Andrew Williams was an enslaved person living near Mount Vernon, Missouri at the start of the Civil War. He was taken into northwest Arkansas with General Sterling Price’s pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard in November 1861. In the spring of 1862, he returned to Missouri and went to the home of his enslaver’s brother, Frank Williams, where his mother and siblings were located.1

The 6th Kansas Cavalry raided the farm in September and offered to take Williams and his family to Fort Scott, Kansas.2 Along the way, they encountered guerrilla warfare and the 1st Battle of Newtonia, Missouri.3

They later moved to Lawrence, Kansas where the family witnessed the infamous raid of the city by William Quantrill and his men on August 21, 1863.

wee thought they was union men untill one in the crowd Said Brake Ranks then they Scatered in all Derections when we seen one Bush wacker call out one man…then shot him down

Williams, Andrew.  Reminiscences of Early Days in Missouri and the Civil War, pg. 7.

The Williams survived by hiding in the thick brush of the Kansas “Kaw” River.4

In April of 1864, Andrew Williams and his family moved to Topeka, Kansas. Williams worked for the 7th Kansas Cavalry for a few months before returning to Topeka which he referred to as his home in the conclusion of his narrative.5

Contributed by the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence

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1. Williams, Andrew.  Reminiscences of Early Days in Missouri and the Civil War.  n.d.  RH MS P42. Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, pg. 1.
2. Williams, Andrew.  Reminiscences of Early Days in Missouri and the Civil War.  n.d.  RH MS P42. Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, pg. 4.
3. Williams, Andrew.  Reminiscences of Early Days in Missouri and the Civil War.  n.d.  RH MS P42. Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, pg. 5.
4. Williams, Andrew.  Reminiscences of Early Days in Missouri and the Civil War,  n.d. RH MS P42. Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, pg. 7.
5. Williams, Andrew.  Reminiscences of Early Days in Missouri and the Civil War.  n.d.  RH MS P42. Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, pg. 10. “Civil War on the Kansas-Missouri Border: The Narrative of Former Slave Andrew Williams,” edited by William A. Dobak, pg. 242. https://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1983winter_dobak.pdf