John Brown was not a timid man. A devout reader of the Bible, he found human bondage immoral and unthinkable. The father of 20 children, he and his wife Mary settled in Kansas to wage a war on the forces of slavery. A few days after the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas , Brown sought revenge. He was furious that the people of Lawrence had chosen not to fight. He told his followers that they must "fight fire with fire," and they must "strike terror in the hearts of the pro-slavery people." In his eyes, the only just fate for those responsible for the border ruffian laws was death. A great believer in "an eye for an eye," John Brown sought to avenge the sacking of Lawrence. Vengeance would come on the night of May 24, 1856, three days after the Lawrence affair. Setting out after dark with seven others and calling himself the Army of the North, Brown entered the pro-slavery town of Pottawatomie Creek. Armed with rifles, knives, and broadswords, Brown and his band stormed the houses of his enemies. One by one, Brown's group dragged out helpless victims and hacked at their heads with the broadswords. In one encounter, they even killed two sons of an individual they sought. Before the night was through, five victims lay brutally slain by the hands of John Brown. It was the South's turn to be outraged. Destroying property was one thing, but no one had been killed at Lawrence. Brown had raised the stakes. He and his followers were doggedly hunted well into the summer. Federal troops arrested two of Brown's sons who had not been with him. Border ruffians burned the Brown homesteads to the ground. But John Brown lived to fight another day. Now a fugitive, he traveled north where he was received by Abolitionists like a cult hero. This would not be the last America would hear of John Brown. He would again make national headlines at Harper's Ferry in 1859.
The sacking of Lawrence and the massacre at Pottawatomie Creek set off a brutal guerrilla war in Kansas. By the end of 1856, over 200 people would be gunned down in cold blood. Property damage reached millions of dollars. Federal troops were sent in to put down the fighting, but they were too few to have much effect.
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is the third oldest continuously active military reservation in the United States and the oldest active Army post west of Washington, D.C. The post has guarded the nation’s frontier since 1827. In the early days, Fort Leavenworth was on the frontiers of basic exploration and physical defense. Today, it is on the frontiers of military thought, training and education. Situated on high bluffs overlooking the Missouri River, the land Fort Leavenworth occupies was favored by the American Indians who used the river as a trade route, gathered food in the river valley, and hunted bison on the plains to the west. Archeological evidence on post suggests that people have periodically inhabited the area for about 10,000 years. The first Europeans to explore the area were probably 18th century French fur traders. Fort de Cavagnial was established in 1744 as a safe trading post and base for exploration. The fort was abandoned in 1764 when the territory was ceded to the Spanish. Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark saw the remains of Fort de Cavagnial on July 2, 1804, as they led the Army’s Corps of Discovery up the Missouri River into the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition celebrated Independence Day north of present-day Fort Leavenworth at the mouth of Independence Creek, near present-day Atchison, Kansas. The expedition camped overnight on islands near the fort on the way west and on the return trip in September 1806. Col. Henry Leavenworth, with the officers and men of the 3rd Infantry Regiment from Jefferson Barracks at St. Louis, Missouri, established Fort Leavenworth in May 1827. The post was one of a half dozen forts guarding the western frontier and a base for patrols escorting the profitable trade along the newly opened Santa Fe Trail. In its early days Fort Leavenworth divided its time between guarding the Indians on their reservations and punishing those on the warpath. Soldiers from Fort Leavenworth escorted doctors to the reservations and expelled squatters from Indian lands. It was also the base for Col. S. W. Kearney’s 1839 campaign against the Cherokees. He left with 10 companies of dragoons, the largest U.S. mounted force ever assembled to that point in time, to subdue the warring bands. The 1846 war with Mexico marked a turning point for Fort Leavenworth. It was the outfitting post for Kearney’s Army of the West, which captured Santa Fe and San Diego. After this the post was used as a major supply depot, supplying the forts, posts and military camps of the west.
