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Memories, markers and monuments of the Marais des Cygnes Massacre
May 19, 2008 is the 150th anniversary of one of the most violent incidents in Kansas History, and this is the first in a series of articles that will focus on the memories, markers and monuments that were created to remember the Marais des Cygnes massacre from 1858 to the present day.
On May 19, 1858, pro-slavery leader Charles Hamilton and a small band of like-minded associates returned to Kansas and stopped at the small village of Trading Post on their way to West Point, Mo. Hamilton and his family owned slaves and had been forced off of their land in Linn County and driven into Missouri by abolitionists and free-staters under the command of abolitionist leader James Montgomery. Hamilton and his men returned to Kansas seeking revenge against the men who forced him off his land and revenge he did exact. Eleven abolitionists and free-staters were captured in their fields and marched into a ravine approximately four miles northeast of Trading Post and shot; five were killed, five were seriously wounded and one was unharmed. This incident became known as both the Marais des Cygnes Massacre, because it was near the Marais des Cygnes River, and the Hamilton Massacre.
The reaction to the massacre was public, personal and private. The following description of the massacre was recorded in a personal letter written by a farmer near Marvel, Mo. 11 days after the massacre on May 30, 1858. The original letter is located in Manuscript Collection of Fort Scott National Historic Site.
"Marvel, May 30th, 1858.
Dear Sister Aggy, I thought I would write you a few lines and tell you all the news. We are all done planting and sowing and I am building a house and making rails for fence. I am going to build out on the prairie and have got the nicest building spot on earth, from it we can see the towns of Butler, Fort Scott, West Point, Millersville and Timbered Hills and also Barnesville. We can also see the Osage River and the Marais des Cygnes River. Then look over into "Bleeding Kansas" and see the battleground of Muddy Creek were 21 Yankees whipped 90 Missourians, killing 17 and taking 30 prisoners, then the bloody Timbered Hills are in sight where four Wisconsin and Indiana boys were hung and the same trees that they were hung on are still standing. Then comes the scene right under your eye where Captain Charlie Hamilton with 20 imps from purgatory went on into Kansas some 10 days ago and took 12 peaceable free-state men out of their fields and marched them out in a little valley and told them to turn the other way; and as they turned, those Georgians fired on them with their rifles and every man fell. Five were killed instantly. Six were mortally wounded and one young man standing beside his brother was not touched, but played up dead -- and his brother laying across his body with two bullets through him and kicking in the agony of death -- just then Hamilton came up, put a revolver to the wounded man's head and fired. Said it was not the first dammed Yankee he had sent to hell!
After rifling the pockets of the killed and wounded they came up to the unhurt man, kicked him and said the Yankee Devil was dead. They then came back over the line.
| Two days after this happened there was some 80 or 90 Kansas militia headed by Capt. Bob and Lieut. Lindsey came over on Walnut Creek to hunt the murderers, but they could not be found. While the Kansas boys were over, the Missourians turned out to help take them. These murderers were mostly Georgians and have not the countenance of the Pro-Slavery Party in Missouri. This "Hamilton" or Marie Creek Massacre happened about five miles from our house and the above account is authentic as I had the particulars from one of the wounded men. There is at present 4,000 Free-State men under arms and scattered along the line from West Point to Fort Scott and a detachment of 3,000 within four miles of here. The people of the counties of Linn and Bourbon in Kansas are all in for a fight and in fact are fighting all the time. From this you will infer that we are in danger, but it is not so. I have some powerful friends in both parties and am in no danger whatever. I have not taken sides and neither do I intend to. The folks are all well and feeling fine. They all like it here first rate and I am better pleased than ever. We want you all to come out and see us when we get our house built or come now. Peaches will soon be ripe. Strawberries are ripe and most gone. The baby is healthy and growing fine. If you and Matt come out and see us I will give you each a good pony to ride and take home with you. Write soon and remember your Border Brother, Al Burchard." |
In the summer of 1858, Boston Herald reporter Albert D. Richardson wrote a description of the Marais des Cygnes Massacre that was published in the newspaper along with a wood cut print that is the only known illustration of the event.
Also in the summer of 1858, one of the first literary memorials of the Massacre was the following poem that was written by John Greenleaf Whittier and published in the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine.
| Le Marais Du Cygne |
"A blush as of roses Where rose never grew!
| Great drops on the bunch-grass, But not of the dew. |
| A taint in the sweet air For wild bees to shun! |
A stain that shall never Bleach out in the sun!
Back, steed of the prairies!
Sweet song-bird, fly back!
Wheel hither, bald vulture! Gray wolf, call thy pack!
The foul human vultures Have feasted and fled;
The wolves of the Border Have crept from the dead.
Not in vain on the dial he shade moves along
To point the great contrasts Of right and of wrong;
Free Homes and free alters And fields ripe food;
The reeds of the Swan's Marsh Whose Bloom is of blood.
On the lintels of Kansas
That blood shall not dry;
Henceforth the Bad Angel Shall harmless go by;
Henceforth to the sunset, Unchecked on her way,
| Shall Liberty follow The march of the day." |
Future articles in the series will describe the various markers and monuments that were created from 1864 to the present day that commemorated the Marais des Cygnes Massacre. There will be a special emphasis on the effort to create and establish a memorial park by the members of the VFW Post in Pleasanton and citizens in Linn County and Bates County, Mo.
If anyone has family photographs, scrapbooks or newspaper articles on or of activities at the Marais des Cygnes Massacre Memorial Park and is willing to share them with the Kansas State Historical Society please contact Superintendent Arnold W. Schofield at the Mine Creek Battlefield at (913) 352-8890.
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