Eric Smallwood Bio

Originally from West Virginia, Mr. Eric Smallwood has been a student of the American Civil War from a young age. His interest and passion for the complexities of the era have taken him to sites and museums in several states over the years, including Gettysburg PA, where he lived for three years, working as a guide and assistant for carriage and horseback tours, and apprenticing with several historians and authors, all while pursuing the goal
of becoming a licensed battlefield guide.

Life, however, has an interesting way of changing goals, and Eric found himself in northern New Mexico in 2019, working for the National Scouting Museum. There, he fell in love with the fascinating history of the American West and has lived west of the Mississippi ever since. Moving to Lawrence KS in 2022, after a year working for the National Park Service at Bent’s Old Fort, his focus has shifted toward the events of Bleeding Kansas and the larger buildup of conflicts and emotions that caused nationwide war to erupt in 1861. Today, Eric is employed by the Kansas Historical Society as Site Administrator of Constitution Hall State Historic Site in Lecompton KS, where the infamous Lecompton Constitution was drafted in 1857.

The title of Eric’s program is: "Suffer and Be Strong", The Wakarusa War of 1855. Five years before South Carolina seceded from the Union, military units of northern and southern Americans faced off against one another on the field of battle over the political issue of slavery for the first time, in the opening act of what we now call "Bleeding Kansas". Though it was nearly bloodless, the "Wakarusa War", as it would come to be known, was a dark omen of things to come for the next decade of American history, and was where many of the leading figures of Bleeding Kansas began to gain their fame.