When the Kansas Territory was organized in 1854, Governor Andrew Reeder set up executive offices on post and lived for a short time in the quarters now known as “The Rookery.” Troops from Fort Leavenworth were heavily involved in the border conflict at that time, known as “Bleeding Kansas.” At the outbreak of the Civil War, Camp Lincoln was established on post as a reception and training station for Kansas volunteers. News of the approach of Confederate Gen. Sterling Price prompted construction of Fort Sully, a series of earthworks for artillery emplacements on Hancock Hill, overlooking what is now the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. But Price’s forces never reached Fort Leavenworth, having met defeat at Westport, Missouri. During its long history, the post was never subject to enemy attack. Following the Civil War, Fort Leavenworth returned to its missions of supplying the Army in the west and attempting to control the American Indian tribes on the western plains. From 1870 to 1883, Fort Leavenworth was home to Headquarters, Department of the Missouri. This headquarters controlled Army activities in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and portions of Texas and Wyoming. In the early part of this period there were many conflicts with various Indian bands. The post also continued to supply the western forts and field forces through its arsenal and quartermaster depot. In 1866, the U.S. Congress authorized the formation of several black regiments. One of these, the 10th Cavalry Regiment, was formed at Fort Leavenworth under the command of Col. Benjamin H. Grierson. Today, a monument stands at Fort Leavenworth in tribute to the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments. In 1881, Gen. William T. Sherman directed the establishment of a “school of application for infantry and cavalry.” That school evolved into today’s U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. World War I proved the wisdom of Sherman’s initiative. Fort Leavenworth graduates excelled in planning complex American Expeditionary Forces operations. In the years between the World Wars, graduates included such officers as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar N. Bradley and George S. Patton Jr. During World War II, some 19,000 officers completed various courses at Fort Leavenworth. By the end of 1943, commanders and staffs of 26 infantry, airborne and cavalry divisions had trained as teams at the school.
Following World War II, the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union grew increasingly wary. Russia did not agree to a United States "Open Skies" proposal in 1955 and relations continued to deteriorate. The U.S. instituted high altitude reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union because of this aura of mistrust. The U-2 was the plane of choice for the spying missions. The CIA took the lead, keeping the military out of the picture to avoid any possibilities of open conflict. By 1960, the U.S. had flown numerous successful missions over and around the Soviet Union. However, a major incident was about to occur. On May 1, 1960, a U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers (pictured, above and right) was brought down near Svedlovsk, Soviet Union. This event had a lasting negative impact on U.S. - U.S.S.R. relations. The details surrounding this event are to this day still shrouded in mystery. The conventional story given to explain the crash of the U-2 and the subsequent capture of Gary Powers is that a surface-to-air missile brought down the plane. However, the U-2 spy plane was constructed to be unassailable by conventional weapons. The major benefit of these high altitude planes was their ability to stay above enemy fire. If the plane was flying at its proper height and had been shot down, many question how Powers could have survived. It would have been very likely that he would have died in the explosion or from the high altitude ejection. Therefore, many individuals question the validity of this explanation. Several alternative theories have been put forward to explain the downing of Gary Powers spy plane: Gary Powers was flying his plane below the high flying reconnaissance altitude and was hit by anti-aircraft fire; Gary Powers actually landed the plane in the Soviet Union; there was a bomb on board the plane. The newest and probably least probable explanation offered for the downing of the planes comes from the pilot of a Soviet plane involved in the incident. He claims to have been ordered to ram the spy plane. Admittedly there is little evidence to support this claim. However, it further muddies the waters of explanation. Even though the cause of the incident is shrouded in mystery there is little doubt to the short and long term consequences of the event. The Paris Summit between President Eisenhower and Nikita Krushchev collapsed in large part because Krushchev demanded an apology that Eisenhower was unwilling to give. Gary Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and 7 years of hard labor. He only served 1 year, 9 months, and 9 days before being traded for the Soviet spy Colonel Rudolph Ivanovich Abel. This incident set in motion a pattern of mistrust that culminated in the Cuban Missile Crisis, a time when U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations reached an all time low.
