This fort was taken by assault, and Col. Titus and his
men were taken prisoners, while Major Sedjwick, with a company of
United States troops, was encamped only two miles away. The citizens
of Lecompton were frightened out of their wits, and Gov. Shannon was
found under the bank of the Kansas River, badly demoralized, and
trying to get across the river on an old scow, and thus escape the
danger. He came the next day to Lawrence, accompanied by Maj.
Sedjwick, to make peace and negotiate an exchange of prisoners, He
announced this as his last official act, and exhorted the people in a
speech he made to them, to live in peace with each other, while they
shouted in angry retort, "Give us back Barber and the men that have
been murdered under your rule."
But in spite of all these reverses that had come upon the "Law and
Order" party, they still had faith that Providence is on the side of
the heaviest battalions, and that they would yet succeed in driving
out these Free State rebels; and they proceeded to raise, along the
Missouri border, a larger army than it would be possible for the Free
State people to raise.
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