Cinders and Silence: A Chronicle of Missouri's Burnt District, 1854 - 1870

Cinders and Silence provides the first chronicle of Missouri's Burnt District.  Between 1854 and 1870, three western Missouri border counties plunged from prosperity to devastation, and finally, to oblivion.  The border conflict between Missouri and the Kansas Territory intensified during the Civil War.  Revenge driven, Kansans leveled western Missouri between 1861 and 1863.  In August 1863, William Quantrill's retaliatory raid on Lawrence, Kansas triggered General Orders No. 11.  Within six weeks the district suffered depopulation and total destruction.  Historical silence shrouded the tragedy for decades.  Cinders and Silence recovers the history and breaks the silence. 

This hardback history contains thirty-three (33) maps, forty-nine (49) photographs, and four (4) original artist renderings, within 290 narrative pages.