David Farragut was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1801. As a child he was adopted by Commodore David Porter of the U.S. Navy. Farragut entered the Navy as a midshipman in 1810 and during the War of 1812 served under Porter on the frigate Essex. Porter captured several British whaling vessels and at the age of twelve Farragut was given command of one of these prize ships. Farragut was sent to school for a while but by 1821 was an officer in the Navy. He served in the West Indies under Porter and in 1824 was given his first independent command. He also saw action during the Mexican War from 1846 to 1848. During the secession crisis Farragut moved his wife and son from Norfolk, Virginia, and moved to the North. At the outbreak of the Civil War Farragut was given command of the West Blockading Squadron. He led the New Orleans expedition in December 1861. Farragut and his foster brother, David Porter, captured the forts guarding the port in April 1862 and troops led by General Benjamin F. Butler occupied the city soon afterward. Promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral in July 1862, Farragut successfully opened up the Mississippi River to Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was also involved in the campaign against Port Hudson and the assault on Mobile Bay (from August to December 1864. Farragut became America's first Vice Admiral on December 23, 1864. He was made a full admiral in 1866 and given command of the European Squadron. David Farragut died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on August 14, 1870.
Frances Perkins was born in Boston in 1880. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, she worked as a social worker in Worcester and a teacher in Chicago. Perkins was deeply influenced by the writings of investigative journalists such as Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Jacob A. Riis and Upton Sinclair. While in Chicago she became involved in Hull House, a settlement house founded by Jane Addams. Later she moved to Philadelphia where she worked with immigrant girls.
Perkins earned a master's degree at Columbia University in 1910 before becoming the executive secretary of the National Consumer's League. This work brought her into contact with progressive politicians in New York such as Robert Wagner and Alfred Smith. In 1919, Smith, the new governor of New York, appointed Perkins to the Industrial Board. She became chairman of the board in 1924 and while in this post she managed to obtain a reduction in the working week for women to 54 hours. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became governor of New York in 1929, he appointed Perkins as his Industrial Commissioner. The former governor, Alfred Smith, warned against this as he argued that "men will take advice from a woman, but it is hard for them to take orders from a woman." In 1933 President Roosevelt selected Perkins as his Secretary of Labor. She therefore became the first woman in American history to hold a Cabinet post. As she revealed later, her first proposals included: "immediate federal aid to the states for direct unemployment relief, an extensive program of public works, a study and an approach to the establishment by federal law of minimum wages, maximum hours, true unemployment and old-age insurance, abolition of child labor, and the creation of a federal employment service." Although it was a very radical program, Roosevelt accepted it with enthusiasm. Perkins was a strong advocate of government involvement in the economy and played an important role in many aspects of the New Deal including the Civilian Conservation Corps, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Social Security Act. In June 1938, Perkins managed to persuade Congress to pass the Fair Labor Standards Act. The main objective of the act was to eliminate "labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standards of living necessary for health, efficiency and well-being of workers". The act established maximum working hours of 44 a week for the first year, 42 for the second, and 40 thereafter. Minimum wages of 25 cents an hour were established for the first year, 30 cents for the second, and 40 cents over a period of the next six years. The Fair Labor Standards Act also prohibited child labor in all industries engaged in producing goods in interstate commerce and placed a limitation of the labor of boys and girls between 16 and 18 years of age in hazardous occupations.
Perkins remained as Secretary of Labor until the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 when President Harry Truman appointed her to the United States Civil Service Commission. After leaving office in 1953 she taught at Cornell University. Frances Perkins died in New York on May 14, 1965.
