Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/758

 were marching from Topeka with fifty more, who arrived the day after. The governor, in view of this condition of things, issued a proclamation on the 4th, 'commanding all persons belonging to military companies unauthorized by law to disperse, otherwise they would be dispersed by United States troops.' Col. Sumner, at the head of a large force of dragoons, proceeded towards Hickory Point to enforce the order. He went directly to the camp of Brown, on Ottawa Creek, who consented to disband, but not until he was assured that Whitfield's army should be dispersed. Pate and the other prisoners were then set at liberty, and their horses, arms and other property restored. Captain Pate received a severe rebuke for invading the territory without authority, and especially for being in possession of the United States arms. Col. Sumner next visited the camp of Whitfield, who promised to return with his men to Missouri, and at once moved down the Santa Fe road, and encamped about five miles below Palmyra on the Black Jack. Early on the following morning, June 6th, this army separated into two divisions, one-half of it under General Reid, with Captain Pate, Bell, Jenigen, and other prominent leaders, moving towards Ossawattomie, whilst the others under Whitfield, started for Westport. They had, in their march on the day previous, taken several prisoners, and before they divided, held a court among themselves and tried one of these, a free-state man named Cantral, whom they sentenced to death, carried into a deep ravine near by, and shot. The executioner in this case is said to have been a man named Forman, of Pate's company, belonging to Westport, Missouri. On the 7th, Reid, with one hundred and seventy men, marched into Ossawattomie, and without resistance, entered each house, robbing it of everything of value. There were but few men in the town, and the women and children were treated with the utmost brutality. Stores and dwellings were alike entered and pillaged. Trunks, boxes, and desks were broken open, and their contents appropriated or destroyed. Even rings were rudely pulled from the ears and fingers of the women, and some of the apparel from their persons. The liquor found was freely drunk, and served to incite the plunderers to increased violence in the prosecution of their mischievous work. Having completely stripped the town, they set fire to several houses, and then beat a rapid retreat, carrying off a number of horses, and loudly urging each other to greater haste, as 'the d—d abolitionists were coming!' There are hundreds of well authenticated accounts of the cruelties practiced by this horde of ruffians, some of them too shocking and disgusting to relate, or to be accredited if told. The tears and shrieks of terrified women failed to touch a chord of mercy, and the mutilated bodies of murdered men, hanging upon the trees, or left to rot upon the prairies or in the deep ravines, or furnish food for vultures and wild beasts, told frightful stories of brutal ferocity."

An Indian agent named Gay, was traveling in the vicinity of Westport, and was stopped by a party of Buford's men, who asked if he was in favor of making Kansas a free state. He promptly answered in the affirmative, and was instantly shot dead. Whilst these events were transpiring on the south side of the Kansas river, Col. Wilkes, Captain Emory, and other prominent