thursday, January 29, 2004
black jack
the university daily kansan
7A
BLACK JACK: Historians hope to preserve battle site
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
Altenbernd and others hope to have the dedication of a new Black Jack Battlefield Park on June 2, 2006, the battle's 150th anniversary.
The Battle Itself
Kansas became a state on Jan. 29, 1861. After years of indecision on the issue of slavery, Kansas was declared a free state. In May 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed states to take their own position on slavery. The state voted, but droves of people from Missouri, a slave state, crossed the state line and stuffed the ballot boxes, causing a true Border War that meant much more than a basketball game or a trophy sponsored by an area Ford dealer.
One of the first battles between the two sides happened on May21, 1856 when Lawrence was sacked by a group of Missourians under the command of Samuel Jones. Although no one
Paul Stuewe Local historian
was killed, the Free State Hotel, now called the Eldridge Hotel, was burned to the ground and the printing presses of the city's two newspapers were destroyed.
Word of the attack spread to John Brown, who had come to Kansas a year before and settled ten miles west of Osawatomie. Brown became enraged. In an event later called the Pottawatomie Massacre, Brown with the help of four of his sons and two other settlers butchered five proslavery male settlers on May 24 near Pottawatomie Creek, just west of Osawatomie, splitting their skulls with broadwords.
One of the Missourians who took part in the Lawrence attack was Henry Clay Pate, a self-elected leader of about 80 men. A couple of days after the Pottawatomie Massacre, Pate and his men captured two of Brown's sons, John Jr. and Jason, and burned their houses.
On June 1, Brown and some militia he had rounded up were stationed in Prairie City, west of the battle site.
Through two of Pate's men wandering around town, Brown learned that Pate was camped in Black Jack Creek. It was time for battle.
Brown and more than 25 men made their way to a wooded area near the creek and waited until dawn.
"You can make a pretty good argument that the war started here," said Paul Stuewe, a local historian and teacher at Lawrence High School. "If a war is where combatants get together
The battle's turning point came when Brown gave the order to start shooting Pate's horses and mules. The Missourians couldn't go anywhere without their ride.
and shoot each other, the war started here."
Without a way out, Pate's men were cornered into surrendering. After Brown's son, Frederick, came charging across the battlefield on horseback yelling that his side had Pate's bunch surrounded, Pate thought more of the opposition's cavalry was on the way.
Pate called a truce, later claiming he was tricked by Brown, and the "pre prelude to the Civil War" was over. After three hours, no lives were lost but several men were severely wounded on both sides. Pate and his men were taken as prisoners and stripped of their possessions, but released three days later.
The Fury Behind the Fight
If one took a national survey in 1850 about the top issues of the time, slavery would not have been near the top of that list, said
Jonathan Earle, assistant history professor at the University of Kansas.
Earle said that certain catalysic wedges led to the Civil War and the main drive behind those wedges was John Brown, a former farmer and surveyor turned intrepid abolitionist whose divisive character made people choose a side.
"He saw slavery as an abomination," Altenbernd said. "Slavery was against God. He wasn't just fighting men, he was fighting the devil. Violence was the answer."
While Brown's practices may be perceived as contradictory to his Christian beliefs, Brown thought the work of God was to bring equality to all men.
"Without blood there is no remission of sins." Brown wrote.
Brown came to Kansas in 1855 from the East Coast with the sole purpose of stopping slavery. Before heading west, Brown won the support from many of New England dignitaries such as Amos A. Lawrence, the town's name sake,
and African American leaders including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.
"Captain Brown" as he was known by his men, was probably most well known for the raid on Harper's Ferry, Va. in 1859 when he attempted to lead a slave uprising. Brown was caught after the raid and hung on Dec. 2, 1859, charged with murder, treason and insurrection. The weapon of choice in the raid for Brown's men was a pike, a six-foot pole with a Bowie knife attached to it. The knife belonged to Pate.
As for the battlefield itself, the Friends of the Black Jack Battlefield Trust, the Lawrence Preservation Alliance and other locals believe it belongs with the likes of Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Antietam and all the other major battles of the Civil War.
"I think John Brown tasted battle for the first time," Earle said. "What happened right here really changed American history."
Edited by Nikki Nugent
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