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| Order No. 11 (Kansas-Missouri) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Order No. 11 (Kansas–Missouri) |
| Date | August 25, 1863 |
| Issued by | Ulysses S. Grant (via John Schofield / John Pope staff) |
| Jurisdiction | Jackson County, Missouri, Bates County, Missouri, Cass County, Missouri, Vernon County, Missouri |
| Conflict | American Civil War |
| Result | Evacuation of rural civilian population; depopulation policy in border counties |
Order No. 11 (Kansas-Missouri) was a Union Army directive issued in August 1863 that mandated the depopulation of several rural counties along the Missouri–Kansas border during the American Civil War. The order aimed to cut off support for Confederate guerrillas such as those led by William Quantrill, William C. Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson by removing civilians from contested areas and creating a buffer zone around Kansas. It provoked sharp debate among contemporaries including Francis P. Blair Jr., Nathaniel Lyon, and George B. McClellan about counterinsurgency and civil liberties, and remains a focal point in studies of wartime civilian policy involving figures like Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Henry Halleck.
Violence along the Kansas–Missouri border escalated after events such as Bleeding Kansas, the 1856 Sacking of Lawrence, and the 1856 Pottawatomie massacre linked activists like John Brown to guerrilla reprisals including actions by William Quantrill, Frank James, and Jesse James. During the American Civil War, Union commanders including Nathaniel Lyon, John C. Frémont, and Samuel R. Curtis confronted irregular warfare by groups associated with Confederate States of America sympathizers like Sterling Price and Major General Earl Van Dorn. Previous measures such as Frémont's proclamation and Davis's writs shaped the contest over loyalty, while skirmishes like the Battle of Westport and the raid on Lawrence, Kansas prompted Kansas political leaders including Charles Robinson and Thomas Ewing Jr. to demand stronger security.
Order No. 11 was issued under the authority of Union Army command in the Western Theater as part of operations involving John M. Schofield and enforcement by units associated with William S. Rosecrans and Grenville M. Dodge. The order required civilian residents of Jackson County, Missouri, Cass County, Missouri, Bates County, Missouri, and Vernon County, Missouri to evacuate rural townships, leaving only residents in the towns under military registration. It prohibited harboring guerrillas associated with Quantrill, Bloody Bill Anderson, and William T. Anderson and authorized forfeiture and destruction of property used to aid Confederate irregulars. Similarities were later drawn between this directive and Continental practices used in conflicts involving Napoleon Bonaparte, Karl von Clausewitz theories, and policies in the Reconquista debates.
Union forces including regiments under commanders like James G. Blunt, John B. Sanborn, and detachments linked to Curtis LeMay-era historians executed the order with patrols, garrisoning of key towns such as Independence, Missouri, Harrisonville, Missouri, and Rich Hill, Missouri, and coordination with Kansas militia units. Officers applied military law and summary procedures familiar from campaigns by Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, removing livestock, burning outbuildings, and compelling displacement toward Kansas City, Kansas and Leavenworth, Kansas. Enforcement intersected with actions by James H. Lane and state authorities in Missouri, provoking legal inquiries involving figures like Francis P. Blair Jr. and state courts in Jefferson City, Missouri.
The order produced large-scale displacement of civilians, destruction of homes and farms, and the depopulation of rural townships; refugee flows affected communities including Independence, Missouri, Pleasant Hill, Missouri, and Cleveland, Missouri. Prominent property losses were documented by agents from institutions such as the U.S. Sanitary Commission and chronicled in accounts involving journalists from newspapers like the St. Louis Democrat, Kansas Herald of Freedom, and New York Tribune. The economic effects extended to agricultural production, with impacts on markets in St. Louis, Missouri and Kansas City, Missouri, while private claims and petitions reached legislators including Thaddeus Stevens and committees in the United States House of Representatives.
Order No. 11 was issued in the aftermath of the Lawrence Massacre (August 21, 1863) attributed to William Quantrill and coincided with Confederate campaigns by commanders like Sterling Price and Joseph E. Johnston elsewhere. It was part of the Union counterinsurgency approach that intersected with strategic initiatives like Ulysses S. Grant's Vicksburg campaign, operations by William S. Rosecrans in Tennessee, and political tensions involving Andrew Johnson and Edwin Stanton. National debates in the United States Congress and publications such as the Atlantic Monthly debated the legality and necessity of civilian relocation orders, while state politics in Missouri pitted Hamilton Rowan Gamble loyalists against Confederate Missouri sympathizers.
Contemporaries criticized Order No. 11 on legal and moral grounds, citing protections allegedly derived from documents such as the Missouri Constitution of 1820 and invoking opinions by jurists like Benjamin R. Curtis and senators including Carl Schurz. Critics compared the policy to harsh measures in European conflicts involving François-René de Chateaubriand-era reflections and condemned the perceived collective punishment of civilians. Proponents argued it was militarily necessary to root out support for guerrillas including Quantrill and Jesse James, while opponents—ranging from Francis P. Blair Jr. to editors at the New York Times—raised questions under constitutional law and civil liberties framed by debates involving Roger B. Taney and wartime habeas corpus controversies.
Historians such as Albert Castel, Gardner Dozois-era commentators, and scholars in works published by University of Missouri Press and Oxford University Press have treated Order No. 11 as a seminal instance of Civil War-era counterinsurgency and population control, linking it to later doctrines used by actors like Sherman in the March to the Sea and to twentieth-century studies by John Keegan and Beveridge. Modern assessments reference archives at the Missouri Historical Society, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives and Records Administration; cultural legacies survive in memory via the James-Younger Gang lore, historic sites in Cowan's Bluff, and commemorations in Cass County, Missouri. Order No. 11 continues to inform debates about wartime civil policy involving scholars affiliated with Harvard University, University of Chicago, and Yale University and is a case study in courses on the American Civil War and irregular warfare.
Category:Missouri in the American Civil War Category:Forced migration in the United States