Charles Rainsford Jennison also known as "Doc" Jennison was a member of the anti-slavery faction during Bleeding Kansas, a famous Jayhawker, and a member of the Kansas State Senate in the 1870s. He later served as a Union colonel and as a leader of Jayhawker militias during the American Civil War.
Jennison, c. 1855-1860
Jennison as a Union Army colonel during the American Civil War
An illustration of Jennison following the end of the Civil War in 1865
Jayhawker and red leg are terms that came to prominence in Kansas Territory during the Bleeding Kansas period of the 1850s; they were adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause during the American Civil War. These gangs were guerrillas who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri, known at the time in Kansas Territory as "Border Ruffians" or "Bushwhackers". After the Civil War, the word "Jayhawker" became synonymous with the people of Kansas, or anybody born in Kansas. Today a modified version of the term, Jayhawk, is used as a nickname for a native-born Kansan.
Broadside recruiting men for the Independent Kansas Jay-Hawkers, 1st Kansas Volunteer Cavalry.
Burned Wagons Point in Death Valley, where the Jayhawker group of 49ers killed their oxen, chopped the wagons, dried the meat, and set off westward on foot.
Jemison's Jayhawkers, by Adalbert John Volck.
Marshall Cleveland
