More Bloody Sesquicentennials

Today marks 150 years since Quantrill and his gang of brigands failed in their bid to find and tear Jim Lane limb-from-limb.  Instead, the Confederate “rangers” slaughtered 150-200 in Lane’s place of residence–Lawrence, Kansas.  Three weeks ago, I was flabbergasted to read that a William Clarke Quantrill Society has arisen in the “colonel’s” memory, actually … Continue reading →

The July Crisis 3a: Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner

I: Kansas, 1855-56 President Franklin Pierce.  The “doughface” politician (a northerner that supported the slavery cause) hailing from New Hampshire from the beginning of his 1853-57 term twists himself in knots to stand behind Missouri and that state’s southern brethren: Kansas Territory’s proximity to Missouri ensured a substantial proslavery majority among the new settlers. Despite … Continue reading →

The July Crisis Part 3: “Excuses” for Treason

Previously, I examined the oddity that every Secretary of War that served in the 1850s rebelled against his former country of allegiance.  None was more suspect than John Buchanan Floyd, the former Virginia governor that ordered the transfer of 115,000 rifles and rifled muskets from three northern federal repositories to five southern arsenals (which were … Continue reading →

The July Crisis Part 2: On Treason (In the Cabinet)

My previous post delved into the 1850s background which led to the demented “Bleeding Kansas” episode in American history, a series of skirmishes beginning in 1855 that eventually erupted into a border war which descending into a nineteenth-century La Violencia perpetuated by bushwhackers, jayhawkers, and conventional Union military units throughout Missouri after the official outbreak … Continue reading →