Kansas achieved statehood on January 29, 1861. At that time, several Southern states had already seceded from the Union. Within a few weeks, the Civil War erupted. Kansas was soon hit with a new wave of violence. Confederate raiders under William C. Quantrill burned most of the town of Lawrence, Kansas, and killed about 150 people. During the war, Kansas sent more men to the Union Army in proportion to its total population than any other state. When the war ended in 1865, thousands of Union veterans and newly freed slaves moved to Kansas. In the years following the war, Kansas became a major ranching and farming center (dubbed the Breadbasket of America). Water shortages have plagued the state, though, particularly during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.