Jayhawkers are not just a Kansas sports team. They wreaked havoc in the name of abolition in Kansas and hated Missouri with a passion. Let me introduce you to the Kansas-Missouri border wars. In case you were curious, this was both pre and during the Civil War.
To give you a snapshot of what the border war was, here's a brief history lesson. Kansas is for abolition, Missouri is not. For some, there is still animosity over this period of time, mostly due to the damage done to both states and the number of innocent people killed in the process. The Civil War led people to join a side to repay the other side for its actions during the border war.
The Jayhawkers would use the term "Jayhawker" happily, and the term "redlegs", since they wear red uniforms sometimes. Since some didn't have uniforms early on, it was unknown if they were civilian or military. Jayhawks in verbiage is a cross between hawks and bluejays (so noisy predators). This military abolitionist group was also known as thieves and murderers. To Jayhawk something is to steal something. This whole situation didn't end when Kansas was declared a free state, so after the Civil War it was referred to as "bleeding Kansas". Missouri was known as bushwhackers or border ruffians. A true Jayhawker or redleg wouldn't likely join the US army, but both bushwhackers and Jayhawkers received government backing.
Raids
These groups, whether they were trying to further freedom for slaves or not, did atrocities that were extremely violent. Jayhawkers sacked the town of Osceola for two days. 2500 people lived there at the time. It has never achieved that number again. Less than 200 survived. That was September 22, 1861. They freed every slave they found and let them hitch a ride to freedom with them. The words below can tell you clearly how the people of Osceolo, Missouri feel about it in the 2000s.
IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED that citizens of the City of Osceola, Missouri requests the University of Missouri to educate the above-named Defendants on the FULL historical origins of the “Border War.”
IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED that no citizen of the City of Osceola or the alumni of the University of Missouri shall ever capitalize the “k” in “kansas” or “kU,” as neither is a proper name or a proper place.
With those words, I present you with the fact that Osceola contested the use of the Jayhawker as Kansas University's image. I'm pretty sure they still hold a grudge. To be fair to this town, they did have one million worth of goods stolen, their whole town drunkenly insulted for two days, and the whole town burned down. Not to mention the "court-martial" of 9 men that led to their execution-style deaths. I think maybe you'd hold a grudge, too.
Osceola, Missouri was not the only town that suffered. The raid of Lawrence, Kansas by Missouri Bushwhackers (led by William Quantrill) was nearly as bad. The shouts of "remember Osceola" were clearly heard in this attack. It was spurred on by an incident where a jailhouse of 5 Missouri's women were killed in a collapse. They had been jailed by Kansas, I believe. Quantrill's sister died there (at age 14) and he led all these angry people to take revenge for their loss and Osceola. The raid they conducted killed 200 men and boys. The Osceola raid had a price.
The War
The Jayhawkers were led by James Lane (who spearheaded the Osceola raid), but also by Charles R. Jennison and James Montgomery. As the Civil War began raids dropped lower in number. People could take sides and take revenge for all the violence towards them. There were three reasons to join the Jayhawker side: taking advantage of chaos to be a marauder, sincere abolitionism, or being a devout unionist defending a home. Old scores were prepared to be settled. They became the Independent Mounted Kansas Jayhawks. They had a lot to do with Kansas being a free state.
Their technical orders were to protect the border from General Sterling Price. They decided to use it as an excuse to raid pro-slavery homes, which extended to all Missourians no matter their beliefs on slavery. They were the Seventh Volunteer Cavalry that lived off of looting and stealing from these people they deemed enemies. They would gather adult men in public squares, put them at bayonet point, and make them swear allegiance to the Union. As expected, some of these men who were in this Cavalry were previous slaves in Union uniforms. This actually spurred recruitment to Confederate forces, just so they could defend themselves from Jayhawks.
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| A border wars raid |
No Saints Here
I'll end by showing you both sides of this border war weren't saints. Jesse and Frank James learned from William Quantrill and both sides of the border war bred those seeking violence. It churned out men who sought blood and chaos. There were no real heroes here, even if slavery did end for some blacks due to Jayhawk raids. The damage was too over the top to be justified. They had orders and chose to use them as excuses to cause pain to others. The border war was nasty, much like most of the Civil War, but it lasted longer and left painful imprints on the memories of Kansas and Missouri alike.
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