132
 

HISTOEY OF KAIISAS.
 

Pate's Campaign.—Capt. Henry Clay Pate, who, with his command,
was still in the vicinity of Franklin, had! in addition lo his mililary rank,
the somewhat (|Ucstiouabli- authority vested in him by his commission as
Deputy United Stales Jlarshal, granted him during or just prior to the
sack of Lawrence. On hearing of the inunlers, he set oul for Osawatomie
with his company, wilh the de-ign of "'capturing or killing old Brown,"
who was assumed lo be the leader of the murderous gang. The old man
was in hiding on his arrival. Failing to find him, he took prisoners two
of his sons, .John Brown, .Tr.. and Jason, whom he found al work upon
their claims, on suspicion of their being accessories lo the crime.'* They
■were charged with murder, and put in irons. Other arrests of Free-Stale
men -were made and a few cabins burnetl. A company of United States
dragoons, under Capt. Wood, joined Pate soon after the arrests were
made, to whom he turned over his prisoners. On May 81, the two com¬
panies moved together as far as iliddle Ottaw a Creek. There they separ¬
ated. Pate going into separate eamp a few miles further on. The prisoners
were kept under guard of the dragoon-, near ^Middle (Ottawa Creek, for
several days, and were subsequently conveyed to Lecompton, \yhere Gaius
Jenkins, G. S Brown, and other Free St;ite prisoners were already in con-
flnement. Agony, horror, anxiety and fatigue, unsettled the mind of John
Brown, Jr., to that extent that, while in camp as a prisoner, he was at
times violently insane.f

Buttle of Block Jack —Capt. I\ites company, once more in camp, be¬
gan ane-sv their system of marauding and plundering of Free-State settlers
on a more extensive scale than before. His campaign came to a sudden
and inglorious eud on June 2. in an eu(-ounler with an armed party of
Free-State men, much inferior to his in numbers U is memorable, asthe
first pitched battle iu which the Free-Stat,.
men -were engaged. Many conflicting ac¬
counls of the affair have Fieen published,
varying so -svidely in detail as to throw
distrust on the entire accuracy of any of
them. The follo^yillg, gathered"from what
are deemed reliable sources of informa¬
tion, is believed to be an essentially correct
account of the battle of Black Jack, This
battle occurred June 2, l.'^.'ii; Old John
Brown came up from the Polta-watomie
the dayibefpre. Sunday, to Prairie City.
with fn'elve mounted men, including him¬
self, three of his sons—Frederick, Owen
and AV^atson—and his son-in-law, Henry
Thompson (who was hanged at Haiper's
Ferry), James To-wnsley. a iir. Winner,
a German named \Vininger, and Charles
Kaizer.                                          ,

Six of Henry Clay Pale's men had that
day made a raid on Palmyra, in retaliation
for the Pottawatomie massacre, and had
taken several prisoners, among them two
of the Barricklows andDr. Graham. They
then concluded they would go over to
Prairie City and lake that village also.
The people were in church when the de¬
scent was made. Services were imme¬
diately closed, without the formalities of
a benediction, aud firing commenced.
After a round or two of firing, two of the
attacking parly were w ounded. All re¬
treated, effecting their escape to the main
commiind of Pate. Pursuit was made,
but Pate's forces were not fimnd that day.
About 10 o'clock the same night, Capts.
Brown and Shore, having collected their
men, startetl oul again to find Pale's men,
and about daylight next morning, dis¬
covered them near a small rivulet, with
quite a liltle grove of Black Jack oaks,
amounting then to but underbrush, on
the west and south sides, about three miles
from Prairie City.

The ilissourians were about seventy-five or eighty in number, com¬
manded by Capt. Pate, of Missouri, and Lieut. Brockett, of South Carolina,

■=Both were guiltless. Townsley's testimony, which is given in the history of Franklin
County, corroborated by other witnesses, proves conclusively that John Brown, Jr., discouraged
the expedition, and that on hearing of its murderous outcome he resigned his command and, in
an excited condition bordering on insanity, left the camp and went home.

fin a letter written by John Brown, Sr., to F. B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass., dated June
24, 1866, he says:

" John's company soon after disbanded, and also the Osawatomie men. John tried to hide
for several days, but from the feelings of the ungrateful conduct of those who ought to have
stood by him, excessive tatigue, anxiety and loss of sleep, became quite insane, and in that con¬
dition gave up, or, as we are told, was betraycl at Osawatomie into the hands of the Bogus men."

His allusion lo the "ungrateful conduct of those who ought to have stood by him " nod his
suspicions of betrayal, aud other allusions to "tbe cowardly, mean conduct of Osawatomie and
vicinity " quite likely had reference to the proceedings of a public meeting held at Osawatomie
three days after the murders.   The official report of the meeting was as follows :

"At a meeting of th« citizens of Pottawatomie Creek, without distinction of pirties, held
at the branch between Messrs. Potter and Partridges, on the 27th day of May, 1866, 0. H. Price
was chosen Chairman and H. H. Williams Secretary.

