Introduction: Biblical Principles of War

Weaver introduces Proverbs 11:16 and the date August 13, 1863, then explains two biblical principles: do not make war on innocent civilians (1 Samuel 15) and do not destroy creation (Deuteronomy 20:19-20).

I'll quote this verse a little bit later as well, verse 16, and I'm going to tell you why I'm going to be reading this verse, because I'm going to be speaking right now on the Union's war against women and children. So the Bible says in Proverbs 11 and verse 16,

August the 13th, 1863, is a date that should go down in infamy. It was on that date that harmless and innocent women and children were murdered under the auspices of a federal general, Thomas Ewing. Now, there's a biblical principle that is taught throughout the scripture, and that is you do not make war on civilians. You don't make war on innocent individuals. In 1 Samuel, chapter 15, when Samuel came to Saul and said, "God is sending you to destroy the Amalekites. I want you to wipe them out." Saul got an army of 210,000 men and in the way were the Kenites. And so Saul told the Kenites, "Look," he said, "you treated us well when we came out of Egypt, but God has sent me to destroy the Amalekites. Now you need to get out of the way."

And that's exactly what they did. And that was the right thing to do. But there's another principle, and I want to read it to you. It's found in Deuteronomy chapter 20 and verses 19 through 20. Listen to what God commands. "When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them, for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down, for the tree of the field is a man's life to employ them in the siege. Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down, and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee until it be subdued."

So here are two principles. Number one, you do not make war against innocent people. And number two, you do not make war against creation. Creation is not the enemy. The sinner is the enemy. The enemy is the enemy, but not creation. And God forbids war to be made against his creation.

Union Generals' Rejection of Biblical Principles

Lincoln, Sherman, Sheridan, and Ewing rejected these principles. Sherman and Sheridan boasted of destroying civilians, crops, and livestock. Sherman explicitly advocated killing men, women, and children.

Now, neither President Lincoln, nor General Sherman, Sheridan, or Ewing understood any of these principles or believed them. Both Sherman and Sheridan did to innocent men and women, along with General Ewing, exactly what I'm going to be telling you today. And they did so under the auspices of Abraham Lincoln, because Abraham Lincoln knew everything that they were going to do. Neither one of these men believed either of these principles. Now, before I get started, I want to tell you that while I'm talking about General Thomas Ewing, who was a Union officer, I'm going to be talking about also Sherman and Sheridan just a little. Because Thomas Ewing and William T. Sherman, William Tecumseh Sherman, were brothers-in-law.

And so obviously they did indeed have the same attitude on war, and against the Southern people and they wanted the Southern people destroyed. It was William Tecumseh Sherman, the man who left a 60 mile wide, 300 mile path of death, desolation and destruction through Georgia and up through South Carolina as well. He wrote this after and he said this, "Look to the South and you who went with us through that land can best say if they have not been fearfully punished." "Mourning is in every household. Desolation is written in broad characters across the whole face of the country. Cities are in ashes. Fields laid waste. Their commerce gone. Their system of labor annihilated and destroyed. Ruin and poverty and distress everywhere. And now pestilence added to the very capsheaf of their sack of misery." And so when Sherman went through Georgia with his bummers, they literally burned and destroyed everything in their path.

Whether it was creation, whether it was men, women, and children, it didn't matter to them as well. Now, Sheridan was the same way, because in a report dated October the 7th, 1863, General Sheridan wrote to General Grant, and he boasted, and he said this, "I've destroyed over 2,000 barns filled with wheat, hay and farming implements, over 70 mills still with flour, wheat, and have driven in front of the army over 4,000 head of stock, and have killed and issued to the troops not less than 3,000 sheep." "Tomorrow I will continue the destruction down to Fisher's Mill. When this is completed, the valley from Winchester to Staunton, 92 miles, will have but little in it for man or beast." That was here in the Shenandoah Valley. And, of course, Sheridan's troops burned crops and killed thousands and thousands of cattle and sheep, and just destroyed to be destroying. In fact, Sheridan boasted that even a crow flying over the Shenandoah Valley would have to carry his own rations. General William T.

