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93-430: Early in the war Missouri and Kansas were nominally under Union government control and became subject to widespread violence as groups of Confederate bushwhackers and anti-slavery Jayhawkers competed for control. The town of Lawrence, Kansas , was a center of anti-slavery sentiment. In August 1863, Quantrill led an attack on the town, killing more than 180 civilians. The Confederate government, which had granted Quantrill

186-599: A Confederate guerrilla group led by William Quantrill , on the Unionist town of Lawrence, Kansas , killing around 150 unarmed men and boys. The attack, on the morning of Friday August 21, 1863, targeted Lawrence due to the town's long support of abolition and its reputation as a center for the Jayhawkers , who were free-state militia and vigilante groups known for attacking plantations in pro-slavery Missouri 's western counties. By 1863, Kansas had long been

279-408: A black servant from Hesper, attempted to run on foot to Lawrence to warn the town of hundreds of raiders making their way toward Lawrence. Thompson made it as far as Eudora, Kansas before stopping from exhaustion. An unidentified man riding a chaise nearby rode by to ask Thompson if he needed help. Thompson replied that he had run from Hesper and needed to warn Lawrence. While Thompson and the man on

372-579: A captain of Jennison's Regiment, who resigned and turned to jayhawking. Cleveland operated under cover of supposed Unionism, but was outside the Union military command. A newspaper reporter traveling through Kansas in 1863 provided definitions of jayhawker and associated terms: Jayhawkers, Red Legs, and Bushwhackers are everyday terms in Kansas and Western Missouri. A Jayhawker is a Unionist who professes to rob, burn out and murder only rebels in arms against

465-546: A case of theft in the ongoing partisan violence. The term was quickly picked up by other newspapers, and "Jayhawkers" soon came to denote the militants and thieves affiliated with the Free State cause. The meaning of the jayhawker term evolved in the opening year of the American Civil War . When Charles Jennison , one of the territorial-era jayhawkers, was authorized to raise a regiment of cavalry to serve in

558-541: A continuing insurgency in the region. The Missouri - Kansas border area was fertile ground for the outbreak of guerrilla warfare when the Civil War erupted in 1861. The historian Albert Castel wrote: For over six years, ever since Kansas was opened up as a territory by Stephen A. Douglas ' Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, its prairies had been the stage for an almost incessant series of political conventions, raids, massacres, pitched battles, and atrocities, all part of

651-799: A day before the Battle of Westport . Captain William H. "Bill" "Stuart" [Stewart] of Quantrill's Raiders was shot and killed November 1864 in Howard County Missouri as he tried to rob a Union cattle drover. Some of the guerrillas continued under the leadership of Archie Clement . He kept a group together after the war and harassed the Missouri state government during 1866. In December 1866, state militiamen killed Clement in Lexington . Several of his men continued as outlaws, emerging in time as

744-508: A field commission under the Partisan Ranger Act , was outraged and withdrew support for such irregular forces. By 1864 Quantrill had lost control of the group, which split up into small bands. Some, including Quantrill, were killed in various engagements. Others lived on to hold reunions many years later, when the name Quantrill's Raiders began to be used. The James brothers formed their own gang and conducted robberies for years as

837-406: A fierce conflict between the Free State and pro-slavery forces that had come to Kansas to settle and to battle. In February 1861, Missouri voters elected delegates to a statewide convention, which rejected secession by a vote of 89–1. Unionists, led by regular US Army commander Nathaniel Lyon and Frank Blair of the politically-powerful Blair family, fought for political and military control across

930-443: A front, without formal organization, and with almost no division between the civilian and the warrior." By August 1862, with the Union victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge , Missouri was free of significant regular Confederate troops, but the insurgent violence continued. The most notorious guerrilla force was led by William Clarke Quantrill . Quantrill was not the only Confederate guerrilla operating in Missouri, but he rapidly gained

1023-595: A group, did not maintain operations in winters along the border. Quantrill took his men to Cedar Mills, Texas , over winter and offered his services to the Confederacy. Their assignments included attacking teamsters who supplied the Union, repelling Union and Jayhawker raids into northern Texas, warding off Indian attacks, and policing and rounding up deserters roaming in Texas and Oklahoma. The guerrillas were rowdy, undisciplined, and dangerous. Quantrill lost his control of

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1116-447: A note for General Ewing threatening to burn Kansas City unless the girls were freed. While Quantrill's raid on Lawrence was planned before the collapse of the jail, the deaths of the guerrillas' female relatives undoubtedly added to their thirst for revenge and blood lust during the raid. The attack was the product of careful planning. Quantrill had gained the confidence of many of the leaders of independent Bushwhacker groups and chose

