Marais des Cygnes Massacre

Only one of the raiders was ever brought to trial. William Griffith of Bates County, Missouri, was convicted of first-degree murder in October 1863 and hanged on October 30, more than five years after the killings. The leader, spelled Hamelton here and Hamilton in many accounts, rode back to Missouri with his men. John Brown came to the ground that summer and built a two-story log fort south of the ravine, then abandoned it. Whittier's poem, Le Marais du Cygne, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in September 1858.

What the plaque says

Marais des Cygnes Massacre Nothing in the struggle over slavery in Kansas did more to inflame the nation than the mass killing which took place May 19, 1858, about four miles northeast of this marker. Charles Hamelton who had been driven from the territory by Free-State men, retaliated by invading the county with about 30 Missourians. Capturing 11 Free-State men, he marched them to a ravine and lined them up before a firing squad. Five were killed, five were wounded and one escaped by feigning death. The site and adjoining land, occupied for a time by John Brown, are preserved in a state memorial park. A monument bearing lines from Whittier's tribute to the victims stands in Trading Post cemetery south of here. The town received its name from an Indian trading post established about 1834. A monument just east of the river marks the site. Here, also, in January 1859, John Brown dated his famous "Parallels." Erected by Kansas Historical Society and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Site — 7.8 mi
  The Linn County ford where some 2,500 Union cavalrymen charged about 7,000 of Sterling Price's retreating Confederates in October 1864 and broke them against the creek.
• John Brown Museum State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The log cabin of Samuel and Florella Adair at Osawatomie, Oberlin-trained abolitionists whose home was an Underground Railroad station and the headquarters of Florella's half brother, John Brown.

More markers nearby

• Battle of Mine Creek — 7.7 mi
• John Brown Country — 23 mi