Sherman, on January 31, 1864, said this, and this was in Tacking, Athens, Tennessee, he said this, Athens, Alabama, I'm sorry. He said, "The government of the United States has any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war, to take their lives, their homes, their land, their everything. War is simply unrestrained by the Constitution. To the persistent secessionist, why death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of, the better." This war was not just simply against soldiers, it was against women and children as well. To demonstrate this in a letter that General Sherman wrote to the Secretary of War, William Stanton, January the 21st, 1864, here's what Sherman said. "There is a class of people, men, women, and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order." Stanton replied to Sherman's letter, "Your letter of the 21st of June has just reached me and meets my approval." What did he say? Kill them all. Men, women and children. Now, while the war against men, women and children started well before 1864, this is just a documented evidence of the fact that, yes, they were not just fighting soldiers.

Arrest and Imprisonment of Women and Children

Women and children were arrested for aiding Confederates or even for pro-Confederate cheering. They were held in Gratiot Street Prison and other facilities, often with infants.

They were fighting men, women, and children. Now, if you really want to get angry, if you really want to get upset, I would encourage you to read Walter Bryan Cisco's book, "The Union's War Against Citizens." That's not the exact title. It's "The Union's War Against Innocent Civilians," is what it is. But just don't have any loaded weapons around when you're reading that book. It'll upset you. It just shows you the lack of mercy and the lack of compassion that the North had on the Southerners at all. So, he said very clearly, there's men, women, and children that need to be killed.

Now, in Missouri, in packages of food and clothing that were sent to sons, brothers, or husbands in the Confederate Army, those who were sending those gifts and those care packages were usually arrested for giving care and comfort to the enemy. Many of these individuals were women, and some of them children, were arrested and they were thrown in the Gratiot Street prison there in Missouri. Now, this prison was very notorious because it was not only a prison that held Confederate soldiers, it was also a prison that held spies, guerrillas, civilians who were suspected of disloyalty, as well as Union soldiers who had committed crimes and misbehaved as well. There is on the roll of the Gratiot Street Prison names of 212 women, along with the children. The male names under the children would be the little boys, and of course the female names would be understood. Usually these women received a punishment of banishment. But then some of them were sent to prison in Jefferson City, Missouri, which was the capital, or even to Alton, Illinois. And many times these women were there with small babies as well.

One newly arrived woman to that prison wrote on February the 7th, 1864, she said, "Great heavens. My blood boils. Women in this hole of filth and blasphemy. I could scarcely believe it when I saw with my own eyes Mrs. Mitchell, who is here with her little daughter, five or six years old. She is charged with smuggling goods through to the Confederates. The Northern armies move, making deserts in their tracks, and a loving woman is imprisoned for stretching out her hand to the needy. Other ladies besides Mrs. Mitchell were confined here, but I have not yet learned their names."

Stop and think about it. Here's a woman with a five or six year old daughter. It was a woman by the name of Fannie Coons, who was the wife of J.A. Coons. She was arrested and put in prison for organizing what was known as a charitable event. In other words, what she was trying to do was raise some money to help people who were suffering. And they arrested her and threw her in prison for being disloyal because they believed that some of this money and the goods were going to be sent to the Confederates as well. Plenty of people, men, women, and children, were arrested just simply because they had brothers, fathers, or husbands fighting for the Confederacy. And they were viewed as disloyal and they were arrested. Now, the mentality of disrespecting and dishonoring women and children was a very prevalent mentality in the Northern Army.

The Wickedness of General Benjamin Butler

Butler, known as 'Beast Butler,' issued Order No. 26, declaring that any woman showing contempt to Union soldiers would be treated as a prostitute. He arrested the mayor of New Orleans for protesting.

One Union General became universally loathed and hated because of his wickedness. And all God-fearing people, not only in the South but also in the North, despised this Union General as well. His name was Benjamin Butler. He had two nicknames. One was Beast Butler, and you will understand why just momentarily when I tell you. And his other nickname was Spoons Butler, because he was a notorious thief and he always stole silverware. I could tell you more about Spoons Butler and his son-in-law. His son-in-law was a military governor of Mississippi. He was military governor of Louisiana.

Larry MacDonald has been dead for a number of years. He was a congressman. He was the one who was shot down on the Korean airliner. But Larry MacDonald was speaking down in Florida at a big event and hundreds of people were there and they served fried chicken. And so when Larry got up to speak, he looked, he said, "I can look and tell who's from the South and who's from the North." And everybody kind of looked around, he said, "Yes," he said, "I can tell you." He said, "I've watched you eat." He said, "Southerners always eat their chicken with their fingers and Northerners always use a knife and a fork." He said, "You know why? Because you Yankees stole our silverware." And that was true with Spoons Butler, I can assure you, he stole all the silverware that he could steal. But he was also called Beast Butler because he demanded honor, and his men demanded honor, when they were dishonorable, and they lived dishonorable lives as well.

