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Tour shows Fort Scott has seen tragedy
From soldiers being accidently shot to members of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry being held hostage and killed, Fort Scott has seen -- or been connected with -- its share of tragedy.
Highlighting those and other history from 1842-1865, Fort Scott National Historic Site Ranger Barak Geertsen led a tragedy tour of about 35 people on Saturday.
Fort Scott was established in 1842 to protect the permanent Indian Frontier. There was no state of Kansas at the time, Geertsen said. "This was all Indian territory," he said, adding Native Americans were told no white settlement would ever be allowed here. To enforce that promise, the infantry and dragoon soldiers were stationed here as a kind of border patrol. The Native Americans were peaceful and there was never a wall around the fort, as often depicted in movies.
With bluffs around it, the fort had natural boundaries.
Because it was relatively tranquil, soldiers stationed at Fort Scott tended to get bored and that's how Cpl. Evans was shot and killed. Pvt. Bacon was seen whipping the company dog; Evans told him to stop and Bacon basically said "make me," Geertsen said. Evans beat Bacon up with the butt end of a whip. Bacon went to the dragoon barracks, returned with a gun and shot Evans dead.
Bacon was arrested and court martialed. He got 18 months, because the procedure determined Bacon was not in his right mind when he shot Evans. The two were reportedly good friends.
When Evans was released, he reenlisted, but deserted during the Mexican-American War.
On the parade grounds, Capt. Terret was riding his horse, carrying a gun. When he dismounted, he got tangled up and the gun went off.
Terret's wound was deemed accidental by the military, but Geertsen said military historians have theorized the shot was self-inflicted.
The Terrets were already mourning the loss of their infant son two weeks earlier when Terret died. The captain was was also said to be having financial difficulties, Geertsen said.
Mrs. Terret was cared for afterward for several months by Fort Scott Quartermaster Thomas Swords and his wife, Charlotte. Mrs. Terret moved away and remarried.
With the westward expansion, the Army abandoned Fort Scott in 1853. two years later, the Army sold the buildings on the post and Fort Scott became a town. The town was part of Bleeding Kansas and raids by James Montgomery. To break one of Montgomery's men out of prison, several Fort Scott residents were held hostage and John Little, son of general store owner Blake Little, was shot after being seen wiping off a store window with a white handkerchief.
Lucy Marquardt, portraying John Little's fiance, recited a letter she wrote to Montgomery vowing revenge. "I may be a girl, but I can fire a pistol. I will send you to a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth," Marquardt said.
Reacting to the Little shooting, the town formed two militias to protect itself.
In January 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state. Montgomery was never brought to justice -- his actions were viewed as an act of war. Montgomery became a general in the Civil War and would take abolitionist John Brown's place fighting for freedom and equal rights for African-Americans.
Declared free, but homeless as a result of the war, the Union Army decided to enlist African Americans and Native Americans.
The 1st Kansas Colored regiment mustered into the Army in Fort Scott, although critics contended they and the Native Americans would basically be useless. In 1863, the regiment was foraging for food in the Sherwood, Mo., home of Thomas Livingston, who opened fire on them killing 20 soldiers.
In retribution, the town was burned and two black and two white soldiers were taken prisoner by Livingston.
Livingston released the two white soldiers, but refused to let the African-Americans go. The commander of the 1st Colored Kansas regiment wrote Livingston saying revenge would be taken if anything happened to his troops. There were executions on both sides, Geertsen said.
The regiment suffered 388 deaths, almost twice as many as any white regiment in this area. Almost two-thirds of deaths in African American regiments came in combat, while two-thirds of deaths in white regiments were from disease.
The mettle displayed by the African Americans and Native Americans disproved the critics. ShayLynn Clements and Ramon Taylor portrayed two African American soldiers, Clements being one that was killed.
"It was a pretty exciting experience to be able to act it out," Clements said.
Taylor, a Pittsburg State University history major and FSNHS intern, enjoyed his part as well. "It's great to be able to reenact" scenes from history. "I love history. History is something I really enjoy. My father is a history teacher. History is a hobby of mine. It's great to be able to make it a job," he said.
Mary June Hansel, a history teacher at Tulsa (Okla.) Hale High School, is an intern this summer at the fort. Hansel was praying at the bedside of a dying soldier during the reenactments. She's been at the park for two weeks of an eight-week stint and already wants to bring her students here for a field trip.
"I'm very excited to be here and it is awesome to get to dress as a park ranger, which has been my lifelong dream since I was 14," said Hansel, who has been teaching for 32 years. "The rangers have been very friendly. They've welcomed me with open arms. ... I think I've really found my passion, besides teaching."
Bob and Jane Childs of Poplar Grove, Ill., know Hansel because she's a friend of their daughter. "It was very enlightening," Jane said.
John and Helen Daley of Pittsburg made the trip to see Taylor, one of John Daley's history Pittsburg State University history students, in the 1st Colored Kansas scene. "I teach 19th century U.S. history at Pitt State. I think it's a great idea for the guys to dress in woolen outfits and be just as uncomfortable" as the real soldiers, John Daley said.