Kansas: Birthplace of America's Civil War

October 17, 2001 | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For the citizens of Kansas and Missouri, the Civil War started much earlier than the date given in history books: April 1861. The war started six years earlier for Kansans with what is commonly referred to as the "Wakarusa War" or "Border War" in the area surrounding Lawrence, Kansas. The abolitionists who had settled eastern Kansas in the mid-1850s clashed with the pro-slavery "bushwhackers" of Missouri. These early battles in the name of free state or slave earned Kansas the nickname, "Bleeding Kansas." Because most of the state's abolitionist leaders resided in Lawrence, the city soon became known as the Free State Capital.

This Civil War continued with the sacking of Lawrence in May of 1856, when the Free State Hotel and both Lawrence newspapers were destroyed. Town leaders then worked to bring more weapons into the community for protection.

However, Lawrence continued to be the scene for many of the bloody border wars. The tension only intensified when war broke out in the eastern United States in 1861. Lawrence continued to be a natural target for bushwhacker invasions.

The most brutal of the attacks was Quantrill's Raid on August 21, 1863. A pro-slavery guerilla, William Quantrill, rode into Lawrence at dawn that morning with about 400 men and caught Lawrence citizens off-guard. Quantrill and his men had been plotting the raid for months. He ordered his troops to burn every house and kill every man. The raiders destroyed every building in downtown Lawrence except one, and killed more than 180 unarmed men and boys. Historians often cite Quantrill's Raid as one of the Civil War's most atrocious acts against unarmed men.