And so, women in New Orleans especially despised him, and of course the Union soldiers. And so, Beast Butler then issued Order Number 26. Here's the order. He said, "As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from the women calling themselves ladies of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and courtesy on our part, it is hereby ordered: When any female shall by word, gesture, or movement insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town, plying her avocation." Let me spell it out. She's to be treated as a prostitute.

Now, he said, "We have been so courteous and we've been so not." Really? And so, he said, any woman now who disrespects me or my men, they're to be treated as a prostitute. You know what some of the contemptuous acts that these women did, that Beast Butler wanted to treat them as prostitutes? Here they are. Here's four of them. Number one, they would leave the streetcars when Union soldiers boarded. They didn't want to ride with them. Number two, they would walk across the street rather than to meet a Union soldier. Number three, they liked to sing Dixie. And number four, oftentimes when Union soldiers walked by, they just turned their backs on the Union soldiers. These were the contemptuous acts for which these women were to be counted as prostitutes. When the mayor of New Orleans, John Monroe, protested this infamous Order 26, Butler had him arrested and thrown into prison. So General Ewing and Butler and other northern generals failed to take into account the southern regard for women.

Southern Honor vs. Union Disregard for Women

Southern men historically protected women, a biblical principle. Union officers did not understand this, and their mistreatment of women only made Southern fighters more determined.

Southerners have always historically been protective of their wives and their daughters and their children. And of course, once again, this is a biblical principle because the Bible tells you in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 7,

And then, of course, in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 1, we're to treat the older women as mothers and the younger women as sisters with all purity, the Bible says. And then 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 3 tells us that we're to honor women that are widows, that are widows indeed. And of course, the Bible also then in Proverbs chapter 6 tells you that there is a rage which goes into a man when his wife or when his daughters are molested.

Now, I was telling someone last night, I have four daughters. And I jokingly all my life said all my boys are girls. But my girls could out-shoot just about anybody. And they would go deer hunting with me. And we had deer tree climbers, and I'd put one up a tree 100 yards and another one 200 yards. And you know, I have four daughters. And then I might be 200 yards away from them when I was hunting. So I gave my girls strict orders. I said, "If any man comes to your tree and tries to bother you in any way, you shoot him."

"And when I get there, I'll question him and find out what his motives were." I said, "Just go ahead and shoot him. I'll talk to him later." But, you know, I didn't listen. Let me tell you something. You mess with my daughters, I could hurt you badly. You mess with my granddaughters, I'll chew you up and spit you out and smile while I'm doing it. I'm just saying, you just, this is Southern people. We have always regarded our wives and our girls and our, you know, that's all there is to it.

These men did not understand anything like that. And they did not understand that there is a righteous anger when somebody's wife is messed with or his daughters are messed with. And that righteous anger usually calls for vengeance and justice. Hey, Union officers did not understand this simple principle, that when you mess with a Southern man's wife or daughters, it makes him a more effective fighter. It makes him more determined. He's not going to let you get away with anything like that.

Quantrill's Code of Honor vs. Union Brutality

Quantrill forbade his men from insulting women, while Union troops used girls as human shields and threatened to execute them. General Blunt declared females not exempt from execution.

Let me just show you. Now, General Blunt was a Union general, but his adversary was Confederate Colonel Benjamin F. Parker. They were in the same area. And here's what General Blunt wrote to Colonel Parker. He said, "I've instructed the officers in command of troops in the border counties of Missouri that every rebel or rebel sympathizer who gives aid directly or indirectly shall be destroyed or expelled from the military district." "These instructions will not exempt females from the rule. Therefore, all persons known to be in arms against the federal authorities of this district will be summarily put to death when they are captured. The only constitutional right that we've granted them will be the right to make a choice of the quality of the rope with which they are to be hung." Well, what did he say? Females, women, are not exempt from this rule.

We'll kill them like we kill anybody else. Now, I want you to contrast General Blunt's attitude with Quantrill's attitude. William Quantrill was viewed as a guerrilla, as an outlaw. All those who rode with him were viewed as outlaws and guerrillas. The James boys rode with him. The Youngers rode with him. The McCorkles rode with him. Quantrill has been known as a bloodthirsty man who just really likes to kill, but that's not true. Here's what Quantrill said to his men. He gave this order. He said, "If I find any man insulting a woman, I'll hang him from the first limb that I come to." Again, Quantrill said this, "There is but one offense for which he would have a man shot. No matter how much a woman may abuse you, take her abuse."

