Charles A. Hamilton was a pro-slavery leader during the Kansas-Missouri Border War.
Hamilton was a native of Cass County, Georgia, where his father, Dr. Thomas A. Hamilton, was a wealthy and influential citizen. When the Territory of Kansas was organized, Milton McGee went to Georgia to recruit men to help make Kansas a slave state. At Cassville, he made a fiery speech, and Charles Hamilton and his brother were among the first to rally to McGee’s side. His father, Dr. Hamilton, contributed $1,000 to the cause.
Massacre of Marais des Cygnes, Kansas.
Hamilton is best known as the perpetrator of the Marais des Cygnes Massacre on May 19, 1858. Afterward, the governor offered a $500 reward for Hamilton’s apprehension, but he wasn’t captured. When Hamilton came to Kansas, he owned a plantation in Georgia but was heavily in debt.
At the close of the Kansas-Missouri Border War, he returned to Georgia, was stripped of everything by his creditors, took bankruptcy, and went to Texas, where he engaged in horse raising.
In 1861, he raised a regiment, of which he was commissioned colonel, and served with General Robert E. Lee in the Confederate Army in Virginia. After the war, he went back to Georgia, where he died some years later.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated April 2026.
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