Monument erected in honor of 12 men, who were massacred by bushwackers [sic] during the Civil War, at Trading Post, Kansas [manuscript note on verso of mount].

Undated [ca. 1890]. Photograph, 7 x 4 1/2 inches, affixed to larger mount, picturing in the foreground an obelisk on which are engraved the names of the victims, a grove of trees to the rear. The monument actually memorialized those killed at the 19 May 1858 "Marais des Cygnes Massacre," the "last significant act of violence" in the "Bleeding Kansas" conflict; on that day a group of marauders from Missouri kidnapped 11 unarmed free-staters and killed five of them, an act widely condemned in the national press and used by John G. Whittier as the subject of a poem. Mount browned and chipped, image quite faded in the lower left corner, small chip in the left edge. Still a good example. Item #53682

Price: $125.00