Battle of Fort Blair

The Battle of Fort Blair, sometimes called the Fort Baxter Massacre, or the Battle of Baxter Springs, was a minor battle of the American Civil War, fought on October 6, 1863, near the present-day town of Baxter Springs, Kansas.

In late 1863, Quantrill's Raiders, a large Confederate guerrilla band, was traveling south through Kansas along the Texas Road to winter in Texas. Numbering about 300, this group captured and killed two Union teamsters who had come from a small Federal Army post called Fort Blair (also known as Fort Baxter).

Quantrill decided to attack Fort Baxter and divided his force into two columns, one under him and the other commanded by a subordinate, David Poole. Poole and his men proceeded down the Texas Road, where they encountered Union soldiers, most of whom were African Americans. They chased and attacked the Union troops, killing some before the soldiers reached the earth and log Fort Blair. The garrison there consisted of about 25 cavalry and 65-70 infantry men of the United States Colored Troops.

Poole's column attacked the fort, but the garrison fought them off. Moving out on to the prairie, Quantrill's column happened to encounter a Union detachment escorting Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, who was moving his command headquarters from Fort Scott eastward to Fort Smith, Arkansas. They greatly outnumbered the Union forces.

Taking the Federals by surprise, Quantrill's column killed most of the detachment, including the military band, Maj. Henry Z. Curtis (son of Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis), and Johnny Fry (first official westbound rider of the Pony Express), a total of 103 men. When a few men escaped to Fort Baxter, soldiers went out to find Blunt and survivors; there were few. Blunt was removed from command for failing to protect his column, but he was soon restored.

Union supporters called the killings a massacre; the conflict at Baxter Springs was characteristic of the vicious Kansas-Missouri border warfare. Fort Baxter was temporarily reinforced but by the end of 1863, the Union Army pulled its troops back to Fort Scott, which was better fortified. Before abandoning the fort, US forces demolished it and took away everything usable, to avoid its being used by the enemy.

Baxter Springs later developed as the first "cow town" in Kansas, a way station for cattle drives to markets and railroads further north. By 1875 it had a population estimated at 5,000.