and posed far less of a threat to settlement than federal officials anticipated. The
Army also discovered that relocated Indians, often equipped with the firearms that treaty
provisions granted them, were not as vulnerable to the nomadic buffalo-hunting Indians of the
Plains as the government originally feared. These realizations changed the perspective of the
military. Its mission and responsibilities became far different. Instead of protecting settlers from
relocated Indians, the military ended up policing the expansion westward of settlers into the lands
of relocated Indians and increasingly, protecting both relocated Indians and settlers from the
nomadic people of the Plains.”

During the years it was in active service, Fort Scott carried out its many missions with
minuscule garrisons, the result of an undermanned Army forced to staff the many small forts
local interests demanded and vote-sensitive congressmen mandated. During the Mexican War,
the lone unit at Fort Scott, Company B of the First Infantry, saw its roster fall from a normal level
of sixty-five privates to forty, with only ten privates ready for duty and another fourteen on extra
duty involving construction as well as timber cutting and food procurement. That total dropped
during the next several months. Finally, in January 1847, the company reported just twenty-five
soldiers at the post. The numbers climbed in April, when fifty-five recruits marched into the post.
Since Fort Scott relied on the enlisted ranks for extra duty in building fort structures,
commanders often did not have enough men to undertake military missions.

Although most of their days were filled with the mind-numbing routines of frontier
garrison duty, the officers and soldiers assigned to Fort Scott did have opportunities for military
adventure. Fort Scott’s troops gained experience by participating in a number of dragoon
expeditions across the West, patrolling the Santa Fe and Oregon trails, and their officers
developed their leadership skills by commanding these isolated patrols. Before the Mexican War,
most of the Army’s senior officers were self-educated. Only a small minority had attended one of
the Army’s specialist schools, such as the artillery school of instruction at Fortress Monroe,
Virginia, or the infantry school of practice, organized at Jefferson Barracks. In contrast, by 1846
most of the junior officers moving into the senior ranks had been educated at West Point, and a
sense of professionalism began to grow. The Mexican War was the first time an American Army
had a large number of officers with a formal military education, and officers serving in the post-

* West, The Way to the West, 40-45; Craig Miner and William E. Unrau, The End of Indian Kansas: A Study of
Cultural Revolution, 1854-187 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1990), 1-24,

55


including protecting the displaced groups from other newly arrived Indians as well as longtime
Indians already on the Plains. In addition, he reminded the legislators, the Army was at the same
time responsible for guarding the lives and property of American citizens. The nation could only
properly meet this obligation, Poinsett averred, by maintaining several advanced positions deep
inside Indian country that housed sufficient military force to counter intertribal warfare and
depredations against and by settlers living on the western frontier of the United States. A second
series of forts along the westem border of Arkansas and Missouri would support the frontier
forts, by helping “restrain the intercourse between the whites and the Indians, and serve as
tallying points for the neighboring militia in times of alarm.” The federal government ordered
construction of Fort Scott as one of this second tier of auxiliary posts."

As planning for Fort Scott began, the frontier situation made the need for such a post
imperative. The Army and the federal government perceived a serious threat to white settlements
in the nation’s western border states and territories, with numerous calls for a military presence
coming from settlers on the frontier. egal liquor sales to Indians compounded the problem,
with whiskey often lubricating the tension that led to capricious violence. After an economic
downtum in 1837 forced many small farmers off their lands in the South, significant numbers
headed west, into Arkansas, Missouri, and beyond in an attempt to acquire new holdings. Unlike
their northern counterparts who could venture to unclaimed lands in lowa and Minnesota,
southem farmers found their way blocked by the Permanent Indian Frontier. Their migration
increased tension along the boundary. On the other side of the frontier, the removal of Indian
people from the Southeast and upper Midwest opened land for white settlers but also created a
concentration of armed and experienced warriors on the Plains. A military presence seemed
essential if the tensions this mix created were to be kept in check.

For the military, the number and martial experience of such men was a cause for concern.
The Office of Indian Affairs determined in its March 17, 1840, report that emigrant groups west
of Missouri and Arkansas included 16,310 warriors. Cherokees were the most numerous, the
report calculated, with 5,182, followed by the Creeks with 4,908. Indigenous groups in the area
immediately west of the Missouri-Arkansas line tallied 1,544 warriors, and another 43,385
warriors from groups native to the Plains lived within striking distance of the two states. In
comparison to the staggering number of potential Indian warriors. the entire United States Army
from 1840 to 1853 remained consistently at 10,000 soldiers in uniform, a number that could
easily be overwhelmed if inappropriately deployed when warfare began."’

From a military perspective, federal officials perceived some Indian groups as more
dangerous than others, During an inspection tour of western outposts in 1841-42, Major Ethan
Allen Hitchcock of the Eighth Infantry noted that the Cherokees “without questioning their
bravery, have too much intelligence to disturb the peace even under the great wrongs inflicted by

“Defense of the Western Frontier,” Letter from the Secretary of War, April 1, 1840, 26th Cong, Ist sess., House
Document 16! (Serial 366).

” “Defense of the Western Frontier.” According to Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the
United States Army, From its Organization September 29, 1789 to March 2, 1903 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing
Office, 1903). the United States had 10,570 officers and enlisted men in December 1840. The Army’s maximum strength came
during the Mexican War when it reached 21,686 in November 1847, a jump from two years earlier when it was 8,349.

17



their land in Missouri for a tract of land in what would eventually become southern Kansas. As
part of this treaty, an 800,000-acre buffer zone was created between the eastern end of the Osage
Reserve and the state of Missouri. This buffer zone was created at the request of the Osage
Indians to ensure the separation of their culture and the Euro-American settlers in Missouri and
was called the Osage Neutral Lands. A supplemental treaty authorized in December 1835, which
President Andrew Jackson signed to compensate them for removal from Georgia, transferred the
ownership of this land to the Cherokee tribe. This reserve, the Cherokee Neutral Lands, was a
tract twenty-five miles wide by fifty miles long that offered a buffer between Indian and white
settlements. In Kansas, it covered Cherokee and Crawford counties, along with a strip four miles
wide in southern Bourbon County. Despite the treaty prohibiting white entry, squatters moved
onto these lands as early as 1854, building cabins and making improvements to the lands they
staked out. By 1857, the Cherokee were upset by the continued encroachments and they
requested a boundary survey to established exact boundaries and removed white settlers. Lt. Col.
Joseph E. Johnston of the First Cavalry led a surveying party to attempt to mark the boundaries.”

Questions of Indian land claims were muted during the Civil War, and Fort Scott
concentrated on the business of making money from the expanded, well-financed Army that re-
occupied the post. Postwar politics left the nation’s soldiers burdened with two very different
missions; only one could be described as a strictly military concern, The Army’s principal martial
obligations in the West were to regulate Indians on reservations and protect the increasing
number of white settlements. An important part of protection meant watching the growing
number of railroad surveying and construction crews in the region. The line of frontier forts that
once included Fort Scott now ran far west of the Kansas-Missouri border. Garrisons at Dodge,
Harker, Hays, Zarah, Larned, and Wallace dotted the state’s western edge.

As a first step toward linking the Midwest and the Gulf of Mexico, a group of
businessmen from Kansas City and Johnson and Wyandotte counties subscribed to a charter to
build a 160-mile railroad from the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers to the Kansas
border, where the Neosho River flowed into the Indian Territory. They incorporated the Kansas
and Neosho Valley (K&NV) Railroad on March 8, 1865. As was all to0 common in an era when
railroad speculation ran rampant, the project was entirely undercapitalized. At incorporation, the
company had only $800,000 pledged in capital for a project that would cost $25,000 a mile.
Eleven directors, including prominent Fort Scott businessmen Hiero T. Wilson and B.P.
MeDonald, took their positions on August 28, 1865.° They faced a difficult challenge.

In search of additional financial commitment, the K&NV’s owners contacted counties
and communities along the proposed track line and approached state and national sources of
capital. Quick to join the dreams of a coastal railroad connection, Bourbon County agreed to
underwrite part of the system after the K&NV pledged that the line’s name would change to

* According to Craig Miner, most of the settlers reportedly staked out claims not for agriculture benefits, but for
speculation purposes. Much of the later conflict between the squatters and the railroad, according to Miner, should be viewed not
as a strugple between capitalists and farmers but rather us one between real speculators and would-be speculators. Miner, The
Border Tier Line, 44-5; Nyle H. Miller, ed., “Surveying the Southem Boundary Line of Kansas: From the Private Journal of Col.
Joseph E. Johnston,” Kansay Historical Quarterly |, n. 2 (February 1932): 104-139.

SH. Craig Miner, The Border Tier Line: A History of the Missouri River, Fort Scot and Gulf Railroad, 1865-1870
(M.A. thesis, Wichita State University, 1967): 1-3

237



Connecticut River Valiey, such factories flourished.”

The creation of modern weapons with interchangeable parts changed the way American
soldiers waged war. Until about 1830, soldiers carried muzzle-loading muskets, notoriously
inaccurate but easily reloaded weapons. The major disadvantage of the musket was its method of
igniting the main gunpowder charge; the gun used the spark of a flintlock mechanism placed near
priming powder. High winds or rain could make the weapon impossible to fire, and the loading
routine had to incorporate separate steps to load a small priming pan. Around the turn of the
nineteenth century, arms makers discovered mercury of fulminate, a compound that exploded
when struck. By 1820 they produced the compound in small metal caps. When used ina
modified musket, the percussion mechanism could ignite the main gunpowder charge in rain or
winds. Percussion caps set off a revolution in military weapons technology. Government arsenals
produced their last flintlock musket in 1842, the year of Fort Scott’s establishment.

The decrease in reloading time helped cancel one of the Indians’ main advantages in
combat — mobility. Before percussion caps, well-trained soldiers could deliver a volley every
thirty seconds, and mounted Indians could count on charging into the soldier’s formation, where
the lances and knives upon which Indians relied were extremely effective. With the new
weapons, it took only ten seconds to reload and the troops could hold off the Indians. For the
dragoons who served at Fort Scott, the percussion caps also allowed them another advantage:
they could reload while riding. Unfortunately, as the Army strove to attain the economy
mandated by Congress, small military budgets reduced the amount of ammunition available for
target practice. Troopers sometimes went into combat with little experience in aiming their
weapons, negating most of the advantages they enjoyed.”

The revolution in technology allowed the military to organize, deploy, and arm its
soldiers in new ways. The creation of dragoon units in 1833 offered an important example. These
new elite mounted troops received the best equipment the Army had to offer, including one of the
most modern weapons available, the Model 1833 Hall breech-loading carbine, a smaller version
of the heavier weapons carried by infantrymen. Developed specifically for the Dragoons, the
1833 Hall was the first percussion breech-loading firearm used by the United States Army. Its
success meant that similar weapons followed. In 1836, the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry
produced a heavier carbine that used rifle components, and four years later Simeon North
introduced the Model 1840 carbines with an improved loading mechanism. The government
designed the weapons for the dragoons’ unique service needs, but they were not easy to use. To
load the carbine, the dragoon pressed a lever down, which raised the front of the receiver,

” David Freeman Hawke, Nuts and Bolts of the Past: A History of American Technology, 1776-1860 (New York:
Harper and Row, 1988); Steuik, Yankee Science, 185+190; Robert L, O’Connell, Of Arms and Men: A History of War, Weapons,
and Aggression (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989): 192; Mervitt Roe Smith, Harpers Ferry Armory and the New
Technotogy (Ithaca: Comell University Press, 1977); William Hallahan, Misfire: The History of How America's Small Arms
Have Failed Our Military (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994), 47-108.

* Walter Millis, Arms and Men: A Study in American Military History (NY: GP. Putnam’s Sons, 1956): 92;
O'Connell, Of Arms and Men, 190-91; Charles O'Connell, Jt. The United States Army and the Origins of Modern Management,
1818-1860 (Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1982), William Skelton, “the Commanding General and the Problem of
Command in the United States Army, 1821-1841," Military Affairs 34 (December 1970), 117-22,

* Coffman, The Old Army, 158, 161-162; Ness, The Regular Army on the Eve of the Civil War.

46


soned at Fort Scott in 1843-44 and 1844-45. The Pennsylvania native served during the Civil War
as commander of the state’s Reserve Corps. He commanded the unit in the Army of the Potomac,
July 23, 1861 to Juve 9, 1862. McCall participated in combat during the Peninsular Campaign, and
be commanded Union forces during the battle of Mechanicsville on June 26, 1862. During fighting
at New Market Cross Roads four days later, he was captured while scouting his position. After his
exchange for a Confederate general, McCall went on sick leave until his resignation on March 31,
1863.

Other officers enjoyed less colorful careers during the Civil War. Two were officers of the
Regiment of Mounted Rifles stationed at Fort Scott from 1852 to 1853. Lieutenant Thomas
Hendtickson, who started his Army career as a private in 1819, was commissioned a second
lieutenant twenty years later and served as Fort Scott’s commander during 1852. When the war
started he was serving in the Third Infantry, receiving a brevet promotion for gallantry at Malvern
Hill. He resigned a year later. Lieutenant Robert Emmet Patterson, a Pennsylvania native, went to
Fort Scott a second lieutenant. After two years of sick leave he returned to duty in the west, finally
resigning after six years service in 1857 to work as a catton commission merchant in Philadelphia.
He resumed his military career in 1861, rejoining the Army as a paymaster. Patterson was named a
colonel in the 115" Pennsylvania Voluntecrs in 1862 and served in the Army of the Potomac until
1862, when he resigned and returned to Philadelphia as a cotton merchant.

Lieutenant Delos Bennet Sackett served on frontier duty with the First Dragoons aftcr his
1845 graduation from West Point, and was assigned to Fort Scott during !849. During the Civil
War he served with the Second Cavalry and the Fifth Cavalry. Another First Infantry officer,
Lieutenant George Weed Wallace, served at Fort Scott fromm 1845 to 1848. Promoted to captain in
1850 and major in 1862, Wallace was named a lieutenant colonel in the Twelfth Infantry in March
{866. Lieutenant Joseph Whittlesley was with the First Dragoons when the regiment was garri-
soned at Fort Scott in 1846. The New York native began the Civil War in the First Cavatry. After
a transfer to the Fifth Cavalry late in 1861 and promotion to major, be retired in November 1863.

Several officers were on duty away from their company while it was stationed at Fort
Scott. Assigned to Fort Scott with the First Infantry from 1845 to 1847, Licutenant James Nelson
Caldwell never served at the post. The Ohio native, an 1840 West Point graduate, served as a
major in the Righteenth Infantry when he was recognized for gallantry at Murfreesboro in Central
Tennessec. Ralph W. Kirkham, a Sixth Infantry captain, served in the quartermaster corps. Lieulen-
ant Robert M, Morris, attached to the Regiment of Mounted Rifles, was honored for his service in
the Southwest.

The post’s longest-serving quartermaster, Captain Thomas Swords, graduated from West
Point in 1829. The New York native served with the First Dragoons as quartermaster during his
time at Fort Scott from 1842 to 1846. During the Mexican American War, Captain/Major Thomas
Swords served as the Quartermaster General of General Sicphen W. Kearnys Army of the West
from 1846 101847. Then he was assigned to the Quartermaster General's office at Washington,
D.C., from 1848 to 1850, St. Louis, Mo., for a year, and al New York City from 1852 through
1857. From New York City, he was transferred to California, where he served as the Chief Quar-
termaster. His assignment at the Department of the Pacific at San Francisco lasted from March 4,
1857 to September 10, 1861. He served as chief quartermaster of the Department of the
Cumberland until Nov. 15, 1861, and in a similar post with the Department of the Ohio until May

275


HS-1 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-7 (Southeast elevation). Restoration following the May 1967 fire, Photograph 1975.

324



j _ ; soldiers were so far in debt that they left the
eA by GE. tie “| pay line with nothing but a reduction in their
an ee > debt.”

oF ye lila Basta MES Sly The first sutlers at Fort Scott were
both merchants and important citizens of the
| post. John A. Bugg was the area’s first sutler
and doubled as the postmaster. In 1843, Hiero
T. Wilson, who with his brother Thomas
operated a sutler store at Fort Gibson for nine
years, arrived at Fort Scott and became
Bugg’s partner before buying him out. Many
of the officers who transferred north from the
Indian territory post knew Wilson and a
: number invited him to follow them to the new
| fort. Sporting the honorific “colonel,” Wilson
| Operated a store near Fort Scott’s parade
square, adjacent to and just west of the
present junction of Old Fort Boulevard and
Stanton Street. From there, he sold supplies
both to soldiers and settlers in the region. His
A typical page from Hiero Wilson's sutier account customers included soldiers, their dependents,
books. This one is dated Nov. 6, 1844. travelers, Indians and tradespeople, merchants
and farmers from Missouri.

Economic opportunities could be varied for a sutler at Fort Scott, and during the post’s
early days, the military provided only a portion of his trade. As did many sutlers, Wilson also
functioned as an Indian trader. Osage people had been part of the market economy in Missouri
and the Indian Territory for more than a century, and as one of the most adaptable and
economically sophisticated people, the Osage recognized a new opportunity when they saw one.
Their experience as middlemen between the French, Spanish, and other Indian people assured
that they knew how to value goods and how to trade. Merchants such as Wilson were quick to tap
into the new market, even if it meant some education, At Fort Scott, “I learnt to talk the Osage
language,” Wilson wrote, “in selling them goods and purchasing their Buffalo Robes and Buffalo
Tallow.”"*

The small luxuries sutlers provided helped soldiers survive the dusty, tedious duty

*’ Robert Wooster, Soldiers, Sutlers, and Settlers: Garrison Life on the Texas Frontier (College Station: Texas A&M
University Press, 1987): 120-122; David M. Delo, Peddlers and Post Traders: The Army Suiler on the Frontier (Salt Lake City:
University of Utah, 1992); Coffman, The Old Army, 155-56.

 tiero T. Wilson, Address at Old Settlers Quarter Centennial Celebration, 1879, Old Sctticrs, "H" (Coll. 626-B),
Folder "Hist. — Old Settlers Quarter Centennial Celebration -- 1879,” Kansas State Historical Society Archives; for the Osage,
sce Willard Rollings, The Osage: An Ethnographical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains (Colurnbia: University of
Missouri Press, 1992); for the complex world of southwestern trade, sce Elizabeth A. H. John, Storms Brewed in Other Mens’
Worlds: The Confrontation of Indians, Spanish, and Frencit in the Southwest, 1540-1795 (College Station: Texas A&M
University Press, 1975)

50



APPENDICES



barracks on the west side of the complex housed the government land office and post office, along
with private businesses including the town’s second newspaper, the Fort Scott Democrat. Pro-
slavery supporters ran the land office that opened in June 1857. One official in the office, the
receiver, was former Michigan Governor
Epaphroditus Ransom. Territorial officials appointed
George W. Clarke register, but he held office under
thename William H. Doak, as he faced a murder
indictment stemming from his pro-slavery activities. '*

Isolated incidents between pro-slavery and
Free-State supporters had occurred around Fort
Scott since the territory’ s founding and the violence
increased dramatically in 1857. Emigrants poured
into the region, because as one settler described it,
“they incourages people to come from the east and
west and al] thats againsts’ slavery they want to make
thisa free state an[d] home for labouring men and to
be ahome for them that has none and they are to
keep out slave holders.” Several months after the
Texas Rangers and Fort Scott’s pro-slavery sup-
porters fled from Middle Creek, Clarke leda band
of Missourians across the border on a retaliatory raid
against the Free-State settlers. James Montgomery,
one of the first Free-State emigrants to settle in
southeast Kansas, opposed the force. The former
preacher marshaled opposition to slavery in Linn and
Bourbon Counties when he formed the “Seli-Protec-
tive Company,” militia groups comprising free-state men, Soon knownas “Captain” Montgomery,
he united with John Brown when the abolitionist returned from a tour of the East Coast in 1858. The
two led many cross-border raids, attacking opponents and the innocent alike as they used political
labels to shield their quest for plunder.’ The chaos of northeastern Kansas had truly spread to the
south,

James Montgomery

Incoming settlers in southeast Kansas who believed in the free-soil philosophy found
themselves trapped ina political structure heavy with slavery supporters. In July 1857, Joseph J.
Williams of Pennsylvania, became ajudge in the Third Judicial District of Kansas, with its court
based in Fort Scott, Residents soon discovered Williams’ pro-slavery sympathies. Those free-
soilers driven from their claims sought to return to their farms. Supporting pro-slavery emigrants
who had moved onto the lands, Bourbon County officials issued writs of trespass against the free-
soilers, Since they believed they could not receive justice in Fort Scott’s pro-slavery court system,

"Welch, Border Warfare, 15-26

‘* Blackmar, Kansas, 672-673.

" Nancy Hamilton, of Mapleton, Ks., to her brother, William McCrum, of Toledo, Ontario, Canada, August 31,
1857. Bourbon County folder, Misc. Hamilton, Kansas State Historical Society; Thompson, Fort Scott, Kansas, Site

79



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

fea HS-9, July 1971: South
4 view. West half of the
excavation is compieted.
NM The rear of the buildings
that fronted on Market
Street are in the back-
ground of the photograph.
# The photograph is from
the front, or Parade
| Ground, side of the
4 guardhouse looking
south.

SAG

HS-9, 1972: Southeast view. Photograph is approximately one year after
the HS-9 investigation was completed. The uncovered foundation remains
exposed and the urban renewal along Lincoln Avenue has been com-
pleted. The YMCA is the large brick building in the background. It was
formerly located on the southeast comer of Scott Avenue and Wall Street.

310



HS-1 Fort Scott National Historic Site

hres

HS-1 (North elevation). Heavy fire damage destroyed the third level and exposed original timber and
frame construction.Nate: lower left is the original stone wall separating HS-1 and HS-2. May 1967.

Detail of above pho-
tograph (North el-
evation). View of
| Swords’ guest bed-
room, third ‘evel,
s and dining room,

second level. May
4 1967.



their Jands."*

While Fort Scott’s military strength increased early in May as the First Kansas (Colored)
Infantry Regiment reached full strength, the Department of Kansas initiated a series of military
misadventures that ultimately brought Indians a new round of suffering. Southern morale was
buoyed by positive news. [n the eastern theater, the Confederates stretched to their military
highpoint with a May victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia. In the bloody battle, Union forces lost
seventeen thousand men, but the Confederates suffered a serious blow with the death of General
Stonewall Jackson. Under Lee's command, the southern troops gathered momentum toward
Gettysburg. The Confederate’s western forces achieved victories on a smaller scale. Cooper’s
men continued to plague Phillips’ command, bottling the Indian regiments up inside Fort Gibson.
Directly to the east, Arkansas troops forced the withdrawal of federal forces in northwestern
Arkansas, threatening the Indian Home Guards’ supply lines back to Fort Scott.”

While the Union and Confederate armics clashed, smaller struggles continued. The
civilians in the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported a series of ongoing troubles with military
officers, especially in securing escorts for the various supply trains sent south to the refugees.
Indian Affairs agent Justin Harlan reported that he sought four men to escort a returning train, but
was refused, and in another instance he requested four men to protccl a wagon Carrying seeds for
distribution and was again rebuffed. The lack of escorts was a harbinger of a worse problero. for
again the Union troops could not provide protection for the returned Indians. A resurgent
Confederate offensive in Missouri drew off many of the supporting soldiers and Arkansas forces
threatened the supply lines from Fort Scott. As a result, the military leadership again prepared to
evacuate the Indian Territory. Aggravating the regional problems was a series of raids by Stand
Watie and other southern forces that drove the Cherokees off their farm plots and into Fort
Gibson. In May, an Indian Affairs agent estimated that six thousand Cherokees and one thousand
Creek Indians crammed into the post, with more coming in every day. By mid-June, most of the
refugees were huddled in and around Fort Gibson. Despite promised reinforcements from Blunt,
no significant military reinforcements were sent south, the Confederates continued to harass the
Indian settlements, and the exodus into Fort Gibson accelerated.'®

Early in May, while camped at Baxter Springs. Kansas, en route to Fort Gibson,
Oklahoma, the First Kansas (Colored ) Infantry Regiment, with support from the Second Kansas
Light Artillery Battery, reinforced a Fort Scott detachment ordered to attack a Confederate camp
at Centre Creek near Sherwood, Missouri.'’ Two companies of the black troops and one piece of

" Sosephy, The Civil War in the American West, 370.
'S Josephy, The Civil War in the American West. 370-71

"© Coffin 0 Doic. Sune U1. 1863, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Secretary of the
Interior, serial 1184, vol. 3, 1* sess. 38" Congress (Washington, D.C:.: Government Printing Office. 1864}, 320; Justin Harlan so
Dole, May 26, 1863. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Secretary of the Interior. serial 1184.
vol. 3, 1" 38° Congress (Washington. D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1864). 320-321: Coffin 10 Dole. May 2. 1863.
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Report of the Secretary of the Interior. serial 1184, vol, 3, {* sess. 38"
Congress (Washington. D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1864), 317

"Sherwood, Missouri was located approximately sixty miles south of Fort Scott, near the present community of Carl
Junction.

141


blacks in the border states as well as conquered areas of the South. It also offered slave owners in
the states that rejoined the United States compensation for freed slaves and the voluntary
colonization for freed blacks, either in North America or on another continent. The president’
constitutional powers limited his ability to end slavery, and he only did so under his authority as
military commander. The proclamation also contained a measure calling for slavery’s eventual
abolition across the nation, but more importantly for the war effort, it sanctioned the already
existing practice of enlisting black soldiers and sailors.”

As 1863 opened, Lincoln faced a range of political problems brought on by the rebellion.
Radicals within his Republican party pushed the president to expand his agenda to include the
national abolition of slavery. Many within that camp saw the use of black troops in combat as an
integral part of emancipation. Others also supported arming blacks, but for non-political reasons.
The ever-increasing casualty lists sent from battlefields and reports of the realities of life in
uniform deterred enlistments across the north. The economy, booming with federal war business,
sharply decreased both the unemployment rate and available manpower pool. In addition to
combat losses and large numbers of desertions and injured men, the Union Army faced the end of
two-year enlistments from 1861, and ninc-month enlistments from 1862. The relentless demand
for men in uniform pushed federal leaders to boost sagging enlistments. Military circumstances,
most notably casualties and the need to guard conquered territories, changed the army’s earlier
opposition toward arming nonwhite populations. These measures began tentatively during the
first two years of the war, but became formalized in 1863. In this process, Fort Scott became one
of the Amy stations to play a key role in the enlistment, training, and supplying of both black
and Indian regiments throughout the Civil War?

‘Thanks in part to the manpower provided by these nonwhite troops, the Union Army
registered a series of battlefield victories in the western theater after two years of combat. Federal
armies pushed Southern armies away from St. Louis in 1862, firmly securing Missouri lor the
Union although the Confederate government was not ready to give up the border state. Southern
armies would return to Missouri in 1863 and 1864, aided by hundreds of pro-slavery
sympathizers. On other fronts, the Union Army reoecupied the northern part of the Indian
Territory and occupied major cities in Arkansas. These advances helped safeguard the Union
thrust down the Mississippi River, the key objective of the western theater, and one of Lincoln’s
most important war aims.*

The Civil War in Kansas continued to involve political as well as military spheres.
Senator James Lane spent most of 1863 in Washington, D.C., but he retained his unique ability to

? james M. McPherson. Battie Crv of Freedom: The Civil War Evra (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988): 562-
563; the seminal work on Black Civil War soldiers remains Dudley T, Cornish’s Sable drm: Negra Troops in the Union Army
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1966; New York, Longmans, Green. 1956), but a new major study, Noah Andre Trudeau's Like Men
of Wer: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865 (New York: Litde, Brown and Company, 1998) is now available, Other works
include Joseph T. Glatthaar, Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers (New York : Free
Press. 1990). James M. McPherson's The Negro’s Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted During the War far the
Union (New York: Pantheon Books, 1963), and Benjamin Quariss” The Negro ta the Civi? War (Boston: Little. Brown, 1953).

* McPherson. Bartle Crv of Freedom. 492-5 10. 600,
* Alvin M. Josephy Jr. The Civil War in the American West (New York: A. A. Knopf. 1991).

134



National conflict over slavery periodically brought federal troops back to southeast Kansas
during the second half of the 1850s for short periods as peacekeepers. The outbreak of the Civil
War then brought the Army back to the town of Fort Scott, where it leased buildings and lots to
house personnel, supplies, and animals. The Civil War in western Missouri, Kansas, and the
Indian Territory was an extension of the vicious conflict of “Bleeding Kansas,” the anarchic
violence between free-staters and slave-staters that catapulted the fiery abolitionist John Brown
to national prominence and did much to bring on the war itself. The Civil War years were even
more complicated. The Army’s presence served as a counter to the shifting allegiances of various
Indian peoples, who often used the pretext of the war and the alliance of their historic friends or
enemies, as the determining factor in their choice of sides. Leased and newly constructed
buildings served as supply and training centers for federal troops from 1861 to 1865, and also
housed a military hospital, guardhouse and military prison, playing an integral part in this poorly
understood dimension of the Civil War.*4

After the bloody conflict ended, the site again lost its significance and the Army left the
area in 1865, only to return four years later. The demand for land that underpinned so much of
westward expansion alsa pulled in Fort Scoit, creating a call for soldiers who reestablished a
military presence in southeast Kansas. The construction of rail lines across the checkerboard
lands given the railroads met with sometimes fierce local resistance. Squatters, people who saw
unsettled Jand and made it their own without regard for preexisting claims, saw possession as
more than nine-tenths of the law. When rails appeared, complete with rights-of-way, claims on
sections, and other legal eventualities, displaced squatters reacted with venom. Fort Scott soon
contained the military headquarters of the federal troops protecting railroad crews that built a line
south of the city. The troops confronted white settlers who squatted on lands owned by the
railroad company and refused to give way. Massive federal intervention quelled the violence, and
railroad construction through the area continued.

The military presence ended in 1873 with the Army’s final withdrawal, and the town
continued to develop. Fort Scott the town replaced and eclipsed Fort Scott the military post. The
era of federal influence that also dominated the region’s economic and political spheres also
ctosed, replaced by local and state influences.’

* Alvin M. Josephy Jr., The Civil War in the West (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1991); Kevin (Brother Matthew) Ast,
Divided We Stand: Osage Leadership Before Removal (M.A. thesis, Wichita State University, 1991); James A, Rawley, Race
and Politics: Bleeding Kansas and the Coming of the Civil War (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1969).

* Leo Oliva, Fort Scott: Courage and Conflict on the Border (Topeka; Kansas State Historical Society, 1984); William
C, Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo (New York: HarperCollins, 1998) discusses land speculation in great detail.

12



March 1864

April 1864

May 1864

June 1864

Second Kansas Battery
Ninth Kansas Cavalry

Eleventh Kansas Cavairy

Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Sixth Kansas Cavalry
Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Second Kansas Battery

Fleventh Kansas Cavalry
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Second Kansas Battery
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry
Second Kansas Battery

Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry
Second Kansas Battery

CoC
Co. D
Co. F
Co.N
Right Section
Co. L

Co. C
Co. F
Co. D
Co. B
Co.
Co.L
Co. N
Co. F
CoA
Co. €
Co.D
Co, F
Co.N
Right Section

Co. F
Co. D
Cob
Right Section

Co. D
Co.L
Co. D
Right Section

Co.D
Co.L,
Co.D
Right Section

286


early October by Lincoln, disclosed plans for a new southem expedition in the upcoming year
and promised that the Confederates would be pushed out of Indian Territory. Most of the Indians
refused to go back until the Confederates and their Indian allies were neutralized. Adding to the
pressure was the passage in early 1863 of a Senate bill introduced by James Lane calling for
removal of Indians from Kansas.”

Despite its increasing importance to the federal war effort, after two years of war Fort
Scott retained a haphazard look despite its establishment as a permanent military post a year
before on March 29, 1862. The civilians who bought the buildings following the post's closure
the previous decade expanded the town beyond the original fort grounds. The former parade
ground became the town square, suitable for penning hogs, hanging laundry and parking wagons.
It was also used for military parades, inspections, band concerts and local celebrations. By late
January 1863 the Army presence in the town itself was confirmed by large fortifications erected
Jate in 1862 and early 1863, mainly by black troops. Two of the large earthworks, known by the
military engineers as lunettes for their half-moon ditch, guarded the fords over the Marmaton
River to the north, and the other two protected the military reads coming in from the south,
although the effectiveness of the fortifications was minimal since Fort Scott possessed only two
pieces of field artillery until May. A year Jater, in an 1864 letter to the District of the Border
headquarters, Col. Charles Blair commanding Fort Scott described the improved fortifications
and lunettes as follows:

First, that there is a line of rifle-pits southeast, south, and southwest of this place,
extending about a fourth of a mile, and connecting with ravines, which, by opening into
the Marmaton River bottom, completely encircles the town. Second, there are two
lunettes, field-works, inside this line, and distant about 300 yards from the same, on the
south and southwest of the town, which command the heights from the northeast clear
around to the south west. They are formed of earth and fascines, and are substantial and
well constructed, having been superintended by a competent engincer.

The one to the southwest is named Lunette Henning, and has platforms for four
guns and a subterranean magazine for ammunition. There are two 24-pounder siege
guns in position upon the platforms, and in excellent condition. Lunette Blair, to the
south, is a smaller work, having platforms for but three guns and a subterranean
magazine. There are also two 24-pounders in position here in admirable condition.

These works arc in the State of Kansas, to defend Fort Scott, the !unettes
forming the inner line, and are respectively on the Cato and Military roads. The name of
the officer immediately in charge of these fortifications is Capt. George J. Clark,
Company E, Fourteenth Kansas Cavalry, acting ordnance officer of the post.*

” Secretary of the Interior Caleb Smith to Lincoln, September 29. 1862, Rol! 4. M606. Letters Sent, Indian Department.
Interior Department. Record Group 8. cited in Nichols, Lincol and the Indians, 36: Ruth A. Gallaher, “Samuel Ryan Curtis.”
Jowa History of History and Politics 25 (huly 1927). 331-58.

* Blair to Lt. J.M. Hadley. Jan. 15. 1864. United States War Department, The Hur of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Published Under the Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert
Scots (Washingion. D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1880-1901) (cited as O.R.), 1:62. 89

136



the assistant surgeon observed. “The health of the command is now improving.””*

The advantages of fresh vegetables did not cure all maladies, The hospital was the last
Army post some soldiers saw. Fort Scott’s location and high-quality structures helped it escape
the worst epidemics of the mid-nineteenth century. Cholera, a water-borne disease, became the
single greatest threat to health on the Plains. In 1849, a major epidemic swept the country, and
even the frontier was affected. Up and down the Oregon Trail, grave markers appeared by the
hundreds and even by the thousands. The unsanitary conditions of wagon travel contributed
greatly to the epidemic’s spread. Fort Scott escaped the brunt of cholera, but death was a constant
feature of life at the post. From 1842 to 1852, seventeen officers and men died at Fort Scott,
according to Surgeon Joseph Barnes. With mortality came the responsibility of maintaining
community and tradition as well as honoring the sacrifice of soldiers. One of the first additions to
the fort was a cemetery, about three-quarters of a mile west of the post.”

Epic gun battles and besieged Army garrisons fighting off hordes of attacking Indians
filled the mythic West. Fort Scott was the reality; its soldiers carried out their orders in much less
dramatic fashion, suffering under the hot sun and cold winter winds for tiny paychecks often
already spent at the sutler store. Life was hard and dreary at the post — and at most such posts —
and soldiers endured in the name of a greater good that often escaped them. Their life was dull,
their work, individually at least, could seem trivial. There were few breaks in the routine, few
moments of excitement to replace the drudgery. Yet the soldiers at Fort Scott, as did their peers
at other Army posts, provided the backbone of a growing nation. Their work was not
insignificant. The troops’ presence and their actions helped define the frontier and the nature of
life on the Plains for subsequent generations.

By the 1840s, distinctions in federal policy toward long-settled Plains Indians and
newcomers forced onto the Plains had begun to collapse. American policy before the decade
envisioned Indian people living in a broad band across the continent and away from white
settlements, with the Army maintaining peace among the two groups of Indians as it patrolled the
dividing line between the cultures. As white settlers headed west, the Permanent Indian Frontier
had been exposed as fiction and the military could no longer enforce any boundaries. As a
consequence of the new circumstances, the Army’s role had to change. Military posts such as
Fort Scott ceased to function as a dividing line between Indians and settlers and instead took up
the cudgel of direct protection of the expansion of white settlement. On occasion, international
incidents, especially with the adjacent Republic of Texas, drew military attention. From guardian
of the frontier to active participant in its shaping and using Army officers’ growing experience in
the region to lead to new strategies to manage the Plains, Fort Scott and the other posts adapted
to meet these new challenges.

© J, Walker, Assistant Surgeon, “Quarterly Report of the Sick and Wounded at Fort Scott, Missouri, for the Quarter
Ending September 30, 1845,” Hospital Records, Fort Scott National Historic Site Archives.

* Barnes, “Medical Topography and Diseases of Fort Scott,” in Report on the Sickness and Mortality Among Troops in
the Middle Division, lists seventeen deaths from 1842 to 1853, but the post returns show a total of twenty-eight deaths until
January 1852, with another five deaths recorded over the post’s final sixteen months of operation. The Fort Scott post cemetery
was located approximately four blocks west of National on Wall Street in today’s city, Barnes went on to become surgeon
general of the United States Army during the Civil War. See also Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1961).

34



Chapter One:

Fissures and Fractures: The World of Fort Scott

The United States Army’s presence at Fort Scott always meant more than it appeared.
The post was not just buildings on the rise above the Marmaton River, and not simply a supply
depot or a base for troops. Built during the 1840s in what is now southeastern Kansas, the federal
government conceived Fort Scott as part of the permanent Indian frontier with an important
geopolitical mission: to separate Indians from the Americans moving west at a rapid pace. The
fort became a catalyst of the very expansion it sought to monitor, and it maintained the frontier
peace during its operation.

Remaining close to its national origins, more than one hundred and fifty years after its
establishment Fort Scott is again a part of the federal government. A unit of the National Park
system, Fort Scott National Historic Site is a restored representation of a frontier fort constructed,
maintained, and garrisoned by the United States Army from 1842 to 1853. Its principal cultural
resources include eleven original buildings and nine reconstructed structures, arrayed in a square
surrounding the parade ground. Still an integral part of the adjacent town of Fort Scott whose
development it fueled, the site contains three sections of restored prairie grass that illustrates the
scene that once surrounded the soldiers.

The landscape surrounding Fort Scott resulted from millions of years of natural activity.
Southeastern Kansas lies on the fringe of the area classified by geologists as the Ozark Plateau,
the rugged terrain of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Environmental forces created the
gentle undulating hills of southeastern Kansas more than 245 million years ago, during the
Permian Era, made up of limestone layers left behind by shallow seas. Further west, upheavals
and erosion slowly shaped the Rocky Mountains. Shifting tectonic plates caused uplifting across
the continent, raising the Rockies nearly 3,000 meters and lifting the present Mississippi River
basin hundreds of meters. The higher mountains reshaped the weather patterns on the Great
Plains, interrupting the usual pattern of wind and weather known as the Pacific Westerlies.
Blocked from the continent’s midsection, the moisture-carrying air masses heading east
condensed and released their water along the mountain’s western edges. The resultant “rain
shadow” ended the swath of swamps and pine forests, replacing them with millions of acres of
grassland and narrow lines of trees along the region’s waterways.!

Developing in concert with the grasses were animals that took advantage of the new
sources of nutrition. Many resulting mammals grew larger than their modern-day counterparts.
The wide expanses of prairies, the development of digestive systems with more efficient
ingestion of the vegetation, and the emergence of large mammalian predators, which helped

1 W. Brian Harland, 4 Geologic Time Scale (Cambridge: Carabridge University Press, (992): 23-4; Preston Cloud,
Oasis in Space: Earth History from the Beginning (New York: W.W, Norton and Company, 1988): 121-138, 210-211; Ron
Redfern, The Making of a Continent (New York: New York Times Book Co., 1983): 161; Frank Wilson, “Landscapes: A
Geologic Diary,” in Kansas Geology: An Introduction to Landscapes, Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils (Lawrence Kans.: published
for the Kansas Geological Survey by the University Press of Kansas, 1984): 19-20; Robert W. Richmond, Kansas: 4 Land of
Contrasts, 34 ed. (Arlington Heights, lil.; Forum Press, 1989): 3-12.

1



Scott's military activities to Fort Leavenworth, the Bulletin warned, “the whole country south of
the Kansas River will become a desert.”*

When the Army abandoned Fort Smith, Arkansas, in May 1861, because of the
Confederate threat, Fort Scott became the main supply post for the Union’s southern forts. The
southeast Kansas post received supplies from Fort Leavenworth and St. Louis and shipped the
tons of clothing, food, ammunition and other military goods to units and posts across the region.
As Union troops marched south, Fort Scott retained responsibility as the main supply point for
Forts Gibson and the reestablished Fort Smith. The post also supplied smaller subposts across
southwestern Missouri and southeastem Kansas, sending out laden wagons on the network of
roads, While the Civil War saw the first extensive use of railroads added to traditional river
transportation, many of the nation’s inland depots, including Fort Scott, remained heavily
dependent upon wagon transport for shipment of supplies. A good six-mule team, in the best
season of the year operating on good roads, could haui 3,730 pounds plus its own forage load of
270 pounds, but wagons seldom operated under such ideal conditions. Poor roads and weather,
lack of trained teamsters, and ill-fed animals all too often reduced wagon loads below
maximum.*

During its existence as a frontier post in the 1840s, Fort Scott never had physical
fortifications, relying instead on its garrison and good defensive location on the high ground. The
two dragoon companies based there patrolling across the plains provided the offensive weapons
to deter attacks. The Army garrisoned an infantry company at the post to provide whatever close-
in security it might have needed.

During the Civil War Southern forces did not directly threaten the Army buildings until
September 1861, and that Confederate force did not get closer than twelve miles. U.S. Sen,
James Lane, serving simultaneously as an Army officer, based most of the Third, Fourth, and
Fifth Kansas regiments, known as the “Kansas Brigade” or “Lane’s Brigade,” at Fort Scott in
1861. The mostly undisciplined men heightened already strained border tensions by undertaking
a number of “jayhawking” raids into Missouri. After Gen. Sterling Price’s victory at Wilson’s
Creek on August 10, the Missouri commander declared his intention to clear the jayhawkers from
southwest Missouri. On September 2, his troops skirmished with Kansans at the Drywood Creek
near the Kansas-Missouri border, driving them back into Kansas. Lane, believing Fort Scott to be
indefensible because of the surrounding hills, ordered his Kansas Brigade to fall back twelve
miles to Fort Lincoln, on the north bank of the Little Osage River im northern Bourbon County.
Before and after the threatened attack, Lane’s messages to superiors at Fort Leavenworth
continually bemoaned his lack of artillery and promised success in the field if only he could have
several cannons. Panic gripped troops in Fort Scott and they fied north to Fort Lincoln, with
many men seizing the opportunity to loot the homes and stores of the town. Price abandoned his
plans to attack the town upon learning that federal forces had retreated north, and he did not want

* Fort Scott Bulletin, June 28, 1862; November 8, 1862; Risch, Quartermaster Support of the Army, 440; Fort
Scott Bulletin, May 31, 1862; Erwin N. Thompson, Fort Scott, Kansas: Site Identification and Evaluation (Washington, D.C.:
National Park Service, Department of the Interior, Division of History, 1967).

5O.R., 5:8, p. 654; Risch, Quartermaster Support, 420-42)

173



American commerce with Santa Fe and the Pacific coast. Applying the hard-learned lessons of
the war’s early years, when irregular Confederate units often successfully escaped combat by
simply crossing from one Union department to the next, Curtis sought to minimize the dangers of
guerrilla threats through close communication with neighboring departments. The Department of
Kansas commander assured his counterpart in Missouri that he sought to “keep up the most
friendly intercourse ... to avoid surprise and disaster.”

During three years of guarding the region, troops supported by Fort Scott developed a
routine for dealing with irregular forces. In a typical scenario described by an officer serving in
the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, in February residents living around Balltown, Missouri, reported
rumors of bushwhackers operating in neighboring woods. A mounted patrol of twenty Union
men searched the vicinity, concentrating on the isolated, woody areas that provided easy
concealment. The federal troops hoped to surprise the bushwhackers in their camp and prevent
them from escaping on horseback. A secondary target was the guerrillas’ guns, ammunition, and
supplies. Lf luck were with the Northern soldiers, any bushwhackers who did escape would run
into another Union squad and be killed or captured. A number of those men caught on these
patrols received quick field trials and executions, but Union soldiers brought many back into the
subpost and escorted them to Fort Scott. There they entered the military justice system
administered by the area provost marshals.*

While the military presence protected the town of Fort Scott, the supply trains operating
from the post remained 2 prime target for Confederate guerrillas. Seeking to reduce reliance on
huge, inefficient supply trains sent through Indian Territory, the Department of Kansas ordered
Capt. Merritt Insley, Fort Scott’s deport quartermaster, to St. Louis in late February to procure
steamers for transporting supplies to Fort Gibson up the Arkansas River. Senior military
commanders hoped to take advantage of the short wet season, during which time boat traffic
could carry supplies far upriver: Recognizing the fact that water transportation would not meet
all of the post’s needs, Insley continued to send wagon trains to Fort Smith and Fort Gibson with
the utmost energy and prudence. During the following month, the southeastern Kansas post
supplemented its express horse courier service to Fort Leavenworth with a telegraph line.
Engineers assigned to the U.S. Military Telegraph Service reported stringing 120 miles of wire
between the two forts.

The winter months of 1863-64 were quiet, as cold weather nearly eliminated the desire
and ability for combat. Union military victories the previous year pushed the Confederates away
from Kansas and into Arkansas and the southern Indian Territory. The only military actions were
small raids by irregular forces, especially the mounted Indian guerrillas led by Cherokee leader
Stand Watie. With the onset of warmer weather, the main armies of both sides prepared to renew
their struggle. Again the eastern seaboard took precedence, its impact spilling over to the rest of

? $.W. Carpenter, Scout Detective, to Chipman, February 19, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/2, 377; Curtis to Rosecrans,
February 20, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/2, 384-85

* Porter, A Journal of Events, Feb. 28, 1864, 254; March 7, 1864, 256.

° Curtis to Insley, February 29, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/2, 468; Capt. George H. Smith to Col. Anson Stagger, U.S.
Military Telegraph Service, Oct. 25, 1864, OR. Il:4, 844-46.

198



RT:

the former

Officer's quarters, and powder magazine.