"Let her talk and scold and say nothing to her in resentment. We're fighting men and not women." So Quantrill differed quite differently from these Yankee generals. Consequently, none of Quantrill's men were ever accused of insulting a woman whatsoever. Just to show you how despicable the Union troops were, Federal soldiers had no such code of honor. In the spring of 1862, Mattie Brinker and a number of other young girls were captured by the Federal soldiers and used as human shields as they searched for Confederate guerrillas. They put the young girls in front of them, so if the guerrillas shot at them, they would kill their own daughters or their own girls. It was Captain Henry Flesher, who's a Union captain, he sent, now I want you to remember this, he sent 14 soldiers to capture three Anderson girls.

Their ages were 16, 14, and 10. When the Union soldiers got there, there was a young boy there, 10 or 12 years old. And then they noticed the young boy was missing. And they assumed that he went to notify the guerrillas. And so they put the Anderson girls in front of the lead soldiers on their horses. So if those soldiers got shot at, the girls would get hit first. And so sure enough, as they went down the road, some guerrillas jumped over a stone wall with shotguns, and they had to shoot over the heads of the soldiers and the girls because they weren't going to hit the girls.

And consequently, they really couldn't do anything. And so they got away. And Patrick Reddington, who was the officer in charge of these 14 men, said this, that if any of his men had been hit, he would have ordered the girls shot. 16, 14, and 10. Union General Thomas Ewing and General William T. Sherman, his brother-in-law, held the same view concerning Southerners. General Ewing was assigned to the command of the District of the Border. And he was faced with this seemingly impossible task of stopping these guerrillas, and especially Quantrill's men. So in 1863, he began arresting women who were family members of Quantrill's guerrillas, and other women who were suspected of supporting Quantrill and his men. So, originally now, General Ewing was going to arrest these ladies and charge them with sheltering Union enemies. But he went ahead and ordered General Order Number 10.

Listen to what he said. "All persons who shall knowingly harbor, conceal, aid, or abet by furnishing food, clothing, information, protection, or any assistance whatever to any emissary, Confederate soldier, Confederate officer, partisan ranger, or bushwhacker, robber, or thief shall be promptly executed." So what that means is if a woman had a husband who rode with Quantrill, if he came home and she fed him, she's to be executed. If a child had a father who rode with Quantrill, and he carried in some food or messages, to be executed.

General Ewing's Order No. 10 and Targeting Families

Ewing ordered execution for anyone aiding guerrillas, including women and children. The Kansas City Daily Journal supported removing families to stop the guerrillas.

And consequently, they really couldn't do anything. And so they got away. And Patrick Reddington, who was the officer in charge of these 14 men, said this, that if any of his men had been hit, he would have ordered the girls shot. 16, 14, and 10. Union General Thomas Ewing and General William T. Sherman, his brother-in-law, held the same view concerning Southerners. General Ewing was assigned to the command of the District of the Border. And he was faced with this seemingly impossible task of stopping these guerrillas, and especially Quantrill's men. So in 1863, he began arresting women who were family members of Quantrill's guerrillas, and other women who were suspected of supporting Quantrill and his men. So, originally now, General Ewing was going to arrest these ladies and charge them with sheltering Union enemies. But he went ahead and ordered General Order Number 10.

Listen to what he said. "All persons who shall knowingly harbor, conceal, aid, or abet by furnishing food, clothing, information, protection, or any assistance whatever to any emissary, Confederate soldier, Confederate officer, partisan ranger, or bushwhacker, robber, or thief shall be promptly executed." So what that means is if a woman had a husband who rode with Quantrill, if he came home and she fed him, she's to be executed. If a child had a father who rode with Quantrill, and he carried in some food or messages, to be executed. I'm just simply saying that General Ewing now is wanting to get rid of all these guerrillas and he is having a hard time doing it. And a lot of these women were just simply arrested for what you and I would call pro-Confederate activities or pro-Confederate cheering. Now let me tell you how effective these guerrillas were. If you will read about the war in Missouri, Paul Peterson has two wonderful books on Quantrill in Missouri, "Quantrill of Missouri" and "Quantrill at Lawrence." But in those books, he points out how 4,000 Confederate guerrillas kept 60,000 Union soldiers at bay.