1209-415: A particularly reprehensible aspect of the raid. Bobbie Martin is generally cited as being the youngest victim; some histories of the raid state he could have been as young as ten to twelve years old, while others state he was fourteen. Most accounts state he was wearing a Union soldier uniform or clothing made from his father's uniform; some state he was carrying a musket and cartridges. (For perspective on

1302-552: A unified column into Missouri. Some families attempted to make the run towards Mount Oread in a last-ditch flight for safety. The raid was less of a battle and more of a mass execution. Two weeks before the attack, a Lawrence newspaper had boasted, "Lawrence has ready for any emergency over five hundred fighting men...every one of who would like to see [Quantrill's raiders]". However, a squad of soldiers temporarily stationed in Lawrence had returned to Fort Leavenworth , and due to

1395-441: Is "the least plausible of the theories." Instead, testimony indicated that alterations to the first floor of the adjoining Cockrell structure for use as a barracks caused the common wall to buckle. The weight of the third story on the former Bingham residence contributed to the resultant collapse. Even before the collapse of the jail, the arrest and planned deportation of the girls had enraged Quantrill's guerrillas; George Todd left

1488-476: Is no evidence that John was given his freedom before or during war. In the 1999 film Ride with the Devil , which depicts a group of fictionalized Missouri bushwhackers, the character Daniel Holt was inspired by Noland. In late winter 1863, Quantrill lost his hold over his men. In early 1864, the guerrillas returned from Texas to Missouri in separate bands, none being led by Quantrill. Quantrill's guerrillas, as

1581-718: The Battle of Baxter Springs . In Texas, they continued to embarrass the Confederate command by their often-lawless actions. In Texas in 1864, two of Quantrill's Raiders, the Calhoun Brothers, were killed in a gunfight with Collin County Sheriff Captain James L. Read. Read was able to escape Quantrill's rage after he went into hiding but was lynched by Quantrill's supporters in Tyler, Texas on May 18, 1864. Some Confederate officers appreciated

1674-541: The Battle of Iuka and the Second Battle of Corinth . Late in the war, the regiment returned to Kansas and contributed to Union victory in one of the last major battles in the Missouri–Kansas theater, the Battle of Mine Creek . The Jayhawker term was applied not only to Jennison and his command, but to any Kansas troops engaged in punitive operations against the civilian population of western Missouri, in which

1767-639: The James-Younger Gang . The last survivor of Quantrill's Raiders died in 1940. Jayhawkers Jayhawker and red leg are terms that came to prominence in Kansas Territory during the Bleeding Kansas period of the 1850s; they were adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause during the American Civil War . These gangs were guerrillas who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri , known at

1860-479: The Lawrence Massacre . In response to Quantrill's raid, the Union command issued General Order No. 11 (1863) , the forced depopulation of specified Missouri border counties. Intended to eliminate sanctuary and sustenance for pro-Confederate guerrilla fighters, it was enforced by troops from Kansas, and provided an excuse for a final round of plundering, arson, and summary execution perpetrated against

1953-539: The Jayhawk gets its birds in Ireland", which he explained as follows: "In Ireland a bird, which is called the Jayhawk, flies about after dark, seeking the roosts and nests of smaller birds, and not only robs nests of eggs, but frequently kills the birds." McReynolds understood Devlin had acquired his horses in the same manner the Jayhawk got its prey, and used the term in a Southern Kansas Herald newspaper column to describe

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2046-472: The Jayhawkers as bands of men that were willing to fight, kill, and rob for a variety of motives that included defense against pro-slavery "Border Ruffians", abolition, driving pro- slavery settlers from their claims of land, revenge, and/or plunder and personal profit. While the " Bleeding Kansas " era is generally regarded as beginning in 1856, the earliest documented uses of the term "jayhawker" during

2139-494: The Jayhawkers contributed to the descent of the Missouri–Kansas border region into some of the most vicious guerrilla fighting of the Civil War. In the first year of the war, much of the movable wealth in western Missouri had been transferred to Kansas, and large swaths of western Missouri had been laid waste, by an assortment of Kansas Jayhawkers ranging from outlaws and independent military bands to rogue federal troops such as Lane's Brigade and Jennison's Jayhawkers. In February 1862,

