We live in an age where anybody and everybody gets to rewrite history…
Usually for the worse, depending on your politics or point of view.
For example, pretty much all of the “founding fathers” have been discredited over their tacit participation in slavery. Tear down their statues, paint over their murals, retire their mascots and – while we’re at it – remove their names from universities, cities, etc.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Singer Kate Smith‘s classic rendition of “God Bless America” – the song that won her a Presidential Medal of Freedom – is taking a bullet because earlier in her career she sang songs that have been reinterpreted as racist.
Iconic American actor John Wayne – a dude born in 1907 – was recently pilloried for his comments in an ancient Playboy magazine interview that are considered racist or homophobic today. Comments that didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow at the time.
Yet while modern day oldsters like Joe Biden – even Barrack Obama – are allowed to recant their views on controversial topics like gay marriage and abortion, the Duke, Smith, George Washington even Franklin D. Roosevelt don’t have the luxury of being around anymore to explain away their past views.
Nor is nefarious Civil War era badass William Quantrill – the dude who burned, looted and pillaged Lawrence, Kansas.
But wait!
Turns out those primitive Jayhawks may have gotten their just desserts.
“Another take on Quantrill,” reads the headline in the Lawrence Journal World. “At symposium, group dedicated to infamous killer will argue Lawrencians weren’t ‘innocent victims.'”
Far from it, says Chris Edwards of Missouri’s William Clarke Quantrill Society.
According to Edwards, there’s a “Missouri side of the Civil War” that doesn’t get much if any traction – especially in KU Land.
“In Lawrence, Quantrill is regarded as the community’s greatest villain for leading a group of Confederate guerrillas to Lawrence on Aug. 21, 1863, and killing more than 150 people and burning down much of the city, according to the Kansas Historical Society… Edwards said he and another Quantrill Society speaker would present historic sources that suggest the Lawrence residents killed during the raid were not the innocents they are believed to be.”
After all, what Mizzou fan in their right mind would buy into Jayhawkers as “innocents.”
“I know that the popular version is that Lawrence wants to say they were innocent victims,” Edwards says. “But I really don’t see it that way.”
Not-so-innocent Jayhawker actions prior to Quantrill’s raid range from falsely accusing their neighbors of being “rebels,” burning their houses and running them out of town, and participating in the “Sacking of Osceola” in Missouri by pro-Union Kansas Jayhawkers.
According to Wikipedia on September 23, 1861, “The town of 2,077 people was plundered and burned to the ground, 200 slaves were freed…and 350 horses, 400 cattle, 3,000 bags of flour, and quantities of supplies from all the town shops and stores as well as carriages and wagons were plundered. Nine local men were rounded up, given a quick drumhead court-martial trial, and executed. All but three of the town’s 800 buildings burned; the town never fully recovered.”
In the 2010 census Osceola was down to 947 residents, less than half its size in 1861 when it burned.
FYI: The population of Kansas City, Missouri in 1860 was only 4,400 and change. Who knows? If it wasn’t for those nasty Jawhawkers, Patrick Mahomes might be playing for the Osceola Chiefs.
Quantrill’s Lawrence raid went down two years later on September 5, 1863.
So yeah, turns out there are two sides to this popular local yarn.
The $64 million question: who will stick up for George, Kate Smith, the Duke and FDR?
My advice: Don’t hold your breath.
Good point, excellent article.
Don’t forget Order Number 11
https://www.historynet.com/george-caleb-binghams-order-no-11.htm
And…
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/collapse-union-women%e2%80%99s-prison-kansas-city
“… nothing is more unfair than to judge the men of the past by the ideas of the present. Whatever may be said of morality, political wisdom is certainly ambulatory.” — Denys Arthur Winstanley, quoted by Barbara Tuchman
When in a period of history has the past been so twisted and turned around to meet whoever’s objective that does the story or report? I read somewhere that only maybe 2% of the black population are true descendants of slaves but a majority of the black population thinks they themselves are dissidents.
What anyone said 40 years ago was probably at the time acceptable conversation. To be honest should still be if that is their view on the matter. Every issue has two sides no matter what it is but in today leftist world the push for only one side of it, the side they want you to believe in is all that matters.
