THINK THE UNTHINKABLE

General Order Number 11

Headquarters
District of the Border
Kansas City, Missouri
August 25, 1863

First, ___ All persons living in Jackson, Cass and Bates Counties, Missouri, and in that part of Vernon included in this district, except those living within one mile of the limits of Harrisonville, Hickman Mills, Independence and Pleasant Hill and Harrisonville, and except those in the part of Kaw Township, Jackson County, north of Brush Creek and west of the Big Blue, embracing Kansas City and Westport, are hereby ordered to remove from their present places of residence within fifteen days from the date hereof. Those who, within that time, establish their loyalty to the satisfaction of the commanding officer of the military station nearest their present places of residence will receive from him certificates stating the fact of their loyalty, and the names of the witnesses by whom it can be shown. All who receive such certificates will be permitted to remove to any military station in the district, or to any part of the State of Kansas except the counties on the eastern border of the State. All others shall remove out of the district.

Officers commanding companies and detachments serving in the counties named will see that this paragraph is promptly obeyed.

Second, ___ All hay and grain in the field, or under shelter in the district, from which the inhabitants are required to remove, within the reach of the military stations, after the 9th of September, next, will be taken to such stations and turned over to the proper officers there; and reports of the amounts so turned over made to district headquarters, specifying the name of all loyal owners and the amount of such produce taken from them. All grain and hay found in such district after the 9th of September, next, not convenient to such stations, will be destroyed.

Third, ___ The provisions of General Order No. 10 from these headquarters will be at once vigorously executed by officers commanding in the parts of the district, and at the stations not subject to the operations of paragraph first of this order, especially in the towns of Independence, Westport and Kansas City.

Fourth, ___ Paragraph 3, General Order No. 10, is revoked as to all who have borne arms against the government in the district since August 20, 1863.

By order of the Brigadier General Ewing,
H. Hannahs, Adjutant

"It is well-known that men were shot down in the very act of obeying the order, and their wagons and effects seized by their murderers. Large trains of wagons, extending over the prairies for miles in length, and moving Kansasward, were freighted with every description of household furniture and wearing apparel belonging to the exiled inhabitants. Dense columns of smoke arising in every direction marked the conflagrations of dwellings, many of the evidences of which are yet to be seen in the remains of seared and blackened chimneys, standing as melancholy monuments of a ruthless military despotism which spared neither age, sex, character, nor condition. There was neither aid nor protection afforded to the banished inhabitants by the heartless authority which expelled them from their rightful possessions. They crowded by hundreds upon the banks of the Missouri River, and were indebted to the charity of benevolent steamboat conductors for transportation to places of safety where friendly aid could be extended to them without danger to those who ventured to contribute it."

George Caleb Bingham
Artist and Eyewitness

I talk to a lot of people during the day. The conversation often moves toward the subject of the government. Most people seem to believe that something is drastically wrong. They don't know what because they follow only the main stream media, if anything at all. When I tell them that I believe we are at a critical moment in our nation's history, that we may be facing a time when the government discards the Constitution and takes control of of its people, nearly all tell me that it can't happen. that our military would never turn against the citizens, that the police will protect us, that neighbor would never turn against neighbor. All they need do is look to the past.

General Order #11 was issued by the same Federal Government that sits in Washington today. Coincidentally, the President at the time, just as today, hailed from Illinois. This order removed citizens from land that was rightfully theirs, without warrant, remuneration or due process. It took their homes, their possessions, their crops and in many cases, their lives. And what was their crime? They dared to disagree with the Federal Government. They spoke up. They fought back. They offered water to someone that just happened by their farm. They may have done nothing at all wrong. They just happened to live in an area that the government found it politically and militarily expedient to de-populate.

I think that it would be worthwhile to consider what the government is capable of. We are entering a time that may be more dangerous than any other time in our history. When backed into a corner the government is capable of barbarity. Missouri was in a state of war from 1854-1882. This was the third most fought over state in the country. Most of the fighting was done under the black flag. This is because the Federal Government executed all that took up arms against it in an attempt to terrorize the citizens into subservience. It dragged men from their beds at night and executed them in front of their families. It burned women and children out of their homes because a family member fought for the Confederacy. The government is capable of anything.

Start preparing for the unthinkable. Everything is about to change.