Biographies He had moved from Georgia to the old Indian Territory in 1838. John Langford was born May 15, 1836, in Anderson County, Kentucky, and was a member of Company B, 15th Kentucky Infantry, the band of scouts who pursued Quantrills band. In May 1865, Quantrill was mortally wounded in combat by Union troops in Central Kentucky in one of the last engagements of the Civil War. 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.. William C. Quantrill, in full William Clarke Quantrill, pseudonym Charley Hart, (born July 31, 1837, Canal Dover, Ohio, U.S.died June 6, 1865, Louisville, Ky.), captain of a guerrilla band irregularly attached to the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, notorious for the sacking of the free-state stronghold of Lawrence, Kan. (Aug. 21, Contributions Although he doesnt talk much about it. There was a $300 reward on Archies head, but no-one had the nerve to try and collect. Anderson ordered Clements to muster out the naked prisoners. This poster (Generale Quantrill: The Human Beast) is actually for an American movie called Dark Command, with Walter Pigeon playing William Cantrell. The films Italian distributors apparently felt Quantrill was more marketable, restoring his real name, making it the title, and promoting him to General in the process. Bill gave Price a stolen set of fine pistols, which the General accepted. 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. William Quantrill first came to Kansas in 1859 at age 22. On May 10, Quantrill and his band were caught in a Union ambush at Wakefield Farm. [1] Quantrill's famous or infamous raid upon the sleeping town of Lawrence in the predawn hours of August 21, 1863, has been the subject of endless discourse and debate. 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. Despite their gain in notoriety and expansion in numbers, accompanied by increasing expertise in the American Indian style of guerrilla fighting, the group was considered undisciplined and dangerous. Biographies Most of the bands now consisted of reckless and ruthless teenagers with lots of violent energy but little judgment. 2. All the passengers were robbed and some murdered except for 25 unarmed Union soldiers. 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. However, neighbors soon began to notice Quantrill stealing goods out of other people's cabins and so they banished him from the community in January 1858. If this could be done while inflicting fear and pain, all the better. A Union patrol caught up to a group of seven of Andersons men, killed them, and scalped them. Unlike other border states to the east, guerrilla fighting, ambushes, raids, skirmishes, massacres, and atrocities of personal revenge between proslavery and abolitionist forces pitted neighbor against neighbor and defined the region. While in Texas, Quantrill and his 400 men quarreled. They were glad to see Quantrill, Todd, and Anderson head back north to Missouri in March 1864. Andersons command rode into General Prices camp on October 11. Viewed as outlaws, Quantrills men faced certain death if captured in Missouri. Angered by incidents of scalping by Kansas Jayhawkers, the guerrillas took it up themselves in the summer of 1864. Union troops marched through behind them and burned buildings, torched planted fields, and shot down livestock to deprive the guerrillas of food, fodder and support. The remains were supposedly buried in Dover in 1889, but Scott attempted to sell what he said were Quantrill's bones and so it is unknown if the remains he returned to Dover or buried in Dover were genuine. William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 June 6, 1865) was a Confederate guerrilla leader and mass murderer[1] during the American Civil War. Among the dead was Josephine Anderson, the sister of one of Quantrill's key guerrilla allies, Bill Anderson. As a result, Todd became a captain and Anderson a lieutenant, but these ranks existed only within the unit and do not appear to have ever been commissioned officially by the CSA. Quantrill, in the company of Mayes and the Cherokee Nations, joined with General Sterling Price and fought at the Battle of Wilson's Creek and Lexington in August and September 1861. Accused of having lost his sand, Quantrill took a small nucleus of about forty loyal bushwhackers and headed east toward Kentucky. But more than likely, Quantrill planned to link up with General Robert E. Lees army, believing that the men would be considered Southern soldiers and would be pardoned with the coming end of the war in Virginia. 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. Revolvers used in close provided overwhelming firepower in any clash with Union troops and the guerrillas carried as many as six each. Upon reaching adulthood, Quantrill briefly taught school in Ohio. The shirt indicated the relationship the wearer had with its creator, mother, wife, sister, or girlfriend and was a symbol of the important role women played in sustaining the guerrillas and nursing their wounds. Warned about the attack, the Union soldiers were able to repel the raiders, who torched part of the town before they retreated.[16]. Crocker until his death in 1917. 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. It is set during the American Civil War and involves Jesse more . ): A Thrilling Record, Founded on Facts and Observations Obtained During Ten Days Experience with Colonel William T. Anderson (the Notorious Guerrilla Chieftain), Des Moines, Iowa, 1868, Goodrich, Thomas: Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861-1865, Indiana University Press, Bloomington Ill., 1995, Leslie, Edward E.: The Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Story of William Quantrill and His Confederate Raiders, New York, 1998, McLachlan, Sean: American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics, Oxford, 2009, Oates, Stephen B.: Confederate Cavalry West of the River, Austin (3rd ed. The aims and reputation of the Confederacy would henceforth play little if any role in determining his strategy and tactics. Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. Later in 1862, John Jarrett, John Brown (not to be confused with the abolitionist John Brown), Cole Younger, William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson, and the James brothers would join Quantrill's army. Age of Discovery It was considered good sport to switch the decapitated heads to different bodies or impale them on fence posts. Various experiments in counter-insurgency strategies failed to drive the guerrillas from the field by the end of the war. Instead Price began a meandering march in which he wasted his strength in a series of pointless battles. Updated on January 08, 2020. In 1858, he moved to Utah where he was a gambler. John Langford appeared to be a cautious man. Discipline was light but failure to turn up for an operation could mean death. A common trait of the guerillas was a distaste for discipline. 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. Authorities briefly arrested him, but Quantrill claimed that he had acted in self-defense. Later, the group became Confederate soldiers, who were referred to as "Quantrill's Raiders". Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, and Bongard, David L.. Crouch, Barry A. Why, he sent me money all the time he was away from home, even when he was a Confederate soldier. Quantrill supposedly informed his men that they would enter Kentucky and work their way to Washington, DC, where they would assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Published: (1923) The guerrillas rode into Lawrence on August 21, 1863, shouting Remember Osceola. Over 200 civilian men and boys were killed in four hours. QUOTES. Jesse was 16 when he and Frank became Confederate guerrilla soldiers, riding alongside William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Many guerrilla leaders, like Quantrill, Anderson, and Todd, did not survive the war to give their own views and recorded nothing of consequence when alive (other than Andersons three letters to newspapers). General Sterling Price led the last Confederate attempt to secure Missouri in September 1864. The brave marshals do their best but they are few in number. Anderson set off on his own with 20 men in March 1864. General Jo Shelby, a Missourian and one of the Confederacys best fighting generals, held a low opinion of the guerrillas: They are Confederate soldiers in nothing save the name No organization, no concentration, no discipline, no law, no anything. Bloody Bill even denied the name part, stating: I am a guerrilla. William Quantrill Quotes Free Daily Quotes . Quantrill captured the military outpost and tried forcing the men to swear an oath to the Confederacy. One night while working the late shift, he killed a man. [4] Here, Quantrill took up a job in the lumberyards, unloading timber from rail cars. The edict ordered the depopulation of three and a half Missouri counties along the Kansas border with the exception of a few designated towns, which forced tens of thousands of civilians to abandon their homes. He told her that slavery was right and that he now detested Jim Lane. Within some weeks after the news stories were published, two men came to British Columbia, travelling to Quatsino from Victoria, leaving Quatsino on a return voyage of a coastal steamer the next day. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. William Clarke Quantrill (1837-65) earned infamy during the Civil War for his atrocities against citizens and guerrilla warfare against Union soldiers. Hand-in-hand with this was the terrorization of the civilian population by murder, torture, and property destruction. [18] When Quantrill's men rode out at 9 a.m., most of Lawrence's buildings were burning, including all but two businesses. Unable to escape on account of a skittish horse, he was shot in the back and paralyzed from the chest down. By late 1866 there was such an upsurge in violence in Missouri that all men of military age were again ordered to report for registration in the militia. 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. Instant downloads of all 1725 LitChart PDFs Quotes. Since there were no eyewitnesses and the victim was a stranger who knew no one in town, William was set free. William Clarke Quantrill was a leader of Confederate guerrilla forces during the American Civil War. A stagecoach rolled in and was promptly robbed before a train arrived. Showing search results for "William Quantrill" sorted by relevance. Complete all tasks in a timely manner, meaning as soon as possible. He lived for another two years in great pain from his wound before dying on December 13, 1868. During the caravan, Quantrill was heavily guarded but treated with respect. 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. Hundreds of people lined up to see it. Little is known of Quantrill's journey out west except that he excelled at the game of poker. I aim to see him shot or hanged." "Yes, yes, well might you labor to that end," said Stonehill. That eyewitness to history was a young soldier named John Langford. You cannot escape.. At the other end of the clearing were Andersons men, waiting by their horses. Were they able to loot stores and rob civilians? 