Border Ruffian Warfare in Atchison - Page 2

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"When we arrived at the bank, Kelley painted my face with black paint, marking upon it the letter 'R'. The company had increased to some thirty or forty persons. Without any trial, witness, judge, counsel, or jury, for about two hours I was a sort of target at which were hurled imprecations, curses, arguments, entreaties, accusations and interrogations. They constructed a raft of three cottonwood saw logs, fastened together with inch plank nailed to the logs, upon which they put me and sent me down the Missouri River. The raft was towed out to the middle of the stream with a canoe. Robert S. Kelley held the rope that towed the raft.

One of the flags on Butler's raft.

The ruins of the Free State Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas.

In the meantime, public meetings were held in Lawrence and communications were addressed to the United States Marshal, declaring Lawrence to be order-loving and law-abiding, and that her enemies were bent upon her destruction, pretending that they wished only to preserve the peace.

The preparations for the attack continued and on May 21st the besiegers formed quite an army. The South Carolina Company of Atchison was among the first to commence the assault upon Lawrence and before the city was fairly subjugated "its flag was planted upon the rifle pit of the enemy."

So says the Sovereign, whose editors were two of the commanders of the attack. The newspaper continues: "It was then carried by its brave bearer and stationed upon the Herald of Freedom printing office, and from there to the large hotel and fortress of the Yankees, where it proudly waved until the artillery commenced battering down the building. Our company was composed mostly of South Carolinians, under command of Captain Robert De Terville, late of Charleston, South Carolina, and we venture the prediction that a braver set of men than are found in its ranks never bore arms." The brave troops from Atchison returned proudly to their home, the commander of all the infantry having been one of their fellow townsmen, Colonel John H. Stringfellow, of the Squatter Sovereign. Stringfellow, without dispute, was the most bitter pro-slavery man in the territory, and kept up an everlasting din about avenging "the shooting down of our men without provocation wherever they met them." Its watchword was "Death to all Yankees and traitors in Kansas!" The attack is since known as the Sacking of Lawrence.

At a mass meeting held in June, 1856, its editor, Robert S. Kelley, was nominated as "commander-in-chief of the forces in town," but his press of other duties and the thought, no doubt, that he was doing more good for the party as editor than he could as commander, induced him to decline the honor, and it was conferred upon Captain F. G. Palmer, the South Carolinian. At this meeting, Senator David Atchison, Colonel Abell, Captain De Treville, others made speeches.

During the summer, the John Brown war and general excitement caused the citizens of Atchison to form another company -- the "Atchison Guards," commanded by John Robertson, who was prominent in the Battle of Hickory Point. By the first days of September, 1856, General James H. Lane and Colonel Harvey were well on their way towards Lecompton, to rescue the Free-State prisoners who confined there. Because of General Lane's delay in making his appearance, Colonel Harvey thought the movement against the territorial capital had been abandoned, and therefore turned his attention to Captain F. G. Palmer, the Pro-slavery commander of Atchison, who had given the Free-soilers much trouble at Slough Creek, fifteen miles from Lecompton. The forces were returning from Lecompton to Atchison, and had camped for the night. Captain Palmer's South Carolina troops undoubtedly were thoroughly wearied, for they were sound asleep and had no pickets out, when Colonel Harvey arrived and surrounded the camp. Every one of the 22 soldiers was taken prisoner, but Captain Palmer and Lieutenant Morrall, who were sleeping a little apart from the rest, escaped. In the slight scrimmage two of the men were wounded. All were taken before they were fairly awake, and surrendered their guns, side arms, twelve horses, four oxen, two wagons, carpet bags, etc. At daylight they were released and arrived at Atchison the same day, rather low spirited. But this was not the end of the triumph of Colonel Harvey over the chivalry of Atchison.

