At dawn on June 2, 1856, the abolitionist John Brown led a Free-State militia in an attack on the camp of a pro-slavery militia led by Henry Clay Pate. Pate and his men had been scouring the countryside looking for Brown, and were camped at a popular camping ground along the Santa Fe Trail near Black Jack Creek in southeastern Douglas County, Kansas Territory. Although Pate’s forces held the superior position and outnumbered those of Brown, he was forced to surrender after three hours of intense fighting, thereby ended what John Brown later called “the first regular battle fought between Free-State and Pro-Slavery men in Kansas.”

Kansas saw the first armed conflict over slavery. Brown himself identified the Battle of Black Jack as the first such battle in Kansas. Because of this, we consider it to be the first battle in the American Civil War.

To access a map of the Battle of Black Jack titled Prelude to War, published by the Lawrence Journal-World for the 150th anniversary of the Battle, click here.