Armed Troops in Washington D.C....Again?

THE OVERLOOK

Welcome to the debut of “The Overlook,” a column that will appear twice a week. An overlook is usually a place from which one can see in many if not all directions, including where one has been and where one is going. There is no political or personal agenda at work here other than to tell stories that from time to time will have a particular relevance. If you enjoy the column, please subscribe.

            The images in newspapers and on the internet during this past week of troops in the nation’s capital on guard against an invasion of domestic terrorists have been startling. One fears for what will happen on Inauguration Day this week and for the safety of the new President going forward. One might think there has never been such a scene in Washington D.C. before, with troops having to protect a new commander in chief against attack. However, oddly, Kansas, of all states, played a big role in a similar scenario.

By January 1861, Kansas had become a state, and its first two senators were S.C. Pomeroy and James Lane. The latter had had a colorful career even before he arrived in Kansas six years earlier. Born in Indiana in 1814, Lane followed in his father’s footsteps and became a lawyer. Then he developed interests in the military and politics, the first while serving in an Indiana regiment of volunteers in the war against Mexico, and after he returned, becoming the state’s lieutenant governor in 1849. Four years later, Lane traded in the state capital for the nation’s when he was elected to Congress. The debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which he voted for) inspired Lane to see the territory for himself, and in 1855, he traveled to Lawrence. Remarkably, he would soon be leading what was known as the Free State Army. Given his relatively scant military experience, he was not immediately hailed as a leader come to save the free state cause. But his timing was good because the so-called Wakarusa War – a series of skirmishes between Free-Staters and pro-slavery factions -- began that November. Depending what side you were on in “Bloody Kansas,” Lane was hailed or vilified for his leadership during the conflict . . . which might be the subject of another column one day.

The two new senators from Kansas were in Washington D.C. on April 17, 1861, when Virginia seceded from the Union. Abraham Lincoln had been President for only six weeks because in those days March 4, not January 20, was Inauguration Day. (In case you were wondering: The first time Inauguration Day was January 20 instead of March  was in 1937, when Franklin Roosevelt was sworn in for his second term) More than a few people feared a newly formed Confederate Army –- who at that time could well have been viewed as domestic terrorists -- would march on the nation’s capital and possibly kidnap or even harm the new anti-slavery President. Sen. James Lane didn’t stand around wringing his hands. He put out a call to all Kansans in the city, and within 24 hours he presented to the War Department an “army” of 50 armed men.

Just in time, it seemed, because reports arrived from Baltimore that Southern sympathizers there had attacked the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry as it passed through the city. All a mob had to do was travel 35 miles south to be storming the capital. Rumors were rampant that Lincoln was to be assassinated and Congress held hostage. With the War Department’s approval, Lane led his men to the White House to protect the president.

As they stood guard, Lane was easy to spot – he brandished a shiny saber. When night fell, the ad-hoc precursor of the Secret Service entered the building and practiced military drills in the East Room. When Lincoln went to see what the commotion was all about, the Kansan standing guard outside refused to let him in because the president did not know the countersign. When the exercises ended, Lane and his men camped out in the East Room.

These enthusiastic occupants of the White House intended to remain indefinitely, and not be secretive about it. Calling themselves the Frontier Guard and with Lane and his saber leading them, on April 22, now numbering over a hundred men, they paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue, displaying their rifles, pistols, and knives. Bring on those Confederate hooligans! However, three days later, a sufficient number of Union troops was bivouacked in and around Washington that when the Frontier Guard entered the East Room that evening, Lincoln, believing the visitors were no longer needed, and had worn out their welcome to boot, was waiting with hastily printed discharge certificates. The president greeted each man and presented him with a certificate, and afterward the Kansas contingent disbanded.

One cannot help noting that the Confederate flag made more of an intrusion into Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, than it did during the four years of the Civil War.

Lane would return to Kansas and fight for the Union cause and against groups like Quantrill’s Raiders –- sometimes to Lincoln’s dismay because his zeal and cruelty earned him the well-deserved nickname “Bloody Jim.” In 1865, he was re-elected to the U.S. Senate. However, the mental instability that had been somewhat obscured by a general’s uniform during the war became more apparent in civilian life. And almost as soon as Lane took his seat in the Senate, there were investigations into his finances, which included what he had plundered from civilians as well as enemies during the war. Lane grew increasingly paranoid and morose, perhaps missing the glory days of guerilla warfare.

On July 1, 1866, while back in Leavenworth and his miseries mounting, he leapt from a moving carriage. To give the seeming suicide attempt a better chance at success, while doing so Lane shot himself in the head. He died from his wound 10 days later.

Let’s hope our modern-day Frontier Guard has an equally uneventful stay in Washington this Wednesday.

Tom Clavin is the author/co-author of 18 books, most of them involving significant events and figures in American history. The trade paperback edition of  “Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride From Hell,” the concluding volume in the “Frontier Lawmen” trilogy, has just been issued in paperback. For more info, go to tomclavin.com.