Post.!*

The Union Army’s string of military success continued in March. Gen. Edward R.S.
Canby led an expedition into southern Alabama and Gen. James H. Wilson marched into Selma
and Montgomery, Ala., further damaging the Confederate war effort. Despite the diminishing
Confederate threat, federal military leaders continued planning for the worse possible scenarios.
In the Midwest, the most significant menace was a repeat of Price’s raid. In preparing for the
eventuality, Gen. Grenville Dodge estimated the Department of Missouri could call on about
5,500 Federal troops, including five hundred men of the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry, based at Fort
Scott. Aside from Confederate raiders, other more minor matters also concerned Dodge,
including Phillips’ complaints about cattle stealing. He ordered Blair at Fort Scott to stop the
illegal trafficking. Blair responded that he was carrying out the orders “to the very letter,”
establishing two new posts to the west of Fort Scott and sending out one hundred enlisted men to
sweep the area, arresting all persons attempting to go south into the Indian Territory. Two days
later Blair reported that his patrols already had seized 550 head of cattle, producing “quite a
consternation among the cattle thieves.” He promised Dodge that he would end the practice, even
if he had to move his entire command. If he had to relocate, Blair would be leaving what was
planned to be one of the largest posts west of the Mississippi River. Work began March 9 on the
new fort south of Fort Scott, designed with emplacements for sixteen artillery pieces and

“ Organization of troops in the Military Division of the Missouri, Feb. 28, 1865, O.R, 1:48/1, 1039

222



reestablished the agency system.'*

Political circumstances continued to dominate military use of Indian regiments. Lincoln
approved an expedition to reoccupy the Indian Territory that included authorization to raise two
Indian Home Guard regiments. On April 4, 1862, the Army’s Adjutant General’s office ordered
Major General Henry Halleck, senior commander in the Department of Missouri, to begin
organizing two Indian units. Limits on the new regiments stemmed from fears of Indian behavior.
The refugee Indian soldiers were only to defend their homes and the Indian Territory once Union
forces reoccupied it. Seeking to mute possible criticism of Indian outrages against whites,
Halleck further limited their scope, ordering that the new units “can be used only against Indians
or in defense of their own territory and homes.” Nebraskan Col. Robert Furnas commanded the
First Indian Regiment, consisting of mostly Creek refugees. The Army mustered it into federal
service at Leroy, Kansas, northwest of Fort Scott. The Second Indian Regiment soon followed.
Commanded by Col. John Ritchie, the regiment organized near Humboldt, Kansas, and consisted
of Osages, Cherokees, Quapaws, Seminoles and members of other smaller Indian wibes. One
unintended consequence of this organizing effort was the inclusion in the regiment of African
Americans, former slaves and freemen who lived among the Indians.'*

The civilian population initially opposed Indian regiments. Kansas newspaper editors
agreed with the North’s position that excluded Indian soldiers. Warriors would rather fight than
eat, the Topeka State Record observed, but the newspaper beseeched the federal government,
bowing to humane considerations, not to follow the southern example of arming Indians. While
condemning the Confederates for employing “wild Indians,” the newspaper expected that “if this
war continues for any length of time the Indian will become an element in it.” That prediction
came true for the North within six months. The Fort Scott newspaper, reporting that Weer was in
Humboldt training Indian regiments, expressed a characteristic sentiment of the time and place:
“Their principal use is to devour Uncle Sam’s hard-bread and beef, and spend his money. They
will be as valuable as a flock of sheep in time of action. They ought to be disbanded
immediately.”””

Attempting to integrate the warriors of two totally different societies proved to be a long
and difficult experience that political circumstances made even more complicated. As the
Confederate threat to Missouri and Kansas became clearer during the first year of combat, leaders
in Washington, D.C., reassessed their hands-off policy in Indian Territory. Caleb Smith,
Lincoln’s first Secretary of the Interior, broached the idea of raising two or more regiments of

'® Wendell H. Stephenson, “The Political Career of General James H. Lane,” Publications of the Kansus State
Historical Society 3 (1930), 123-33; Edmund J. Danziger, Jr. , "The Office of Indian Affairs and the Problem of Civil War Indian
Refugees in Kansas," Kansas Historical Quarterly 35, n. 3 (Autumn 1969), 257-75; David A. Nichols, Lincoln and the indians:
Civil War Policies and Politics (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1978), David Banks, “Civil War Refugees from Indian
‘Territory in the North, 1861-1864,” Chronicles of Okahoma 41, n. 3 (1963), 286-98

© L. Thomas, Adjutant General, to Gen. Henry Hatleck, April 4, 1862 and Halleck to Brigadier General J.W. Denver,
April 5, 1862, O.R,, 1:8, 664-65; Josephy, The Civil War in the American West, 354-35, Edwin Redkey, ed., 4n Army of Grand
Black Men. Leners from African American Soldiers }861-1865 (Cambridge University Press, 1992).

* Topeka State Record, August 17, 1861; Fort Scott Bulletin, June 21, 1862; Wiley Britton, The Union
indian Brigade in the Civil War (Kansas City, Mo.: Franklin Hudson Publishing, 1922).

162



Chapter Four:
Southeastern Kansas Territory
and the Question of Slavery

National pressures over slavery converged in the second half of the 1850s at the former
Azmy post that had become the town of Fort Scott, located onthe antebellum nation’s periphery.
The South’s desire to expand the institution of slavery and the doctrine of states’ rights both played
pivotal roles in the shaping the struggle for the plains, Indian removal, development of the cotton
industry, and the growth of slavery into a major economic concern fueled the South’s development.
African Americans were central to the way the white South saw itself; every southern decision,
whether about business, society, or politics, accounted for the presence of enslaved African Ameri-
cans in the midst of the free white South and with good reason, While only 2 percent of the North
traced its descent from Africans, in the South slaves and free blacks comprised fully one-third of the
population. In some areas, most notably lowland South Carolina, African-Americans topped 50
percent of the population According to the 1820 census, 90 percent of the South’s workers en-
gaged in agriculture, and an overwhelming majority were slaves.!

After the American Revolution, Southern states suffered through a severe economic depres-
sion. The prices of slaves dropped and abolition became amore commonly held ideology. Eli
Whitney’s cotton gin, introduced in 1790, revived slavery, linking cotton production and slave labor
inan economically profitable embrace. As the price of cotton rose, a powerful planter class whose
wealth depended upon slavery gained power and position. Slavery became an economic necessity,
forcing the development of a supportive body of law and a legal system to implement it. Thenational
legal system remanded the problems of slavery to the individual states, a reprise of the fissure left by
the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. For Southerners, any federal proposai to
prevent incoming states from selecting slavery represented an erosion of the sovereign rights of all
states. The doctrine that began as nullification of the federal authority to settariffs blossomed asa
political ideology that put the rights of states above those of the federal government. Called “states”
rights,” this philosophy served as the underpinning of the southern defense of slavery.”

America’s anti-slavery movement failed to coalesce around one central organization or

' Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene Genovese, /“ruits of Merchant Capital: Slavery and Bourgeois Property in
the Rise and Expansion of Capitalism (NY: Oxford Press, 1983); William W. Freehling, The Road to Disunion: Secessionists
at Bay, 1776-1854 (NY: Oxford Press, 1990); William J. Cooper, Liberty and Slavery: Southern Politics to 1860 (NY: Knopf,
1983).

? Kenneth M. Stampp, America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink of War (New York: Oxford University Press,
1990), 86-87; Eugene D. Genovese, The World the Slaveholders Made: Two Essays in Interpretation (Middletown, Conn.:
Wesleyan University Press, 1988); Frederick Merk, History of the Westward Movement (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), 224-
228; Irving H. Bartlett, John C. Calhoun: A Biography (NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993); Those involved in drafting the
Constitution deferred dealing with the majority of issues involving slavery, touching on slaveholder interests in only eight
provisions. Slaves were included in census calculations for the purposes of representation and ditect taxation in Article L,
with their numerical worth sct at three-fifths of a white person. The Fugitive Slave clause of Article IV declared that persons
held to service or labor under the laws of an individual state had 10 be returned to the person claiming that service. Another
provision denied Congress the right to prohibit slave trafficking into this country for a twenty-year period.

7



protect white settlers in Arkansas from Indian attacks and to maintain peace among several
factions in the Cherokee nation moving into the area. The location of the post contributed to new
problems. General Winfield Scott, one of the most renowned military men of the era, observed
that “the better class of Indians” opposed the post, because of the “difficulties and fracas between
the dissipated of the Indians and the soldiery.”*°

Fort Wayne was the direct antecedent of Fort Scott. The unhealthy location of the post
forced the Army to move again within two years, and local commanders selected a new site in
the middie of the Cherokee reservation. The Army compelled several Cherokees to relinquish
their farms and stores when it set up a two-square-mile reservation around the post, drawing
immediate protests. Nearby white settlers agreed with the Indians, but for different reasons. They
wanted the post moved closer to Arkansas, ostensibly for protection. Lt. Col. Richard B. Mason,
commanding officer of the First Dragoons, observed other motivations, noting that “the removal
of Fort Wayne deprives them of a market for very many articles of produce, and has a tendency
to lessen in some degree the value of lands in its vicinity, and hence all their clamor and noise.”*!
While the Army used it, the fort remained an important economic and social anchor for settlers,
and its movement to another location threatened the neighboring community’s very existence.

In the end, the War Department followed its own dictates instead of those of the settlers.
Ignoring protests, the military continued construction of the new post on the Cherokee
reservation. By August 1840, with several log cabins and one large building completed, lack of
funds drove the Army to abandon the site and move the garrison to Fort Gibson. The Army
assigned one caretaker to remain and guard the government property, but just before the troops
left, a rumor circulated that a group of Cherokees planned to bum the building. Instead of one
man, an entire company of soldiers remained.”

Indians opposed the new location as much as did the settlers. In Apri! 1841, a delegation
of Cherokees traveled to Washington, D.C., and presented a request calling for the fort’s
removal. Major Ethan Allen Hitchcock, who was in the area investigating Indian affairs on the
frontier for the War Department, later confirmed their sentiments. He recommended building a
new post west of the Missouri state line and abandoning Fort Wayne, which he reasoned had
little military value. Fort Gibson was near enough to the Arkansas border to supply protection,
and officers at Fort Wayne argued that life in the poorly maintained buildings fostered bad
morale. Washington policy makers finally concurred, and the War Department ordered Fort
Wayne abandoned on February 10, 1842, although not without a threat. Army officers reminded
Cherokee leaders that although soldiers had abandoned the post, in the event of conflict the Army
was prepared to reoccupy it. On May 26, 1842, the garrison left for its new post on the Marmaton

SY General Winfield Scott to the Secretary of War, February 19, 1844, 28th Cong., Ist sess., Senate Report 136 (Serial
433).

"Lt. Col R.B. Mason, First Dragoons, to Brig, General R, Jones, Adjutant General, Washington, D.C., June 25, 1840,
M1302, Roll 4, Frame 0814, MA62540, IIT, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

® Daniel Littlefield and Lonnie Underhill, “Fort Wayne and Border Violence, 1840-1847,” Arkansas Historical
Quarterly 36, a. | (Spring £977): 3-13.

26



officers and protected by military units, charted the pathways that railroads soon followed. The
lessons learned during the dragoon expeditions on the Plains in the 1830s and 1840s proved
invaluable in helping the military exert control across the Southwest.

The end of Fort Scott came eleven years after its establishment, and it took place in a very
different nation. By the 1850s, the United States had nearly completed its continental expansion.
A new issue dominated the nation: human manumission. Early in the decade, Fort Scott had no
practical use either in westward expansion or in the question of slavery. Capt. Michael E. Van
Buren of the Regiment of Mounted Rifles, the post’s last commanding officer, presided over its
closure with little fanfare. The post return simply stated: “This post was this day (April 22, 1853)
broken up, pursuant to Dept. orders no. 9, of March 30, 1853, and the garrison on route for Fort
Leavenworth, the Ordnance Sgt. Being left at Fort Scott.” An era ended quietly. For a decade,
Fort Scott had been central to westward expansion. An unneeded anachronism, it simply ceased
to be.

Unlike many frontier forts, the post was not abandoned to the elements; instead it created
a lasting legacy behind. The lands upon which the fort had been built remained reserved for the
New York Indians so the Army never owned it. Sgt. McCann of the Ordnance Department
remained to watch over the buildings, joined in isolation by Wilson, the post sutler whose license
did not expire until 1855. Wilson sought permission to remain at Fort Scott, writing to Secretary
of War Jefferson Davis in May 1854. He noted that he and his family lived there with six slaves,
selling to Indians and whites in the area. Davis never replied, but Quartermaster General Thomas
Jesup did grant permission. Other settlers entered the area soon after the troops left, and the
Army made plans to sell off the buildings, transactions complicated by the inability to sell the
land upon which the barracks, stables, offices, and hospital stood. On April 16,1855, Maj.
Marshall Howe of the Second Dragoons conducted the public auction. The land problem was
most likely a key factor in the low prices received. All of the buildings painstakingly constructed
since 1842 were sold for a total of less than five thousand dollars. The four completed officers
quarters were sold for between $300 and $505, with Wilson buying the second house. With an
eye toward future town development, Wilson aiso purchased the blacksmith shop, the wood in
the carpenter and blacksmith shops, and the weil cover and posts. Joining Wilson in pursuit of
local dreams was T.F. Whitlock, who bought the hospital building for $400 and the
quartermaster stable, shed, and shops for $405. Aside from the sale of the larger buildings, the
Army also benefitted from the frontier needs of nearby settlers. The auctioneers were able to
dispose of items as small as loose jumber in shops and sideboards and other items of furniture.
Also purchased that day were two old sabre blades, which someone bought for fifty cents.

The Army completed Fort Scott just as the reasons for building it came to an end.
Settlement of the Oregon border dispute and victory over Mexico moved the American frontier
far beyond the Marmaton River. Fort Scott’s original purpose, the maintenance of a boundary
between Indian and white lands, evolved into protecting the lanes of American movement across
Indian lands. This transition became possible as a result of an officer corps that had become

“ Wilson to Davis. May 22, 1855, Microfilm Roll 21 Frame 797 to 799, Fort Scott National Historie Site archives;
“Account of Sales of Buildings and Other Public Property at Port Scout, Kansas Territory, April 16, 1855, Fort Scott National
Historic Site archives,

69


of the brush” out of the region?

The military split along the Kansas-Missouri state line divided the Army’s response to a
new increase in guerrilla attacks. That inefficiency, as well as a personality clash between Blunt
and John M. Schofield, in charge of the Department of the Missouri, and reports of corruption in
the area prompted another boundary change. On June 9, Schofield reorganized the District of
Kansas, combining the northern and southern tier of Missouri’s westernmost counties into the
Department of the Border. under Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, Jr., General William T.
Sherman’s brother-in-law, and the Depariment of the Frontier, under Blunt, and headquartered at
Fort Scott. One unstated effect of the shift was to remove Blunt from invelvement in the
lucrative quartermaster contracts at Fort Leavenworth.”

By the middle of 1863, Union forces began to achieve successes to the east of Kansas.
During the first three days of July, General Robert E, Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania halted in a
dramatic and pivotal battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and on July 4, Grant's lengthy campaign
to capture Vicksburg, which began March 29, finally succeeded. The Union captured a
Confederate army of forty thousand men. Soldiers operating from Fort Scott scored their own
success on July | and 2, driving an attacking Confederate column of Indians and Texans two
thousand strong away from a supply train of more than three hundred wagons bound for Fort
Gibson. In the battle of Cabin Creek, south of Baxter Springs, the Union expedition of about
eighteen hundred men, backed by five howitzers, pushed past the twenty-two hundred
Confederates led by Gen. Cooper and Stand Watie after two and one half days of fighting. The
original escort for the supply train was six companies of the Second Colorado Infantry Regiment,
three companies from the Sixth and Ninth Kansas Cavalry regiments, and the Second Kansas
Light Artillery, “Blair's Battery.” After receiving information that Confederate forces planned an
atiack, Col. Williams of the First Kansas (Colored) Infantry Regiment, marched south out of
Baxter Springs to join the train. The Union forces were soon reinforced by three hundred men
from the Third Indian Home Guard Regiment.

The two forces skirmished lightly at Cabin Creek on July 1, where the Union officers
decided to wait one day while the creek, swollen by a recent rainstorm, was too high for the
infantry to ford. After camping for the night. the supply train was drawn up on the prairie on the
north bank and guarded by a portion of the escort, while Williams led the balance of the farce,
about twelve hundred soldiers, against the Confederates, After a two-hour battle the Confederates
were driven from their positions, with about one hundred killed. During the combat, Union
Cherokees from the Third Indian Home Guard fought Confederate Cherokces ted by Stand
Watie. Cabin Creek was the first Civil War battle in which African Americans and white soldiers
fought side-by-side, and it marked the first time the First Kansas Colored fought as a regiment.?*

The attack on the supply train at Cabin Creek was abnormal for Trans-Mississippi

* Charles W. Porter. A Journal of Events in the Life of Charles W. Porter: While in the Service of the United States
during the Rebellion (privately printed. Fort Scott National ttistoric Site archives). July 10-12, 1863: O.R., 1:12 (S# 32), 322.

» Josepay, The Civil War in the American West, 373

* Annic R. Cubage. “Engagement at Cabin Creek. Indian Territory.” Chronicles of Oklahome 10 (March 1932), 44-51;

Josephy. The Civil War in the American West. 37{-Kensas Adjutant General's Office. Military History of Kansas Regiments
During the War for the Suppression of the Great Rebellion (Leavenworth, W.S. Burke. 1870). 410-12.

145



The expedition became the model for future Army expeditions on the Plains. Kearny
demanded efficiency. He stripped the column of all but the barest necessities to remove the need
for wagons, Without the wheeled transportation, the patro] could rely on speed to pierce the heart
of the Plains. The five dragoon companies carried only eighteen barrels of pork and bacon for the
four-month expedition. Thirty head of cattle trailed the men, and the Plains provided the
remainder of required meat. Carleton lyrically observed the benefit to the government: “the
balance of our edibles in the meat line, both for officers and men, was saving the Government a
vast deal of money on this score — by transporting itself over the prairies in the shape of
buffaloes, deer, and antelopes.” The dragoons also carried some soap and vinegar, “added as sort
of luxuries, but they were ... issued sparingly,” Carleton noted, “and then only on great and
important occasions.”** The men traveled fast and hard, prepared for any eventuality.

Covering 2,066 miles in ninety-nine days, the expedition fulfilled its principal mission,
demonstrating American military might, and some lesser objectives, including gathering more
information about the West. Franklin produced a map of the Plains along the route. While
traveling down the Arkansas, the map maker determined the longitude of the site where Cooke,
one of the officers accompanying the expedition, encountered Snively and the Texas adventurers
two years earlier. To the dragoon officer’s delight, Franklin established with his calculations that
the site of the contest was indeed within the United States and that Cooke was correct when he
disarmed the Texans. On the return trip, the dragoons encountered 2 large war party of Apaches
and Kiowas and warned them against disturbing travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. The American
troops left a powerful impression on the Plains.

While the Fort Scott-based dragoons were in the field with Kearny, a change took place at
the Fort Scott parade grounds. As international tensions between the United States and Mexico
escalated, Companies C and D of the Fourth Infantry joined the rest of their regiment in Texas as
one component of Gen. Zachary Taylor’s Anny of Observation, part of the nation’s military
buildup. Replacing the two companies on the Marmaton was Company B of the First Infantry,
which arrived on July 14, 1845. As part of the Fort Scott transfer, Capt. Sidney Burbank assumed
command of the post, a position he held during most of the Mexican War.” With this buildup,
the role of Fort Scott changed once again. It became one of the places from which Americans
could observe the swelling tension to their south.

Trouble with its neighbor to the south was inevitable as long as the westward-moving
population of the United States believed its expansion across the continent followed the hand of
divine providence. Mexico’s northern provinces of Alta California, Texas, and New Mexico
were too far from its core of control to be adequately protected. Neither the Spanish nor later the
Mexicans adequately defended their northern possession from Indian, French, or American
threats. America’s covert aid to Texans fighting for independence in 1835 heightened tensions
between Mexico and the United States, and during the decade that followed relations

“J. Henry Carleton, The Prairie Logbooks: Dragoon Campaigns to the Pawnee Villages in 1844, and to the Rocky
Mountain in 1845, edited by Louis Pelzer (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983), 159; Abstract of Journals of Lt.
William B. Franklin and H.S. Tumer in Senate Executive Documents, first sess. 29th Cong., 1, Document 1, pp. 214-217.

* Burbank was post commander except for a four~month period starting in December 1845, when he was relieved by
Swords. Fort Scott past rewrns, 1845, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

62



HS-8

Fort Scott National Historic Site

339



THE
FRONTIER
1846

LEGEND

(COUNTY UNE

‘STATE LINE ———w
NEW YORK eee
INDIAN RESERVATION

FORTS e

MISSOURI

. FORT ATKINSON (1819-27)

. FORT CROGHAN (1842-43) +

|. FORT LEAVENWORTH (1827-) 6.

. FORT SCOTT (1842-53) .

. PORT WAYNE (1838-42)

. FORT GIBSON (1624-90) 7.
. FORT SMITH (1817-71) .

. FORT COFFEE (1834-38) aan a

). FORT TOWSON (1824-54)

. FORT WASHITA (1842-61)

PUBLISHED BY: FOSTER DESIGN, INC. 19
(800) 345-

3994

fe &SNHAAALKHN

~
Ss



“frego, Joseph 106

Upham, ¥.J. 246

US. Army, 1837 Reorganization 14: 1845 Composi-
tion 61; And Captured Bushwhackers 125:
Allitude Toward Indians 28; Bureau for
Colored Troops 168; Civilian Spies and
Detectives 197-198; Colored Regiments 134:
Courts Martial 179; Daily Routine 48, SI,
123, 127, 146; Desertions $1; Diseases 27,
28, 29, 30; Escort Duties 144; Horses 187,
204, 220; Indian-White Relations After Civil
War 246; Laundresses 187; “Managerial
Revolution” 47; Military Justice $2; Paymas-
ter 220; Post-Civil War Vorts 237; Profes-
stonalism 13, 44, 55-56: Pre-Civil War
Reforms 20: Quartermastcr Department 175;
Recruits Indians 124; Role on Plains $5, 59:
Role in Southeast Kansas 96-97; Steamboat
Transportation 198, 203; Supporting Civilian
Law Enforcement 240, 241; Ties to Industry
236; Transition to Peace 228, 23]: Weapons

43, 45-47, See Individual Regiments

Van Buren, Michael 69
Vientiane, A.C. 227
Vittum, David 219, 221

“Wakarusa War” 76

Walker, Joscph 30

Wallace, George W. 41, 66

Watie, Stand 114, 115, 124, 125-126, 129-130, 140-
141, 145, 153, 158- 159, 198, 203, 205, 206,
24Q, 221, 224-225, 226, 227, 229

Weer, William 98, 123, 126-127, 156

Western Hotel (Infantry Barracks) 78, $2

Westport, Battle 210

Wharton, Clifton 60

Williams, James 139, 142

Williains, Joseph J. 79-80, 86, 106

Wilson, Liero I. 50, 69, 72, 76, 78, 82, 229, 237

Wilson’s Creek, Battle 101, 104-105

Wingfield, Charles B. 76

Wisconsin Light Artillery 226

399


An 1848 map of Fort Scott

36



newspaper, in smal] outposts along Kansas’ southern border, with headquarters in Paola.”

The Fifth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment originated at Fort Leavenworth on July 12,
1861, when two companies of mounted soldiers formed. in July, Col. William Weer led the
troops to Harrisonville, Missouri, where they met a supply train and accompanied it to Fort Scott.
Three companies joined the regiment there, and Col. Hampton P. Johnson assumed command.
Two companies of infantry also raised at Fort Scott joined the regiment. The men of Company C
came mostly from Modina, Missouri, and Decatur, lowa, while Company D’s roster principally
comprised men from Mound City and Fort Scott. After taking part in the battle of Drywood
Creek early in September, the regiment then moved into Missouri. In October, the mounted units
retuned to patrolling duties around Fort Scott and Fort Lincoln?

One of the major population centers for southeast Kansas, Fort Scott served as the
mustering post for two other Kansas units of white soldiers. In 1862, Brigadier General James
Blunt ordered Maj. Charles Blair, Second Kansas Cavalry, to raise and command a battery of
light artillery — two !2-pound field howitzers and four six-pound guns, ali captured from the
Confederates. The Second Battery Light Artillery mustered in at Fort Scott, September 10, 1862.
One-hundred-and-twenty-three officers and men received immediate assignment to the Army of
the Frontier. The Army formed some mustered regiments for a specific purpose. Tracing its
origins to a four-company detachment formed early in 1863 as an escort to Brig. Gen. James
Blunt, the Army formally mustered the Fourteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment into
federal service at Fort Scott in November 1863. It was common for many officers of these state
units to serve simultaneously in several capacities. In one example of the multiple duties assigned
to many Civil War officers, Capt. George J. Clark of the Fourteenth also served as ordnance
officer at Fort Scott.4

The North’s white male population pool was large, but not limitless, and calls for
recruitments of minorities soon arose. Seeking to continue what they saw as a tradition of relying
solely upon white troops, many in the national government initially opposed using Indians and
African Americans as soldiers. When the Chippewa nation offered one hundred warriors for
federal duty early in 1861, Secretary of War Henry Cameron turned down the offer, stating that
“the nature of our present national troubles forbids the use of savages.” A large number of
Osages, in full war dress, came into Fort Scott in August of that year to offer their services, but
officers told them the Army did not need their assistance. News from Southern sources indicated
that the Confederacy was seeking Indian soldiers, sparking concern among federal officials. In

? Charles E. Cory, “The Sixth Kansas Cavalry and its Commander,” Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society
11 (1909-1910), 217-38: Fort Scott Western Volunizer, April 5, 1862; Donald L. Gilmore, “Total War on the Missouri Border,”
Journal of the West 35, n. 3 (July 1996}, 70-80.

> Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 1861-'65, Vol. | (Topeka: Kansas State Printing Company,
1896), 66-72.

‘The history of the Second Battery Light Artillery is contained in Frederick Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the
Rebellion, Vol. 2 (Dayton, Ohio: Momingside, 1979), 1185-86, William S. Burke, comp., Official Military History of Kansas
Regiments During the War for the Suppression of the Great Rebellion (Leavenworth: W.S. Burke, 1870), 438-45 and Report of
the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 1861-'65, Vol. 1, 263-67. The Fourteen Kansas Regiment is discussed in Dyer, A
Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Vol. 2: 1184-85; Kansas Adjutant General’s Office, Official Military History of
Kansas Regiments: 374-81; and Report of the Adjutont General of the State of Kansas, 1861-'63, Vol, 1, 228-32.

156



In addition to its duties guarding the railroad crews, the Army continued to function as
arbiter in regional Indian-white relations. Before transferring to another camp in October 1870,
the headquarters in Fort Scott instructed the commander of Company I, Sixth Infantry, to check
on the condition of several half-blooded Osage living in the area. He was to ascertain if the
surrounding white settlers recognized the Indians’ rights to own the property. If this was not the
case, a sergeant and six men were to be assigned to the control of the Osage Indian agent to keep
the peace. Soldiers were also called upon to protect Indian lands from encroachment by white
settlers and to control illegal whiskey traders. When the last members of the Osage people were
removed from Kansas to Indian Territory, Fort Scott’s soldiers played a role in protecting the
newcomers from neighboring tribes.?°

As area violence decreased, keeping the soldiers out of trouble became the officers’ top
priority. A dozen enlisted men were involved in a December brawl in Chetopa at property
belonging to Hiram Barnes, and their commanding officer ordered their pay docked to cover
damages; the only sergeant involved lost $58.65 while the other eleven men suffered $45.85
taken out of their wailets. In response, the commander of the Post of Southeast Kansas ordered
all officers to exercise extra vigilance over their men and to keep them busy. To fulfill the latter
requirement, the command undertook two forty-five minute periods of military drill every day
except Sunday. In inclement weather the detachments were allowed to substitute marching,
running, or other exercise programs. Officers were encouraged to vary the exercise routines, with
foot races and ball games acceptable substitutes.”* :

As the Army assigned and detached units to the railroad as guards during 1871, the
position of the commanding officer of the Post of Southeast Kansas was occupied by the senior
officer assigned to the post. During the year, six officers commanded; the shortest term of duty
was less than a month. Lt. Col. Thomas H. Neill, Sixth Cavalry, was in charge for the longest
portion of 1870, serving from July through the end of the year. In October he commanded three
companies, from the Seventh Cavalry, Fifth U.S. Infantry and Sixth U.S. Infantry, a total of eight
officers and 151 enlisted men. In August of the following year, the detachment was reduced to
eighty men of Co. E, Sixth Cavalry, and fifty-nine men of Co. B, Fifth Infantry. It was reduced
even further by October, with only two companies from the Fifth Infantry assigned, comprising
five officers and 115 enlisted men.””

Despite the lack of violent actions by the Land League during the Army’s stay in
southeast Kansas, military commanders continued to remain on alert, When the Department of
the Missouri in September 1872 asked the leader of the detachment to pick one of the two
companies for reassignment in the event it was needed elsewhere, Capt. J.J, Upham stiffly
recommended against any troop reduction. Such a move provided a huge morale boost for the
Land League and could only lead to renewed attacks upon railroad property, “and the moral

* hid

* General Orders No. 21, Dec. 19, 1870, and General Orders No. 22, Dec. 20, 1870, Roll 21, Special Orders and
Endorsements Sent 1869 to £873, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm,

* Appendix C: Position and distribution of troops in the Military Division of the Missouri, 1871. Report of the
Secretary of War, Vol. {, Serial {503, Ex. Doc. 1, Part 2, 42d Cong, 2d sess, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1871); Appendix C, Annual Repor 1872, Serial 1558.

246


Mexican War Army benefitted from the patrols and convoys across the Plains undertaken in the
face of Indian threats.’

These expeditions had a number of distinct purposes. American contro! of the region
remained insecure and because officers typically believed that Indians only respected strength,
they advocated ongoing displays of the nation’s military power. As a result, the Army sent its
mounted dragoons on several Plains expeditions in the years before the Mexican War. The
displays of large columns of brightly dressed soldiers, military leaders asserted, intimidated
nomadic peoples and prevented them from raiding emigrant Indian settlements. Commanding
officers of these expeditions made it their practice to specifically point out to the Plains tribes
that the newcomers were under the direct protection of the United States. Other groups —
American emigrants to new settlements in the Oregon and California territories, and Mexican
and American merchants traveling to and from New Mexico along the Santa Fe trails —
demanded protection. Following the same strategy that protected emigrant Indian tribes, Army
columns warned off nomadic tribes.

These expeditions were part and parcel of the expansion process, a focus of the growing
nation’s energy and resources. Army expeditions reported on the commercial possibilities of the
lands that the columns traversed and military officers routinely reported observations of wildlife
and geographic wonders. Some expeditions brought along geographic specialists as the nation
sought to satisfy its curiosity about its new lands. The creation of the U.S. Army Corps of
Topographical Engineers in 1838, a group that never numbered more than thirty-six officers,
gave the military a unit devoted to scientific exploration, and its officers set higher standards for
systematic recording and observation. The War Department explored possible invasion routes of
the Southwest and Mexico, and later private interests envisioned railroad routes across the
continent. Finally, in an era when most military posts only housed three or four companies. of
soldiers, the expeditions across the Plains provided opportunities for officers to practice their
command techniques on larger bodies of troops, a precursor to the kinds of commands that
emerged in the Mexican War and later in the Civil War.°

Patrols and expeditions across the Plains began long before the establishment of Fort
Scott. At the behest of Secretary of War Lewis Cass, mounted rangers, militia-like predecessors
to the Dragoon regiments, undertook extended patrols in 1832 and 1833. Their mission was to
intimidate the mobile Indian people and to clear the way for the relocated peoples of the
Southeast.*' Captain Jesse Bean raised a company of rangers, typically ill equipped and poorly
trained men, in the Arkansas Territory and left Fort Gibson on October 6, 1832 to patrol the
Arkansas and Cimmaron rivers. Several civilians, including the writer Washington Irving,
accompanied the patrol. Although the column inspected the lands designated for incoming

® William R. Skelton, “Officers and Politicians: The Origins of Army Politics in the United States before the Civil
War," Armed Forces and Sociely 6, n. 1 (1979), 22-48; Coffman, The Old Army: 161-163; Fort Scott post returns, Fort Scott
National Historie Site, 1846-1847; T. Harry Williams, The History of American Wars, from 1745 to 1918 (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1981), 137-38.

* William Goetamann, Army Exploration in the American West, 1803-1863 (New Haven, Yale University, 1959}, 4-5,
347.

>! Report of the Secretary of War, House Ex. Doe. 116, 22d Cong,, I sess., 14+17.

36



authorization to “hire at an economical rate stabling for the public animals needed and kept at Ft.
Scott.” Fort Scott once again served as a convenient site for military justice, with the nearby
detachments providing enough officers for the continual stream of garrison courts martial for the
units serving in the field. The town used the former post guardhouse for its own purposes and the
Army had to rent space in county jails until prisoners could be escorted north to the military
prison at Fort Leavenworth.”!

As railroad lines reached Fort Scott, Bourbon County and the MRFS&G Railroad
completed their financial transactions on January 7, 1870. Fulfilling its contract, county
commissioners delivered the bonds for $150,000, sold back the $150,000 in company stock
certificates for $5, and the name of the rail line was changed to the Kansas City, Fort Scott &
Gulf Railroad. Construction of tracks to the state’s southern border continued.”

Attacks by members of the Land League immediately decreased as soon as the Army
troops arrived in southeast Kansas, but the military continued to prepare for the worst. On
January 13, 1870, Roy requested another 340 recruits to fill out the “skeleton companies” of the
Sixth Infantry serving under him, recommending that the recruits come from Fort Leavenworth.
A month later he told the Department of the Missouri that even though no violence had been
reported since the arrival of the troops, he believed soldiers should remain in the area. The
peaceful conditions stemmed from “the moral effect” of the Army’s presence, he averred, as
settlers continued to express hostility toward Joy. Roy recommended reducing the commitment
to guarding the railroad camps to two troops, one each of infantry and cavalry, stationed near the
workers and close to the trestles built across Drywood and Richland creeks, the most vulnerable
targets. By April, the War Department withdrew all but two of the companies. The reduced
number of officers resulted in an end to courts martial at Fort Scott in December, and trial cases
were assigned to Fort Leavenworth,”

One duty in existence during the post’s frontier and Civil War days carried over to these
railroad years. The Army still provided escorts for government officials. On September 26, 1870,
the post commander assigned four enlisted men of the Sixth Infantry under command of a lance
corporal to escort a special agent of the Interior Department through Indian Territory. After
assembling at Baxter Springs, the troops, outfitted with twenty rounds of ammunition and
sufficient rations, were detailed to travel to Fort Gibson and retum under the direction of the
special agent. One year later, one corporal and one private from the Fort Scott detachment
accompanied an Army paymaster to Fort Smith, Arkansas.*

2 Special Orders No. 129, Nov. LI, 1870, Special Orders No. 8, Oct. 2, 1869, Special Orders No. 134. Nov. 22, 1870,
Ha. Qrs. Troops Operating in Southeast Kansas, Roll 21, Special Orders and Endorsements Sent 1869 to 1873, Fort Scott
National Historic Site microfilm.

® Cutler, History of the State of Kansas.

Roy to Mitchell, Feb. 25, 1870, Letters Sent, Sept. 30, 1869 to April 16, 1873, Roli 20, Post of Southeast Kansas:
Letters Sent and Received, Sept. 1869 to 1873, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm; “Troops in Kansas,” Serial 1426, Ex.
Doc. 276, 41* Cong., 2d sess; Special Orders 149, Deo. 28, 1870, Roll 21, Special Orders and Endorsements Sent 1869 to 1873,
Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

* Special Orders No. 110, Sept. 26, 1870, Roll 21, Special Orders and Endorsements Sent 1869 to 1873, Fort Scott
‘National Historic Site microfilm.

245


and volunteer forces far behind regular Army troops in quality and effectiveness. In many cases,
activating these irregular units was more expensive than dispatching federal forces.

Circumstances filled frontier life with many opportunities for the militia to serve and just
as many occasions to clash with the regular military. Local people comprised the militia, the
same people who might be involved in the liquor trade, illegal land speculation, or other
activities that could draw federal attention. Militia leaders often resented the presence of the
regular Army, regarding it as an occupying force that threatened local control. Military officers
recognized the pitfalls of interacting with the state volunteer units and often found militia
activities an exasperating interference. As the regular Army grew more professionalized and
more reluctant to accept local attitudes toward Indians, relations with local militias and indeed
locals became tenuous. One cause was increased military involvement in combating the illegal
liquor trade.'*

Uncontrolled introduction of liquor across the frontier accentuated the prospect of Indian
uprisings. Economic opportunities drove Americans to the frontier in search of fortune, and one
of the most dependable means of acquiring riches was by selling alcohol to Indians. The whiskey
made from corn grown across the Midwest cost twenty-five cents a gallon at St. Louis in the
1830s; that same gallon sold at Fort Leavenworth brought thirty-four dollars.'? With such profits
for merely transporting the liquor, anyone with a little money and fewer scruples joined the trade.
The cash annuities many emigrant Indians received as compensation for their eastern lands
intensified the liquor trade. Between 1825 and 1847, more than seventy thousand Indians moved
west of Missouri and Arkansas. By 1845, Indian treaties obligated the federal government to
almost $27 million in tribal and individual payments. The government held some of these funds
in trust for the Indian groups or paid for in animals or agricultural supplies sent to the tribes, but
federal officials distributed most of it in hard specie.”” A good portion of that money found its
way into the hands of Jiquor traders.

In a maneuver typical of the time, Congress sought to control the traffic in liquor traffic
with legislation that governed commerce and interaction. These trade and intercourse laws were
the solution of an era in which leaders assumed that people obeyed the law. Thomas Jefferson
passed the first such legislation. Concerned with alcohol sales to several tribes, he asked
Congress to modify earlier trade laws and in 1802 a new law that restricted the sale of liquor to
Indians passed Congress. It required traders in Indian country to hold a license and post bond.
Federal officials could seize any goods taken illegally into Indian country. This, the framers
hoped, would compel traders to observe the new rules. Later amendments authorized the use of
the military to enforce trade laws.”!

' Winders, Mr. Polk's Army, 68-69.

* Unrau. White Man’s Wicked Water, 35.

TM Unrau, White Man's Wicked Water: 18; Peter Mancall, Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Farly America
(ithaca, N.Y.: Comell University Press. 1995), 169-80.

2 Elvid Hunt, History of Fort Leavenworth, 1827-1927 (Fort Leavenworth, Kans.: General Services Press, 1927); Joy
Leland, Firewater Myths: North American Indian Drinking and Alcohol Addiction (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Center for
Alcohol Studies, 1976), 1-9; Otto Frovin Frederickson, The Liquor Question umong the Indian Tribes in Kansas, 1804-1881,

22



Perec 5 ee e
att omar niet an ay

Cpl. George McCaon, of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, mounted with another man at Fort Scott.

reach the distant timber.”

The one-sided conflict ended when the Little Osages, reinforced by about four hundred
Grand Osages, pushed the small band back onto a sand bar on the Verdigris River and
surrounded and wiped them out. Fearing they had inadvertently kifled Union officers, the Osages
reported the incident to a federal unit at Humboldt, but withheld identification papers and
documents carried by the officers. Accompanied by several Osage warriors, the commander of
Union troops led a smal! detachment to the battle site. The men found the mutilated bodies of the
Confederates, with the dismembered heads also scalped. Long gashes had been cut the entire
length of the bodies. One member of the detachment remembered that one of the slain men,
believed to be the force commander, “was entirely bald, but had a very long and heavy full beard.
This head had not been scalped, but the beard had been removed, and was hanging on a pole with
the scalps in front of a teepee in the village.” The officer recovered documents disclosing the
Confederates’ mission and praised the Indians’ action, allowing them to retain the horses and

' William L. Bartles, "Massacre of Confederates by Osage Indians in 1863.” Transactions of the Kansas State
Historical Society 8 (1903-1904), 62-66: Danziger. “The Office of Indian Affairs:” Coffin to Dole. June 10. 1863. Annual Report
of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Secretary of the Interior, serial 1184. vol. 3. L* sess, 38" Congress
(Washington. 1).C.: Government Printing Office, 1864). 324-325.

143



and by July 1859, federal surveyors completed their survey of the former Indian lands.” Law
completed the process of removing Indians from Bourbon County,

With Bourbon County more peaceful in the weeks following the Fort Scott meeting, Lyon
sought to remove his men from the area. Army commanders at Fort Leavenworth rejected his
request, preferring to wait until the territorial governor requested a withdrawal. When military
necessity drew the troops north to Nebraska’s Fort Randall and Fort Ridgely in Minnesota in July
to meet new Indian threats, Gov. Denver loudly protested. He needed federal troops in the
southeastern part of Kansas Territory unti} the fall elections to help maintain the peace and prevent a
new buildup of border ruffians. Heeding the wishes of the state government, the military acquiesced.
The Army canceled the march north before the men reached the Kaw River. Denver finally believed
the situation was secure in August, and Companies B and E of the Second Infantry left Bourbon
County for Fort Leavenworth on August 10. Soon after, prospectors discovered gold in Cherry
Creek, a tributary of the South Platte at the base of the Rocky Mountains. To protect the new
emigrant wave, the Army established anew series of posts in the western part of the Kansas
Territory, including Fort Lamed and Fort Wise on the Arkansas River.* These posts’ garrison
requirements diminished the military’s ability to respond to turmoil in eastem Kansas.

The peace treaty that Denver forged in Fort Scott barely outlasted his administration. In
September 1858, Kansas Territory lost its fifth governor in five years when Denver resigned and
retumed to the Indian Bureau. In his place, Buchanan appointed radical pro-slavery supporter
Samuel Medary of Ohio. A new round of violence soon erupted, when on October 30, a group of
unidentified men, possibly led by pro-slavery supporter and former marshal John Little, fired a
volley of shots into Montgomery’s Linn County home. The attack was personal as well as political
and combined with the political situation, it became a catalyst that reignited violence in Bourbon
County. Peace was illusory and fleeting in the torn territory.

After failing to secure Kansas as a slave state with intimidation and election fraud, pro-
slavery leaders made one final effort for a legislative victory. Both the territorial legislature and
congressional delegate had become free-state, but the pro-slavery Lecompton Convention
reassembled on October 28. Emerging from the debates was a constitution that protected slave-
owners’ rights in Kansas, and called for a provisional government filled with pro-slavery politicians.
The Lecompton delegates proposed to submit only the constitution’s slavery clause to the voters,
although the “no slavery” choice simply prohibited the further introduction of slaves into the territory
and protected the property rights of current slave-owners. In response, with Medary not yet in the
territory, the newly elected legislature pushed acting governor Frederick Stanton into authorizing a
special session, from which emerged a third choice for Kansans — total rejection of the constitu-
tion. Before Kansans had the chance to vote for this third option, the territorial government
scheduled elections on the constitution for December 12. Election results showed 6,266 voting for
the constitution with slavery and 569 voting against it.

George H.B.,” Mise. Collection Hom-Hoy, Kansas State Historical Society.

*' Fort Scott Democrat, June 17 June 24, and July 8, 1858.

® Fort Scott Democrat, February 17 and July 14, 1859,

© Fort Scott Democrat, July 15, July 22, and August 19, 1858; Elliom West, The Contested Plains: Indians,
Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998}, 97-170; Elliot West, The Way to the
West: Essays on the Central Plains (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995), 45-47; Socolofsky, Kansas

89


HS-2 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-2, rear view (North elevation). Note: brick addition, right, contained furnace room and steam laundry
of the former Goodlander Home. 1970.

327



May 1865
Forty-Eighth Wisconsin Inf. Co. A
Co.B
Co. D
Co. E
Co.
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry Co. B
Co.K
Co.N
Ninth Wisconsin Battery Right Section
June 1865
Forty-Bighth Wisconsin Inf. Co. A
Co. B
Co. E
Co. K
Ninth Wisconsin Battery Right Section
July 1865
Forty-Eighth Wisconsin Inf. Co, A
Co. B
Co. B
Co. K
Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry Co. D
Ninth Wisconsin Battery Right Section
August 1865
Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry Co. 1
Co.N
September 1865
Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry Co.1
Co.N

Post of Southeastern Kansas, 1869-1873

Sixth U.S. Infantry

Co. A September 1869 to October 1871

Co. G September 1869 to July 1870

Co.J September 1869 to October 1871

Co. K September 1869 to April 1870
Seventh U.S. Cavalry

Ca, A November 1869 to March 1871
Fifth U.S. Infantry

Co. B September 1869 to April 1873

Co. C September 1869 to September 1872
Sixth U.S. Cavalry

Co.E November 1871 to April 1873

289



Chapter Nine:

Supplies, Service, and Succor

Beyond being a recruiting center for soldiers during the Civil War, Fort Scott evolved
into a major supply depot, serving widely scattered garrisons in Kansas, Missouri, and eventually
the Indian Territory. ft also furnished rations, weapons, and clothing for major expeditions
mounted by the Army. To support those functions, the military eventually accumulated tons of
supplies at the southeast Kansas post. The Army also rented numbers of buildings and vacant lots
across town and soon large structures full of military material dominated the city. Miles of supply
trains from Fort Leavenworth, made up of wagons pulled by mules, rolled down the old military
road and into the new depot. Complementing the incoming supplies, quartermaster officers at
Fort Scott purchased vast amounts of local agricultural products. The town newspaper advised
area residents that “Everything in the shape of farm produce brings highest cash prices in Fort
Scott.” As part of the expanded military presence, the Army rented the original hospital building
built by Thomas Swords for the 1842 military post and retuned it to use as a medical facility.
The government added several rented and newly constructed medical buildings and the post
hospital developed into a General U.S. Army Hospital, the largest type of Union hospital. The
town’s rapid expansion and many soldiers’ deaths filled the town cemetery and caused civic
leaders and army officers to sponsor a drive to locate a new cemetery farther away from town.’

Once an isolated frontier post, Fort Scott quickly became a significant base for the Union
war effort. By May 10, 1862, sixty-seven officers and 1,654 enlisted men were present for duty
there out of a total of 355 officers and 7,036 men in the Department of Kansas. Col. Frederick
Salomon of the Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment then commanded the post and the
regiments stationed there included his own regiment; the Tenth Kansas, commanded by Col.
William F. Cloud; Col. Charles Doubleday’s Second Ohio Cavalry; and the Second Indiana
Battery, led by Lt. M.K. Haines. Like soldiers everywhere, the Union troops stationed at Fort
Scott created their own comforts. Cloud’s regiment won recognition from the town newspaper
for the arbors built in front of their tents, creating “a cool and pleasant retreat during the heat of
the day.” The civilian population added other diversions. Aside from a host of saloons and lager
houses that catered to the off-duty troops, George Dimon installed a marble-bed billiard table in
his hotel.?

As senior army officers applied the lessons of early combat, the methods of supplying
troops changed from the slow-paced, financially strapped prewar organization to a more
disciplined structure. The small storchouses chiefly located in Eastern cities gave way to huge

' Fort Scott Bulletin, May 31, 1862; Fort Scatt Western Volunteer, April 5, 1862; Western Volunteer, May 10, 1862.

? Abstract from Return of the Department of Kansas, May 10. 1862, Harney, “Proclamation to the Pople of the State
of Missouri,” May 21, 1861; United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of
the Union and Confederate Armies. Published Under the Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert N. Scott (Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901) (cited as O.R.} 1:8, 376-377; Fort Scott Western Volunteer, May 17, 1862; Fort
Scott Western Volunieer, May 17, 1862.

171



Chapter Three:
Active Service, 1842-1853

The officers and men who established Fort Scott in 1842 had more in common with their
Revolutionary War forefathers than with the men who fought in the Civil War less than a decade
after the post closed in 1853. The beginning of the industrial revolution in the United States and a
parallel upheaval in organizational management techniques dramatically changed the way
Americans in uniform worked and warred, bringing in new weapons, different tactics, and
improved provisioning. A tremendous transformation in the country’s military capabilities
oceurred during Fort Scott’s initial period of activity as the United States Army developed from a
small frontier constabulary and coastal defense force into an organization capable of successful
international intervention. Operating from the Marmaton River site, Fort Scott’s dragoons and
infantrymen took part in this transformation as they supported attempts to control Indians on the
Great Plains and fight a foreign enemy during the 1846-47 invasion of Mexico.

Fort Scott’s garrison helped make American foreign expeditions successful, but their day-
to-day activities focused on internal questions central to the nation’s expansion. The United
States Army kept the peace, enforcing federal policy among the many Indian peoples of the
Plains. The equipment and support systems that the military utilized were far more
technologically advanced than anything Indian peoples could offer their warriors, giving the
Army military advantages in setting the tone and tenor of relationships. Military reform was not
limited to white settlers; Indian peoples gained power over the preceding two centuries when
they acquired horses and firearms. These new accouterments permitted a host of Indian groups to
move onto the Great Plains, where they adapted their societies to this new environment as they
went. The Indians came from east and west, Cheyenne from the Rocky Mountains and Lakota.
from Minnesota, and often they arrived just a few years ahead of the eastern tribes sent west by
the American republic’s expansion.

Indians on the Plains reshaped their ways of waging war to meet the region’s limitations.
Their horses’ need for natural forage limited combat expeditions to the growing season, and the
short range of the bow and arrow made warfare close and personal. Later, firearms made Indian
fighters more effective; escalation in the number of fatalities in intra-Indian conflict was a less-
desired consequence of the new technologies. When Americans arrived on the Plains, their
technological advantages dominated the Indians. Native peoples could only overcome the
material superiority of the U.S. Army on the rare occasions when natural conditions favored
them. As the Army learned to seek combat on its terms, the possibility of Indian success in battle
dramatically declined and soldiers developed into an effective force that could police, intimidate,
and if necessary, wage protracted war.'

