Demonic Vipers

Throughout his tenure as the commanding officer of the Department of Kansas, Major General Samuel Ryan Curtis, was constantly faced with waging a war in three basic directions. These directions consisted of defending eastern Kansas from raids by the Confederate guerrillas in Missouri, enemy attacks into Kansas from the Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) and attacks on the commercial and military traffic along the Santa Fe, Oregon and Smokey River Trails by various Plains Indian Tribes and possibly Confederate guerrillas. Periodically, the civilian merchants of Kansas City would send letters to General Curtis requesting better military protection for their wagon trains on the Santa Fe and Fort Scott roads. The following is General Curtis's response to such a letter and is located on Pages 500 and 501 in Vol. 34, Part II, Correspondence of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion.

"Headquarters Department of Kansas, Fort Leavenworth, March 4, 1864.

In reply I can only assure you that I shall try to dispose of the forces of my command in such a way as will best protect life and property of every kind.

The commercial channels you name run through and near important settlements and towns and will therefore deserve and receive my special attention. But while we have war we may not secure the blessings of peace. The outrages committed on the unarmed and unoffending people of this department would disgrace savage or Sepoy warfare and it is not surprising that the people of New Mexico and southern Kansas are "dreading a repetition." It would be a disgrace to humanity and the age to have repeated the cowardly massacres of Baxter Springs and Lawrence. But who can give us assurances against such secret organizations, or who can determine the number and location of forces to 'guarantee' safety and security against such inhuman barbarties? I can only exert my best judgment faithfully and I promise you that my troops will do their best to prevent, repel and avenge any repetition of the infernal raids upon the soil of Kansas or within my department.

I also confidently rely on your citizens and the troops of your department (the Department of Missouri) to cordially unite in these efforts and with such a determination on both sides of the border, I know such things can be and will be prevented. You and I know where the vipers have assembled to arrange, organize and project their fiendish assaults on the commercial channels and depots of this country and you must perceive the necessity of watching the nests and destroying the eggs that hatch the demons that disgrace humanity.

I know that commercially you are great sufferers. Your beautiful and once prominent city has been paralyzed and impaired by the infamous folly of a disloyal, wild and wicked population that harbored and helped bushwhackers in the broken, tangled woodlands south of your important position.

They were the worst foes to you and to Missouri, as they are a disgrace to the world and your lines of commerce through my department and your happiness and prosperity at home must hereafter, as before, depend much on the efforts of your selves and your loyal neighbors in aiding the troops on both sides of department lines in giving timely notice and material aid when even a sign of such foes shall appear in any portion of our common country. Knowing your loyal devotion to our cause and confiding in your generous sympathy toward the loyal people of this department, I confidently assure you of a cordial cooperation by the troops and people of my command to secure to you and to ourselves all possible security and finally to suppress the ravages of this ungodly rebellion and restore peace, prosperity and happiness to our whole country.

Now then, was General Curtis and his troops able to destroy the eggs of the demonic vipers before they hatched and conducted their fiendish assaults on the citizens, their commercial traffic and troops Missouri and Kansas in the spring of 1864? No, not completely and the war went on!