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Veteran Affairs

2009-08-01 13:52:00

Kansas back in the 1800s

“If I went west, I think I would go to Kansas…” Abraham Lincoln, March 17, 1860 The Department of Kansas, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War announces that they have been selected to host the 129th National Convention of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 124th National Encampment, Auxiliary to the SUVCW and the 124th National Encampment, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic. This is the first time in the history of the SUVCW or GAR that a National Encampment has been held within the borders of Kansas. From the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, through the years of “Bleeding Kansas” and the Border wars from 1855 to 1861, though the Civil War, and in the post-war expansion when Kansas became known as the “Soldier State,” Kansas has been synonymous with the Civil War. Kansas was the home of one Grand Army of the Republic Commander in Chief and two Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Commanders-in-Chief. So how did we become known as the “Soldier State”? Kansas is known as a Soldier state due to the very large number of Civil War Veterans who settled here. Free land for veterans of the Civil War was a great incentive to move to Kansas. Almost all communities supported a camp of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). It was typical for those camps to sponsor or erect monuments to honor the Civil War Soldier whether lost during the war or a returned Veteran. The Women’s Relief Corps (WRC), Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic (LGAR), and others also erected memorials and monuments. Many county court house squares, City Parks, and local cemeteries are so honored. Over 400 GAR Posts were located in Kansas and one Department GAR organization. Plus all of the GAR auxiliary organizations. Not all of them were recognized by the National GAR organizations. According to Wikipedia Kansas also has a town named “Soldier’ But the town named Soldier, was once “Soldiers Creek” and was first named in the early 1850s when government surveyors were moving through the territory plotting out the 39th parallel and they found two army soldiers camped along the local creek. This was informally named Soldier’s Creek but the possessive tense was eventually dropped in everyday conversation. Although Soldier Township was organized on July 4th 1872, the city was not incorporated until September 1878. Doubtless many Civil War veterans felt comfortable in a town named “Soldier”. But Kansas had another name “Bleeding Kansas”, now. In 1854, in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the U.S. Congress established Kansas as an official territory, but in so doing, Congress violated a compromise between slave states and free states that was supposed to make both Kansas and Nebraska free states. Instead, Congress said that the people of Kansas and Nebraska would vote on whether to make the territories free or slave states when they applied for statehood. In 1855, Kansas tried to elect a legislature that would write a state constitution to present to Congress as part of its application for statehood. Most of the settlers in Kansas, such as Mennonites and Quakers, were antislavery (known as “free staters”), but proslavery men from outside Kansas were imported to vote in the election, and through intimidation of antislavery voters and ballot-box stuffing, they “won” the election. The new legislature quickly wrote a proslavery constitution, which Congress rejected because the state legislature was not recognized as legitimate. In 1855, the Topeka Movement favoring a free state was begun, and its followers wrote their own state constitution; this, too, was rejected by Congress because the authors had not been properly elected. By 1856, proslavery terrorists were killing free-state farmers. On August 21 1856, an out-of-state proslavery gang invaded Lawrence, an overwhelmingly free-state community, and murdered over 150 people and burned down most of the town. The antislavery fanatic John Brown gathered some of his followers and invaded farms along Pottawatomie Creek, south of Kansas City, murdering five proslavery men; this became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre. A proslavery militia later attacked John Brown and some of his followers, only to be captured by those they tried to kill. This made John Brown a hero among many antislavery people. These events inspired the nickname “Bleeding Kansas,” and the violence and murders continued even after the conclusion of the Civil War (1861–1865). Statehood: Beginning in 1860 and lasting until telegraph lines were established between America’s West and East, the Pony Express passed through Kansas. By 1861, Kansas had managed to have an election that Congress recognized as valid, and the resulting territorial legislature wrote a state constitution outlawing slavery that Congress also recognized as valid. On January 29 1861, Kansas was admitted as the thirty-fourth state in the Union, although a large part of its western territory was ceded to what eventually would become the state of Colorado. Topeka was declared the state capital. On April 12 1861, the Civil War began, pitting proslavery Southern states, the Confederacy, against the rest of the country, the Union. More than 20,000 Kansans enlisted in the Union army; at the war’s end, 8,500 (28.33 percent) of the Kansas soldiers had been killed, the highest mortality rate of any Union state. The first skirmishes against Confederate regulars occurred in 1861 along the Missouri River, with the first significant combat for Kansas troops occurring near Springfield, Missouri, in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, with the First Kansas Volunteer Infantry suffering heavy losses. Kansas historians claim that the first African Americans to see significant combat in the Civil War were the First Kansas Colored Infantry, who were formed into a regiment in August 1862, and who fought Confederate troops at Butler, Missouri, on October 29 1862 in the Battle of Toothman’s Mound. Under Colonel James M. Williams, white and black Union troops fought together as a unit for the first time in a battle at Cabin Creek on July 2 1863 in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), against Confederate troops who had raided a train. The most significant battle in Kansas during the Civil War occurred when Union forces under the command of Major General James G. Blunt and Confederate forces under General Douglas Cooper met in a series of clashes involving more than 25,000 troops, concluding in the Battle of Mine Creek, in which 10,000 troops fought. The First Kansas Colored Infantry underwent a forced march northeastward through Kansas to the battle and was stationed in the Union line’s center. The regiment advanced to within 30 yards of the Confederate center, enduring heavy losses until the Confederate line broke and fled, ending the battle. So we started as the Bleeding Kansas, went to the Soldiers state and then probably became the “Old Soldier State” when all the veterans moved to Kansas for almost free land. But the old soldiers continued to get old, and started to pass away. We don’t know who was the last living Civil War veteran, but it would be nice to find out. If you would like to nominate an “Old Soldier” who was the last civil war veteran in the state of Kansas to pass away send the details to davtswceo@sbcglobal.net. Please note this is for civil war veteran only. I would like to further amend this to ask for the last living civil war veteran in each county.