Demonic Vipers

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Throughout his tenure as the commanding officer of the Department of Kansas, Major General Samuel Ryan Curtis, was constantly faced with waging a war in three basic directions. These directions consisted of defending eastern Kansas from raids by the Confederate guerrillas in Missouri, enemy attacks into Kansas from the Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) and attacks on the commercial and military traffic along the Santa Fe, Oregon and Smokey River Trails by various Plains Indian Tribes and possibly Confederate guerrillas. Periodically, the civilian merchants of Kansas City would send letters to General Curtis requesting better military protection for their wagon trains on the Santa Fe and Fort Scott roads. The following is General Curtis's response to such a letter and is located on Pages 500 and 501 in Vol. 34, Part II, Correspondence of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion.

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