the Free-State Hotel. He gave the inmates till five o’clock to get out their personal effects. When all was ready he turned [the posse's very own] cannon upon the hotel and fired. The first ball went completely over the roof, at which all the people cheered, much to the disgust of Jones. The next shot hit the walls but did little damage. After bombarding away with little or no effect till it was becoming monotonous, they attempted to blow up the building with a keg of powder. But this only made a big noise and a big smoke, and did not do much towards demolishing the house. At every failure the citizen spectators along the street set up a shout. At last Jones became desperate, and applied the vulgar torch, and burned the building to the ground. [...] Jones was exultant. His revenge was complete. "This is the happiest moment of my life," he shouted as the walls of the hotel fell. He had made the "fanatics bow to him in the dust." He then dismissed his posse and left. It was the "Old Sacramento" cannon that the pro-slavery forces made use of in their initial attempt to bring down the Free State Hotel. This weapon had been stored at the Liberty Arsenal until then. The cannon would be recaptured by free-staters on August 12, 1856, during the Second Battle of Franklin. While Jones and his men were trying to bring down the hotel, the printing offices of the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom newspapers were destroyed. The machinery was smashed, the type was thrown in the river, their libraries were thrown out the window, and loose copies were either thrown into the wind to be carried off, or used by Jones's party to set fire to the Free State Hotel. When the newspapers were obliterated and the hotel had been brought to the ground, Jones's men then looted the half-deserted town. As they retreated, for good measure they burned Robinson's Mount Oread home. One person—a member of Jones's gang—died during the attack, when he was struck in the head by a collapsing bit of the Free State Hotel. After "Old Sacramento" was recaptured, the free-stater Thomas Bickerton scavenged the lead type from the river and used it to make cannonballs. Aftermath While the Free State Hotel was destroyed, Shalor Eldridge purchased the charred remnants of the