Richard J. Hinton crossed into the “promised land” of Kansas on Aug. 7, 1856. He was part of Jim Lane’s “Army of the North,” organized to bring arms, ammunition, and citizen soldiers to fight for the cause of freedom on the soon to be blood-soaked soil of Kansas Territory. Pro-slavery newspapers expressed disbelief.
The Atchison Squatter Sovereign, Aug. 25, 1856,  cried, “LANE’S MEN HAVE ARRIVED! — CIVIL WAR HAS BEGUN!”  
The Leavenworth Journal, Sept. 24, 1856, wrote that the army numbered 1,000 men, “well-armed, drilled and equipped.” The term of enlistment was reportedly “for the war,” and payment would be derived from taking the land claims of pro-slavery southern men by driving them from the territory.
From the other side, the Kansas Tribune of Aug. 18, 1856, described a wagon train “composed almost solely of mechanics, artisans and farmers, with a few representatives of the different professions, many of whom are masters of their different callings, and of whom their fellow craftsmen here may well be proud ...”
Though a portion of the men coming with Lane had pledged to fight for freedom, many of them were merely emigrants hoping to find a piece of land on which to live. For them there was safety in traveling with this great army of settlers. Hinton was a bit of both. His calling was journalism of which he was certainly a master, but he would not shrink from freedom’s fight. Hinton told his story in the Jan. 9, 1900, Topeka State Journal.
Though most of the men in Lane’s “army” were settlers, Lane had assembled a sizeable force of men already in Kansas hoping to receive rifles from the east.
The train of wagons that brought the settlers across Iowa to Kansas over “Lane’s Trail” also carried 1,500 Springfield rifles, 50 Sharps rifles and as many Colt’s revolvers.
Hinton recalled that, “There was a riot when the men found they were muzzle loading, old fashioned Springfields.”
The men were so angry that they buried some of the boxes of Springfields, saying they would not carry them. But, having no recourse but to rely on whatever weapon they could acquire, given the choice of weapon or no weapon, the rifles were unearthed and carried away to their strongholds. There were at least 50 modern Sharps rifles and Colt’s revolvers to lighten their hearts.
Three miles south of the Kansas-Nebraska border, a portion of the settlers stopped to construct a fortification they named Fort Plymouth, for Plymouth Rock, Mass. Hinton and others continued south to the vicinity of present-day Hiawatha, Kan. On Saturday, Aug. 9, 1856, the town of Lexington, Kan., was founded.
Hinton met the famous liberator of slaves and warrior of freedom, John Brown, as he passed through on the way out of Kansas with his wounded son and son-in-law.
Town development moved slowly. Many of the new immigrants were preoccupied with finding and establishing their own farms. Frustrated, Hinton noted in his journal that “No one seems to have any energy, or to care whether it is done.”
Hinton had come to defend Kansas, to fight for freedom, and feeling that he needed to go to the fight, soon set out for

Topeka in command of 30 like-thinking men.
The men passed through Holton, another town that the Lane settlers founded after arriving in the territory. North of Topeka the town of Indianola was occupied by pro-slavery forces planning to attack Topeka while the fighting men were away defending Lawrence. On the approach to Indianola a badly frightened man told them that the pro-slavery men planned to annihilate Hinton’s men before going to “sack” Topeka.
“You wonder how I felt then? I had never heard a gun fired in anger in my life, but if I recollect right, I thought it a great lark.”
The men were mostly young excepting a middle-aged man by the name of Dunning. “Some of our imaginative members used to sometimes fear that old Dunning might be a spy, but he never showed any such disposition, and his advice was of great value.”
Dunning took half the men to flank the place. Hinton led the others through some woods that allowed his men to get close before the signal shot was fired. Quite a few fellows got away, but Hinton recalled capturing about 18 of them along with “a half dozen shotguns, some Mississippi rifles, and four or five mules as well as an empty wagon.”
With an additional wagon all the men could ride, moving quickly over the prairie. After an overnight stay in Topeka guarding the newspaper office, Hinton and his men continued to Lawrence, arriving on Sunday, Aug. 31, 1856.
Hinton recorded in his ever-present journal that he was “very tired and weary, but fortunately for my comfort, I met a friend, Henry Sullivan, from New York, who insisted on my sharing his lodgings for a week.” Noted author and Kansas historian, William Connelly wrote, “Hinton was not idle a day after his arrival, but plunged at once into the business of writing to Eastern papers upon Kansas affairs.... The memory of her noble sons was his chief concern, and manfully and ably did he defend them ...” on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Road, Geneseo, KS. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.