The Land of Misery

In the spring and summer of 1863 the "Guerrilla War" in Missouri and Kansas accelerated and numerous atrocities were committed by "Kansas Redlegs" and "Missouri Bushwhackers." The Union soldiers called Missouri the "Land of Misery" and believed that it and it's citizens were the enemy that should be conquered and occupied. Missouri was never completely conquered or occupied and it's citizens of the "Southern Persuasion" remained defiant and their spirit unbroken (some to this very day!)

By July and early August of 1863, the Union army recognized that the enemy civilians were a constant source of supplies, food and shelter for the Confederate guerrillas, especially those in the western counties that bordered Kansas. Union Major General J. M. Schofield (no relation) commanded the "Department of the Missouri" that included Kansas and described the conditions on the Mo.-Kan. border and a possible solution as follows:

"The evil which exists upon the border of Kansas and Missouri is somewhat different in kind and far greater in degree than in other parts of Missouri. It is the old hatred intensified by the rebellion and by the murders, robberies and arson which have characterized the irregular warfare carried on during the early periods of the rebellion, not only by the rebels, but by our own troops and people! The effect of this has been to render it impossible for any man who openly avowed and maintained his loyalty to the [U.S.] government to live in the border counties of Missouri outside of military posts. A large majority of the people remaining were open rebels, while the remainder were compelled to abstain from any words or acts of opposition to the rebellion at the peril of their lives. All were practically enemies of the government and friends of the rebel guerrillas. The latter found no difficulty in supplying their commissary wherever they went and what was of vastly greater importance to them, they obtained prompt and accurate information of every movement of our troops while no citizen was so bold to give us information in regard to the guerrillas. In a country remarkable well adapted by nature for guerrilla warfare, with all the inhabitants practically the friends of the guerrillas, it has been found impossible to rid the country of such enemies. At no time during the war have these counties been free from them (guerrillas). No remedy short of destroying the source of the great advantage over our troops could cure this evil."

The "source of their great advantage" was the southern civilians and their respective aid to the Confederate guerrillas. To destroy this source, the Union forces issued a series of orders that were implemented and forcibly complied with. On Aug. 18, 1863, General Orders No. 10 was issued and enforced in the District of the Border. This ordered the "Removal and Banishment" of both loyal (for their own protection) and enemy civilians and their personal property from the counties within the "District of the Border" and the destruction of specified property. Significant sections of this order are as follows:

"II. Such officers will arrest and send to the district provost-marshal for punishment, all men (and all women not heads of families) who willfully aid and encourage guerrillas, with a written statement of the names and residences of such persons and of proof against them.

"They will discriminate as carefully as possible between those who are compelled by threats or fears, to aid the rebels and those who aid them from disloyal motives. The wives and children of known guerrillas, and also women who are heads of families and are willfully engaged in aiding guerrillas, will be notified by such officers to remove out of this district and out of the State of Missouri forthwith. They will be permitted to take unmolested, their stock, provisions and household goods. If they fail to remove promptly, they will be sent, under escort, to Kansas City for shipment South, with their clothes and such necessary household furniture and provision as may be worth removing.

"III. Persons who have borne arms against the Government and voluntarily lay them down and surrender will be banished, with their families to such State or district out of this department and will remain there.

"IV. No officer or enlisted man, without special instructions from these headquarters, will burn or destroy any buildings, fences, crops or other property, but all furnaces and fixtures of Blacksmith Shops in that part of Missouri in this district not at military stations will be destroyed and the tools either removed to such military stations or destroyed."

The enforcement of this order was harsh, but it was mild in comparison to Order No. 11 that was issued as a reprisal for Quantrill's visit to Lawrence, Kansas on Aug. 21, 1863, both of which will be the subject of the next two columns.