The historic Battle of Bull Creek in southern Johnson County wasn’t much of a battle. It was more likely the historic “Bluff” at Bull Creek that occurred 170 years ago.

Research indicates the military skirmish took place about three miles east and about a half mile from the northernmost edge of Big Bull Creek Park near the Lanesfield Historic Site in Edgerton and the lost town of McCamish.

The pre-Civil War “battle” occurred less than a year after Johnson County was created Aug. 25 by the Legislative Act of 1855 in the then Kansas Territory.

Heading into 1856, the Kansas Territory was in the thick of a period that become known as “Bleeding Kansas” from 1854-1861. The issue? Whether Kansas would be admitted to the Union as a free state or as a slave state, like neighboring Missouri.

The Battle of Bull Creek occurred on Sept. 1, 1856, when roughly 1,600 pro-slavery fighters, referred to as bushwhackers, were staying on Richard McCamish’s property. According to the Johnson County Museum, McCamish operated a dry goods store and hotel for Santa Fe Trail traders near the Bull Creek crossing. He also was well known as a Southern sympathizer.

The military showdown involved a confrontation of a few hundred men in a volunteer militia led by James Henry Lane. Originally from Indiana, Lane relocated to the Kansas Territory in 1855 and immediately became involved with the anti-slavery movement. He was often called the “commander” of the Free State Army, known as “Jayhawkers.” 

“Lane was regarded as a powerful orator, and he spoke widely about the anti-slavery cause,” according to the Johnson County Museum’s collections.

Although his militia was hugely outnumbered at the Battle of Bull Creek, Lane was a skilled tactician. From a distance, he positioned his men for a military deception.

 “Lane marched his troops around in a circle over the hill, so the bushwhackers believed a large army was about to attack,” according to the Museum.

Legend of the battle claims Lane and his men chased the bushwhackers off without firing a shot, no bloodshed and no casualties on either side. The Missourians retreated 30 miles to Westport before stopping. McCamish fled the scene as well.

In 1858, the town of Lanesfield was established by William Gans and named in honor of Lane’s victory at the Battle of Bull Creek and his anti-slavery leadership.

Kansas entered the Union as the 34th state, and a free state, on Jan. 29, 1861. 

Lane was elected one of the first U.S. senators from Kansas, arriving in Washington, D.C. in 1861 to begin his first term. Soon after the Civil War began on April 12, the safety of the nation’s capital and President Abraham Lincoln became a concern from a possible takeover by Southern sympathizers. There was no Secret Service at the time nor large military presence at the start of the war to protect the president and the city. 

Lane was appointed a brigadier general. On April 14, he formed the “Frontier Guard,” a volunteer militia of approximately 120 Kansas men. The unit protected the White House and President Lincoln until May 3 when Union troops arrived to safeguard Washington, D.C. 

Shermanville, a small town in Franklin County, was created in 1855 and renamed to Lane in his honor in 1863.

Following the end of the Civil War in 1865, he was re-elected to the U.S. Senate. He died in 1866 at the age of 52.

Founded in 1870, the new town of Martinsburgh was renamed Edgerton the following year with the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad and in honor of the railroad’s chief construction engineer, Benjamin H. Edgerton. While Edgerton continued to grow and prosper as a railroad town, Lanesfield vanished as a frontier community.

Lane County in western Kansas is also named in his honor when the county was created in 1886.

The last remnant of Lane’s namesake as a bygone community in Johnson County is the limestone, one-room Lanesfield School House, 18745 South Dillie Road. It is a historic site managed by Johnson County Museum. The school, which was built in 1869 and closed in 1963, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

The Lanesfield Historic Site features seven interpretive panels, including information about Bleeding Kansas, the Battle of Bull Creek and Lane as general and senator.

The site is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month. Admission is free.