Now, stop and think about that. That seems almost phenomenal. 4,000 guerrillas and 60,000 federal troops, now they weren't fighting 60,000 at one time, it was just 60,000 that were assigned to order the border there under Ewing, but they kept all these soldiers at bay. So here's what these Confederate guerrillas would do. They had their carbines just like the Union had carbines, but the Confederates also had this. They had a pistol on each side, a pistol under each arm. And then they usually had two more around the saddle horn. And so they would line up with the Yankee soldiers and they would let the Yankee soldiers shoot. They would shoot their carbines. They would throw those carbines, let them drop over their shoulder, and then they would run wide open in their horses, just as hard as they can into those Union soldiers.

They'd pull out those pistols and emptied them. And when they got empty, they pulled out two more and emptied them. And when they got empty, they pulled out these other two and emptied them. They couldn't stop them. Because a Union soldier usually only had one carbine. And sometimes he may have a pistol. But that was it. And so these guerrillas were really causing havoc among these Union soldiers. And so what Ewing wants to do now is he wants to clear out the families of the guerrillas.

And so now he's ordering any woman or any child that is sympathetic or helps them in any way to be arrested and executed. Let me show you how the Kansas City Daily Journal supported his move. They wrote, "It is an utter impossibility to rid the country of these pestilent outlaws, partisan rangers." In other words, you're an outlaw if you want to keep your own property. You're an outlaw if you want to defend your own city and your own home. So he said, "It is an utter impossibility to rid the country of these pestilent outlaws, partisan rangers, so long as their families remain." "One of the greatest difficulties the military authorities have to encounter is the constant and correct information which the families of the bushwhackers give of every movement the troop makes. With the aid of these spies dotted all over the country and living in perfect security, a hundred bushwhackers may defy the utmost efforts of five hundred soldiers to eliminate them." And that's true. That is true.

Now, Harrison Trow also wrote with Quantrill. And I want you to listen to what he said, and I'm going to call to your attention something I told you earlier. Harrison Trow said this, "A body of federal troops, especially enrolled and uniformed to persecute women and to prey upon non-combatants gathered up in a half a day's raid, a number of demonstrative Southern girls whose only sin had been extravagant talk and pro-Confederate cheering."

Imprisonment in the Longhorn Tavern and Deliberate Collapse

Women were moved to a building owned by General Bingham. Guards undermined the foundation, and on August 13, 1863, the building collapsed, killing five and maiming Martha Anderson.

"They were taken to Kansas City and imprisoned in a dilapidated tenement close upon a steep place." Wow, now wait a minute. These women originally were imprisoned in the Union Hotel. Then some of the women, who happened to be relatives of Quantrill or Quantrill's men, they were now separated. Notably among these women were Charity McCorkle Kerr, Nanny Harris McCorkle, their husbands Nathan Kerr and Jabez McCorkle, rode with Quantrill, and 18-year-old Nanny McCorkle's cousins were the Youngers by marriage. What most people do not understand is a lot of these Southern families were related. For instance, here you have a Nanny McCorkle's cousins were the Youngers. You know, Cole Younger, Jim, Bob Younger, they were cousins to Jesse and Frank James, who were cousins to the Dalton boys. So all of these families were basically interrelated.

Now, you remember I told you that it was Captain Henry Flesher and 14 men who went to capture the Anderson girls. There was 16-year-old Molly Anderson, her 14-year-old sister Josephine, and her 10-year-old sister Martha. These girls were sisters to Bill Anderson, who later on got the nickname Bloody Bill Anderson. Also arrested were these girls, Susan Crawford Vandiver and Armina Crawford Selby. Names that you will hear if you listen to my message on the life and death of Riley Crawford.

Now, even General Ewing had a nemesis, another Union general, George Caleb Bingham. Bingham happened to be an artist, and there is a wonderful painting by George Caleb Bingham against General Ewing's general order number 10, where he basically ordered everybody out of the country. So you can look that up and see that painting itself. But Union General Bingham said this about this order. He said, and I quote him, "These females were arrested and confined under the pretext of holding them as hostages for the good behavior of their brothers, husbands, or relatives." "Who were supposed to be in sympathy with or actually engaged in the Confederate cause. Simply stated," now this is another Union general, "simply stated they had done no wrong, were being used for wicked, vindictive purposes, and were unlawfully and illegally arrested." Well, at first these women were put in that Union hotel, that is true, and now they're being separated and especially these with Quantrill and his men.

