[3] Even before the territories were officially opened to settlement, organizations in both the north and south began sponsoring settlers loyal to their respective causes.
Future Civil War generals serving in Kansas Territory included Nathaniel Lyon, J. E. B. Stuart and Philip St. George Cooke.
Most had loopholes for rifles and some partisan militias owned mountain howitzers, small cannons that could easily be moved.
Two days later John Brown's group brutally murdered five southerners near Osawatomie and a real war began in earnest.
A number of settlers in areas isolated from the hostilities constructed new forts to protect their communities against Indian raids.
The transition from territorial status to statehood bought some changes in the types of forts existing in Kansas.
Possibly only one camp, Livingston's Hideout, existed as a Confederate post in Kansas during the Civil War.
Some of the new Army posts, however, were established to protect communities along the Kansas–Missouri border from Confederate regular and guerrilla forces.
Forts Leavenworth and Scott also became major bases of operations to reclaim parts of the Indian Territory, Missouri and Arkansas from the Confederacy.
"[10] These Galvanized Yankees were Confederate prisoners organized into new Union companies used to man frontier forts deep in Indian-traversed territories.
The reason the Union resorted to outfitting Confederate prisoners was because the Army could spare few men to protect trails and settlers.
[11] Incidentally, most of the forts established by the Army were manned at times totally by volunteer or militia forces raised to fight Confederates.
Other functions given to Army forts included serving as post offices and becoming headquarters for Indian agencies.
Typically, many military forts started as groups of buildings and sod-roofed dugouts that would have been difficult to defend had full-scale attacks been mounted against them.
[13] Three events caused Kansas to rapidly build more forts and posts after the Civil War's outbreak.
Also, Confederate Indian forces under Lt. Col. John Jumper in May 1862 organized to seize Fort Larned in southwest Kansas.
The Army's main concern, however, was to protect Kansas against guerrilla bands that terrorized residents on both sides of the Kansas–Missouri border.
[14] On March 13, 1863, Col. Thomas Ewing, Jr. was promoted to brigadier general and was given command of the District of the Border, which included all of Kansas, as well as parts of other jurisdictions.
Lawrence, for instance, even passed an ordinance barring its inhabitants from possessing firearms within the city limits.
Even the recruits in two camps in town had no ammunition and the commander of the squad of troops at Lawrence had to keep his sidearms in the armory.
In the afternoon of August 20 guerrilla commander William C. Quantrill and almost 450 followers rode into Kansas and headed for Lawrence.
Surprisingly, a number of individuals discovered Quantrill's movements and the garrison at Aubry, just west of the Missouri border, watched the guerrillas pass near their post.
The next morning Quantrill's men stormed into a defenseless Lawrence and committed one of the Civil War's worst atrocities.
Many of the Union troops who died that day surrendered to Quantrill's men, who then murdered them in another of the war's worst atrocities.
Apparently in March 1864 many councils were held among the Indian tribes with the subject being attempts to keep whites out of Indian-occupied areas.
A number of new Army posts and community forts were built to protect areas against hostile Indians.
Price was constantly confronted by Federal troops or Missouri state militia and was unable to permanently occupy any areas.
[21] The threat by Price caused a reaction that changed the status of many forts and posts in eastern Kansas.
A number of small Army posts were vacated or pared to skeleton garrisons so as many soldiers as possible could face Price's men.
Price commented that he wanted to dine at Fort Leavenworth, an indication he hoped to capture that important post.