Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind

"The long agony" was over: Kansas, as of January 29, 1861, was a state—it had "moved to America." In Leavenworth, Lawrence, Topeka, and other towns Kansans celebrated the "glorious news" of the coming of statehood in a "fury of excitement." Cannons boomed, cheering crowds gathered on the street corners, a judge and a militia general stood on their heads, and the saloons were scenes of inebriated revelry.

So begins Albert Castel's classic history of Kansas during the Civil War. Long recognized as a key study on the war in the trans-Mississippi West, Civil War Kansas describes the political, military, social, and economic events of the state's first four years. Castel contributes to a better understanding of the Civil War in this region through a realistic presentation and analysis of the Kansas-Missouri border conflict, the operations of the Missouri guerrillas under Quantrill, and the Union and Confederate military campaigns in Missouri, Arkansas, the Indian Territory, and Kansas itself.

Albert Castel is widely recognized as one of our most respected historians of the Civil War. His Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 won the prestigious Lincoln Prize and was named one of the 400 Most Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review and one of the 100 Best Books on the Civil War by Civil War Magazine. He is also the author of General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West and The Presidency of Andrew Johnson.