The most important oil well ever drilled was in the middle of quiet farm country near Titusville in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1859. For this was one of the first successful oil wells that was drilled for the sole purpose of finding oil. Known as the Drake Well, after Colonel Edwin Drake, the man responsible for the well, it began an international search for petroleum. Drake was not a "Colonel" of anything; he and his financiers simply invented the title to impress the locals, many of whom laughed at what was, for a time, known as "Drake's Folly". For hundreds of years, people had known about these seeps in western Pennsylvania. In fact, there is strong evidence that Native Americans, at least as far back as 1410 AD, had been harvesting the oil for medicinal purposes by digging small pits around active seeps and lining them with wood. European settlers had for years been skimming the oil from the seeps and using the petroleum as a source of lamp fuel and machinery lubrication. In the early 1850s, George Bissell, a New York lawyer, conceived a plan to try and produce this oil commercially. Benjamin Silliman, Jr., a chemist at Yale University and one of America's leading chemists, was hired to analyze the properties of the "Seneca Oil" as an illuminant. He determined that the oil could be distilled into several fractions, one of which was a very high quality illuminant. With this positive information, Bissell was able to get together some financial backers, including James Townsend, president of a bank in New Haven, Connecticut, and formed the "Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company". They hoped that rock oil could be recovered from the ground in large enough quantities to be used commercially as a fuel for lamps. Oil had already been used and refined and sold commercially for one of its byproducts: kerosene. What made Bissell something of a visionary was that he would try to extract the rock oil from the ground by drilling, using the same techniques as had been used in salt wells. Bissell was simply looking for a better, more reliable and plentiful source. Drake chose this spot to drill because of the many active oil seeps in the region. As it turns out, there had already been wells drilled that had struck oil in the region. The only problem was they weren't drilling for oil. Instead, they were looking for salt water or just plain drinking water. When they struck oil, they considered it a nuisance and abandoned the well. At the time, no one really knew what to do with the stuff if they found it. With the financial backing of the newly formed Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company (soon to be renamed Seneca Oil Company), Drake set off to Titusville in 1857 to survey the situation. Drilling began in the summer of 1859. There were many problems with this well and progress was slow and financially costly. The initial money the investors had fronted Drake ran out and he had to borrow more to keep drilling. On August 27, 1859, Drake and Smith drilled to a depth of 69 1/2 feet. It was not until the next morning on August 28 when the driller, "Uncle Billy" Smith, noticed oil floating in the hole they had pulled the drilling tools from the night before. By today's standards, it was a pretty unremarkable hole, probably producing 20 barrels or less of oil per day. The timing could not have been better. Most of the financial backers had given up on the project, and James Townsend, after having financed the operation out of his own pocket, had sent Drake the order to pay the remaining bills and close up shop. Drake received this order on the very day that he struck oil. Almost overnight, the quiet farming region changed in much the same manner as the gold rush towns of the Wild West. The flats in the narrow valley of Oil Creek, averaging only around 1.000 feet wide were quickly leased and hastily constructed derricks erected. Towns sprang up out of nowhere with people coming from all over looking to make their fortunes. This once quiet area suddenly became louder than anyone could have imagined, with steam engines and other types of machinery necessary to run the hundreds of wells that sprang up in the valley in the first couple of years. And the mud was fast becoming legendary. Horses were the main means of transporting machines and oil in these early days. As soon as a trail became too muddy to travel, the trail was simply widened. Soon, the width of the trails stretched from the stream to the foot of the hills, with the entire area having been transformed into mud. Horses, which were worked to beyond exhaustion, would often sink up to their bellies in the stuff. Due to the lack of geological knowledge of the rocks beneath which were actually producing the oil, wells were drilled almost at random in those first few years. Photographs show that derricks were built at extremely close proximity to one another in an attempt to get as much oil out of the ground as fast as one could. Frequent fires often raged out of control. In fact Drake's initial well only last a few months before it burned to the ground. A second well was erected shortly thereafter. Pennsylvania was responsible for 1/2 of the world's production of oil until the East Texas oil boom of 1901.
On March 4, 1865, the U.S. government created a temporary federal agency - the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands- to assist 4 million freed slaves in making the transition from slavery to freedom. The agency distributed trainloads of food and clothing provided by the federal government to freed slaves and Southern white refugees. They built hospitals for the freed slaves and gave direct medical aid to more than one million of them. The greatest successes of the Freedmen's Bureau were in the field of education. More than 1,000 Negro schools were built and staffed with qualified instructors. Most of the major Negro colleges in the United States were founded with the assistance of the Bureau. But the Freedmen's Bureau was far more than a welfare agency. Government employees helped former slaves find jobs, negotiated terms of labor contracts, and investigated claims of unfair treatment. White Southerners were generally hostile toward the bureau and its activities and in the postwar South the Freedmen's Bureau became the only guardian of civil rights the former slaves could turn to. Some blacks were settled on public lands under the Homestead Act of 1862 but the bureau's hopes of massive land redistribution in the South did not materialize, thwarted by President Andrew Johnson's restoration of abandoned lands pardoned Southerners. Without land, the freed blacks had little choice but to participate in sharecropping arrangements that inevitably became oppressive. Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard was appointed to head the agency. Though his personal integrity was never questioned, Howard's agency was riddled with corruption, inefficiency, and charges of misappropriation of funds. The agency also became the pawn of the corrupt Radical Republican government and was used to help maintain Republican control of the states occupied by federal troops. Congress discontinued the Freedmen's Bureau in 1872.
