Dear Sir:  After receiving the cattle and making arrangements for their keeping at Leroy I went and paid a visit to the Ruins of Humboldt which certainly present a gloomy appearance.  All the best part of the town was burnt.  Thurstons House that I had rented for an office tho near half a mile from town was burnt tho his dwelling and mill near by were spared.  All my books and papers that were there were lost.  My trunk and what little me and my son had left after the sacking were all burnt including to Land Warrents one 160 acres and one 120.  Our Minne Rifle and ammunition Saddle bridle, etc....  About 4 or 5 Hundred Sacks of Whitney’s Corn were burnt.  As soon as I can I will try to make out a list of the Papers from the (cont.)]

him, if possible, in the rear.  Governor Robinson was much opposed[110] to any such provocative and apparently purposeless action, no one knowing better than he Lane’s vindictive mercilessness.  Lane persisted notwithstanding Robinson’s objections and, for the time being, found his policies actually endorsed by Prince at Fort Leavenworth.[111] The attack upon Humboldt, having revealed the exposed condition of the settlements north of the Osage lands, necessitated his leaving a much larger force in his own rear than he had intended.[112] It also made it seem advisable for him to order the building of a series of stockades, the one of most immediate interest being at Leroy.[113] By the fourteenth of September, Lane found himself within twenty-four miles of Harrisonville but Price still far ahead.  On the twenty-second, having made a detour for the purpose of destroying some of his opponent’s stores, he performed the atrocious and downright inexcusable exploit of burning Osceola.[114] Lexington, besieged, had fallen into Price’s hands two days before.  Thus had the foolish Federal practice of acting in

[Footnote 109:  (cont.) Department [that] were burnt.  As I had some at Leavenworth I cannot do so til I see what is there.  As Mr. Hutchinson is not here I leave this morning for the Kaw Agency to endeavour to carry out your Instructions there and will return here as soon as I get through there.  They are building some stone houses here and I am much pleased with the result.  The difference in cost is not near so much as we expected but I will write you fully on a careful examination as you requested.  Very respectfully your obedient Servant

W.G.  COFFIN, Superintendent of Indian Affairs
Southern Superintendency

[Indian Office Files, Southern Superintendency, C 1432 of 1861]]

[Footnote 110:  Official Records, vol. iii, 468-469.]

[Footnote 111:—­Ibid., 483.]

[Footnote 112:—­Ibid., 490.]

[Footnote 113:—­Ibid.]

[Footnote 114:—­Ibid., 196; vol. liii, supplement, 743; Britton, Civil War on the Border, vol. i, 147-148; Connelley, Quantrill and the Border Wars, 208-209, 295.]