In an account of the assault the following appeared in the _Squatter Sovereign_. “The flag was carried by its brave bearer and stationed upon the Herald of Freedom Printing office, and from thence to the large hotel and fortress of the Yankees, where it proudly waived until the artillery commenced battering down the building. Our company was composed mostly of South Carolinians, under command of Capt. Robert De Treville, late of Charleston, S. C. and we venture the prediction that a braver set of men than are found in its ranks never bore arms.” The _Squatter Sovereign_ continued to be without fear the most bitter and uncompromising pro-slavery organ in the territory. Its watch-word was “Death to all Yankees and traitors in Kansas.” At a large mass meeting at Atchison, held in June, 1856, Robert S. Kelley, its assistant editor, was nominated as the “Commander-in-Chief of the forces in town,” but for some reason now lost to view Kelley declined the honor and it was passed on to Capt. F. G. Palmer who accepted it without remorse and without apologies. Senator Atchison was present at this mass meeting and made a speech, and so was Col. Peter T. Abell, afterwards president of the Atchison Town Company, and Captain De Treville, and others not so famous, and they all made speeches. During that summer, because of the continued activities of old John Brown and the agitation which those activities created in the breasts of the pro-slavery sympathizers in Atchison, another military company was formed, called the Atchison Guards, of which John Robertson was the commander, who was so prominent in the Battle of Hickory Point, and Atchison county continued to take a prominent part in the border warfare which continued for sometime thereafter. During all of this time the Free State settlers of Atchison were very quiet and undemonstrative. They were not strong in number and aside from a few virile souls like Pardee Butler, they held their tongues and kept their own counsel. They were treated with scant courtesy and consideration by their pro-slavery neighbors, and it can be said to their credit that no set of men ever displayed greater self-restraint or suffered more for the cause of peace than the Free State settlers of this county. It doubtless unsettled their minds and disturbed their slumbers to read from time to time sentiments such as these taken from the _Squatter Sovereign_ of June 10, 1856: [Illustration: (Upper) Atchison Hospital. (Center) Atchison County Court House. (Lower) Y. M. C. A. ]