I think it is interesting the Civil War Sesquicentennial did not

[Hardrada]

start earlier with some measure of acknowledgment for John Brown or the battles in Kansas starting around 1854. The carnage had begun earlier than Fort Sumter. Wonder why that stuff never came up?

[Sherman A1]

1. While I agree with you,

I am thinking that it was mostly that Fort Sumter really signifies the split with secession and the firing upon a Federal installation in an organized fashion. What I have seen so far, has acknowledged both Brown & the Kansas activity, but then I am from Missouri so being closer the activity here to recall the era includes some mention of it.

[Hardrada]

2. I'm in Iowa and we even had some activity involving John Brown

here but I can't recall any recent historical acknowledgment. I think the Brown boys lived up here at one time also.

[Sherman A1]

6. In a sense it would be regional reporting or

reminiscing of the events that were local to your area. As you say the Brown boys may have lived there for a bit, well, as areas seek to recall the events specific to those areas such would be included if known.

I don't think there is a national amnesia regarding Brown, but in many sense the Civil War was regional, recalling those events may be as well.

Did you know that Missouri had the 3rd highest number of battles and skirmishes behind VA & TN? I was not aware of this myself, but the reporting of this war & time is often centered on the events of the East. It's just the nature of things.

May 10th marked the anniversary of the Camp Jackson affair (St. Louis) which involved then Captain Nathaniel Lyons capturing a group of Missouri Volunteer Militia who were drilling in a area now part of St. Louis University. 120+ people were killed as the prisoners were marched back to the Federal Arsenal near the river (not too far from the current Busch Brewery).

There was recently a re-enactment at one of the local parks & I caught a short one man performance at the Missouri Historical Society.

http://www.mcwm.org/history_camp_jackson.html

[Hardrada]

7. Lyons was from Iowa I think. He got killed in a very early battle in MO

but the CSA forces couldn't do much to conquer the state since Union reinforcements were always arriving. And then Sherman, Grant and Sheridan showed up in that general area. Grant was in St. Louis on an early assignment.

[coalition_unwilling]

3. It hardly suits the national myth-makers these days to acknowledge

John Brown. Seen through today's lens, Brown is a 'terrorist,' an abolitionist Timothy McVeigh. Talking about John Brown risks opening some cans of worms best left unopened. (I DO NOT mean to imply that McVeigh was a hero, nor that Brown was a terrorist. But John Brown did attack and seize a federal facility, the Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. And they didn't call it 'Bleeding Kansas' for nothing.)

[Odin2005]

4. IMO Bloody Kansas was the real start of the Civil War.

[Hardrada]

5. Lawrence Kansas

John Lane, Jayhawkers, Border Ruffians. Yes, it certainly was.