At the Battle of Osawatomie, John Reid placed the bulk of his proslavery militiamen in a line here to charge the center of John Brown's Free State guerillas' line of defense in the brush lining the Marais Des Cygnes River. Brown's Free State guerillas put up a spirited defense, then began to withdraw across the Marais Des Cygnes River to draw Reid's proslavery force away from Osawatomie.