JAMES MONTGOMERY: Abolitionist Warrior

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Biography of James Montgomery, a leader of the free-state movement in pre-Civil War Kansas and Missouri and associated with its direct-action military wing. His actions before the Civil War, and then during the war in the Union Army, contributed towards the abolition of slavery. This biography uncovers and deals honestly with his serious flaws, debunks some wilder charges, and uncovers his considerable attributes and achievements.

A close associate and ally of other abolitionists including John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Colonels Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Robert G. Shaw, Montgomery led his African-American regiment along with Tubman and other civilians in the 1863 Combahee River raid, which freed almost 800 slaves from South Carolina plantations. He then commanded a brigade in the siege of Fort Wagner, near Charleston.

In 1864, still in brigade command, he fought at the Battle of Olustee in Florida, helping prevent the collapse and disintegration of Union General Truman Seymour's army. Later that year he returned home and played a significant role in defeating Confederate General Sterling Price's great raid, especially at the Battle of Westport.