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. Still, some 52,000 recruits of questionable value and loyalties were impressed into the Union ranks. Fueling this conflict was a dispute over whether Kansas should be a slave-holding state or not. I then came back to him, where he told me who he was, Langford added. Clements, however, returned to town to have a drink with a friend. A school teacher from Ohio, Quantrill became one of the most notorious figures of the US Civil War. The rebel army was driven south into Arkansas and would not return to Missouri for over two years. Quantrills executioner met a much more peaceful end, much later in life. Preservation Quantrill was born in Ohio on July 31, 1837. The unit that successfully ambushed Quantrill and his followers was led by Edwin W. Terrell, a guerrilla hunter charged with finding and eliminating high-profile targets by General John M. Palmer, the commander of the District of Kentucky. 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. [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. A solitary youngster with few friends, young Quantrill is said to have relished inflicting pain and torture on animals, finding pleasure in stabbing horses and cattle by the roadside to hear them scream. After a local request, the US government provided a new headstone for Andersons grave in 1969. .state-topmenu { color: #000; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: uppercase; word-spacing: 7px; z-index: 999999; }, AboutPublicationsLibrary Archives amhpo.com. But the security of Quantrills crew was misplaced. Before they could load again, Andersons men were among them with pistols blazing as scores of guerrillas poured out of the woods. Here they are: 1. The way the content is organized. The Sharps were large bore single shot rifles with a reputation for long-range accuracy. Quantrill continued his career as a teacher, moving to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in February 1856. Quantrill is known for his violent ways, as he led his men in the infamous Lawrence Massacre of 1863, in which he and his men killed roughly 200 civilians. The general and governor both erupted with rage at the display and told Anderson the CSA would have nothing to do with his band until all scalps disappeared. (including. As with any larger-than-life historical figure, Quantrills story proves difficult, perhaps impossible, to determine where fact ends and legend begins. Germans (who were called Dutch by the guerrillas) were routinely murdered by the bushwhackers, who regarded all of them as Unionists. Just able barely to mount a . Two days later, Terrell returned, having concluded that the wounded man was Quantrill. Eventually, his remains were collected though they still occupy two separate graves, one in Ohio and one in Missouri. They were somewhat comfortable in the knowledge that Captain Terrells guerrilla-hunting scouts were miles away with no knowledge of their whereabouts. This raid was the culmination of an . Historians view him as an opportunistic, bloodthirsty outlaw; James M. McPherson, one of the most prominent experts on the American Civil War, calls him and Anderson "pathological killers" who "murdered and burned out Missouri Unionists". But public opinion had turned against the raiders. They never married, although she often visited and lived in camp with Quantrill and his men. In one of the war's great atrocities, Quantrill and his men burned. The fact that a bullet from his revolver closed the career of the celebrated Quantrell [sic] was common talk among the twenty-eight men who composed the scouting party, the Ledger reported in the same story. Anderson kept his Confederate battle flag carefully folded amongst his personal effects, like a memory of an earlier time and purpose. William Quotes. [citation needed], Quantrill's actions remain controversial. Anderson, typically, decided direct action was appropriate. [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. Lailah Gifty Akita These aren't accidents. 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. The guerrillas swore revenge and took it on September 27, 1864, at the Missouri town of Centralia. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. His body suffered numerous indignities, his bones were stolen, some put on exhibit, and his skull served duty for decades as a prop in a college fraternitys initiation rites. Bloody Bills brother Jim disappeared around 1867-68. As Anderson launched a furious charge, the Union volley went high. After about a year, he converted to the Union side where his federal guerrillas plundered and killed Southern sympathizers, an official but lawless band. By 1863 both the guerrillas and the Union cavalry were carrying this weapon. In his teens, Quantrill had short-term stints of employment as a teacher in Ohio, Illinois, and later, in Kansas. 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. Arriving in the morning, the guerrillas looted the town, drinking all the whiskey they could find. Andersons biggest objection to Quantrill was that he wasnt intent on killing enough Unionists. Quantrills outraged band blamed the federal troops. They were replaced in January 1864 by the Second Colorado Cavalry which, unlike the Jayhawkers, were eager to come to grips with the guerrillas rather than just civilians. His name is Tom Chaney. 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. Im here for revenge, said Anderson, and I have got it.. 