Go To The Prairie: Frontiersman, Visionary and Founder of Osteopathic Medicine by Walker Marshall

Author:Walker, Marshall [Walker, Marshall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Obsession

Spring 1856

Sheriff Sam Jones must have been consumed with feelings of bitterness as the army loaded their weapons into the wagons for the trip back to Missouri following the abrupt end of the Wakarusa War. What would have made it even more painful for Jones was that the war was called to a halt by Shannon and Atchison who were his political allies. The army had already left when Sheriff Jones was invited to attend the Lawrence peace jubilee. There, he was again forced to endure threats, insults, and rough encounters with the abolitionists. With each incident, he continued to be humiliated and was denied any satisfaction of being able to punish the men who had taken away his prisoner at Blanton Bridge. He had developed a greater level of hatred for the Lawrence citizens who had mocked his dignity and authority as the Douglas County Sheriff.

What made the embarrassment event worse, Sheriff Jones had requested the militia, and they had come. Fifteen hundred armed men had responded to restore his authority and honor to the badge he wore. Many of the men had traveled a long distance to reestablish law and order and to put an end to his embarrassment. This mighty crusade had been stopped. The offenders had not been wiped out or punished. Not a shot had been fired at Lawrence except for the killing of Barber. Jones had not even been in the group of men who chased Barber’s brother and brother-in-law across the prairie. He had not fired his gun. The men who had taken his prisoner at Blanton Bridge were openly laughing at him and remained free and unpunished in Lawrence. They continued to brag about how they had taken Jacob Branson without a fight and how “Old Phillip Rupp” had drawn a bead on him with his squirrel gun and made Jones beg for his life like a coward. If that were not humiliating enough, the abolitionists were allowed to keep their smuggled weapons. None of the Sharps rifles were confiscated despite the demand that all weapons be seized. Sheriff Jones was not happy with the outcome of the Wakarusa War nor was he going to accept the disgrace the Lawrence crowd reveled in at the jubilee at his expense .

It was ridiculous to call the confrontation at the Wakarusa River a war when no shots had been fired or enemies killed in battle. Instead it had become a disgusting political mess. It had been reported that a Missourian had been accidentally shot by his own sentry, and another proslavery man had been killed by a falling tree, and a third killed in a drunken row. Some people might count these deaths as war casualties but not Jones. [348]

He must have wanted blood spilled. He demanded the men responsible for the assault at Blanton Bridge be apprehended and turned over to him for punishment. He more than likely wanted Jacob Branson led back to him on a mule and turned over to him as a prisoner.

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