Fort Scott National Historic Site

Fort Scott was established in 1842. Named for General Winfield Scott, the fort was part of a line of forts in what was then called Indian Country. Established as part of a boundary between the settlers and the Plains Indians, the fort became the basis for a large community. The fort served as a town after it was abandoned by the army in 1853 and was contested by the Jayhawkers and Border Ruffians during the Bleeding Kansas era. At the start of the Civil War, the town was reoccupied by the Union Army to prevent Confederate forces from marching north into Kansas and Missouri.

Camp Scott was initially established in 1842. The title of Fort came with the completion of the fort's permanent structures and the formal recognition of the federal government. Lt. Richard S. Ewell started construction, which was later continued and finished by Captain Thomas Swords in 1843. The original construction consisted of a central 350-foot square parade ground and a collection of buildings. Today, the site consists of the parade ground and 20 buildings, including a hospital, blacksmith shop, stables, magazine shop, bake shop, and multiple barracks.

The military picked the fort's site to protect American settlers and traders and to create a divide between Indigenous peoples and established American states. The location of the fort was chosen for three reasons: it was a midpoint between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Gibson, it was near the Marmaton River due to water being necessary for the soldiers' survival, and its positioning provided a broad view of the plains (Barlow 1921, 13). The fort’s main objective was to house the soldiers who would protect the military road that connected Fort Gibson to Fort Leavenworth, and which served as an essential logistical network to keep the frontier forts along the western Missouri border supplied.

The US Army abandoned Fort Scott in 1853 as American settlement pushed westward, but the fort saw an increase of settlers to the region after the US Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. In 1855, Fort Scott was sold for parts, and several buildings were auctioned off. (Holder, Rothamn, 2001, 88-89) Civilians took over the site and its buildings – some of the buildings were made into hotels while others were used for commercial purposes.

Before the American Civil War and during its civilian control, Fort Scott was the center of conflict over whether Kansas would become a free or slave state. This time became known as Bleeding Kansas. Many supporters of each cause flooded into the area to sway the votes. The tension from Bleeding Kansas led to guerrilla groups using coercion and banditry to exert their ideas and influence over the Kansas region. Jayhawkers were the free state guerrillas who disapproved of the expansion of slavery, and Border Ruffians made up the pro-slavery guerrillas.

One of the most notable Jayhawkers, James Montgomery, played a significant role in the Bleeding Kansas conflict around Fort Scott. Initially, as a settler who moved to Southeastern Kansas, Montgomery experienced being driven away from home by Border Ruffians looking to keep free soil settlers from living in Bourbon and Lynn County. Montgomery and men who shared a similar fate formed an armed band to seek justice. In the peak of the violence in 1858, a renowned Border Ruffian and slavery sympathizer, Charles Hamilton, with about thirty of his men, captured suspected free staters living in and around Lynn County. They killed five men, wounded another five, and one managed to escape. The barbaric act became known as the Marais des Cygnes Massacre (Holder, Rothman, 2001, 83). Like many Jayhawkers, this fueled Montgomery’s thirst for revenge, and he attempted a raid on the pro-slavery hotel in Fort Scott. The chaos of Bleeding Kansas continued to escalate up to the point of the Civil War, when the border war converted into more large-scale and organized warfare.

During the Civil War, the military again occupied Fort Scott, becoming a Union army base and remaining so from 1861 to 1865. General James Lane became the Union army commander at Fort Scott. The Union soldiers who occupied the fort expanded it to include over 40 miles of fortifications. Lane organized a network of defenses, including several stockades, entrenchments, and numerous posts around Fort Scott to secure its position from a Confederate attack. (Holder, Rothman, 2001, 107-108) As a Bleeding Kansas era Jayhawker, Lane sought to fight the war in a guerrilla-style in order to antagonize Confederate forces and seek revenge on Border Ruffians, now known as Bushwhackers. His raids into Missouri mirrored the guerrilla-like behavior seen during Bleeding Kansas, as his troops destroyed property and took contraband from suspected secessionists. (Etcheson 2004, 227) Lane also saw the raids as an opportunity to liberate enslaved people and suppress secessionist support in Missouri.

The proximity of Fort Scott to Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) attracted refugees fleeing the war and the institution of slavery. A Fort Scott man observed, “Contrabands [the Civil War era name for those escaping enslavement] are increasing beyond the most extravagant abolition expectations throughout the entire Kansas border. Some estimates place the daily emigration from Missouri at from fifty to one hundred” (Etcheson 2004, 229). By 1861, Lane realized that Black refugees could have a role in the military, and he was able to form several of the first African-American regiments under his command. In October 1862, the men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry were the first African Americans to experience military combat during the Battle of Island Mound, across the state line in Bates County, Missouri (Burke, Earle, 2013, 159). Lane was one of the pioneers of the idea of Black regiments, and it was not until the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 that the US military started to recruit similar regiments. Lane did this partly out of the necessity to bolster the manpower under his command since the local area could not meet the necessary recruitment numbers.

http://www.nps.gov/fosc/index.htm http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/66000106.pdf

Barlow, Mary L. The Why of Fort Scott. Legare Street Press. 1921. . 1-150.

Burke, M. Earle. Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border. University Press of Kansas. 2013.

Etcheson, Nicole. Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era. University Press of Kansas. 2004.

Holder, J., Rothman, K. The Post on the Marmaton: A Historic Resource Study of Fort Scott National Historic Site. United States Department of the Interior. 2001. http://npshistory.com/publications/fosc/hrs.pdf. 1-395.