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Marmaton Township is a township in Bourbon County, Kansas, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 815.
Kansas has always been home to many forts and military posts.
In 1862 the citizens of Burlingame, Kansas, constructed a stone fort around the town well, in an intersection in the business district. This was done to prevent the burning of Burlingame by Confederate guerrilla William Anderson, later known as Bloody Bill Anderson. He and his family had lived in a neighboring county up to 1862, but Anderson got into considerable trouble and was forced to leave. Upon leaving, Anderson threatened to burn Burlingame.
In early May 1863 a temporary camp, Camp Hooker, was established at the site of what later became Baxter Springs, Kansas. This area was located in what was known as the Cherokee Strip (Kansas). In late May while the camp commander, Col. James M. Williams, was in Fort Scott, the troops moved the camp three blocks to the east to what is now Washington School Hill. The new camp, Camp Ben Butler (named after Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler, was in a highly defendable position. It occupied a plateau that covered more than two square blocks. Only a small area to the south allowed easy access to camp. In fact, much of the surrounding area was practically impenetrable by men or horses.
Lawrence, Kansas was not well defended in the early part of the Civil War. That ended with William Quantrill's devastating guerrilla raid August 21, 1863. By early 1864 Union soldiers were permanently camped on the top and slopes of Mount Oread, then to Lawrence's southwest. It seems the camp was originally named Camp Ewing, after Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing.
Council Grove's Post is a trading post on the Santa Fe Trail that operated in Council Grove, Kansas. It was established around 1861 and decommissioned around 1864, with ties to the Civil War.
Fort Belmont, in southern Woodson County, Kansas, was built about 1860 near the town of Belmont. It was to protect the settlers there from attacks by Border Ruffians and Indians. The fort consisted of three or four officer cabins, a redoubt about a quarter of a mile to the north and a parade ground a mile to the east.
In spring and possibly through summer 1864, three blockhouses were constructed to help defend the town and post of Fort Scott. These were Fort Blair, Fort Henning and Fort Insley. Fort Blair was enclosed by a rectangular wall of log palisades covered on the outside by earthworks, which in turn were surrounded by a wide, deep ditch. These were to be used by armed men and cannon in case the town and post were attacked by Confederate guerrillas or regular forces. A drawing of Fort Blair and its stockade showed the stockade as about waist high.
In spring and summer 1864 Fort Blair, Fort Henning and Fort Insley were constructed to help protect the town and post of Fort Scott from Confederate forces. Fort Insley was named for Capt. Martain H. Insley. It was located just northeast of town, about 1½ blocks northeast of the main part of the post of Fort Scott. It overlooked Buck Run Creek.
Fort Brooks, in northwest Clay County, Kansas, was located three miles west of Clifton, Kansas. Built on the north bank of the Republican River in August or September 1864, it was named for George D. Brooks. Brooks, an ensign in the Shirley County Militia, owned the farm on which the fort was located. Capt. Isaac M. Schooley, the militia commander, was also the fort's commander.
In 1864 Gen. Samuel R. Curtis established a military camp at the Fort Riley-Fort Larned Road crossing of the Smokey Hill River in what is now Ellsworth County, Kans.
Fort Lincoln was established about August 24, 1861, by United States Senator James Lane. Earlier in August, Lane had reestablished Fort Scott as a military post. Soon Confederate troops under Maj. Gen. Sterling Price threatened to overrun the newly reopened post.
Sometime in 1864 a large log blockhouse was removed from Fort Lincoln, Kansas, and was relocated to the town of Fort Scott, Kansas. This blockhouse was placed at the intersection of Lowman and First streets. Probably a stockade, possibly also removed from Fort Lincoln, was erected around the blockhouse.
Fort McKean is a fort located inside Kansas along the Kansas-Missouri border. On November 14, 1862, Company C of the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry, led by Lieut. James B. Pond, established a camp at Morris Mills on Drywood Creek. It was fifteen miles southeast of Fort Scott. Sometime later this camp was given the name of Fort McKean. The post was probably on the Fort Scott-Fort Gibson Military Road, and many, including Pond, thought the post was inside Missouri. Throughout its history, Fort McKean was a small post, ranging in strength from 20 to 60 men. It is unknown what buildings or defenses were erected there.
