Cass County, The District of the Border , and Order No. 11

Missouri entered the Union as a slave state in 1821 under the Missouri Compromise. In May, 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This law decreed that citizens of the Kansas and Nebraska Territories would decide by vote to accept or reject the institution of slavery. Immediately, the Kansas

Territory became the national flash-point for the slavery debate. Slavery opponents, abolitionists, flowed into the Territory to ensure Kansas would enter the Union as a free state. Many Missourians actively supported slavery's extension. Counties defining the border, in both Missouri and Kansas, soon erupted in violence as Missourians crossed into Kansas to vote and Kansans raided Missouri to free slaves.

The Border War lasted from 1854 until Kansas entered the Union as a free state in 1861. Fighting stretched the entire length of the border but was most intense in the Missouri counties of Jackson, Cass, Bates, and Vernon. During this period, Harrisonville, Cass County's county seat became the unofficial capital of the Missouri border effort.

After the Civil War began in 1861, Missouri's border counties became active battlegrounds. Raids across the state line by both sides, feed by long standing hatred, fueled by revenge, drove the violence beyond the normal constraints of war. In 1861, Cass County, Jackson County, Bates County, and Vernon County felt the weight of pitched battles between regular units of the Union and Confederate Armies. Early in 1862 the presence and actions of southern guerrillas and bushwhackers changed the nature of the conflict. Throughout 1862 and 1863, guerrilla units raided towns and villages in Kansas and Missouri. Union commands stationed in western Missouri battled the guerrillas attempting to eliminate them. Union forces were unsuccessful.

By June 1863, Union frustration and failure resulted in the formation of The District of the Border. Kansas, General Thomas Ewing was placed in command. The District of the Border contained the Missouri counties of Cass, Jackson, Bates, and a portion of Vernon.

August 21, 1863 William Quantrill and 450 men raided Lawrence, Kansas. When they left Lawrence, 200 men were dead and the town was in flames. Four days later, General Thomas Ewing issued General Orders No. 11. The order demanded that all citizens in his district leave within 15 days, unless they could prove loyalty; then allowed to remain in designated military stations.

The populations, mostly women, children, and the elderly, streamed out of the area. After the citizens left, most the vacant homes and farm buildings were burned, denying shelter to southern guerrillas. The entire area became known as “The Burnt District.”

In 1860, Cass County's population consisted of 8,800 free whites and 1,100 slaves. There were approximately 1,700 households in the largely southern sympathetic county. Many people had fled the county before Order No. 11, but the order emptied the land. People flowed out of the county in all directions. The majority never returned.

Tom Rafiner, an independent researcher and historian, has devoted five years to trying to answer four basic questions about Cass County's people during the War, and subsequent to Order No. 11.

1. Who were the people living in Cass County in 1860?

2. Where did they go after Order No. 11 was issued?

3. Who came back? Who did not come back?

4. What were their stories?

Rafiner's primary interest focuses on Cass County families. He is interested in gathering and telling the stories of all 1.700 families.