2232-558: The Jayhawkers: Confederated at first for defense against pro-slavery outrages, but ultimately falling more or less completely into the vocation of robbers and assassins, they have received the name—whatever its origin may be—of jayhawkers. Farmer's Americanisms, old and new (1889) linked the term with anti-slavery advocates of late 1850s in Kansas. G. Murlin Welch, a historian of the territorial period described

2325-527: The Kansas troubles were in the late 1850s, after the issue of slavery in Kansas had essentially been decided in favor of the Free State cause. The earliest dated mention of the name comes from the autobiography of August Bondi, who came to Kansas in 1855. Bondi said he observed General James Lane addressing his forces as Jayhawkers in December 1857. Another early reference to the term (as applied to

2418-437: The Kansas troubles) emerging at that time is provided in the retrospective account of Kansas newspaperman John McReynolds. McReynolds reportedly picked up the term from Pat Devlin, a Free State partisan described as "nothing more nor less than a dangerous bully." In mid-1858, McReynolds asked Devlin where he had acquired two fine horses that he had recently brought into the town of Osawatomie . Devlin replied that he "got them as

2511-464: The Union army, he characterized the unit as the "Independent Kansas Jay-Hawkers" on a recruiting poster. The regiment was officially termed the 7th Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry , but was popularly known as Jennison's Jayhawkers . Thus, the term became associated with Union troops from Kansas. After the regiment was banished from the Missouri–Kansas border in the spring of 1862, it went on to participate in several battles including Union victories of

2604-483: The Union command instituted martial law due to "the crime of armed depredations or jay-hawking having reached a height dangerous to the peace and posterity to the whole State (Kansas) and seriously compromising the Union cause in the border counties of Missouri." One expert on the Jayhawkers stated that the Border War would have been bad enough given the fighting between secessionist and unionist Missourians, "but it

2697-881: The Women's Prison in Kansas City is also often believed to have inspired some to join in on the attack. In a bid to put down the Missouri guerrilla raiders operating in Kansas, General Thomas Ewing, Jr. issued in April 1863 "General Order No. 10," which ordered the arrest of anyone giving aid or comfort to Confederate guerrillas. This meant chiefly women or girls who were relatives of the guerrillas. Ewing confined those arrested in makeshift prisons in Kansas City . The women were sequentially housed in two buildings which were considered either too small or too unsanitary, before being moved to an empty property at 1425 Grand. This structure

2790-568: The age of 20, were incarcerated in the building when it collapsed on August 13, 1863, killing four: Charity McCorkle Kerr, Susan Crawford Vandever, Armenia Crawford Selvey, and Josephine Anderson—the 15-year-old sister of William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson . A few days later, Nannie Harris died from her wounds. Survivors of the collapse included Jenny Anderson (crippled by the accident), Susan Anne Mundy Womacks, Martha "Mattie" Mundy, Lucinda "Lou" Mundy Gray, Elizabeth Harris (later married to Deal), and Mollie Grindstaff. Anderson's 13-year-old sister, who

2883-410: The age of participants in the conflict, it has been estimated that about 800,000 Union soldiers were seventeen years of age or younger, with about 100,000 of those being fifteen or younger.) Most of Quantrill's guerrilla fighters were teenagers. One of the youngest was Riley Crawford, who was 13 when taken by his mother to Quantrill after her husband was shot and her home burned by Union soldiers. Once

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2976-415: The aid provided by Confederate sympathizers in western Missouri border counties. Authorities began imprisoning the female members of the known guerrillas' families, with the intent of banishing them. The females, some teenagers, were jailed in Kansas City, Missouri , in makeshift jails, including the house on Grand Street in which local artist George Caleb Bingham kept his studio. The Union soldiers enlarged

3069-581: The approaching winter. The number of those killed was never reported, as they were scattered all over western Missouri. After the attack, Quantrill led his men south to Texas for the winter. By the next year, the raiders had disintegrated as a unified force and could not achieve similar successes. Quantrill died of wounds he received in Kentucky in 1865, with only a few staunch supporters left. Among those who remained by his side were Frank James and his younger brother, Jesse James . After Quantrill's attack,

3162-442: The barn and went round it, but it looked so much like a fort, that they kept out of range. Cordley was also on the list of men Quantrill wanted to kill. In some of his writings, Quantrill later lamented that he did not kill Cordley, "The Abolition Preacher." While many of the victims had been specifically targeted beforehand, executions were more indiscriminate among segments of the raiders, particularly Todd's band that operated in