‘Elliott West, The Way to the West: Essays on the Central Plains, 5-11; Dan L. Flores, “Bison Ecology and Bison
Diplomacy: The Southern Plains from 1800 to 1850,” Journal of American History 78, n. 2 (September 1991), 465-485; James
E. Sherow, “Workings of the Geodialectic: High Plains Indians and Their Horses in the Region of the Arkansas River Valley,
1800-1870," Environmental History Review 16 n. 2 (Summer 1992), 61-84; Anthony McGinnis, Counting Coup and Cutting
Horses: intertribal Warfare on the Northern Plains, 1738-1889 (Evergreen, Colo.: Cordillera Press, 1990), 71-84.

43


crats, a party that fought for slavery. Hamilton and his men shot their prisoners, killing five and
wounding five, while one man was unharmed. A nearby resident wrote his sister:

“Capt. Charlie Hamilton with twenty imps of purgatory went on into Kansas some
ten days ago and took twelve peaceable inocent [sic] free state men out of their fields
and marched them out ina little valley and told them to march offina line twenty
steps and then turn around and look atthe instruments of their death. They then told
them to turn the other way and as they turned these Georgians fired on them with
theirrifles and every man fell, five were killed instantly. Six were mortally wounded
and one young man standing beside his brother was not touched but played up dead
and his brother laying across his body with two bullets through him and he kicking in
the agony of death, just then Hamilton came up, puta revolver to the wounded man’s
head and fired. Saying it was not the first damned Yankee he had send to hell.

Politics might have set up the circumstances of the massacre, but economic motives seem to
have been an underlying reason for the deaths. Prior to the shooting, Thomas J. Wood of Fort Scott
informed the governor that unrest in the area “seem to consist chiefly ofa scramble for property.”
Hamilton, he averred, most likely simply had been secking revenge for being driven offhis property.

» Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, 1068; Watts, “How Bloody wes Bleeding Kansas?” 129,

» Fort Scott Democrat, May 27, 1858, June 2, 1858; Watts, “ How Bloody was Bleeding Kansas?” 121-122;
Harvey R, Hougen,”The Marais des Cygnes Massacre and the Execution of William Griffith,” Kansas History 8 (Summer
1985), 74-94; Al Burchard to Dear Sister Aggy, Marvel, May 30%, 1858, Special History Collection, Fort Scott National

84


Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

1975 aerial overview (Northeast view).

258



HS-4 Fort Scott National Historic Site

aisle er

Sxtise z ° Ge = ed ae
HS-4, Front View (South Elevation). Note: HS-3 was tormenly located to
tazed. Foreground, Blair Avenue. 1905.



December 1864
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Second Kansas Battery

1865
January
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry
Third Wisconsin Cavalry
Second Kansas Battery
February 1865
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry
Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Second Kansas Battery

Co. C
Co, D
Co. F
Co.A
Co. C
Co. D
Co. F
Co.N
Right Section

Co. B
Co. D
Co.E
Co. F
Co.T
Co.L
Co. A
Co. C
Co. D
Co. F
Co. N
Right Section

Co. B
Co. D
Co. BE
Co. F
Co.
Co.
Co.
Co.
Co.
Co.
Co.
Right Section

ZmoOaAPR

290



units. Other outlying bases, such as Fort McKean, about twelve miles south of Fort Scott,
protected the large supply trains that traveled south along the military road to forts Gibson and
Smith on an almost continual basis. Many of the outgoing trains, with columns of horses and
wagons stretching for miles, needed the long expanse of the Military Road to organize and line
up before heading south. Built in 1863, Fort McKean was constructed on the bluff overlooking
the intersection of the Military Road and Drywood Creek. In addition to its Union Army
responsibilities of protecting the gathering wagons, the small post stood guard over the large
refugee camp located on the north side of Drywood Creek. Fort McKean formed a keystone for
Fort Scott’s southem defenses through 1865.°

Other outposts ringed Fort Scott to the south and east, with garrisons assigned to different
locations as military circumstances warranted. Units from Fort Scott continually garrisoned a
post on Drywood Creek, scene of skirmishing between Union and Confederate forces in
September 1861. A company from the Third Wisconsin Cavairy called the position Camp Insley
when the Army stationed it there late in 1862. During the summer and early autumn, the
Wisconsin troopers brought in wooden planks to fortify their position against surprise guerrilla
gunfire from the brush. The Army identified the small garrison at Baxter Springs, south of Fort
Scott on the Kansas-Indian Territory border, as Camp Hooker.””

Acting as a subordinate base to Fort Leavenworth, Fort Scott received huge amounts of
items from the northeast Kansas depot. Out of the flood of material shipped from Fort
Leavenworth for the year ending June 1862, Fort Scott received more than eight million pounds,
more than any other post. To supplement its government supplies hauled in by wagons, Fort
Scott looked to local markets. The Quartermaster and Commissary departments were responsible
for buying needed items, such as food and animals, and disposing of captured goods. During the
war the two departments had a dramatic impact on southeast Kansas’ regional economy. The
Commissary Department assigned Lieut. Robert W. Hamer, U.S. Volunteers, to Fort Scott in
May 1862, where he replaced Capt. A.C. Wilder. Hamer received his commission August 9,
1862, and served until resigning June 4, 1864. Capt. Merritt H. Insley, who had the dual
responsibilities of Depot and Post quartermaster, reached the post the following month. Insley
received his commission in the Kansas volunteers on August 6, 1861. The government promoted
him to the Regular Army on March 13, 1863, where he served until the end of the war.

The presence of Fort Scott represented an enormous boon to the regional economy. From
the public sale of three hundred head of captured animals on July 5, 1862, to the purchase of
thousands of bushels of cor and pounds of bacon, tons of hay, cords of firewood, and hundreds
of horses and mules, Hamer, Insley and their fellow officers poured thousands of federal dollars
into the pockets of area residents. In just one example of the thousands of transactions, the Army
bought more than 40,000 pounds of bacon in May and June 1862, with the Fort Scott firm of
McDonald and Company turning in more than 13,000 pounds in a single consignment. In
August, Insley was seeking horses for the artillery service, with those having good horses likely
to “find a ready market and fair price with the Captain,” the town paper noted. For the year

* James P. Pond file, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

© Charles W. Porter, A Journal of Events in the Life of Charles W. Porter: While in the Service of the United States
during the Rebellion (privately printed, Fort Scott Nationat i tistoric Site archives), December 9, 1862, September 16, 1863.

75



Honor for their actions.

Despite the nearly continuous pressure as he headed south, Price still intended to attack
the Union base at Fort Scott. Union Col. Thomas Moonlight, after reaching Mound City and
defeating a Confederate reconnaissance in force early in the morning, warned that Price was still
a threat. He cautioned Lt. Col. Campbell at Fort Scott that “Price is clearly determined to take
Fort Scott, and I cannot see anything to prevent him with our forces divided. I would certainly
fight to the end.” Seeing the situation in a different light, Col. Drake, commanding the garrison at
Paola, reported that Price “is abandoning everything and is so closely pressed I don't think he will
be able to molest Fort Scott much.” At about 11:30 a.m., Price was encamped on the New Fort
Scott Road near the Little Osage River, approximately 16 miles south of Mine Creek and 12
miles north of Fort Scott. There Price received word that in addition to the action at Mine Creek
a portion of his column was engaged at Fort Lincoln to his west. Faced with threats from the
north and the west, the Confederate commander then made the decision to give up any plans for
an attack on Fort Scott that could put Union forces on three of his sides. Price opted to head
south. After receiving news of the disaster at Mine Creek, Price ordered General Joe Shelby back
from his advance upon Fort Scott to help bolster the scattered Confederate rear guard. Around
2:00 p.m., Shelby’s troops engaged and delayed the pursuing Union forces at the Battle of the
Little Osage River and continued to protect the rear of Price’s column. Leaving the Fort Scott
military road to his right, Price led the remainder of his expedition southeast. Most of the Union
troops, exhausted from the day-long pursuit, gave up the chase and marched to Fort Scott.”

With his shattered army unable to take on Fort Scott, Price turned his attention to saving
as much of his force as possible. The Confederate column crossed the Marmaton about sixteen
miles east of Fort Scott at Deerfield, Missouri, shielded by another rearguard action by the
Confederate forces commanded by Shelby. Getting the wagons across the river allowed the
exhausted Union troops time to move up and the two sides squared off again in the late
afternoon. Just as the armies lined up for battle at Charlot’s Farm, about seven miles away from
Fort Scott, General Pleasonton, pleading exhaustion and a severe need for supplies, led his forces
into the post. Lining up for battle, Price’s force threatened to flank any Union charge and the
Northern commanders stopped their advance. Early on the morning of October 26, 1864, just
south of Deerfield, Missouri, the Confederates bumed al] unnecessary wagons and supplies. The
burming supplies and exploded ammunition illuminated the eastern sky and part of the pursing
Union force, now camped on the prairie northeast of Fort Scott, watched. The Union decision to
pause to regroup and resupply their commands at Fort Scott allowed the Confederates to continue
marching south. By nightfall of October 26, the remnants of Price’s expedition were in Carthage,
Mo., on their way south to Arkansas. The majority of his surviving supply train was destroyed at

“6 Mark A. Plummer, “Missouri and Kansas and the Capture of General Marmaduke,” Missouri Historical Review 64,
n. 1 (October 1964): 90-104; Scott E. Sallee, “Missouri! One Last Time: Sterling Price’s 1864 Missouri Expedition,” Bie &
Gray Magazine 8, n. 5 Sune 1991): 10-20+; Albert Castel, “War and Politics: The Price Raid of 1864,” Kansas Historical
Quarterly 24, n. 2 (Summer 1958}: 129-43.

“ Moonlight to Campbell, Oct. 25, 1864, O.R., Series [:41/4, 243; Lt. Col. Drake to Davies, Oct. 25, 1864, O.R., Series
1:41/4, 244; Plummer, “Missouri and Kansas and the Capture of General Marmaduke,” 90-104; Report of Maj. Gen. Samuel R.
Curtis, January 1865, O.R. Series §:41/4, 464-523,

212



HS-19 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-19, restored Lunette Blair (Northeast elevation) in Blair Park from 1967 to 1977. Blair Park was estab-
lished during the Fort Scott Urban Renewal Project, and was behind Officers Row immediately northeast
of HS-31 (Carriage House). Note buildings, left to right, HS-36 and HS-35 (original Storage Buildings) and
HS-31.

369


Department transferred the Indian Territory and Fort Smith out of the Department of Kansas and
into the Department of Arkansas. Curtis complained to Army headquarters in Washington, D.C.,
explaining that the decision to transfer Indian Territory to the Department of Arkansas removed
his protective buffer zone, and to protect Kansas’ southern border required more soldiers,
Without reinforcements, Curtis cautioned, “Southern Kansas is liable to raids from Central
Texas, such as Quantrill made last year, and which disgraced humanity.”In addition to the
reorganization, Washington ordered Blunt to Fort Leavenworth for reassignment. Despite the
official recall, Blunt remained at Fort Smith. Within a week, Brigadier General Nathan Kimball
at Little Rock, Arkansas, complained to Major General Frederick Steele, who commanded the
Department of Arkansas, and Major General Henry Halleck, Army chief of staff, that Blunt had.
caused “so much [trouble] so as to endanger the safety of the troops in the District of the
Frontier.”"*

The African American troops from Fort Scott remained in the front lines, and as Southem
soldiers saw the African Americans as property not men, they continued to fight without the
normal protection afforded prisoners. Confederate soldiers afforded African Americans none of
the respect or surrender terms they granted white Yankees. On April 12, Confederate cavalrymen
commanded by Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked Fort Pillow, Tennessee,
garrisoned by a detachment of Tennessee cavalry and the First Regiment Alabama Colored
Troops. The Confederates stormed the fort and captured the soldiers, killing many African
Americans during the fighting despite their attempts to surrender. Men of the First Kansas
(Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment, organized at Fort Scott in August 1862, suffered a
similar fate. The unit saw continued action in Arkansas during the first four months of 1864,
fighting at Horse-Head Creek in February, and at Prairie D'Ann, Poison Spring, and Jenkin’s
Ferry in April, To support Banks’ expedition up the Red River, Major General Steele led 8,500
men, including the First Kansas (Colored), south from Little Rack, Arkansas, in the spring. Cut
off from their supply trains, Steele’s men had to forage across the countryside to support their
advance. On April 18, Steele ordered about one thousand men, many from the First Kansas
Colored, on a foraging expedition near Poison Spring. A Confederate force of about three
thousand soldiers surprised them. During the attack, Confederates killed many African
Americans after they surrendered. The First Kansas Colored alone lost 111 men. A week later,
Confederate cavalrymen massacred many African American soldiers guarding a supply train
assigned to Steele’s command outside Marks’ Mills, Arkansas. The men of the Second Kansas
Colored, sister unit to the First Kansas Colored, partially avenged the massacre on May 4, 1864,
when they charged into battle at Jenkin’s Ferry shouting “Remember Poison Spring.”””

With the onset of warmer weather, combat operations in the Eastern theater intensified.
Lt. Col. John Mosby began a three-month-long cavalry raid through the Shenandoah Valley on
May 1, three days before Union commander Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered the Army of the
Potomac across the Rapidan River and forward against Gen. Robert E. Lee’s flank toward

‘S Curtis to Blunt, Apri) 17, 1864, O.2., Series 1:34/3, 199-200; General Orders 164, April 17, 1864, O.R., Series
1.34/3, 196, Kimball to Steele, April 25, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/3, 280-281; Curtis to Col. E, D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant
General, April 25, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/3, 288-290,

"° Report of Lieut. Col. Francis M. Drake, April 25, 1864, O.R, Series 1:34/1, 712-715.

202



HS-30 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-30, Quartermaster Building (Southwest elevation). Exterior

restoration in progress, 1976.

t a poorer e
HS-30, Quartermaster Building (Northwest elevation). Exterior restoration completed,
December 1976

371



the more times the military appeared on the Plains, the easier it became to achieve territorial and
national objectives.

The most significant dragoon expedition on the Plains took place in 1845, the year prior
to the Mexican War. Commanded by Col. Stephen Watts Kearny, one of the most experienced
Army officers on the Plains, five companies were ordered to patrol along the Oregon Trail to the
South Pass of the Rockies, turn south to the Arkansas River, and travel along the Santa Fe trail
back to Fort Leavenworth. The Army allotted four companies from Fort Leavenworth and one
from Fort Scott. Company A from Fort Scott consisted of fifty-four men and three officers and
was commanded by William Eustis, promoted to captain just two months earlier. He replaced
Captain Burdett Terrett who died at Fort Scott on March 17, 1845, from an accidental gunshot
wound. The company from Fort Scott arrived at Fort Leavenworth on May 8 and prepared for the
patrol. On the march with Eustis were Ewell and First Lt. James H. Carleton.*!

Leaving Fort Leavenworth on May 18, 1845, Kearny’s 280-soldier expedition left with a
variety of objectives. The lines of troopers offered another powerful demonstration of U.S.
military strength to the Plains Indians. Their presence helped with other important objectives:
protecting emigrants heading to the Oregon territory and providing security for merchants on the
Santa Fe Trail. The expedition also undertook a reconnaissance of the area east of the Rockies.
Lt. W.B. Franklin of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, the military’s elite map-
making unit, was assigned to the patrol to document the region. Aside fram its topographical
assignment and the protection of emigrants and merchants, the patrol to the South Pass may have
been intended to send a signal to the governments of Great Britain and Mexico. Kearny and his
men passed close to disputed territories in Oregon and Texas.” As was typical of military
missions, the many objectives blended together.

This combination of information and protection, combined with Kearny’s leadership
skills, made for the most successful Plains expedition to that time. The expedition to the Rocky
Mountains was allotted a significant portion of the nation’s military strength, one-half of a
dragoon regiment, an indication of the mission’s importance to the federal government. The
entire regular Army in !845 consisted of eight regiments of infantry, four regiments of artillery,
two regiments of dragoons, with a small number of officers in the Topographical, Medical and
Quartermaster Departments and the corps of engineers, along with staff officers.*

* Carleton was perhaps the only American officer to receive writing advice from Charles Dickens. Before donning a
uniform, the young Boston resident wrote to the novelist seeking encouragement for a literary carcer. Dickens was less than
optimistic in his ceply, waming him to “consider well before you mistake your future course in life.” Before Carleton received the
reply, he was already serving in the Massachusetts militia. Dickens may have had the man’s measure; Carleton’s memoirs, The
Prairie Logbooks, art highly readable but lack literary polish, Aurora Hunt, Major General James Henry Carleton, 1814-1873:
Western Frontier Dragoon (Glendale, Ca.: Tie Arthur H. Clark Company, 1958), 29-32; Fort Scott post retums 1845, Fort Scott
National Historic Site Archives; Dwight L. Clarke, Stephen Kearny: Soldier of the West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1961): Meyers, From the Crack Post of the Frontier, 22-23,

” St Joseph Gazette, June 13, 1845; Henry S. Turner, “Journal of an Expedition performed in the Summer of 1845 by
5 companies of the ist Dragoons under the command of Colonel S.W. Keamy.” (Part of this was used in War Department

Annual Report, House Exec. Doc., no. 1, Part I, 29th Cong., Ist Sess., 210-213); Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American
West, 111.

* Ness, The Regular Army on the Eve of the Civil War.

61



November 1861
Fifth Kansas Infantry Co. A
Co. F
Co. B
Co. C
Co.E
Sixth Kansas Cavalry
First Battery Light Artillery
December 1861
Fifth Kansas Infantry Co.A
Co. F
Co.B
Co.C
Co. E
Sixth Kansas Cavalry
First Battery Light Artillery

1862
March 1862
Second Ohio Volunteer Cavalry
Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
Rabb’s Battery
June 1862
Third Wisconsin Cavalry Co.€
Co. F
Co. 1
Co.M
July 1862
Third Wisconsin Cavalry Co. F
Co. 1
Co.M
August 1862
‘Third Wisconsin Cavalry CoC
Co. F
Co.
Co.M

28!



LE MARAIS DU CYGNE*
‘A stiveit 04 of sexes With a vain plea for merey Strong man of the prairies,
+ Whera rose never grew? No stout knee was crooked; ‘Mourn bitter and wild
‘Great drops on the: banch-rram,. Tn tho moutis of tha rifles ‘Wail, desolato waman |
s¢-But not of the dow? Tight snaniy they looked. ‘Weep, fathoriess child !
faint in tho swect air. How pales the Bay sunshine, But the grain of God springs up
+ Bar‘wifd bed 63 than f Green Marais du Cygno, From ashes beneath,
‘seaiti that shall never” When the duathamoke blow over And the crows of His harvest,
‘Bleach Git in he nat Thy lonely ravine! Is life out of death,
Back, stead of the praftied! Jn tho homes of their rearing, ‘Not in vain on tho dial
‘Sweet eong-hind, fy back !, ‘Yet warm with their Lives, ‘The sholo moves along
‘Wheel hither, bald valtora Yo wait the dead only, ‘To point the great contrants
Gmy wolf, call thy pack! Poor children and wives? OF right and of wrong:
The foul baman vultures Pat out the red forge-fire, Free hornes and five altars
“+ Have feasted ait fled ‘Tho smith shall not come 5 Amt ficlils of ripe fool;
the aoltont th Bane Unyoke the brown oxen, Tho reeds of the Swan's March,
«Slave ofepit fiom the dead. ‘The ploughiman Kos dumb, ‘Whoie bloom is of Uood.
“Brora the hearth of their eabi Wind slow from tho Swan's Marsb, On the lintels of Kansan
Te eof theis cakint © dreary death-train, That blood shall not dey ;
" Gavenmed and unweapared, ‘With preated lips as bloodless Flenceforth the Bad Angel
The wits were tora ‘As lips of the saint Shall harmless go by:
oy the Wlileind of murder Kin dowa the young eytlids, Henceforth to the sunset,
‘Up and’ swept bn fncotk down the ry balesy si ee eee
“Fo the low; Footy fen-tands, ‘Let tears quench the enrses al tty follow
"The Mirah of thd Swan, ‘Thag burn through your prayers, The mareb of the day,
iannerd.of taermed ond uneffending msn-ie Bouthem Kantas took plac see
iieumea ae ‘Cygue of the French sipeyeurs:

John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, published in the Atlantic Monthly.

The Democrat used the event to further its pro-slavery objectives. Besides the murdered
men, it reported incorrectly that a large group, calling themselves free-staters, drove about one
hundred families from their homes. What became known as the Trading Post massacre received a
great amount of publicity in Kansas and across the nation, including a poem by John Greenleaf
Whittier published in the Atlantic Monthly later that year."

What had likely started as political and economic conflicts soon degenerated into raids of
plunder. Relative restraint was the rule for the early jayhawking raids across the border led by
Montgomery, as the former preacher prohibited his forces from all-out looting, The slide intoall-out
anarchy soon intensified as new jayhawking leaders such as Charles Jennison emerged. The trans-
formation into sheer banditry presented a genuine threat to all social order in southeastern Kansas
and well-intentioned people sought to find ways to cross the political gulf that divided the region. In
Fort Scott, people reacted to the new levels of border violence in a variety of ways. The town
newspaper hid behind optimism as it continued its blind boosterism of the town’s commercial
possibilities. “The story of our troubles is about ended,” Jones insisted. “Organized villainy is
routed.” Reporting thatthe Army had stationed two companies of cavalry and one company each of
dragoons and infantry were stationed in Fort Scott, with part of an artillery battery onthe way from

Historic Site.

85



Fort Scott Kansas June 30 1865

Maj. Gen. M.C. Meigs
Quartermaster General USA

Washington DC

General:

I have the honor to transmit herewith enclosed Special Report of vacant lots and property
taken and occupied by the Q.M.’s Dept. at this post for Gov't purposes, under the provision of Gen
Ord No. 8 series of 1864 Qr. Mt. Gen’l office.

The best interests of the service required the use of this property, as reported, and in
justice to the owners thereof, who are loyal men and good citizens, reasonable compensation
should be made therefore.

I wil] thank you to notify me of your actions on the report.

Very Respectfully

Your Obedient Servant

MLN. Insley
Capt. & AQM USA



HS-4 Fort Scott National Ilisloric Site

HS-4, rear view (North elevation). 1966.

329



HS-17 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-17, Powder Magazine, reconstruction in progress (Northwest elevation). 1978.
right, HS-9 (Post Guardhouse) and HS-8 (Post Hospital/Visitor Center).

HS-17, Powder Magazine, reconstruction in progress (South elevation). 1978. Note buildings,
left to right, HS-1 and HS-2 (Officers Quarters) and HS-15 (Well Canopy).

365



operating across southwest Missouri attacked supply trains from Fort Scott and from Rolla and
Springfield, Missouri, to Union forces in northwestern Arkansas. By February 26, Curtis’
position deteriorated. Longer supply lines forced Curtis to disperse his troops so they could live
off the land. In addition, the Confederates also were concentrating superior forces in Arkansas.’

Union leaders planned a vigorous drive to secure the lands west of the Mississippi River.
Recognizing the strategic value of driving Price out of Missouri, Halleck created the Military
District of Southwest Missouri under Brigadier General Curtis, and ordered him to destroy or
disperse Price’s army. Halleck hoped that by diminishing the Confederate presence he could free
thousands of federal troops from garrison duty in Missouri and prepare them for action in
planned campaigns on the Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland Rivers. Early in 1862,
Curtis’ Army of the Southwest regained the ground lost at Wilson’s Creek the previous August
and marched back to southwestern Missouri. Curtis seized Springfield and pushed the
Confederates back into northwestern Arkansas. This first successful Union campaign in the
region resulted in death of Benjamin McCulloch, the most effective Confederate military
commander operating in Missouri, and the defeat of a numerically superior Confederate army at
the battle of Pea Ridge on March 7-8, 1862. After the battle, Curtis’ forces advanced to the west
bank of the Mississippi River at Helena, Arkansas, denying the river to the Confederates and
leaving Union army posts scattered across the region to deal with guerrillas and bushwhackers.°

Despite some successes in controlling the Jayhawkers, irregular raids bothered senior
Union commanders so much that they took drastic action. Halleck decided that the only way to
keep peace between the Kansans and Missourians was to keep them apart, and he ordered Hunter
to prevent Kansans from crossing the state line. This ongoing problem plagued the Union
military structure. Its political leadership sought two mutually exclusive objectives, placating
Union sympathizers in Missouri without antagonizing abolitionist and radical Kansans. Edwin
Stanton, Lincoln’s new secretary of war, told Missouri’s congressmen that the federal
government would no longer tolerate the outrages Jennison’s forces were committing in
Missouri. At the end of January, army commanders in Kansas moved the Seventh Kansas
Volunteer Cavalry Regiment westward to Humboldt, about forty-five miles west of the Missouri
state line, In a final display of federal intervention in the war against jayhawking activities,
Hunter placed Kansas under martial law on February 8, 1862.

As federal efforts to control unauthorized raids across the border succeeded, the architect
of organized jayhawking pressed his most ambitious project. Regional commanders opposed

* General Orders No. 14, Hdgrs, Department of Kansas, February 1, 1862, 0.8., 1:8, 541; Edwin C. Bearss, “From
Rolla to Fayettevilie with General Curtis,” Arkansas Historical Review 19, n. 3 (Autumn 1960), 225-259.

* William L, Shea, “The Road to Pea Ridge,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 52, n. 3 (Autumn 1993): 205-222; Marvin
R. Cain and John F. Bradbury, Jr. “Union Troops and the Civil War in Southwestern Missouri and Northwestern Arkansas,”
Missourt Historical Review 88, n. | (October 1993), 29-35

* Halleck to Hunter, February 2, 1862, O.R., 1:8, 828; Halleck to Hunter, February 2, 1862, O.R., I:8, 829; Stanton to
Thomas L. Price and James S. Rollins, February 6, 1862, O.R, 158, 546-547; General Orders No. 17, Hdgrs. Department of
Kansas, February 8, 1862, O.R., 1:8, 547-548; McClellan to Stanton, February 11, 1862, O.R., 1:8, $52-553; Stephen Z. Star,
Jennison's Jayhawkers: A Civil War Cavalry Regiment and its Commander (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
1973), 3-15; Simeon Fox, “The Early History of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, 1861-1862,” Collections of the Kansas State
Historical Society 11 (1909-190): 238-33,

120



Chapter Ten:
Fort Scott and the War, 1864

As the rebellion of the southern states entered its third year, the officers leading the
garrisons charged with protecting southeastern Kansas successfully applied the lessons learned in
combat. Fort Scott had developed into an efficient supply depot, but a continued lack of troops
limited its ability to control the region decisively. The shortage did not prevent the fort from
being an important source of materials, but its few soldiers could not adequately protect the
wagon trains that supplied the surrounding subposts and Forts Gibson and Smith. Those smaller
garrisons acted as part of an efficient intelligence gathering and patral network for Kansas, also
maintaining watch on western Missouri, northern Arkansas, and the Indian Territory. The
southeast Kansas post faced the most serious threat to its existence in September and October
1864. Fort Scott’s warehouses and depots became a potential target of a large Confederate
incursion through Missouri and eastern Kansas led by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price. The post’s
garrison and supplies played a crucial role in defeating the October invasion of eastern Kansas.
Even the civilian community of Fort Scott directly supported the military action, supplying
militia units to protect their Kansas homes.

Continuing a three-year trend, political maneuvering continued to exert a major influence
on military decisions affecting Fort Scott and Trans-Mississippi Theater of Operations. The
desire to reelect President Abraham Lincoin fueled pressure for major Union victories that would
convince increasingly skeptical Northern voters that the federal government could crush the
rebellion. Eastern combat intensified under a newly appointed commander, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S.
Grant, whose strategy of close combat actively engaged Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern
Virginia. Union commanders continually called upon western armies to supply more men for the
war in East, draining western reserves and diminishing morale. As Union forces successfully
pushed Confederates deep into Arkansas and Indian Territory, guerrillas were the main military
problem Kansas faced. Extra military raiders became a psychological as well as physical threat
after Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence in 1863.

The political machinations also existed on a state level. James Lane, the former
Jayhawker and in 1864 one of Kansas’ U.S. senators, suffered a series of political blows in 1863,
including the removal from command of his protegee, Gen. James Blunt, and the loss of
influence in assigning quartermaster contracts. In 1864 Lane used his close personal relationship
with Lincoln to restore his political and economic position and regain contro! of the lucrative
contracts. Bowing to political pressure orchestrated by Lane, on Jan. 1, 1864, the U.S. Army
reestablished the Department of Kansas. The department included Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska,
and Indian Territory, and was again separate from the Department of Missouri. Unable to salvage
Blunt’s military reputation, Lane threw his support behind Major General Samuel R. Curtis, an
1831 West Point graduate from Ohio who had been serving as an lowa congressman when the
war Started. Vaulting to command of the Department of Missouri after his victory at Pea Ridge in
March 1862, Curtis shared some of Lane’s views. Both supported Radical Republican policies in

195



United States Department of the Interior

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MIDWEST REGION
1709 JACKSON STREET
OMAHA, NEBRASKA 68102-2571

IN REPLY REFER TO:

December 21, 2001

H22 (CRSP-CR)

Memorandum

To: Manager, Denver Service Center
Attention: Technical Information Center, Information
and Production Services Division

From: Chief, Cultural Resources, Midwest Region

Subject: Transmittal of “The Post on the Marmaton: A Historic
Resource Study of Fort Scott National Historic Site,” by
Daniel J. Holder and Hal K. Rothman

We are pleased to provide you with a copy of the recently

completed subject report. If you have any questions please

contact Senior Historian Donald L. Stevens, Jr, at 402-514-9353.

Enclosure



marshal’s office, supplementing the area’s civilian law enforcement officers. In the spring of
1862, the Army was stil! planning for an expedition to retake New Mexico, and preparations
were under way for supporting the column from Fort Riley, Fort Leavenworth, and Fort Scott,!°

In another attempt at improving the Army’s condition in the Trans-Mississippi region,
Halleck appointed Brigadier General James W. Denver as commander of the District of Kansas,
which included the old Department of Kansas. Halleck believed that there were relatively few
military problems in Kansas and Denver's qualities made him the ideal administrator for the
moment. Denver's leadership would ease border tensions and he could assign more Kansas
troops to the field, where they would be more useful to the Union cause. Under the existing
circumstances, Halleck informed Stanton in late March, he was obligated to kcep troops from
other states positioned on the border “to prevent these Kansas troops from committing murders
and robberies.” The move to end jayhawking became a central part of Union strategy."!

When the Third Wisconsin Cavalry arrived at Fort Scott in mid-June 1862, after a long
and dusty march south from Kansas City, Mo., anti-guerrilla activities were the first order of
business. Four days after making camp just north of the town, the regiment’s Company C was off
for a scout around Mine Creek. The patrol captured two suspected Confederates, and according
to Sgi. Charles Porter, they were immediately confined in the “Bastillion of the Fort.” Before
commanders sent his company back out to the field, Porter tackled his Army paperwork,
including making out the payroll. While he toiled in his tent, bothered by mosquitos and flies, his
fellow soldiers occupied their time with cards and ball playing. Finishing the paperwork in three
days, Porter toured the post. Outside the blacksmith shop he saw thirteen prisoners shackled in
preparation for transportation to Fort Leavenworth, with the prisoners “quite jolly and [they]
sported over thcir new acquisition of government jewelry.” Another tour at the end of the month
left Porter unimpressed with his new post. He reported the fort and government buildings as less-
impressive than those at Fort Leavenworth, with only six 24- and 32-pound siege guns protecting
the post, and the buildings in bad condition.”

As the Indian expedition took shape, Fort Scott’s military importance increased in the
new Department of Kansas. It again became a separate unit on May 2, 1862, and Brigadier
General James Blunt, a Lane protegee, ended Brigadier General Samuel 2). Curtis’ six-week tour
of duty as department commander, The new command structure enabled Kansas and Missouri
department commanders to coordinate activities. On May 7, units from Fort Scott, including
parts of the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry and Second Ohio Cavairy, crossed the border to counter a
Confederate incursion into southern Missouri. By May 10, 1862, Fort Scott was the second
largest military installation in Kansas, second only to Fort Riley, reflecting the post’s new
importance. Sixty-seven officers and 1,654 men from the Tenth Kansas, Ninth Wisconsin,
Second Ohio Cavalry and Second indiana Battery were present for duty there. Less than three
weeks later, some of those regiments left to rendezvous near Humboldt for the expedition south

"For Scott Western Volunteer, March 31, 1862: Halleck to Denver, April 3. 1862. 0.4. L:8, 665.

*' Halleck to Stanton, March 28. 1862, OR, 1:8. 648.

ry

tharles W. Porter. 4 Journal of Events in the Life of Charles W. Porter: While in the Service of the United States
during the Rebellion (privately printed. Fort Scott National Historic Site archives), June 16-30, 1862.

123



University Press, 1959.

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D.C.: The Library of America, 1990.

Gregg, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954.

Hallaban, William. Misfire: The History of How America’s Small Arms Have Failed Our Military.
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Hargrove, Hondon B. Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland &
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Harland, W. Brian. A Geologic Time Scale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Harlow, Neal. California Conquered: War and Peace on the Pacific, 1846-1850. Berkeley:
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Hauptman, Laurence M. Between Twe Fires: American Indians in the Civil War. New York: The
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Hildreth, James. Dragoon Campaign to the Rocky Mountains. New York: Arno Press, 1973.

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387



the frontier against marauding parties of Indians, as a position farther south.”

Following his orders, Moore’s patrol examined the locations, all near a river, stream, or
creek. At the Little Osage River, all the conditions suitable for a military post — water, timber,
good defensible position, close to the military road — were available, but the site was too far
from the Missouri state line to protect the border. Motte also deemed it unhealthy, the result of
several large pools of stagnant water that made malaria and other insect-bome diseases a threat.
A location along the Dry Wood River was unsuitable; it lacked timber.” Following Taylor’s
instructions, Moore’s expedition, accompanied this time by Assistant Surgeon J. Simpson in
place of Motte, inspected the Spring River area. A Cherokee Indian, Joseph Rogers, owned the
location originally favored by the Army, but refused an offer of $1,000, telling officers that he
would not take three times the amount even if he had not improved the land. Rogers had built a
“good log dwelling house, and barn,” Moore reported to headquarters, and worked about one
hundred and twenty acres. The dragoons scouted two other sites on the Spring River, three and
five miles above Rogers’ property, but officers rejected both because they were far from water
and the high ground immediately behind limited the defensive utility of both sites.

The entire Spring River area seemed unsuitable for a military post. The environmental
conditions appeared unhealthy, the officers wrote, “judging from the appearance of the
inhabitants.” Timber was also scarce around the sites. Area residents opposed a fort, Moore
indicated, because “it would destroy their best building timber and occupy iand that the
inhabitants were actually in need of, there being but a very small tract suitable for cultivation.”
Discouraged by the other sites, Moore took his small patrol to the site on the Marmaton River.
During the previous trip to scout the Marmaton location, he stayed at the farm of George Douglas
at the crossing of the Marmaton River on the Harmony Mission-Fort Gibson road, approximately
sixteen miles east of the bluffs he eyed for the fort. On this trip, Douglas helped Moore locate the
best site for Fort Scott. The Marmaton River location had many positive attributes for a fort,
Moore said in his report, noting that its position in regard to both the frontier and neighboring
Indian bands made it “the most eligible and important point between Gibson &
Leavenworth.”Moore’s description of the region was persuasive. The decision to place the fort
on the Marmaton River followed soon after his report was received.*!

Established in 1842 on the south side of the Marmaton River, less than five miles west of
today’s Kansas-Missouri border, Fort Scott overlooked the junction of the Fort Leavenworth-Fort
Gibson military road and the Marmaton River. As part of the interior line of military posts, Fort
Scott was one hundred and sixty miles from Fort Gibson, and one hundred and forty miles from

3) W.W.S, Bliss, Assistant Adjutant General, to Capt. B.D, Moore, May 10, 1842, M1302, Roll 1, Frame 0745,
B51042, DD, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm; General Zachary Taytor to the Adjutant General of the Army, May 15,
1842, M1302, Roll 1, Frame 0666, 251542, DD, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

“B.D, Moore and J. Rhett Motte to Lt. Col. R.B, Mason, April 14, 1842, M1302, Roll 4, Frame 0569, MO41442, JL2,
30s 1 NARS, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfiim.

*" Capt, B.D. Moore and Assistant Surgeon J, Simpson to Capt. W.W.S. Bliss, Assistant Adjutant Cieneral, May !9,
1842, M1302, Roll 4, Frame 0621, M051942, LJ2 30s f, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm; Moore to General R. Jones,
Adjutant General, May 2], 1842, M219, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm; R.I] Holcombe, History of Vernon County,
Missouri (St. Louis: Brown & Co., 1887), 155; Capt. B.D. Moore to General R. Jones, Adjutant General, May 21, 1842, M219,
Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

30



Press, 1976,

-———-. Headquarters House and the Forts of Fort Scott. Fort Scott, Kans.: Fort Scott Tribune,
1954.

Reid, Brian Holden. The Origins of the American Civil War. New York: Longman, 1996.

Richmond, Robert W. Kansas: A Land of Contrasts, 3d ed. Arlington Heights, Il.: Forum Press,
1989.

Riser, Paul G., E.C. Birney, H.D. Blocker, S.W. May, W.J. Parton, and J.A. Wiens. The True
Prairie Ecosystem. Stroudsburg, Penn.: Hutchison Ross Publishing, 1981.

Roe, Frank Gilbert. The Indian and the Horse. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955.

Rollings, Willard H. The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains.
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992.

Rosenberg, Charles. The Cholera Years. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961.

Satz, Ronald. American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1975,

SenGupta, Gunja. or God and Mammon: Evangelicals and Entrepreneurs, Masters and Slaves
in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1860. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.

Sheehan, Bernard W. Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonian Philanthropy and the American Indian.
Chapel Hill: North Carotina Press, 1973.

Shoemaker, Earl Arthur. The Permanent Indian Frontier: The Reason for the Construction and
Abandonment of Fort Scott, Kansas, During the Dragoon Era. Omaha: National Park
Service, 1986.

Skelton, William B. An American Profession of Arms: The Army Officer Corps, 1784-1861.
Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992.

Sloane, David Charles. The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History, Baltimore:
Johas Hopkins University Press, 1991.

Smith, Merritt Roc. Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology. Ithaca, N.¥.: Cornell Uni-
vessity Press, 1977,

Socoloisky, Hamer E. Kansas Governors. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1990.

Stampp, Kenneth M. America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink of War. Now York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1990.

., od, The Causes of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991,

Starr, Stephen Z. Jennison’s Jayhawkers: A Civil War Cavatry Regiment and its Commander.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973,

. Starr, Stephen Z. The Union Cavatry in the Civil War: Volume Hl: The War in the West,
1864-1865, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985.

Steffen, Randy. The Horse Soldier 1776-1943: Vol. 1, The Revolution, the War of 1812, the Early
Frontier 1776-1850. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977.

Struik, Dirk. Yankee Science in the Making. New York: Collier Books, 1962.

‘Takaki, Ronald. /ron Cages: Race and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America, New York:
Knopf, 1979,

Thain, Raphael, comp. Notes Illustrating the Military Geography of the United States, 1813-
7880. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979.

Trudeau, Noah Andre. Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865, New York:

390



HS-9 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-9, the former Post Guardhouse, served as the Fort Scott municipal jail until the city razed it in 1905
and replaced it with a new brick jail. View from intersection of Fenton and Lincoln avenues (Northeast
elevation). Circa 1900.


Chapter Eight:
“Relieved from a vile bondage”

Raising Regiments at Fort Scott

Throughout the Civil War, Fort Scott exerted significant influence on Union military
endeavor despite its location in a remote comer of the western theater of operations. Supplying
Army troops with quartermaster and support services, the post provided an excellent combination
of factors for recruitment of whites, African Americans, and Indians as it guarded southeastern
Kansas. As one of the larger population and market centers in the sparsely populated frontier
state, Fort Scott served as an excellent point for recruiting regiments for the Union army.
Refugee camps containing whites, Indians and African Americans surrounded Fort Scott,
providing hundreds of volunteers for new regiments. Fort Scott’s regiments helped to stabilize
southeast Kansas, occupy western Missouri and eventually win back the Indian Territory, while
providing crucial manpower for the drive that occupied northern Arkansas. The combination of
these campaigns assisted in gaining federal control of the Mississippi River and the eventual
severing of the Confederacy into two separate parts.!

Fort Scott served as a recruiting and mustering center for southern Kansas from the war’s
first year, organizing white, African American, and Indian regiments. Most of the earliest
organized units consisted exclusively of white volunteers. The Sixth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry
Regiment originated in three infantry companies formed in July 1861 as the Fort Scott Home
Guards, Brigadier General Nathaniel] Lyon authorized raising the units and placed Major William
R. Judson in command to protect southeastem Kansas from guerrilla attacks from Missouri. The
original force was inadequate for the task, and in August the Army reorganized the Home Guards
into a regiment. Five new companies, four mounted and the fifth of infantry, were added. The
original three infantry companies remained on garrison duty at Fort Scott until September 1,
when they marched to Fort Lincoln following the battle of Drywood and the resuiting evacuation
of Fort Scott. On September 9, 1861, the regiment’s companies held elections for field officers
and the troops elected Judson colonel. The regiment accompanied James Lane on his mid-
September Osceola expedition, finally returning to Fort Scott for garrison and patrol duty. Ina
reorganization ordered in spring 1862, the three original Home Guard companies mustered out.
The state’s adjutant general reassigned the remaining infantry company to the Eighth Kansas,
making the shortened Sixth Kansas a pure cavalry regiment. By May of 1862, the Army scattered
the companies, “for a long time the only protection of this frontier,” according to their hometown

' Alvin M, Josephy Sr., The Civil War in the American West (New York: Vintage Books, 1993); Laurence M.
Hauptman, Besween Two Fires: American Indians in the Civil War (New York: The Free Press, 1995). Headline quotation from
Col. J.A. Williams, addressing the men of the First Kansas (Colored) Volunteers, July 12, 1863. “You are but just
relieved from a vile bondage, and have had but few opportunities for learning the importance of saving carefully the
proceeds of your toil.” Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

155



Connelley, William E., ed. “A Journal of the Santa Fe Trail.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review
12, n, 1 (June 1925): 72-98.

. “Report of the Santa Fe Escon, August 24 to September 25, 1843.” Mississippi Valley
Historical Review XH (September 1925): 249-55.

Cory, Charles E. “Slavery in Kansas.” Kansas Historical Collections 7 (1901-1902): 229-242.

. “The Soldiers of Kansas: The Sixth Kansas Cavalry and its Commander.” Collections of
the Kansas State Historical Society 11 (1909-1910): 217-238.

Craik, Elmer LeRoy. “Southern {nterest in Territorial Kansas, 1854-1858.” Kansas Historical
Collections 15 (1919-1922): 334-450.

Danziger, Edmund J. Jr. “Phe Office of Indian Affairs and the Problems of Civil War Indian
Refugees in Kansas.” Kansas Historical Quarterly 35, n. 3 (Autumn 1969): 257-75.

Debo, Angie. “The Site of the Battle of Round Mountain, 1861.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 27
(Summer 1949): 187-206.

Evans, Hugh. “The Journal of Hugh Evans, Covering the First and Second Campaigns of the
United States Dragoon Regiment in 1834 and 1835,” ed. by Grant Foreman and Fred
Perrine. Chronicles of Oklahoma 3 (September 1925): 175-215.

Fellman, Michael. “Rehearsal for the Civil War: Antislavery and Proslavery at the Fighting Point
in Kansas, 1854-1856,”in Antislavery Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Abolitionists,
Lewis Perry and Michae! Fellman, eds. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press
(1979): 287-307.

Flores, Dan L. “Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy: The Southern Plains from 1800 to 1850.”
Journal of American History 78, n. 2 (September 1991): 465-485.

Fox, Simeon. “The Early History of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, 1861-1862.” Collections of the
Kansas State Historical Society 11 (1909-1910): 238-53.

Gallaher, Ruth A. “Samuel Ryan Curtis.” lowe History of History and Politics 25 (July 1927):
331-58.

Gibson, Arrel M. “Confederates on the Plains: The Pike Mission to the Wichita Agency.” Great
Plains Quarterly 4 (Fall 1964): 7-16.

Gilmore, Donald L. “Total War on the Missouri Border.” Journal of the West 35, n. 3 July 1996):
70-80.

Graebner, Norman A. “The Mexican War: A Study in Causation.” Pacific Historical Review 49
(August 1980): 405-426.

Greene, Albert. “Campaigning in the Army of the Frontier.” Collections of the Kansas State
Historical Society 14 (1915-1918): 283-310

. “On the Battle of Wilson Creek.” Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society 5

(1889-1896): 116-27.

Hart, Charles. “The Natural Limits of Siavery Expansion: Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854.” Kansas
Historical Quarterly 34 (Spring 1968): 32-50.

Hougen, Harvey R. “The Marais des Cygnes Massacre and the Execution of William Griffith.”
Kansas History 8 (Summer 1985): 74-94.

Hutchinson, William D. “Sketches of Kansas Pioneer Experience.” Transactions of the Kansas
State Historical Society 2 (1901-2): 390-410

381



Fort Scott's quartermaster quadrangle, behind the stores on Market Street, circa 1867.

responsibilities included preserving law and order in the vicinity; suppressing robbery,
kidnaping, jayhawking and bushwhacking; and supporting all civil authorities. Senior officers
instructed Henning to apprehend and hold for trial all violators of the law, with the proviso that if
necessary, “you will not hesitate at the last resort to rid the State and society of these characters.”
Not all of the duties were matters of life or death. One officer in the Tenth Kansas, serving as
Fort Scott’s provost marshal, worked hard at improving the town’s sanitary condition, organizing
efforts to collect and burn the trash that littered the streets and lots. One month later the town
newspaper went a step further, recommending the military give “secesh prisoners” the job of
cleaning up town’s litter and rubbish. It took several months for the Army to act on the
suggestion, but by September large gangs of prisoners roamed the city, sweeping up the streets
and picking up trash.'*

Anew military prison housed many of those captured Confederates. The needs of the
expanding hospital forced it to take over Fort Scott’s original guardhouse, and post commander
Col. Charles Blair ordered construction of a new two-story structure, eighty feet long, in the
summer of 1863. The building could confine about one hundred men. The Union Army assigned

Curtis ta Halleck, January 17, 1863, O.R., 1:32/2, 50; Fort Scott Bulletin, June 21, 1862, May 17, 1862, Jane 7,
1862, Sept. 27, 1862.

178



formerly living along the eastern seaboard. Their dominance ended in 1811 at the battle of
Tippecanoe. The lack of real support from the British during the War of 1812 dashed Shawnee
leader Tecumseh’s dream of a pan-Indian confederacy. From Tippecanoe to the Black Hawk War
in 1832, native people found their lands confiscated and their choices increasingly limited." They
needed new lands to replace their traditional lands. To many concerned with the fate of native
peoples, the Plains seemed the best option.

While many Indian groups were forced to look west, others who peripherally used the
Plains voluntarily stepped up their occupation. A combination of factors, the horse and the
mobility it provided and the open nature of much of the Plains, furthered this process. Before the
Mexican War, the Arkansas River marked an international boundary between the United States
and first Spain and later Mexico. Native peoples could use the Plains — essentially the contested
edge area between the countries — for their own purposes. Comanches dominated the southern
Plains, while Cheyenne and others moved down from the mountains to the west and onto the vast
prairie covered with buffalo. The Lakota or Sioux controlled the northern Plains, making vassals
of the sedentary peoples of the waterways as well as threatening competing peoples such as the
Pawnee to the south and later the Crow to the west.’ By the time that removal of native peoples
from the east became a serious option, an American Indian presence was well entrenched on the
Plains.

