Harry Custer wrote to his mother from St. Louis, Missouri in September 1856. His company arrived in St. Louis three or four days prior to his letter after having been stationed in the Kansas Territory. Custer mentions being involved in a skirmish which was most likely the Battle of Fort Titus in Lecompton that occurred on August 16th.1 The battle resulted in the destruction of Fort Titus, a pro-slavery stronghold, and helped secure the Free-Stater’s position at Lawrence.2

Custer’s experiences provide insight into the Bleeding Kansas era that led to the Civil War. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 opened the territory of Kansas to settlement. Elections would determine if the territory entered the Union as a slave state or a free state.  Many Missouri residents believed they could influence the Kansas polls by crossing the border and casting pro-slavery votes. Hatred grew along the Missouri-Kansas line as Free-Staters arrived from the North to battle the Missourians. Both sides crossed the border, often committing depredations on the civilian population in the bloody struggle over the entry of Kansas into the Union.3 Custer recorded the disorderly conditions of Leavenworth in his letter.

The state of things in Leavenworth City is truly horrible every man goes armed. Men prowling the streets all day with guns and bayonets Drunken Missourians lying around the taverns displaying their Bowie knives and shooting their pistols ready to use them on any who they imagine insults them all business is nearly suspended. Horse stealing has got so common that people has to sit up all night to watch their property.
Harry Custer Letter to his Mother – September 5, 1856

Kansas ultimately became a free state and the Bleeding Kansas era laid the foundation for an even more brutal and vicious war in the 1860s.

Contributed by the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

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1. Custer, Harry.  Letter to his mother.  05 Sep. 1856. WICR 31040, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri. Pg. 1.
2. “Fort Titus.” Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865. https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/map/fort-titus.
3. “Bleeding Kansas.” PBS. Public Broadcasting Service. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2952.html.