3255-422: The beginning of the American Civil War , Lawrence was already a target for pro-slavery ire, having been seen as the anti-slavery stronghold in the state and, more importantly, a staging area for Unionist and Jayhawker incursions into Missouri. Initially, the town and surrounding area were extremely vigilant and reacted strongly to rumors that enemy forces might be advancing on the town. By the summer of 1863, none of

3348-425: The center of strife and warfare over the admission of slave states versus free states. In the summer of 1856, the first sacking of Lawrence sparked a guerrilla war in Kansas that lasted for years. John Brown might be the best-known participant in the violence of the late 1850s, participating on the abolitionist or Jayhawker side, but numerous groups fought for each side during the " Bleeding Kansas " period. By

3441-438: The chaise were able to gather some Eudorans to ride into Lawrence to warn the city to the west, none of them made it in time. Around 450 guerrillas arrived on the outskirts of Lawrence shortly after 5 a.m. A small squad was dispatched to the summit of Mount Oread to serve as lookouts, and the remainder rode into town. One of the first deaths was the pastor and lieutenant of the 2nd Kansas Colored Regiment, Samuel S. Snyder, who

3534-552: The citizens of Lawrence give up their firearms to the raiders. Many citizens initially refused, but by the end of the sacking itself, many in Lawrence were left without a weapon of any sort, which, along with the swiftness of the Lawrence Massacre later on, saw Lawrence left defenseless against the attack. Because revenge was a principal motive for the attack, Quantrill's raiders entered Lawrence with lists of men to be killed and buildings to be burned. Senator James H. Lane

3627-567: The civilian population of western Missouri. In the words of one observer, "the Kansas–Missouri border was a disgrace even to barbarism." As the war continued, the "Jayhawker" term came to be used by Confederates as a derogatory term for any troops from Kansas, but the term also had different meanings in different parts of the country. In Arkansas, the term was used by Confederate Arkansans as an epithet for any marauder, robber, or thief regardless of Union or Confederate affiliation. In Louisiana,

3720-422: The collapse. Co-ordinating across vast distances, small bands of partisans rode across 50 miles (80 km) of open prairie to rendezvous on Mount Oread in the early morning hours before the raid. Quantrill's men burned a quarter of the town's buildings and killed at least 150 men and boys. One of the main targets of the raid, abolitionist U.S. Sen. Jim Lane , escaped by fleeing into corn fields. The Lawrence raid

3813-470: The confederates withdrew to the southeast, Lane led a small group of survivors of the massacre in pursuit of Quantrill's men and was joined by a force of about 200 U.S. Army cavalrymen, commanded by Major Preston B. Plumb . They overtook the raiders south of the town of Brooklyn, Kansas and fought the first of several engagements, beginning with the Skirmish near Brooklyn, Kansas . The Lawrence massacre

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3906-492: The day and time of the attack well in advance. Different Missouri rider groups approached Lawrence from the east in several independent columns. They converged with well-timed precision in the final miles before Lawrence during the pre-dawn hours of the chosen day. Many of the men had been riding for over 24 hours to make the rendezvous and had lashed themselves to their saddles to keep riding if they fell asleep. Almost all were armed with multiple six-shot revolvers. Henry Thompson,

3999-586: The day for a living as loyal as Gen. Blunt himself, who have had every hoof confiscated, or jayhawked, which is about the same thing, for all the benefit it is to the Government. The term became part of the lexicon of the Missouri–Kansas border in about 1858, during the Kansas territorial period. The term came to be used to describe militant bands nominally associated with the free-state cause. One early Kansas history contained this succinct characterization of

4092-414: The effectiveness of these irregulars against Union forces, which rarely gained the upper hand over them, especially Quantrill. Among them was General Joseph O. Shelby , who rode south into Mexico with his troops, rather than surrender at the end of the war. His command was remembered as "The Undefeated." Among Quantrill's men was an enslaved man, John Noland . John was owned by Francis Asbury Noland. There

4185-581: The first Governor of Kansas and an eyewitness to the raid, also characterized the attack as an act of vengeance: "Before this raid the entire border counties of Missouri had experienced more terrible outrages than ever the Quantrill raid at Lawrence... There was no burning of feet and torture by hanging in Lawrence as there was in Missouri, neither were women and children outraged." Robinson explained that Quantrill targeted Lawrence because Jayhawkers had attacked Missouri "as soon as war broke out" and Lawrence