"The Chairman then stated the object of the meeting, and a committee was appointed to
take the subject under consideration. The committee consisted of K. Gouldiug, "R. Gilpatrick,
N. C. McDow, S. "V. Vandaman, A. Castele and John Blunt. After consultation, the committee
reported the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimnufily adopted and a copy of
them ordered to be printed :

"Whereas, An outrage of the darkest and foulest nature has been committed in our midst
by some midnight assassins unknown, who have taken five of our citizens at the hour of mid¬
night from their homes and families, and murdered and mangled them in the most awful manner;
to prevent a repetition of these deeds, we deem it necessary to adopt some measures for our
mutual protection and to aid and assist in bringing these desperadoes to justice. Under these
oircumsunces, we propose to act up to the following resolutions:
 

cArryyxy     uh-&-ZA>i^
 

and drawn up behind their wagons, which they used for breastworks.
Capts. Brown and Shore's men dismounted two or three hundred yards
from where the skirmish began, and leaving Wininger and Henricks in
charge of the horses, advanced upon the enemy in a curved line, wings
farthest advanced. Brown, armed with a revolver, was in the center, in
advance, in command. He repeatedly cautioned his men to aim low.
Bro-wn's men were armed with a variety of short range guns, while Shore's
men had Sharpe's rifles. When within supposed range of the latter, fire
was opened on Pate's army, the whole thirty-one guns going off simulta¬
neously. A second and a third volley were poured in, when Brown ordered
an advance, so that the short-range guns of his own men might be more
effective. Some of the men started forward on a run, and the line became
somewhat broken. When the line was again formed, the order was given
to lie down in the grass, then from one to two feet high. From this time,
until a flag of truce was raised by Pate's command, firing was promiscuous
and continuous. In the meantime, Dr. Graham had escaped from his cap¬
tors, by running directly across from them to Brown, falling down from
time to time in the grass, lo escape the shots fired at him by the
Alissourians. He told Capts. Brown and Shore that they could captm'e the
whole outflt if they persisted, so when the flag of truce appeared and Capt.
Pate proposed to capitulate, upon the condition of retaining their arms,
Capt. Brown informed him they were not taking prisoners on those terms,
and that the surrender must be unconditional. The flag was withdrawn
and the battle renewed.

It was soon discovered that Pale's men were one by one falling back,
mounting their-horses, and " skedaddling." Orelius Carpenter, a crack
shot, was detailed to stop that kind of business by shooting their horses,

and in six shots brought down six horses,
himself having the end of his nose shot off,
and receiving the ball in his right arm,
near the shoulder. The flag of truce was
flnally run up the second time, and the
terms of unconditional surrender accepted
by Pale. Only twenty-eight of Pate's
men were captured, the rest having
escaped during the fight.

The men of Capt. Shore's command
actually engaged in the fight were the fol¬
lowing: Capt. Samuel T. Shore; First
Lieut. Elkanah Timmons; Second Lieut.
Elizur Hill; Silas H. Moore, Ellas Bas-
singer, Richard jM. Pierson, Orelius A.
Carpenter, Sylvester Harris, Augustus
Shore, Montgomery Shore, Hiram McAl¬
lister, ------Collins, William A. David, C.

L. Robbins, J. M. Robbins, John S. Edie,
James P. Moore, Hugh McWhinney, John
"McWhinney and Dr. Westfall.|

Battle of Franklin.—Two days after
the battle of Black Jack, a night attack
was made bj^ a party of Free-State men
and boys, numbering fifteen or sixteen,
from Lawrence, upon a party of Law ami
Order marauders who "were at Franklin,
where they had stored considerable plun¬
der. The assailing party entered the town
at about 2 o'clock on the morning of June
5, and, after reconnoitering, marched to
the guard-house, where the enemy had
their headquarters, and demanded a sur¬
render. The summons was answered by
a discharge of their cannon, the only piece
of artillery they had, which had been
crammed to the muzzle with nails and
other missiles calculated to scatter destruc¬
tion. Owing to the darkness the aim was
not deadly, and the murderous charge
passed harmlessly over the heads of the
assailants. The cannon was not again
loaded. The assailants lay down and com¬
menced firing Avilh their Sharpe's rifles,
their fire being sharply returned by the inmates of the house. The engagement
was thus kept up, without sortie from within or assault from without, until
near daybreak, when, as the coming light would render the firing more
 

^^Resolved, That we will from this time lay aside all sectional and political feelings and let
together as men of reason and common sense, determined to oppose all men who are so ultra an
their views as to denounce men of opposite opinions.

" Resolved, That we will repudiate and discountenance all organized bands of men who leave
their homes for the avowed purpose of exciting others to acts of violence, believing it to be the
duty of all good disposed citizens to stay at home during these exciting times and protect and, if
possible, restore the peace and harmony of the neighborhood; furthermore, we will discounte¬
nance all armed bodies of men who may come amongst us from any other part of the Territory
or from the States, unless said parties shall come under the authority of the United Slates.

"Beeolved, That we pledge ouiaelves, individuatly and collectively, to prevent a recurrence
of a similar tragedy and to ferret out and hand over to the criminal authorities the perpetrators
for punishment.

" H. H. Williams, Secretary.                         0. H. Price, President.

R. GOLOIKG, (^airman, '
R. GiLPATBICK,

W. C. McDow.

S. "V. Vandaman,

A. Castele,

John Blunt,

X A li^t of those engaged in the battle or holding the horses, made out and subscribed to by
John Brown, now in the Kansas Historical Society's collection, gives the names as follows; Capt.

S. T. Shore, David Hendricks, Hiram McAllister,-----Parmely, Sylvester Harris, 0. A. Carpenter,

Augustus Shore, James Townsley,-----Hayden, John McWhinney, Montgomery Shore, Elkanah

Timmons, Jacob Weiner, A. Bnnda, Hugh McWhinney, Charles Reiser, Elizur Hill, "William
David, B. L. Cockrain, Henry Thompson, Elias Bassinger, Owen Brown, Frederick Brown, Salmon
Brown, Oliver Brown, John Brown; all reported more or less severely wounded but nine.
 

Committee."