The border wars during the Civil War concerning Missouri and Kansas were some real strange skirmishes and for that matter most of the real truth died with those who made the raids. It was like the Hatfields and the McCoys and in both states the raiders from them thought they were right and truth be known nobody was probably right.
To me seeing others breaking down the Civil War at times is like seeing those who attempt to break down the Bible and it’s true meaning. To often personal and I think maybe unsubstantiated thoughts are injected into the action at hand and should be taken with a grain of salt. At least what was really put into writing by those who really were around during the Civil War was done in English whereas the Bible was done in many different chapters by several different folks in a language few know how to read.
If as much effort was put into making our country great as was put into ridiculing the facts and those who lived in the past our country would be in a lot batter shape. Yesterday is history already and can’t be changed learn very quickly your mistakes move on and leave it in the past where it belongs. In their times the Duke and Kate Smith were greatly loved people and that’s a fact. The kooks of today’s world it appears just can’t stand that maybe someone else besides them were liked better than they are and didn’t behold to their way of thinking. Hey I don’t care for football but you’re free to waste your money on it if you wish to do so making someone else who could care less about you richer. Least John Wayne is still giving us hours upon hours of viewing pleasure while John Elway has done what for you of late?
Attacking the dead or 100 plus year old history is always easier, they or those from it can’t fight back.
The word ‘jayhawker’ is total slime. They killed the residents of three counties in Missouri and stole their property …. all protected and assisted by the US Army during the Civil War.
It’s time that ku and kansas gets the guts to drop their terrorist history.
Search General Order No. 11 if you don’t believe me.
I believe ya
“If it wasn’t for those nasty Jawhawkers, Patrick Mahomes might be playing for the Osceola Chiefs.”
– fun with names, or, when history meets sports: Jawhawker or Jay, would have been more politically correct circa 2019 mess we exist. According definition – ‘Osceola’ is a unisex name – PERFECT the various lettered alphabet-soup acronyms 2019 suffering gender/identity crises!
Of Native American origin, the name translates ‘Black Drink Bellower’ (black, white, brown, red, yellow, green – a color/flavor to fit every chiefs fan spends an Sunday or any bellowing, belching and bludgeoning their ilk the stands or at home, same.)
Political correctness could present ‘nother problem. With apology team name origin attributed as homage former Mayor: ‘Chief’ might require change to ‘Winkte’ (“wink-tay” the pronunciation: “a hermaphrodite; plant or animal having both male/female reproductive organs” one definition, gay/lesbian according another.) Having covered all the bases, Chiefs ne’er born: ‘KC’ logo give way (the more) ‘PC’, Osceola Winkte/s.
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There but for X and Y chromosomes go we, more possibilities: had a certain Truman (not Harry) purchased a AFL franchise, team name might have been the Kansas City Capotes nod Paul’s Cleveland ‘Browns’. Lamar Hunt disabused naming them Kansas City Texans, were he vain (as well German), might’ve been Kansas City Jagen/Jagd.
D.C. way, if owner George Preston Marshall had been nonplussed, neither Redskins nor original name Braves might’ve lived see the light political scrutiny (maybe GPM ‘was’ nonplussed: in the book ‘The Chicago Bears; An Illustrated History’, Marshall, known for his love-hate relationship with the Bears George Halas, replying his own wife’s “that awful Halas” comment, said “don’t talk that way about George – he’s my best friend!”
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Would Superbowl express not become Sisyphus-ian had KC drafted Native American QB Sixkiller ’73 instead Carlson? No more than choosing Marino, instead Blackledge, or Mahomes in lieu any other QB. Nod 60’s song, ‘It Takes Two (Baby)’, as an 53 man roster, sufficient; no bookend Trophy prove first Lombardi wasn’t a fluke, remains so.
And so it goes: towns, teams, names, acronyms… fans gay and fans sad, as those drink ’cause (yet again) have been had. Osceola to Lawrence to Kansas City any other – ‘wait till next year, part 51, verse 2020’ they mutter… this has been an century 21, colorless, genderless, love story… gone wrong.
😎