War Letters, Civil War

Up to the mid 1850s, new territories gaining admission to the Union did so in pairs-one free state and one slave state-so as to maintain a balance between the two sections. Knowing that this situation must eventually be resolved, Congress legislated that the citizens of the newly established Kansas Territory would determine (by popular sovereignty) their slave status. Once Congress passed this legislation, settlers from both sections raced into the territory as quickly as possible; both sides trying to gain a majority. All the while, the two factions organized militias and fought each other tenaciously. Eventually the population of the free state faction gained a majority, they convened a valid constitutional convention, wrote a constitution prohibiting slavery, submitted that constitution to Congress in the fall of 1860, which Congress ratified on January 29, 1861, and the "Bleeding Kansas" years were over. During the fight, some of those involved wrote to their families and friends back east. Most of the letter still extant were written by free staters (pro-slavery partisans, in all likelihood, left Kansas so that they could keep their slaves; as they would have been manumitted if they had remained).

Along with several other northern states, Kansas sent thousands of its men to the battlefield to restore the Union. At the time (and until World War II), states raised their own regiments, so that entire regiments were composed of soldiers almost exclusively from one area, town or county, and all from the same state. Others enlisted in United States Army regiments, not connected with any state regiment. In this collection appear the letters of George B. Brinsmaid (Company F, 1st Battery, 18^th U.S. Infantry), Sergeant William C. Haynes (Company D, 11^th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry), and Corporal James M. Miller (G. Company, 8^th Iowa Volunteer Regiment).

Kansas War Letters Online

• Bleeding Kansas
• Indian Campaigns
• Spanish American War
• World War I
• World War II
• Korean War
• Vietnam Conflict
• Gulf War
• Photo Gallery

For more information concerning Kansas history and the resources at the Kansas Historical Society, contact the Library Reference Desk,785-272-8681, ext.117. People interested in donating letters, memoirs, manuscripts, or photographs should contact Nancy Sherbert, 785-272-8681, ext. 303. People interested in donating museum objects should contact Blair Tarr, ext. 427.

© Kansas Historical Society, 2001- Fair use standards apply to individuals' use of this material. Requests for commercial use should be directed to the Director of the Library & Archives Division.