Richard Hodgman's Photos

[b]jlkell99@aol.com[/b] Across the gravel road behind the photographer's back here is the Battle of Blackjack Memorial Park. Here, on June 2, 1856, pro-slavery forces led by Captain Pate, of then Kansas territorial Governor Shannon's militia the "Shannon's Sharpshooters", surrendered to Free-State forces led by John Brown. In a twist of irony, the government's forces were pro-slavery and Brown's men--the rebels--were free state. The Federal Government's stance would change with the election of Abe Lincoln, but that event was still several years away. Pate and his men were in pursuit of John Brown and his sons in connection with the Pottawatomie Creek (Lane, KS) Massacre. The massacre, during which Brown and his sons hacked several pro-slavery men to death with swords and stole their horses, was supposed to have been done in response to the earlier raid by pro-slavery men on Lawrence which was a hot-bed of anti-slavery sentiment. The Battle of Blackjack could be considered the first of the Civil War - 5 years before the Confederacy's 1861 attack on Fort Sumter SC.