James Henry 'Jim' Lane, a former Lt. Governor of Indiana, a Colonel in the Mexican War before settling in Lawerence, Kansas and was one of the most intriguing, and artfully oratiorical men to emerge into Kansas political history. A proslavery Democratic congressman, James Lane had voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Jim certainly possessed the credentials and experience to hold a high national office, but instead came to embrace a moral principle over the political agenda of his own party and of the times. A political agenda of not only the administration of President's Franklin Peirce and later James Buchanan, but also a Congressional majority composed of mostly southern politicians wanting to distribute slaves into the new western states, and to those men who held local judgeships and political office in Kansas Territory who supported proslavery. President Buchanan with his proslavery cabinet did not intend to let Kansas solve its own problem, and recommended that Kansas be admitted as a slave state¬ Lane's exact reason for coming to Kansas remains a mystery, but it was probably to organize the Democratic Party, however, he announced that he had come to farm hemp, and knew of no difference between a mule and a Negro for labor. He later was to not only change his views, but renounce his own party and become a Republician (not like todays). He had embraced the idea that slavery should not be perpetuated any further from the south to the new frontier states. This too, was Abraham Lincoln's exact reasoning as he watched carefully the recoil from Kansas and the news coming in from the East to his law offices in Illinois. Lane went even further, and came to embrace and oratate that the institution of slavery was immoral and wrong!John G. Shawbell, joined Lane's Brigade shortly after the unit formed. After the war James Lane swore an affidavit on 21 Dec 1885 testifying to, and supporting the claim of injuries John G. Shawbell suffered on a forced march from Honey Springs battle July 1863.Jim Lane, known for a man of action, eloquent orator, political ferret, and idealist became the Leader of the majority of 'free state men' in Kansas and organized The Army of the North, the first armed force in the West in his determination for a 'free state' Kansas, and to protect the lives and property of free state men, and to build an underlying political foundation for his ambition to become elected from the new free state Kansas to the U.S. Senate; to which he accomplished. What was happening in 'Bleeding Kansas' many believed would soon fester into the Civil War.
When the Civil War broke out some men from Ottumwa joined the first units, one was Lane's Brigade, formed in 1861 and later mustered into the 9th Kansas Cavalry. Some men joined Harrrison Kelly's 5th Kansas Cavalry, as Kelly was a local well known and prominent Ottumwa leader. Still other's traveled to Paola and Osawatomie to enlist.
The following from: William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas was first published in 1883 by A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL.
When the first call was made for volunteers for the Union army in the late war the men of Coffey County responded promptly. Company G of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry was mostly made up at Ottumwa and Le Roy, and Company E of the same regiment, from about Burlington and vicinity. Many enlisted in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry and other regiments. In September, 1861, nearly every able-bodied man in the county rallied to Fort Lincoln, Bourbon County, in response to a call for aid from Gen. Lane, of the Kansas Brigade, who was expecting an attack by the rebel army that had just defeated Lyon at Wilson's Creek. All of the clothing and camp and garrison equipage that was designed for the First and Second Kansas Regiments, valued at $1,000,000, was in store at Fort Lincoln. Those regiments were at that time with Gen. Sturgis in Missouri, and it was suspected by Gen. Lane that the rebels, after their victory at Springfield, designed seizing the stores that were in transitu from Fort Leavenworth to Sturgis' army for the Kansas regiments. A detachment from the rebel army, under Gen. Rains, did come within a few miles of Fort Scott, where it was met and repulsed by Lane's brigade. The volunteers from Coffey County and other portions of the Neosho Valley defended Fort Lincoln and labored on the earthwork, while Lane and his brigade were at the front.
(retyped from orginal in context)Burlington, Kansas
James H. Lane of Coffey Co. Kansas being duly sworn says that he has been accquainted with John G. Shawbell formerly of Co. 'C' 9th Kansas Vol. Cavalry for the last twenty-eight years, that before he enlisted in the army he was a stout ablebodied man, and that he has been a crippled ever since 1865.
Coffey County
Dec 21st 1885Signed (his signature)
James H. Lane*Submitted and sworn to before me and in my presence this 21st day of December in 1885.
Oramin Kuch
Notary Public
Recommended reading: 'Civil War on the Western Border 1854-1865' by Jay Monaghan, University of Nebraska Press.