And now they're being imprisoned in the Mechanics Bank at Delaware and Commercial, which was an old building and it was down a steep incline right on the edge of the river. And this building became so infested with vermin and with rats, it was totally and completely unhealthy. Not just for the women, but even for the guards. Now, I want you to listen. Here is a woman who was there. She said this, Maddy Likens is her name. "As a place of imprisonment for such as this city, an old dilapidated brick building on the levee was taken possession of by the military authorities and set apart as a prison for rebel women. After the building had been occupied as such for some time, it became infested with rats and vermin of all kinds so as to render it unfit for human beings to live in."

"Even the health of the guards who had access to the river for bathing suffered from so much the stench and torture of the vermin as to lead them to appeal to headquarters for a change of location." They weren't interested for changing for the women in prison. But the guard said, "We can't handle this, we can't stay here." And so eventually they moved these ladies into the metropolitan block of McGee's addition known as the Longhorn Tavern. Now what General Thomas Ewing did was he took this building without notifying the owner that he was taking the building. He did not ask permission. He just simply took possession of this building in July of 1863 and proclaimed it as a women's prison. At first he tried to deny it, but then there was a letter produced, and this was his signature on it. It says, "This certifies that a certain house in McGee's addition to Kansas City, Missouri, known as Number 13 Metropolitan Block, was occupied as a prison by my order from some day in the latter part of July 1863 until the 13th day of August last when it fell."

Now, here's the interesting thing. The building which General Ewing confiscated without permission, without the knowledge of the owner. The owner happened to be his nemesis, General George Caleb Bingham. Bingham was an artist. He had inherited the building from his father-in-law, Robert Thomas, who had died. Then General Bingham, being an artist, wanted a room especially for his artwork. And so he hired an architect, they added a third floor to the building, and he used that as an art studio until George Caleb Bingham then was called and nominated to be the treasurer of Missouri, and so then he took his family and he moved to Jefferson City, which is the capital of Missouri. And so then this building had been unoccupied, and so General Ewing just simply took it. I'm sure that he knew that it belonged to General Bingham. Now, the women, while they were in this building, were treated horribly.

Their food was actually thrown at them and thrown to them sometimes. The guards sang ribald songs, they used suggestive language, they used unhealthy and ungodly language. I mean, they just simply, they could care less about them. So, if you doubt the inhumane treatment that these women received, you need to consider the fact that Charity McCorkle Kerr was ill with a fever, very sick because of improper diet and exposure. The other women were not doing well, but they were attempting to supervise and work with the ones who were weaker and sicker. Ten-year-old Martha Anderson had upset the guards, had made them angry, and in response, they took a 12-pound ball and chain and put it around her ankle. So here's a little 10-year-old girl trying to pull around a 12-pound ball and chain every time she walked.

Now, it is almost inconceivable for you and I to think of the anger of the hatred and of the ill will that most of the Yankees had toward Southerners. And the very fact that these were women and children made absolutely no difference. The guards looking at this building determined that it could be very easily undermined. In fact, it was a middle building between two other buildings. And if the middle building was brought down, then the other buildings would fall as well. And so the guards then began secretly going in and trying to undermine the foundation of the building. They would begin removing blocks, rocks, sleepers. And of course, the walls started to crack and the ceiling started to give way. In the building to the left, there were some grocers. And they noticed the same thing and they knew the building was in danger. And so they began to move all their groceries out and find them another place to sell their groceries. Well, the women complained. So General Ewing then sent someone to investigate. And when he investigated the walls and the cracks, he came back and said, "It's fine."

So there were more complaints because it continued to deteriorate. And so a second investigation was set. And of course, they came back again and said, "Well, everything is just fine." But everybody knew that it was not just fine. On August the 13th, it was Captain Parker who requested Thomas Barber to go with him and to inspect that building one last time. As they were up on the third floor, they saw the walls begin to separate. They knew the building was coming down. So they fled as fast as they could to get out of that building. And all they had time to do was to scream at the women and tell them the building was falling. They waited until the guards left to get water, and they went under that building and pulled out the last sleeper with a rope, where the building would collapse. When it fell, it collapsed the corporal building with it as well. The women were screaming.

They headed for the windows and the doors and the balconies. All but five of the ladies escaped with their lives. Those killed instantly were Susan Crawford Vandiver, Armina Crawford Selvey, Josephine Anderson, Charity McCorkle Kerr and Mrs. Wilson, who was also injured, died later. That was five that were killed. Ten-year-old Martha Anderson, because she had that 12-pound ball and chain, could not run. Her legs were crushed. She had other damages. She never walked again. And Josephine Anderson was buried in the ruins.

