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. [18] When Quantrill's men rode out at 9 a.m., most of Lawrence's buildings were burning, including all but two businesses. Sawed-off shotguns were also in use and the personal arsenal was usually completed with Bowie knives and tomahawks for hand-to-hand fighting. Bill gave Price a stolen set of fine pistols, which the General accepted. [4] Here, Quantrill took up a job in the lumberyards, unloading timber from rail cars. Although he filed a claim to a tract of land . He also called the Democrats "the worst men we have for they are all rascals, for no one can be a democrat here without being one". Kansas Raiders 1950. Instead Price began a meandering march in which he wasted his strength in a series of pointless battles. Perhaps as bad as the man he was hunting down.. A great memorable quote from the Kansas Raiders movie on Quotes.net - William Clarke Quantrill: [to Jesse] Napoleon made the profound observation that an army travels on its stomach. As Anderson launched a furious charge, the Union volley went high. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. 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. Newsletter Price and Anderson met again later that day. Anderson kept his Confederate battle flag carefully folded amongst his personal effects, like a memory of an earlier time and purpose. They never married, although she often visited and lived in camp with Quantrill and his men. Noland was one of five known Black Americans who rode with the Missouri bushwhackers. You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. Perhaps showing some detachment from reality, Bloody Bill rode up to Price and Governor Reynolds with scalps hanging from his saddle. 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. John Langford rests in peace near his Missouri farm and friends in a beautiful country cemetery south of Albany. Bill offered some simple advice to the citizens of Missouri: "If you proclaim to be against the guerrillas I will kill you. Im here for revenge, said Anderson, and I have got it.. Some, like Lil Archie Clements, were unable to obtain favorable conditions and thus remained underarms. [20], In Texas, on May 18, 1864, Quantrill's sympathizers lynched Collin County Sheriff Captain James L. Read for shooting the Calhoun Brothers from Quantrill's force who had killed a farmer in Millwood, Texas.[21]. Here they are: 1. Upon reaching adulthood, Quantrill briefly taught school in Ohio. 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. On August 25, in retaliation for the raid, General Ewing authorized General Order No. Some, like the veterans attending the bushwacker reunions under Quantrills vacant gaze, managed to adjust to post-war life. [23], Quantrill was buried in an unmarked grave, which is now marked, in what later became known as St. John's Cemetery in Louisville. 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. Andersons biggest objection to Quantrill was that he wasnt intent on killing enough Unionists. Price sought to incorporate most of them into his column rather than dispersing them throughout the state to draw off Union troops. Others, like William Anderson, had already entered a dark abyss from which there was no return and no escape except death. The group helped protect Missouri farmers from the Jayhawkers for pay and slept wherever they could find lodging. 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, Before they could load again, Andersons men were among them with pistols blazing as scores of guerrillas poured out of the woods. He was known for leading the most violent bushwhacker gang during the Border War. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. During this time, Quantrill helped support the family by continuing to work as a schoolteacher, but he left home a year later and headed to Mendota, Illinois. On June 6, 1865, some twenty-seven days after he was wounded, Quantrill died. 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. 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. 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. 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. Initially, Terrell believed the dying man and left him at Wakefields farm home while resuming the search, believing Quantrill had eluded them. 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. 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. The guerrillas swore revenge and took it on September 27, 1864, at the Missouri town of Centralia. The most significant event in Quantrill's guerrilla career took place on August 21, 1863. 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. [11], On March 7, 1862, Quantrill and his men overcame a small Union outpost at Aubry, Kansas and ransacked the town. (including. To use it, Skeeter sucked on the end and then placed it upright on parchment.. One notable use of the Quick-Quotes Quill was when Skeeter interviewed Harry Potter after he had been chosen to compete in the 1994-1995 Triwizard Tournament. Although Langford wrote that Quantrill had revealed his identity to him in the pasture soon after he was shot, the farmer in whose house the guerilla was taken has said that the wounded man later denied he was Quantrill. Bill Anderson arrived in Kansas as a child in 1857 along with his Southern parents, two brothers, and three sisters. It was Mayes who taught Quantrill guerrilla warfare tactics, the ambush fighting tactics used by the Native Americans, as well as camouflage and the tactic of the sneak attack. Only two riders continued, plunging hell for leather through the Union line, but the troops turned around and brought both men down dead. A man of action, it was said that Quantrill planned, but Todd executed. He decided to become a schoolteacher as a young man and started this profession. He returned to the US and worked as a cattleman in Fort Worth, Texas. Martin Kelly. PDF downloads of all 1725 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. I lived in Kansas when this war commenced. William Quantrill Quick Facts Significance: Canal Dover, OH July 31, 1837 Place Of Death: Louisville, KY Date Of Death: June 6, 1865 Place Of Burial: Louisville, KY Cemetery Name: St. John's Catholic Cemetery William Clark Quantrill was born in 1837 in Ohio, where he was raised and taught school. It was a pro-Confederate partisan ranger outfit that was best known for its often brutal guerrilla tactics. The activities of the Jayhawkers were even more counter-productive Union General Henry Halleck complained that their outrages had done as much for the enemy in Missouri as could be done by 20,000 Confederate troops. One of these men was Bloody Bill. Johnston unwisely left half his force at Centralia to chase a small group of bushwackers led by Dave Poole, who led them into a large clearing in the midst of a forest. The local dentist, who doubled as the town photographer, was summoned to take two shots of Andersons corpse propped up in a chair. As a result, there are grave markers for Quantrill in Louisville, Dover, and Higginsville.