Baxter Springs Massacre Memorial

Located within Baxter Springs Cemetery and National Plot, this memorial was erected to honor the soldiers and civilians who successfully defended Fort Baxter (also known as Fort Blair) despite being heavily outnumbered. The memorial also honors those who perished in the Baxter Springs Massacre on Oct. 6, 1863. Pro-Confedere guerillas under William Quantrill outnumbered the fort's defenders by at least four-to-one. Around 50 African American soldiers of the 2nd Colored Infantry, along with 25 white Union soldiers, worked together to repel Quantrill's attack. The Confederate bushwhackers retreated, and rather than attempt a second stack, they continued their journey to Texas where they encountered a small contingent of soldiers escorting Major General Blunt. Pretending to be Union troops, the bushwhackers surprised and massacred over 100 men, many of whom were unarmed including musicians and journalists, and even a 12-year-old drummer boy. The 20-foot-tall marble and granite statue of a Union Soldier standing at rest and four 1853 siege-gun cannons mounted in concrete bases at each perimeter corner.

October 6, 1863, proved to be one of the most violent days for Kansas during the Civil War. Near the modern-day town of Baxter Springs was a small fort known as Ft. Blair which was built under the command of Lt. Ralph Cook, leader of the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry. An additional fifty white soldiers were also stationed at the fort and under the command of Lt. Crites. Shortly after being erected, Lt. James Pond arrived at the fort to take command. Pond christened the new post “Fort Blair,” which was named after his commanding officer at Fort Scott, Major Charles Blair.

On the morning of October 6th, Pond ordered fifty men to travel on a foraging mission in Missouri. The current size of the fort was not sufficient, and Lt. Pond wanted to gather adequate supplies to make expansions. Twenty-five of the fifty men ordered were reported as sick and stayed behind, along with the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry, as they did not have horses. As a result, the Black soldiers were charged with guarding the fort. 

On this same morning, just a few miles away, pro-Confederate raider William Quantrill and his band of roughly four hundred men were just fresh off their attack on Lawrence, Kansas where they had massacred antislavery men and a small number of Union troops. Quantrill had decided to camp in Texas for the upcoming winter and was leading his men along the route known as the South Texas Road. Upon this route, the band of bushwhackers happened upon a teamster who shared that a small and vastly outnumbered Union contingent was just a couple miles ahead. Further north, Union commander General James Blunt was also traveling along the South Texas Road with a cavalry and entourage. Both Quantrill and Blunt were oblivious to each other's position and movements. 

Quantrill and his men approached the outskirts of the fort, still unbeknownst to the Union regiment. Just outside the fort by a few hundred yards, Lt. Cook was target shooting with a civilian, Johnny Fry, who went by the name “Pony Johnny” as he was the first Pony Express rider to leave St. Joseph, Kansas, when the mail route was first inaugurated. Quantrill’s men surprised and murdered both of the men. When their bodies were later found, they were said to have been riddled with bullets as if their bodies had been used as target practice. Quantrill then elected to divide his forces. He charged two of his most trusted soldiers Gregg, and Poole, to lead a hundred men in a charge at the fort from the southeast. Quantrill would then take the remainder of the men, roughly three hundred, circle the fort, and attack from the north. 

It was right around noon when Gregg and Poole began their assault on Fort Blair. Most of the soldiers inside had just sat down for their noon meal. While the pro-Confederate raiders had a clear advantage over the outnumbered and surrounded Union soldiers, the defenders of the fort were quick to act, and their shooting appeared much more precise than the pro-Confederate rebels. Lt. Pond had been eating lunch with his wife and infant when he was alerted that the fort was under attack. He took charge of the situation and dashed to the front line, barking orders and dodging bullets. While he had no prior artillery experience, he immediately began manning a twelve-pound mountain howitzer cannon. The battle saw African American and white troops fighting together to defend the fort, an essential fact as most officers and men were not at the fort. With help from Lt. Pond's cannon marksman skills, the Union soldiers stopped the attack and Quantrill and his bushwhackers fled, Lt. Pond later wrote in his journal, "The coloreds fought like devils. Thirteen of them were wounded the first round, and not one but what fought the thing through… they fought the best of any men I ever saw. Not one would give up after they were wounded, but kept shooting as long as they could see a rebel. I think that if our northern pro-slavery friends could serve a few weeks with a colored regiment and witness the soldierly -appearance, all prejudice against them would be removed. I don't want to be without a company of coloreds if I can help it” (Pond)

Despite the victory, the Union army experienced a tragedy that day. In the process of circling the fort, Quantrill had come across the traveling group of General Blunt. Quantrill ordered his men to approach the travelers head on. General Blunt saw the soldiers, but since some of them were dressed in stolen Union uniforms, did not suspect foul play. He ordered his scout to meet them, who was abruptly shot on sight, and the Union travel party had nearly no time to react. Rather than a battle, the outnumbered U.S. troops were the victims of a massacre, Quantrill’s men rode down and killed nearly every soldier and civilian that was present, which included the traveling band that had accompanied the entourage. All of the band members were unarmed, but they were still shot and killed after which their bodies piled up and burned. The victims included a 12-year-old African American drummer whose body was found fifty meters from the pile of corpses, indicating that he had tried to escape before succumbing to his wounds. One surviving Union soldier reported his opinion on the massacre, "We were outnumbered, surprised, and practically surrounded and every man knew his only chance was to fight his way through and get away. Under these circumstances no two men saw it alike--Each had his own work to attend to which kept him mighty busy for a while." (Private Lewis) 

When the violence stopped, the final count was one hundred and three Union soldiers and civilians dead or missing, while the pro-Confederates had only lost three men in Quantrill's attack along with another forty in the failed attack on the fort. The Confederate soldiers scavenged and ravaged every practical item from the bodies that were strewn about the valley. Major Quantrill elected not to attack the fort a second time and carried on with his men to their encampment in Texas.

The bodies of the Union soldiers were buried near the fort. General Blunt survived the attack and returned to Fort Scott where he was relieved of duty. However, just a few weeks later was reinstated. Lt. Pond was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his leadership, although he gave nearly all the credit to the soldiers who fought alongside him that day. Fort. Blair was abandoned just a few weeks after the massacre.

In 1869, the city of Baxter Springs sent a request to the government to instate a National Plot, to exhume and rebury the bodies of the men and boys who were killed in the massacre. This request was granted and year later in 1885, local veterans and citizens raised money to erect the Union soldier statue and four cannons at the center of the National Plot. The Union soldier statue is inscribed with the names of those who lost their lives during the Baxter Springs Massacre. 

Alexander, K. (n.d.). Fort Blair, Kansas & the Baxter Springs Massacre. Legends of America. Retrieved November 4, 2022, from https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-fortblair/ 

Greg, W. (n.d.). Guerrilla Warefare. Shibboleth authentication request. Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://stmary.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebscohost.com%2Flogin.aspx%3Fdirect&db=nlebk&AN=2231060&site=ehost-live&ebv=EK&ppid=Page-__-1 

Humanities, N. E. for the. (n.d.). Eagle River Review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, July 17, 1903, image 4. News about Chronicling America RSS. Retrieved November 4, 2022, from https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85040614/1903-07-17/ed-1/seq-4/ 

Buckeye, B. (n.d.). KS - the Baxter Springs Cemetery "Soldiers' lot" | Civil War cemeteries ... Civil War Talk. Retrieved November 29, 2022, from https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-baxter-springs-cemetery-soldiers-lot.177303/ 

The Day of Conflict. Civil-war. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2022, from http://www.baxterspringsmuseum.org/Civil-War.html