Burning Hell: The Story of the Sacking of Osceola

In September of 1861, Osceola Missouri was burned to the ground, men were killed and homes were plundered. Led by a Kansas senator and aided by a local minister, the raid was theoretically on behalf of the Union cause. But given the actions of the men who rode into town, the question of their true purpose remains.

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Executive Producer- Clare O'Donohue 
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Executive Producer - Margaret Smith

Writer - Kara Amis Thomas
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Editor – Steph Kelly
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Social Media Manager & Design - Mikayla Bogus
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IT Manager - Conor Sweeney

The History of Murder Logo - Bernadette Carr
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Theme Song “My Carnal Life I Will Lay Down” - Rob Brereton
https://robertbrereton.com
 
Voice of Jim Lane - Nick Rowley
https://www.njrowley.com

Voices of Montgomery/ Britton - Joe Janes
https://www.joejanes.net

Voice of Mary Emeline Lewis - Kelly Haran

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:01

Oceola, Missouri, 1861. The Civil War was less than five months old, and the residents of this riverside town were experiencing the horror firsthand. They watched helplessly as flames engulfed their homes, their belongings were stolen, and men were lined up in front of a firing squad and shot. And the person responsible for this destruction and murder was the United States Senator. It's the history of murder, and I'm your host, Claire O'Donohue. In the years before the Civil War, Osceola was a bustling commercial hub with a population of about 2,000 people. Rick Reed, a local historian, said Osceola, located along the Osage River, was an important port.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

A very prosperous town or community, and it was the county seat, even though it wasn't incorporated. Some river traffic made money, doing well.

SPEAKER_06 1:09

But Kansas, right next door, was in the middle of a bloody struggle. The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act opened Kansas to settlers with the provision that voters within the territory would decide whether it would become a free or slave state. Pro-slavery factions, many from Missouri, a slave state, were actively fighting against Kansas free staters. Violent conflicts broke out along their shared border. The unofficial soldiers who fought in these guerrilla-style skirmishes were called Jayhawkers on the Kansas side and bushwhackers on the Missouri side. And in Washington, D.C., a prominent voice for the Jayhawkers was Kansas Senator James Henry Lane. But his supportive abolition was complicated by his personality.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I thought he was a scoundrel.

SPEAKER_06 2:01

He wasn't the only one who thought so. A contemporary of Lane's, John Hay, a statesman whose career stretched from Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt, once called Lane a grim apparition. He said he was, quote, a gaunt, tattered, uncombed, and unshorn figure, unquote.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Before we continue, please remember to leave a comment, like the video, and subscribe to our channel. It will help us continue to make new content. Now, back to the story.

SPEAKER_06 2:33

A former soldier in the Mexican War, Lane started his political life in the pro-slavery Democratic Party, once declaring, I would as soon as buy a Negro as a mule. But he saw an opportunity to advance his career by joining the Free State Republicans. So when the Civil War began, he convinced President Abraham Lincoln to put him in command of two Kansas regiments. He told the people of Kansas, however, that he'd been given command of four units. In the end, he recruited enough men for three. Known as Lane's Brigade, the forces had 2,000 men and two artillery pieces. Though offered the commission of Brigadier General, Lane said he never officially accepted it, since it would mean he'd have to give up his Senate seat. But whatever the title, Lane had very definite ideas about how to wage war. He thought the best way to defend Kansas was to fight on enemy soil, so his troops began making regular raids into Missouri. And he made clear how he felt about the state.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

Everything disloyal, from a Shanghai rooster to a Durham Cow must be cleaned out. We believe in a war of extermination. There is no such thing as Union man in the border of Missouri. I want to see every foot of ground in Jackson, Cass, and Bates Counties in Missouri burned over, everything laid to waste.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

He didn't like us at all, and he had one main goal when he was on his way to Osceola was to uh devastate this community. Their plan was just to destroy Osceola proper, period.

SPEAKER_06 4:16

Lane and his men had what they called a disloyal list, people they were specifically looking for in a raid on Osceola.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

If your son was um in the Confederate army, your your name got put on it, maybe you fed Southern troops. Food was a big issue for both sides sometimes.

SPEAKER_06 4:35

On September 10, 1861, Lane wrote to his superiors that he was entering Missouri with 1,200 infantry, 800 cavalry, and his two artillery pieces. He had one goal for this date.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Missourians are wolves, snakes, devils, and damn their souls. I want to see him cast into a burning hell.

SPEAKER_06 4:56

Among his officers was Colonel James Montgomery, an ally of the radical abolitionist John Brown, and an experienced Free State fighter. By the evening of September 21st, Lane's troops were closing in on Osceola. Even though about a third of its citizens were Union sympathizers, Lane believed the town was being used as a supply depot for the Confederate Army. His brigade was guided there by a local man named Obadiah Smith.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Very prominent person. He's really from Cedar County, but he worked this area. But he was not only a minister, he got a position as a state representative as well.

