The Bufo7'd Expedition to Kansas ■ • 45 dred men, and was under the direction of United States Marshal I. B. Donelson. Captain E. R. Bell of South Carolina, one of Buford's officers (Adjutant-General), was sent with a company of men to intercept arms and armed men and prevent them from getting into Lawrence, which was preparing to withstand a siege. May 16, he captured a wagon loaded with guns and sabres. Three days later he was noti- fied that three wagons loaded with arms would attempt to cross a bridge near where he was stationed. Taking volunteers from the companies at Franklin, Bell went with thirty-six foot-soldiers and five mounted men to catch the wagons. The mounted men reached the bridge first and drove off a sentinel party of free-state men sta- tioned there. These men warned the drivers of the wagons and they escaped. Shortly after the mounted men reached the bridge a free-state man came up and attempted to cross. He was halted " by order of the United States Marshal." " I do not recognize that authority," he said, and tried to force his way across, present- ing a pistol at the guards. He was " halted " three times and was then fired upon and wounded.' The next day ten of Buford's men carried G. W. Brown, editor of the Herald of Freedom, as a federal prisoner to Lecompton. Two of these men on their return to Franklin were fired upon by a party of free-state men and one of the Southerners was shot through the arm. The other Southerner killed the man who had shot his comrade, and then, followed by a volley, assisted the wounded man to escape. On May 20, the marshal began gathering his forces, to assem- ble before Lawrence. On the morning of May 21, early risers in Lawrence were astonished to see a force of soldiery drawn up on Mount Oread, a high hill near the town. Buford did not arrive until eleven o'clock. His men carried the banners that had been brought from Alabama. These banners seem to have offended some good citizens of Lawrence worse than the sack of the town and the destruction of property. The force investing Lawrence was Kansas territorial militia under the command of United States Marshal I. B. Donelson and Deputy-Marshal Fain. The latter with a small party entered the town and made several arrests, meeting with no resistance. He then returned to the militia assembled outside of the town and declared the posse disbanded. Samuel J. Jones, Sheriff of Douglas county, immediately summoned the entire body to assist him in serving some writs. The Free State Hotel in Lawrence had been used during the Wakarusa War as a place of armed rendezvous, and each of the 'Letter from Captain Bell dated Franklin, May 20, to Charleston Courier, copied in Alabama Journal, June, 1S56.
