David --

Obviously you have have a much better grasp of events and personalities in the Kansas-Missouri arena than others. Let me suggest that if we took a survey of students majoring in American history and asked them to identify each of the events and people you listed, more would recognize Quantrell and Lawrence than any of the others.

For the same reason, more would recognize Andersonville as the site of a prisoner-of-war death camp, but wouldn't be able to say much about Elmira, Camp Douglas or Rock Island.

Let me ask -- if it's "dangerous" to accept the testimony of friends and associates, what sources should the serious historian accept? Personal enemies and those having no real knowledge of the subject?

As any experienced police detective would say, everyone has a bias. It's up to the historian to determine what that bias might be, filter out unsubstantiated opinions and work with what's left. And let's not kid ourselves -- historians have their own opinions about matters.