War to the Knife

Résumé du livre

Marching armies, cavalry raids, guerrilla warfare, massacres, towns and farms in flames- the American Civil War, 1861-1865? No- Kansas, 1854-1861. Before there was Bull Run or Gettysburg, there was Black Jack and Oswatomie. Long before events in Fort Sumter ignited the War Between the States, men fought and died on the prairies of Kansas over the incendiary issue of slavery. In 1854 a shooting war developed between proslavery men in Missouri and free-staters in Kansas over control of the territory. The prize was whether it would be a slave or a free state when admitted to the Union, a question that could decide the balance of power in Washington. Told in the unforgettable words of the men and women involved, this book is an absorbing account of a bloody episode in our nation's past. -- from Book Jacket.