War on the Plains
Sunday, December 10, 2006
During 1864, Major General Samuel Ryan Curtis, commanding the Department of Kansas, in addition to defending Kansas was also responsible for protecting the settlers in central and western Kansas and the commercial and immigrant traffic along the Santa Fe, Oregon and Smokey Hill River Trails from the "Plains Indians" who would periodically go on the "warpath!" The following letters indicate some of the difficulties General Curtis faced as he attempted to conduct a "War on the Plains" of Kansas in late 1864.