The federal commander, General Ewing, issues the controversial Order Number 11 at the end of August, 1863, which mandates that all residents of the Missouri counties of Bates, Cass, Jackson and Vernon counties south of present-day Kansas City, evacuate the area.
The only exceptions are those who live within one mile of any large city.
The order effectively expels all citizens from the western border of Missouri and confiscates their property to federal authorities.
The order, its purpose the denial of protection to the pro-slavery guerrillas in an area that was sympathetic to them, is then given to Jim Lane and his Redlegs to be carried out.
All towns are burned, crops destroyed and animals confiscated. (For many years after the Civil War the area will continue to be called the “Burnt District”.)