4278-499: The government. A Red Leg is a Jayhawker originally distinguished by the uniform of red leggings. A Red Leg, however, is regarded as more purely an indiscriminate thief and murderer than the Jayhawker or Bushwhacker. A Bushwhacker is a rebel Jayhawker, or a rebel who bands with others for the purpose of preying upon the lives and property of Union citizens. They are all lawless and indiscriminate in their iniquities. The depredations of

4371-816: The greatest notoriety. He and his men ambushed Union patrols and supply convoys, seized the mail, and occasionally struck towns on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri border. Reflecting the internecine nature of the guerrilla conflict in Missouri, Quantrill directed much of his effort against pro-Union civilians by attempting to drive them from the territory that he operated. Quantrill's guerrillas attacked Jayhawkers , Missouri State Militia, and Union troops and relied primarily on ambush and raids. Under his direction, Confederate guerrillas perfected military tactics such as disguises, co-ordinated and synchronized attacks, planned dispersal after an attack that used preplanned routes and relays of horses, and technical methods such as

4464-412: The ground [of Kansas]. The conflict may not be ended, but the victory must be ours. We may perish but the principles for which we contend will live." A day after the attack, some of the surviving citizens of Lawrence lynched a member of Quantrill's Raiders who was caught in the town. On August 25, General Ewing authorized General Order No. 11 (not to be confused with Grant's infamous General Order of

4557-414: The helmet, blue jerseys, and red pants which featured the words "Kansas Jay-Hawkers" above a seal featuring a sword and a rifle . Kansas Athletics stated that the red pants was an homage to the term "Redlegs," another name for Jayhawkers. Lawrence massacre The Lawrence Massacre (also known as Quantrill's Raid ) was an attack during the American Civil War (1861–65) by Quantrill's Raiders ,

4650-408: The innocent and helpless, rather than the guilty ones. Quantrell [ sic ] left Kansas with the loss of one man. The Kansas troops followed him, at a respectful distance, and visited dire vengeance on all western Missouri. Unarmed old men and boys were accused and shot down, and homes with their now meagre comforts were burned, and helpless women and children turned out with no provision for

4743-416: The jayhawking raids of 1861–1862, but Union General David H. Hunter succeeded in curtailing Lane's military role, and units of Kansas troops such as the 7th Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry were shuffled off to other theaters of the war. Further compounding confusion over what the term Jayhawker meant along the Missouri–Kansas border was its use in describing outright criminals like Marshall Cleveland ,

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4836-432: The men in the winter of 1863–1864. The men split into bands and were commanded by Lieutenants "Bloody Bill" Anderson and George M. Todd . The guerrillas returned to Missouri in early 1864, and Quantrill took several of his loyal troops east, towards Kentucky. In Kentucky, pro-Union soldiers and hired killers tracked Quantrill and his men. They were cornered in a barn, where a shootout resulted in Quantrill being injured in

4929-522: The middle of the winter of 1862. Union Major General Henry Halleck on January 18, 1862 in a letter to General Lorenzo Thomas described Jennison's regiment as "no better than a band of robbers; they cross the line, rob, steal, plunder, and burn whatever they can lay their hands upon. They disgrace the name and uniform of American soldiers and are driving good Union men into the ranks of the secession army." There were no charges against Lane, Jennison, or other officers under Lane's command for their role in

5022-475: The name sprang from their observation of hawks gracefully sailing in the air until "the audience of jays and other small but jealous and vicious birds sail in and jab him until he gets tired of show life and slides out of trouble in the lower earth." In the Pat Devlin stories, the jayhawk is described more in terms of its behavior (bullying, robbing, and killing) than the type of bird it is. The link between

5115-400: The plundering and arson that characterized the territorial struggles were repeated, but on a much larger scale. For example, the term "Jayhawkers" also encompassed Senator Jim Lane and his Kansas Brigade, which sacked and burned Osceola, Missouri , in the opening months of the war after their defeat by Sterling Price 's Missouri State Guard in the Battle of Dry Wood Creek . Jayhawking

5208-543: The press. During the Civil War, Jayhawkers continued their raids into western Missouri, where slavery was concentrated in the area known as Little Dixie along the Missouri River. Robberies, theft, arson, and murders of citizens were committed by both sides. In August 1863, Union authorities assigned to the so-called District of the Border were frustrated by the hit-and-run tactics of Quantrill's guerrillas, particularly

5301-432: The raiders during their exit from Lawrence, causing one of the few casualties among Quantrill's command while in Lawrence.) Charles L. Robinson , first governor of Kansas and a prominent abolitionist, may also have been on the list, although he was not killed. This according to Richard Cordley , a minister in Lawrence and a survivor of the attack: Ex-Governor Charles Robinson was an object of special search among them. He

