Quantrill is often noted as influential in the minds of many bandits, outlaws and hired guns of the Old West as it was being settled. I have never belonged to the Confederate Army, nor do my men. That was in July 1864, before Anderson accepted the October 11, 1864, order from General Prices staff addressed to Captain Anderson. While he did little about the contents, Anderson still carried it with him at his death 16 days later. The popularity of the weapons made it an icon of the Old West before production stopped in 1881. Although he filed a claim to a tract of land . The final death toll was three guerrillas to at least 116 Union dead. He worked for us. An earlier letter penned by Langford to Scott on September 8, 1888, from Clarinda, Iowa, is now in the possession of The Filson Historical Society and University of Kentucky Libraries, providing an eyewitness sketch of the last battle of William Clarke Quantrill. 5. Mayes enlisted and served as a private in Company A of the 1st Cherokee Regiment in the Confederate army. Loved and respected by his men; hated and feared by his enemies; adored by the young Southern women who he met, and befriended by those who sought justice and protection: this was William Clarke Quantrill. The confidence of the men in their leader was slipping; many suspected that as a Northerner, Quantrill fought for no principles, just self-serving purposes of gathering plunder and increasing military rank. Many books and articles have attempted to tell an accurate story of Quantrills last battle, but only someone who was present would have the final information. He arrived at the prison hospital on May 13, 1865. Quantrills guerrillas spent the 1863-64 winter with the Confederate Army in Texas. Be the first to contribute! On the evening of September 6, 1862, William Quantrill led his Confederate guerrillas, numbering from 125 to 150, in a raid against Olathe, Kansa s. The raid resulted in a half dozen deaths and the destruction of most of the town. Bloody Bill, the guerrillas, and the bloodshed along the Missouri Kansas border all became fodder for novels and films in the 20th century. Duffy claimed to recognize the man, living under the name of John Sharp, as Quantrill. Coming in range, fire was opened and yells set up to terrify the Missourians.. Langford described the shooting in few words: I shot him in the left shoulderjust back of the shoulder bladethe ball ranging downward and lodging in the right groin. Quantrill was reportedly shot a second time as he fell, the bullet cutting off the trigger finger of his right hand. Anderson ordered Clements to muster out the naked prisoners. Barton, OS: Three Years with Quantrill: A True Story Told by His Scout, John McCorkle, Norman, Oklahoma, 1914, Beilein, Joseph M. Jr.: Bushwackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri, Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio, 2016, Brownlee, Richard S.: Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, 1861-1865, Castel, Albert: William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times, New York, 1962, Castel, Albert: General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West, Baton Rouge, 1968. As passions faded over the post-war decades, the Missouri guerrillas began to hold reunions in 1898 like other Confederate units. Having endured a tempestuous childhood before later becoming a schoolteacher, Quantrill joined a group of bandits who roamed the Missouri and Kansas countryside to apprehend escaped slaves. He orchestrated a raid into Missouri to liberate some slaves. None were more enthusiastic about the practice than always smiling Lil Archie Clements. Instant downloads of all 1725 LitChart PDFs Nodaway County author Homer Croy wrote of Quantrill, Because of Quantrill, widows wailed, orphans cried, maidens wept. Croy was echoing the sentiment of William Elsey Connelley, author of the 1909 book Quantrill and the Border Wars, in his introduction to the 1956 Civil War Book Club edition of Connelleys book. Terrell provided wagon transportation to a military hospital and prison in Louisville. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel P. Cox had been assigned the task of eliminating Anderson. Missouri was known for the quality of its horses and the bushwackers always had better mounts than the indifferent nags and worn-out plow-horses sent to Union troops in a Civil War backwater like Missouri. The remains were eventually gathered and placed in a shallow grave. HE RODE WITH, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Duffy said that Sharp admitted he was Quantrill and discussed in detail raids in Kansas and elsewhere. Bill gave Price a stolen set of fine pistols, which the General accepted. It was considered good sport to switch the decapitated heads to different bodies or impale them on fence posts. If we assess their significance in the conduct and the outcome of the war, the best we can say is that they drew off large numbers of troops that might have been used elsewhere. Germans (who were called Dutch by the guerrillas) were routinely murdered by the bushwhackers, who regarded all of them as Unionists. By the summer of 1863, it was obvious the war in the West was lost. Quantrill, William Clarke (1837-1865). Anderson joined Quantrills guerrillas. Paul R. Petersen, December 2004. