Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1725 titles we cover. After leading a Confederate bushwhacker unit along the Missouri-Kansas border in the early 1860s, which included the infamous raid and sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863, Quantrill eventually ended up in Kentucky where he was killed in a Union ambush in 1865, aged 27 . With the end of the Civil War around the corner, the Union had driven the formal Confederate army presence from Missouri and was redirecting troops to hunt down the guerrilla bands still operating in the upper South. With the war over, Clements began hanging out in Lexington saloons with Dave Poole, who was now robbing banks. Quantrills band broke up in the spring of 1864 after the guerrilla leader backed down from a challenge from George Todd. He then moved to Oregon, acting as a cowpuncher and drover, before he reached British Columbia in the 1890s, where he worked in logging, trapping and finally as a mine caretaker at Coal Harbour at Quatsino. The reason for the bloody raid that left nearly two hundred men dead and caused between $1 million and $1.5 million in damage (in 1863 dollars) is still the subject of speculation. Discipline was light but failure to turn up for an operation could mean death. Scott was a personal friend of Quantrells [sic]. The letters Scott wrote to Langford were dated in the 1890s, as Scott collected facts for a book on Quantrill. They never married, although she often visited and lived in camp with Quantrill and his men. Quantrill's mother had to turn her home into a boarding house in order to survive. Oklahoma Historical Society, John Bartlett Meserve. On his person was a letter from his wife with locks of hair belonging to her and their child, $600 in gold and greenbacks, $15 in Confederate script, a small Confederate flag presented to him by a friend, and Prices written order to Captain Anderson. There was also a silk cord to which Bill was said to add one knot for every man he killed by his own hands. Of the Jayhawkers who had burned and murdered their way through Missouri without ever confronting the Confederate guerrillas, Dr. Charles Jennison was court-martialled in 1865 for looting western Missouri, while Jim Lane, who had narrowly avoided death in the Lawrence raid, shot himself in the head a year after the war ended. Price and Anderson met again later that day. Andersons biggest objection to Quantrill was that he wasnt intent on killing enough Unionists. [12], On March 11, 1862, Quantrill joined Confederate forces under Colonel John T. Hughes and took part in attack on Independence, Missouri. In late 1862, the Union ordered the imprisonment of all women known to be related to the guerrillas. After some initial Confederate victories in Missouri, Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn were defeated at the two-day Battle of Pea Ridge. Angered by incidents of scalping by Kansas Jayhawkers, the guerrillas took it up themselves in the summer of 1864. Quantrill's men believed that the collapse was deliberate, which fanned them into a fury. 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. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. Price sought to incorporate most of them into his column rather than dispersing them throughout the state to draw off Union troops. Events & Documents, Civil War The Jayhawkers typically had access to Union arms and supplies while the guerrillas depended on foraging and the support of pro-secession families. [11], On March 7, 1862, Quantrill and his men overcame a small Union outpost at Aubry, Kansas and ransacked the town. The party of three departed in late February 1857. Bills grey mare was found adorned with Union scalps. He died from his wounds on June 6, 1865, at the age of 27. [26], During the war, Quantrill met the 13-year-old Sarah Katherine King at her parents' farm in Blue Springs, Missouri. Posing as Captain Clarke, Quantrill continued to use the effective guise of his command as a Missouri unit detached to the Bluegrass State to track down secessionist guerrillas. After Anderson left the town, he was pursued by a Union major, AVE Johnston, and 240 men of the 39th Missouri mounted infantry, a force roughly equal to the guerrillas. [2] By the time he was sixteen, Quantrill was teaching school in Ohio. Showing in galleries and special shows around the country. It was a pro-Confederate partisan ranger outfit that was best known for its often brutal guerrilla tactics. [25], Another legend that has circulated claims that Quantrill may have escaped custody and fled to Arkansas, where he lived under the name of L.J. Mayes enlisted and served as a private in Company A of the 1st Cherokee Regiment in the Confederate army. 