5394-414: The ruffians that he was unwilling to retreat before them. My little children were in the field three hours. They seemed to know that if they cried the noise would betray their parents whereabouts, and so they kept as still as mice. The baby was very hungry & I gave her an ear of raw green corn which she ate ravenously. Many have characterized Quantrill's decision to kill young boys alongside adult men as

5487-429: The same name ) evicting thousands of Missourians in four counties from their homes near the Kansas border. Virtually everything in these counties was then systematically burned to the ground. The action was carried out by the infamous Jayhawker, Charles "Doc" Jennison . Jennison's raids into Missouri were thorough and indiscriminate. They left four counties in western Missouri wasted, save for the standing brick chimneys of

5580-468: The situation in the state after Wilson's Creek: Unlike other border areas in Maryland and Kentucky, local conflicts, bushwhacking, sniping, and guerrilla fighting marked this period of Missouri history. "When regular troops were absent, the improvised war often assumed a deadly guerrilla nature as local citizens took up arms spontaneously against their neighbors. This was a war of stealth and raid without

5673-405: The space on the first floor by removing supporting beams. As a result, the structure collapsed, maiming and killing several women. The deaths of the women outraged the pro-Southern guerrillas, as they were close, familial, relations to Quantrill and his men. Calling for revenge, Quantrill organized a unified partisan raid on Lawrence although there is evidence that the raid had been planned before

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5766-559: The spine and left unable to move. He was arrested, but he reportedly died a week later from his wounds. Anderson's splinter group of guerrillas was assigned to duty in 1864 north of the Missouri River , during the General Sterling Price raid. He was to disrupt Union operations north of the Missouri River and draw Union troops toward his cavalry command. Anderson was reportedly shot dead north of Orrick . His body

5859-453: The state against the increasingly pro-secessionist forces, led by Governor Claiborne Jackson and future Confederate General Sterling Price . By June, open warfare occurred between Union forces and troops supporting the Confederacy. Guerrilla warfare erupted throughout the state and intensified in August after the Union defeat at the Battle of Wilson's Creek . One historical work describes

5952-476: The surprise, swiftness, and fury of the initial assault, the local militia was unable to assemble and mount a defense. Most of those Quantrill and his raiders killed were not carrying any weapon. Before the Lawrence Massacre, a previous attack on Lawrence, the Sacking of Lawrence , saw the pro-slavery attackers, led by Samuel J. Jones, a pro-slavery Missourian who served as Sheriff of Douglas County , demanding that

6045-567: The team was called the Jayhawkers. Over time, the name was gradually supplanted by its shorter variant, and KU's sports teams are now exclusively known as the Kansas Jayhawks . Historic descriptions of the ornithological origin of the "Jayhawker" term have varied. Writing on the troubles in Kansas Territory in 1859, one journalist stated the jayhawk was a hawk that preys on the jay. One of the "Jayhawkers of '49" recalled that

6138-444: The team, until hitting upon the bird idea. As explained by Maloy, "the term 'jayhawk' in the school yell was a verb and the term 'Jayhawkers' was the noun." In 2011, the city of Osceola, Missouri produced a declaration condemning what city leadership viewed as a connection between the Jayhawk mascot and the historical Jayhawkers who burned the town in 1861. In 2017, the Kansas football team unveiled uniforms with an American flag on

6231-416: The term "Jayhawkers" and any specific kind of bird, if such an association ever existed, had been lost or at least obscured by the time KU's bird mascot was invented in 1912, which was meant to serve as a visual representation of the Jayhawker movement, an homage by the university to the state's history. The originator of the bird mascot, Henry Maloy, struggled for over two years to create a pictorial symbol for

6324-468: The term was used to describe anti-Confederate guerrillas; in Texas, free-booting bands of draft dodgers and deserters. Over time, proud of their state's contributions to the end of slavery and the preservation of the Union, Kansans embraced the "Jayhawker" term. The term came to be applied to people or items related to Kansas. When the University of Kansas fielded their first football team in 1890,

6417-429: The threats had materialized, so citizen fears had declined, and defense preparations were relaxed. Lawrence was a headquarters for a band of Jayhawkers (sometimes called "Red Legs"), who had initiated a campaign in late March 1863 with the purported objective to eliminate civilian support for the Confederate guerrillas. In describing the activities of these soldiers, U.S. Army General Blunt stated, "A reign of terror

