Daughter of the Sword
Page 45
Dane hired a fresh horse for himself and they searched for Titus that afternoon. They found his decomposing body knifed to death in a field north of the Fort Scott road. Quantrill’s scouts must have caught him.
His family and the widow of the man killed by Rolf’s squad had hidden out while Quantrill passed, pausing long enough to set fire to the cabins in a rage over his murdered advance patrol.
He’d been in a hurry, though, and the women had been able to beat out the flames before much damage was done. They had food in the cellar, had rounded up their pigs, the raiders’ and Deborah’s horses.
Dane had wrapped Titus in a blanket and helped the family bury him. His wife was too grief-stricken to think about the future, but his indomitable old grandmother, she of the cleaver, clutched Deborah’s arm and whispered, “Send us a couple o’ likely men. We have food for winter, but crops got to go in.”
Deborah promised.
Her wagon had been found—the books and gumdrops and Tiberius’s medicine were Still wedged under the seat—so she and Dane drove it back to Lawrence, with the rented horse and Chica tethered behind.
In Lawrence, already the talk was of rebuilding. Large sums had been sent from St. Louis and other sympathetic communities.
“We’re going to build back every house, every store,” said Mr. Ridenour, the grocer, pausing to greet Deborah and Dane. The wheelbarrow he was pushing from his cellar still had embers glowing in the ashes, and his partner, Baker, had been so badly shot in the raid that it was doubtful that he’d live. “We’ll make our town better than it ever was. When Quantrill’s dead in some ditch, our churches will be full and our streets busy.”
The raiders hadn’t been able to demolish or open the banking Simpson brothers’ safe, and with what was in it, they had reopened their bank in a flung-together wooden structure within their burned walls. Other businessmen were stocking temporary locations.
Meanwhile, those with roofs shared with the homeless. Those with extra clothes or food gave to those with none. Grief and devastation had brought together people who’d scarcely known each other before.
Restoring and holding the town had become almost a religious obligation. And Dane was able to assure the people that a permanent garrison would be stationed at Lawrence for the rest of the war. He and Johnny had already asked for and received permission to be assigned there.
As Dane and Deborah drove out of town for the smithy, she asked him to stop by her family’s graves, now surrounded by the new covered trench and many separate mounds.
“I hope they can know,” she said, slipping her hand into his. “Dane, when the war’s over, do you want to live in England?”
He shook his head. “I’ve fought for this country. It’s mine now. I want to know and love it in peace, Deborah, just as I want to have you. But when the war’s over, won’t you come to meet my father and stay with him a while?”
“Oh, gladly! Perhaps sometimes he’ll visit us, see his grandchildren!”
Dane kissed her. They left the graves and drove across the prairie to where her friends waited, where the twins could have their birthday, and where new babies would be born.
“Dane,” she said softly, “I hope we’ll have twins, too!”
He maneuvered the team into a ravine, then stopped them under some oak trees. Springing down, he gathered her in his arms. “Well, Mrs. Hunter,” he said huskily, “shall we start on that right now?”
Her lips gave him his answer.
Epilogue
By winter, Lawrence resembled a town again. Most homeowners and businessmen built larger and better structures to replace the burned ones, and Lawrence flourishes today, a shady, small city of many historic sites and homes. The state university looks down on the streets where Quantrill’s raiders spread terror that August day in 1863.
Quantrill had never worked well with his lieutenants, and his power steadily declined after the Lawrence raid. He was shot May 10, 1865, in a skirmish with Federals in Kentucky and died of his wounds. Some of his gang, notably Frank and Jesse James and Cole Younger, continued as outlaws after the Civil War. Jim Lane, surprisingly, was a moderate on Reconstruction. His influence faded and he shot himself in the head in July, 1866, dying ten days later.
Great suffering came to the people of Missouri border counties through Ewing’s Order Number 11, issued two days after the raid on Lawrence. All rural people, whether Union or Confederate sympathizers, had to leave their, homes within fifteen days. “Loyal” residents could move to any other Missouri district or to Kansas, except for the eastern border. They would also be credited for hay and grain confiscated by the military, but the crops of Confederate sympathizers were seized or destroyed.
The motive behind this extreme measure was to erode the guerrillas’ supply base and destroy their places of refuge and information. Order Number 11 accomplished this to some degree, but the suffering of the dispossessed noncombatants probably had much to do with the lawlessness that characterized that region for years after the war.
Chronology
1820, March 3 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. Missouri was to be admitted without restrictions on slavery, but all remaining parts of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30' were to have no slavery.
1841 Preëmption Act. The head of a family, widow, or single man over twenty-one could file a claim for 160 acres of public land and buy it at the minimum appraised price, usually $1.25 per acre. The claimant had to erect a dwelling and make proof of his settlement at the land office by swearing that: he’d never preëmpted before; didn’t own 320 acres in any state or territory; hadn’t settled on the land with the intent to sell it; and had made no agreement to turn the land over to anyone else. This Act wasn’t superseded by the Homestead Act of 1862, at which time a settler could obtain land under both Acts.
1847 Mormons started their trek to Utah.
1848 Gold was discovered in California; westward rush. Butterfield stage route from St. Louis to San Francisco by way of El Paso. Alexander Majors started his first caravan over Santa Fe Trail; William Becknell had taken first wagons in 1821.
1854, May 30 KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. Repealed Missouri Compromise and opened the Nebraska country to settlement under “squatter” or popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska. This led to a scramble for control between pro-slavery and Free-Soil advocates.
1854 Lawrence was founded in July.
Fall elections were stolen by “Border, Ruffians” from Missouri.
1855, June Free-Soilers held a, convention at Lawrence, repudiate “Bogus” pro-slave legislature.
