I have lived in Kansas for over 25 years and have always wondered why the Kansas historians neglect to write about Jennison's Jayhawkers.

It is my opinion that the Kansas Historical Museum and the Lecompton Constitutional Hall have hidden the facts about the Jayhawkers for a reason. Their argument is simple: Missouri people were murderous, ruffians and the Kansas people were all innocent and pure. It is no wonder that this book is not sold in either of their museum books stores.

This book is an interesting read, well documented and is used as a reference source in fourteen Missouri/Kansas Border War books that I have read.

This is your chance to learn the truth about the Jayhawkers. If you are a Kansan it just might change your point of view.

This is a buy!

Jennison's Jayhawkers, also known as the 7th Kansas Cavalry (not to be confused with the postwar 7th US Cavalry of Little Bighorn fame) were major players in one of the most vicious theatres of the Civil War: the Kansas-Missouri border. This book tells the story of the origins of that conflict, the importance of the issue of slavery in the region, and the detailed history of one of the most infamous formations in US military history.

There is a certain class of professorial writer who avoids being dry and ends up writing a pretty entertaining book while remaining focused in a proper academic manner, and it's a joy to encounter him or her. Starr definitely qualifies; his style is pleasant and holds one's interest. He poses excellent questions and does his best to answer them, always with the honesty to admit where he is surmising or conjecturing. I'd definitely be open to reading more of his work; it feels like a discussion with a learned historian in easy chairs over a libation.

What is really odd about it is I found myself going back and forth between sobered sadness and laughter. As someone with a proud Kansan heritage, to read that Kansans committed atrocities (and there is no doubt at all that they did), retaliatory or not, is always saddening; I suspect other Kansans reading the book might feel similarly. Yet how can one not laugh at, for example, this snippet summing up the battle of Valverde: "On February 21 the two forces clashed at Valverde, a short distance north of the fort, and the balance of inexperience and incompetence being slightly in Sibley's favor, Canby was defeated." The cast of colourful characters in Kansas military politics during the Civil War gives Starr many such opportunities to amuse us, and he makes the most of them with wry wit.

If you're interested in why Kansas and Missouri have a rivalry but that it mostly manifests in good-natured kidding, this book will tell you why: we both know from history what it is like when the rivalry is not good-natured, and we aren't going there again--best to keep it to the sports arena. Strongly recommended for anyone interested in Civil War history, Kansas history or Missouri history.

This book tells the story of the infamous 7th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War, from mustering in through Union leadership's efforts to stop their depredations to war's end and mustering out.

A lot about this book impressed me. First and foremost, it's fair. There is no getting around it; atrocities were committed on both sides, and the 7th Kansas perpetrated their share. Yet they are given credit for being a pretty good cavalry regiment once forced into a major army where they could be watched, the only caveat being that if not constantly monitored they would still steal anything that wasn't solidly embedded in concrete. I liked the discussion of the Kansas politics that lay behind the formation of the regiment; Starr makes clear that the 7th Kansas was not an aberration, but was a fairly natural--if regrettable--outgrowth of the sentiment of the times.

A treat for anyone interested in Kansas history, the history of abolitionism, or Civil War history. Also recommended to those reading up on the history of Missouri, on the grounds that their state was the prime target for Jennison's Jayhawkers--perhaps it will promote some healing of any wounds that linger yet today, on the grounds that Quantrill's atrocities have up to now been heavily focused upon but those of the 7th Kansas largely brushed off. Here, at last, they are the main topic.

Many people do not realize that by the time the Civil War began, Kansas and Missouri had been fighting a nasty little war for six years. After you read this book you'll know, and you'll probably be glad that the closest thing to it today is the annual KU vs. UM football matchup, and that the kidding between the states is lighthearted. As a son of Kansas, I sure am.