Marais des Cygnes massacre

Marais des Cygnes Massacre Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
The site in 2021
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Nearest city	Trading Post, Kansas
Coordinates	38°16′52″N 94°37′12″W / 38.28111°N 94.62000°W / 38.28111; -94.62000
Area	43 acres (17 ha)
NRHP reference No.	71000317
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	June 21, 1971
Designated NHL	May 30, 1974

The Marais des Cygnes massacre (/ˌmɛər də ˈziːn, - ˈsiːn, ˈmɛər də ziːn/,^[1][2] also /məˌriː də ˈsiːn, məˌreɪ də ˈseɪn/)^{[citation needed]} is considered the last significant act of violence in Bleeding Kansas prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. On May 19, 1858, approximately 30 border ruffians led by Charles Hamilton, a Georgia native and proslavery leader, crossed into the Kansas Territory from Missouri. They arrived at Trading Post, Kansas, in the morning and then headed back to Missouri. Along the way, they captured 11 abolitionist Free-Staters, none of whom were armed and, it is said, none of whom had participated in the ongoing violence. Most of the men knew Hamilton and apparently did not realize he meant them harm. These prisoners were led into a defile, where Hamilton ordered his men to shoot, firing the first and last bullet himself. Five men were killed and five severely wounded. Only one Free-Stater escaped injury.^[3]

The abolitionist John Brown later built a fort near the site. The site of the massacre is preserved by the Kansas Historical Society as the Marais des Cygnes Massacre State Historic Site, originally called the Marais des Cygnes Massacre Memorial Park.^[4] The first commemoration at the site was two stone markers erected by men of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry Regiment in 1864, although these monuments had been destroyed by souvenir hunters by 1895. In 1941, the land where the massacre occurred, as well as an 1870s-era house constructed by a friend of Brown, were transferred to the state of Kansas. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974.