Saturday, October 22, 2011

Remember Osceola!!!!! Civil War Tour At Osceola



It was a beautiful fall Saturday for the Civil War Tour of Osceola, Missouri hosted by the Colonel John T Coffee Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans. The tour included sites on private property not generally open to the public. I have included a few pictures of gun emplacements and forts cut into the rock ledges to repulse an expected attack by Union troops from Kansas. Also a few pictures of the Osceola Confederate Monument remembering the burning of Osceola and honoring the 12 men murdered by General James Lane during the raid.
 
We all remember Quantrill himself said his motivation for the attack on Lawrence was, "To plunder, and destroy the town in retaliation for Osceola." That was a reference to the Union's attack on Osceola in September 1861, led by Senator James H. Lane.  Many of us have family stories about the War of Northern Agression and this is one from my grandmother Thomas' Family "He kept his guns hidden in the woodpile-and must have been sorely tempted to use them the day one of Jim Lane's marauding Kansans hit his mother in the head with a stick of stovewood." 
 
Also pictures of the "Younger's Lookout" and the scene of the Roscoe Gunfight.  After the tour there was an excellent Southern Fish Fry at the Coffee Camp. If you enjoy history two weeks ago there was the Quantrill Tour of the Blue River area and Wallace Grove where the Reunions were held. Then this Saturday another great tour of Osceola you have a view of history in our area that is very rare.
 
Regards,

Bob Capps