October–November
Free-Soilers held Topeka convention and drew up constitution prohibiting slavery after July 4, 1857.
Topeka Free-State government functioned in opposition to pro-slave “Bogus” government based at Shawnee Mission.
1856, January Election for state officers held under Topeka constitution; Robinson elected governor.
1856 Increasing strife; in May, Governor Robinson and other prominent Free-Staters were indicted for treason and arrested. Sheriff Jones burned newspaper offices and the Free-State Hotel May 21.
May 24
John Brown and seven others killed five unarmed pro-slavery men at Pottawatomie Creek.
Throughout the summer general war between factions and Territory declared in open rebellion.
Newly elected Democratic President James Buchanan denounced Topeka government and supported Pro-slavery party.
1857, July–August Free-Staters met at Topeka and reaffirmed support of Topeka Constitution.
October–November
Pro-slavery men framed Lecompton constitution, protecting slavery in the Territory.
December
Lecompton constitution up before voters; Free-Staters refused to vote.
1858, January Lecompton constitution rejected over-whelmingly. Pro-slavery faction refused to vote.
May 19
Massacre of five unarmed Free-Staters at Marais des Cygnes.
> May 21
Pike’s Peak Expedition left Lawrence.
August 2
Modified Lecompton constitution was rejected.
December 20
John Brown and helpers raided Missouri and brought out fourteen slaves which were taken north and freed.
1859, May Republicans held a convention at Osawatomie.
July
Constitutional convention at Wyandotte prepared constitution prohibiting slavery (ratified by voters in October).
John Doy was broken out of a Missouri jail.
October
John Brown and men took Harper’s Ferry, were captured.
December 2
John Brown was executed while Lincoln toured Kansas.
1860, February Legislature abolished slavery in Kansas; Wyandotte constitution laid before Congress.
April
Pony Express was established.
Summer
Prolonged drought made crops almost a total failure; 30,000 settlers left Kansas and the rest were in dire want.
December
Charlie Hart (Quantrill) enticed abolitionists into ambush at Morgan Walker’s home and from then on started his career of brigandage in earnest.
1861 Last Territorial Legislature at Lawrence.
January 29
Kansas was admitted under Wyandotte constitution; Southern states began seceding from the Union.
April 12
Fort Sumter was bombarded by the Confederacy; April 15 Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers.
June
Kansas volunteers were mustered into service.
August
Kansas troops were in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, which kept Missouri in the Union, though loss of the battle may have been a major cause of the continuing struggle in Missouri for the rest of the war.
1863 Abolition was proclaimed in all rebellious states.
August 21
Lawrence was sacked by Quantrill.
August 23
Ewing’s Order No. 11 drove settlers out of Missouri border counties.
References & Acknowledgments
Books very helpful to me which are generally available and should interest those wishing to read more about this period are: Civil War on the Western Border, 1854–1865, by Jay Monaghan, Bonanza Books; The Kaw, by Floyd Benjamin Streeter, Rinehart, 1941; Vanguards of the Frontier, by Everett Dick, Bison Books, University of Nebraska, 1965; The Dixie Frontier, by Everett Dick, Knopf, 1948; The Sod-House Frontier, by Everett Dick, Johnsen Publishing Co., 1954; Bowie Knife, by Raymond W. Thorp, University of New Mexico Press, 1948; The Common Soldier in the Civil War, by Bell Iryin Wiley, Grosset & Dunlap by arrangement with Bobbs-Merrill; The Old Santa Fe Trail, by Stanley Vestal, Houghton Mifflin, 1939; and The Look of the Old West, by Foster-Harris, Viking, 1955.
Other valuable books have been: A History of Lawrence, Kansas, by Richard Cordley, reproduced for the Douglas County Genealogical Society by Walsworth Publishing Company from the 1895 Caldwell edition; John Brown, edited by Richard Warch and Jonathan Fanton, Prentice-Hall, 1973; Recollections of Early Days in Kansas, by S. W. Eldridge, Kansas State Historical Society, Vol. II, Topeka, Kansas, 1920; The Annals of Kansas, by N. W. Wilder, Topeka, Kansas, 1886; History of Kansas, by A. T. Andreas, Chicago, 1883; A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, by William E. Connelly, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago and N.Y., 1919; The Negro’s Civil War, by James McPherson, Pantheon, 1965; and Colonel Colt London, by Joseph G. Rosa, Fortress Publications, Ontario.
Tremendously useful, too, were microfilms of The Herald of Freedom and other items in the Kansas Collection in the Research Library at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. I wish to thank their staff, also the reference librarians at the Lawrence Public Library and the very friendly people at the Douglas County Historical Society, Lawrence.
Thanks to Kristin, who read as I worked and cheered me on; to Leila, whose typing brings order out of chaos; to Claire Smith, who didn’t panic when the book went in a new direction, and to Rex Alan Smith, who generously shared information about early days on the plains and who gave me much of the detail for Johnny Chaudoin, the old buffalo hunter who’d lived among Sioux. Rex’s Moon of Popping Trees (Reader’s Digest Press) gives a perspective on the white–Indian confrontation which was most valuable to me in dealing with that issue in this book.
About the Author
Born on the High Plains near the tracks of the Santa Fe Trail, Jeanne Williams’s first memories are of dust storms, tumbleweeds, and cowboy songs. Her debut novel, Tame the Wild Stallion, was published in 1957. Since then, Williams has published sixty-eight more books, most with the theme of losing one’s home and identity and beginning again with nothing but courage and hope, as in the Spur Award–winning The Valiant Women (1980). She was recently inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame, and has won four Western Writers of America Spur Awards and the Levi Strauss Saddleman Award. For over thirty years, Williams has lived in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1979 by Jeanne Williams
Cover design by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-5040-3636-8
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