n, every effort had
to be made to prevent any pretext or incentive to take the young men
of Missouri into the ranks of Price's army. Gen. Halleck estimated that
indignation at the border raids of Lane, Jennison and Montgomery had
given Price fully 20,000 men. The years of strife along the borders
had arrayed the people in both States against one another. Every Kansan
considered every Missourian the enemy of himself and the State, and the
feeling was reciprocated by the Missourians.

For years Kansas had been inflicted with raids by the "Poor White
Trash," "Border Ruffians," and "Bald Knobbers," who had, beside
committing other outrages, carried off into Missouri horses, cattle,
furniture, farm implements, and other portable property.

The Kansans held all Missourians responsible for these crimes by
the worser element, and the war seemed a chance to get even. When
opportunity offered, Kansas parties invaded Missouri, bringing back with
them everything which they could load on wagons or drive along the road.

273

The great mass of the Missourians still held aloof from both sides,
remaining as neutral as they would be allowed. Douglas Democrats,
Bell-and-Everett Old-Line Whigs, two-thirds of the entire population,
were yet halting between their attachment for the Union and their
political and social affiliations. It was all-important that they should
be kept loyal, or at least out of the Confederate camps, hence the
stringency of Halleck's orders against any spoliations or depredations
by Union troops, and hence his orders that the negroes should be kept
out of the camps, and their ownership settled by the civil courts. Every
offense by Union soldiers was made the most of by Price's recruiting
agents to bring into their ranks the young men for the "defense of the
State."

At the head of the vengeful Kansas element was the meteoric James H.
Lane, who had for years ridden the whirlwind in the agitation following
the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and the rush of settlers into
those Territories. Volumes have been written about "Jim Lane," but the
last definitive word as to his character is yet to be uttered. Arch
demagogue he certainly was, but demagogues have their great uses in
periods of storm and stress. We usually term "demagogues" those men
active against us, while those who are rousing the people on our
own side are "patriotic leaders." No man had more enemies nor more
enthusiastic friends than "Jim Lane