SPEAKER_06 5:35

Smith was on the side of the Union, so he was quietly helping Colonel Montgomery.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Montgomery, as I understand it, made two attempts to offer Ciola prior to the one that was successful. And because of Obadiah's actions, he would get out and get word to Montgomery and say they're ready for you. Don't come. And then they would turn around and go back to Kansas. And that's happened twice.

SPEAKER_06 6:05

But by the fall of 1861, most of the men of Osceola had gone to war. Many had joined Missouri General Sterling Price's troops to fight on the southern side. So the town had very few defenders. As Lane's men approached in the dead of night, there were only a few dozen men to meet them, including Missouri State Guard Captain John Wiedemeyer.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

A guy named Wiedemeyer, he had organized a local group and he got about 40 guys. They did fire on Lane's troops out in an area that I call Sandy Hollow, and they couldn't hold. And when they would hear the command from Lane's men, dismount and fight on foot. When they would hear that, then the local group would pull back and go hide in another spot for an ambush. And when they heard the command dismount and fight on foot, they'd let them dismount. And then they would work their way back to Osciola. Anyway, so one of the riders did break for Olceola of the local group and warned everybody they're coming.

SPEAKER_06 7:10

As word spread that Lane's brigade was almost on their doorsteps, townspeople began to prepare. Bank directors cleared out their vaults. Women hid the family valuables. Senator Waldo Johnson, a lawyer and veteran of the Mexican War, was a Southern sympathizer. He and his family were away in Virginia. An enslaved woman named Lucinda, who worked for the family, was left in charge of the home. She told the neighbors she decided to hide the Johnson family silver in the foundation of the ice house. Meanwhile, Lane's men waited until the early morning hours to enter the town.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

And uh he came on into OCO, shut up on what we call the schoolhouse hill with his, I think he had two field pieces, cannons, and um shelled courthouse and whatever else. I think they had some wounded, and I believe they uh took some of them into what we call the Lewis house and the Lewis family, he was a doctor, and took care of them.

SPEAKER_06 8:08

Mrs. Mary Emmeline Lewis later said that some of the troops stayed at her home throughout the night.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

When it was day, about twenty five of Lane's men came into my kitchen. After I had given them breakfast, they lay down all over the house and slept. Some of them talked about the fight and said there must have been two or three hundred against them, when there was only about 40.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

And the lady of the house sat on the piano bench and she had her family silver in the music box. So she played the piano so they wouldn't lift it up a look.

SPEAKER_06 8:42

As Mrs. Lewis played for the soldiers, she recalled several of them got tears in their eyes. Many were quite young, she noted, and homesick. Lane had heard that Osceola had large amounts of money earmarked for the Confederates, but when his men broke into the bank, they found that the townspeople had gotten there first.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I believe gold coins as well as other paper money, I suppose.

SPEAKER_06 9:14

Failing to find what he'd been looking for made Lane furious. That's when the looting began. They told women watching that if they could put the fire out, they could have whatever they could salvage. According to Mrs. Lewis, some of the ladies got a lot of cloth from inside those smoldering bolts. In addition to the items they stole, about 200 enslaved men, women, and children were marched out of the town with Lane's brigade. Among them was Lucinda. One of the most terrifying moments of the entire raid was when Lane's men decided they would round up those they considered to be traitors.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

They brought with them a disloyal list. I believe they went out in the surrounding area, squads of men, and they would hunt you down, murder you, burn your house.

SPEAKER_06 10:41

Twelve men were labeled traitors by Lane's brigade and given a hasty military trial, known as a drumhead court martial. Historians disagree whether Lane himself presided over the sham trial. But what is widely remembered in Osceola is that the 12 were put in front of a firing squad and shot on the spot. However, three were able to survive their wounds.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

I'm assuming they played possum when they were hit. Or maybe some one of the shooters allowed him to mess or not hit him solid. Uh I don't know. Makiah Dark is on the disloyal list, and he was one of them that they had attempted to execute. However, he did survive. And 13 years after that execution, they tracked him down and found him, and they still murdered him.

SPEAKER_06 11:35

With the executions complete and the town ransacked, there was a discussion among Lane's officers whether Osceola should be burned down. Colonel Montgomery thought it should be, since he saw the town as unworthy. At this early point in the Civil War, only one town, Hampton, Virginia, had been totally torched by enemy combatants. But Oceola would be next, and his citizens would never forget it. Both official buildings and private homes were set on fire.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

I read one account where some of his soldiers actually helped some of the women folk carry some of the goods out. I happen to know in my family's case, they didn't give him time to get a coke.

SPEAKER_06 12:26

Apart from the number who were executed, the official number of people who died in the Osceola raid varies widely. Some say it was 15 to 20, others say more than 40. But descendants of those who were there are certain that some people perished inside their burning homes. The soldiers, meanwhile, freely indulged in one item that they'd plundered, hard liquor.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

I think they found a warehouse of whiskey barrels and busted them open, and they're not afraid now, they're in control and going party and play and not say they'd probably the word is they got pretty drunk, and a lot of them had to be put on the wagons as well.