Americans had long planned to relocate eastern Indians across the Mississippi River.
Even before Andrew Jackson’s presidency began in 1829, removal was an oft-discussed topic.
Although earlier presidents sought to move all Indians west and some issued threats and offered
inducemenis in attempts to force various groups to move, few efforts advanced beyond the loud
thundering of political speech. Most administrations generally treated Indian groups as sovereign
nations and respected their right to land. Jackson professed to be the culmination of this
movement when he created a new national Indian policy, but his actions spoke jouder than the
words he uttered with great solemnity. As he told the Chickasaws of Georgia, although the
United States recognized their rights to sovereignty, the government could respect those rights
only if the Chickasaws gave up their homes and moved beyond the Mississippi River. The
declaration was more than just political talk. While publicly seeking a humane means of
achieving his goals, Jackson had little aversion to forceful means if necessary to remove Indian
peoples quickly.">

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 provided the legal rationale for moving eastern Indian

" Richard H, White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815
(New York : Cambridge University Press, 1991); John Mack Paraghet, Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American
Pioneer (New York: Holt, 1992); Allan W. Eckert, Twilight of Empire (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988}.

° Richard H. White, “The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Westem Sioux in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Centuries.” Journal of American History 65 n. 2 (September 1978): 319-43; Elliott West, The Contested Plains: Indians,
Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1998); West, The Way to the West.

* Quoted in Francis Paul Pracha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American indians,
abridged ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986), 82; Andrew Wallace, The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and
the Indians (New York: Hitt and Wang, 1993); Ronald Satz, American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era (Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 1975); Edward Pessen, Jacksonian American: Society, Personality und Politics (Homewood, Il: The Dorsey
Press. 1978), 297-301.



HS-30 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-30, Quartermaster Building (West elevation). Historic Building Survey, 1966.

ce

i away
i i 2 bi utes

HS-30, Quarterma 976.

370



in Arkansas throughout the late summer, Price accumulated fourteen artillery pieces, eight
thousand armed Missourians and Arkansans and another four thousand raw recruits rounded up
in northeastem Arkansas. The new recruits were without weapons, and they expected to secure
them on a Missouri battlefield. Union observers at Fort Gibson quickly noted the troop
movements and sent a message to Fort Scott, estimating that Price had between 10,000 and
15,000 men. On September 19, two days after scouts reached Fort Scott with word of the
advancing army, Price’s column crossed into Missouri.2*

As military commanders watched this latest Confederate threat, word reached Kansas of
another defeat in the Indian Territory, the second battle at Cabin Creek on September 18, 1864.
Cherokee leader Stand Watie, reinforced by twelve hundred Texans, led his brigade of eight
hundred Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles against a Union supply train of three hundred wagons
traveling from Fort Scott to Fort Gibson. The wagons contained $1.5 million worth of food,
clothing, boots, medicine, ammunition, guns and other supplies for soldiers and Indian refugees
at Fort Gibson. Attacking at 3:00 a.m. under a moonlit sky, the Confederates quickly scattered
the Union escort. The raiders seized many wagons, along with 740 mules, and retreated south.”*

In late summer, the southeast Kansas post moved to improve its military effectiveness.
On September 13, Col. Blair, the fort’s commander, canceled all dress parades except Sunday
evenings, because of the necessity of having his soldiers perform construction work on new
stables and barracks. A week later, the state of Kansas experienced another military
reorganization, The Sub-District of Fort Scott, implemented in April, was discontinued. Bourbon
County and areas to the south were placed in Sub-District One, under command of Colonel
Charles R. Jennison, headquartered at Mound City.** Major General George Sykes, commander
of District of Southern Kansas, on September 19 ordered Jennison, the former Jayhawk Seader, to
inspect Fort Scott and its defenses, calling Fort Scott the most important point in the district.
Sykes also ordered Jennison to attack the enemy anywhere in the subdistrict. Offensive actions
required the concentration of Union troops, leaving communities such as Mound City and Fort
Scott with a smaller number of military defenders. As a result, Sykes warned, “Some dependence
must be placed upon the inhabitants of those villages for their self-protection.”*

Uncertain of Price’s intentions, Jennison tried to anticipate the Confederate advance. He
ordered Blair to send out scouts to look for the Confederate column on September 20. The
former Jayhawker also warned the Fort Scott commander to alert the citizens of his town. “I
understand that [Fort Scott] is the point for which they are making,” Jennison told Blair. “Much
will have to be depended on the citizens if an attack is made on that place.” Jennison informed
Capt. Hampton, adjutant for District of Southern Kansas, that large numbers of Confederate

% Alvin M. Josephy, American Civil War in the West (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1991), 377; Blair to Capt. GS.
Hampton, September 17, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 236,

2 Josephy, American Civil War in the West, 377.

TM Special Order No, 29, September 13, 1864, Co. D Order Book, 15th Kansas Volunteer Infantry, Fort Scott National
Historic Site archives; General Orders No. 30, District of South Kansas, Sept. 19, 1864, O.R., Series J:41/3, 257-58.

* Sykes to Jennison, Sept. 19, 1864, O.R., Scries 1:41/5, 258; Sykes to Jenison, Sept. 19, 1864, O.R, Series 1:41/3,
259,

206



For the sick and wounded men, the Army rented the large military hospital built in the 1840s, and
supplemented it with several adjacent buildings and large ward tents placed on the town square
adjacent to the former hospital as necessary. All of the other supply and support functions carried
out by the post were mostly confined to rented buildings and temporary structures built on rented
lots. A large two-story military prison was constructed to house enemy soldiers, southern
sympathizers, spies, Union soldiers and civilians, including women, who vialated civil or martial
law, The one structure apparently was not sufficient to hold all the prisoners, because in June
1863, Henning proposed moving the Fort Lincoln blockhouse south to Fort Scott and expanding
it to two full stories. The move, he wrote to his superiors, “would hold all its prisoners & they
could be used here to advantage for fatigue duty. Or dividing it into four apartments they could
be classified & thus prevent much evil.” Despite the plans, the Fort Lincoln blockhouse remained
where it was. An August visitor toured the abandoned post, calling it “a position commanding
nothing and easy to be reduced.” It consisted of an enclosure protecting one building about eighty
feet long and a well. The visitor noted that “The city of Fort Lincoln consist of two families, one
out side and one inside the fort. Geo. Walrod, from Sycamore, lll., commands the fort. holding
all the offices from high private to Brigadier.” As the logistical and strategic importance of Fort
Scott increased, the defensive significance of Fort Lincoln was reduced, but it remained an active
Union post which protected the ford where the 1859 Fort Scott-Fort Leavenworth Military Road
crossed the Little Osage River. Horse-mounted couriers connected Fort Scott to its outlying
stations, and off-duty soldiers frequented the saloons and hotel bars. The majority of the
uniformed men lived in tent camps on the prairie surrounding the town, most concentrated along
the Marmaton River, where water and firewood still were readily available.’

Originally created on the Permanent Indian Frontier as a barrier to separate the Euro-
Americans from the Indians, Fort Scott retained its geographic and military position as an
influence between Union and Confederate possessions. It also retained a key role in the north’s
Indian policy. The Confederates’ early influence in Indian affairs had been curtailed during 1862,
in part as a result of the aborted summer expedition but more importantly by manpower demands
to the east, as Southern leaders sought to block Union takeover of the Mississippi River. With
white Confederate soldiers headed for the Mississippi River, those left behind in Indian Territory
were mainly the Indians, continuing to fight their own civil war. Indians, northern and southem
sympathizers alike, killed, burned and looted across the territory, aided by the occasional federal
or rebel regiment.’

Positioned as part of an extensive supply line that stretched along the Missouri River
from St. Louis to Fort Leavenworth and then overland one-hundred-and-sixty miles, Fort Scott
assisted with the supplying of Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, Fort Smith, Arkansas, and distant
Union operations in Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Fort Scott was also responsible for
supplying satellite Union posts in southwestern Missouri and eastern Kansas. These posts were

° Post Returns. Fort Scott. National Archives. Microcopy No, 617. Returns from U.S,
1137, Fort Scott. Kansas. January 186] — October 1865: C.M. Chase letter. August 19,1863, Fort Scott. August 19. 1863.
Foider “Misc. — Chase, C.M..” Miscellaneous Collections. Chas-Ci, Kansas State Historical Society: Maj. 8.S. Henaing to
General. June 9. 1863. Frame 0264-65. Roll 25, Fort Scolt National Historic Site archives.

itary Posts 1800-1916. Roll

“ Josephy, The Civil War in the American West, 369-370.

138



Bibliography

Fort Scott National Historic Site has obtained a number of documents from the National
Archives and other sources, with some preserved on microfilm and the rest stored in open files.
Documents on microfilm are cited according to the park’s numbering system.

Government Publications
Clary, David. These Relics of Barbarism: A History of Furniture in Barracks and Guardhouses of
the United States Army, 1800-1880. Harpers Ferry, Va.: Harpers Ferry Center, 1981.

Gillett, Mary C. The Army Medical Department, 1818-1865. Washington, D.C.: Center of Mili-
tary History, United States Army.

Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, From its
Organization September 29, 1789 to March 2, 1903. Washington, D.C.: Government Print-
ing Office, 1903.

Kansas Adjutant General. Official Military History of Kansas Regiments During the War for the
Suppression of the Great Rebellion. Topeka: State Printing Office, 1896; Leavenworth,
Kans.: W.S. Burke, 1870.

Ketchum, Sally Johnson. Officers Quarters No. 1, Fort Scott Kansas: Furnishing Plan Section C.
Omaha, Nebr.: National Park Service, 1973.

Matloff, Maurice, general editor, American Military History. Washington, D.C., General Printing
Office, 1985; Washington, Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Army; 1973.

National Archives and Record Service. Military Operations of the Civil War: A Guide Index to
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Dallas D. Irvine, comp. Wash-
ington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Service, 1961-78.

Reynolds. John D. Archeological Investigations at Old Fort Scott, 1968 to 1972, Omaha, Nebr.:
United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Midwest Region, 1983.

Risch, Erna, Quartermaster Support of the Army: A History of the Corps 1775-1939, Washing-
ton, D.C.: Quartermaster Historian’s Office, Office of the Quartermaster General, 1962.

Sherman, William T. “Report of the General of the Army, Nov. 10, 1879,” Annual Report of the
Secretary of War on the Operations of the Department for the Year 1870, Vol. 1. Washing-
ton, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870.

Stephenson, Wendell Holmes. Publications of the Kansas State Historical Society Embracing the
Political Career of General James H. Lane. Topeka: Kansas State Printing Plant, 1930.

Thompson, Erwin. Fort Scott, Kansas: Historic Structures Report, Part I, Historical Data
Section, Washington, D.C.: Division of History, National Park Service, 1968.

3719


Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

KER i

HS-4, Sept. 20, 1968: Investigating east foundation of HS-4
(Officers Quarters). View looking south, with Lincaln Avenue in
the background.

HS-6, July 9, 1971: Investi-
gating the foundation of
HS-6 (Infantry Barracks) on
the east side of the Parade
Grounds. Background
buildings include, from left
to right, HS-12
(Quartermaster's Store-
house), HS-14 (Post
Bakery), and HS-30 (Stone/
Trade Building).



HS-33 Fort Scott National Historic Site

Stone residence razed during Fort Scott's Urban Renewal Project from 1985 to 1970, because it was not
part of the site's historic period from 1842 to 1873. Formerty located on Lincoln Avenue, across from and
south of the razed city jail where the present Post Guardnouse (HS-9) is located. Circa 1970. Note:

Research indicates that this building was mistaken for HS-33. HS-33 was a small frame building located

directly across from the former City Jail and the present reconstructed Post Guardnouse on the east side
of Lincoln Avenue. It was razed prior to the Fort Scott Urban Renewal Project.

374



combat, both in the number of Confederates gathered to attack and in the escorts provided by the
Union army. Most convoys relied on smaller escorts, and remained tempting targets for small
bands of guerritlas, bushwhackers, and Confederates. The problems of supplying distant posts
with wagons hampered the North throughout the war, A supply train sent to the Indian Territory
post in early July left two hundred and fifty sacks of flour behind because Indian agents could not
overcome the civilian teamsters’ fears of traveling with the entire load and only a small escort
was available to protect it against Stand Watie and other guerrillas. One Bureau of Indian Affairs
official wondered how the Indians would be supplied when bad weather made the roads
impassable. Unknown to him, military authorities were reconsidering maintaining the Indians
south of Kansas. By the middle of July, Coffin reported that Army oflicers in Indian Territory no
longer sought to move additional refugees south and instead, “have got enough of them in that
locality.” Phillips urged the agent at Fort Gibson to bring twelve hundred Indians back to Kansas
when his wagons returned, but the agent refused, saying that since the Indians had been moved
south at Phillips’ recommendation and that Blunt was still promising to clear Indian Territory of
bushwhackers then the refugees might as well stay in their own country.”

As its soldiers struggled to supply Fort Gibson to the south, Fort Scott’s immediate guard
posts received periodic turnovers. Early in July, the Third Wisconsin Cavalry left its scattered
posts around Rolla, Missouri, and returned to southeast Kansas. The command at Fort Scott
ordered two of the companies to duty as provost marshals at the post, and assigned the remainder
of the regiment to Big Dry Wood Creek for outpost duty, Those assigned provost duly could
enjoy the civilian comforts of the town, including its restaurants, saloons, and social affairs such
as balls and parties. The men, living in camps close to Fort Scott. often took the occasion to
improve their tents with makeshift beds to keep them off the ground, and screens to block some
of the sun's heat.’’

On July 8, Blunt, now a major general in search of redemption from Schofield’s
criticisms, traveled south into Indian Territory to take personal command of Phillips’ force,
which totaled about three thousand men guarding about seven thousand Indian refugees inside
Fort Gibson. From scouts and spies, Blunt learned the Confederates planned to combine their
forces and attack the post's federal forces with about 9.000 men. Blunt decided to move first,
transferring additional troops and artillery to southern Kansas and the Indian Territory. The
campaign began on July 10 with Fort Scott's reinforcement by the Thirteenth Kansas Infantry
Regiment, and by the two companies of Third Wisconsin Cavalry rctuming from Ralla,
Missouri. The news that Vicksburg had finally fallen to Grant arrived in Fort Scott on that day,

* Henry Smith to Coffin, July 16. 1863, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Secretary
of the Interior. serial 1184. vol. 3. 1® sess. 38" Congress (Washington, D.C.; Government Printing O“fice. 1864), 329-330:
Coffin to Dole. Annual Renart af the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Report of the Si ‘ary of the interior, scrial 1184, vol. 3,
1" sess, 38" Congress (Was n, D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1864}, 327-328: Coffin to Dale. July 18. 1863. Annual
Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Report of the Secretary of the Interior, serial 1184, vol. 3, 1 sess, 38" Congress
(Washington. D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1864), 328,

» Remarks for the Month of July 1863. Company X. Third Wisconsin Cavalry. RG 393. Army Continental Commands.
Third Wisconsin Cavalry Letter Book and Order Book and Company Order Book and Morning Reports, Fort Scott National
Historie Site archives: Porter. A Journal of Events in the Life of Charles W. Porter. July 5. 1863.

146



effect of the presence of troops, which is believed to have restrained these lawless persons in the
past, would be in some degrees lost.’”*

Order was finally restored in southeast Kansas, by the decision of the United States
Supreme Court recognizing the validity of the sale of the lands to the railroad company. James
Joy succeeded in getting a test case of his own design placed before the Supreme Court on April
16 and 17, 1872, and the decision was handed down on November 18. In the case, Peter F.
Holden vs. James F. Joy, Joy’s title to the Cherokee Neutral Lands was declared valid. As the
case made its way through the courts, Joy sold his land interests to MRFS&G Railroad. The
railroad paid $1 per acre for the 693,000 acres it received.

On April 16, 1873, the Post of Southcast Kansas was abandoned and the U.S. Army
departed from the town of Fort Scott for the final time. The garrison was transferred to Fort
Gibson, Indian Territory. Members of the Land League, crushed by the Supreme Court’s
unfavorable decision, either paid the railroad’s price for the acreage or moved onto the next site
of speculative fever. The smal! number of buildings in Fort Scott leased to the Army for
headquarters and support purposes reverted back to business use, and the town returned its focus
to commercial development.

Having seen the military depart three times over the past twenty years, the residents of
Fort Scott quickly grasped other opportunities. The town continued its economic growth, fueled
by the influx of commercial opportunities that traveled into town thru the newly constructed train
tracks, and Fort Scott became a regional shopping center, serving customers from western
Missouri, and eastern and southern Kansas. The delay caused by the Land League’s violence
proved to actually help Fort Scott’s commercial sector, as the town became a railroad hub for a
number of years and was the largest town in southeast Kansas.

* Capt. IJ, Upham to Col, Robert Williams, AAAG, Department of the Missouri, Sept. 14, 1872. Letters Sent, Sept.
30, 1869 to April 16, 1873, Roll 20, Post of Southeast Kansas. Letters Sent and Received, Sept, 1869 to 1873, Fort Scott
National Historic Site microfilm.

247



HS-1

Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-1 (Southwest elevation), circa 1900-1905.

HS-1 (Southwest elevation), circa 1910-1915.

321

iQ
a



the final blow to Blunt’s military career in Kansas, as General Schofield, upset with continuous
reports of corruption and inefficiency, replaced Blunt with Brig. General John McNeil on
October 1, 1863.

Before he received word of his dismissal, Blunt fost whatever military credibility he
regained in the Indian Territory on a road near Baxter Springs in the first few days of October.
The small outpost, consisting of a camp protected by a low dirt and wood embankment, was
garrisoned by a company of troops from the Second Kansas (Coloted) Infantry Regiment,
organized a few days before at Fort Scott, and two companies of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, all
under the command of Lieut. James B. Pond of the Third Wisconsin. Early on the morning of
October 6, when his cavalry was away on a foraging party, Pond and the remainder of his
garrison were surprised by Quantrill and his men, who encountered the post on their way south to
winter in Texas. Pond and his men raced to their weapons, fighting off the attack after a short
struggle, highlighted by Pond’s solo operation of a twelve-pound cannon outside the
fortifications, for which he received the Medal of Honor. Driven off by the effective fire,
Quantrill’s scouts saw an approaching wagon train and the guerrillas shifted targets. The
oncoming force was the personal escort of General Blunt, with wagons carrying documents and
records of his headquarters as well as members of the Third Wisconsin’s regimental band. A
small cavalry detachment acted as an escort.”

The convoy was traveling south from Fort Scott on the military road because Blunt,
commanding the District of the Frontier, was transferring his district headquarters from Fort
Scott to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory. When the guerrillas were first seen, Biunt and his men
initially thought the men, wearing captured blue Union uniforms, were an honor guard from
Pond's garrison that was going to escort the convoy to the Union camp. Quantrill’s men suddenly
fired upon Blunt’s party of about one hundred staff officers, clerks, and bandsmen, which broke
under the surprise volleys and raced away. Blunt escaped unharmed thanks to his superb horse.
The Union death toll was seventy-nine, with many murdered by the guerrillas, including most of
the unarmed bandsmen. Also killed at Baxter Springs was General Blunt’s adjutant, Major Henry
Zarah Curtis, the son of Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis, former district and field commander
in the Departments of Missouri and Kansas. The remains of Major Curtis were escorted to Fort
Scott by an honor guard from the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, where they were received by his wife
and subsequently transported to his home for burial. Approximately one year later, in 1864,
General Curtis named a new fort protecting the Santa Fe Trail, Fort Zarah, after his son. Quantriil
returned to the fort after destroying the wagon train, demanding its surrender. Pond refused and
the guerrilla leader opted to resume his march south. Blunt struggled into Baxter Springs later
that evening, and after resting, returned to Fort Scott about four days later, where he sharply
condemned his escort for its “disorderly and disgraceful retreat.” On October 19, Schofield
proceeded with his plans to relieve Blunt, and McNeil was given command of the District of the

3 John N. Edwards, Shelby and His Men; or, The War in the West (Cincinnati: Miami Printing and Publishing, 1867);
Josephy, The Civil War in the American West, 374-375

* Castel, Civil War Kansas, 158-160; Action at Baxter Springs, Report by General James G. Biunt, October 19, 1863,
OLR., Ls 22/1 (S #32), 688-689.

152



HS-7, HS-5 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-7, infantry Barracks; reconstruction in progress. Front view (Northwest elevation). HS-8, restored Post
Hospital/Visitor Center (left), HS-9, reconstructed Post Guardhouse (extreme left}. 1976.

HS-5, reconstrucied Dragoon Barracks, front view (northeast elevation). Background, left, reconstructed
Dragoon Stables (HS-10). Circa early 1980s.



Virst Dragoon Regiment 21, 23, 26, 29, 33, 34, 38, 57,
66; Leave Fort Scott 67; Mexican-American
War 63-64

First Indian Home Guard Regiment 115, 162, 163

First Kansas (Colored) Volunteer Infantry Regiment
139, 141-142, 144, 145, 147, 166, 174, 230;
Accepted into Federal Service 168; Burning
of Sherwood 142; Island Mound 167; Named
7Hh Regiment 168; Poison Spring 202

First Kansas Independent Light Artillery Battery
(Colored) 170, 229

First Kansas Light Artillery 101, 121

First Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 2!

First Subdistrict of Kansas 226

First U.S. Cavalry 81, 83

First U.S. Infantry Regiment 62

Forts: Coffee 15, 20. 25, 28; Gibson 10, 26, 27, 28,
29, 56, 60, 140-141, 146, 192, 198, 203, 204-
205, 207, 218, 226; Larned 90, 224;
McKean 175; Osage 3; Pillow 202; Smith 20,
27, 147, 151, 153, 173, 197, 198, 207, 218-
219, 230; Snelling 8; Towson 20; Washita
20, Wayne 20, 25, 26, 29; Wise 90. Zarah
224

Fort Leavenworth 10, 14, 18, 25, 28, 33, 57, 123, 173,
175, 245; Price's 1864 Raid 205

Fort Lincoln 104, 106, 138, 173-174, 179; Price
Attack 212

Fort Scott (Army Post), 1853 Closure 67-69; [855
Public Auction 69; 1858 Montgomery Raid
86; 1861 Threat 102, 107-108; Abandonment
of Fort Wayne 26; 1865 Fortification Plans
219, 222-223; African Americans 165;
Alcohol Trade 25; Army Looks for Site 29-
30; Artillery (23, 127, 129; August 1862
Threat 129; Cattle Stealing 220, 221, 228;
Chaplains 200; Civilian Construction
Workers 41; Civilian Interaction with
Soldiers 189-190, 197, Civil War Army
Buildings in Town 172, 177; Closing 230-
231; Commercial Success [48; Commissary
Department 175; Daily Routine 225-226;
Demobilization Center 229; Department of
the Frontier 145; Diversions for Soldiers 17!
Dragoon Stables 176; Kconomic Influence
41-42, 175, 190; Executions 179; First
Railroad Train 239; Fortifications 121, 136,
174, 196, 226; Gardens 52-53; Garrison
Moved for Price’s 1864 Raid 209; General
U.S. Army Hospital 171, 181-183, 227, 228;
Geographic Importance 138; Guerrilla
Surrendering 227-228; Guerrilla Threats
221. 223, 227; Horses 223; Icehouse 184,
Indian Refugees 135; Kansas Brigade 104;

Kansas Militia 82; Laundresses 187-188;
Lunette Blair 174, 196; Lunette Henning
174, 196; Lunette Insley 174, 196; Mexican-
American War 62-63, 65; Military Prison
$38, (79; Mititia Units for Price’s 1864 Raid
209; New York Indian lands 76; Nucleus for
Frontier Development 234; Paymaster 187,
197; Prive 1864 Raid 184, 205-209, 212,
214; Post of Southeast Kansas 234, 236;
Provost Marshal 121, 139, 146, 177-178,
180, 198, 219, 221, Quartermaster Depart-
ment 175, 177; Rainfall 53; Re-established
as Army Post 117; Refugees 191-193;
Regimental Camping 188; Role in Civil War
95-96, 98; Sale of Contraband Items 176;
Slavery Issue 71, Stationing of Militia Units
103, Subposts 148, 174-176, 189, 195, 196,
205, 218, 222, 226; Supply Center During
Railroad Years 234; Supply Responsibilities
138-139, 146; Telegraph Service 153, 177,
198; Tents 183

Fort Scott (Town), 1858 Town Mesting 86; 1865
Auction 230; African Americans Betore Civil
War 81; Army Presence 244-245; Army
Swuctures After Civil War 229; Economic
Development 234; — Entertaining Soldiers
220; Fort Scott Hotel (Officer's Quarters No.
1) 78, 82: Need for Railroad 236; U.S. Army
Returns After Civil War 242

Fort Scott Buildings, Hospital 32, 38, 40 48, 244 See
Also Post Hospital ; Infantry Barracks
35, 39-40; Officer's Quarters 32, 38-39, 40;
Ordnance Storeroom 32, 40; Post Headquar-
ters 32, 40; Powder Magazine 39; Quarter-
master Compfex 32, 66; Sawmill 33, 34, 35,
38; Well 39

Fort Scott Democrat 79, 8)

Fort Scout Home Guards 155

Fort Scott National Cemetery 54, 184-187

Fort Scott Town Company 78, 89, 186

Forty-Bighth Wisconsin Infanuy Regiment 224, 226

Fourteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regitnent 153,
156

Fourth Infantry 57

Fourth Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment 97

“Frontier Guard” 97

Fremont, John C. 164

Prizell, Claudius Columbus 179

Furnas. Robert 62

Geary, John W. 77
Graham, William 50, 64

Haines, M.K. 171

396



toll on the animal and bird populations. In the American Southwest, raids on Spanish settlements
and forts produced much the same effect. Indians acquired the accouterments they desired by
force when they were not available through trade. As the nineteenth century opened, Indians still
adjusted to life on the Plains. By 1840, this adaptation was complete. Some Indians took
advantage of improvements in weapons by purchasing new firearms or winning them through
combat. After arrows proved ineffective against the invaders’ firearms, Indian cultures shifted to
rely on the acquired technology of firearms.’

The United States had other significant advantages: sufficient surplus capital to develop
new technologies continually as well as the production facilities to produce the results in large
numbers. By the 1840s, American society almost universally welcomed and accepted
technological change. This was the famed age of “Yankee Ingenuity,” when Americans fancied
that their contributions to human endeavor were the design and manufacture of new machines
and processes. The nation ignored or rejected some inventions, but on the whole Americans
embraced the possibilities of technology and its promise. The invention of the steel-bottom plow
and McCormick Reaper (a threshing machine) simplified the agricultural development of the
prairie. Steamboats made river transportation possible, moving both people and supplies, and by
1835, more than seven hundred steamboats operated on American waterways. By the middle of
the century, railroads and telegraph systems opened an entirely new world of communications.
Modifying English locomotive designs to fit the nation’s topography, a generation of mechanics
and inventors brought the American railroad system into prominence during the middle third of
the nineteenth century. Samuel Morse also adapted existing technology, securing a government
contract to connect Washington and Baltimore by telegraph line in 1843; a year later his historic
“What hath God wrought” ushered in a communications revolution. In this setting, technological
innovation was part and parcel of being American.

The Army used new technologies whenever they supported its mission. Improved
firearms such as percussion muskets and pistols joined with innovations in artillery to increase
the military’s firepower. Underpinning the military might of the United States was the
development of a market economy with the surplus capital to invest in frontier development and
support a standing army.°

American industries made an especially key contribution to the Army’s effectiveness with
the development of mass-production facilities that produced military hardware. Growing out of a
traditional cottage industry that produced one-of-a-kind firearms, weapons companies embraced
the industrial revolution. Large factories used milling machines to turn out large numbers of
identically shaped components fitted together into a standardized weapon, easily repaired by
replacing any or all parts. Between 1820 and 1850 at the federal government’s arsenals at
Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, and Springfield, Massachusetts, and at private gun factories across the

* McGinnis, Counting Coup, 3-12; West, The Way to the West, 13-50.
“Dirk Struik, Yankee Sctence in the Making (New York: Collict Books, 1962), 303-334.

45


the former Infantry Barracks (HS-7) into the Western Hotel after its 1855 sale. The Army rented
the barracks during the Civil War and converted the building into wards for the post hospital
facility. After the war it reverted back to being a hotel and later a boarding house. By the late
1870s the building was apparently torn down.'

After formation of the Bourbon County Historical Society, regional organizations took on
separate projects. In 1914, the Molley Foster Berry Chapter of the Daughters of the American
Revolution identified local historic structures. The Works Progress Administration of the 1930s
undertook several historic restoration projects, while the Business & Professional Women’s Club
of Fort Scott operated a museum in one of the few remaining post buildings, The remnants of the
post, in the northern part of the town, did not bear any resemblance to the polish and shine of the
former Army base. Most of the original post buildings had been destroyed and were now just
foundations, buried beneath new construction or covered over in vacant city lots. The few that
remained were used as residences and storage buildings. This continued use of the remaining
buildings was instrumental in their survival. As interest in the town’s past revived, townspeople
approached U.S. Sen. Andrew Schoeppel for federal assistance in recreating the post, but carly
efforts to establish a national park or monument failed.

In the late 1950s, Fort Scott’s residents realized that their town was following the pattern
of other Kansas communities. The railroad system, which helped maintain the town’s economic
development, was an uncertain ally, as their eighty-year hold on transportation was evaporating.
Small businesses in the region were closing as increasing numbers of people migrated to larger
cities. Fort Scott looked to its namesake as the means to revive its economic fortunes, as it had
done so many times in the past. Interest in preserving and maintaining the historical fabric of Fort
Scott intensified after 1960.

In 1962, Fort Scott gained a new ally. Joe Skubitz successfully ran for the Fifth Kansas
Congressional District seat after working as an administrative assistant in Washington to
Schoeppel and fellow senator Clyde Reed. Assisted by Pittsburg State University historian Dr.
Dudley Cornish, who wrote a report on Fort Scott activities during the Civil War, Skubitz se-
cured the first federal financing for a study of the former Army post, $25,000, in 1964 and the
same amount the nex! year, Initially the Park Service, identifying the post as not being of national
significance, was against any kind of designation for Fort Scott. However, in 1964, the federal
government designated the area of the former fort which surrounded Carroll Plaza as a National
Historic Landmark. Despite the lack of enthusiasm from Park Service personnel, Skubitz contin-
ued to obtain relatively small amounts of federal monies for continued studies and the restoration
and reconstruction of the 1840s fort.

In addition to a gradual erosion of historical fabric over the years as private citizens
renovated the structures, a pair of new threats arose in 1967. The federal government began
planning construction of a major highway, U.S. 69, adjacent to the grounds of the former Army
post, At the same time, the town of Fort Scott launched seven years of urban renewal projects
that would dramatically change the face of the downtown area. The Kansas State Historical

' Sally Johnson Ketcham, Officers Quarters No, 1, Fort Scott, Kansas: Furnishing Plan, Section C (Otnatra, NE:
National Park Service, 1973); 20; Erwin Thompson, Fort Scott, Kansas: Site Identification and Fvaluation (Washingwan, D.C.
Division of History, National Park Service, 1967): 10-41.

250



soon.”

Giving up on his objectives in eastern Missouri, Price headed north to the Missouri River,
and reached Boonville, less than ninety miles east of Kansas City, on October 10. At the river
town, about 1,200 Missouri guerrillas led by “Bloody” Bill Anderson joined the Confederates.
Eventually, the Army ordered most of the Union forces in southern Kansas north to assist with
the defense of Kansas City as Price’s army advanced westward from Jefferson City, Missouri.
This troop movement left southeastern Kansas open to attacks from Missouri guerrillas and
Confederate forces in the Indian Territory. One Kansas officer warned his superiors about the
arrangement of federal troops, noting that cavalry units under aggressive commanders like Gen.
Joseph Shelby were operating with Price, “and J cannot see what is to prevent him from making a
dash at Fort Scott, due west of him but two days’ march.” Whatever protection that Kansas could
muster would have to come from federal forces already there, backed by whatever hastily raised
militia units the state could organize. On October 6, Blair informed Curtis that Fort Scott was
prepared for action, and that several militia companies were also available. In preparation for
Price, Blair sent scouts fifty miles to the east and seventy miles to the south. Jenison, still in
Mound City on October 8, also had a citcle of scouts out in all directions. He boasted that he
“Cannot be surprised. Can hold Fort Scott against any cavalry or guerrilla force.”

Politics and unfounded assumptions delayed defensive preparations in Kansas. Like many
Kansans, Governor Thomas Carney did not think that Price would invade the state. He surmised
that James Lane arranged for news about the raid and calls to mobilize the militia in an effort to
keep voters away from the polls and allow Lane’s faction to steal an election. After receiving
definite information about Price’s drive along the Missouri River, Camey finally recognized the
severity of the threat and ordered all militia units in the state to prepare for battle on October 9.
On the same day, Jenison sent a pair of messages to Fort Scott. He ordered Blair to prepare the
post’s mountain howitzers for action and to move out all available companies with full strength,
“no shirks are left behind.” Jennison also ordered the Fort Scott commander to “Get every
able-bodied citizen under arms at Fort Scott.” The Army ordered all militia units in Bourbon and
Woodson Counties to assemble at Fort Scott on October 10, and Sykes ordered the department
quartermaster ta send adequate supplies there.”

Carney’s political intuitions proved accurate. The threat of an invasion proved as real as
Lane’s intention to profit from the situation. On October 10, Curtis relieved Sykes from
command of the District of South Kansas, replacing him with Major General James Blunt,
unceremoniously relieved from command in April. Carney declared martial law throughout the
state on the same day, and appointed Lane as a volunteer aide-de-camp. After inspecting his
resources, Blunt informed Curtis that Fort Scott had 2,500 weapons, and requested another one
thousand. Blunt also suggested different mustering points, recommending that militia units

* Porter, A Journal of Events, Sept. 29, 1864

* Capt. Thomas Moonlight to Sykes, Oct. 6, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 672-73; Blair to Curtis, Oct. 6, 1864. O.R,
Series 1:41/3, 674; Jennison to Curtis, Oct. 8, 1864,0.R., Series 41/3, 715,

5” Jennison to Blair, Oct. 9, 1864, O.R., Serics 1:41/3, 739; Castel, Civil War Kansas, 187-90; Sykes to Capt. B.F
Simpson, Oct. 16, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 7

208


border region. Most of them conducted war for personal profit. Fort Scott issued a warning to
posts around Kansas City on May S that a band of guerrillas estimated at one hundred and fifty
strong had passed east of the post heading north. Soldiers at Olathe issued their own alarm,
believing twenty-seven armed men were loose near Aubrey, close to Kansas City, on the state
line approximately 75 miles north of Fort Scott. They also relayed the rumor that the most feared
name in Kansas, William Quantrill, was heading toward the state, adding that reports indicated
“we may look for a second edition of the Lawrence raid at an early day.” The following day,
Blair warmed his superiors that three hundred guerrillas had banded together and were heading
north in Missouri. Fort Scott was put on alert and ordered to send out large patrols to track down
the gang. By May 9, Blair reported the guerrillas, who claimed to be Confederate soldiers
operating under Jo Shelby trying to get to their homes, had split up into small groups and
scattered quietly across western Missouri. Watie and his Confederate Indian force still
endangered southern Kansas. Blunt warned his superiors in Arkansas that captured Confederates
revealed the Cherokee leader’s plans to lead a raid of two thousand men through Kansas’
Arkansas River Valley. In addition, another separate band of about forty guerrillas, who scouts
reported planned to attack western Missouri, also came to the attention of the Army.”

The clearest indication that the end of the war was imminent reached Fort Scott on May
16, when the department’s medical director’s officer ordered the surgeon in charge of the
hospital, A.C. Vientiane, to discontinue its operation as a general hospital, responsible for all
military patients from the region, and return it to a post hospital with much more limited
obligations, All patients who could not be discharged immediately were to be admitted into the
post hospital, sick records were to be sent to Army headquarters at St. Louis, appropriate supplies
were to be transferred over to the post hospital, and the contract of Acting Assistant Surgeon
John Page was to be terminated, if his services were no longer needed. After the reorganization
was complete, Vientiane himself was ordered to report to St. Louis for reassignment.””

The federal government spent most of the second half of May trying to finish up the
messy ends of a long and costly war. On May 19, Henry Taylor, one of the border’s most
notorious guerrillas and the leader of all Confederate irregulars in southwest Missouri, asked
under what terms he and his men could surrender. Dodge offered to accept their surrender if they
gave up the arms, equipment, and horses and took an amnesty oath as required by the federal
government. In a separate note, Dodge specified that this surrender did not relieve the guerrillas
of any civil action arising from their actions during the war, noting that his officers “deal with
them only from a military point of view.” Taylor accepted the terms a day later, and Union
officers believed that many of the bushwhackers operating in the area would soon follow
Tavlor’s example.”

Other combatants soon laid down their arms. A week after Taylor’s submission, the
detachment of Fort Scott soldiers based at the Osage Mission reported that Indians to the west of

* Blair to Capt. John Willans, May 5, 1865; Capt. O.F. Waller to Blair, May 5, 1865, O.R,, 1:48/2, 325; Blair to Gen,
RB. Mitchell, May 9, 1865, 0.8, 148/2, 373.

2? JF. Randolph to VanDuyn. May 16, 1865, File 16 MAY65.APC, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

* Brig. Gen. R.B. Mitchell to Dodge and Dodge to Mitchell, May 19, 1865, O.R, 1:48/2, 513.

227



lands west of the Mississippi River and Lt. Zebulon Pike’s mission to explore the Great Plains
and the Rocky Mountains soon followed. After leaving St. Louis in 1806, Pike’s expedition
passed through the area in which Fort Scott was later located. On September 6, when passing
about ten miles north of the Marmaton River, Pike noted that “the prospect from the dividing
ridge to the east and southeast is sublime. The prairie rising and falling in regular swells, as far as
the sight can extend, produces a very beautiful appearance.’*

Others were not so positive about the fringes of the Plains. When Major Stephen H. Long
led an Army expedition through the unorganized territory in 1819, he offered a far less enticing
vision. Long’s travel report, compiled by Dr. Edwin James, described the terrain as unfit for
agriculture and unsuitable for inhabitation by civilized people. Instead, James predicted, the area
would provide an excellent barrier to control the country’s westward expansion and “secure us
against the machinations or incursions of an enemy that might otherwise be disposed to annoy us
in that part of our frontier.” Widely circulated in eastern newspapers, James’ description made
the lands described seem most suitable for relocation of Indians from eastern states, In this, the
report contributed to the dominance of a military presence in the territory instead of a civilian
one.?

Even as the expedition led by Lewis and Clark explored the breadth of the continent,
Americans acquired a rough sense of their acquisition and began its division into political
organizations. The Territory of Louisiana was established March 3, 1805, and given a new name
— Missouri Territory — on June 4, 1812. Congress formed the Arkansas Territory within its
present stale borders in 1819. Missouri became a state on August 10, 1821, and the federal
government designated the remainder of the original Louisiana Purchase land as the Missouri
Territory. It was divided June 30, 1834, with a portion set aside as Indian Country or Indian
Territory, and the rest labeled the Territory of Missouri. Part of the northern lands were set aside
as the Territory of Michigan in 1834, and Arkansas gained statehood two years later. The rest of
the Louisiana Purchase remained the Territory of Missouri untit passage of Kansas-Nebraska Act
on May 30, 1854. That controversial legislation created two popular sovereignty territories,
Kansas and Nebraska, Congress, in a break with national procedure, permitted the two new
territories to determine for themselves whether they would condone or reject the perplexing
institution of slavery. The building national crisis over that issue took place at the same time and
alongside attempts to resolve mounting frontier tensions between incoming settlers and Plains
Indians. '

By the 1830s, American Indians living east of the Mississippi River faced increasingly
dire circumstances. Intemecine strife and the spread of white settlement pushed westward those

* Esliot Coues, ed, The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, to Headwaters of the Mississippi River, Through
Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-06-07 (Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, Inc., 1965): 395-397,

” Unrau, Indians of Kansas, 47-48; William 11. Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the America West, 1803-1863 (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1959); Reuben Gold Waites, ed. Early Western Travels, 1748-1846. Volume 1?: Part V of James’
Account of SH. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820 (Cleveland: Arthur EL. Clark Company, 1905), 147-148.

Robert W, Johannsen, Manifest Destiny and Empire: American Antebaltum Expansionism, edited by Sam W. Haynes
and Christopher Morris (College Station, Texas: Published for the University of Texas at Ar lington by Texas A&M University
Press, 1997).


property, most notably wooden track ties, were destroyed, Nearby landowners were pressured not
to sell timber or limestone ballast to the railroad, affecting construction of the line. Leaguers also
burned down the office of the Girard Press, a newspaper that opposed their organization and
policy.!

As the violence mounted, the regional problem became a state concern, On May 3, 1869,
Gov. James Harvey beseeched the residents of Cherokee and Crawford counties to obey the law.
The sheriffs of the counties told Harvey later that month they were faced with an overwhelming
force in the quasi-military organization, and as a result they were unable to uphold the law in
their counties. A month later, residents of the two counties petitioned Harvey to station U.S.
troops south of Fort Scott. The Leaguers continued to fight, proclaiming in newspapers that
Crawford County belonged to the settlers “by justice and possession” and that it was held by
“such means as intelligent but determined, people may find necessary to protect their homes.”
Their newspaper, the Workingman’s Journal, was printed in Girard and Columbus, two towns
where the Army later established camps. The Leaguer slogan that ran on the front page
proclaimed “Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to obtain power.” The Journal
expressed the Land League’s aims to stop the railroad by opposing any sale of land to “any
person under the canopy of heaven except actual sellers.”"®

Unable to commit state militia units, Harvey asked the federal government to secure
Army troops to stop the violence. The governor also sent a committee to southeast Kansas to
investigate the troubles, with witnesses interviewed at Fort Scott, Girard, Columbus, and Baxter
Springs. The committee’s findings led Harvey to request federal intervention. The Leaguers
expressed a position that touched a deep chord in the western psyche; throughout the state, the
movement found support. A resolution censuring Gov. Harvey for requesting the presence of
troops upon these lands was defeated in the Kansas House of Representatives by only a small
majority. Violence also escalated. Another serious raid occurred before the troops arrived. About
thirty armed Leaguers attacked a railroad construction camp about 12 miles south of Fort Scott in
mid-July, burning tools, tents, and supplies.'” In the aftermath, an Army presence became
essential.

Soldiers returned to Fort Scott on August 19, 1869, as Maj. James R. Roy of the Sixth
U.S. Infantry Regiment led four companies into Carroll Plaza. Fort Scott returned to its role as
the headquarters and supply base for troops, this time in conflict as political as the Civil War
itself. A small number of staff officers and enlisted personnel remained in the city. Most of the
troops marched south into the Neutral Lands. On December 9, 1869, the War Department
elevated the detachment into an independent command post, creating the Post of Southeast
Kansas, with headquarters at Fort Scott.

Major Roy and the commanding officers wha followed him recognized the Army’s need

'§ Fort Scott Press, May 1, 1869; Miner, “Border Frontier.”

'S Ralph Richards, Headquarters House and the Forts of Fort Scott (Fort Scott, Kans,: Fort Scott Tribune, 1954): 64:
Fort Scott Press, June 18, 1869, cited in Brown, Cherokee Neutral Lands Controversy, 23; Workingman’s Journal, Oct. 29,
1869, cited in Miner, The Border Tier Line, 54.

"’ Fort Scott Press, June 25, 1869, cited in Brown, Cherokee Neutral Lands Conwoversy, 25; Fort Scott Weekly Press,
July 17, 1869.

242


porches across the front and rear of the quarters provided sanctuary on hot summer evenings. The
nearby timber stands provided wood for the buildings. with oak framing timbers twelve inches
square, walnut siding, and oak floors. The doors, door frames, lintels, mantlepieces, etc., were of
two-inch walnut, and crews turned the fourteen-foot high Doric columns that supported the porch
roofs from solid walnut logs. Quarters No. 1, the northernmost building in the row that ran north
to east, was completed except for its upper flooring by October 1843. Its neighbor, Quarters No.
2, was the last of the four to be completed; construction did not begin on it until 1845. The
materials for completing Quarters No. 3 were unavailabie until the end of 1844, and Quarters No.
3 and 4 were ready for occupancy by the spring of 1846. The post’s original plans called for a
separate structure in the middle of the row for the commanding officer, but the Army never built
it because the necessary funds were diverted for use in the Mexican-American War.°°

The next major concern for the post builders was protecting the Army’s equipment and
animals. The quartermaster storehouse, to the east of the row of officers’ quarters, was one of the
first buildings to be completed at Fort Scott and was occupied by June 1843. The dragoon
stable’s roof and weatherboarding were nearly complete by October 1843, and the troops’ horses
used the building after November 1843. After the Army changed plans for stationing a second
company of dragoons at the post to a second company of infantry, the government canceled the
proposed second stable. Workers built the foundation for the powder magazine by October 1843,
and completed the entire structure a year later. The men finished a sixty-five-foot well the same
month, although the protective canopy was not in place until 1848.°7

Construction of housing for the post’s enlisted contingent continued along with these
other projects. Company A of the First Dragoons did not move into their barracks until May
1844. According to Swords’ plans, both the dragoon and infantry barracks were similar in.
outward appearance to the officers’ quarters, with an aboveground basement and wide verandah
across the front of the main floor, supported by seven pillars. Each of the three barracks planned
would be sixty-five feet long, and Swords designed them to accommodate the fifty-man force
that made up a pre-Mexican War Army company. Construction on the first set of Infantry
Barracks did not begin until fall 1843, and it was reported as nearly ready for occupancy by July
1844. The workers almost finished the second infantry barracks by July 1844, and Company C of
the Fourth Infantry moved in on September 3. Work continued slowly on other post structures;
the post did not begin the guardhouse project until after October 1, 1844, while workers did not
frame the building that became post headquarters until the following October. Construction did
not begin on the quartermaster stables until 1848.°*

The Army monitored construction progress at Fort Scott through reports from Swords and
by officers sent from Washington, D.C. According to an inspection report of the post filed by
Col. George Croghan, Inspector General of the Army, by July 1844 the dragoon company was

“Found its Rise as a Fort: Military Authorities Chose the Site of Peaceful Fort Scott,” Kansas City Star, June 30,
1907; Sally Johnson Kerchum, Officers Quarters No. 1, Fort Scott Kansas: Furnishing Plan Section C (Omaha: National Park
Service, 1973), 3-5; Thompson, Fort Scott: Historic Structures Report, 21, 31.

* Thompson, Fort Scott: Historie Structures Report, 31, 54, 59-61, 64.

* Thid., 32-38, 49, 63-65.

39


HS-6 Fort Scott National Historic Site

Ee
Cites

Hospital/Visitor Center (right). 1976.

oy
2
B



changed an early proposal for a federal expedition into Texas into a more limited one to push the
Confederates out of Indian Territory and allow refugee Indians to return to their homes. He
intended to lead the proposed expedition, but officials in Washington, D.C., rejected him as
commander. They considered the pian too grand for a controversial leader. Aside from the
political risks of placing a notorious Jayhawker in control, the plan represented a massive
commitment of Union forces. The U.S. Army sent seven regiments of cavalry, three artillery
batteries and four regiments of infantry to Kansas, and Lane initially received authorization to
raise 8,000 to 10,000 Kansas volunteers. Lane persuaded Creek and Seminole leaders desperate
to return to their homes to ask Lincoln to put him in charge. The President, looking for “a snug,
sober column” of about ten thousand men, gave command of the scaled-back expedition to the
West Point-trained Hunter. For a short time, Lane
agreed to serve under Hunter. His new
subservient position in Kansas spelled a stinging
political defeat for the man who successfully
exploited President Lincoln’s favor for so long?

Northern military forces developed a
greater presence in Missouri during 1862. As part
of the Union Army’s reorganization for offensive
operations, Col. George Washington Deitzler,
appointed acting brigadier general on February 1,
1862, replaced Lane as head of the Kansas
Brigade. Deitzler, organizer and publicist for the
Free-Soil forces in Bleeding Kansas and since
June 186) the commander of the First Kansas
Regiment, assumed command of the First, Fifth,
and Sixth Kansas regiments at Fort Scott. Early in
1862, federal commanders in Missouri reversed
the previous year’s misfortunes, diminishing the
threat from Deitzler’s east. Under Brigadier
. ue General Samuel R. Curtis, a West Point graduate
Samuel R. Curtis who commanded an Ohio infantry regiment in the

Mexican War before election to the House of

Representatives from lowa, federal forces drove the Confederates back 240 miles, maneuvering
Price and his militia army out of Missouri without a major battle, Even after McCulloch joined
him, Price could not match the federal force, eventually retreating south into the Boston
Mountains of northern Arkansas.