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. In reply to one of Scotts letters, Langford wrote, Col. The general was chased into Indian Territory, and by the time he returned to Arkansas he had only half the 12,000 men he had started with. They settled at Marais des Cygnes, but things did not go as well as planned. These rarely agree in detail and are usually colored by the perceived legal, political, or personal need for the veteran to present his story in a certain fashion, resulting in a variety of contradictory accounts. Events & Documents, Civil War 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. Listen carefully to instructions and never expect to be told anything a second time. Headquartered at the James H. Wakefield farm, the gang had sheltered its horses under the sheds around the barn, protecting them from a rainstorm. He taught school briefly in Ohio and Illinois; in 1857 he moved to Kansas, and in . [27] The historian Matthew Christopher Hulbert argues that Quantrill "ruled the bushwhacker pantheon" established by ex-Confederate officer and propagandist John Newman Edwards in the 1870s to provide Missouri with its own "irregular Lost Cause". This is the truth behind the man and the soldier. Duffy, a member of a Michigan cavalry troop that had dealt with Quantrill's raiders during the Civil War, met Quantrill at Quatsino Sound, on northern Vancouver Island, while he was investigating timber rights in the area. Kansas Raiders 1950. Jesse, at sixteen, later joined Andersons band when Frank was still riding with Bloody Bill. As the name Bushwacker implies, the main tactic of the guerrillas was the ambush, sudden attack followed by a quick withdrawal and dispersal on fast mounts into country best known to the guerrillas. Jennisons Jayhawkers later became enraged when they saw his grave in Richmond covered in flowers. 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. Another of Anderson's sisters, Mary, was permanently crippled in the collapse. 2023 Missouri Life Magazine. The garrison commander did not appreciate their humor but added their names to the roles as required and ordered them out of town. Andersons reputation actually helped in recruitment; according to Jim Cummins, a member of Andersons band: Having looked the situation over I determined to join the worst devil in the bunch, so I decided it was Anderson for me as I wanted to see the blood flow., Union supporters or relatives of soldiers could expect little mercy. Initially, before 1860, Quantrill appeared to oppose slavery. Bill offered some simple advice to the citizens of Missouri: "If you proclaim to be against the guerrillas I will kill you. 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. Although his relationship with Beeson was never the same, Quantrill remained friends with Torrey. When asked why he joined Quantrill, Anderson replied by saying, "I have chosen guerrilla warfare to revenge myself for wrongs that I could not honorable revenge otherwise. The ferocity and brutality of a conflict waged between neighbors and families precluded the possibility of an easy transition into a post-war peace. However, most of the soldiers fighting the guerrillas were young, inexperienced conscripts of the Missouri militia. Mayes enlisted and served as a private in Company A of the 1st Cherokee Regiment in the Confederate army. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. The residents of Lawrence, Kansas, would never forget what happened on August 21, 1863, if indeed they were lucky enough to survive. As Quantrills band maneuvered through Kentucky dressed in federal uniforms, the men passed themselves off openly as members of the nonexistent US 4th Missouri Cavalry. When Quantrill executed one of Andersons men for robbing and murdering a farmer, that was the last straw for Bloody Bill. His once-large band broke up into several smaller guerrilla companies. Bills grey mare was found adorned with Union scalps. John Langford rests in peace near his Missouri farm and friends in a beautiful country cemetery south of Albany. The Kansas City Journal proposed that the bushwackers should be decently treated, decently tried, decently convicted and decently hung.. Not so in the Missouri-Kansas border country, a regional hotbed of political and armed warfare. His father was Thomas Henry Quantrill, formerly of Hagerstown, Maryland, and his mother, Caroline Cornelia Clark, was a native of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Explorers Familiar faces at these events included Cole Younger, Frank James, and John Noland, Quantrills loyal Black-American scout. Once he and his men caught nine Union soldiers in a schoolhouse and killed them. 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. He worked for us. You cannot escape." Counter-Measures Union counter-measures included the death penalty for interfering with the railroads. Quantrill's men believed that the collapse was deliberate, which fanned them into a fury. 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. Shortly before his death, Bloody Bill announced, I have killed Union soldiers until I have got sick of killing them. Most of the Missouri population was sick of Bloody Bill as well; as a local newspaper proclaimed, An avenging God has permitted bullets fired from Federal muskets to pierce his head, and the inhuman butcher of Centralia sleeps his last sleep. (St. Joseph Morning Herald). For instance, he wrote to his good friend W.W. Scott in January 1858 that the Lecompton Constitution was a "swindle" and that James H. Lane, a Northern sympathizer, was "as good a man as we have here". Others, like the James brothers, the Younger brothers, and the Shepherd brothers, found the transition into peacetime difficult, both because they enjoyed the bushwacking life, but also because they were forced to live in constant fear of arrest or lynching by vigilantes.
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