from a regular army officer who was sent to Missouri early in the Civil War.
Quote:
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The Kansas Volunteers were a peculiar organization; brimful of patriotism and inured to hard service, and a rough life, they were utterly lacking in discipline and in many respects difficult to manage. The officers except in the higher grades were of the same class as the men, and all hands seemed to regard the expedition in the light of a foray on their ancient enemy-the State of Missouri. For more than six years continual hostilities had been breaking out between the free state men in Kansas and the pro-slavery element in Missouri,-or as they were generally called, the jay-hawkers and the border-ruffians. Between the two I fancy there was alittle to choose in point of vindictiveness. Each had bitter wrongs to avenge and neither was slow in visiting condign punishment on the other's territory. Now that we were regularly encamped in Missouri, with an apparently irrestible force, the Kansas men seemed to think they had a perfect right to treat the inhabitants as conquered enemies, and levy on their property indiscriminately. If this had been allowed to go on, a perfect reign of terror would shortly have existed in the State and neither age nor sex would have been safe for a moment. The regular troops would have soon become demoralized by the example of their comrades, and the condition of Missouri would shortly have equalled that of France in the days of the Free Companies.
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The passage was written by Lt. George B. Sanford (who retired as a colonel) and may be found on page 125 of the book,
Fighting Rebels and Redskins, edited by E. R. Hagemann.