6510-401: The time in Kansas Territory as " Border Ruffians " or " Bushwhackers ". After the Civil War, the word "Jayhawker" became synonymous with the people of Kansas , or anybody born in Kansas. Today a modified version of the term, Jayhawk, is used as a nickname for a native-born Kansan. The term did not appear in the first American edition of Burtlett 's Dictionary of Americanisms (1848), but

6603-475: The town. Over four hours, the raiders pillaged and burned a quarter of the buildings in Lawrence, including all but two businesses. They looted most of the banks and stores in town and killed over 150 people, all of them men and boys. According to an 1897 account, among the dead, were 18 of 23 unmustered army recruits. By 9 a.m., the raiders were on their way out of town, evading the few units that came in pursuit, and eventually splitting up to avoid Union pursuit of

6696-476: The two-story period houses, which are still called "Jennison Monuments" in those parts. George Miller, a Missouri abolitionist and preacher, described the role of the Lawrence Massacre in the region's descent into the horror of total war on the civilian populations of both eastern Kansas and western Missouri: Viewed in any light, the Lawrence Raid will continue to be held, as the most infamous event of

6789-411: The uncivil war! The work of destruction did not stop in Kansas. The cowardly criminality of this spiteful reciprocity lay in the fact that each party knew, but did not care, that the consequences of their violent acts would fall most heavily upon their own helpless friends. Jenison in 1861 rushed into Missouri when there was no one to resist, and robbed and killed and sneaked away with his spoils and left

6882-435: The union people of Missouri to bear the vengeance of his crimes. Quantrell [ sic ] in 1863 rushed into Lawrence, Kansas, when there was no danger, and killed and robbed and sneaked off with his spoils, leaving helpless women and children of his own side to bear the dreadful vengeance invoked by that raid. So the Lawrence raid was followed by swift and cruel retribution, falling, as usual in this border warfare, upon

6975-629: The use of multiple .36-cal. Colt revolvers for increased firepower and their improved accuracy over the .44-cal. On 15 August 1862, Quantrill was granted a field commission as a captain in the Confederate army under the Confederate Partisan Ranger Act . Other officers were elected by the men, and Quantrill often referred to himself as a colonel. Despite the legal responsibility assumed by the Confederate government, Quantrill often acted on his own with little concern for his government's policy or orders. His most notable operation

7068-441: The western part of Lawrence. The men and boys riding with "Bloody Bill" Anderson also accounted for a disproportionate number of the Lawrence dead. The raid devolved into extreme brutality; according to witnesses, the raiders murdered a group of men and their sons who had surrendered under assurances of safety, murdered a father who was in a field with his son, shot a defenseless man who was lying sick in bed, killed an injured man who

7161-457: Was "headquarters for the thieves and their plunder." Quantrill said his motivation for the attack was "to plunder, and destroy the town in retaliation for Osceola." That was a reference to the Union's attack on Osceola, Missouri in September 1861, led by Senator James H. Lane . Osceola was plundered, and nine men were given a drumhead court-martial trial and executed. The collapse of

7254-466: Was a prominent aspect of Union military operations in western Missouri during the first year of the war. In addition to Osceola, the smaller Missouri towns of Morristown, Papinsvile, Butler, Dayton, and Columbus and large numbers of rural homes were also pillaged by Kansas troops led by James Lane , Charles R. Jennison , Daniel Read Anthony , and James Montgomery , among others. Scores if not hundreds of Missouri families were burned out of their homes in

7347-419: Was also on the list. Speer likewise escaped execution, but two of his sons were killed in the raid. (One of Speer's sons may have been the same John L. Speer that appeared on a list of Red Legs previously issued by the Union military. ) Speer's youngest son, 15-year-old Billy, may have been included on the death lists, but Quantrill's men released him after he gave them a false name. (Billy Speer later shot one of

7440-436: Was at the top of the list. Lane was a military leader and chief political proponent of the jayhawking raids that had cut a swath of death, plundering, and arson through western Missouri (including the destruction of Osceola) in the early months of the Civil War. Lane escaped death by racing through a cornfield in his nightshirt. John Speer, who Lane had put into the newspaper business, was one of Lane's chief political backers and

7533-508: Was basically Kansas craving for revenge and Kansas craving for loot that set the tone of the war. Nowhere else, with the grim exception of the East Kentucky and East Tennessee mountains, did the Civil War degenerate so completely into a squalid, murderous, slugging match as it did in Kansas and Missouri." The most infamous event in this war of raids and reprisals was Confederate leader William Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas, known as

