Editing Atchison, Kansas (section)

===Civil War===
[[File:Atchison Kansas mall.jpg|thumb|right|Pedestrian mall on Commercial Street in downtown Atchison (2006)]]
At the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]] there were three militia companies organized in Atchison, whose members enlisted in the Kansas regiments.  They were known as Companies A, C and “At All Hazards”.  Early in September 1861, a home guard was organized in the town to protect it in case of invasion from Missouri, and on the 15th of the month another company was raised, which was subsequently mustered into a state regiment.  In 1863 the city of Atchison raised $4,000 to assist the soldiers from the county and after the [[Lawrence Massacre]] a like sum was subscribed to assist the stricken people of that city.  Citizens of the town also joined the vigilance committees that so materially aided the civil authorities in suppressing raiding and the lawless bands of thieves that infested the border counties.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}

During the war, Atchison was also the headquarters of numerous bands of [[jayhawkers]] including the notorious Charles Metz, who was known as Cleveland.  Metz, a former prisoner at the Missouri State Penitentiary, selected Atchison as his headquarters for raids into Missouri and was accepted with open arms by the people of the town.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ingalls|first=Sheffield|title=History of Atchison County, Kansas|year=1916|publisher=Standard Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBA1AQAAMAAJ&q=atchison+jayhawkers&pg=PA132}}</ref>  During his period of operations, he stole hundreds of horses from Missouri farmers and sold them in Kansas.  He robbed any suspected southern sympathizer and threatened several leading citizens with murder and robbery if they remained in town.  He even had the audacity to run off the first president of Atchison, P.T. Abell, who was forced into exile until after the Civil War concluded.  He defied all authorities who attempted to rein in his excesses, but was finally shot and killed at some point in 1862.  He is buried in St. Joseph, Missouri.{{citation needed|date = April 2018}}