The Confederate withdrawal created a vacuum in the region, but manpower and
equipment shortages prevented any type of meaningful Union control. Curtis could not
effectively pursue the Confederates into Arkansas, especially since irregular southern units

*L. Thomas, Adjutant General, to Hunter, January 24, 1862, O.2., 1:8, 527-527; Lane to Hon. John Covode, House of
Representatives, January 27, 1862, O.2., 1:8, 529-530; “To Our Great Father, the President of the United States,” January 28,
1862, O.R., 1:8, 534; Lincoln to Stanton, January 31, 1862, O.R., 1:8, 538; Annie H. Abel, “The Indians in the Civil War,”
American Historical Review 15 (Sanvary 1930), 281-96.

119



Deerfield, Missouri, between midnight and 2:00 a.m. in the morning of October 26, 1864.

The civilian residents of Fort Scott waited anxiously for news of Price’s proximity to the
town. The newspaper reported that women and children “and a few cowardly men” were fleeing
in all directions in the face of the Confederate expedition, “and the little handful of heroes left
here, had nerved themselves for a death struggle against seven thousand rebels, who were
understood to be just over the hills north, east and west of town. Fort Scott could then have been
bought for a very small consideration.” The Union success in destroying the offensive strength of
Price’s force sparked celebrations in Fort Scott. The smal] number of women who had remained
“Tushed to their kitchens, and until midnight, and all the next day, toiled over their stoves,
preparing edibles for the ... soldiers.”

With the direct threat of an invasion over, the Army transformed Fort Scott from an
endangered outpost to the headquarters of a pursuing force. Many units chasing Price’s
expedition stopped at Fort Scott to pick up food, forage, and supplies. Curtis moved his
command post to Fort Scott by October 26, and resolved to continue the pursuit until completely
destroying Price’s command or it moved beyond Union reach. On October 28, 1864, the last
battle of Price’s campaign occurred at the Battle of Newtonia in southwest Missouri, near the
present town of Neosho. On the same day, Major General Pleasonton, the cavalry officer who led
the pursuit across Missouri before smashing Price’s forces at Mine Creek, led two brigades and
an unknown number of prisoners out of Fort Scott. Left behind were many wounded from both
sides, overflowing the post hospital. During the first week of November, medical personnel
treated seventy-two Union and Confederate soldiers still at the fort.°?

Federal troops made a determined effort to pursue Price and eliminate the threat of border
ruffians. The Union army put all its available resources into the chase. On October 30, Blair, by
then back at Fort Scott after leading the chase, reported to Gen. William S. Rosecrans,
commanding the Department of Missouri, that he sent supplies to two Union forces pursuing
Price as fast as he could gather wagons. Rosecrans supported Union plans for full pursuit of the
Confederates, telling Blair that if escorts for the supply trains were needed stragglers from the
departments of Kansas and Arkansas should be collected. Curtis took overall command of the
federal forces. Aside from chasing Price away from Kansas, he also planned to drive away many
of the bushwhackers then in the region. “I hope to get them so far away,” he announced, that
“they will trouble us no more forever.”*

Fort Scott maintained its importance well] after Price’s forces were forced from Kansas
and Missouri to Arkansas. Curtis kept bis headquarters at the post throughout the first half of
November, coordinating the closeout of the pursuit. The final two months of 1864 ignited

* Ibid.
” Fort Scott Monitor, quoted in the Missouri Republican, November 11, 1864.

* Curtis to Thayer, Oct, 26, 1864, O.R., Series I:41/4, 249; Maj. Gen, W.S. Rosecrans to Maj. Gen. A.J. Smith, Oct.
27, 1864, O.R., Series I.41/4, 277; Lt. Col. J.J. Sears to Maj. C.S. Charlot, October 27, 1864, O.R. Series 1:41/4, 288; Fort Scott
Daily Monitor, Nov. 3, 1864.

* Blair to Rosecrans, Oct. 30, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/4, 335; Maj. C.S. Chariot, aide de camp. to Blair, Oct. 30, 1864,
O.R.. Series 14 1/4, 335-6; Curtis to Davies, Oct. 30, 1864, O.R., Series “A 1/4, 336,

214



the whites.” Small groups settled north of the Cherokee Neutral Lands had not initiated conflict
since their forced removal. The Choctaws, he wrote, “have never Killed a white man in war and
are proud of it.” Hitchcock regarded others as more hostile. The Osages were Hitchcock’s
nemesis. He called them “the greatest thieves near the frontier” and warned that “these are the
Indians ... that require to be over-awed by the presence of a Military force.” North of the Osage
were the Potawotomis, who Hitchcock believed were hostile, dissatisfied, and likely to fall into
an anti-white scheme." This situation demanded a military presence.

White settlers and their continual grasp for land offered another explanation for a military
presence. Plans to keep the Indian and white cultures separate collapsed as ongoing
encroachment on Indian land, a source of conflict since before the American Revolution, became
a daily reality. Survival on the periphery required a callous approach to cultural interaction.
Americans living along the nation’s western boundaries adopted the xenophobia of the age,
especially after the battle of Tippecanoe. On November 7, 1811, William Henry Harrison, the
governor of the Indiana Territory, commanded a force of federal soldiers, militia, and volunteers
to victory over the confederacy led by Tecumseh and his brother, Tenskwatawa, colloquially
known as the Prophet. White settlers represented a culture that saw itself as a civilizing force and
met with ferociousness any resistance and indeed variance from its goals. Nor did harsh living
conditions breed humanitarian sentiment for Indians. Worse, many people on the periphery
represented the most unsavory elements of American society. Secretary of War John Spencer
explained the dangers of mixing the Indians and whites along the border in 1842, calling for the
isolation of Indian groups to protect them from “the vices of a semi-civilization..Scarcely capable
of self-government, [the Indians] are quite incompetent to protect themselves from the frauds and
from the violence of the white man.” In a harsh characterization that stood out for its clear
assessment of culpability, Spencer believed that “the cupidity of the white man, boasting of his
superior civilization, stimulates his craft in devising the means of evading the laws, and still
further brutalizes his ignorant, weak, and yielding red brother.” With whites looking to secure
land and make money, the military was essential if Indian people removed for their safety were to
survive the onslaught of settlement.

The Permanent Indian Frontier of the 1830s followed the general trend in Indian-white
relations begun about two decades earlier. As early as 1809, state and government directives
pushed Indians from North Carolina into the area that today is Arkansas. Treaty provisions
provided for their protection from Osages already dominant in the region and led to the
establishment of Fort Smith on the Arkansas River on the state’s western border in 1817. The
removal of Indians from the east side of the Mississippi River began in earnest in 1821, when
Missouri was admitted to the Union and Ied to the establishment of Fort Leavenworth, to the
northwest of present Kansas City on the Missouri River in 1827. Simultaneously, advancing
white settlements in Arkansas pushed the westem boundary further west, and in response the

2 Ethan Allen Hitchcock, A Traveler in Indian Country: The Journal of Ethan Alien Hitchcock, Late Major General in
the United State Army (Cedar Rapids, lowa: The Torch Press, 1930), 247.

* John C. Spencer, Secretary of War, 27th Cong, 3d sess, House Document 2, Report of the Secretary of War,
November 26, 1842: 188-89; William E. Unrau, White Man's Wieked Water: The Alcohol Trade and Prohibition in Indian
Country, 1802-1892 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996), 79-91.

18



HS-12 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-12, former Quartermaster Storehouse in use as a private residence (Southwest elevation). Circa 1905.

Note: rear section of house has original roofline. Front of structure enlarged and includes addition of second
story.

OUSE, pré-stabilization (East elevation). 1972.
352



Chapter Two:

The Fort on the Frontier

The new lands acquired by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 challenged the govemed and
the governors. After the United States Army established Fort Scott in 1842, its officers
experienced a unique predicament. Most of the Indians with whom they dealt were for the most
part as foreign to the territory as were they. Both were refugees. The federal government exiled
many of the Indian populations by forced reassignment to what would one day become Kansas
and the military men assigned to maintain peace on the border had to serve at this undeveloped
outpost, Circumstances quickly dashed both groups’ dreams of finding happiness in the new
location, Indians by displacement from their homes and ways of life on the unfamiliar Plains,
military men by the reality rather than the romance of frontier life. Later, both showed a
significant flexibility in their new environment and the changes that they faced in the years that
followed,’

One important proof of the adaptability came in the form of the respect that many post
officers and soldiers felt for the Indians who surrounded them. In writing about the 1844
expedition to Pawnee villages in what is now Nebraska, Lt. James Carleton of the First Dragoons
noted that “Chief Charachaush's speech was delivered with natural eloquence and grace for
which the Indians are so celebrated. ... We were all impressed with his truly beautiful delivery.”
Other instances in which officers especially showed that they accepted the characterization of
native peoples as noble savages ahounded.’

Some held more conventional views of the natives who seemed to both dog the post and
somehow menace it by their very existence. Richard Ewell, a Dragoon lieutenant stationed at
Fort Scott, wrote his sister in 1842 that “The Osages (are) a pack of sheep stealing vagabonds.
We must be set to work building log cabins & government must be put to an expense of $4000
on out of transportation instead of shooting the Indians like the beasts they are.”® With this point
of view, Ewell encapsulated the negative views that many soldiers held of the native peoples in
the Fort Scott area.

One constant fact about American frontier life was that the federal government and local

' Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1981); Brian Dippie, The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and U.S. Indian Policy (Middlebury:
Wesleyan University Press, 1982), 47-8; Francis Paul Prucha, Sword of the Republic: The United States Army on the Frontier,
1783-1846 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969), 193-210; Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and
Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 458, 469-70.

‘John Mack Faragher, Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1994); Edward M.
Coffman, Phe Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898 (New York: Oxford Press, 1986), 34-5, 70-
8, 180-82; William B. Skelton, 4a American Profession of Arms; The Army Officer Corps, 1784-1861 (lawrence: University
Press of Kansas, 1992), 314-18; Daniel J. Holder, Changes in Attitude: Army Officers and Indian Policy in Kansas During the
Mid-Nineteenth Century (M.A. thesis, Wichita State University, 1991), 15-39,

* Richard Ewell, letter to Rebecca L, Ewell, April 10, 1842. Richard Ewell file, Fort Scott National Historic Site
Archive.


Suhre
The prairie Jandscape of eastern Kansas.

ensure development of swifter survivors, all contributed to the larger sizes. Mammoths, camels,
and mastodons roamed the grasslands, along with one of the most prominent of the new species,
the Bison bison antiquus, ancestor of modern American Bison?

Regional plant and animal resources soon attracted human settlement. The prehistoric
Paleo-Indian period began about 12,000 years ago, when now-extinct faunas were still evident
across the Great Plains. Humans may have reached the Plains even before that time. The
ancestors of the American Indian probably moved across the Bering Strait from Asia and down
the continent, spreading onto the Plains. Paleo-Indian societies developed on the Plains and took
advantage of the grasses and animals. They concentrated on hunting for large animals,
supplementing their kill with gathered wild plants, including modem fauna that first appeared
about six thousand years ago. Later prehistoric cultures adapted to the changing climatic
conditions and improved technological capabilities. Changing weather pattems propelled social
change, as increased amounts of rainfall reduced the risk of crop loss and made surplus harvests
more likely. From about 1000 to 1500 A.D., societies now classified as the Middle Ceramic
Period demonstrated evidence of increasing use of domesticated plants, especially the cultivation
of beans, maize, sunflowers, and squash. Population groups across Kansas adapted to a more
stable, sedentary lifestyle. Horticulture became a more prominent activity, although game

2 Cloud, Oasis in Space, 387; John E, Weaver and F.W, Albertson, Grasslands of the Great Plains: Their Nature and
Use (Lincoln, Neb.: Johnsen Publishing Co., 1956), 9; Debra K. Bennett, “Fossils,” in Buchanan, Kansas Geology, 119-122;
Brian S. John, The ice Age, Past and Present (London: Colfins, 1977), Paul G. Riser, E.C. Birney, H.D. Blocker, §.W. May.
W.J. Parton, and J.A. Wiens, The True Prairie Ecosystem (Stroudsburg, Penn.: Hutchison Ross Publishing, 1981); 26-28.

2


Fort Wayne, arrived at Fort Scott on October 6, only to march back to Missouri in the middle of
the month. Another new regiment. the Thirteenth Kansas Voluntcer Cavalry, which saw its first
action at Newtonia. marched into Fort Scott eleven days later.”

While the federal troops looked forward to a winter's rest, the Confederates continued
with plans for action across the region. Guerrillas burned Lamar. Missouri, on November 6.
Quantrill Jed his men into a series of skirmishes against a detachment from the Sixth Kansas
from November 6-] 1, 1862, around Dry Wood, Missouri, and Cato, Kansas, which was
approximately fifteen miles south of Fort Scott. Fort Scott supplied the Union troops. The poor
condition of the Kansas horses, worn out from their march across Missouri, prevented an
effective counterattack. Henning believed that Quantrill was only waiting for the departure of a
supply train and its escorts. which might sufficiently weaken Fort Scott to allow an attack. With
$2 million of government property at the post, Henning continually worried about his defenses.*?

As field operations apparently slowed for the winter. the Second Ohio decided it was lime
to complain about its treatment in the Department of Kansas. While encamped around Fort Scott,
the regimental commander Col. Augustus Kautz wrote a series of critical letters to senior Army
commanders and David Tod, governor of Ohio. He protested the ilJegal detachment of large
numbers of his men to serve in an artillery battery, as bodyguard for Gencral Blunt, as members
of the provost guard, and for work in the post’s quartermaster, commissary. hospital, and
ordnance departments. He only had contro! of about three hundred of the 1,000-man regiment,
and taking care of the regiment's unserviceable horscs was their main occupation. Kautz told Tod
that his men were “doing the drudgery of the Dept. and what is more there is a disposition on the
part of the authorities to keep them so.” Even worse, he heard rumors that his regiment had
already been issued orders to return to Ohio for furlough and reorganization, but the Department
had pigeonholed the paperwork. It took another month for response to the complaints, and the
Second Ohio was back home by late December.”!

The Confederates challenged Union contro] of northern Arkansas one last time in October
and November of 1862, hoping to establish a base for operations in Missouri. Major General
Thomas Hindman organized the push, pulling the scattered Confederate forces together into the
First Corps, Trans-Mississippi Army. The main offensive threat was the cavalry division
commanded by John Sappington Marmaduke, a West Point graduate who served the
Confederacy since the earliest fighting in Missouri. Leading Hindman’s advance north,
Marmaduke collected severa) hundred mounted Missouri troops and a group of irregulars and
evacuated Newtonia, Missouri, and moved them south through the Boston Mountains south of
the Arkansas state line, planning to winter in the rich farmlands west of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

” Kansas Adjutant General's Office, Official Military History of Kansas Regiments During the War for the
Suppression of the Great Rebellion (Topeka: State Printing Office. 1896: Leavenworth, Kans.: W.S, Burke. 1870). 81: Fort Scott
Bulletin, Qetober 11. 1862. October (8. 1862.

* Report of Capt. Martin [sreeden, November 6. 1862. O.R .):8. 348: Report of Maj. Benjamin $, Heaning. Third
Wisconsin Cavairy. November [(. 1862. O.R.. £8. 352-354.

* Col. Augustus Kautz. Second Ohio Vel. Cavalry 1 Col. N. [ |. Assistant Adjutant General., November 4. 1862. and
Kautz to Gov. David Tod. November 4, 1862, National Archives, RG 393 Army Continental Commands. 2nd Ohio Cav. Regt,
Letter and Order Book

13)



HS-8 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-8, Post Hospital/Visitar Center restoration and recanstruction completed in 1975. View of south entrance
(Southwest elevation). Note: HS-17, reconstructed Powder Magazine (left center); HS-16, reconstructed
Flagpole (left); and HS-9, reconstructed Post Guardhouse (right). 1982,

340



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS- 7, June 1971: Initial investigation of HS-7 (Infantry Bar-
racks) on the south side of the Parade Ground. View looking
west toward the Kansas Gas and Eleciric Building and
substation.

HS-7, June 1971: Ongoing
investigation. Approximately
the same view as above
photagraph.



EARLY CIVIL WAR
1861-1862

LEGEND

BATTLE SITE C }
FORT / TOWN e
COUNTY BORDER

STATE LINE —_

. LEXINGTON (SEPT. 19-20, 1861}

. MORRISTOWN (SEPT. 17, 7861)

eh

. ISLAND MOUND (OCT.28-29,1862)

. OSCEGLA (SEPT. 23-24, 1861)

|. PAPINSVILLE (DEC. 13, 1861)

. HUMBOLDT (SEPT. 8, 1861)

, DRYWOOD CREEK (SEPT. 2, 1861)

. CARTHAGE (JULY 6, 1861)

. WILSON’S CREEK (AUG. 10, 1861)

ess & YN eae

) NBWTONIA (SEPT. 30, 1862)

. PEA RIDGE (MARCH 7-8, 1862)

NS

. OLD FORT WAYNE (OCT. 22, 1862)

&

. SHOAL CREEK (DEC. 26, 1861)

aN

. CANE HILL (NOV. 28, 1862)
m FORT

15. PRAIRIE GROVE (DEC. 7, 1862) GIBSON

16. CHUSTO-TALASAH (DEC. 9, 1861) LL
17, LOCUST GROVE (JULY 3, 1862) tan A$

SS
D5 4B MILES

PUBLISHED BY: FOSTER DESIGN, INC. 109
(800) 345-3394

L.



Fitzpatrick established an agency for the tribes along the Upper Platte and Arkansas rivers shortly
afterwards. Under the new bureaucratic regime, troops responded only afer efforts for peaceful
settlements of problems by agents assigned to the Office of Indian Affairs failed. Summoned into
action after a series of attacks made Indians boider, the Army again rode onto the Plains.
Operations along the trail failed to intimidate the warriors in 1847-1848 after Army troops were
withdrawn for combat against Mexico and the Indians regained contro! of the route the following
year. Fitzpatrick advocated a line of forts along the trail and believed that the Army should attack
Indian camps, a policy that eventually was put into practice.*!

The buildings of Fort Scott outlasted the military missions, a testimony to the Army’s
effectiveness against the indians and the quality of work performed by the soldiers who
constructed the barracks, quarters, and stables. Dragoon and infantry companies were relatively
easy to move, but Fort Scott no longer offered the Army any military advantage nor significant
reason to continue operation. Just as its military effectiveness ended, the post’s buildings were
finally completed after a decade of intermittent construction, a process hampered by an overall
lack of adequate funding, an economic-minded Congress that saw its military troops as an
available labor force at the same time it needed their military capabilities, and an Army command
forced to spend its resources on scores of small posts built across its areas of responsibility.*

Fort Scott was too far east from potential trouble spots along the new frontier, and too far
west for the Army to economically ship goods to it. Transportation to and from the post increased
the cost of supplying and limited its military effectiveness. Many Army posts were built on
navigable rivers or streams to permit transportation of supplies by water. At Fort Scott, the
Marmaton River was not navigable and the post relied on expensive land transportation. Supplies
sent to Fort Scott usually traveled via steamboats to Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri River,
and then over the military road to Fort Scott, or more directly to Westport landing on the
Missouri River about ninety miles away from the post. In 1851, the wagons used by contractors
hauling freight between Army posts transported about five thousand pounds each when using
good roads, such as the one connecting forts Leavenworth and Gibson. The federal government
paid about $1.25 per hundred pounds for each one hundred miles traveled. Eventually, the high
costs of supplying Fort Scott over the Jand route became one of the reasons for the Army
deciding to abandon it.

After 1848, the advancing American settlers pushed past the line of the Permanent Indian.
Frontier and made the operation of Fort Scott as a frontier post unnecessary. The federal
government protected the lines of emigrants heading west, an exodus that dramatically grew after
the discovery of gold in California in 1848. A new line of forts established across the Southwest
became part of the efforts to control the Indians — Navajo, Comanche, and Apache in particular
—and a series of transcontinental surveys, in many instances staffed by Army topographical

© Robert A. Trennert, “Indian Policy on the Santa Fe Trail: The Fitzpatrick Controversy of 1847-1848,” Kansas
History t,n. 4 (1978), 243-253.

Noss, The Regular Army on the Eve of the Civil War.

© Frank Clarke to his father, June 6, 1851, quoted in Darlis A. Miller, cd., Above a Common Soldier: Frank and Mary
Clarke in the American West and Civil War, revised edition (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1997), 39.

68



troops were headed north. Jennison concentrated his command at Fort Scott, inaccurately
estimating Price’s army had only three thousand men. He was certain that the storehouse of
military supplies at Fort Scott was the prize. The following day, an errant report led Jennison and
Sykes to believe that the Confederates captured Fort Gibson. Fort Scott was the logical next
target. The Union commanders believed that their position had become precarious. Sykes noted
that if he sent all bis troops south to fight Price, “it will open the gate to the bushwhackers, who
will take advantage of the demonstration against Fort Scott to come into Kansas.”**

Fort Scott became critical in the Union defense strategy. Sykes and Jennison agreed to
concentrate troops at Fort Scott, although Jennison cautioned that Fort Scott held not more than
one hundred effective men and even that small garrison was deficient in drill and discipline. The
subdistrict commander ordered all his men to Fort Scott and promised to “hold this place at all
hazards.” Still not recognizing the extent of the Confederate thrust, Curtis, commanding the
Department of Kansas, told Sykes that one thousand men would be sufficient to protect Fort
Scott against what his staff believed to be Stand Watie’s force of 2,000 to 3,000 irregulars with
three pieces of artillery. Curtis also recommended that Paola or Mound City, north of Fort Scoit,
as a better place to concentrate forces.”

Initial federal estimates of the military situation were not optimistic. Confederate columns
moving unimpeded in Indian Territory endangered the supply trains from Fort Scott to forts
Gibson and Smith. Jennison was pleased to discover that Fort Gibson had not fallen, but believed
that the two garrisons, facing food shortages, would soon withdraw. Because reports indicated
the Confederate forces were already north of the two Indian Territory forts, the garrisons would
be forced to withdraw to the east, leaving southern Kansas totally exposed to enemy action. This
made Fort Scott even more vulnerable. Jennison ordered all of the employees at Fort Scott’s
quartermaster and commissary departments enrolled, armed, and placed under competent
officers. Citizens in the town formed companies, which were holding military drills. Jennison
promised that his men would try to hold the town as long as possible, but he warned that the
available force was totally inadequate to repel any determined attack.**

The Confederate advance bogged down far to the east. Price succeeded in getting into
Missouri, but determined Union resistance at Pilot Knob in the southeastern corner of the state
thwarted his plan to attack St. Louis. By the end of September Price modified his aspirations. He
sought to march up the Missouri River and capture as many western Missouri towns as possible.
While thousands of terrified citizens in eastern Missouri knew of Price’s presence, soldiers in the
isolated posts surrounding Fort Scott were still unaware of his location. At the end of September,
an officer serving at Fort Insley in southwestern Missouri had only heard rumors of Price’s
invasion and continued to search for what he thought was a proposed raid from Arkansas. He
proved prophetic when he wrote that “we are in expectation of having a lively job on hand

2 Jennison to Blair, Sept. 20, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 279; Jenison to Hampton, Sept. 20, 1864, O.2., Series 1:41/3,
280; Sykes to Curtis, Sept. 21, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 292.

 Jennison to Hampton, Sept. 21, 1864, O.R, Series [:41/3, 293.

* Jenison to Hampton, Sept. 22, 1864, O.R., Series 1:41/3, 312-13.

207



Lax enforcement and the sheer burden of reaching much less managing the vast reaches
of the Louisiana Purchase made terminating the liquor wade impossible. Even if a frontier official
was so inclined, enforcing the unpopular law was difficult. People on the peripheries did not take
kindly to seeing their neighbors prosecuted to protect Indians. Judges and frontier juries blanched
at convicting defendants for violating a federal law. When the policy did not deliver the desired
results, the government responded with new rules that further restricted trade. An 1822
amendment imposed stricter controls, and in 1824 Congress ordered trading limited to designated
sites. It also authorized Indian agents and military officers to search all traders for liquor.”

Traders and frontier businesses, including boat companies, continued to find loopholes in
the laws. Many companies evaded the liquor restrictions by claiming the alcohol being shipped
into Indian country was solely for the use of employees, or argued that most Americans on the
frontier considered certain roads, such as the Oregon and Santa Fe trails, as being outside Indian
country. As part of the legislation establishing the office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
Congress in 1832 expressly prohibited the introduction of “ardem spirits” into Indian Country
“under any pretense.” The law authorized no punishments and included no specific definitions of
Indian Country, creating a typically antebellum situation: government expressed its desire in no
uncertain terms, but the mechanisms to compel that behavior did not accompany the law.”

The Trade and Intercourse Act of 1834 imposed a new set of restrictions on traders who
trafficked in alcohol. For the first time, Indian country received a Jegal definition, which replaced
the vague descriptions of changing treaty boundaries used by earlier regulations. All lands west
of the Mississippi River outside of Missouri and Louisiana and lands east of the Mississippi not
within state or territorial! boundaries to which Indian title had not been extinguished became
“Indian country.” Indian agents received greater regulatory power over waders within their
jurisdiction, and the legislation authorized the War Department to use force to fight or prevent
Indian wars. The president also received the power to withhold trade goods from Indian groups
and revoke licenses to trade with them, and government officials received specific guidance on
punishments for various liquor offenses.”

The new round of federal regulations proved just as ineffective as previous efforts, and
some officers advocated direct military intervention to stop illegal trafficking. Col. Stephen
Watts Kearny. commanding officer of the First Dragoons, the horse-mounted soldiers, became
disgusted with the lack of effective civilian control of the alcohol trade, blaming the chaotic
situation on the long distances to civil courts and difficulties in securing trial witnesses. Kearny
believed that if Congress enacted legislation requiring that offenses against the 1834 Trade and
Intercourse Act in Indian Country fall under the jurisdiction of military courts, “such authority

Bulletin of the University of Kansas, Humanistic Studies, Vol. 4, n. 4 (Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1932).
» Prucha, The Great Father, 33-34,
® Unrau, White Man's Wicked Water, 35-36.

* Prucha, The Great Father: (03-103; Unrau, White Man's Wicked Water: 37-39.

23


HS-31 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-31, Stone Carriage House (South elevation), located behind HS-1. Pre-restoration, during Historic
Building Survey, 1966.

372


artillery assisted the Union force in destroying two guerrilla bases occupied by more than 200
men and capturing more than 50 horses and mules.

On May 18, 1863, while still encamped at Baxter Springs, a foraging party from the First
Kansas (Colored) and Second Kansas Light Artillery returned to the Sherwood area. This
detachment, consisting of twenty-five soldiers from the First Kansas (Colored) Infantry and
twenty artillerymen, was attacked and defeated by Major T.R. Livingston’s guerrillas, who were
returning to Missouri from the Indian territory. The Union reports listed three white soldiers from
the Second Kansas and 16 black soldiers from the First Kansas as being killed during the battle.
Five Union soldiers were captured by Livingston’s men. The three white soldiers from the
Second Kansas Artillery were exchanged, but one of the two black irst Kansas prisoners was
shot and killed. In retaliation for the killing, Col. James Williams, commanding officer of the
First Kansas Colored, ordered that a Confederate prisoner captured during the battle was to be
executed. Within thirty minutes one prisoner was killed by a gunshot.

The following day, May 19, 1863. Williams arrived at the Sherwood battlefield. He
reported that for the first time in the war he “beheld the horrible evidences of the demoniac spirit
of these rebel fiends in their treatment of our dead and wounded. Men were found with their
brains beaten out with clubs, and the bloody weapons left by their sides. and their bodies most
horribly mutilated.” In retaliation for the disfiguring of the dead Union soldiers, Williams
ordered that the town of Sherwood and al! of the homes of southern sympathizers within five
miles of the town were to be burned. As a result of this order, Sherwood was completely
destroyed and was never reconstructed. In his report. Livingston described how three hundred
Union infantrymen, backed by two companies of cavalry returned to Sherwood and burned the
town and eleven nearby farmhouses. The guerrilla leader noted the northern forces “put 10 of
their dead (negroes) that had been left on the battleground the day preceding, and together with
the body of Mr. John Bishop, a citizen prisoner, whom they had murdered, into the house of Mrs.
Rador, and burned the premises,” before returning to Baxter Springs.'*

Not all of the Union military action in the region involved uniformed combatants, and the
formalities and protections of what was regarded as the humanitarian aspects of war were often
ignored on the fronticr. Osage Indians living near Humboldt played a significant role in
maintaining peace across the West when on May 15 a small band intercepted a smal) patrol of
about twenty men, sent out by General Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-
Mississippi West. Senior Southern leaders dispatched the group that included three colonels, one
lieutenant colonel, one major and four captains to treat with several Indian groups and incite
them to raid settlements, especially in Kansas, as well as organize Confederate sympathizers in
Colorado and New Mexico. A small band of Little Osages encountered the whites, and
demanded that they accompany them to Humboldt, in accordance with instructions given them
by Union officers from Fort Scott. The Confederates refused and fired upon the Indians, killing
one. The outnumbered Osages withdrew and retumed to their village for reinforcements. About
two hundred tumed out and began pursuing the Confederates, finding them about five miles from
the Verdigris River. Surrounded by the Osage. the Confederates fought a running gun battle to

"Maj. Charles Blair to Gen. James Blunt, Muy 9. 1863. O.R. 1:22 (S# 32), 320-322: Comish, The Sable drm: 145-
146: Kansas Adjutant Ciencral’s Report: Official Military History of Kansas Regiments. 248,

142



Confederate government during the war, and as a result the lands belonged to the government
and were subject to settlement the same as any public land. The “Leaguers” bitterly denounced
those settlers who accepted the railroad’s terms. Squatters threatened the opening of a land office
in Crawford County to help those wishing to settle up their claim. The Leaguers were adamant,
promising to “abate such nuisance, Peacefully if we can, Forcibly if we must.” Once again, the
Army was the only effective force available to the state or federal government.”

It was not the first time civilian affairs in Kansas had drawn an Army presence.
Throughout the 1850s, federal troops attempted to quell pro- and anti-slavery violence. The
Army also settled land issues in antebellum Kansas. In the spring of 1860, commissioners of the
General Land Office ordered the removal of white settlers on Indian lands south of Fort Scott,
and in the following fall, federal soldiers acting under the supervision of the Cherokee Indian
agent forcibly removed at least seventy-four families, many of whom had settled on farmsteads
near Cow Creek during the previous five years.

In the world of postwar industrial growth, conflict was counterproductive for economic
leaders. James Joy made several attempts to peacefully resolve the disputes. In a November 1868
attempt to divide the opposition, Joy opined that there were three classes of property squatters:
those in residence prior to the cession treaty of 1866; those who moved in after ratification of the
treaty and before the supplemental treaty of 1868 that sold the lands to Joy; and those who settled
after the sale was finalized. The earliest purchasers had clear title, and Joy acknowledged that his
acquisition of the Neutral Lands had no effect on their property. Since there was some legal
doubt as to the exact ownership of the Indian reserve land even before his purchase, Joy
expressed a willingness to allow the second group of squatters to “prove up” their claims. The
railroad company proposed that upon making proof of their settlement and occupancy prior to
June 10, 1868, they should each be permitted to purchase 160 acres at from $2 to $5 per acre
under lenient terms. These squatters were given four months to prove up; failure to do so would
open up the claimed jand to general sales. Joy gave those settlers who arrived latest no special
rights, stating they could remain on the land only after paying regular price of $6 to $12 an acre.
A special land office, underwritten by the railroad, opened in Fort Scott in December 1868. The
office was kept open until the following June, and despite threats from the hardline Leaguers,
many of those entitled accepted the proposition and filed the proofs required.*

During spring 1869, the land league groups began physical attacks against railroad
construction crews and settlers who supported the railroad. The land office of the railroad
company was mobbed and Leaguers arrested the chief engineer of the MRFS&G railroad and his
surveying team. Wagons, tents, surveying instruments, and commissary stores were burned. The
group drove the party away from the work site, threatening them with death if they returned. The
chief engineer and another man then were marched several miles, stripped of their coats, and
whipped fifteen times each. During the following months, other railroad engineers and
contractors were driven off and survey teams were harassed. In several instances, railroad

° Brown, Cherokee Neutral Lands Controversy, \7; Fort Scott Press, March 28, 1869
% Miner, The Border Tier Line, 48; William G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas (Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1883).

" Miner, The Border Tier Line, 30-1; Fort Scott Press, Dec. 4, 1868.

241


HS-35 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-35, Stone Outbuilding (North elevation). Original storage building behind HS-1 and HS-2, before restora-
tion during Historic Building Survey. 1966,

HS-35 (South elevation) before restoration during Historic Building Survey. 1966,

376



. Fort Scott, Kansas: Site Identification and Evaluation. Washington, D.C. : National
Park Service, Department of the Interior, Division of History, 1967.

United States War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records
of the Union and Confederate Armies. Published Under the Direction of the Secretary of
War by Robert N. Scott. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901.

Wright, Robert K. Jr. Military Police. Washington, D.C.: Conter of Military Histary, United
States Army, 1992.

Articles

Abei, Annie H. “The Indians in the Civil War.” American Historical Review 15 (January 1910):
281-96.

Aptheker, Herbert. “The Negro in the Union Navy,” Journal of Negro History 32 (April 1947):
169-70.

Banks, David. “Civil War Refugees from Indian Territory in the North, 1861-1864.” Chronicles of
Oklahoma 41, n. 3 (1963): 286-98.

Barnes, Lela, ed. “An Editor Looks at Early-day Kansas, the Letters of Charles Monroe Chase.”
Kansas Historical Quarterly 26 (Summer 1960): 113-151.

Barry, Louise. “The Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson Military Road and the Founding of Fort
Scott.” Kansas Historical Quarterly 11, n. 2 (May 1942): 115-129,

Bearss, Edwin C. “The Army of the Frontier's First Campaign: The Confederates Win at
Newtonia.” Missouri Historical Review 60, n. 3 (April 1966): 283-319.

———.. “From Rolla to Fayetteville with General Curtis.” Arkansas Historical Review 19, n. 3
(Autumn 1960): 225-259.

Berneking, Carolyn, ed. “A Look at Early Lawrence: Letters From Robert Gaston Elliot.” Kansas
Historical Quarterly 43 (Autumn 1977): 282-296,

Blunt, James G. “General Blunt’s Account of His Civil War Experiences.” Kansas Historical
Quarterly 1,5. 3 (May 1932): 211-265.

Brown, James H. “History of Bourbon County, Kansas,” in John P. Edwards, comp., An [lus-
trated Historical Atlas of Bourbon County, Kansas. Philadelphia: Edwards Brothers, 1878.

Brown, M.L.“Notes on U.S. Arsenals, Depots, and Martial Fircarms of the Second Seminole
War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 61, n. 4 (1983): 445-458.

Cain, Marvin R. and John F. Bradbury, Jr. “Union Troops and the Civil War in Southwestern
Missouri and Northwestern Arkansas.” Missouri Historical Review 88, n, | (October 1993):
29-47.

Carroll, H. Bailey. “Steward A. Miller and the Snively Expedition of 1843.” Southwestern Histori-
cal Quarterly $4 (January 1951): 261-86.

Castel, Albert. “War and Politics: The Price Raid of 1864.” Kansas Historical Quarterly 24, n. 2
(Summer 1958): 129-43,

Christianson, James R. “The Early Osage — ‘The Ishmaelites of the Savages.” Kansas History
11, n. 1 (Spring 1988): 2-21.

Clifford, Roy A. “Indian Regiments in the Battle of Pea Ridge.” Chronicles of Oklahoma 25
(Winter 1947-48): 314-22.

380



telling. Catlin, like his nation, could see na practical economic use for the region."

One other Indian group was forced into the population mix in the ostensibly vacant space
in southeast Kansas, although mainly in legal machinations. A treaty signed January 15, 1838, at
Buffalo Creek, N.Y., between the U.S. government and Oneida, Tuscarora, Seneca, Cayuga and
other smaller bands granted the group, classified by the document as New York Indians, 1.824
million acres in what would become Kansas just west of the Missouri state line. The Osage lands
were immediately north of the Cherokee Strip and south of this new reservation. Another treaty
provision provided that the president could reclaim any lands not used by New York Indians who
refused to move there from their existing homes in New York and Wisconsin. The Seneca nation
sold their New York reservations — at Buffalo Creek, Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Towanda — to
Thomas Ogden and Joseph Fellows for $202,000 in preparation for a move to Kansas. Business
difficulties derailed the sale, and by a new contract negotiated on May 20, 1842, the Seneca
regained rights to the Allegany and Cattaraugus reserves. This regaining of New York lands,
along with “the unlimited right to remain thereon,” stopped their departure to the Indian
Territory.”

The legal maneuvers of the other groups continued. Under terms of the 1838 treaty, which
went into effect by presidential proclamation on April 4, 1840, the New York Indians had five
years to move to the lands set aside for them. Although in 1846 Dr. Abraham Hogeboom
persuaded about two hundred New York Indians to move to their land in an action that lacked
government sanction, no general movement of New York Indians followed. Many in
Hogeboom’s group died shortly after reaching their lands, a few settled on the reservation lands,
and the rest returned to New York. After the failure to shift the Indians west, the Department of
the Interior protected the reserved New York Indian lands and sought to guard them against the
encroachment of white settlers until the agency resolved their legal status, Commissioner of the
Office of Indian Affairs George Manypenny informed the U.S. Senate in December 1856. Only
thirty-two New York Indians remained in Kansas in 1860, when the federal government had
restored all but 11,000 acres of the grant to the public domain.”!

Located at the fringe of the American nation of the 1840s, the Army built Fort Scott on
those mostly vacant New York Indian lands, sentry to a vision of social management that was
disastrous from its inception. Consigned to the dispossessed American Indian peoples from east
of the Mississippi River, the land that would become eastern Kansas and Oklahoma seemed ripe

" George Callin, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians. Written
During Eight Years’ Travel amongst the Wildest Tribes of Indians in North America, In 1832. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39.
(Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1965; New York, Wiley and Putnam, 1841); Earl Arthur Shoemaker, The Permanent Indian
Frontier: The Reason for the Construction and Abandonment of Fort Scott, Kansas, During the Dragoon Era (Omaha: National
Park Servic, 1986): 6-22.

* George Manypenny to R. McClelland, Secretary of the Interior, Dec, 23, 1856, published in Report of the Secretary
of the Interior, communicating, In compliance with a resolution of the Senate on the 17th instant, information respecting the title
of the United States to certain land in Kansas set aside to the New York Indians. Serial doc. 878, Senate Ex. Doc. 13, 34th
Cong,, 3d sess., 1-4.

* Tbid., “Brief on Behalf of Settlers in Kansas upon Public Lands in which it is claimed that certain New York Indians
have an interest under the treaty made with the Six Nations of New York Jadians, January 15, 1838." Charles and William B,
King, Attomeys for the Settlers, Kansas State Historical Society, micro negative No, 2.

9


The fallout from the failed expedition into [ndian Territory in the summer of 1862
plagued federal leaders. Col. William Phillips, commanding officer of the Indian Brigade (three
Indian Home Guards regiments) suggested that the Burcau of Indian Affairs could return more of
the refugee Indians living in Kansas south to their former homes in the Indian Territory.
However, on February 24, 1863, the Superintendent of the Southern United States Indian
Agency, William G. Coffin, was concerned about the wisdom of such a move when approved it,
“but not, I must confess, without some misgivings as to the safety of the movement,” The agency
secured contracts with civilian teamsters for wagons to transport sceds and implements. In April.
Coffin forwarded the results ofa refugee census to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. At the
Sac and Fox agency in Neosho Falls, agents counted 3.290 Creeks, 170 Chickasaws, 250
Cherokees; 901 Seminoles; in Belmont, 1,789 Wichitas and affiliated tribes; at the Ottawa
Reservation, 690 Quapaws, Senecas, and Seneca Shawnees, for a total of 7,090 Indian refugees.
Throughout spring and summer 1863, the Indians hoped that they could return to their homes in
Indian Territory, but they remained in Kansas, trapped in poverty and uncertainty. Conditions for
those Indians stili living in Indian Territory remained just as desperate. One Indian who moved
north to Kansas reported there was no bread to eat and only a small amount of corn that they
could hide from the Confederates. “They say that none within their knowledge have enough to do
them until spring, and must be furnished there, Icave the country, or starve,” an agent wrote of
the Indians.”

In Apri] 1863, soon after Major Charles Blair, a Fort Scott resident serving in the Second
Kansas Cavalry, assumed command of Fort Scott, the U.S. Army mounted a new expedition to
regain control of Indian Territory and undo the damages suffered in 1862. A shortage of white
troops forced the Department of Kansas to design the operation using mainly Indian Home Guard
regiments supported {rom Fort Scott. The Indian Brigade, commanded by Col. Phillips, located
in northern Arkansas where it had spent the winter. was ordered to lead the expedition into the
Indian Territory. Accompanying Phillips’ column were about one thousand Creck, Seminole and
Cherokee families from the crowded refugee camps near Neosho, Missouri, which was close to
the border of Missouri and Arkansas. By April 9, Phillips” column and the refugee train from
Neosho carrying the Indians entcred Park Hill in the Cherokee country of the Indian Territory.
Four days later, on April 13, 1863, Phillips’ column and the remaining refugees (Creeks and
Seminoles) re-occupied Fort Gibson. In addition to rebuilding the fortifications at Fort Gibson,
Phillips’ men continued their drive to clear the Confederate forces from the northern part of the
Indian Territory. On April 24, 1863, Col. Phillips commanded a 600-man cavalry force which
advanced south across the Arkansas River and defeated the Confederate forces commanded by
Col. Stand Watie at the Battle of Webber Falls. Many of the Creek and Seminole refugees settled
near Fort Gibson and planted corn and other crops because the Confederate forces still occupied

5.5. Congress. 37%. 2d Sess. House, House Report 132. Scrial 1138, “Relief of indian Refugees in Southem
Kansas”: William G. Coffin to William P. Dole, February 24. 1863, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Report of the Scorctary of the Interior. serial 1184. vol. 3. 1* sess, 38" Congress (Washington. D.C.: Government Printing Office.
1864). 313. Coffin to Dole. February 7. 1863, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Secretary of
the Interior. scrial 1184, vol, 3, [ sess, 38" Congress (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1864). 312: Edmund J
Danziger. Jr. “The Otfice of Indian Affairs and the Problems of Civil War ladian Refugees in Kansas.” Kansas Historical
Quewterty 35. n.3 (Autumn 1969), 257-75

140



HS-17 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-17, reconstructed Powder Magazine (South elevation). 1979. Note buildings, left to right, HS-1 and HS-2
(Officers Quarters) and HS-15 (Well Canopy).

366


HS-10 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-10, Dragoon Stables, reconstruction in progress. North end ofthe bullding | in immediate foreground.
Southwest view from the porch of HS-5 (reconstructed Dragoon Barracks). 1978.

na
falas si Spe tees
HS-10, “Dragoon Stabies. Framing ‘timbers. and rafters in place (Southeast elevation). View from
Carroll Plaza. HS-5 (Dragoon Barracks) at right center. 1979.

345



HS-9 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS: Post Guardhouse reconstruction, installing porch root rafters
(Northeast elevation). View from Carroll Plaza, May 1975.

HS-9: reconstructed Post Guardhouse (Northeast elevation), 1980.
344



HS-14 Fort Seott National Historic Site

356


bad order,” and one set of tooth tools, recorded as “not complete.”

Caring for the stricken patients was extremely labor-intensive, and hospital supervisors
continually bemoaned the lack of trained nurses, ward orderlies, and support personnel. Most of
the men came from the regiments assigned to the post, the overwhelming majority untrained in
medical affairs, and all too often the unit’s misfits considered expendable for combat duties by
commanders. A further complication was the consistent turnover in men assigned hospital duty,
with many soldiers switching assignments just as they were becoming proficient in medical
duties. An April 1862 note to Col. Charles Doubleday reported the hospital’s inability to feed the
twenty-three men in the guard house breakfast, owing to the regular cook’s illness and the
regimental assignees’ inadequacies in the kitchen. By September 1862, the Army staffed the
hospital with forty-nine nurses, six bakers, thirteen cooks, one ward worker, and one matron by
the name of Peggy Ross. Supplementing the government workers were civilians living in Fort
Scott, who often came forward to assist the patients directly, as when the townspeople undertook
a fund drive to raise money for window blinds to he!p alleviate the summer heat. The Ladies
Hospital Aid Society was a regular source of comfort to patients, meeting in the afternoons to
make up articles that they distributed during their daily hospital visits. The men of the town met
in the evenings in their own fund-raising effort, and more than four weeks later in 1862
contributed about $100 to the society.”

The original post hospital’s two wards, big enough to handle the small number of regular
Amy soldiers in the prewar garrison, proved inadequate to handle the flood of patients brought
in by the Civil War. In warmer weather, medical staff housed some patients on the porch that
encircled the hospital. When the hospital was full of patients, the Army created additional bed
space by establishing wards of tents immediately adjacent to the hospital on Carroll Plaza. Many
physicians, obsessed with “effluvias” and other gases believed to cause sicknesses, saw the tents
as aiding the patient’s recovery.”

The canvas structures often surrounded the hospital building, and the parade ground
offered a convenient location for the temporary structures. A series of tents standing at Fort Scott
in December 1862 gave doctors room to house two hundred and forty patients, one of the highest
numbers of sick and wounded recorded at the hospital. The number of patients peaked at three
hundred on March 1, 1863, after the Indian regiments sent a train of twenty-five ambulances and
wagons north for treatment. The hospital’s normal capacity was between one hundred and one
hundred and fifty men.”

* January 1861 to September 1865, Record Group 94, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives; Inventory performed
May 13, 1862. Roll 8, Records of Adjutant General, Fort Scott Post Returns June 842 to Apri] 1853.

*’ Davis 9 Doubleday, April 16, 1862, Roll 19, Records of Adjutant Ciencral, Hospital Records for Fort Scott, Kansas,
Record Group 94, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives microfilm, frame 1690; Roll 8, Records of Adjutant General, Fost
‘Scott Post Returns June 1842 to Aol. 1853; June 1858; January 1861 to September 1865, Record Group 94, Fort Scott National
Historic Site archives; Fort Scott Bulletin, June 14, 1862.

* Adams, Doctors in Blue, 214,

* Col. William Philips to Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis, Feb. 6, 1863, 0.8, 1:22/2, 1145; Moming Report of Sick and
Wounded in General Hospital, Fort Scott, Kansas, Fort Scott National Historic Site archives.

183



HS-8 Fort Scott National Historic Site

lorth elevation’

fevation). Front view from Fenton Avenue. Note: original Biack Wainut
clapboard siding in situ, 1952.

336


Myers, Harry C. ed. From the “Crack Post of the Frontier”: Letters of Thomas and Charlotte
Swerds. Fort Scott: Sekan Publications, [n.d.].

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of Missouri Press, 1978.

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1990,

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HarperCollins Publishers, 1997.

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Missouri, 1990,

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——-. Sword of the Republic: The United States Army on the Frontier, 1783-1846. Lincoln:
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Civil War, New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.

Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Civil War. Boston: Little, Brown, 1953.

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and the American Civil War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Rawley, James A. Race And Politics: “Bleeding Kansas” and the Coming of the Civil War.
Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1969.

Redfern, Ron. The Making of a Continent. New York: New York Times Book Co., 1983.

Redkey, Edwin, ed. An Army of Grand Black Men. Letters from African American Soldiers 1861-
1865. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Richards, Ralph. The Forts of Fort Scott and the Fateful Borderland. Kansas City, Mo.: Lowell

389


Department received an authorization for $332,000, part of which was specifically designated for
moving Fort Gibson closer to the Arkansas state line.** Local persistence paid off. The
combination of disease and local desire led to the search for a new and healthier location for the
fort.