7626-418: Was being held by his pleading wife, and bound a pair of men and forced them into a burning building where they slowly burned to death. Another dramatic story was told in a letter written on September 7, 1863, by H.M. Simpson, whose entire family narrowly escaped death by hiding in a nearby cornfield as the massacre raged all around them: My father was very slow to get into the cornfield. He was so indignant at

7719-424: Was dragged through the streets of Richmond, Missouri . His gravemarker is in the old Mormon Pioneer cemetery, in the extreme southwest corner, behind some pine trees and near the road. Todd's splinter group was attached to Major General Sterling Price's raid south of the Missouri River. He functioned as a cavalry scout. Todd died after being shot out of his saddle by a Union sniper, north of Independence, Missouri ,

7812-578: Was entered into the fourth improved and enlarged edition in 1877 as a cant name for a freebooting armed man in the western United States. It was established that the term was adopted as a nickname by a group of emigrants from Illinois traveling to California in 1849, who got stuck in the Death Valley. In 1858–59, the slang term "Jayhawking" became widely used as a synonym for stealing. Examples include: O'ive been over till Eph. Kepley's a-jayhawking. Men are now at Fort Scott , working by

7905-401: Was inaugurated, and no man's property was safe, nor was his life worth much if he opposed them in their schemes of plunder and robbery." Many Jayhawker leaders like Charles "Doc" Jennison , James Montgomery , and George Henry Hoyt terrorized Western Missouri, angering both pro-slavery and anti-slavery civilians and politicians alike. The historian Albert Castel thus concludes that revenge

7998-441: Was one of the bloodiest events in the history of Kansas. The Plymouth Congregational Church in Lawrence survived the attack, but a number of its members were killed and records destroyed. Cordley, the pastor at Plymouth, said to his congregation a few days after the attack, "My friends, Lawrence may seem dead, but she will rise again in a more glorious resurrection. Our ranks have been thinned by death, but let us 'close-up' and hold

8091-442: Was one of the men they particularly wanted. During the whole time they were in town he was in his large stone barn on the hillside. He had just gone to the barn to get his team to drive out into the country, when he saw them come in and saw them make their first charge. He concluded to remain where he was. The barn overlooked the whole town, and he saw the affair from beginning to end. Gangs of raiders came by several times and looked at

8184-511: Was outside milking his cows when he was shot by the passing raiders, who were making their way into town. Snyder's death was witnessed by his longtime friend Reverend Hugh Fisher. Their initial focus was the Eldridge House , a large brick hotel in the heart of Lawrence. After gaining control of the building (which then served as Quantrill's headquarters during the raid), Quantrill's force broke into smaller groups that fanned out throughout

8277-402: Was part of the estate of the deceased Robert S. Thomas, George Caleb Bingham 's father-in-law. In 1861 Bingham and his family were living in the structure, but in early 1862 after being appointed treasurer of the state of Missouri, he and his family relocated to Jefferson City . Bingham had added a third story to the existing structure to use as a studio. At least ten women or girls, all under

8370-412: Was shackled to a ball-and-chain inside the jail, suffered multiple injuries including two broken legs. Rumors circulated (later promulgated by Bingham who held a personal grudge against Ewing and who would seek financial compensation for the loss of the building) that the guards undermined the structure to cause its collapse. A 1995 study of the events and affidavits surrounding the collapse concludes this

8463-462: Was the Lawrence massacre , a revenge raid on Lawrence, Kansas , in August 1863. Lawrence was the historic base of operations for abolitionist and Jayhawker organizations. Pro-slavery forces also operated in the area, as both sides tried to gain power to determine whether Kansas would allow slavery. During the period of border warfare (1855–1861), the region became known as " Bleeding Kansas " in

8556-418: Was the most deadly and infamous operation of Missouri's Confederate guerrillas. The Confederate leadership was appalled by the raid and withdrew even tacit support from the " bushwhackers ." After the raid, Quantrill led his men behind Confederate lines down to Sherman, Texas , where they wintered in 1863–1864. Along the way, they attacked Fort Baxter (Kansas) , and ambushed and killed near 100 Union troops in

8649-418: Was the primary motive, followed by a desire to plunder. The survivors confirmed the retaliatory nature of the attack on Lawrence. According to Castel, "The universal testimony of all the ladies and others who talked with the butchers of the 21st ult. is that these demons claimed they were here to revenge the wrongs done their families by our men under Lane, Jennison, Anthony and Co." Charles L. Robinson ,

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