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. The battle at Westport was the turning point of the campaign, with Prices Army of Missouri badly defeated. Lets have a look at some of his allies and lieutenants, keeping in mind the very fluid organization and command structure of the guerrilla bands. He served the Confederacy and perhaps hoped to secure high rank and recognition from its leaders. Warned about the attack, the Union soldiers were able to repel the raiders, who torched part of the town before they retreated.[16]. He had moved from Georgia to the old Indian Territory in 1838. On his way, on October 6, Quantrill chose to attack Fort Blair in Baxter Springs, Kansas, which resulted in the so-called Battle of Baxter Springs. For the mostly teenage gunmen of Missouri, the war was more a matter of personal rebellion than political rebellion. [4] Here, Quantrill took up a job in the lumberyards, unloading timber from rail cars. Here they are: 1. Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, and Bongard, David L.. Crouch, Barry A. Related Topics. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. Viewed as outlaws, Quantrills men faced certain death if captured in Missouri. Do a complete job, and do it better than your supervisor expects you to do it. Quantrill continued his career as a teacher, moving to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in February 1856. Updated February 2023. On August 25, in retaliation for the raid, General Ewing authorized General Order No. Terrells scouts were on the pike just over the hill from the Wakefield farm, across the pasture from a blacksmith shop, when they received the report of a body of horsemen nearby. None were more enthusiastic about the practice than always smiling Lil Archie Clements. Cutting the telegraph led to one captured guerrilla executed and the torching of every home within a ten-mile radius of the cut. 133-44. William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 - June 6, 1865), was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. When Todd died in 1864, Poole took over his command. The True Grit quotes below are all either spoken by William Quantrill or refer to William Quantrill. Both Baxter and his 16-year-old brother-in-law were wounded by the Andersons, who then locked them in the cellar of their house and set it on fire. While Langford had the distinction of shooting Quantrill, the notorious guerrilla leader, he was never boastful, the newspaper eulogized. He is a quiet, unassuming gentleman, and it was with some difficulty that we gained his consent to relate the incidents of the much-discussed event.. Both Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Secretary of War Judah Benjamin were opposed to the existence of guerrilla bands outside government control, but with ever-larger parts of the Confederacy passing beyond the control of regular forces, the guerrillas presented a lone if distasteful alternative. He soon broke with the army, complaining that the South was not fighting with necessary ferocity and commitment, and formed a band of renegades, robbers, and murderers. 5. If the South had won the war there would have been statues erected in his memory and countless mothers would have named their children after him. Unknown to the twenty-seven-year-old chieftain of Quantrills Raiders, the final hour was near. Was there plenty of whiskey and hootin and hollerin and shootin things up? He continued to claim that he was Captain Clarke of the 4th Missouri Cavalry, knowing he would be executed if his earlier confession was discovered. [14], On October 5, 1862, Quantrill attacked and destroyed Shawneetown, Kansas, and Bill Anderson soon revisited and torched the rebuilding settlement. He taught school briefly in Ohio and Illinois; in 1857 he moved to Kansas, and in . As passions faded over the post-war decades, the Missouri guerrillas began to hold reunions in 1898 like other Confederate units. When the command returned to west-central Missouri in the spring of 1864, the final break occurred. [citation needed]. Battles 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. Anderson joined Quantrills guerrillas. Unsettled, he appeared to always be on the move, often pushed and honed by associations with gamblers, thieves, and killers in his late teens. [7] However, in February 1860, Quantrill wrote a letter to his mother that expressed his views on the anti-slavery supporters. [22] He was brought by wagon to Louisville, Kentucky, and taken to the military prison hospital, on the north side of Broadway at 10th Street. However, as details of the Lawrence massacre seeped in, Quantrill and his unruly gang were increasingly treated with disdain by the CSA officers. 