Fort Montgomery (Linn County) (Linn County, five miles west of Mound City, Kansas)
Linn County, five miles west of Mound City · Kansas · Civil War
History & Significance
James Montgomery was born in 1813 in Ohio. He began as a schoolteacher and minister but soon turned into a determined abolitionist.
Seeking to escape slavery's reach, he moved with his family to Linn County in 1854. His first cabin was burned by pro-slavery raiders in 1855, and the Montgomery family often had to sleep on the floor to avoid flying bullets.
Out of necessity, James built a new kind of cabin in 1857—a structure as much a fort as a home. The log house had logs set vertically, so cleverly and accurately put together that there was nowhere a crevice big enough for a bullet.
It was larger than the average log house, being sixteen by twenty-four feet. The cabin had a cellar used to shelter fugitive slaves and was also an escape for Colonel Montgomery through a tunnel that went into the mound located near the structure.
Colonel Montgomery was the free-state leader of a group of men called the "immortal fifty" who with their Sharp's rifles and proficient horsemanship became known as the Kansas Jayhawkers. They were a force in the "Bleeding Kansas" era of 1854-1861.
During the Civil War, he was commissioned as a colonel and commanded African American troops in South Carolina. He even worked with Harriet Tubman on raids that freed hundreds of enslaved people. In 1862, just days before the Emancipation Proclamation, Montgomery met with President Abraham Lincoln.
Key Facts
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Montgomery_(Linn_County)
- https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=93375
- https://www.moundcity.org/fort-montgomery/
- https://moundcityhistoricpark.com/exhibit/james-montgomery-fort/
- https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/montgomery-james
- https://www.kansashistory.gov/kansapedia/linn-county-kansas/15309