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1725 titles we cover. A further order forcing the conscription of all able-bodied men into Union militias convinced many young men in Missouri to join the guerrillas instead. Bloody Bills brother Jim disappeared around 1867-68. In March 1864, General Price reportedly made Quantrill a colonel in the CSA in exchange for turning over a large number of his men to the army. Considered guerillas and not recognized as legitimate soldiers, Quantrills men were denied the general amnesty offered to the Confederate army upon Lees surrender. Oklahoma Historical Society, John Bartlett Meserve. " [He] was always a good boy. The ferocity and brutality of a conflict waged between neighbors and families precluded the possibility of an easy transition into a post-war peace. Unsettled, he appeared to always be on the move, often pushed and honed by associations with gamblers, thieves, and killers in his late teens. William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 - June 6, 1865) was an early American outlaw and Confederate guerrilla cavalry leader during the American Civil War . On that day, Sharp was found severely beaten and died several hours later without giving information about his attackers. [12], On March 11, 1862, Quantrill joined Confederate forces under Colonel John T. Hughes and took part in attack on Independence, Missouri. In 1860, he joined a group of free-state activists, jayhawkers in Kansas, switching over later to lead a band of pro- Confederate guerrillas in Missouri to kill and maim Union soldiers and pro-North citizens. While it is possible that at least half the Missouri population were against secession, repressive measures by out-of-state Union forces turned many into reluctant supporters of the Southern cause. Why, he sent me money all the time he was away from home, even when he was a Confederate soldier. After some initial Confederate victories in Missouri, Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn were defeated at the two-day Battle of Pea Ridge. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture. Quantrill is known for his violent ways, as he led his men in the infamous read analysis of William Quantrill Frank James Some, like Lil Archie Clements, were unable to obtain favorable conditions and thus remained underarms. A common trait of the guerillas was a distaste for discipline. Quantrill's mother, Caroline Quantrill described her son this way. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. He is depicted in Robert Schenkkan's series of one-act plays, Quantrill's Lawrence Massacre of 1863 is depicted in. Though he was described by various sources as being crude, illiterate, hot-tempered, callously brutal, a deadly shot, and uncontrollable when drunk, his personal bravery and thirst for action were unquestionable. It was a pro-Confederate partisan ranger outfit that was best known for its often brutal guerrilla tactics. After being repelled, Quantrill surprised and destroyed a Union relief column under General James G. Blunt, who escaped, but almost 100 Union soldiers were killed. Quantrill supposedly informed his men that they would enter Kentucky and work their way to Washington, DC, where they would assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. As a result, there are grave markers for Quantrill in Louisville, Dover, and Higginsville.[24]. Many were illiterate farm boys who followed whoever could provide them with revenge, adventure, whiskey, and loot. William Clarke Quantrill his life and times / by: Castel, Albert E. Published: (1999) Quantrill and the border wars. Was there plenty of whiskey and hootin and hollerin and shootin things up? A school teacher from Ohio, Quantrill became one of the most notorious figures of the US Civil War. By Christmas 1861, he had ten men who would follow him full-time into his pro-Confederate guerrilla organization:[10][pageneeded] William Haller, George Todd, Joseph Gilcrist, Perry Hoy, John Little, James Little, Joseph Baughan, William H. Gregg, James A. Hendricks, and John W. Koger. Menu. However, most of the soldiers fighting the guerrillas were young, inexperienced conscripts of the Missouri militia. Brilliantly weaving together eyewitness accounts, letters, memories, newspaper articles, and military reports into a riveting narrative, this definitive biography reveals the personality of William Clarke Quantrill (1837-1865) and the events that transformed a quiet Ohio schoolteacher from a staunchly Unionist family into a virulent pro-slavery Confederate soldier and the most feared and . With perhaps a bit of trepidation still in his heart, he delayed releasing much information locally except to family and close friends. However, as details of the Lawrence massacre seeped in, Quantrill and his unruly gang were increasingly treated with disdain by the CSA officers. Genre: Western. I suggest you fortify yours if you hope to be of any use to us. Murder, mutilation, looting, and arson were not quickly forgotten crimes and there was little chance they could be considered as simply the fortunes of war. Quantrill and his followers decided that revenge would be had for the girls deaths, and the location would be the Kansas town of Lawrence, an abolitionist hotbed and home to Jayhawker Senator James Lane, who had led the raid on Osceola. On the bloody August day when Quantrills renegade band of more than four hundred guerrillas attacked Lawrence, which was then known as the center of antislavery sentiment, many of the bushwhackers allied with or under the leadership of Quantrill would not participate in the carnage. The Sharps were large bore single shot rifles with a reputation for long-range accuracy. [15], On November 5, 1862, Quantrill joined Colonel Warner Lewis to stage an attack on Lamar, Missouri, where a company of the 8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry protected a Union outpost. Shortly afterwards, Quantrill accompanied a large group of hometown friends in their quest to start a settlement on Tuscarora Lake. In the Kansas City region, the name is largely associated with William Clarke Quantrill, the infamous Missouri guerrilla who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War and led a violent raid on the Unionist town of Lawrence, Kansas, on August 21, 1863.. Citizens on the front lines of the bloody Missouri-Kansas border war viewed Quantrill very differently. At the wars end, many of the guerrillas surrendered after receiving assurances they would not be hanged by the army but would still be subject to civil prosecution. The residents of Lawrence, Kansas, would never forget what happened on August 21, 1863, if indeed they were lucky enough to survive. The group helped protect Missouri farmers from the Jayhawkers for pay and slept wherever they could find lodging. He led a charge expecting results similar to those at Centralia, but the veteran Union troops laid down a withering fire that brought the charge