Baxter Springs Massacre Memorial

The Baxter Springs Cemetery and National Plot is located just over 2.5 miles west of the small town of Baxter Springs in the Southeast Corner of Kansas. At the center of the cemetery is a 20 foot tall marble and granite state of a Union Soldier standing at rest; surrounding him are four 1853 siege-gun cannons mounted in concrete bases, one at each corner of the perimeter. This memorial monument was erected to honor the soldiers and civilians who perished in the Baxter Springs Massacre which occurred on Oct. 6, 1863 during the Civil War.

October 6, 1863, proved to be one of the most violent days for Kansas during the Civil War. Near where the modern day town of Baxter Springs resides was a small fort known as Ft. Blair. Ft. Blair was erected under the command of Lt. Ralph Cook, leader of the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry unit. There was an additional fifty white soldiers under the command of Lt. Crites also stationed at the fort. Shortly after being erected, a senior officer by the name of Lt. James Pond arrived at the fort to take command. He was in charge of giving the fort the name “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 and as such were charged with guarding the fort. 

On this same morning, just a few miles away, a confederate soldier known as William Quantrill and his band of roughly four hundred men were just fresh off their win in Lawrence, Kansas where the confederates had massacred the Union troops that were stationed in the town. 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 rebels happened upon a teamster, who in trade for his life reported to the soldiers that the fort was just a couple miles ahead. Further north an esteemed 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 Lieutenants Gregg and Poole began their attack on Fort Blair. Most of the soldiers inside had just sat down for their noon meal. Taken off guard, the Confederates had a clear advantage over the Union soldiers, however, the defenders of the fort were quick to act and their shooting appeared much more precise than the 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 single handedly manning a twelve pound mountain howitzer cannon. The battle was seen as a great moral victory, as blacks and whites took up arms together to defend the fort, even if it was for just a short while, the Union army was fully united. With help from Lt. Pond's cannon marksman skills, the Union soldiers stopped the attack and the confederate survivors 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)

It was not, however, entirely successful for the Union army 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 as most 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. The battle simply became 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, all were shot and their bodies piled up and burned, including a 12 year old African American drummer boy, who while presumed dead, his body was found fifty meters from the pile of corpses in which he had tried to escape the fire 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 confederates had only lost three men in Quantrill's attack and upwards of 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 had somehow survived the attack and returned to Fort Scott; 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 surrendered nearly all the credit to the soldiers who fought alongside him that day. As for Fort. Blair, its existence was not long lived as it was torn down and completely 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 re enter the bodies buried from the massacre; this request was accepted. 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. 

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