Finding the best site required effort. Major Charles Thomas and Captain John Stuart left
Fort Smith on Sept. 25, 1838, to scout for a new location between Fort Leavenworth and Fort
Coffee. The Army evacuated Fort Coffve at the end of October and sent the men to a new site
near the Illinois River. The new fort, initially called Camp Hlinois, proved to be as unhealthy as
its predecessors. Stuart and many of his men died soon after their arrival. A company of the
Fourth Infantry arrived in February 1839; in April four companies of dragoons commanded by
Col. Richard Mason arrived at the post. Men continued to fall sick, and construction of the fort
went slowly. In the fall, the fort was moved further north and dragoons began building log cabins
and blockhouses at this new site, designated Fort Wayne. Its main purpose was to monitor the
Cherokees, whose removal west in 1833 and 1839 sparked numerous incidents with the Army. A
possible civil war among different Cherokee factions in 1839 required a military presence. The
Amny sent 1,650 men to the frontier, 335 of whom were stationed at Fort Wayne. After several
councils, the government resolved the Cherokee conflict and reduced nearby Army forces
reduced, but military concerns did not diminish.* As winter approached in 1839, thousands of
eastern Indians arrived in the lands around Fort Gibson. The Army moved to increase its garrison
there, drawing soldiers from its less-threatened neighbor to the northeast, Fort Wayne.

Against this backdrop of military expansion and construction, plans for Fort Scott began
to take shape. This newest of the forts along the mid-nineteenth century line between the
expanding American nation and the domestic dependent peoples it shipped beyond its boundaries
was a necessity, a crucial connection point in the large gap along the Missouri border.
Government planners still envisioned a permanent Indian frontier separating the two cultures, but
increasing white expansion threatened that objective at the same time that frontier traders
continued to profit from illegal liquor trafficking. Across the nation, a growing pessimism about
the eventual fate of Indians influenced American policy; the only alternatives available to the
Plains people were to adapt to white culture or face extermination, and while many Army officers
favored the first option, the second increasingly seemed more likely. Officers’ attitudes began to
shift toward protecting the society that would survive.** The threat of Indian and white unrest
along the border, both real and perceived, forced the Army to maintain its defenses along a string
of outposts and the frontier military road that connected them.

The location selected for Fort Scott presented the Army with a problem. The Second
Military Department, which administered Fort Wayne, was responsible for all posts south of the
37* parallel of north latitude, the dividing line established in 1837. The site on the Marmaton
River chosen for the fort fell under the jurisdiction of the First Military Department. Brig. Gen.

Beers, The Wesiern Military Frontier, 69, 104-5, 118-19.
% Beers, The Western Military Frontier, 133-35.

% Skelton, An American Profession of Arms, 315-17; Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny, Dippie, The Vanishing
American, 130-32.

28



antebellum law. On October 14, 1861, the War Department authorized Brig. Gen. Thomas
Sherman, commander of a federal expedition to South Carolina, to use any person, including
escaped slaves, as he saw fit, “as ordinary employees, or, if special circumstances seem to require
it, in any other capacity,” provided he promise just compensation to any loyal slaveholders who
lost their laborers.”

The inability to win a decisive victory in the first half of 1862 led to two significant
pieces of federal legislation that would directly affect Fort Scott. Under a new militia act calling
up a draft of nine-month volunteers, the president received discretionary power to recruit African
Americans for any service, including combat. Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act in
July 1862. The new law confiscated the property of traitors and freed their slaves, with the
president given the authority to use their labor in any manner he saw fit.”

Out in Kansas, Fort Scott became a source of African American soldiers, as it became a
refugee station for former slaves fleeing from Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Once
the Union Army leadership accepted the advantages of recruiting African Americans and Indians,
Fort Scott and Fort Leavenworth in eastern Kansas became the logical places to start. They were
home to trained officers, adequate amounts of military supplies and a large number of former
slaves and refugee Indians. From 1860 to 1865, the African American population in Kansas
soared from 627 to 12,527, and by the end of the war, African Americans made up almost one-
quarter of Fort Scott’s population. Many lived in a large contraband camp in the woods along
Buck Run, a small stream on the town’s east side, but as one writer noted “Some are glad to get
work and prove their manhood and usefulness; others lounge in idleness, refusing good offers,
preferring to live on the hospitality of those who have erected little shanties and are earning a
living.””*

On the islands off the South Carolina coast, the Army continued to experiment with
African Americans regiments. Col. David Hunter, the former commander of the Department of
Kansas, reversed his opposition to James Lane’s minority units. After his reassignment to the
southern coast early in 1862 he deciared all captured slaves freed and organized the First South
Carolina Colored Regiment. Continuing the policies he followed in reaction to Frémont in
Missouri and Cameron in his Annual Report of 1861, Lincoln disavowed Hunter’s attempt at
emancipation. The African American unit soon disbanded. The presidential rebuke was not as
sharp as his earlier responses. As part of the message to Hunter, the president indicated that
military powers granted to the nation’s commander in chief in time of war might supercede
political considerations that prevented a civilian leader from seizing property protected by the
Constitution. A further hint of Lincoin’s shift in policy came later in 1862. The army transferred
Gen. Benjamin Butler to Louisiana after he began the “contrabands of war” argument in Virginia.

26 James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 353-
56; Thomas A. Scott, Acting Secretary of War, 10 Sherman, October 14, 1861, O.R,, 1:6, 176-77,

Y McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 355, 498-501; Foote, The Civil War, 539-40,

U.S, and Kansas census figures cited in Richard B. Sheridan, “From Slavery in Missouri to Freedom in Kansas; The
Influx of Black Fugitives and Contrabands into Kansas, 1854-1865,” Kansas History 12, 0, 1 (Spring 1989): 28-47; Louis F,
Burns, A History of the Osage People (Fallbrook, CA: Ciga Press, 1989), 341-52; Fort Scott Bullezin, November 29, 1862; C.M.
Chase, August 19, 1863, Folder “Misc. - Chase, C.M.,” Miscellaneous Collections, Chas-Ci, Kansas State Historical Society.

165



Bleeding Kansas, 1857-1861
General William S. Harney and Staff
Dee. 3, 1860 to Dec. 11, 1860
Second Dragoons
CompanyC — Dec. 3, 1861 to January 1861
CompanyK — Dec, 3, 1861 to January 1861

USS. Artillery
One Section Dec. 3, 1861 to January 1861

Civil War, 1861-1865
1861
July 1861
Sixth Kansas Cavalry
August 1861
Third Kansas Infantry
Fourth Kansas Infantry

Fifth Kansas Infantry Co. A
Co. F
Co. B
Ca. C
Co, E
Sixth Kansas Cavalry

Tenth Kansas Cavalry

First Battery Light Artillery
September 1861

Fifth Kansas Infantry

Sixth Kansas Cavairy

Ninth Kansas Cavairy Co. C

First Battery Light Artillery
October [86{

Fifth Kansas Infantry

Sixth Kansas Cavalry

First Battery Light Artillery

280



The main entrance into Fort Scott National Cemetery

run by community churches, Municipal governments became involved later with establishment
of potter’s fields and later the town or city cemetery, located within the city limits.”

Following the Revolution, American society was ready to accept new ideas about almost
anything, and dealing with death was one of the things suitable for change. A fast-growing nation
could not protect its dead from being unearthed and relocated as their original graveyard became
valuable property for development. The science of the age also convinced many that graveyards
emitted toxic fumes dangerous to the city dweller’s health. An acceptable solution was the
cemetery, a garden-like area removed from the city, that could serve as a palliative for many
urban ills. A continuation of change in public attitude that moved the final resting place from the
church graveyard and town commons to the city graveyard to a larger, more isolated setting,
increasingly known as the cemetery, the Greek word for “sleeping chamber.” The use of the word
cemetery reflected this new ideal that embraced the suggestion of death as sleep, as another step
from life to eternal life. It also reflected the nation’s new optimistic sentiments about religion and
nationalism. The rural cemetery was introduced with the establishment of Mount Auburn

5? David Charles Sioane, The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1991), 1-43.

185


HS-12 Fort Scout National Historic Site

engene es ie

355



30, 1863. Until Nov. 10, 1863, Swords was supervising Quartermaster of the Department of the
Cumberland, and of the Department of the Ohio until January 17, 1865. He was breveted a briga-
dier general and a major general for his performance in the Quartermaster Corps. Swords retired
from active service on February 22, 1869 after serving 40 years in the U.S. Army and died in his
New York City home on March 20, 1886.5

Fort Scott also was a former post for two Surgeon Generals of the United States Army. Dr,
William Alexander Hammond, a graduate of the Medical College of New York University, served
ai Fort Scott from 1847 to 1848, and then practiced in the frontier army until 1860, when he re-
signed to go into teaching and private practice, The former Army Assistant Surgeon relinquished
his lucrative private practice and professorship at University of Maryland to rejoin the medical
corps on May 28, 1861. Hammond was made responsible for establishing military hospitals in
Maryland, and based on his early successes, he was named Surgeon Genera! with the rank of
brigadier general on April 25, 1862, replacing Col. C.A. Finley. He soon came into personal and
professional conflicts with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and was ordered out of Washington,
D.C., offices for inspection duties on Sept. 3, 1863, Stanton soon replaced him with Cal. Joseph
K. Barnes, another former Fort Scott surgeon. Hammond was later court-martialed and dismissed
from the Army on Aug. 30, 1864, He started a practice in neurology, then in its infancy, and rapidly
gained prominence as a teacher and clinician. By 1878 Hammond had acquired enough moncy to
attempt to clear his military record. A Senate commiltee cleared his name the following year,
vindicated the former Surgeon General, and placed him on the retired list with the rank of briga-
dier general.

Dr. Joseph K. Barnes, his replacement as Surgeon General, was the medical officer at Fort
Scott from 1851 to 1852. A medical graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Barnes entcred
military scrvice as an assistant surgeon in 1840, and by the Civil War had been promoted to major.
Barnes served as a medical inspector in a number of posts before becoming acting Surgeon Gen-
eral following Hammond’s reassignment. After Hammond was dismissed from the Army in August
1864, the government promoted Barnes to brigadier general and was appointed as Surgeon Gen-
eral. Immediately after the Civil War, he directed the compilation and publication of the volumi-
nous Surgical and Medical History of the Civil War. Barnes retired a year before his death in
1883, after baving accomplished the singular medical feat of attending both Presidents Lincoln and
Garfield in their last hours.’

‘Two other surgeons from Fort Scott’s early days also served in the Union Army medical
department. Dr. Josiah Simpson, post surgeon in 1842, was promoted to major surgeon in August
1855. He was breveted a lieutenant colonel and a colonel for his service. Dr. Levi H. Holden, post
surgeon in 1852 to {853, entered Civil War service as a major surgeon. He retired in 1868.

The outcome of the battle of Gettysburg, considered by most historians as the turning point
of the war, was heavily influenced by several Fort Scott veterans. Second Lieutenant John Buford,

5 Harry C. Myers, ed., From “The Crack Post of the Frontier!" Leuers of Thomas and Charlotte Swords (Fort Scott:
Sekan Publications, n.d.). 1-5.

“Harold L. Klawans, “Court-Martial of a Surgeon General,” MD (April 1992), 103-116; Bonnie Elien Blustein, Preserve
Your Love for Science: Life of William A, Hammond, American Neurologist (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press,
1991).

"Sifakis, Who was Who in the Civil War.


Post-Fort Scott Careers

Many of the men who made up the post’s garrisons both before and during the Civil War
remained in the military. A number of the officcrs who served at the southeast Kansas post went on
to garncr glory and honor in the Mexican War and the Civil War, others served without significant
distinction and, like Douglas MacArthur's prototypical soldier, just faded away. Four of the
officers who served at Fort Scott between 1842 and 1846 died in the Mexican War. Three of them
~ William Montrose Graham; Charles Hoskins, and Alien Higbee Norton ~ served with the Fourth
Infantry Regiment while it was stationed at Fort Scott. Benjamin D. Moore, the Navy midshipman
turned cavalryman, was a First Dragoons officer during his time at the post. Henry Lee Scott, with
the Fourth Infantry in Kansas from 1843 to 1845, acted as aide de camp to Gen. Winfield Scott
during the Mexican War before retiring in October 1861. Another former Fort Scott officer,
George Brewerton of the First Infantry, saw combat in Mexico and then resigned.’

Several other officers who had served at Fort Scott died away from the battlefield, includ-
ing Benjamin A. Berry, Orren Chapman, Darius D. Clark, Winslow F. Sanderson, Alexander
Morrow, Richard H. West, and Assistant Surgeons Alfred W. Kennedy and Richard French
Simpson. Capt. Burdett A. Terrett of the First Dragoons was killed at Fort Scott by the accidental
discharge of his pistol while dismounting on March 17, 1845. Philip Roots Thompson, honored for
gallantry at Sacramento on February 1847, was cashiered on September 1855 and died less than
two years later. Michael E. Van Buren, who served with the Mounted Rifles at Fort Scott, sur-
vived action in Mexico only to die July 20, 1854, of wounds received in battle with Comanche
Jadians near San Diego, Texas,

When the Civil War erupted in 1861, many of the men who served as officers at Fort Scott
during its period of active operation in the 1840s and 1850s were graduates of the military acad-
emy at West Point and were stil] serving in the Army. Most of the officers from Southern states
resigned their commissions and joined the Confederacy, but the majority continued to serve the
federal government. About 440 West Point graduates remained in federal service when the war
began, and they werc soon joined by about one hundred and fifteen men who had resigned their
commissions before the conflict started. Another 393 former Army officers joined state volunteer
regiments, Their formal training and military experience had to be spread among the more than (wo
thousand regiments eventually formed under the Union flag. Many of the West Pointers, including
veterans of Fort Scott service, quickly moved into higher commands?

One of the highest ranking alumni of Fort Scott was Brigadier General David A. Russell.
The native New Yorker served at Fort Scott for two years as a second lieutenant in the First
Infantry after graduation from West Point in 1845. Appointed colonel of the Seventh Massachusetts

' Officer biographies are from George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the United States
Military Academy, 2 vols. (New York: (.F. Throw, 1891) and Francis B. Heiman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United
States Army from lis Organization, September 29, 1789 to March 2, 2902. 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1903), Several officers have their own biographical works,

2 Russell F. Weigley, History of the United States Army (New York; Macmillan Company, 1967), 229.

273



Northem military and politica! leaders held to the philosophy that they could lose the West and
still win the war, but the Union could not win if it lost in the East. The lack of attention helped
accelerate violence across the Missouri-Kansas border, and established conditions that led to four
years of suffering in the Indian Territory, south of Fort Scott. Inadequate federal supervision
allowed state military units in southeast Kansas and irregular partisans based in the area to raid
Missouri at will during the first year of the war. The lack of Union protections angered pro-
Union supporters and drove neutral Missourians into active support of the Confederacy. Political
influences in both states contributed to this problem. Military units involved in the Kansas and
Missouri theaters were often not regular federal troops, but rather state units raised by Jeaders
more interested in their personal agendas, including profit, than the prosecuting the war.

James Lane’s quickly developed friendship with President Abraham Lincoln also
contributed to political unrest in Kansas. Their relationship played a key role in Lane’s political
feuding with Robinson, the Kansas governor, and
ultimately hurt the state’s military effort. During the first
troubled days of the war, the western senator was a
significant source of support for Lincoln, offering the
services of about 120 Kansans to serve as a “Frontier
Guard” for presidential protection. The president’s
secretaries believed the act “lent an important moral
influence in repressing and overawing the lurking treason
still present in a considerable fraction among the
Washington inhabitants.” The presidential detail was
short-lived. The Army soon assigned Lane’s unit to
protect the Washington Navy Yard. On April 27, 1861,
Lane requested permission to disband the unit, citing the
increased numbers of federal troops then available.

While the contribution scemed small, the Frontier
Guard inaugurated a relationship that lasted throughout
the war. Lane’s enthusiasm for the Union cause and the
Republican party, along with his ability to carry ideas
into action, became an appealing trait to a president
surrounded by military men unable to act with the
decisiveness to win. Lincoln’s appreciation of Lane was quickly evident. He wrote Simon
Cameron, his Secretary of War, in June 1861 that “we need the services of such a man [as Lane]
out there.” in Kansas suggesting that the Army appoint the senator a brigadier general of
volunteers with authority to raise at least two regiments. “Tell him when he starts to put it
through not to be writing or telegraphing back here,” Lincoln continued, “but put it through.”
Lane sought permission to raise “regiments of troops in Kansas in addition to the three regiments
from the state heretofore accepted.” Jn response to prompting from Lincoln, the secretary of war

James H. Lane

* Soha G. Nicolay and John Hay. Abraham Lincoln: A Llistary (New York, 1904), [V, 106-107, cited in Wendell
Holmes Stephenson. Publications of the Kansas State Historical Suviety Embracing the Political Career of General James I,
Lane (Topeka: Kansas State Printing Plant, 1930), 104, Edgar Langsdorf, “Jim Lane and the Frontis: Guard.” Kansas Historical
Quarterly 9 (February 1940): 13-25.

97



established to suppress guerrilla activity, warn of enemy operations, maintain communications
and to protect roads and fords crossing strategic waterways. Outlying posts supplied stretched
approximately 30 miles east into Missouri, south to Drywood, Pawnee Creek, Baxter Springs (60
miles), Osage Mission (75 miles), west to lola and Humboldt (40 miles). and north to Trading
Post and Bamesville, Kansas. Col. William A. Phillips and the three Union Indian Home Guard
regiments under his command, reinforced by a battalion of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry and four
artillery pieces captured at Old Fort Wayne, were assigned to patrol northwestern Arkansas, The
northern section of Indian Territory was deserted by military forces for most of early 1863,
except far occasional raids by Phillips’ men or Stand Watie’s Cherokees. During the year Union
armies marched into Arkansas, relying on Fort Scott for sustenance until they reached
Fayetteville or Fort Smith,

The post was more than a supply depot. Casualties from baitles across the nation,
including Stones River south of Nashville on the first two days of the new year, continued the
demand for uniformed manpower. In response, Fort Scott expanded its recruiting and training
responsibilities in the first months of 1863, as the First Kansas (Colored) Volunteer Infantry
Regiment mustered into federal service on January 13. Col. James M. Williams became the
commanding officer of this regiment, which he helped to recruit in August and September of
1862. The majority of soldiers in the regiment were former slaves who had escaped from
Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Despite the inercased influx of black troops into the
Union army, racism stil) existed throughout the military. The War Department refused to
commission Lieut. William D. Matthews, a black man from Maryland and recruiter of the
regiment’s Company D, and black soldiers continued to be paid at a lower rate than their white
counterparts. At the same time that the black troops were entering service, white enlistments in
Kansas continued. On February 23, Kansas Governor Thomas Carney authorized the raising of
three companies for the Sixth Kansas Voluntecr Infantry Regiment, including one recruited at
Fort Scott.”

The Army often stood in for civilian law enforcement, and the post at Fort Scott acted as
the duty station for the provost marshal of southeastern Kansas. In one case, Major B.S. Henning,
provost marshal in February 1863, ordered a Third Wisconsin officer to send out a party to track
down a man named Duneway who attacked a woman, threatening her and her stock. The soldiers
were told “Teli him to quit or he will have to get out of the neighborhood.” Fort Scott's
commanding officer told another Third Wisconsin officer that the Davis family had been ordered
to move south, but instead had settled on the Drywood. He was ordered to lead a detachment
“and notify the family to leave at once and see that they do it. If there are others in the same fix,
serve them in the same way.” This role inspired tension in the region, as the goals of settlers and
the obligations of the military often led to negative feelings on both sides.!?

“ Tradeau, Like Ment of War. 19-20: Kansas Adjutant General, Official Military History of Kansas Regiments During
the War for the Suppression of te Great Rebellion, Topeka: State Printing Office. 1896: Leavenworth. Kans.: W.S, Burke,
1870.. 84.

"° By Order of B.S. Henning. February 18, 1863; Chas, Blair to Lt. Pond. August 1863. both orders in RG 393, Army

Continental Communds, Third Wisconsin Cavalry Letter Book and Order Book and Company Order Book and Morning Reports.
Fon Scott National !istoric Site archives. p, 21.

139


Special Report of vacant lots and property taken and occupied by the Quartermaster’s Department at Fort Scott Kansas,
for Government purposes under the provisions of Gen, Ord. No, 8, Series of 1864, Q.M.G.O. by Captain M.N. Insley A.Q.M.
U.S.A, June 30 1865

Date
When Taken

June 1 1862

Novi “

“a8

May 1, 1864

Oct 1 1862

Nov 11863

Oct 11861

June 1 1863

Description of By Whom
Property Owned
Lot 1 Block 68 Hiero T.

Los 24.6810, Wilson
&12 Bik 66

Lots 1,3,5,7,9,11

Blk 65 and part

of Lots2.4,6,8,10,

12 Block 65

Lats3.4,5,6,7.8, “
910,112
Block 121

Lot 2 Block 137 «

Lots 1,23,4,5,6,
7,8.9,10,11,12

Block i27

Lats 1.2,3,4.5,
6,7,8.9,10,11,12

Block 128

Lots 7,8,9,10,11,12 Blk 65
part of lots 2,4,6,8,10,12
Blk. 65

Lots 6,7,8.9 Block 3 “

Lot 9 Black 1 “

80 Acres “

80 Acres

SE.Dillion

For what
Purpose

Wood &
Coal Yard

Post
Stables

Mess

Forage
Yard

& Hay Press

Blacksmith
& Wagon
Shops

Tce House

Camping

Corrals

No. & kind of
Building

t office for
Fuel Master

Stable for
Post Teams

1 Temporary
House
Wooden
Building

5 Com Cribs
1 office for

Forage Master

1 Building

‘One Military
Guard House

No Buildings

Cost to Reinarks
US.

25.00

25,00

35.00 For Post
teamsters &
laborers

500 For Post
Hospital&c

The best camping
Prison or ground
that could be
obtained adjacent
tothe depot

By agreement, the
Gov'tiu pay

the rents to June 1,
1865, at which
time the property
was to revert

to the owner

Ucertify that the above is correct and just; that the interest of the service required thal { should oecupy the above
mentioned lands and premises for the purpose Lhervin specified and that the prices, as reported, are reasonable.

A Truc Copy

298

MN. Insley , Capt & A.Q.M. USA
(Furnished to Hiero T, Wilson ESQ. for his information}



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Gene Campbell's letter to James Montgomery about the death of John Little

The irrelevance of politics to the border troubles tragically became apparent in December.
The free-state party sought to free one of Montgomery’s men, Benjamin Rice. John Hamilton,
captain of the local militia and a longtime member of the free-state forces, arrested Ricea month
earlier on a charge of robbery and held him in the Free State Hotel. On December 16, 1858, James
Montgomery and between seventy and one hundred of his men stormed into Fort Scott and forced
the townspeople onto Carroll Plaza. Former marshal John Little, a pro-slavery supporter, lived in
the former Post Headquarters building just northwest of the Free State Hotel that also housed his
store. He fired on Montgomery’s men, closed the door, and then climbed up to look through the
transom window. At that moment, a rifle bullet hit him in the head, killing him instantly.
Montgomery’s men then freed Rice and ransacked Little’s store, taking an estimated $4,000 in
goods. The free-state band “retreated in good order without the loss of a man but had gained one,”
as one Fort Scott resident remembered.”

The fallout from Little’s death again heightened tension in Bourbon County. Little was

Governors, 69
* Richards, Headquarters House, 23; Weich, Border Warfare, 174.

90



HS-i Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-1 (South elevation), museum operated by the Fort Scott Business and Professional Women’s Club.
Foreground: Northwest stone entrance to Carroll Plaza constructed as part of a 1830s’ WPA project.

Former Officers’
Quarters No. 1 and
2 (now HS-1 and
HS-2, South
elevation), 1956.



Public and military outcries over increasing cases of cattle theft from the Indian Territory
finally convinced military officials in early February to react firmly. Blair ordered the
commander of troops in the three counties immediately to the west of Bourbon County to arrest
anyone heading into Indian Territory. His order noted that no Kansas citizen or soldier had any
business in Indian Territory, so anyone found going south from Kansas could only be engaged in
stealing cattle?

Not all of the larceny in southeast Kansas involved cattle. After four years of combat, Fort
Scott’s merchants had perfected the routine of separating troops from their pay. The town
newspaper, reporting the arrival of the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry band for one of the regiment’s
irregular paydays, whimsically hoped “the boys will go back with more green backs in their
weasels than when they came.” A few days later, while mentioning the arrival of Lt. G.T.
Robinson of the Engineer Corps and his crew for work on the new fort and barracks, the Daily
Monitor again mentioned the paymaster’s activities, describing the officer “distributing
greenbacks to the deserving ones.” A cause of some concern to the town’s economy was the
newspaper’s observation that while many of the soldiers had been paid off and had the money to
drink, very few were observed “the worse for liquor.”

Still seeking more military support for his troops in the Indian Territory, early in February
Phillips wrote a lengthy report detailing his status to Maj. Gen. Joseph Jones Reynolds,
commanding the Department of Arkansas, focusing on the lack of horses for his command. His
Indian Brigade had a paper strength of about 1,600 mounted men, Phillips complained, but as a
result of a lack of animals he could not even mount his pickets or scouts. The refugee Indians
recently returned to the territory from camps in Kansas and Missouri, principally the Creeks,
sought to leave the camps surrounding Fort Gibson and return to their homes south of the
Arkansas River. Phillips claimed that was impossible without mounted troopers to protect the
separated homesteads. If he did get enough animals for one thousand men, horses promised in
1864 by Grant, along with a smal] number of artillery pieces, Phillips planned to lead his
command against Southern forces still operating in Indian Territory. Successful attacks would
push the Confederates south of the Red River, allowing the Indians to return to their farms and
begin spring planting, Phillips said, relieving Kansas from fears of an attack from the south.”

Five weeks into the new year, Fort Scott had a new department commander. As the
nation’s newspapers poured praise upon William Sherman for his march across Georgia, Curtis
grew upset with the lack of a similar outpouring for his work in pursuing Price the previous fall.
Curtis, who tumed sixty in 1865, submitted his resignation, and on February 7, Gen. Grenville
Dodge’s Missouri department was expanded west to include Kansas, Nebraska, and Utah. Maj.
Gen. James G. Blunt, still in charge of the District of Southem Kansas, wasted little time in
raising a fresh set of alarms to his new superior, warning the department commander that as

* Blair to Maj. H. C. Haas, Commanding Troops in Allen, Woodson, and Greenwood Counties, Feb. 2, [865, O.R.,
148), 725,

° Fort Scott Daily Monitor, Feb. 3, 1865, Feb. 5, 1865.

' Phillips to Maj. Gen. J.J. Reynolds, Feb. 9, 1865, QR, 1:48/1, 789-90,

220



and necessities.*!

The military situation in the Indian Territory prevented any early return of the refugees,
and by March 1862 there were between six thousand and seven thousand camped west of Fort
Scott, existing on a minimal amount of supplies. Many of the men were soon away, serving in
the Indian regiments recruited by the federal government in May and June of 1862. The
following month, an inspector found the Indians stil] mostly without shelter, except for “pieces of
cloth, old quilts, handkerchiefs, aprons, &c., stretched upon sticks.” Dr. George A. Cutler, agent
of the Creeks, reported that two hundred and forty of his charges had died in the past two
months. A common problem among all the Indians was frostbite, with a doctor working in the
refugee camp estimating that one hundred amputations had taken place. The inspector reported
that among the amputation patients, “I saw a little Creek boy, about eight years old, with both
feet taken off near the ankle.” If the Indians were to remain dependent upon the government, he
estimated it would take at least $292,000 just to feed eight thousand at ten cents a day. A
minimum of another $100,000 would be needed for clothing. The huge potential spending figures
forced the Bureau of Indian Affairs to pressure the Army for a speedy recapture of the Indian
Territory, but more pressing military needs delayed that action for years.”

In the absence of any positive Union victory in the Indian Territory during the year, the
refugee Indians remained camped across southeast Kansas. The commander of Fort Scott kept a
large number of Cherokees encamped on the Drywood, about twelve miles south of the post,
supplied with provisions. The town newspaper led a drive in November 1862 for a civilian relief
effort, calling upon its readers for tents, blankets, shoes, and clothing, warning that without
action about two-thirds of the women and children were likely to perish before spring. Hampered
by lack of official action, Brig. Gen. James Blunt, commander of the Army of the Frontier, had to
ask civilians through the Leavenworth Daily News for clothes and bedding items which were to
be forwarded to Fort Scott. The continued squalid living condition of the refugees was direct
evidence that not all of the federal money allotted to the Indians reached the camps. In September
1863, the Fort Scott. newspaper demanded to know how the appropriations had been spent, and
who had personally profited.?

Conditions for the refugees were unchanged for two years, and in February 1864, Maj.
Gen. Samuel Curtis’ report to Lincoln indicated that Indians were still encamped around Fort
Scott, Fort Gibson and on the Sac and Fox reservation, about forty miles south of Topeka. The
Bureau of Indian Affairs was supplying the Indians with food items, but most were still without
shelter, living in old tents or hide-covered huts. The Army was still insisting to Lincoin that it
lacked the manpower to protect the Indians if they were allowed to return to their homes in
Indian Territory, and as a consequence the majority remained encamped in Kansas and

* Jason Tumer to William P. Dole, Feb. 5, 1862, Report of A.B. Campbell, Feb. 5, 1865, Dole to Dr. Kile, Feb. 10,
1862, OLR, Series il, 4, 7-10.

* Daniel Webster Wilder, The Annals of Kansas (T, D, Thacher, Topeka, Kans,; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1975).

5 Fort Scott Bulletin, Nov. 2, 1862; Leavenworth Daily Times, Dec. 25, 1862, Fort Scott Union Menitor, Sept. 16,
1863.

192



HS-15 Fori Scott National Historic Site

HS-15, Well Canopy. First
reconstructed well canopy
{Southwest elevation), circa.
1900 and Bandstand (right),
circa 1920s.



for these refugees from an earlier world, torn apart by the expansion of the new nation. Their
chance at “civilization,” in the parlance of the time, depended on being kept away from the dregs
of American society, the whiskey peddlers and the other low types who seemed to the affluent to
embody moral decay and social ruin. Most Americans deemed the lands assigned the Indians
useless. That decreased the chances white settlers would flood in as they had across the rich
farmlands of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, new states that made up the Old Northwest.

The federal government held a clear conception of Fort Scott’s role in the nation’s
political picture, but the reality of its mission became far more complicated than anyone
anticipated. Originally the Army designed it to assist with the protection and policing of the
Permanent Indian Frontier. The federal government detailed the military to stand guard, keeping
settlers and avaricious traders away from native peoples and policing a line of separation as much
like as international border as could exist within a nation that embraced the philosophy of
Manifest Destiny. This idea that God had given the continent to the American nation had been in
the air since the end of the War of 1812. John L. O’Sullivan, the editor of the United States
Magazine and Democratic Review, first defined it in 1845, when he called for the United States
to assume control of the entire continent. This powerful vision of a nation flexing across the
continent also contained a real arrogance, one that permitted Americans to look past and then
cast aside all who inhabited the continent before them. The section of Military road running
south from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory was near the boundaries of
Missouri and Arkansas that separated the two societies. Military leaders sought to place a base
halfway between those two established. posts, to prevent illegal white settlements on Indian land
and prevent Indian depredations from occurring in Missouri. The rise above the Marmaton River
offered advantages for both purposes, a view overlooking the road and the high ground to defend
in case of attack. The speed of construction did not match the enthusiasm for the location. Started
in 1842, Fort Scott required almost eight years to complete.”

Built a few miles from the western edge of Missouri, Fort Scott overlooked thousands of
prairie acres apparently perfect for farming, yet off-limits to white settlers. Artificial political
constraints — the Missouri state line and the federal government’s Indian frontier — made this
desirable territory unavailable to the settlers who salivated for good land. The advance guard of
land speculators pushed ever westward by the young and boisterous nation’s growth soon
coveted these lands, but the chain of Indian treaties denied speculators’ plans for a quick
conquest. Temporarily blocking the nation’s expansion westward may have fueled land and
political passions and contributed to the heightened emotions unleashed in Kansas from 1854 to
1861.

Army garrisons in the territory that became Kansas played a key role in national
development during the first half of the nineteenth century. Troops carried out the dictates of
federal leaders and acted as a counterbalance to land-hungry settlers and the local governments
they established. Even before the facilities were finished, the fort’s initial purpose, policing the

2 White, The Middle Ground, 413, 415-18; Bernard W. Sheehan, Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonian Philanthropy and
the American Indian (Chapel Hill: North Carolina Press, 1973); Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of
American Racial Anglo-Saxonism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981); Haynes and Mortis, Manifest Destiny
and Empire, 8-1), William . Unrau, White Man's Wicked Water: The Alcohol Trade and Prohibition in Indian Country, 1802-
1892 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996), 40-78.

10



March 1862, the town’s importance lay in its geographic location in southeast Kansas and its
position astride the original military road that went north to Fort Leavenworth and south to forts
Gibson and Smith. The physical structures of the original fort and the town grew in importance
as the war in the West progressed, in the end playing an increasingly significant role in the
outcome of the war?

During the war years, a post garrison that during the previous two decades consisted
exclusively of Regular Army troops changed to Volunteer contingents from several states. The
town of Fort Scott, which housed federal troops on an intermittent basis during the last few years
of “Bleeding Kansas,” continued to garrison Regular Army units until February 186]. Company
B of the Second U.S. Infantry, assigned to Fort Scott in January, moved to Missouri to protect the
St. Louis arsenal and help maintain federal control in the border state. The unit participated in the
June expedition to Boonville and the capture of Jefferson City, and later saw action at Wilson’s
Creek. The company completed its move out of the western theater in December, joining its
regiment in Washington, D.C. It followed most of the other frontier Army companies reassigned
to the East once hostilities erupted, as senior military officers scrambled to place reliable, well-
trained units in the front lines.’

In 1861, the regional conflict over slavery that had burned between the citizens of
Missouri and Kansas during “Bleeding Kansas” contributed to the beginning of the Civil War.
Concerned that adding new free states upset the balance of power between South and North,
southemers, never doubting the right of states to secede, concluded that survival depended upon
independence. The North, determined to preserve the union, disagreed and prepared to prevent
the nation’s disintegration. The eastern seaboard became the focus of the early stages of conflict
and the Union army concentrated its forces there, maintaining only a minimum force in the
Midwest and the West. U.S. Army units in Missouri and Kansas had the twin responsibilities of
guarding against the military threats presented by Confederate armies and the irregular partisans
of “bushwhackers” from Missouri and Kansas-based “jayhawkers.” The two duties required very
different strategies: the Army needed concentrated forces to meet the threats of invading armies
while small widespread units were best for defeating partisans. Union department and district
commanders tried a variety of experiments before they controiled the threats. Fort Scott played a
role in both responsibilities, quartering troops available for countering an invading army while
supporting a ring of small outlying posts in western Missouri and southern and eastern Kansas to
handle warring partisans.‘

Continued problems with Union command structures hampered prosecution of the war, as
the Army reorganized the Kansas and Missouri departments several times. The Civil War in the
Trans-Mississippi West remained a secondary theater of operations to Eastern actions, as

2 Erwin N. Thompson, Fort Scott, Kansas: Site Identification and Evaluation (Washington, D.C. : National Park
Service, Departinent of the Interior, Division of History, 1967).

> Frederick Henry Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Compiled and Arranged from Official Records of
the Federal and Confederate Armies, Reports of the Adjutant Generals of the Several States (Des Moines, lowa: Dyer Publishing
Co., 1908, reprint, Dayton, O11; Momingside Bookshop, 1990), 1730.

* Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985; Boston:
Little, Brown, 1955), 69-85,

96



HS-32 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-32, Carriage House (South elevation), behind HS-4. Pre-restoration during Historic Building Survey, 1966.

373



Cemetery, located outside Cambridge, Mass., and serving the greater Boston area. Established in
1831, it was one of the first privately owned businesses set up to handle interment.”

Many of those societal influences about death and dying were transferred to the West.
Fort Scott’s original garrison cemetery, constructed when it was a frontier outpost, was located
approximately three blocks west of National on Wall Street in today’s city. After the Army
abandoned the post in 1853, the Fort Scott Town Company was organized two years later and the
former post cemetery became the town cemetery. City growth in the war years encroached upon
the cemetery, and by May 1862, the town newspaper proclaimed a new cemetery project under
way, saying the present cemetery was in poor shape as well as too close to the town. The exact
location was not yet set, but the newspaper reported private lots would be available to ali.*

When the Civil War erupted, the Army was unprepared to deal with the thousands of
fatalities to come, and it slowly began to draft new regulations and procedures. In the fall of
1861, the Secretary of War ordered the Army’s Quartermaster General to provide forms for
preserving burial records at Army hospitals and materials for manufacturing headboards for
soldiers’ graves. On July 17, 1862, Congress took the next step and passed a bill authorizing the
president to purchase land to be used as national cemeteries for soldiers who died while on active
duty. During the war, the Army established two basic types of cemeteries, general cemeteries set
up around areas of troop concentration, including hospitals, and battlefield cemeteries set up in
the immediate area of combat.”

Fort Scott’s citizens and a small group of Anmy officers decided upon the location of a
new cemetery in August 1862, acting in response to new national attitudes conceming
interments. It was located well outside the current city limits, about a mile southeast of town on
ten acres of land which was owned by and adjacent to the cemetery of the Fort Scott Presbyterian
Church. Plans for the new cemetery called for its division into private lots, with the sale money
allotted to beautifying the grounds, A portion of the grounds was set aside for interment of
soldiers. The land was partially donated by the Fort Scott Presbyterian congregation and partly by
the city; the federal government purchased the remainder of available iand for seventy-five
dollars. Family members of the deceased had the option to remove the bodies from the Army’s
section if they desired. When the Anny began formal organization of its interment system, Fort
Scott’s plot became one of the fourteen original national cemeteries. By September 1864,
preparations for a stone fence to surround the grounds had begun, with the Army quartermaster
quarrying and delivering the stone, and members of the local Presbyterian congregation
undertaking its construction. By the end of the war, this national cemetery contained the graves
of white, African American and American Indian Union soldiers and Confederate soldiers. The
government began to beautify the grounds in 1870, laying out the grounds and adding trees and
adding a smal! house for the superintendent. In 1873 the Army bought an adjoining piece of

Sloane, The Last Great Necessity, 44-98.
* Fort Scott Bulletin, May 10, 1862.

% Risch, Quartermaster Support, 431; Monto MacCloskey, Hallowed Ground: Our National Cemeteries (New York:
R. Rosen Press, 1968); Edward Steere, “Early Growth of the National Cemetery System,” Quartermaster Review (March-April
1953).

186



Second Kansas at Lawrence for three months beginning in May 1861. The two regiments
participated in the battle of Wilson’s Creek, which occurred southwest of Springfield, Missouri,
on August 10, 1861. Other early Kansas military units included the Eighth Kansas Volunteer
Infantry, organized at Lawrence in August 1861; the First Kansas Light Artillery, organized on
July 28, 1861 at Mound City, Linn County; the Sixth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, first
formed at Fort Scott in July 1861; and the Seventh Kansas Cavalry Regiment, organized at Fort
Leavenworth on October 28, 1861.”

Despite the growing patriotic fervor across the North and South, the political situation in
the early months of the war remained muddled. Missouri reflected the national chaos. In
February, Missouri elected delegates to the state convention, but despite widespread pro-
Southern sentiment, of the 140,000 ballots cast for delegates, 110,000 went to anti-secessionists.
Reflecting his prewar glory and political philosophy, the convention elected Price its president on
a near-unanimous vote. The delegates were almost unanimous in passing a resolution stating no
adequate reason for Missouri’s withdrawal from the United States yet existed. However, when
the convention voted on a resolution declaring Missouri’s intent to follow any other border state
if it seceded, Price was one of twenty-three delegates voting in favor. Price explained to a friend
that he regarded himself as a military man and a Southerner. Although the state convention had
voted against leaving the Union after the South fired on Fort Sumter, Missouri Governor Jackson
denounced Lincoln's call for volunteers from Missouri and urged legislators to move toward
joining the Confederacy.”

The South played its last political card in its quest to secure control on Missouri later that
Spring. General William S. Harmey, commander of the Department of the West, and Price,
serving as commander of the Missouri State Guard, agreed on May 21, 1861, that if Price could
maintain law and order, Harney would not bring federal troops into the state. This conciliatory
move gave control of Missouri to pro-southern factions. Although a Union commander, Harney
held southern sympathies and was friendly with a number of wealthy slave owners, accounting
for an otherwise peculiar decision. The response from his superiors was swift and harsh. Within
ten days, the Army’s Adjutant General informed Harney that “The authority of the United States
is paramount, and whenever it is apparent that a movement, whether by color of State authority
or not, is hostile, you wil! not hesitate to put it down.” Soon after, Union leaders recalled Harney
to Washington, D.C., and the Army named Lyon top commander in the state. Missouri’s counter
came on June 6, when Missouri Gov. Claibome Jackson put out a call for 50,000 volunteers to
enlist in the Confederate army to repel what they saw as ongoing Union attempts to conquer the
state. ‘Che possibility of a Confederate invasion of Kansas moved closer to reality."

Northern military commanders immediately sought to diminish Confederate power in
Missouri. Lyon attacked Jackson’s forces on June 17, defeating militia units entrenched on the

” Fort Scott Democrat, June t, 1861; Thompson, Fort Scott Kansas: Site Identification, 116.

' Castel, Sterling Price, 9-25,

"' Harney, “Proclamation to the People of the Statc of Missouri,” May 21, 1861; United States War Department, The
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Published Under the
Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert N. Scout (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901) (cited as
O.R,), 13, 374-376, 381-382; Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border: 129.

101



effectively ending the Civil War. Obeying official calls for celebration, the Department of the
Missouri ordered all its posts and arsenals to fire two hundred cannons at noon on April 10. Fort
Scott complied, using its small arsenal of siege guns to honor the event. Although the main
Confederate force had put down its arms, other armies continued to threaten the Northern states,
On the same day that Lee met Grant to sign the surrender, Union forces at Humboldt asked Fort
Scott for 5,000 rounds of Sharps cartridges, 2,000 rounds of army and 1,000 rounds of navy
revolver cartridges. They anticipated a raid on southwestern Kansas by Stand Watie and his six
hundred mounted men. Over the next two days, the Union commanders prepared to counter the
threatened raid from Indian Territory, with Fort Scott ordered to send all available troops
westward, To reinforce the small number of available federal troopers in the event of a
Confederate raid, Blunt authorized Blair to call out state militia units from across southern
Kansas.'*

Despite the celebration prompted by Lee’s surrender, the realities of potential dangers
still dictated events in southeast Kansas. Pressured by Maj. Gen. John Pope, the new commander
of the Division of the Missouri, Blunt and Blair put every available trooper at Fort Scott in the
field against Stand Watie. Union leaders did not know if the six hundred men reported serving
under Watie were the total Confederate force or merely the advance guard of a much larger
expedition heading north. Maj. Gen. Grenville Dodge amplified concerns on April 12, when he
relayed reports to Blunt that reliable information indicated Watie had united all of the Indians in
Indian Territory, except for the loyal “pin Cherokees,” as well as possibly the Comanches and
Arapahos, and was leading them north toward Kansas. Later that day, Blair was able to report
from the field that the Confederate force was no more than four hundred men, and he assured his
superiors that his command would easily handle the attackers. Before couriers could relay the
information, troop movements at Fort Scott continued as the department reacted to the perceived
threat. With all of the post’s available troopers out with Blair, a small detachment of the Third
Wisconsin Cavalry serving as an outpost in Hickman, Missouri, was ordered back to Fort Scott
to help defend the denuded post. The subdistrict headquarters promised to send seven companies
of the Forty-Eighth Wisconsin Infantry Regiment as reinforcements. Officers at forts Zarah and
Lamed, to the west of Fort Scott, prepared to support Blair by leading their commands south
against Watie.!®

A scout from the Second Colorado Cavalry finally eased the Army’s fears. Patrolling
through Council Grove in central Kansas, he found no excitement among the residents. Two men
from the town had recently retumed north from Walnut Creek. Watie’s supposedly Confederate
column was in fact a small party of Delawares and Shawnees, friendly to the federal government,
who had gotten into a fight with a rancher over some cattle, and one white man was shot, The
Indians fled the scene, trying to mask the crime by notifying the rancher’s neighbors that Stand
Watie’s band of hostile Indians was right behind them. Another band of Kaw Indians found near
Walnut Creek reported seeing no other Indians, and reported that it was well too early in the

TM J.W. Bames to Gov. Thomas Fletcher, April 10, 1865, O.R., [:48/2, 65; Porter, A Journal of Events, April 10, 1865;
Maj, H.C, Haas to Lt, W.H, Hewett, April 9, 1865, O.R., 1:48/2, $8: Blunt to Blair, April 10, 1865, O.R., 1:48/2, 68.

Dodge to Pope, Pope to Blunt, Blair to Dodge, April 11, 1865, 0.2, 1248/2, 101-2,

224



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-22, September-Octaber 1968: South view of rectan-
gular stone-lined Jatrine pit in foreground, circular stone-
lined shaft and north foundation of two-room washhouse.

hea a i

HS-22, September-October 1968: South overview of
excavation, North/south alley to the left of the exca-
vation. West/back wall of Hawkins School (large brick
building) is visible in upper left corer of the photo-
graph.

37



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-9, June 1971: View to
the southwest. initial
excavation. Note, stone
sq foundation of razed city jail
] is still in place. East side of
HS-8 (covered with
galvanized tin rooting) is
visible in the right of the
photograph. Rear of the
buildings that fronted on
Market Street are in the
background.

HS-9, June 1971:
View to the
southwest. Re-
moving stone pa
foundation of
razed city jail.

307



Union Army bands like this one at Fort Scott entertained troops and civilians. Circa 1863.

headquarters at Paola.'®

The first disruption in the caim on the frontier occurred on April 10, when the
commander of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry Regiment reported eight hundred Confederates from
Texas and Missouri had advanced against Roseville and Clarksville in northwestern Arkansas,
Co). William Judson, commanding the District of the Frontier at Fort Smith, told his superiors
his troops could hold off the two columns of the enemy without reinforcement. Judson, who
experienced the political turmoil of Kansas first hand when the Army organized his regiment at
Fort Scott, had little faith in some of his peers back in Kansas. He cautioned against allowing
Blunt or his supply officers to become involved in the action, warning “we will be starved out” if
needed equipment or food passed through their hands. Instead, Judson had sent one of his own.
men to Fort Scott to oversee procurement and transportation of supplies.’”

The changing situation forced Union commanders in April to reorganize the military
structure south of the Kansas border. On April 17, 1864, Curtis recommended to Blunt that he
relinquish his position at Fort Smith, where he had no fort and no troops, and retire to Fort
Gibson, where he could effectively guard the southern border of Kansas. That same day, the War

“Lt. John Gray to Blair, April 1, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/3, 15-15,

‘7 Judson to Brig. General John Sanborn, April 10, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/I, 860-61.

201



Cloud, Preston. Oasis in Space: Earth History from the Beginning. New York: W.W. Norton and
Company, 1988.

Comunager, Henry Steele. The Blue and the Gray: The Story of the Civil War as Told by Partici-
pants, New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1950.

Coffman, Edward M. The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898.
New York: Oxford Press, 1986.

Connelley, William E. Quantrill and the Border War. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press, 1910.

Cooper, William J, Liberty and Slavery: Southern Politics to 1860. New York: Knopf, 1983.

Corder, Eric. Prelude to Civil War: Kansas-Missouri, 1854-61. Toronto, Ontario: Collier-
Macmillan Canada Ltd., 1970.

Cornish, Dudley T. Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the Union Army, New York, Longmans, Green,
1956; New York: W. W. Norton, 1966.

Coues, Elliot, ed. The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, to Headwaters of the Missis-
sippi River, Through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-06-07.
Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, Inc., 1965.