Aftermath: Blame, Cover-up, and Quantrill's Revenge

Union authorities blamed the women or a windstorm. General Bingham called it deliberate murder. The atrocity directly caused Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas, on August 21, 1863.

Bricks were on top of her head, all over her body. Piteous cries came from that pile of bricks. "Please help me. Please take the bricks off my face. Please, please." Until there was nothing. She had died. At first, the Federals tried to blame the collapse of that building upon the women. They said the women were in the basement trying to dig themselves out and escape. Really? The women were confined on the second and third floor with guards. They could not get to the basement. The next explanation was that a windstorm came and took the building out. Really? A windstorm in Kansas in August? And since it was the middle building, a windstorm would have had to have taken all three buildings out.

That was not going to fly. Some suggested that the building fell because of its age and deterioration. Well, the truth of the matter is the building was built in 1857 and it was only six years old. Moreover, there were affidavits saying that the building was in excellent shape before General Ewing took it as a woman's prison. General George Caleb Bingham, who owned the building, filed a claim against the federal government for $5,000 in damages, insisting that the building collapsed by the intentional undermining by the Union troops who were intent on murdering the women. I want you to listen to what this Yankee General Bingham said concerning Yankee General Thomas Ewing. At least Bingham had a little bit of character. He wrote this.

This was published in the Washington Sentinel. He said that "the building fell with the force of a mountain avalanche upon the ruins of the adjoining buildings, thus producing a scene of horror in the death groans and shrieks of mangled women, which fiends could only contemplate without a shudder. In vain had they, upon the first discovery of the danger, begged in piteous accents to be released. Their earnest appeals were to hearts as callous as that of the general by whose authority they were confined." "While their prison walls were trembling, its doors remained closed, and they were allowed no hope for release except through the portals of a horrible death into that eternity where, in that great day, which is to right all wrongs, they will stand as a witness against the human monster, who, to promote his selfish aspirations, could cruelly plan, with satanic coolness, the desolation of a large district of the country and the utter ruin of its defenseless inhabitants. That the death of these poor women, crushed beneath the ruins of their prison, was a deliberately planned murder, all the facts connected therewith sufficiently established."

Even Union General Bingham said they murdered them. They killed them. The federal soldiers who were doing the undermining would always eat, some were even boarding at the B.F. Dykes, or Duke, boarding house. And Mrs. Duke would oftentimes overhear these soldiers talking about the progress they were making undermining the building. She herself then went to General Ewing and begged for the women to be moved and he refused. What they didn't know was Mrs. Duke was a cousin of Bill Anderson. There were numerous affidavits that supported the fact that the building was maliciously and deliberately destroyed. Builders, eyewitnesses, and all kinds of citizens testified that that building was in excellent condition before it was demolished. A federal surgeon before they ever began picking through the ruins, said, "You will never find a Federal soldier under those ruins." And they never did. The fact that there was no inquiry made by General Ewing, and no soldier was ever arrested or tried or punished for the crime which would shock the sentiments of every decent individual, demonstrates the fact that General Ewing was the man who ordered it.

The collapse of the prison at 1425 Grand, Kansas City, Missouri on August 13, 1863 was nothing less than malignant murder and butchery and savagery perpetrated against innocent women and children. I want to tell you something. You need to understand a lot of this stuff that has happened is all interconnected. Remember, these women and children were wives and sisters and daughters of folks who rode with Quantrill. When the news of the collapse of this building reached the families of those who rode with Quantrill, they went wild. They understood it's one thing to make war against men, but it's another thing to make war against women and children. At their grave, John McCorkle, who was the scout for Quantrill. I have a message on Quantrill's fateful scout, which was John McCorkle. John McCorkle's the only one who ever drew a gun on Quantrill and lived. But anyhow, that's another story. But at their graves, John McCorkle said this, listen, he said this foul murder.

I told you everything's related. This foul murder was the direct cause of the famous raid on Lawrence, Kansas. We could stand no more. Imagine if you can my feelings. A loved sister foully murdered, and the wife of a dead brother seriously hurt by a set of men to whom the name assassins, murderers, and cutthroats would be a compliment. People abuse us, but did we not have enough to make us desperate and thirst for revenge? We tried to fight like soldiers, but were declared outlaws, hunted under a black flag, and murdered like beasts. The homes of our friends burned, our aged sires who dare sympathize with us had been either hung or shot in the presence of their families, and all their furniture and provisions loaded in wagons and with our livestock taken to the state of Kansas.