[24]. For brave men there's never a bolt to his door. 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. 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 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. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Quantrill journeyed back home to Canal Dover that fall. After a local request, the US government provided a new headstone for Andersons grave in 1969. He orchestrated a raid into Missouri to liberate some slaves. This left the field open to independent guerrilla commanders who took little if any direction from Confederate authorities. Seeing his target go down, Langford turned to assist the other soldiers of the Kentucky regiment. Angered by incidents of scalping by Kansas Jayhawkers, the guerrillas took it up themselves in the summer of 1864. The brave marshals do their best but they are few in number. Since there were no eyewitnesses and the victim was a stranger who knew no one in town, William was set free. Headquartered at the James H. Wakefield farm, the gang had sheltered its horses under the sheds around the barn, protecting them from a rainstorm. 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. The aims and reputation of the Confederacy would henceforth play little if any role in determining his strategy and tactics. After some initial Confederate victories in Missouri, Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn were defeated at the two-day Battle of Pea Ridge. Quotes. The nonfictional leader of a pro-Confederate group of men who tore through Kansas and Missouri fighting Union soldiers and sympathizers. But the security of Quantrills crew was misplaced. 5. He arrived at the prison hospital on May 13, 1865. 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". 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. Did the war give them license to ignore the laws of both man and God? Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. 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. [9], In the last days of September, Quantrill deserted General Price's army and went home to Blue Springs, Missouri, to form his own "army" of loyal men who had great belief in him and the Confederate cause, and they came to be known as "Quantrill's Raiders". Terrells band consisted of about twenty men, and was organized for the express purpose of driving Quantrill from Kentucky. His letter also confirms Terrells reputation. Updated February 2023. Quantrills executioner met a much more peaceful end, much later in life. It would forever alter the destiny of William C. Quantrill and his infamous Raiders. In May 1863 the brothers discovered their family home was nothing more than charred ruins, courtesy of the Kansas Jayhawkers. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel P. Cox had been assigned the task of eliminating Anderson. In one case, a German was found at the last moment before his hanging to actually be a Confederate supporter. 500 matching entries found. Showing in galleries and special shows around the country. By the summer of 1863, it was obvious the war in the West was lost. Terrell was a bad man, Langford wrote. While some guerrillas attempted to start new lives, others had developed a taste for theft and butchery that could not be sated in peace-time. He never forgot his old mother. While his boyhood friends were busy kicking soccer balls and hitting baseballs, David was in the woods of Salem with paper and pencil, capturing the details of a perched barn swallow or a purple martin. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture. 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. Pursuit by guerrilla-hunting units became ruthless. 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. After about a year, he converted to the Union side where his federal guerrillas plundered and killed Southern sympathizers, an official but lawless band. [5], Quantrill spent the winter in his family's diminutive shack in the impoverished town, and he soon grew rather restless. 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. They were glad to see Quantrill, Todd, and Anderson head back north to Missouri in March 1864. From this point on, the guerrillas fought in their own interest, not the Confederacies. There they burned down the entire town of Osceola and executed nine male civilians. Unsettled, he appeared to always be on the move, often pushed and honed by associations with gamblers, thieves, and killers in his late teens. The court awarded the men what was owed to them, but Quantrill paid only half of what the court had mandated. PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. The popularity of the weapons made it an icon of the Old West before production stopped in 1881. . A doctor examined him and advised him that his days were numbered and he should settle his business affairs. Anderson was beside himself with anger and now became dedicated to a single purpose; the killing of as many Union soldiers as possible. 