Crafton, Allen. free State Fortress: The First Ten Years of the History of Lawrence, Kansas.
Lawrence, Kans.: World Co., 1954,

Craven, Avery Odelle. Civil War in the Making, 1815-2860. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1959.

Croghan, George Army Life on the Western Frontier; Selections from the Official Reports Made
Between 1826 and 1845, Francis Paul Pracha, ed, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1958.

Culpepper, Marilyn Mayer. Trials and Triumphs: The Women of the American Civil War. East
Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1991.

Cunningham, Frederick. General Stand Watie’s Confederate Indians. San Antonio, ‘lexas: The
Naylor Company, 1959.

Cuiler, William G. History of the State of Kansas. Chicago: A.Y. Andreas, 1883.

. History of the State of Nebraska. Chicago: The Western Historical Company, A. T.

Andreas, Proprietor, Chicago, Ill., 1882.

Dale, Edward E. and Gaston Litton, Cherokee Cavaliers: Forty Years of Cherokee fistory as
Told in Correspondence of the Ridge-Watie-Boudinot Family. Norman: University of Okla-
homa Press, 1939.

Davis, William C. Three Roads to the Alamo. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

del Castillo, Richard Griswold. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990,

Delo, David M. Peddlers and Post Traders: The Army Sutler on the Frontier. Sait Lake City:
University of Utah, 1992.

Dippie, Brian W. The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and U.S. Indian Policy. Middletown,
Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1982.

Dunlay, Thomas. Wolves for the Blue Soldiers: Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United
States Army, 1860-]890. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.

Duncan, Robert L. Reluctant General: The Life and Times of Albert Pike. New York: E.P.
Dutton, 196.

Dyer, Frederick Henry. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Compiled and Arranged from

385



easter Kansas and western Missouri, but for many people that security was more immediate.
Thousands of whites, Indians, and African Americans escaped from Confederate oppression by
flocking to southeast Kansas, with many living squalid lives for months in the refugee camps that
sprung up surrounding Fort Scott. The refugees were provided with subsistence, shelter, clothing,
and blankets by the U.S. Army District Quartermaster stationed at Fort Scott, with official
military policy limiting the amount of charity donations.

As border tensions rose, hundreds of west Missouri Unionists fled into Kansas in the
summer of 1861, driven out by secessionists. A number of Fort Scott troops stationed in Missouri
were ordered back to the post in May 1862, accompanied by a large train of white civilians who
thought it unsafe to continue living among Confederate sympathizers. Joining the refugee train
headed west were droves of stock owned by the fleeing refugees. After the Union army moved
into northwest Arkansas in the fall of 1862, about two supply trains a month were sent from Fort
Scott. As a rule. most of the returning wagons carried refugee white families. There gradually
came to Fort Scott a large number of refugees, some of whom were supported by the federal
government until they could find employment. In the winter of 1863, typhoid broke out among
the refugees, killing many of those who lacked winter clothing.”

One soldier stationed at Fort Scott described the pitiful state that some of the white
refugees fleeing Confederate sympathizers were in, noting how many of the women from the
southern states were forced by economic circumstances to rely “mostly on their personal charms
for a living.” This was a common occurrence along the border, he told his family, predicting that
terrible conditions would exist for a long time when the war was over. “Their property and home
destroyed, their niggers free, thousands upon thousands of their people killed and worse than all
the terrible prostitution among their wives and daughters,” he wrote. “Well they deserve it all and
more too for getting up this rebellion.”

Thousands of refugees from the Indian Territory also struggled for life in camps
surrounding Fort Scott, with many of the women in the same condition of seeing their husbands
and sons off fighting in the war. A flood of Indian refugees arrived in Kansas late in 1861, many
members of the Creek faction that remained loyal to the Union. Early in 1862, federal officials
estimated the refugee population in southern Kansas at about five thousand people, a number
they expected to double in size. Most were concentrated on Indian land laying in the Verdigris
and Neosho River valleys, about seventy miles west of Fort Scott, and were in desperate need of
clothing, shelter, medical attention and food. An Army doctor who visited the camp stated that
“Common humanity demands that more should be done and done at once to save them from total
destruction.” In less than a week, the Bureau of Indian Affairs appointed a special agent to the
refugees. His options for efficiently feeding and clothing the Indians was limited from the start by
the government's belief that the refugees would be returning to their homes by the following
spring, and as a result the agent was instructed to maintain less than a thirty-day supply of food

* Castel, Civil War Kansas, 45-6; Fort Scott Bulletin, May 17, 1862; Britton, The Union Indian Brigade in the Civil
War (Kansas Heritage Press, 1995), 170.

® Charles Feikner, April 30, 1865, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Transcript of letter in Fort Scott National
Historic Site archives.

19]



Chapter Six:
The U.S. Army Returns to Fort Scott, 1862

In the Civil War’s second year, Fort Scott became an integral part of new organizational
efforts in the West. The Union army returned to southeastern Kansas and Fort Scott was
officially designated as a military post on March 29, 1862. It remained a U.S. Army district or
subdistrict headquarters until the conclusion of the war. An army wins wars by imposing
organization on the chaos of battle, using clearly defined orders and an overlying command
structure to limit violence to only those actions that help achieve specific objectives. Conflicting
purposes, internal friction, and commanders who sought to satisfy their own agendas wasted
most of the Union’s initial war efforts in Kansas. As a result, initial military operations in the
West had been as confused and inefficient as any in the country. However, in February and
March of 1862, military leaders reorganized all of the existing Kansas regiments with standard
Army nomenclature according to their respective branch of service (i.e., artillery, cavalry or
infantry). It took the combined efforts of the U.S. Army and the governor of Kansas and his
military staff to accomplish this. In the process of bringing organization to Fort Scott, the Army
almost completely stopped the frequent but widely scattered violence that was part and parcel of
the largely personal way the Kansas irregulars, the Jayhawkers, waged battle.

This new federal presence came in many forms, exerting a series of influences upon the
town of Fort Scott and the area that surrounded it. Following a year that saw a host of new
construction projects and the infusion of troops into the area, the town hummed with activity.
Military professionals assumed defensive responsibilities under a formal command structure, and
one reestablished aspect of Fort Scott was a quartermaster department that again dominated the
area’s economy. Military camps surrounding the town housed troops with money to spend, and
the town responded to this new source of federal funds. Across the border to the east an increased
Union presence and changing military conditions in Missouri diminished guerrilla activities,
although bushwhackers remained a constant danger until the end of the war. The stronger push to
eliminate irregular activities across the state line meant diminished power for James H. Lane, the
most radical of Kansas’ abolitionists. Lane, the only man to hold high military rank while
simultaneously sitting in the U.S. Senate, failed in his attempt to win command of the Army’s
Department of Kansas. He did manage to maintain a large degree of control through the
appointment of his military protegee, James G. Blunt.'

The reestablished military presence threatened Confederate operations in western
Missouri and helped stabilize Union power across the region. Located to the west of southern
forces marching north from Arkansas and bisecting well-maintained roads that traveled east into
Missouri, Fort Scott was also able to counter rising threats from Arkansas and Indian Territory.
Seeking allies in the lands to their west, the Confederate States of America recognized the
military advantage of the Five Civilized Tribes from the onset of war. Many Indians retained

' James G. Blunt, “General Blunt’s Account of his Civil War Experiences,” Kansas Historical Quarterly | (May 1932),
211-65.

117



the professionalism of his young officers supported that claim.*

Combat brought glory for some participants from Fort Scott, field experience for many
more, and cost others their lives. Capt. James H. Carleton won brevet promotion to major. Other
Fort Scott veterans leading dragoon troops at Buena Vista included Capt. William Eustis, and
lieutenants Richard Ewell and Joseph Whittlesey. Conversely, Lt. Benjamin Berry was the first
officer from Fort Scott killed, dying in a steamer explosion near Corpus Christi in September
1845, as U.S. troops prepared for deployment. Later in the war, Lt. Richard Cochrane of the
Fourth Infantry fell on May 9, 1846, at Resaca de la Palma, one of the first major engagements of
the war. Capt. William Graham, the second post commander at Fort Scott, was killed at Molino
de] Rey, one of the battles that led to the American capture of Mexico City.”

In addition to expeditions on the east coast of Mexico, the United States organized a
‘column aimed at capturing New Mexico, one of Polk’s priorities, and California. About 1,700
men, led by Kearny, left Fort Leavenworth in separate groups throughout the summer of 1846.
The force, consisting of Kearny’s First Dragoons from Fort Leavenworth, about 1,300 Missouri
volunteers, and a group of Mormons, met at Bent’s Fort, at the junction of the Santa Fe Trail and
the Arkansas River, in present southeast Colorado. On August 18, Kearny and his men occupied
Santa Fe after only a few skirmishes and took possession of the New Mexico province for the
United States. Kearny promised to respect the New Mexicans’ rights and properties and protect
them from Indians, which surely endeared the newcomers to the resident population.”

Kearny led his forces toward California, leaving Santa Fe on September 25, 1846.
American military commanders fighting Mexican troops along the Pacific coast recommended
that Kearny try to surprise the enemy outside San Diego. On December 6, in the battle of San
Pasqual, east of the coastal city, Kearny attacked a Mexican force commanded by Major Andrés
Pico. Capt. Abraham Johnston, a friend of Capt. Thomas Swords, and a dragoon were killed in
the initial charge. The American forces, on tired and unbroken mules and horses, were hampered
by uncoordinated actions, and the retreating Mexican lancers used their longer weapons to inflict
serious losses on the saber-carrying Americans. Kearny’s command lost twenty-one men killed
and another seventeen wounded, including the dragoon commander. The entire unit was
surrounded by the Mexicans for three days until relieved by U.S. naval forces. Aside from
Johnston, American fatalities included Captain Benjamin Daviss Moore, first commander of Fort
Scott.*!

Swords supported Kearny’s expedition in several ways throughout its service in the West.

“ Bauer, The Mexican War, 1846-1848.

® “List of Companies and Regiments from Fort Scott and their Battles in the Mexican War,” Fort Scott National
Historic Site Archives,

Bauer, The Mexican War, 127-145, Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, 128-146; Neal Harlow, California Conquered:
War and Peace on the Pacific, 1846-1850 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982).

“| Bauer, The Mexican War, 1846-1848, 186-188; McCaffrey, Army of Manifest; Sally C. Jahns, “Viva Los
Californios! The Battle of San Pasqual,” Journal of San Diego History (Fall 1973), 1-13; William H, Emory, Notes of @ Military
Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, in 1846 (Washington, D.C.: Wendell and Van
Benthuysen, 1848), 105-111.

64



i Sauk
A locomotive of the Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad line

at Columbus, about sixty miles south of Fort Scott, another near Girard, a mixed detachment of
cavalry and infantry near Monmount, thirty-two miles south of the post, and the final infantry
company at Cato, only twelve miles outside of Fort Scott.!

Unlike Fort Scott’s previous experience as a military base, the Post of Southeast Kansas
had little effect on the town. No regiments camped around the city and there was no massive
buildup of supplies. The original post hospital became a school for Fort Scott’s African-
American community in September 1869, leaving the town without a dedicated medical facility
for the troops. Roy hired three surgeons to take care of his far-flung detachments. During the
railroad crisis a small number of officers and men were housed in the city and worked in offices
or warehouses or corrals rented by the Army. In 1869 the soldiers worked as teamsters and
laborers, rotating in from field duty to work for Lt, John Carland of the Sixth infantry, who
functioned as both the quartermaster and commissary officer. He again tumed to the regional
economy for many of the troops’ needs, buying food and forage, shoes, and office furniture on
the open market as needed and paying local blacksmiths for shoeing horses.”

Without military buildings, the post commander was forced to order his Acting Assistant
Quartermaster to procure quarters for one major, a lieutenant, and “a suitable room also be hired
at an economical rental for a squad room for the enlisted men necessarily employed at Post
Headquarters,” on November 11, 1870. Later that month the Quartermaster Department received

Miner, The Border Tier Line, 91; Circular No. 1, Special Orders Post of Southeast Kansas, Nov. 5, 1869, Roll 21,
Post of Southeast Kansas: Orders, Special Orders and Endorsements Sent, 1869 to 1873; Roy to Brig. Gen. Madison Mills, Dec.
12, 1869, Letters Sent, Sept. 30, 1869 to April 16, 1873, Rall 20, Post of Southeast Kansas: Leticrs Sent and Received, Sept.
1869 to 1873, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

* Roy to Brig. Gen. Madison Mills, Dec. 12, 1869, Letters Sent, Sept. 30, 1869 to April 16, 1873, Roll 20, Post of
Southeast Kansas: Letters Sent and Received, Sept. 1869 to 1873, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

244



professional. Industrial development allowed the military to new technical capabilities and years
of service on the Plains added field experience as well.

But the Army departed from Fort Scott too soon. After the fort was closed, the nation was
forced to dea} with the quandary that Kansas became. After Congress established the Kansas
Territory in 1854, the area around the recently closed Fort Scott extending across eastern Kansas
became the flashpoint of the nation, the places where the fissures built into the constitution of the
United States exploded in chaos and violence, in part because of the lack of a federal presence.
That setting, and the internecine squabbling that so often led to bloodshed, foreshadowed the
future — in Kansas during the latter part of the 1850s and in the national conflict that followed.

70



and they prepared for its outbreak. On March 12, 1864, Curtis warned Brig. Gen. E.B. Brown in
Missouri that the bushwhackers probably had not yet gathered for a new campaign, “but, as you
say, we may al] expect them when the leaves are out.” In 1864, Kansans were more terrified of
guerrillas than ever before. William Clark Quantrill’s devastating raid on Lawrence the previous
August continued to resonate in the popular imagination. Seeking to improve his military
capabilities across the region, Curtis asked Sen. James Lane to procure at least $50,000 to repair
the old military road from Fort Leavenworth through Fort Scott to Fort Gibson. “A little
bridging,” he told the senator, “would make this the best road in the world.” Curtis also issued a
warning to Blunt, in charge of southern Kansas, cautioning him that while the scene was quiet
now, “secret organizations in Missouri seem to threaten a coming storm.”"? Whether hyperbole,
prudence, or undo caution, Curtis perceived a threat and deployed his resources to counter it.

Kansans’ fears about Quantrill’s return seemed to be justified in late March, when Blunt
warned Curtis that he had reliable information that placed Quantril] and his men in Grayson
County, Texas. “He contemplates a movement north into Kansas and Missouri as soon as there is
sufficient grass to subsist his animals,” Blunt added. In late March, Fort Scott housed a relatively
small garrison that consisted of Companies A, C, D, and F of the Third Wisconsin Volunteer
Cavalry and the regiment’s Company M at Humboldt. Seeking to bolster Kansas’ southern
defenses, Blunt entered the controversy over the Indian Brigade situation, warning Curtis that the
three regiments operating in the Indian Territory desperately needed reorganization. He also
recommended commissioning more white officers to replace Indian officers, and urged that the
Army purchase Indian horses from Osages and other Kansas Indians for every trooper.'*

In the camps and garrisons surrounding Fort Scott, the quiet weeks gave chaplains and
neighborhood priests an opportunity to visit many Union soldiers. One Wisconsin lieutenant
reported a mid-March tour by the regimental chaplain, noting that the minister distributed
religious books and pamphlets, and sought “to turn the sinful ones from their evil ways.” The
men welcomed the chaplain for purely religious reasons as well as for a break in the monotony of
patrol duties. Several soldiers engaged in spirited debates over some of the passages from the
Bible, “but we conducted ourselves with decorum and came out of the combat friendly,” the
officer remembered. Following a two-day visit the regimental chaplain went on to his next stop,
“after giving the boys some good counsel and christian advice.”

As a result of a departmental reorganization on April 1, 1864, the Army reduced the
command at Fort Scott from a subdistrict to a brigade classification. While the administrative
change did not reduce the territory under the responsibility of Col. Charles Blair, he lost several
perks of a subdistrict commander, including the right to grant leaves and furloughs. As the station
of a brigade commander, Fort Scott was no longer the site of courts-martial and military
commissions. The reorganization shifted those boards to the District of South Kansas

% Curtis to Brown, March 12, 1864, O.R., Sctics I:34/2, 580; Curtis to Lane, March 18, 1864, O.2, Series 1:34/2, 640;
Curtis to Blunt, March 18, 1864, O.R., Series 1:34/2, 651-52.

First Lt. Otto Leissring to Brig. Gen. Thomas A. Davies, List of regiments serving in department, March 31, 1864,
OLR, Series 1:34/2, 764, Blunt to Curtis, March 21, 1864, O.R., Series £:34/2, 685; Blunt to Curtis, March 27, 1864, O.R., Series
1:3422, 755-56.

'S Porter, A Journal of Events, Feb. 28, 1864, 254; March 14-16, 1864.

200



Archeology

Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS=15 (Well Canopy), April-
July 1972: North view.
includes the west side of
the octagonal-shaped
structure. Buildings in the
background, from left to
right, include the east
exterior staircase of HS-2,
HS-36 (small stone out-
building) and HS-19
{Lunette Blair), showing the
south entrance through the
earthworks.

HS-13, April-Juty 1972:
West view of the
exposed stone footing
foundation of the south
perimeter wall of HS-
13. This trench was 100
feet long, with an east-
to-west orientation, and
commenced at the
southeast corner of HS-
30.

312



HS-8 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-8, excavating
footer foundations for
stone porch piltars.
Carroll Plaza view
(Northeast elevation).
1972,

HS-8, constructing
stone porch pillars.
Carroll Plaza view
(Northeast elevation}.
1972.

HS-8, completed
stone porch pillars
with a few new
porch framing tim-
bers in place.
Carroll Plaza view
(Northeast eleva-
tion). 1972.



the United States, with a road to provide communications and support for the forts. A lack of
qualified officers delayed the project until 1837, when an Army party left Fort Coffee, near
Arkansas’ western border on the Arkansas River, and headed north to Fort Leavenworth, which
they reached October 8, 1837. The accomplishment, a significant achievement with the soldiers
blazing timber and placing mile markers, represented only about a third of the entire proposed
route, that stretched from the upper Mississippi River to the Red River. If the War Department’s
proposal for frontier defense was completed as planned, a cordon of military posts would line the
eastern edge of the Permanent Indian Frontier, connected by a road designed to allow quick
passage of troops and supplies.°

As May 19, 1837 dawned, the United States Army found itself with new administrative
responsibilities. On that day, the Department of War reorganized its command structure, shifting
the frontier boundaries that marked its departments and divisions. The former demarcation line
that divided the nation east and west passed from the western edge of Lake Superior south to the
tip of Florida. An increasing number of emigrant Indians and white settlers forced the military to
expand its purview. The Mississippi River became the new dividing line, with a new boundary
running from the mouth of the Mississippi to Cassville, in the Wisconsin Territory, and then
north to the Canadian border. The May 19 adjustment also split the new western unit into two
military divisions at the 37" degree of north latitude, a few miles south of the bluffs on the
Marmaton River where Fort Scott later stood. The federal government intended this new
department’s frontier boundary, pushed west two months later when Missouri adjusted its state
borders, to act as the permanent dividing line between Indian and Anglo-American cultures.
Instead it produced a mixed society that created a host of unique problems.’

Construction of the middle section of the frontier military road began a year after the
Army party finished its survey. The Army’s acting quartermaster general, T. Cross, suggested
using soldiers to built the bridges and clear the route to avoid moving large numbers of
uncontrollable civilian workers to the Indian Territory through which the road passed. However,
the federal government instead tumed to the private sector and after advertising the proposal, let
out contracts on October 15, 1838. The Army awarded the contract for construction of the 72-
mile section between Fort Leavenworth and the Marais des Cygnes to the firm of Aaron Overton
and Daniel Morgan Boon. Overton and Lewis Jones won the contract for the road between the
Marais des Cygnes and the Marmaton River.*

* Letter from the Secretary of War, March 24, 1838, 25" Cong., 2d sess., Document no. 278 (serial 328), House of
Representatives; Eloise Frisbie Robbins, “The Original Military Post Road Between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Scott,” Kansas
History 1, n. 2 (Summer 1978): 90-100; Louise Barry, “The Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson Military Road and the Founding of
Fort Scott,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 11, n. 2 (May 1942): 115-129.

’ Prucha, Sword of the Republic, 255; Coffman, The Old Army, 54-5; Henry Putney Beers, The Western Military
Frontier, 1815-1846 (Philadelphia: Porcupine Press, 1975), 122; Raphael Thain, comp., Notes Illustrating the Military
Geography of the United States, 1813-1880 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), 41-142; Leo E. Olivia, Fort Scott.
Courage and Conflict on the Border (Topeka: Kansas State Historical Society, 1996), 3-4; David T. Childress, The Army in
Transition: The United States Army, 1815-1846, (Ph.D. diss., Mississippi State University, 1974); Robert Leckie, From Sea to
Shining Sea: From the War of 1812 to the Mexican War, The Saga of America’s Expansion (New York: HarperCollins, 1993).

* House Document 94, 25" Cong, 3d sess. (Serial 346), House Document 89, 26" Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 35); Robbins,
“The Original Military Post Road.”

15


Hamer, Robert 175

Hamilton, Charles 83-85

Hamilton, Jom 75, 100

Hamey, William S. 101

Harrison, William Henry (8
Harvey, James 242

Henning, B.S. 127, 131, 139, 163, 177-178, 239
Higgins. Thomas 34

Hindman, Thomas 128, 131-132
Bitchcock, Ethan Allen 17, 26
Hogeboom. Abraham 9

Honey Spriags 144; Battle 147-148
Hunier, David 118, 120, 165
Hutchinson, G.W. 168

Indians, Alcohol trade 17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25; Ances-
tors 2; Atacks on Setlers During Civil War
163; Battlefield Atrocities 159. Cherokees 7.
16, 17, 28, 55, 114, 126, 230, 238 5
Choctaws 55; Creeks 114-115; Firearms 45:
Home Guard 162; In U.S. Army 124, 156-
157; Kansa 3, 26; Move onto Plains 43:New
York Indians 9:Opposition to Recruitment
162; Osage 3, 4, 13, 16, 26, 106, 142:
Pawnee 60; Refugees, Military Recruitment
161, (62-163; Removal 7, 8, 16, 18; Semi-
noles 114; Serving With Confederates 158:
Warrior Society 44

Indian Brigade 196, 200, 219, 223; Lack of Horses
220; Mustered Out of Service 228; Supply
Problems 199

“Indian Country” 23

Indian Expedition 119, 140; Army Units Involved
123; Captures Tahlequah 126; Leaves Fort
Scott 124-125; Mutiny 127

fucian Territory, (865 Confederate Withdrawal 226:
Abandoned to Confederates 102; And
Confederate Plans #14, 118, 128-129, 218-
219; Lack of Union Support 141

Indian Refugees 140-141, 147-148, 153 203, 204-205

Indian Removal Act 6, 7, 14

Insiey, Merritt 175, 176, 198, 210, 229-230

Island Mound, Battle 167

Tacksoa, Andrew 6, 16

Jenkin’s Ferry 202

Jennison, Charles $5, 103, 118, 166, 206, 215: Under
James Lane 105

Jewell, Lewis (24, 132

Joy, James 238-240, 241

Judson, William R. 103, 155, 201

Kansas Brigade 104, 118-119, 122, 173
Kansas ard Gulf Railroad Company 81

Kansas and Neosho Valley (K&N) Railroad 233,
237-239; Sold 240

Kansas Territory, “Bogus Legislature” 75

Kansas-Nebraska Act 5, 72, 74

Kearny, Stephen Watts 23, 24, 57, Mexican-Ameri-

can War 64

Lane, James, 166, 173, 195, 200, 204, 208, 217; 1864
Actival at Fort Scott 105; 1861 Defense of
Fort Scott 106: 1861 Retreat from Fort Scott
108; 1863 Political Vortunes 134; At
Lawrence 150; Assumes Command of Kansas
Brigade 104; Burns Osceota 110; Early
Career 81; Friendship with Lincoln 97, 114;
Indian Expedition 121; Loses Power 117; On
Slavery Issue 110-111; Raising Regiments
98; Requests Reinforcements for Fort Scott
105

Land League 233, 240, 245, 246, 247

Lawrence, Quanwrill Attack 150

Lecompton Convention 90

Lee, Robert F. (28, 133, 145, 195, 223

Lincoln, Abraham 133, 195, 217, 225; See Also
Emancipation Proclamation

Litle Osage River, Battle 212

Livingston, TLR. 130, 142, 144

Long, Stephen H. 5

Lyon, Nathaniel, At Fort Scott 86-87; In Missouri 99,
101-102, 104-105, 155

McDonald, A. 219

McCall, George 58

McCulloch, Benjamin 102, 104, 11-112, 119-120,
158

Manypenny, George 9

Marais des Cygnes Massacre 83-85

Marmaduke, John Sappington 131, 211

Marmaton, Raided 210

Matthews, William D. 139, 170, 208

Medary, Samuel 90

Military Road 10, 14-15, 57, 58, 200, 203: And Fort
Scott 30, 40; As Emigrant Trail 58; In Civil
War J06, 138, 176

Mine Creek 184, Battle 211

Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad,233,
239; Renamed Kansas City, Vort Scorn &
Gulf Railroad 245; Fort Scott & Gulf
Railroad, Reaches Fort Scott 239; And U.S.
Anny 243

Monigomery, James 79, 82. 86, 90, 166; Military
Commander 115; Under James Lane 105

Moore, Benjamin 25, 29, 34, 64

Morrow, Alexander 66

397



culminated in the battle of Wilson’s Creek. Most of the Cherokees, led by Stand Watie, the most
prominent Indian general of the Civil War, refused to join the expedition, arguing that their treaty
with the Confederacy limited their involvement to protection of their homes. Only a small
number marched north, joining the Arkansas regiment. Foliowing their defeat at Wilson’s Creek,
Union commanders withdrew to central Missouri and began preparations for the next campaign.
The following spring, northern troops commanded by Samuel Curtis began a new effort to
reverse their fortunes.''

The two armies met at Pea Ridge, just south of the Arkansas state line, on March 7, 1862.
Confederate forces had been wintering in camps in southwestern Missouri, and as warmer
weather approached, commanders ordered a withdrawal further south for resupply. Upon hearing
of the Union advance, the Southerners ended their retreat and marched north, reinforced by about
1,000 Cherokees and Creeks and a unit of Texas cavalry. Led by Brigadier General Albert Pike,
the Indian units arrived in Confederate camps only to find that white soldiers had appropriated
most of their promised guns. clothing, and supplies. When the armies met, the Confederate
Indians raced into action using their own shotguns and hunting rifles. John Drew’s Cherokees
and a squadron of Texas horsemen charged forward, followed by Stand Watie’s dismounted
soldiers. The screaming masses of men unnerved the federal troops, and the Indian-Texan rush
achieved initial success on the battle’s first morning. The combined unit overran a Union artillery
position, but the Indians refused to complete their victory by pursuing the retreating federal
troops, instead dancing in triumph around the seized cannons. Union soldiers regrouped nearby,
drove off the Indian regiments and recovered the artillery pieces. Unable to push the Indians back
into a battle formation, Confederate officers could only pull their regiments back behind the
Southern lines, where they did not see any more action that day.'?

After the battle, several northerners were found scalped and dismembered. Union
commanders condemned Pike and his regiments. In a letter to his Confederate counterpart, Curtis
expressed his shock at finding his soldiers “tomahawked, scalped, and their bodies shamefully
mangled.” Northern newspapers amplified the charges. Confederate officials distanced
themselves from the accusations, and focused the blame on Pike. Stung by the charges, the leader
of the Indian forces withdrew his command back into Indian Territory and away from unified
action with other Southern armies. The Indian regiments had proven to both sides to be of value,
as the complaints of the North amply demonstrated. Indian soldiers also had unparalleled ability
to become the center of controversy.

After Pea Ridge, the Union army pushed back the Confederates, encountering new

‘ Out of a tozal of 5,393 in McCulloch's Brigade, the two Indian regiments contributed 1,085 men, Abstract from
Monthly Report of McCulloch's Brigade, O.2. 1:3, 690; Wilfred Knight, Red Fox: Stand Waie and the Confederate Indian
Nations During the Civil War Years in Indian Territory (Glendale, Calif: Arthur H, Clark, 1988); W. Craig Gaines, The
Confederate Cherokees: John Drew's Regiment of Mounted Rifles (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989); Jay
Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border, 1854-1865 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985; Boston: Little, Brown,
1955), 216.

"? Roy A. Clifford, “Indian Regiments in the Battle of Pea Ridge,” Chronicles of Oklahoma 25 (Winter 1947-48), 314-
22.

® T.]. McKenney to Earl Van Dorn, March 9, 1862, O.R. 1:8, 194; Curtis to Capt, J.C. Kelton, March 13, 1862, O.R.,
1:3, 195,

159



To help quell the threat of violence, U.S. troops commanded by Maj. James P. Roy began
arriving at Fort Scott in the summer of 1869. Eventually, infantry, artillery and cavalry units
served in southeast Kansas, once more imposing the federal government's wil! over local
interests. The soldiers were housed along the rail line in barracks built by the Missouri River,
Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad, and Fort Scott was used as the headquarters and supply depot for
this new Post of Southeast Kansas. The troops remained along the rail lines until 1873, and their
removal finally ended the military presence in southeast Kansas.

Built as 2 means of establishing a permanent line across an evolving frontier, the Army’s
military posts failed to halt American expansion and so could never have successfully protected
the emigrant Indians nations that surrounded them. Post such as Fort Scott actually hastened the
settlement process, developing market economies for construction materials, foods and animals
throughout the surrounding regions and drawing in civilian workers, farmers and ranchers. The
frontier eventually passed around these forts, and the buildings abandoned by the Army remained
as a monument to a generation’s attempts to control its future. Aside from the economic
advantages offered while in operation, the post provided southeastern Kansas with a federal
presence that was to become important during the territory’s domestic violence of the 1850s.
Changing circumstances across the nation arose to make many of the structures relevant and
important again, and Fort Scott assumed a key role during the Civil War and in the postwar
transition period. The fort and town on the Marmaton River and the soldiers, officers and
civilians who lived and worked there offered permanency and consistency during national phases
of transition, characteristics the United States was quick to capitalize upon when threatened and
just as quick to discard when peace was at hand.

Despite the human tragedy of the Civil War in southeast Kansas, the war also became a
tremendous engine of economic development for Fort Scott and the surrounding region,
launching the town and setting the stage for it to dominate the region. Hundreds of thousands of
federal dollars poured into the local economy between 1861 and 1865, and the city greatly
increased in size. Federal money paid for the construction of new buildings, hotels, houses, and
warehouses, and attracted merchants and speculators. As the regional center, Fort Scott also
attracted the refugees of the conflict, those who needed either military protection or federal
support to stay safe and alive. By 1860, prewar Fort Scott had grown into a town of almost
fourteen hundred residents. Five years later, 4,174 called the town home. The commercial
development fueled by Army spending dominated the regional economy, and Fort Scott became
the preeminent business center for southeast Kansas. The Wilder House, a three-story hotel built
in 1862, proved profitable from the day of its opening, in large part as a result of the federal
presence. Dry goods and other merchants’ stores lined the city’s streets. Total valuation of
property in Bourbon County in 1864 was $978,249; a year later, it was $1,437,022. By 1870, the
valuation soared to $4,236,061

of Railroad Development upon a Southeastern Kansas Community, 1867-1883 (M.A. thesis, University of Kansas, 1961).

? James H. Brown, “History of Bourbon County, Kansas,” in John P, Edwards, comp., Ax Illustrated Historical Atlas of
Bourbon County, Kansas (Philadelphia: Edwards Brothers, 1878); Kansas 1865 MS. Census, Vol. 10, Compendium of Statistics
Reporicd to the Legislature, Archives Department, Kansas State Historical Society.

234



HS-12 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-12, Quartermaster Storehouse. Restoration in progress with original framing timbers, braces and rafters
exposed (West elevation}. 1976.

jouse. Restoration in progress (Southeast elevation). 1976.

354



authorized Lane to recruit and organize the Third and Fourth Kansas Volunteer Infantry
regiments. Returning to Kansas, Lane began recruitment efforts, and quickly began laying plans
for military glory. The former Jayhawk leader planned to raise one regiment of infantry,
including two companies of cavalry and two companies of artillery, to be led by him, and one
combined regiment of infantry, including two cavalry companies and
two artillery companies, led by Col. William Weer. James Blunt, a
Maine-borm Kansas doctor, helped organize the Third Kansas Volunteer
Infantry Regiment.®

Unqualified presidential support for Lane continued for several
years and eventually registered a significant impact on Fort Scott. The
worsening military situation in Kansas proved a godsend for Lane, as
the new state units offered a large number of patronage opportunities
and Kansans strove for commissions as officers. Although governors
controlled recruitment and commissions in every other state’s volunteer
units, Lane’s close relationship with Lincoln allowed the senator to
usurp Robinson’s prerogative and contributed to the fracas in Kansas
James Blunt politics. The continued federal calls for volunteers eventually sapped

Kansas’ meager population resources, but Lane converted a
disadvantage into advantage, turning to African Americans and Indian refugees in Kansas for his
new regiments.”

While its contributions to manpower were limited, Kansas provided a key geographical
strength to the Union cause. The state was important as a link to southwestern territories and
Pacific states. The Santa Fe Trail and other important transportation routes traversed Kansas to
the west and the former military road from Fort Leavenworth in northeast Kansas to Fort Gibson
in Indian Territory continued to provide efficient north-south transportation for men and
materials. Fort Scott’s military value lay in its location; any Confederate thrust up through
Missouri had to contend with the threat of a flank attack from the west. The southeast Kansas
post also held a role of importance as a military supply center for Fort Gibson, Indian Territory,
Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Union expeditions into Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory
(Oklahoma), as well as a federal presence to counter any Indian uprisings in southwest Kansas.
For senior government leaders, Kansas promised to play a key part in the war. With it in the
Union ranks, Missouri had a federal presence on three of its borders, a geographic fact that

* Stephenson, Political Career of General James H. Lane. 105; Around Aug, 0, 1861, the Army ordered Blunt and the
Third Regiment to Fort Scott. The Army organized the Fifth Kansas Cavalry and it wintered at Camp Denver near Bamsville, in
Bourbon County. Blunt remained at Fort Scott with the Sixth Kansas Cavairy an Sept. 2, while Lane and the Kansas Brigade
marched north to Kansas City to meet a Confederatz threat. Lane’s Brigade left Kansas City around Oct. 18. and arrived in
Springfield on Nov. 1. After the Confederates retreated into Arkansas, Lane's Brigade returned to Fort Scott around Nov. $2. The
‘Third Regiment spent the winter on Mine Creek. On Apri 1. 1862. Kansas Giov. Charles Robinson ordered the breakup of the
Third and Fourth regiments. and consolidating the remainder into the Tenth. with the appointment of new field officers, Charles
E, Cory, “The Soldiers of Kansas: ‘The Sixth Kansas Cavalry and its Commander,” Collections of the Kansas State [listoricat
Soréen: 11 (1909-1910), 217-238; James G. Blunt, “General Biunt’s Account of His Civil War Experiences.” Kansas Historical
Quarterly \, a. 3 (May 1932), 21 {-265: Starr. Uinion Cavalry. 33-35,

* Albert Castel, Civil War Kunsas: Reaping the Whirlwind, authorized edition (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
1997). 46-48, 87-89.

98


Army moved most of the men previously based at Fort Smith about sixty miles to the northwest
in 1824, and senior officers ordered creation of Fort Gibson inside Indian country. During the
same year, the Army established Fort Towson about 110 miles due south of Fort Gibson on the
Red River to fight slave trafficking over the U.S.-Mexican border and illegal trade with Indians.
Following the removal of the Choctaws early in the 1830s, the military established Fort Coffee
(1834-38) fifty miles east of Fort Gibson on the Arkansas River to assist in the Indian group’s
resettlement and to combat the traffic in illegal liquor. In 1834, soldiers from Fort Smith
garrisoned the post. To monitor the influx of Cherokees in 1838 and 1839, the Army established
Fort Wayne north of Fort Gibson on Spavinaw Creek near the Arkansas border late in 1839. In
1842 the Army established Fort Scott on the Marmaton River and Fort Washita on the Washita
River, which was southwest of Fort Gibson. Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri River in what
was to become northeast Kansas, remained one of the Army’s main posts. The concentration of
posts across from the Arkansas border assured a sizeable military presence, but the location of
the forts left a large gap across the Permanent Indian Frontier that threatened settlements in
southwest Missouri and northwestern Arkansas, and provided opportunity for purveyors of
whiskey and other ardent spirits who were willing to risk the wrath of the military.'*

The infantry regiments that formed the backbone of the federal military structure since the
nation’s founding were unsuitable for use away from the forested areas along the astern
Seaboard. The Army’s military structure underwent a revolution following the War of 1812,
when large-scale white settlement began to spread toward the Great Plains. Congress had always
supported the smallest possible army since the country’s founding, based on fears that a standing
army might lead to tyranny. These fears, added to the nation’s minuscule federal budget and its
geographic isolation from European threats, led to continual small military budgets. During
America’s first fifty years, the two major branches of the federal Army were the infantry and
artillery. Americans considered troops mounted on horseback — either cavalry, dragoon or lancer
in the European tradition — as much more expensive than foot soldiers, impractical in the dense
forests of the nation’s eastern lands, unnecessary against the unmounted Indians of the region,
and as too aristocratic for a democratic republic.

Despite the bias against them, mounted horse units were prized for their utility in Plains
warfare. Four mounted regiments of dragoons fought in the Revolutionary War, and the Army
reorganized them in 1792 as “Light Dragoons.” The military dropped the designation temporarily
when the country decided to mold its Army on the model of the Roman legions, but by 1798 the
Army revived its cavalry only to see budget cuts force its termination early in the nineteenth
century. Tensions with Great Britain brought about a new dragoon regiment, but again public
outcries about the expense of the military ended the unit’s existence Once its commitments
extended to the Great Plains in the decades following the War of 1812, the United States Army
relied on mounted troops as its principle offensive weapons. The cavalry squadrons immortalized
in scores of Hollywood epics began on the Plains as the Army’s six-company battalion of
mounted rangers. Their immediate predecessors were mounted militia units from Illinois and
Michigan that fought successfully in the Black Hawk War of 1832. Their commander, Colonel
Henry Dodge of Michigan, received a commission in the Army to lead the battalion, but before

" Beers, The Western Military Frontier, 94-121; Millett and Maslowski, For the Common Defense, 130-132.

20



recalcitrant and the malingerers made their way to
the hospital each moming. Its doors beld out the
hope of a brief respite from the ongoing drudgery
of post life.

Winters on the Plains could be cold, wet,
and harsh, and soldiers were forced to endure the
vagaries of the frontier climate, Early Army
regulations called for fireplaces to heat barracks
and quarters instead of charcoal-burning staves.
This was supposed to be an economical move, for
military labor could build the fireplaces from
locally available materials and they consumed
locally cut timber. Most of the post buildings
relied on fireplaces, and the barracks included a
fireplace at each end, the lone sources of heat
during the winter. Small cast iron wood-burning
stoves heated the Post Headquarters, oe =
Quartermasters Storehouse and Guardhouse. A ; : .
constant fatigue duty of the soldiers was cutting Hiero T. Wilson, post sutler and one of the
firewood, but within a few years of the beginning _ founders of the town of Fort Scott
of post construction, parties traveled further to
find fuel. The Army had already cut most of the timber along the Marmaton River and the
process of obtaining sufficient amounts of firewood became an ordeal for work details.

Soldiers survived the cold winters with the help of another heat source — their
bunkmates. Congressional parsimony prevented the Army from purchasing single beds made of
iron. Instead, antebellum soldiers usually slept two to a locally made bunk.'* Such a practice was
typical in the nineteenth century and had none of the connotations it might at the end of the
twentieth century. People in the nineteenth century — especially in a frontier military post — did
not enjoy the privacy or the personal space to which their descendants became accustomed.'®

‘When payday came, soldiers rushed to receive their due and spent it equally quickly.
Standing next to the pay officer on the irregular occasions when frontier troops received their
salaries was the sutler, a private merchant who operated under Army license and offered
amenities —- food, whiskey, tobacco, writing paper, books, and clothes — that punctuated the
unending monotony of Army routine. Sutler’s stores served military posts across the West. The
Army set the sutlers’ prices, but without close regulation the stores routinely overcharged
soldiers. All too often the sutlers offered their wares on credit, a situation that meant that some

'S David Clary, These Relies of Barbarism: A History of Furniture in Barracks and Guardhouses of the United States
Army, 1800-1880 (Harpers Ferry, Va: Harpers Ferry Center, 1981), 69-71, Quartermaster Abstracts, Records of the General
Accounting Office, Roll 02, 4th Quarter 1843 - 2nd Quarter 1845, Washington, D. C.: National Archives.

“6 Richard D. Gamble, Garrison Life at Frontier Military Posts, 1830-60 (Ph.D. diss., University of Oklahoma, 1956).

49



states targeted the Democrats who supported it. Without northem support, the southern position in
the party weakened and the emergence of the Republican Party led to greater fissures in the nation.
By the time Abraham Lincoln ran in the 1860 presidential election, southem political power was on
the wane.**

Because of Republican victories at the polls and in Kansas, southern senators moved
toward seceding from the union, Before slavery supporters took that final step, they and the new
state of Kansas watched the first governor, Charles Robinson, the former agent of the New England
Emigrant Aid Society, take the oath of office in the free-state bastion of Lawrence. It was a fitting
end to a decade-long battle that pitted brother against brother, neighbor against friend, and severed
any sense of community in the Kansas Territory.

Bleeding Kansas was a tragedy that exposed the enormous rift in the nation. From it
stemmed the Civil War, which reprised many situations first seen in Kansas and in Bourbon County.
Fort Scott stood sentry to the disintegration of the first American republic, finally impaled on its
inability to address the question of slavery in the constitution of the United States. When politicians
failed to solve this greatest of American dilemmas, many of the Army’s officers facedan unthinkable
choice. Trained to be loyal to the nation first, many responded to the calls of their home states and
turned their back on their uniforms, oaths, and careers, foreshadowing their countrymen’s actions.
What Americans could not resolve in legisiatures and courts, they sought to prove in battle. That
decision, made in the aftermath of the admission of Kansas as a state, reinvented the nation.

Box f, George L. and Mary E. Stearns Papers, 1857-1901,” Collection 507, Kansas State Historical Society; William D.
Hutchinson, “Skeiches of Kansas Pioneer Experience,” Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society 2 (1901-2), 390-
410.

% Don E, Fehrenbacher, The South and Three Sectional Crises (Baton Rogue: Louisiana State University Press,
1980}, 52: Stampp, America in 1857, 120-121; Michael A. Morrison, Slavery and the American West The Eclipse of Manifest
Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).

94



grant to finance further construction.

In the new climate, capital became the driving factor. Without it, no railroad could claim
the prize of the sole right-of-way through Indian territory. Companies scrambled to link with
jarger national concerns. In 1868, the K&NV, previously a local operation, became the property
of Boston financial leaders, including Nathaniel Thayer, William F, Wells and Sidney Bartlett.
They were represented in Kansas by James Joy, who had purchased the remaining neutral
Cherokee lands a year earlier. He sold those lands to the MRFS&G Railroad on March 10, 1869,
setting off a storm of protest. As news of the sale reached southeast Kansas, squatters who
expected to claim what had been Indian lands regarded the transfer of title to Joy as betrayal.
Over the course of the previous year, Joy published a series of letters in the Fort Scott newspaper
that proposed to allow illegal squatters to acquire title to the lands on which they resided. He
insisted that settlers who proved their claim would receive title from the government and not
from his company. The settlers protested these terms and demanded the right to acquire lands
under Preemption and Homestead laws. In response, Joy offered a counterproposal. Stressing his
claim to legal title to the lands, he promised settlers that they would be charged from $2 to $5 an
acre, with no sale exceeding the latter figure.

After 1869, concerns over the Army’s involvement in civilian administration in
Reconstruction mixed with worries about its use to support civil law enforcement agencies. The
concems were shared by military leaders. The Army continued to seek definitive legal
authorization to act in the civilian sphere. In his 1870 annual report, General of the Army
William T. Sherman called Congress’ attention to the vague statutes defining what was
authorized by the Judiciary Act of 1789. He recommended that soldiers not be expected to make
individual arrests or engage in acts that might end in violence against civilians unless under the
supervision of the sheriff. If more was required, Sherman asked Congress to enact authorization
in clear, definite language,"

The Army needed full congressional support and guidance as it moved to meet the latest
wave of violence in Kansas. When the MRFS&G railroad opened a Jand office in Fort Scott in
1868, the squatter population on the Cherokee Neutral Lands topped 10,000, By fall 1869, that
number doubled. About three-fourths of the squatters were former Union soldiers who relied on
their military land warrants as authorization for their speculation. Many of the veterans seemed
unlikely to hesitate to use organized violence to protect their claims.

Ignoring Joy’s promises and compromises, a significant number of settlers refused to
accept the terms of the railroad company, and they formed a “land league” consisting of loose
groups vaguely united to resist the company's title. The groups were known as “Anti-Joy-
Leaguers,” “Land-Leaguers,” and later the “Neutral Home Protection Corps,” but most of the
Neutral land residents referred to them as the “Leaguers.” They maintained that the sale of the
neutral lands to the railroad company was invalid because the Cherokees had sold the lands to the

" The lack of adequate direction would nat be corrected until six years after the Post of Southeast Kansas was closed,
when Congress passed Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting use of Army troops as aids to civilian law enforcement, except where
specifically authorized by Congress. Charles Doyle, “Use of the Military to Enforce Civilian Law: Posse Comitatus Act and
Other Considerations.” Congressional Research Service 88-583b A (July 20, 1988); Wiltiam T, Sherman, “Report of the General
of the Army, Nov. 10, 1879," Annual Report of the Secretary af War on the Operations of the Department for the Year 1870.
Vol. 1. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870): 5.

240



housing his command in temporary log
cabins in the late spring of 1842, Moore
began construction of barracks and stables
sufficient for two companies of dragoons,
a total of about 120 men and horses,
taking advantage of building materials in
the heavy stands of timber that dotted the
river bottoms and surrounding limestone
ridges. The buildings were frame
construction rather than the more simple
and more temporary huts that typified so
many western forts. On the north side of
the fort, the Army built four houses for
officers, duplexes almost identical in
structure. Workers constructed a hospital,
infantry barracks and guardhouse across
the parade ground from the row of
officers’ houses. Two buildings for the
dragoons, a barracks and stables for their
horses, were on the west side of the
parade ground. The post headquarters and
ordnance storeroom were in the northwest
corner, and the quartermaster complex,
which included storerooms.and stables,
were in the northeast comer of the post.
The Amny typically constructed Fort
Scott’s buildings without in-ground
basements, and used native limestone
slabs set into shallow trenches for their foundations. Trees from the surrounding area provided
the lumber for the buildings except shingles for the roofs and Jathing for the interior walls. The
Amny purchased these, along with bricks for the chimneys, from suppliers in westem Missouri.”
With the problems of disease in the region, health remained a preoccupation and was one
of the principal reasons for selecting the Marmaton River site. An 1852 medical history
confirmed the healthy characteristics of the location: patrols failed to discover any swamps,
ponds or lakes that might become sources of disease. The post hospital was a construction
priority, and the two-story structure was completed except for flooring by October 1843. Joseph
Walker served as the first fort surgeon, arriving 1842 and remaining until 1847. Although during
Walker's first year at Fort Scott, Congress reduced the number of Army surgeons by two and
assistant surgeons by ten, which left some military posts without full medical staffs, Fort Scott’s

Thomas Swords, shown in his Civil War uniform.

Edwin Thompson, Fort Scott, Kansas: Historic Structures Report, Part If, Historical Data Section (Washington,
D.C.: Division of History, National Park Service, 1968).

32



: as Pat z iS > se
The First Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment in combat at the Battle of Island Mound, as depicted in
Harper's Weekly of March 14, 1863.