2023 Missouri Life Magazine. Instead Price began a meandering march in which he wasted his strength in a series of pointless battles. He orchestrated a raid into Missouri to liberate some slaves. Castel Albert: Quantrills Bushwackers: A Case Study in Guerrilla Warfare, Winning and Losing in the Civil War: Essays and Stories (Columbia, University of South Carolina Press, 1996), pp. The residents of Lawrence, Kansas, would never forget what happened on August 21, 1863, if indeed they were lucky enough to survive. Lacking any real authority from the Confederate Army, Bushwacker chieftains relied on respect, charisma, courage, and ferocity to hold their commands. Pre-loaded six-shot cylinders were carried in the pockets of their guerrilla shirts, allowing the guerrillas to quickly reload their weapons by swapping out the empty cylinders for full ones. As Anderson launched a furious charge, the Union volley went high. Two days later, Terrell returned, having concluded that the wounded man was Quantrill. Many guerrillas involved in Quantrills last foray into Kentucky met violent ends. Contact between Langford and Quantrills mother was handled by W. W. Scott, one of Quantrills boyhood friends. Updated on January 08, 2020. 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. Before they could load again, Andersons men were among them with pistols blazing as scores of guerrillas poured out of the woods. Many had no homes left to go to, and there was always the danger of being waylaid by vigilantes. When the war started, the 21-year-old Bill appeared to be running a business in stolen horses with his younger brother Jim. 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. Those acquainted with him will understand why he has never been given prominence by the press for the act. Some historians have suggested that Quantrill had actually planned to raid Lawrence before the building's collapse, in retaliation for earlier Jayhawker attacks[17][pageneeded] as well as the burning of Osceola, Missouri. Cooking was done only at night to avoid the smoke being seen and riders would enter or leave individually, each taking a different route and then reuniting at a pre-planned location. Duffy said that Sharp admitted he was Quantrill and discussed in detail raids in Kansas and elsewhere. The terrified men scrambled wildly for their horses, Connelley wrote, adding that those who were fortunate enough to mount, fled in a mad route. Sleeping in the barn loft, Quantrill was unable to secure his gun-shy mount and pursued his men on foot. The most significant event in Quantrill's guerrilla career took place on August 21, 1863. 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 Union responded to the Lawrence massacre by driving away from the population of three Missouri counties and allowing Jennisons Redlegs to torch everything left. He eventually ended up in Lawrence, where he taught school for a year. Age of Discovery 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. The guerrilla leader was carried to Wakefields farmhouse, paralyzed below the arms from gunshot damage to the spine. [29] The William Clarke Quantrill Society continues to celebrate Quantrill's life and deeds.[29]. After Union troops removed the supports for the buildings central girder on the main floor, leading to the buildings collapse and the death of four women, including one of Andersons sisters. 11 (not to be confused with General Ulysses S. Grant's order of the same name). Once he and his men caught nine Union soldiers in a schoolhouse and killed them. This raid was the culmination of an . Refine any search. 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. Martin Kelly. At a very young age, he had joined the Kentucky Confederate troops. Bill Anderson arrived in Kansas as a child in 1857 along with his Southern parents, two brothers, and three sisters. The answer is yes to all. That eyewitness to history was a young soldier named John Langford. Arriving in the morning, the guerrillas looted the town, drinking all the whiskey they could find. A low-level conflict had already been raging in the Missouri-Kansas borderlands in the years preceding the outbreak of the Civil War. William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 June 6, 1865) was a Confederate guerrilla leader and mass murderer[1] during the American Civil War. Facebook Status Intelligence Action Advice Philosophy Religion Fashion Doing Your Best Right Art Self-knowledge Solution Literature Losing Self-esteem Possibility Happiness Questioning Langford, in pursuit, made his selection. In winter, when concealment was difficult, the guerrillas would head south to Texas until the foliage returned in Missouri, though they did not leave drunkenness, mayhem, and murder behind in their Texas sojourns. Quantrill then joined a group of Missouri ruffians and became somewhat of a drifter. In an article published Friday, October 11, 1907, the newspaper states, Here in Gentry County, some five or six miles from Albany, resides a man in the person of John Langford who has the distinction of having shot the guerrilla.
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