to a halt at 100 yards distance. I will hunt you down like wolves and murder you. [14], On October 5, 1862, Quantrill attacked and destroyed Shawneetown, Kansas, and Bill Anderson soon revisited and torched the rebuilding settlement. Bills grey mare was found adorned with Union scalps. The local dentist, who doubled as the town photographer, was summoned to take two shots of Andersons corpse propped up in a chair. Andersons group performed well, cutting telegraph lines and striking the Union supply lines. Martin Kelly. A squad of militiamen was sent to arrest him, but Clements burst out of the saloon firing furiously. On Christmas Eve, 1895, a shooting occurred in a North St. Louis saloon that was destined to find a prominentand permanentplace in American oral tradition. Never having the nerve to face him in life they destroyed what they could with their horses and finished by urinating on what was left. After a local request, the US government provided a new headstone for Andersons grave in 1969. In one case, a German was found at the last moment before his hanging to actually be a Confederate supporter. Quantrill's men believed that the collapse was deliberate, which fanned them into a fury. William Clarke Quantrill (Charley Hart, Charles William Quantrill, and Billy Quantrill), Civil War guerrilla leader, was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, on July 31, 1837, to Thomas Henry and Caroline Cornelia (Clarke) Quantrill. Much of the dramatic build-up to the Civil War centered on the violence that erupted on the KansasMissouri border between pro- and anti-slavery militias. The battle at Westport was the turning point of the campaign, with Prices Army of Missouri badly defeated. Most had never joined the army, were paroled prisoners, or even deserters. The Ledger in yet another article on Friday, November 1, 1907, reported, Monday, Mr. Langford brought this office a batch of letters from W.W. Scott, of Canal Dover, Ohio, where Quantrells [sic] mother resided until her death and where the guerrilla was born and raised. Abraham Lincoln Quotes Albert Einstein Quotes Bill Gates Quotes Bob Marley Quotes Bruce Lee Quotes Buddha Quotes Confucius Quotes John F. Kennedy Quotes John Lennon Quotes Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Marilyn Monroe Quotes Mark Twain Quotes. He said that the hanging of John Brown had been too good for him and that "the devil has got unlimited sway over this territory, and will hold it until we have a better set of man and society generally. At a very young age, he had joined the Kentucky Confederate troops. Quantrill journeyed back home to Canal Dover that fall. American Revolution One of the main units engaged against Anderson, the 17th Illinois Cavalry, was described by their commanding general as unreliable and almost worthless, so the idea that these second-rate troops might have made a difference elsewhere is very much open to question. According to Connelley in Quantrill and the Border Wars, The men of Captain Terrell went briskly up the lane, and, rising the swell, charged down upon the barn, unslinging carbines and getting pistols in hand. By some means apparently unknown to Langford, Quantrills mother later tracked down Langfords location and sent several letters to him, inquiring among other things if he had any relics of Quantrills body still in his possession, the Ledger reported. Quantrill was questioned as he lay motionless in the field, but still with a lot of contempt in him he gave his name as Captain William Clarke of the 4th Missouri Confederate Calvary and asked permission to be allowed to die where he lay. With the declaration of war in 1861, the North and South separated into usually well-defined areas of battle geography that marked the American Civil War. It should be noted that much of our knowledge of the guerrillas and their methods of warfare is based on memoirs and interviews provided by the guerrilla veterans. This included Henry Torrey and Harmon Beeson, two local men hoping to build a large farm for their families out west. [19], In early October, Quantrill and his men rode south to Texas, where they decided to pass the winter. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. Senator Jim Lane, for example, led his Jayhawkers into Missouri in September 1861. Chapter 3 Quotes I said, "I have hopes that the marshals will get him soon. Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, and Bongard, David L.. Crouch, Barry A. Kansas Raiders 1950. William Quantrill The nonfictional leader of a pro-Confederate group of men who tore through Kansas and Missouri fighting Union soldiers and sympathizers. In late 1862, the Union ordered the imprisonment of all women known to be related to the guerrillas. Authorities briefly arrested him, but Quantrill claimed that he had acted in self-defense. They were somewhat comfortable in the knowledge that Captain Terrells guerrilla-hunting scouts were miles away with no knowledge of their whereabouts. Quantrill joined the Confederate army and fought in the Battle of Wilsons Creek near Springfield in 1861, the first major battle of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the Civil War. With Anderson and Quantrill parting company before leaving Texas, Todd took command of the larger remaining splinter group. It would be this group of scouts, under the command of a young officer of the worst imaginable reputation, that would hunt down William Quantrill and end his life. Early in the morning of August 21, Quantrill descended from Mount Oread and attacked Lawrence at the head of a combined force of as many as 450 guerrilla fighters. Quantrill's most brutal attack came in 1863 when he led 450 guerillas on a raid on the Union stronghold of Lawrence, Kansas. A boyhood friend of Quantrill, the newspaper reporter William W. Scott, claimed to have dug up the Louisville grave in 1887 and to have brought Quantrill's remains back to Dover at the request of Quantrill's mother. .state-topmenu { color: #000; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: uppercase; word-spacing: 7px; z-index: 999999; }, AboutPublicationsLibrary Archives amhpo.com.