From Topeka, Kansas Territory, Kagi writes his father about his (Kagi's) personal situation and more generally about the civil war in Kansas Territory. Several thousand "armed Missourians" had been committing outrages against free state citizens with the support of proslave leaders--Wilson Shannon, Samuel Lecompte, and Daniel Woodson. Freestaters, according to Kagi, are just then mounting an effective defense of both Lawrence and Topeka, both primary targets of the proslavery forces.