Battle of the Spurs - Jackson County, KS
Posted by: 
The Snowdog
N 39° 32.647 W 095° 43.762
15S E 265462 N 4380718
The "Battle of the Spurs" occurred at the Fuller Cabin - in north Jackson County, Kansas.
Waymark Code: WM18N4Q
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 08/27/2023
Views: 0
The "Battle of the Spurs" was a bloodless skirmish between Kansas deputies and John Brown's abolitionists, prior to the U.S. Civil War. The following account is drawn from the
Wikipedia article and from the text of two historical markers nearby:
One witness to this event wrote that it was "no joke" to attack old John Brown. The abolitionist inspired such terror that in January 1859 a U.S. Marshal fled at the very sight of him. Brown, escorting eleven slaves along the Underground Railroad from Missouri (a slave state) to freedom in Iowa, was discovered here at the Albert Fuller Cabin on Straight Creek. Marshal John Wood hid in a nearby stream crossing with about thirty-five deputies (all hoping to claim a portion of the $3000 reward for Brown's capture) while Free Staters abandoned their Sunday church services and marched overnight from Topeka to support Brown. Even with reinforcements Brown's party was outnumbered two to one and included women and children, but declaring that he would not be turned from "the path of the Lord" Brown defiantly ordered his party to ford the creek. "Scarcely had the foremost entered the water," one man recalled, when the posse mounted and "spurred away." Mocking the posse's retreat, a newspaperman dubbed this the "Battle of the Spurs." Brown and his party reached Iowa unharmed.
There is no parking, save at the side of the road. The site includes a mock-up of the Fuller Cabin and silhouette artwork commemorating the Underground Railroad.