Another was New England-born Dan Anthony, an ardent abolitionist and the brother of suffragette Susan B. Among them was James Henry Lane, the self-styled “Grim Chieftain,” a lanky Hoosier demagogue whose biography included terms in the United States House of Representatives and Senate, a penchant for fiery oratory, and a tendency not to repay his debts. Some prominent, influential and highly respected leaders were associated with Jayhawking.
Indeed, Jayhawking became a widely used synonym for stealing.įor all this, Jayhawking carried no social stigma. Jayhawkers were undisciplined, unprincipled, occasionally murderous, and always thieving. A Jayhawker was one of a band of anti-slavery, pro-Union guerrillas coursing about Kansas and Missouri, impelled by substantially more malice than charity. But Jayhawkers were very real, indeed, in the days leading up to the Civil War. This dark soul is epitomized by two words: Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers.Īs a bird, the Jayhawk does not exist it is as fabulous as the mythological roc. But it is in the footnotes, so to speak, that the true character of the war in Missouri and Kansas is revealed. Usually subordinated to events east of the Mississippi, these and other western battles became slender chapters in the history of the war. Westport was the last major Civil War battle west of the Mississippi River, yet it was but one of the 1,162 battles and skirmishes fought in Missouri during the conflict. Louis because of overwhelming Federal strength there, Price’s troops struggled past Hermann, Boonville, Glasgow, Lexington and Independence before losing an engagement at Westport, now part of Kansas City, and retiring, exhausted, into Arkansas. Sterling “Pap” Price led a last-gasp raid across the state. It was an ominous beginning to official hostilities.
Lyon’s soldiers brutally fired into a riotous mob of Southern sympathizers, leaving 20 people dead. On May 10, Federal troops led by hotheaded Captain Nathaniel Lyon took over at gunpoint the arsenal at Camp Jackson, near St. The first formal military action in Missouri took place less than a month after the April 1861 Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, S.C. More than anywhere else, it was truly a civil war. The Civil War came early to Missouri and Kansas, stayed late, and was characterized at all times by unremitting and unparalleled brutality. It was a conflict whose scars were a long time in healing. Bitter Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers - March '99 America's Civil War Feature Closeįor half a decade before the Civil War, residents of the neighboring states of Missouri and Kansas waged their own civil war.
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