The beautiful farming country of Jackson County, Cass County, and Johnson County were worse than desert, and on every hillside stood lone blackened chimneys as sentinels and monuments to the memory of our once happy homes. And these outrages had been done by Kansas troops, calling themselves soldiers, but a disgrace to the name of a soldier. And now our innocent and beautiful girls have been murdered in a most foul and brutal and savage and damnable way. This was August the 13th, 1863. Do you know what happened on August the 21st, 1863? That was the raid on Lawrence, Kansas. It was this murder of the women and children that Quantrill and his men said, "We've had enough. We've had enough." When Quantrill raided Lawrence, Kansas, he had a list of names of 180 men who were to be killed. They were especially trying to capture Senator Jim Lane.

You'll hear more about him later. And Jennison, wicked, wicked, ungodly men. But Jim Lane escaped by fleeing in his nightshirt and hiding in a cornfield. To show you the attitude, James C. Edwards wrote this short poem on the raid of Lawrence, and I think it expresses the feelings not only of those men, but probably of most Southerners if that had happened to us. He wrote this. "Men at war never war with women, but women of the South they take to an ancient cell which killed as it fell with the aid of the Union's weight. We're going to ride, we're going to track you down, we're going to burn Lawrence to the ground." When they arrived in Lawrence, Kansas, Quantrill said this to his men, "Boys, this is the home of Jim Lane and Jennison."

"Remember, that in hunting us they gave us no quarter, shoot every soldier that you see, but in no wise harm a woman or a child." Frank Smith recalled that Quantrill also shouted, "Molest no women or children, kill every man in federal uniform." I want you to understand when Bloody Bill Anderson was killed, he had that silk handkerchief with 56 knots in it for the 56 Yankees that he had killed. It was after this. There was no quarter. No mercy. When Quantrill's men attacked Lawrence, Kansas, they shouted, "Remember the women and remember Osceola." You say, "What in the world is Osceola?" Osceola was a town in Missouri. I said it was.

Applications: Sowing and Reaping, Modern Tyranny

Weaver applies Galatians 6:7-8, warning that government tyranny continues today. Christians must teach their children biblical truth and trust God, as the war between righteousness and ungodliness persists.

Let me make a couple of quick applications. The first one is this. Galatians 6:7-8 is exceedingly true in every area. When God says, "Be not deceived, whatsoever you sow, that's exactly what you're going to reap. If you sow to the flesh, you're going to reap of the flesh corruption. If you sow to the spirit, you're going to reap of the spirit life." That is true. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Sooner or later, sooner or later, you're going to reap exactly that which you sow. Mark it down. That's exactly what happened to these Yankees. They reaped exactly that which they sowed. Hey, here's another one. Listen to this.

If you find it difficult to believe that the government, the government would commit such a heinous act in 1863, you're not prepared to live in the 21st century. Because a government that considers its citizens expendable and does not seek to protect them will use them, abuse them, and misuse them any way it sees fit. Cannon fodder or just sheep to be sheared, it does not matter. A parallel now exists. In our day and time. Between the one world government, the great reset and biblical Christianity. Do you realize you and I are looked upon today as fanatics? Right wingers. White supremacists. Racist. Dogmatist. I'm just simply pointing out the fact. Look at everything that's being or trying to be forced upon people today, not only public education, but vaccination. All I'm trying to tell you, folks, is this: the war still exists. It is a war between the righteous and the ungodly.

War is war and it's never really, really stopped. I get so frustrated when I hear these people and I sympathize with them, but I get so frustrated when they go to the school boards and they start talking about all the transgenderism, all the sodomy and all that. No, no, no, no, no. You don't take your children out. Teach them yourself. You say I'm not qualified. Yes, you are.

I got news for you. I still know more than my children. I knew more when I was younger. I still know more. My father knew more than I did. I'm just simply saying we need to understand we're at war and we need to teach the biblical principles of truth and righteousness. And we need to learn to trust in the Lord and not in man. There's still a war against women and children, including men.

I wish I had time. If you've never read Rushdoony's book, "The American Indian," I would encourage you to do that. It's a little short book. Did you know that Rushdoony was a missionary to Indians for 11 years? Did you know that? In that book, he demonstrates how the federal government destroyed the American Indian. In the next section, how it destroyed the black folks. And now in the last section, he's shown how it's destroying the white folks. That's a fact. That's a fact.

We're still at war and they're still trying to eliminate us and destroy us. I'm thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church. Thank you, Father, for your love, your grace, your mercy, goodness and kindness. Help us, Lord, to love thee, live for thee and honor thee. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.