133-44. Various experiments in counter-insurgency strategies failed to drive the guerrillas from the field by the end of the war. There were only two Union wounded, and these only survived the massacre because they had managed to flee. Many were illiterate farm boys who followed whoever could provide them with revenge, adventure, whiskey, and loot. Even as the smoke cleared from the attack on Lawrence, Southern support for Quantrills Raiders was beginning to fade. Once he and his men caught nine Union soldiers in a schoolhouse and killed them. The next year, their first child was born and they named her Katie Scarlett, Margaret Mitchell We endure hard times by the power of God. Langford, in pursuit, made his selection. Baxter shot himself in the head to escape death in the flames, and the boy escaped through a window but soon died from his terrible injuries. . His father was Thomas Henry Quantrill, formerly of Hagerstown, Maryland, and his mother, Caroline Cornelia Clark, was a native of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. "I have lapped filthy water from a hoofprint and was glad to have it," he brags, and Rooster makes fun of him for the comment, saying that all Texans claim they've drunk from a hoofprint. The Sharps were large bore single shot rifles with a reputation for long-range accuracy. Jesse, at sixteen, later joined Andersons band when Frank was still riding with Bloody Bill. This included Henry Torrey and Harmon Beeson, two local men hoping to build a large farm for their families out west. Jennisons Jayhawkers later became enraged when they saw his grave in Richmond covered in flowers. It was the first public sign of the combination of vicious anger and callous regard for life that would characterize his short career as a guerrilla leader. None were more enthusiastic about the practice than always smiling Lil Archie Clements. Quantrill was also the oldest of twelve children, four of whom died in infancy. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S. Confederate States presidential election of 1861, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Quantrill&oldid=1151901351, People of Missouri in the American Civil War, People of Kansas in the American Civil War, People of Kentucky in the American Civil War, Terrorist incidents in the United States by perpetrator, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2019, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from August 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2019, Articles with trivia sections from June 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Quantrill supposedly informed his men that they would enter Kentucky and work their way to Washington, DC, where they would assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Quantrill's mother, Caroline Quantrill described her son this way. The cord had 53 knots. Sons of Liberty Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Struggling with distance learning? .state-topmenu { color: #000; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: uppercase; word-spacing: 7px; z-index: 999999; }, AboutPublicationsLibrary Archives amhpo.com. 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. Later, the group became Confederate soldiers, who were referred to as "Quantrill's Raiders". He then took up with brigands and turned to cattle rustling and anything else that could earn him money. Kentucky was a bushwackers paradise. Select quotes from this letter confirm that Langford was with Edwin Terrells party pursuing Quantrills men in Kentucky in 1865 and that he was the man who killed him. 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. Even the remains of the troubled young warrior, William Clarke Quantrill, have found little peace in death. They settled at Marais des Cygnes, but things did not go as well as planned. When the command returned to west-central Missouri in the spring of 1864, the final break occurred. During a tumultuous winter in Texas, the group divided into bands, each commanded by a lieutenant such as George Todd and Bloody Bill Anderson. When the war started, the 21-year-old Bill appeared to be running a business in stolen horses with his younger brother Jim. Also notable is that the group included the young Jesse James and his older brother Frank James. Lane, a prime target of the raid, managed to escape through a cornfield in his nightshirt, but the guerrillas, on Quantrill's orders, killed around 150 men and boys who were able to carry a rifle. With the war over, Clements began hanging out in Lexington saloons with Dave Poole, who was now robbing banks. American Civil War, About Almost two years later, Terrell, the Union renegade, was shot by the town marshal of Shelbyville, after fleeing from prosecution for the murder of an Illinois stock merchant. 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. William Clarke Quantrill was a leader of Confederate guerrilla forces during the American Civil War. His once-large band broke up into several smaller guerrilla companies. Why, he sent me money all the time he was away from home, even when he was a Confederate soldier. William Quantrill was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, on July 31, 1837. The garrison commander did not appreciate their humor but added their names to the roles as required and ordered them out of town. While Langford had the distinction of shooting Quantrill, the notorious guerrilla leader, he was never boastful, the newspaper eulogized. Anderson ordered Clements to muster out the naked prisoners. Many had no homes left to go to, and there was always the danger of being waylaid by vigilantes. 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. 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). Battles Authors; 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. Quantrills guerrillas spent the 1863-64 winter with the Confederate Army in Texas. 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. 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. [14], On October 5, 1862, Quantrill attacked and destroyed Shawneetown, Kansas, and Bill Anderson soon revisited and torched the rebuilding settlement. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. Terrell believed his story and left to continue pursuing Quantrill. [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. Fueling this conflict was a dispute over whether Kansas should be a slave-holding state or not.

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