Even before their muster into federal service, the men of the First Kansas (Colored) found
themselves in battle. African American recruits were drilling at Camp Jim Lane near Wyandotte,
Kansas, by September, At the end of October in 1862, while encamped at Fort Lincoln en route
to Fort Scott, five companies of the First Kansas (Colored) conducted a foraging expedition into
adjacent Butler County, Missouri. On October 28 and 29, approximately five hundred mounted
guerrillas attacked the encamped First Kansas (Colored), near Butler, Missouri. about thirty-five
miles from Fort Scott. In a confused series of actions that involved flanking movements around
the guerrillas, African American soldiers repelied a charge by mounted rebels. The Union
infantrymen advanced through a prairie fire set by the Confederates and poured one decisive
volley into the enemy. The troop of 225 African Americans drove off the numerically superior
force, losing only ten men killed. This engagement became known as the Battle of Island Mound
or Toothman’s Mound. In a post-battle report, one white officer praised his men’s efforts, writing
that critics of African Americans in uniform “had received an answer to the often mooted
question of ‘will they fight.”

The next small step toward accepting African Americans regiments came in January
1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation against a national backdrop of
increased resistance to conscription and general weariness of combat losses. As the initial flood
of white volunteers dried up, federal officials reexamined their opposition to arming Aftican

® Capt. Robert Ward to Col. J.M. Williams, n.d., OR. 1:53, 455-56; Comish, Kansas Negro Regiments.

167



HS-16 Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-16, reconstructed Flagpole (West clevation). September 1981. Note building
HS-10 (Dragoon Stables) and HS-5 (Dragoon Barracks).

364

feft to right, reconstructed



Quanuiil’s men joined the force there, although their commander was away in Richmond seeking
@ promotion. Upon receiving word of Hindman’s reorganized force, Blunt changed plans to move
his troops back to Fort Scott from their northwestern Arkansas bases and instead headed south
with about five thousand men. He found the enemy camp near Cane Hill, Arkansas. on
November 28 and attacked immediately. Outmumbered, Marmaduke retreated south through the
mouniains, pulling the northem troops forward into the confined hills. The troops skirmished
through the brush-filled valleys until Blunt. fearing an ambush, withdrew back to Cane Hill,
allowing the Confederates to continue their retreat unmolested. During the skirmishing, the Sixth
Kansas Cavalry lost its leader, former Fort Scott commander Col. Lewis R. Jewell, and the
regiment brought his body back to Fort Scott for burial.’

Believing the southern forces done for the season, Bluni settled his troops into camps
around Cane Hill, only to discover Jess than a week later that Marmaduke was again heading
north, followed by at least 15,000 men collected by Hindman. The ill-supplied Confederate
infantry trudged through the icy Boston Mountains. Union troops camped at Wilson’s Creek
raced one hundred-and-twenty-five miles south to reinforce Blunt. Hindman sought to destroy the
newcomers before they could unite with Blunt. The two weary columns met near Prairie Grove
on December 7 and fought to a draw, with a cautious Blunt waiting about cight miles away for an
attack that never came. He finally arrived at the battlcfield where the two armies battled to a
standstill until Hindman retreated under cover of night. Blunt’s actions won him promotion to
major general. Historians often describe the battle at Prairie Grove as a draw, but the virtual
dissolution of the Confederate army followed it in the West. The resulting Union takeover of
northern Arkansas at last provided a measure of protection for southwestern Missouri, and Fort
Scatt continued in its role as supply post and rest area for the Army of the Frontier.*

As the Union continued to seek military success in the East, its Trans-Mississippi
commanders, learning from the previous year’s mistakes, began closer cooperation between
departments, increasing their effectiveness and exploiting the growing Confederate weaknesses.
Fort Scott played a key role in the first attempt to regain contro] of Indian Territory, although the
Union’s offensive operation was less than a stellar success. The re-established military presence
threatened Confederate operations in Missouri and helped protect eastern Kansas. The
jayhawker-bushwhacker war continued to plague area civilians. although the problem lessened as
the Union Army tightened control over the region. A clear indication of the military’s influence
was the growing importance of Fort Scott, home to portions of several cavalry, artillery and
infantry regiments, a ever-growing supply depot, a major hospital facility and the accompanying
cemetery, one of the first national cemeteries established by the federal government. One result
of the federal war effort during 1862, seen clearly in Fort Scott’s role, was the reduction in
influence of regional leaders such as James Lane and the rise in a coordinated national military
strategy. Continuing the often costly educational process of combat, throughout this second year
of war commanders slowly increased the professionalism of Army actions.

James Paul Huff. Fort Scott's Regiment: The Sixth Kansas Volunteer Cavatry, 1861-1865 (M.A. thesis, Pittsburg
State University, 1987). 99-120: Kansas Adjutant General, Military History. 81: Michael E. Banasik. Embatiled Arkansas: The
Prairie Grove Campaign of 1862 (Wilmington. N.C.: Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1998); 250-304.

“ Banasik. Embattled Arkansas, 305-468.



Western Frontier Military

wWOoA Wea

THE undersigned having hen dirceted to put under contyset <
that portion of the Western’ Frantior Military Road extonding”
from the Maraisde Cygne, ta Spring. River,about ;

85 MILES,

invites al] those who may bedesteaus af becoming Contractors ‘or
any portion of this work;-and wish to. become acquainted with:
the topography of ‘the comniry through which the survey pases, -
to meet Rita.at Westport, Mo. an THURSDAY, the 19Ub inst, &
accompany him-in an examination of the Route. .

The whole distance will he divided inie sections of convenient
lengths, and each section offered for contract separately... T&
failed plans of he different scetions will be prepared as soon. aé
the route shall have been examined, and duc notice given: of the
time yeben the contracts will be lot. “ a

The following extract fromthe act of Congress, defines ihe
mode of construction: -

“The timber shat! be cnt down to.a reasonable: width, aud: tbe’
‘yet and marshy:places shalt be causewayed er otherwise ren
“dered. passable; cheap bridges’ shall be erected: on the-smnall
“streams not having good fords across::themj and when it;

The nation looked to the War
Department for an answer to many of its
frontier problems and the Army responded
with troops, posts and military roads. One
| example of the Army’s reaction was Fort
Scott. Located on land reserved for the New
York Indians who never moved west, the
| Army established Fort Scott between Fort
Leavenworth and Fort Gibson to protect and

21 control the permanent Indian frontier. It was

also isolated from the major white
settlements far to its north and east, South of

~| the post was an 800,000-acre tract of land

known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands. This
tract was supposed to remain unsettled and
serve as a buffer zone between the Cherokee
reservation to the south, Missouri to the
east, the Osage reservation to the west and

“|| the New York Indian lands to the north. The

most significant of the emigrant groups that

necesseryythe road may bo thrown wip m the centre.
“be found mun THOS, SWORDS, Capt, 2.8L
~ Agsts Qr; Master's Office, . .: :

Fort Leavenwortis, Sept, 10, 1639.

An 1839 solicitation seeking contractors for one of the
jater road sections to be built between Fort Leavenworth
and Fort Gibson.

| were pushed west by the oncoming white

ij settlements, the Cherokee suffered from

great interna! tension. Along with

maintaining the peace between Indian and
white cultures and protecting the emigrant
groups in their new homes, soldiers at Fort

Scott had to react to conflicts among the divided nation. Split between those who accepted

removal to Indian country and those who resisted the dictates they received, the Cherokee were
capable of violence directed at one another. To the southwest of the post was the Osage
reservation, and to the northwest lay the Potawatomi lands.° The closest large white settlements
were to the north, around Fort Leavenworth, Westport and Independence, and along the Oregon
and Santa Fe trails. Southwestern Missouri remained a land dotted by small farms and villages.
At the juncture of these many conflicting groups, Fort Scott stood as an exemplum of the
military’s role in the antebellum West, one of the harbingers of society established in isolation.
Before the Civil War, the military was one of the few federal institutions with a national
reach, and Congress called upon the Army to fulfill a host of commitments. Not the least of these
were obligations to the Indian peoples removed to the West. In 1840, Secretary of War Joel
Poinsett outlined the military’s complicated and sometimes contradictory obligations in the West.
Reporting to Congress, Poinsett stated that treaties bound the country to several obligations,

° Francis Pau! Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American indians, abridged edition
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984) , 86-7, 94-104; G. Raymond Gacddert, The Birth of Kansas (Lawrence: University
of Kansas Publications, 1940), 60, 86-8.

16



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-7, June 1971: Ongoing
investigation. View of the east
end of the excavation, fooking
south with rear of the buildings
on Market Street in the back-
ground,

HS-7, June 1971: Continued excavation of the east side
feature that is on the outside of the building foundation. View
is looking south, similar to above photograph.

302



Forewamed of the raiders’ intentions, the Mexican government alerted the United States, which
ordered out three dragoon companies from Fort Leavenworth and a fourth from Fort Scott.
Cooke was placed in overall command of the patrol. The dragoons joined a convoy gathering at
Council Grove and began escort duties June 3.

The convoy had a quiet beginning, but at the end of June the dragoons discovered the
Texans on the south side of the Arkansas River and a confrontation almost ensued. Negotiators
for the two armed groups met under a flag of truce, but the two sides could not agree whether the
groups were then in Texas or in the United States. Cooke maintained that the Texans were
intercepted east of the 100" Meridian, inside U.S. territory, while Snively argued that his men
were operating inside Texas. With no resolution in sight, Cooke used the threat of his military
strength to disarm the adventurers. Still unsure exactly of his legal position, the dragoon officer
did not arrest the Texans, instead offering them safe passage back to Missouri and away from the
trail. About fifty accepted, and Terrett’s company of Fort Scott dragoons provided the escort that
saw the smaller group of Texans safely to Missouri. The rest of the unarmed adventurers
followed the caravan to the west in hopes of mounting an attack after the dragoons departed.
When the convoy reached the Arkansas River, then the U.S.-Mexico boundary, a large military
escort of Mexican troops sent from Santa Fe met the pursued merchants. The Texans abandoned
their piracy, returned home and disbanded.** The Republic of Texas filed a diplomatic protest
over the intervention, and a U.S. military court of inquiry at Fort Leavenworth the following year
affirmed the American position.”

During the 1840s, military patrols that fulfilled a variety of missions became a common
sight on the Plains. The tension with Texas continued, and in anticipation of another raid on
Santa Fe merchants by semi-official bands of Texans, Captain Nathaniel Boone, the youngest of
explorer Daniel Boone’s fourteen children, led a dragoon detachment from Fort Gibson to
provide an American military presence in the fall of 1843. The column also conducted a
reconnaissance of the area between the Arkansas and Canadian rivers, southwest of Fort Scott.
The next year, Major Clifton Wharton led a patro] north from Fort Leavenworth to intimidate
Pawnee people living along the Platte River in what is now Nebraska. Terrett and Eustis led the
Fort Scott contingent of three sergeants, three corporals, one farrier and blacksmith, and forty-
five privates, leaving Fort Scott on July 5, 1844, and returning September 28. Later that year,
Second Lieutenant Benjamin Berry left the Marmaton River post in command of a patrol of
eighty enlisted men assigned to remove Indians from Missouri settlements.” Politicians assumed

%* Olivia, Soldiers on the Santa Fe Trail, 42-52; Myers, From the Crack Post of the Frontier: 13; H. Bailey Carroll,
“Steward A. Miller and the Snively Expedition of 1843,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 54 (January 1951), 261-86; Stephen
B. Oates, ed., “Hugh F, Young’s Account of the Snively Expedition as Told to John S. Ford,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly
70 (July 1966); William E, Connelly, ed, “A Journal of the Santa Fe Trail,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 12, n. 1 (June
1925), 72-98,

¥ Otis E. Young, The West of Philip St. George Cooke, 1805-1895 (Glendale, Ca, The Arthur #1. Clark Company,
1955), 109-36; Myers, From the Crack Post af the Frontier, 13-14.

* James H. Carleton, The Prairie Logbooks, Dragoon Campaigns to the Pawnee Villages in 1844
and ta the Rocky Mountains in 1845 (Chicago: Caxon Club, 1943), 155-260; Wayne Walker, “Nathan Boone: The Forgotten

Hero of Missouri,” Journal of the West 18, n. 2 (1979), 85-94; Fort Scott post retums, 1844, Fort Scott National Historic Site
Archives,

60



stealing cattle, both of which threatened the safety and well-being of former Indian refugees who
had returned to Indian Territory. Colonel Williams Phillips estimated about 20,000 loyal Indians
were scattered around the region, with half clustered near Fort Gibson, and ail of them dependent
upon federal troops for protection. Throughout January, the Union Army kept a highly mobile
force assembled around Fort Scott. Six companies of the Fifteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry
Regiment and five companies of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment were stationed there,
backed by the field artillery of one section of the Second Kansas Battery. Price’s raid the
previous autumn illustrated the exposed nature of Fort Scott's warehouses, and the Union Army
took steps to increase the post’s defensive capabilities.

The most significant threat to southeast Kansas since the Price raid of 1864 came in
January, with word that Fort Smith, Arkansas, was soon to be evacuated. Fort Scott’s newspaper
proclaimed that the decision would prove fatal to Kansas and Missouri, removing a key outpost
overlooking Indian Territory and opening the door to Confederate raids and worse. The editor
warned that if a Confederate army headed north from Texas, Fort Scott was the first line of
defense “and the force that could be concentrated here would be chaff before the whirlwind, in
the presence of a rebel army of such appointment and force as that taken into Missouri by Price.”
Kansas’ defensive posture received a boost on January 12, when Kansas legislators reelected
Lane to the U.S. Senate, guaranteeing Kansans an adamant voice close to Lincoln’s ear.*

Federal offensives in the Trans-Mississippi region pushed the regular Confederate Army
far away from Kansas, leaving guerrillas and bushwhackers as the principal military threat in
Missouri and the Indian Territory. In some ways, their presence was worse than the regular army.
Even the mere rumor of a guerrilla band operating in an area was enough to spark panic among
the civilian population. Early in January, Fort Scott’s assistant provost marshal passed along a
wamiing to his superior, reporting that six bushwhackers were near Hickman Mills, Missouri,
threatening the nearby town of Aubrey. While Fort Scott had a subpost nearby, it was two miles
from Aubrey, and worried residents wanted a detachment stationed in their town. By the end of
the month, concern over the bushwhacker threat led Col. Charles Blair, commanding the Fort
Scott garrison, to request permission to buy another eight hundred horses for the fifteen
companies stationed at the post, warning his superior, Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis at Fort
Leavenworth that “the spring will soon open, and we will need a well-mounted command to
attend to the bushwhackers, who will come with the first leaves.”

The guerrillas posed a danger to individuals, but the primary Confederate threat to the
state remained in Indian Territory. Despite the overall successes of the Union military campaign,
the balance of power in “The Nations” remained uncertain. Confederate success in the region
never drew the attention of senior federal commanders, as it was accurately judged a situation
that had little consequence in the outcome of the war. To Kansas residents, such a viewpoint was

3 Fort Scott Daily Monitor, Jan. 6, 1865.

* Alvin M, Josephy, Jr, The Civil War in the American West (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), 384-5; Lt. W.F. Goble
to Maj. H.H. Heath, Jan. 7, 1865, United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Officiat
Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Published Under the Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert N. Scott
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901) (cited as O.8.), 1:48/1, 452-3: Blair to Curtis, Jan. 30, 1865, O.R,
1:48/1, 698.

218



congressional representative, that arms, artillery, funds and supporting Confederate troops be
rushed to bolster Indian troops recruited south of Kansas. Pike recommended arming at least
3,500 Indians for duty. His idea solved several problems for the Confederacy and soon won
acceptance, but inadequate logistical support and questions over use of the Indians outside the
Indian Territory prevented a productive alliance. Still bitter over the Confederacy’s attitude
toward his Indian soldiers, General Pike refused, instead resigning. Douglas Cooper, Indian agent
for the Choctaws and Chickasaws, replaced General Pike. In late July, he fed his Indian
regiments to join the advancing Confederate column. accompanied by Colonel Stand Waite, the
Cherokee Chief who replaced John Ross after the Union Army captured Ross.*

With most of Fort Scott’s oops deployed either with Blunt or at Baxter Springs, the
town’s residents prepared to meet the new threat. The cannons of Capt. Job Stockton’s Light
Battery guarded the roads leading into Fort Scott, employees of the quartermaster’s department
became a company of two hundred, and civilians of the town organized themselves into a
company of militia, similar to the one formed before Price’s 1861 expedition. On August 24,
1862, detachments from the Second and Sixth Kansas cavalry regiments encountered a force
estimated at more than eight hundred men led by Quantrill, Hays, and Col. Shelby on Coon
Creek. near Lamar. After a short skirmish and some losses, the federal troops withdrew to
Kansas, reaching Fort Scott the next day and reinforcing the fort’s garrison. Adding to the post's
defensive capabilities was the Second Kansas Battery, under the command of Charles W. Blair,
of Fort Scott. The unit, authorized by Blunt the previous month. numbered one hundred and
twenty-three men and officers. It fielded two twelve-pound field howitzers and four six-pound
cannons Captured from the Confederates. In preparation for the advancing Confederates, four
companies of the Kansas Second Volunteer Cavalry Regiment arrived from Fort Larned on
September 20, bringing two more siege guns for the post's defense. Across the state line, senior
Union commanders countered the resurgent Confederate forces by combining all federal forces in
the field into the Army of the Frontier, led by Brigadier General John M. Schofield.”*

The two columns came together at Newtonia, Missouri, on September 30. Hindman’s
invasion of Missouri comprised about 2,500 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and 3,000 Indians, along
with fourteen pieces of artillery, reinforced by fifteen hundred Missouri cavalrymen. Before he
could lead troops north from Arkansas, Confederate leaders called Hindman to Little Rock for a
military conference. Brigadier General James R. Rains took charge, with strict orders against any
offensive action while he was away. Despite the injunction, on September 24, Rains ordered his
forces north into Missouri and the Confederate invasion began - without either formal approval

* Pike to Jefferson Davis. July 31, 1862. O.R., 1:13. 860-68: Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border, 255+37

* Fort Scott Bulletin, August 23. 1862: Report of Brigadier Gensral James G. Blunt. August 26, 1862. O.R.. 1:8, 257=
258: Albert Greene. “Campaigning in che Army of the Frontier.” Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society 14 (1915+
1918). 283-310: National Archives and Record Service, Military Operations of the Civil War; A Guide Index to the Official
Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Dallas D. Irvine, comp. (Washingron, D,C.: U.S. National Archives and Revords
Service. 1961-78). 106; Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, for the Year 186-4 (Leavenworth: F.H. Russell &
Co., 1865). 705-5. The battery"s Fort Scott connection remained strong throughout the war. Blair's second in command was E.A.
Smith, who relinquished editorship of the Fort Scott Bulletin for the assignment. {n addition, the unit, known as “Blait’s
Battery.” after its commander, fought under a flag presented by “the ladies of Fort Scoxt” on Nov, 29, 1862. Fort Scott Bud/erin,
Nov. 29. 1862,



Bes

Uniike the regular Army, James Lane had no compunction about using minorities as soldiers. This
Harper's Weekly cover of November 1861 is entitled “indian Scouts in Gen. Lane’s Camp."



Epilogue Fort Scott National Historic Site

: se
Restored Officers Row (Southwest elevation). Left to right, HS-1, HS-2, HS-4 and HS-12. 1980.

264



Fort Scott National Historic Site

eras eh i SUE gence

HS-14, restored Post Bakery. Restoration completed in 1974
358

(Southwest elevation). 1980.



July 1864
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry Co.D

Co.L
Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry Co. D
Sccond Kansas Battery Right Section

August 1864

Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry Co. D

Co.L
Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry Co.D
Second Kansas Battery Right Section

September 1864
Fifteenth Kansas Cavairy CoA
Co.B
Co. C
Co.D
Co. F
Co. J
Co. K
Co.L
Co.N
Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry Co. D
Eleventh Kansas Cavalry Co. B
Co. D
Second Kansas Battery Right Section
October 1864
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry Co.D
Co.L
Sixteenth Kansas Cavairy Co. D
Third Wisconsin Cavalry Co.A
Co.C
Co.D
Co. PF
Co.N
Second Kansas Battery Right Section
November 1864
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry Co. D
Co.L
Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry Co.D
Third Wisconsin Cavalry Co. A
Co, C
Co. D
Co, F
Co.N
Second Kansas Battery Right Section

287



the Indian Territory but repudiated the treaty signed by their tribe with the Confederacy and
remained loyal to the United States. In mid-November 1861 tribal elder Opothleyahola led his
Creeks, joined by Delawares, Seminoles, and Cherokees loyal to the Union, on a six-week escape
from the Creek Nation to the Verdigris and Neosho river valleys in Kansas. Confederate Indians
and Texans commanded by Col. Douglas Cooper mounted a series of pursuits to stop the exodus.
Opothleyahola scored defensive victories against his Indian pursuers at Round Mountain on
November 19 and at Chusto-Talasah (Bird Creek) on December 9. Anxious to quell the unrest
among their new allies, Confederate leaders sent a larger force of Texans after the Creeks. At
noon on December 26, the Texans charged on foot across the icy waters of Shoal Creek in
northeastern Indian Territory and smashed the fleeing Creeks’ armed resistance. Stand Watie and
three hundred Cherokee horsemen arrived the next morning and pursued the scattered fugitives
fleeing toward Kansas. More than seven hundred of Opothleyahola’s followers perished, either
because of the fighting or the weather, but hundreds more reached safety in Kansas. Many
refugees moved into the Neosho Valley, settling around Humboldt, Walnut, Fall River, and Le
Roy, and Union officers would recruit hundreds to serve in the First and Second Indian Home
Guard regiments.”

Despite the onset of winter weather, Confederate forces in Missouri supplied one more
invasion scare before New Year's Day when Price again moved his forces northward. A stronger
federal presence shattered his advance columns and his plans before the main body could cross
the Osage River, and he remained humbled but intact in southwestern Missouri. In response,
military officials ordered Montgomery to concentrate the troops under his command at Fort
Scott. Officers ordered Jennison and part of the First Kansas Cavalry out of southeast Kansas,
sending the unit south of Kansas City, to “protect the frontier of Kansas from incursions of the
rebel bands now in the neighborhood.”*

At the end of 1861, Fort Scott has just begun its development into part of the unified
Union effort to destroy the Confederacy. Until its integration was complete, the post remained
under the sway of James Lane. Seen as peripheral to the main war effort, jayhawkers and
bushwhackers in Kansas and Missouri remained free to conduct their personal vendettas and
raids of plunder, visiting the horrors of war upon the civilians in the border counties. One of the
men serving under Lane suggested to his wife that she join him if the troop went into winter
quarters around Fort Scott, adding that “if the forces now under Lane are to remain here to
protect the Union people in Western Missouri and at the same time Kansas, as it was first
intended we think there will be no further trouble here.” Hampered by the vast distances and
small numbers allotted to their armies, both Union and Confederate commanders fought intensely
on the infrequent occasions when they met, but army-to-army actions were rare in the theater.
Southern success pushed pro-Union Indians out of the Indian Territory, foreshadowing

® Annie Heloise Abel, The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War (Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur H. Clark, 1919);
W. Craig Gaines, The Confederate Cherokees: John Drew's Regiment of Mounted Rifles (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1989}; Angie Debo, “The Site of the Battle of Round Mountain, 1861," Chronicles of Oktahoma 27 (Summer
1949): 187-206.

°C. Francis Clarke, Capiain, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, Special Order No. 8, December 10, 1861, OR, U8,
423,

its


Fourtcenth Kansas Infantry
Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Second Kansas Battery
December 1863
Tenth Kansas Infantry

Ninth Kansas Cavalry
Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Second Kansas Battery

1864

January 1864
Ninth Kansas Cavalry
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Second Kansas Batlery

Fort Leavenworth
February 1864

Eleventh Kansas Cavalry

Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Co. €
Co. A
Co. C
Co. F
Co.G

Right Section

Co. H
Co.K
Co.L
Co. A
CoC
Co. D
Co. F

Right Section

Co.L
Co. D
Cot

Co. A
Co. C
Co. D
Co. F

Right Section
Post Battery

Co, C
Co. F
Co. D
Co. E
Cot
Co.L
Co.N
Co. A

285


Society initiated and completed a series of structural archeological investigations from 1968 to
1972 on the buildings which would become Fort Scott National Historic Site.

In the face of continual threats and the loss of any remaining historical significance, the
National Park Service eventually dropped its opposition to the creation of a national historic site.
Before Congress passed Icgislation establishing Fort Scott National Historic Site in 1978, the
timeworn officer’s quarters (HS-1, HS-2, and HS-4), Post Hospital (HS-8), Quartermaster Store-
house (HS-12) and the Post Bakery (HS-14) were restored to their 1840s splendor. Between (976
and 1980, the Park Service reconstructed most of the major missing buildings above their origi-
nal subsurface foundations, as the Nationa! Paxk Service recreated a historic scene of the 1840s
frontier fort. By the time Skubitz retired from Congress in 1978, he had secured more than $3.5
million for Fort Scott. The area was established as Fort Scott National Historic Site on October
19, 1978, under Public Law 15-484, “in order to commemorate the significant role played by Fort
Scott in the opening of the West, as well as the Civil War and the strife in the state of Kansas that
preceded it.”

‘The National Park Service administration of the site began on May 18, 1978. The eco-
nomic opportunities brought into the region by the Army presence that fueled the town’s found-
ing and development continues today, with the former military post now a tourist attraction that
helps briag in $8 milion annually and keeps alive the historical fabric of the men and events that
saw Fort Scott intimately involved in regional, state, and national affairs.”

? Jim Fisher, “Fort Built on a Dime flere, Nickel There A Patient Approach (o Government Funding Led to Site's
Success.” Kansus City Siar, September 21, 1997.

251



Archeology Fort Scott National Historic Site

HS-15, April-July 1972:
West view. Includes
north half of structural
foundation. buildings in
the background include
the KG&E building and es
the KG&E substation.

HS-15; April-July 1972.
West view. Includes the
south half of the structural
foundation. Buildings in
the background, from lett
to right, include the KG&E
building and substation,
and the Bruce Marble
Works (razed circa 1996).



animals still supplied significant nutrition.>

Contact with Europeans after 1541 revolutionized Plains societies. Across eastem
Kansas, Late Ceramic groups began using the horse while retaining features of pre-horse culture.
Ancestors of the horse lived in North America during earlier geological eras, but excessive
hunting or climatic changes wiped out the species. Some animals evidently traveled westward
over the Bering land bridge to Asia and eventually spread into Europe. Spanish colonizers
brought their descendants back to the New World. The horses’ reintroduction precipitated the
beginning of widespread and comprehensive changes in Plains life. The horse harnessed
unbelievable potential, increasing bison hunters’ efficiency and people’s range and creating new
possibilities to augment sedentary horticulture and mobile gathering.*

Well before the incoming Americans reached the Plains, the region was an unstable mix
of Indian societies, with the earliest communities established there centuries before. Decades
before European-Americans reached the prairies, Indians across the continent slowly acquired
possession of horses, providing the means for many populations who lived near the Plains to
capitalize on its grasses and animals. The Kansa and Osage Indians, who shared a common
Siouan linguistic background, moved west from the Ohio River Valley to eastern Kansas and
Missouri in the fifteenth century. They established themselves across eastern Kansas, with the
latter spread in communities throughout southeastern Kansas, southwestern Missouri, and
northwestern Arkansas. Permanent villages along waterways characterized Osage and Kansa
communities, and the people took part in seasonal expeditions in search of buffalo on hunting
grounds to the west. Northwest of the Kansa were the Pawnee, traditional enemies of both Kansa
and Osage, whose main villages were along the Platte River in Nebraska. To maintain the peace
in this uncertain atmosphere, the federal officials ordered the Army to establish a line of military
posts separating the two races, setting up what the government hoped was a “permanent Indian
frontier.”*

The most powerful group on the southern Plains before 1840, the Osage originally came
from North Carolina or Virginia, with different groups later moving to lower courses of the Ohio
River, and moving west of the Mississippi River by 1763. The Osage rise was quick and
impressive. They successfully negotiated the middle ground between the French and Spanish and
native peoples around them, mastering both trade and warfare. By the early nineteenth century,
most Osage villages were along the south fark of Osage River in western Missouri. Explorers
reported smaller settlements on the Marmaton and Missouri rivers, and near modern Ponca City,
Oklahoma. In 1808, the government established Fort Osage, which included a trading post, on

? Waldo R. Wedel, Prehistoric Man on the Great Plains (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961): 46-78,

“John Canfield Ewers, The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture: With Comparative Material from Other Western Tribes
(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980); Frank Gilbert Roc, The indian and the Horse (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1955),

* Willard H. Rollings, The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains (Columbia: University
of Missouri Press, 1992), William E. Unrau, Indians of Kansas: The Euro-American Invasion and Conquest of Indian Kansas
(Topeka: Kansas State Historical Society, 1991), 14; Eltion West, The Way so the West: Essays on the Central Plains
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995); Reginald Horsman, The Frontier in the Formative Years, 1783-1815
(New York: Holt, Rinehast and Winston, 1970).


statehood. Seeking to block a Southem victory on the Kansas question, Republicans and Demo-
crats supporting Sen. Stephen Douglas opposed the move. William English of Indiana proposed a
compromise that would give Kansans another opportunity to vote on a state constitution. Accep-
tance would bring immediate statehood white rejection meant the territory had to wait until its
population reached the number needed for statehood, at that time about ninety thousand. Kansans
rejected this compromise on August 2, the measure failing 11,300 to 1,788.47

As the Buchanan administration struggled for a political solution to the Kansas problem,
Medary initiated his tenure with a request for more federal troops, prompted by the visit of George
Crawford and the Fort Scott contingent. Crawford warned the governor that an armed group of
Missourians was camped on the Marais des Cygnes River, about forty miles north of Fort Scott.
Medary dispatched Capt. W. S. Walker and two companies of cavalry to Fort Scott and authorized
former dragoon sergeant John Hamilton to raise a company of militia. Before hostilities erupted
again, delegates held another peace convention in Bourbon County, this time at Dayton, northwest
of Fort Scott. Montgomery addressed the conference, but Medary refused to consider its resolu-
tions, most of which favored Montgomery. Before the troops reached Fort Scott, Secretary of War
Jefferson Davis sent an order ending the use of federal troops in quelling domestic violence in the
two counties. Medary continued to raise militia units, but finally saw a hint of peace. Faced with an
endless war, Montgomery appeared in Lawrence on January 18, 1859 and surrendered. Since the
only charge he faced stemmed from an attack on a store in Willow Grove, Montgomery posted
$4,000 bail and his jailers freed him, to the cheers of the town. The free-state leader met members
of the legislature, addressed the Congregational Church in Lawrence, and spoke with the governor
at the Eldridge Hotel. The Dayton meeting and Montgomery’s surrender opened a new period of
peace throughout Kansas, and on January 18, 1859, Medary politely declined Buchanan’s new
offer of additional federal troops.”

With armed conflict on the decline, the legislature took the lead in resolving the crisis. A
fourth territorial legislature, held in Lawrence because delegates refused to go to the pro-slavery city
of Lecompton, repealed all laws passed by the Bogus Legislature, and initiated a new constitutional
convention. The new document asked Kansans to vote on whether or not they wanted another
convention. Passage of the bill meant an election for delegates in June, with the convention meeting
in Wyandotte in July. A general referendum in October would consider the constitution. As it
achieved its goals, the idiosyncratic Free-State Party gradually dissolved, and the new Republican
Party, led in Kansas by James Lane, replaced it." On October 4, 1859, the people of Kansas
approved the Wyandotte Constitution by atwo-to-one margin. Slavery’s days in the West drew to
aclose,

As debate over Kansas’ entry into the union shifted to Washington, D.C., the settlement of
the Kansas ‘Territory continued. Federal officers undertook a General Land Office survey for the
Fort Scott area between 1855 and 1857, opening the region’s legal settlement. In June 1857,
developers organized anew town company, anda month later the federal land office opened.
Shortly after, a blacksmith shop and two saloons opened, and during the following January, crews

1859.

* William Frank Zomow, Kansas: A History of the Jayhawk State (Norman: University of Oktahoma Press, 1957),
16-77.

92




Index

African Americans: Brought to Kansas 111; Bureau
for Colored Troops 168; Combat History 160;
“Contrabands of war” 164, 165; Considered
for Federal Service 134, 157, 164; First
Confiscation Act 164; First South Carolina
Colored Regiment 165; I ouisiana Native
Guards 166; Military Service in South 157-
158; Noncombat Duties 168-169; Opposition
10 Service 166; Refugee Camp 175, 93;
Second Confiscation Act 165; Soldiers’ Pay
Inequalities 168, Treatment by Confederates
202

Anderson, Bill 208

Baxter Springs, Massacre (52

Bayne, O.P. 80, 82

Big Dry Wood Creek, Missouri (Battle of Mules) 108

Bison hison antiquus 2

Blair, Charles W. 100, 178. 180, 196, 200, 206, 214,
218, 222, 224-226; At Wilson’s Creek 105;
Commands Fort Scott 140; Second Kansas
Battery 129, 156

“Bleeding Kansas” 11, 12, 74, 95

Blunt, James 98, 108, 123, 127, 129, 131-132, 134,
144-146, 153-152, 156, 192, 195, 200-202,
208, 220, 223, 226; Railroad Lobbyist 239

Boone, Nathaniel 60

Bourbon County, 11; New York Indian Lands Opened
for Settlement 87; Pro-Slavery Forces 77, 78;
Settlement 72, 76; Organized 76

Bourbon County Home Guards 103

Bowles, Theodore 229

Brown, John 74, 77, 78, 79

Buford, John 66

Bugg, John A. SO

Burbank, Sidney 62, 66, 67

Burcau of Indian Affairs 118. 135, 140, 141, 191,
192, 203, 229

Butler, Benjamin 164, 165

Cabell, William L. 211

Cabin Creek 145; 1864 Battle 206

Cane Hills, Arkansas 132

Carland, John 244

Carteton, James [3, 64

Carney, Thomas 208

Carthage. Missouri, 1861 Engagement 102
Cass, Lewis 8

Catlin. George 8, 9

Cato, Kansas, Engagement 13)

Centre Creek, Missouri 141-142

Chapman, Orren 67

Charlot’s Farm 212

Cherokee Neutral Lands 16, 233, 236-237; First
White Settlement 237; Squatiers 240-24

Cherokee Strip 8

Clark, William 4, 25

Clarke, George W. 78, 79, 82, 86

Cloud, William 171

Coffin, William 219

Cooke, Philip St. George 59

Crawford, George 89, 150

Crawford, Samuel 169, 217

Croghan, George 39-40, 50

Curtis, Samuel 119-120, 123, 135-136, 152, 159, 220.

Deitzler, George Washington 119

Denver, James 86, 91; At Fort Scott 88-89; Com-
mander District of Kansas 123

Department of the Frontier 145

Department of Kansas 112, 118, 195;
1864 Reorganization 202

District of Kansas 229

District of South Kansas 215

Dodge, Grenville 220-221, 224, 227

Dodge, Henry 20, 25, 57

Doubleday, Charles 124, 171, 183

Dongiass, H. Vord 170

Douglas, George 30

Dragoon Barracks, Civilian Use 82

Dragoons 20, 21, 25, 28, 35; 1845 Rxpedition 61-62;
1856 Topeka Expedition 77, Against
Republic of Texas Forces 59-60; Plains
Expeditions 55-56, 57; Weapons 46-47; See
First Dragoon Regiment, Second Dragoon
Regiment, Regiment of Mounted Rifles

Drew, John 159

Drywood Creek 173

Dry Wood, Missouri, Engagement 13)

Leventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry 130, 204
Emancipation Proclamation 133-134, 167-168
Eustis, William 34, 58, 61, 64

Twell, Richard 13, 58, 64

Ewing, Thomas 145, 15t

Fifteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 188,
204, 218, 220, 225-226

Fifih Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regitnent 156

First Cherokee Mounted Rifles i i4

395



July 1861, Congress asked Secretary of War for a report on Confederate use of Indian and
African American troops. Although the Army definitely confirmed southem recruitment of
American Indians, Cameron, continuing his department's reluctance to break with its white
tradition, quickly reported his department had no information on the matter.’

Although northern sentiment generally opposed placing minorities in uniform, when
circumstances forced recruitment of Indians and African Americans, the public was more
receptive to arming Indians. By the middle of the nineteenth century, American society saw
Indians as a doomed race, destined for extinction in the face of white progress, Indians retained
mythic status in literature, but they no longer threatened expansion of the nation as they had
before the battle of Tippecanoe in 1809. The federal government moved the great majority of
Indians away from white settlements along the Atlantic coast, further distancing them from most
white Americans. In comparison, African Americans lived in cities and towns across the nation,
and in literature and folklore stereotypes of laziness and lack of intellect limited any chance that
Americans might entrust them with protecting national safety. Some thought that any training or
weapons African Americans received could present new hazards when they returned to their
homes after the war.®

The cannons that shelled Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor initiated a change in
American attitudes. As the war began, abolitionists called for recruitment of African Americans.
They saw the creation of all-African American units as the catalyst that would shift what was a
war to restore the union into a fight to free the slaves, and help justify African American calls for
equality. Other northerners joined in the campaign to allow former slaves and freemen to
volunteer, but their reasons were less idealistic. African Americans, some believed, were more
resistant to tropical diseases found in the South; others saw them as more than adequate to serve
as cannon fodder. Some believed that the South would recruit African Americans, and the North
must not give up such an advantage. A minority of advocates proposed to recruit African
Americans for use as laborers, freeing whites from physically draining duties.”

Confronted with its numerical inferiority, the South used its minority population much
earlier than the Union. While the Confederate government staunchly opposed arming African
Americans, it used hundreds of them in non-combat functions. Slave owners rented many of
those slaves who aided the Southern cause to the Confederate government in defense of their
homeland. Fearful of the effects armed African Americans would have on the slave population in
general and mindful of recent slave revolts, southerners relegated their volunteers to non-combat
assignments. Some units did fight, most notably the Native Guards, Louisiana Militia, which by

* Cameron to D. Cooper, May 9, 1861, United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Published Under the Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert N.
Scot (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901) (cited as O.R.), 3:1, 184; Mation of Mr. Wickliffe, July 22,
1861; Fort Scott Democrat, August 24, 186]; Cameron to Galusha A. Grow, Speaker of the House of Representative, July 25,
1851, O.R., 3:1. 340-41.

$ Brian W. Dippie, The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and US. Indian Potiey (Lawrence: University Press of
Kansas, 1982), 1-31; Ronald Takaki, Iron Cages: Race and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: Knopi, 1979);
Geratd Astor, The Right to Fight: A History of African Americans in the Military (Novato, CA: Presidio, 1998)

” Ira Berlin, ed. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867; Series Hl: The Black Military
Experience (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 74.

137



to Fort Gibson. Col. William Weer of the Tenth Kansas, a longtime jayhawking ally of Lane who
before the war was a lawyer in Wyandotte with a reported fondness for drinking, was in
command. Weer served under Lane during Price’s move against Fort Scott and the Kansas
Brigade’s retreat to Fort Lincoln in 1861.

Desperately short of manpower, Army commanders in the West accepted the necessity to
recruit nonwhite regiments as part of any new offensive operations. When the conquest of Indian
Territory became one of Lincoln’s political objectives, any top-level inhibitions against Indians
in federal uniforms disappeared. The location of numerous Indian refugee camps surrounding
Fort Scott further eased their recruitment. As a result, the Army issued orders in April to raise
two Indians regiments. Commanders at first envisioned the units as defensive, to enable refugee
Indians in Kansas to return to their homes in the Indian Territory and to protect them while
planting crops, but military necessity eventually expanded their roles into the offense.

Still uncertain that the Indians could defend their homelands unaided, military leaders
pondered their advance. Halleck, then commander of the Department of the Mississippi,
provided two additional! regiments of white volunteers, but the expedition began without the
participation of Indian regiments. Early in June. Col. Charles Doubleday, commander of troops
in Southern Kansas and Indian Territory, led a force of about 2,500 troopers from the Second
Ohio Cavalry, Ninth Wisconsin Infantry, and Rabb's battery out of Humboldt. Fort Scott
supported the column with a subsistence train of 100,000 rations, escorted by three companies of
the Second Ohio Cavalry and four companies from the Tenth Kansas Infaniry Volunteers.
Doubleday sought to push back Stand Watie’s Conlederates, and then secure Shoal Creek for
refugees, but he began his expedition with no news of when or how the Indian regiments were to
join him."

At the outset, the expedition into Indian Territory drew support from across the region.
As more regiments left the southeast post, Lieut. Col. Lewis R. Jewell of the Sixth Kansas
became senior officer and post commander at Fort Scott on June 1, 1862. Trying to coordinate
across two departments, Blunt kept his counterparts in Missouri informed of his status. On June
3. he reported to Brigadier General F.B. Brown, Union commander at Springfield. that two
regiments of infantry, two regiments of cavairy, one regiment of Indians and two batteries stood
ready at Fort Scott and Humboldt. Fort Leavenworth sent about four hundred wagons south for
the use by the expedition, carrying provisions, clothing, camp and garrison equipage, and
ordnance stores. Indian agents at Leroy reccived orders to turn over arms and military equipment
for the Indian regiment organized there. One Indian agent, O.S. Coffin, soon joined the military

© Tort Riley's garrison consisted of 158 officers and 3.143 enlisted men present for duty, while 976 officers and men
were at Fort Leavenworth. the third-largest post in Kansas. Abstract from the Deparment of Kansas. May 10. 1862. 0.2.18.
376: Charles Doubleday. Col.. commanding Indian Expedition. to Capt. Thomas Moonlight. AAG. Department of Kansas. May
25, 1862. OR. 1:8. 397: Castel, Cai! War Kansas. 82; Salomon to Sturgis. May 7. 1862, O.8., 1:8, 371-372: Monaghan. Civil
War on the Western Border, 252.

4 L. Yhomas. Adjutant General. to Halleck. April 4. 1862. 0.8. 1:8. 660: Doubleday to Biunt, Junz 1. 1862. O.8., 1:8.
408.

124



December 1864
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Second Kansas Battery

1865
January
Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Second Kansas Battery
February 1865

Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry

Third Wisconsin Cavalry

Second Kansas Battery

Co. C
Co.D
Co. F
CoA
Co. C
Co.D
Co. F
Co.N
Right Section

Co.B
Co. D
Co. E
Co. F
Co.1
Co.L
Co. A
Co.C
Co.D
Co. F
Co.N
Right Section

Co.
Co.
Right Section

2
gpggogoggonos
ZNoGAaArr "DH Y8w

288



helped maintain Missouri as ai least a neutral state.

Kansas remained firmly in the Union camp throughout the war, but its easterly neighbor
presented a more complex picture. One of the four border states with uncertain allegiance to
either the Union or Confederate sides, Missouri’s population and heritage labeled it as a slave
state. Confederate sympathizers, most notably Gov. Claiborne Jackson, controlied the state
government, but the state’s strong Southern flavor remained balanced by a strong pro-Union
German population across the state’s northern half. Union loss of Missouri would threaten
Mllinois and other states and influence the political and military situations in Kentucky, which was
also a border state. If Missouri jumped to the Southern side, the Union might lose contro! of three
of the continent's major river systems, Missouri's departure
would also leave Kansas and the Pacific territories, with their
much needed gold, isolated from the North. A Confederate
Missouri would open Kansas to a new round of predatory attacks
from Missourians seeking revenge for violence incurred during
Bleeding Kansas. Until the 1862 Union victory at Pea Ridge,
Arkansas, Missouri remained a prize sought by both sides, and
Confederate forces threatened the state for two more vears.*

The secession crisis in Missouri polarized the state’s
population and eventually sparked a new round of border
violence with Kansas. Missourians overall hoped to remain
neutral, but with many Southern immigrants living across the
state, a strong pro-slavery faction existed. Threatened by the
: 3 scething political climate, the federal government treated
Sterling Price Missouri as a southern state, by moving arsenals and posts to

avoid losing them to the Confederate cause. On March 11, 1861,
the Anny assigned Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, Second U.S. Infantry, to command of the St. Louis
Arsenal, where he received orders to arm the loyal citizens and execute the laws of the United
States. On May 10, Union troops commanded by Lyon, former commander of Army troops at
Fort Scott, captured a band of Missouri militiamen suspected of treason near St. Louis. In the
resulting unrest. observed by future Union generals Ulysses 8. Grant and William Tecumseh
Sherman, federal soldiers killed twenty-eight of the mob that attacked them.’

Pro-Southern clements won support across Missouri in response to this “Camp Jackson
Massacre,” and began to show active support for the Southern cause. The legislature, meeting in
a special session, gave the governor virtual dictatorial powers, appropriated $10,000 to encourage
Indians in the territory to retaliate against Kansans, and authorized $2 million to raise a state
army. Legislators also mobilized the State Guard, placing it under the command of Sterling Price,
“Old Pap” to his troops. Born in a prosperous Virginia tarming family in 1809, Price and his
family emigrated to Missouri after he finished law school. By {840 he was a wealthy tobacco

* Henry Steele Commager. The Blue and the Cray: The Story of the Civil War as Told by Participents (New York:
Bobbs-Merrill Company. 1950), 375-76.

* Monaghan, Civi? War on the Western Border: 132-433: Clysses §. Grant. Memoirs and Selected Letters, Personal
Memoirs of U.S. Grant (Washington: The Library of America, 1990), 155-57

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occupying its new building, but the infantry remained in temporary huts. The two companies of
infantry were soon to occupy their barracks, with D Company moving into its barracks within a
week of Croghan’s visit and C Company expected to move by August. Croghan noted that “the
quarters will not be completely finished by the time stated, but sufficiently as for comfortable
accommodation.” Croghan criticized the layout of the post, noting that building an enclosed
square around the parade ground precluded any easy extension of the fort. He also preferred
having the stables outside the square of buildings around the parade ground, saying Swords
should have built it at right angles to the dragoon barracks and at least fifty feet away. The
hospital location also drew criticism, with the inspector general suggesting that a quieter spot,
away from the infantry barracks, would have been better. “The beauties and advantages of the
location have been greatly marred,” Croghan observed, since the buildings not only obstructed
“the most magnificent prairie of the country, but interrupt in the most offensive way, almost the
only refreshing summer breezes.”*?

Construction woes continue through 1844, with Swords complaining about problems with
the sawmill and the lack of water and skilled workers, the latter issue compounded by required
dragoons patrols that nearly emptied the fort of personnel. Kearny requested that recruits sent to
Fort Scott include carpenters and skilled workers (i.e. turners, glaziers, and plasterers), but
circumstances rarely granted his wish. Skilled labor remained in short supply. In light of these
obstacles, Swords believed that the post would not be completed for at least two more years. He
reported that he had spent more than $7,300 for tools, materials, labor and transportation from
October 1, 1843 to September 30, 1844, and estimated that completing the rest of the planned
projects would cost $7,500. The fort also had external concerns; aside from supporting military
expeditions — its primary purpose — it had to allot men to keep the nearby military road
repaired. On Aug. 27, 1844, after heavy rains washed away the bridge over Sugar Creek, about
28 miles north of Fort Scott on the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson military road, officers ordered
out a detachment of soldiers to repair it. Swords noted that he could not repair the two-hundred-
and-seventy-five foot-long bridge “without withdrawing all of the mechanics from the
buildings.”

Despite the setbacks, Swords made progress. In his October 1, 1845 report to Assistant
Quartermaster General Col. Henry Stanton, Swords reported that the officer’s quarters had finally
been completed except for porch flooring. Another duplex was nearly ready for plastering of its
inside walls and another one had its frame erected and would soon be ready for covering,
although the availability of lumber made the completion date uncertain. Work crews framed the
commanding officer’s office and ordnance storeroom in preparation for framing and completed
the powder magazine was completed. The post sti!] needed to build a stable for the
quartermaster, a guardhouse awaited construction, and permanent flooring for hospital and
soldier’s quarters had not yet been accomplished. Yet again, progress was slowed because the
dragoons were out on patrol, the inconsistent mill still produced an inadequate supply of lumber,
and Swords wrote, “the very great prevalence of sickness at the Post during the past Month”

Col. George Grohan's inspection report, July 8, 1844, Fort Scott Natione! Historic Site microfilm.

Swords to Jesup, August 27, 1844; Col. Stephen Keamy to Brig. General R. Jones, Adjutant General, September 24,
1844, Fort Scott National Historic Site microfilm.

40