Ballots and Bullets: The Bloody County Seat Wars of Kansas

by Robert K. DeArment, Richard Maxwell Brown (Foreword by)

Overview

“Bleeding Kansas” has earned its name. A state already scarred from the violence wrought by the likes of John Brown and William Quantrill, Kansas witnessed further episodes of wanton bloodshed in the late nineteenth century when settlers poured into a supposedly peaceful frontier.

Focusing on the tumultuous years 1885–1892, Robert K. DeArment’s compelling narrative is the first to reveal the complete story of the county seat wars that raged in Kansas—controversial episodes that made national news in the late 1900s but are largely unknown today.

With a story populated by some of the most notorious characters of the West—including Sam Wood, Theodosius Botkin, Bat Masterson, and Bill Tilghman—Ballots and Bullets relives the violence that only avarice can breed. Ordinary, decent citizens were drawn into bitter conflicts to advance their own communities and block the fortunes of other towns, even if it meant using hired gunmen.

Gripping and historically accurate, DeArment’s account reveals a shocking chapter in the history of the West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806137841
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	11/01/2006
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Robert K. DeArment (1925–2021) was a University of Toledo, Ohio, graduate whose research and writing focused on nineteenth-century American history, especially outlaws and law enforcement in the frontier West. He is the author of Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend and the three-volume Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West.

Richard Maxwell Brown is the author of the award-winning No Duty to Retreat.