Fort Montgomery in the town of Eureka, Kansas was built in summer 1861 by local citizens for protection against Indian attacks and Confederate guerrilla forces.
Fort Simple was an American fort built in Topeka, Kansas, as a result of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price's Missouri Raid in the late summer and fall of 1864. Topeka had become the permanent capital of the State of Kansas in 1861, but no fortifications had been built to protect the city from guerrilla bands, which roamed eastern Kansas. Even the raid and massacre in August 1863 in Lawrence, Kansas, did not result in a fort being built to protect the capital, although plans had been made to build one by July 1864.
The following is a timeline of the history of Topeka, Kansas, USA.
The Lawrence blockhouses were a series of blockhouses built in the spring of 1864 in Lawrence, Kansas, to provide defensive structures in case of attack by Confederate guerrillas. On August 21, 1863, Lawrence had been attacked by 400 guerrillas and Confederate Army recruits under the command of William C. Quantrill. Lawrence was caught virtually defenseless and much of the town was destroyed and about 180 men and boys were killed, most of them defenseless. A militia became active by spring 1864 to prevent another attack.
Marmaton is an unincorporated community in Bourbon County, Kansas, United States. The community is located three miles east of Redfield, and two miles south of U.S. Route 54, at the intersection of 155th Street and Limestone Road.
New Georgia's Fort was located in Miami County, Kansas, southeast of Osawatomie. During the partisan warfare in Kansas Territory in 1856 commonly known as Bleeding Kansas, a colony of Southerners, possibly all Georgians, established New Georgia. This colony was located on the Marias des Cygnes River. A blockhouse fort was constructed there and entrenchments were begun but the fort destroyed before the entrenchments could be completed. Northern settlers in the area claimed settlers at New Georgia harassed them. In reality, some settlers from both the North and South had groups who caused trouble with their neighbors.
References
- ↑ William C. Pollard, Jr., "Forts and Military Posts in Kansas: 1854-1865" (Ph.D. dissertation, Faith Baptist College and Seminary, 1997), pp. 36-7, 128; Leo O. Oliva, Fort Scott on the Indian Frontier (Topeka: Kansas State Historical Society, 1984), p. 65; W. R. Biddle, compiler, Full Proceedings at the Flag Raising on Dr. W. S. McDonald's Lawn, Fort Scott, Kansas, December 3, 1904 (Fort Scott, Kans.: Monitor Binding and Printing Co., 1906), pp. 24-5; http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/history/1894/%5B%5D T. F. Robley, History of Bourbon County (Fort Scott: Press of the Monitor Book & Print. Co., 1894), p. 183; "The Defences," The Daily Monitor (Fort Scott), June 8, 1864, p. 3; untitled story, The Daily Monitor, August 8, 1864, p. 3; "Our Fortifications," The Daily Monitor, September 6, 1864, p. 3; C. W. Goodlander, Memoirs and Recollections of C. W. Goodlander (Fort Scott: Monitor Print. Co., 1900), p. 52; C. E. Cory, "Old Block House," biographical scrapbook, p. 204 (from the KSHS, Topeka); Cory, "The Old Blockhouse," The Bourbon News (Fort Scott), March 27, 1924, p. 3;www.vlib.us/old_west/forts1865.html , Pollard, "Kansas Forts During the Civil War".
- ↑ Robley, p. 182; "The Defences,", p. 3; untitled story, p. 3; "Our Fortifications," p. 3; Goodlander, p. 52; Lewis Barrington, Historical Restorations of the Daughters of the American Revolution (New York: Richard R. Smith, 1941), p. 191; Biddle, p. 59; Leo E. Oliva, Fort Scott on the Indian Frontier (Topeka, Kans.: KSHS, 1984), p. 65.
- ↑ "The Defences," p. 3; untitled story, p. 3; "Our Fortifications," p. 3; Goodlander, p. 52; Biddle, pp. 2, 24-5; Oliva, p. 65; Cory, "The Old Blockhouse," p. 3; Barrington, p. 191.