On September 12th, Governor Geary, the newly-appointed Chief Executive of the Territory, issued his proclamation ordering all captains of militia to disband their forces, seeing that such commands were being used as political and party agents, and claiming  that he had sufficient United States troops for any probable emergency. General Lane's forces at once disbanded, but Colonel Harvey, thinking that he was justified in punishing Captain H.A. Lowe's band of pro-slavery men at Hickory Point, proceeded to that location, arriving on the 13th. Captain Robertson, of Atchison, had in the meantime started with his company for Lecompton. Stopping at Hickory Point he was prevailed upon by Captain Lowe to remain there and help defend the place from Colonel Harvey's proposed assault, news of which had reached him. The Pro-slavery forces defended themselves for three hours during the first day's battle, which took place on the 13th. They were divided into three parties, entrenched in a blacksmith shop, in a hotel and in a store, each about a quarter of a mile apart. The Atchison leader stood the brunt of the affray, as the shop in which he was fortified was an open log building, and he was considered Colonel Harvey's most formidable opponent. Sam Dickson, of Captain Robertson's command, had a narrow escape from death, and C.G. Newall and A. J. G. Westbrook had horses shot from under them. The next day, Sunday, September 14, at 10 a.m., Colonel Harvey resumed the attack, having obtained a four-pound cannon. He did such damage that the force of pro-slavery men capitulated and C.G. Newall was killed. News of this disobeying of orders had already reached Governor Geary, and on the night of the second day's battle he dispatched a force of dragoons who made Colonel Harvey's command prisoners. They were then indicted for the murder of C.G. Newall, tried, sentenced to hard labor, escaped, and were finally pardoned.

The reign of terrorism had been so well maintained by the pro-slavery party that up to early in the summer of 1857, there was no organization of Free-State men in the county. Several meetings were held in localities outside of Atchison, and a society was formed in the summer of that year at Monrovia, with F.G. Adams as Chairman of the County Committee. The Squatter Sovereign had been turned over to F.G. Adams, Senator Pomeroy and Robert McBratney, prominent members of the New England Aid Society, which had been rapidly expanding its influence for the three years during which it had been in existence. Senator Pomeroy was the avowed agent of the society, and as the Town Association had made so positive a compromise with the Free-State party, for the business good of Atchison, Adams naturally supposed that the pro-slavery men would even take a dose of General James H. Lane. He accordingly invited the powerful leader of the Free-State men to speak in Atchison on October 19th, and circulated notices of the meeting.

However, Adams had underestimated the people from Atchison, among whom it was generally understood several days before the appointed time, that Jim Lane couldn't and shouldn't speak in that town. In response, Adams invited about a dozen of his strong and reliable Free-State friends from Leavenworth to come up to Atchison to make sure there was fair play. They came, revolvers and all, arriving in the morning, and making their headquarters at the office of Adams, Swift & Co. The building stood on the Otis House corner. While there with his friends, Mr. Adams noticed that a crowd had gathered on Commercial Street, about two blocks west. He, with six others, started for the scene of what appeared to be a disturbance. On their way, they met Caleb A. Woodworth, Sr., going down the street, bareheaded and apparently in trouble. Adams turned about, as he had passed them, to make inquiries and was immediately assaulted with a heavy blow on the cheek. He did not turn the other cheek, but drew a small pistol from his pocket and turned upon his assailant. The man who had assaulted him was accompanied by a squad of friends, all armed with guns who seemed bent on mischief, if not blood. A friend knocked down Adams' hand, and cried "Don't shoot yet!" Out came the revolvers, all aimed at the bold musketeers. This determined action was so unexpected, that the pro-slavery men withdrew to consider, and the Free-State men returned to their headquarters.

Adams then proposed to organize an outdoor meeting, the pro-slavery party having joined the Free-Staters again and every moment getting noisier and more desperate. A. J. W. Westbrook of the Atchison Guards rode around among his followers, with his gun cocked, pretending to have a vast amount of blood in his eye for the chairman of the Free-State County Committee. Now and then to give the "blood-curdling" feature to the proceedings the fellow would order the crowd to "get out of the way," as he did not want to shoot the wrong man. It is doubtful whether Westbrook really intended to do much himself, but his conduct had the effect of stirring up his followers, who swore that Jim Lane should never speak. The Free-State party, reasoning that it was not imperative to the cause that Jim Lane should speak, decided to postpone the meeting. So George Buell, now General Buell, took Adams by the arm and led him off home. Some of the Free-State  party met General Lane on his way from Doniphan, where he had spoken the day before, and turned him back.

In the evening of this day speeches were made by several citizens of various political stripes - Mr. McBratney, Dr. John H. Stringfellow, and others -- all deprecating the disgraceful proceedings. They were not countenanced by any citizens of standing in the pro-slavery party. The whole affair was one of those outbreaks of the mob spirit, so common in those days. At this time, the brains of the pro-slavery party had given up the fight and would fraternize with any one who would come in to help build up the town, now striving against other new and flourishing places around it.

Compiled and edited by Kathy Weiser/Legends of Kansas, updated April 2010.

About this article: The primary content is from William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, first published in 1883 by A. T. Andreas, Chicago, Illinois. Note that the article is not verbatim as  corrections and editing have occurred.