SPEAKER_06 13:07

When Lane's brigade left, the destruction was staggering. About one million dollars in property had been destroyed or stolen, around 37 million today. And only three buildings were left standing.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

He made the comment had we known what they were really going to do, we'd have stayed to the death. But they just didn't know they were that bad.

SPEAKER_06 13:39

Lane believed in total war, which meant that it was perfectly acceptable to target defenseless people if they supported and aided the Confederacy. In describing Lane's style of warfare, one of his men remarked, quote, Lane said he meant to make the secessionists in Missouri feel the difference between being loyal and disloyal citizens. And he is doing it, unquote. But not everyone approved of Lane's methods.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Authorities above him were not pleased at all with the way he was conducting his warfare.

SPEAKER_06 14:11

Union General Henry Halleck, commander of the Department of Missouri, was furious about Lane's tactics at Osceola. He said, quote, a few more such raids will make this state unanimous against us, unquote. For his part, President Lincoln did not condemn Lane, merely writing to Union General George B. McClellan, quote, I am sorry General Halleck is so unfavorably impressed with General Lane, unquote. Some northern newspapers hailed Lane's actions, calling the sacking of Osceola a success. Lane's face even appeared on a November 1861 cover of Harper's Weekly. But for Osceola residents, the raid was the ultimate disaster. Afterward, the ruined town was occupied by Union soldiers.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

If you were, let's say, of Southern Sympathy, you left town. The Federals had taken over the 16th Iowa was one of the regiments that occupied Osceola, and then they would rotate other units, and they set up a stockade right on the square. Even uh had a little prison there. One of our local gentlemen, he's gone now, he's older than me, but he said his daddy told him they would drive a team of horses and a wagon from Rostow all the way to Osceola. And his job was to throw sweet corn over the stockade ball when they went around the square as a little boy, so they'd have something good to eat.

SPEAKER_06 15:41

Some tried to rebuild their lives there, like Senator Waldo Johnson.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

He came back, tried to stay a little while. A friend of his came to him. He says they're coming after you Tuesday night. So he knew a place to hide. And I know where that place is at. And he hid there for a few days till he could get his stuff together and his family. And I think he went to Canada for a while and then came back to maybe St. Louis. He's buried in Kansas City. A lot of the survivors, particularly Wiedemars and the women family folks, they couldn't survive here. A lot of them went to a place called Paris, Texas, and stayed there till after the war. Some of the people were able to come back, try to rebuild their homes and families. A lot of them never came back.

SPEAKER_06 16:28

Following his raid on Osceola, questions arose about whether Lane had the authority to lead offenses into Missouri. But he continued his work for the Union cause. In 1862, he created the first Kansas Colored Volunteers. It was the first African American regiment to see active combat in the Civil War. Yet the memory of Osceola stayed fresh in the minds of many and stirred a great deal of anger.

SPEAKER_05 16:56

Wiley Britton, a Union soldier with a different Kansas regiment, noted, In destroying Osceola, General Lane seemed to be unconscious of the fact that his conduct would be just an excuse for retaliation, and that it might possibly come with interest.

SPEAKER_06 17:11

That retaliation, with interest, came in August 1863. William Quantrill, a rebel guerrilla leader, staged a punitive raid on Lawrence, Kansas. Some say shouts of remember Osceola were heard as Quantrill's men killed citizens and burned Lawrence to the ground. Lane, himself a resident of Lawrence, was at the top of Quantrill's own death list when he stormed into town.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Talking to Quantrill, telling about Obadiah Smith. And the comment was, why don't you just kill him? We can't. He's too smart. That's okay. I'll kill him for you. And I'll kill him with his own gun. And that's just what Quantrell did. When they came back up in 63, Obadiah was working in his garden and his Sharps rifles, carbine, was laying right there by the fence post. Quantrell had just a few men, all dressed in blue, thrown up to him as federal soldiers and visited with him, befriended him slightly for just a few minutes. That is a really nice rifle. We don't get anything that nice. And he was quite proud of it. Could I look at it, please? Yes. And it's loaded. And he gave it to Quantrel and shot him with his own rifle. Now the other story is when he shot him, it didn't kill him. He bolted and ran toward the house. The people in the house heard the ruckus and locked the doors. And Obadai couldn't get in. So they shot him down on the porch, finished him off.

SPEAKER_06 19:30

After the war ended, Lane's own political star dimmed. He was accused of fiscal improprieties and became depressed. In July 1866, he put a pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Osceola survived. Today it's a community of just over a thousand residents, about half the population from before 1861. And for the residents, especially the descendants of those who lived through the sacking of Osceola, the cost of that day is still felt. In the town cemetery, there's a monument to the dead that reads, quote, in memory of citizens of Osceola murdered by Kansas Jayhawkers and the Union Army, unquote. What do you think about this case? Please comment below. And if you liked this story, please subscribe to the channel, hit the like and notification buttons, and let us know if there are any cases you'd like us to cover.