The Grand Tour: Kansas

Let The Bleeding Resume. Our next tour stop is a State born of war. I'm speaking of Kansas. It's not often that a State gets the word "bleeding" affixed to it. It started before the first Civil War. You, know, the North South one, not the current East West one. The lightning rod for the conflict was voter fraud. As the region known as Kansas was about to be organized into a Territory border ruffians from Missouri flooded over the border. When you've got 1,500 registered voters and 6,000 votes cast, somethings wrong, and only a blind man could fail to see it. The Blind man in question was Franklin Pierce, the President of the United States. He Was a Democrat, The Slave owners were 90+% Democrat. As far as he was considered, the election was legal.

The outrage was immediate, and so was the response from the abolitionists. Even the Church was mobilized, most notable among them Henry Ward Beecher, who shipped crates of Sharps Rifles to anti-slavery emigrants that were labeled as Bibles. Well, it says The Word is like a two edged sword, so...

In this case the weapons of our warfare were quite carnal, and things all centered on a town called Lawrence. The town, which was settled by free staters, has been sacked three times

• May 21, 1856 - Border ruffians from Missouri burn the Free State Hotel, 2 newspaper offices and houses and businesses
• August 21, 1863 - William Quantrill burn the town and kill 183 men and boys, as young as fourteen.
• July 10, 1875 - Captain Leah Marie Quantrill of the 1st Republican Cavalry burns several buildings, most of them wrecks already, in a show of resolve and gains the surrender of the town.

Actually, the third one would barely Qualify as a sack, if not for the last name of the Captain. Quantrill. As in, the daughter, though illegitimate, of WCQ, the butcher of Lawrence.

This time, however, the Governor of Kansas was a supporter of the Cause, and so the allegiance of the State was never in doubt. The real problem was Leavenworth, and that had been neutralized a few days before.

The sides have been drawn. Things are about to get very interesting.