Spotlight On: Missouri/Kansas Border War Network

A depiction of Order No. 11.

If you are interested in learning more about the Civil War in the West, there are some podcasts available on iTunes that may be of interest.  The Missouri-Kansas Border War Network is an organization that seeks to educate the public and preserve the history of the border region.  You can see their website for more details, but you’ll have to go to iTunes to download their podcasts.

These podcasts are short (~6-8 minute) interviews with historians and archaeologists who study this period.  The two described below are the only ones that I’ve listened to. Here are more details:

1.  Historian Donald Gilmore, in the interview titled “Order No. 11,” forwards his conclusion that Order No. 11 was not necessarily a reaction to Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in 1863.  I would be interested to hear your take on the last part of the lecture where he talks about slaveholders and their right to keep slave property.

2.  Ann Raab, who is in the archaeology department at the University of Kansas, is interviewed in the podcast titled “Bates County, Missouri, Archaeology Dig.”  Recently Raab conducted an archaeological dig on a plantation in Bates County, Missouri.  Archaeology of the historic period (when written records have been preserved and can work in tandem with archaeological finds) is called “historic archaeology.”

Spotlight On: Civil War Preservation Trust

The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) is “America’s largest non-profit organization (501-C3) devoted to the preservation of our nation’s endangered Civil War battlefields. The Trust also promotes educational programs and heritage tourism initiatives to inform the public of the war’s history and the fundamental conflicts that sparked it” (from their “About Us” page).

There are many different resources on their site that help bring Civil War battles into the 21st century.  In additional to historical images and maps, several key battles have animated videos depicting troop movements (here is the one for the Battle of Fredericksburg).  The website provides statistics for each battle, including casualties, the names of commanding officers, etc.  There are also virtual tours of historic battlefields, photos of these sites as they appear today, bibliographies of recommended readings, information on historical markers, and the steps for becoming a member.  Of course, since their primary focus is on preservation, you can also find information on preservation attempts (from their online newsletter called “Dispatches from the Front“).