[Illustration:  General John W. Geary.]

  [Sidenote] Examination, Senate Ex.  Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. 
  Vol.  II., pp. 156-69.

Nothing could more forcibly demonstrate the unequal character of the contest between the slave-State and the free-State men in Kansas, even in these manoeuvres and conflicts of civil war, than the companion exploit to this third Lawrence raid.  The day before Governor Geary, seconded by the “cannon” argument of Colonel Cooke, was convincing the reluctant Missourians that it was better to accept, as a reward for their unfinished expedition, the pay, rations, and honorable discharge of a “muster out,” rather than the fine, imprisonment, or halter to which the full execution of their design would render them liable, another detachment of Federal dragoons was enforcing the bogus laws upon a company of free-State men who had just had a skirmish with a detachment of this same invading army of Border Ruffians, at a place called Hickory Point.  The encounter itself had all the usual characteristics of the dozens of similar affairs which occurred during this prolonged period of border warfare—­a neighborhood feud; neighborhood violence; the appearance of organized bands for retaliation; the taking of forage, animals, and property; the fortifying of two or three log-houses by a pro-slavery company then on its way to join in the Lawrence attack, and finally the appearance of a more numerous free-State party to dislodge them.  The besieging column, some 350 in number, had brought up a brass four-pounder, lately captured from the pro-slavery men, and with this and their rifles kept up a long-range fire for about six hours, when the garrison of Border Ruffians capitulated on condition of being allowed “honorably” to evacuate their stronghold and retire.  The casualties were one man killed and several wounded.

  [Sidenote] Gihon, p. 158.

  [Sidenote] Record of examination, Senate Ex.  Doc., 3d Sess. 34th Cong. 
  Vol.  II., pp. 156-9.

The rejoicing of the free-State men over this not too brilliant victory was short-lived.  Returning home in separate squads, they were successively intercepted by the Federal dragoons acting as a posse to the Deputy United States Marshal,[16] who arrested them on civil writs obtained in haste by an active member of the territorial cabal, and to the number of eighty-nine[17] were taken prisoners to Lecompton.  So far the affair had been of such frequent occurrence as to have become commonplace—­a frontier “free fight,” as they themselves described and regarded it.  But now it took on a remarkable aspect.  Sterling G. Cato, one of the pro-slavery territorial judges, had been found by Governor Geary in the Missouri camp drilling and doing duty as a soldier, ready and doubtless more than willing to take part in the projected sack of Lawrence.  This Federal judge, as open a law-breaker as the Hickory Point prisoners (the