Rugged and remote southwest Missouri, more than…

Rugged and remote southwest Missouri, more than any other area, becomes the battleground of vicious and cruel guerrilla fighting between sympathizers of the Confederate and Union sides.

Past tensions between Kansas Jayhawkers and Missouri Bushwhackers have evolved into full-blown guerrilla warfare.

The most notorious of the guerrilla fighters who sympathize with the anti-slavery cause are Jim Lane's Kansas Redlegs, whose name stems from their trademark red leather leggings.

Lane, a U.S. Senator from Kansas and a fanatic abolitionist, initially has the blessing of the Federal government and his force is paid from government funds.

On September 22, 1861, Lane's Redlegs raid Osceola, an important river town with two thousand residents, and kill nine Southern sympathizers.

Burning and destroying the town, they load its contents onto confiscated wagons and haul the loot back to Kansas, also taking three hundred and sixty horses, four hundred head of cattle, and two hundred enslaved people.