Download Quantrill`s Guerrillas and the Civil War in Western Missouri

Altered Destinies: Quantrill's Guerrillas and the Civil War in
Western Missouri
Terry G. Foster
Department of History
Submitted in partial fdfirllment
of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
Faculty of Graduate Studies
The University of Western Ontario
London,Ontario
September, 1999
o Terry G. Foster 1999
National Library
Bibliithkque nationale
du Canada
Acquisitions and
Bibliographic Services
Acquisitions et
services bibliographiques
395 Wellington Street
OttawaON K I A W
Canada
395. rue Wellington
OttawaON KlAOCVlC
Canada
The author has granted a nonexclusive licence allowing the
National Library of Canada to
reproduce, loan, distribute or sell
copies of this thesis in microform,
paper or electronic formats.
The author retains ownership of the
copyright in this thesis. Neither the
thesis nor substantial extracts from it
may be printed or otherwise
reproduced without the author's
permission.
L'auteur a accorde me licence non
exclusive pennettant a la
Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de
reproduire, preter, distribuer ou
vendre des copies de cette these sous
la forme de microfiche/film, de
reproduction sur papier ou sur format
electronique.
L'auteur conserve la propriete du
droit d'auteur qui protege cette these.
Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels
de celle-ci ne doivent Stre imprimes
ou autrement reproduits sans son
autorisation.
Abstract
William Clarke QuantriU9sRaiders cannot be simply defined as
guerrillas. Quantrill's command consisted primarily of members of the
dominant class. They fought not to overthrow the existing social order and
effect a revolution, but to preserve the existing hierarchical social structure
and distribution of power which had given Corm to their aspirations and
expectations. They were defenders of privilege and fought to protect the elite
status their families had earned within the antebelturn western Missourian
social stratum. They reacted to perceived and actual threats posed by the
Union army to themselves, their families and their way of We. Their exploits
ensured both their infamy and folk hero status. In the context of the Civil
War in western Missouri, therefore, William Clarke Quantrill and his
guerrilla band were counterrevolutionary social bandits.
iii
Acknowledgements
This is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Sharon Foster-
I would like to express my sincere gratitude and indebtedness to my thesis advisor
Dr. Margaret Kellow. Without her sole and unwavering encouragement, support
and insight, this project would never have been completed.
Table of Contents
Certificate of examination
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Table of contents
List of maps
a, Missouri
b. Boonslick Region
c. Western Missouri
d. The Western Border
Introduction
1.
Tumult and Turmoil: From Border War to Civil War
2.
'What One Desperate, Fearless Man Can Do": William
Clarke Quantrill Comes to Missouri
3-
"Shot down like dogs": Guerrilla War in Western
Missouri
4.
"You deserve a better fate": The Death of Quantrill
and the Experience of Reconstruction in Missouri
Conclusion
Bibliography
Vita
..
U
iii
iv
v
vi
vi-a
vi-b
vi-c
vi-d
List of Maps
a, Missouri
vi-a
b. Boonslick Region
vi-b
c. Western Missouri
vi-c
d. The Western Border
vi-d
Missouri
Boonslick Region
Western Missouri1
OSAGE
INDIAN
-
RESERVE
I
!
05-
I
i
[B
Thomas Goodrich, Black Fkg: Guerril& Warfare on the WesternBorder, 123614862.(Indianapolis:
Indiana University Press, 1995): 3.
The Western
I
order'
Thomas Goodrich, Black Flag: Guernllu Warjiare on the Wcstent Border. 1861-1865-(Indianapolis:
Indiana University Press, 1995): 2,
Introduction
Che Guevara envisioned the essence of a guerrilla band to be a group
which, acting on its own initiative, bears arms against the existing government, is
"rural in character, and economically based on the desire to hold land."' In the
1950s, Guevara, an Argentinean-born revolutionary, fought in Cuba for a people
to whom he did not belong. Nearly one hundred years earlier, so too had the
enigmatic and elusive 'Guerrilla QuantreIl" in Civil War Missouri. The
Confederate guerrilla Leader William Clarke Quantrill led an equally determined
but completely different class of people, the armed nucleus of the western
Missourian slaveholding minority, throughout the course of the Civil War. This
minority had ruled the state relatively unopposed until the outbreak of war.
However, by 1861 changing demographics within Missouri and the national
secession crisis threatened their hegemony. Quantrillians, as the guerrillas were
known, were young men of slaveholding farming families who lived in the
western border counties of Missouri and thus resemble many aspects of Guevara's
ouerrilla band. Unlike Guevara's forces, though, Quantrill's guerrillas were
b
members of the dominant class. They fought not to overthrow the existing social
order and effect a revolution, but to preserve their place in the existing hierarchical
social structure and the distribution of power which had given form to their
1
Che Guevara, On Guerrilla Warjiiare, (NewYork: Frederick A, Praeger Publishers, 196 1), 7.
aspirations and expectations? They were defenders of privilege and fought to
protect the elite status their families had earned within antebellum western
Missouri society.
The war record of Quantrill's band earned them the reputation of having
been one of the most ferocious guerrilla forces ever assembled. Yet Quantrill
himself was an unlikely hero, an enigma of his own creation, a confidence man
and an ideological chameleon. The truth about QuantriII, incIuding the correct
spelling of his name, eluded even those believed to be closest to him.' He was a
raised as an abolitionist and trained as a schoolteacher in Canal Dover, Ohio.
However, restless and dissatisfied with his life he traveled from place to place in
Don R, Bowen, "Guerrilla War in Western Missouri, 1862-1865: Historical Extensions of the Relative
Deprivation Thesis," Comparative Studies in Society and History 19, no. L(1977): 33There was some confusion regarding the spelling of QuantriLl's name among his contemporaries. He was
referred to as the "Guerrilla QuantrelI" or simply "QuantreiY- Quantrill's name was misspe1Ied in this
manner whenever it appeared in newspapers durhg the Civil War, whether it was in The New York
Times,Louisville Daily Democrat, or Lawrence Daily Kcursas Tribune. An uncommon name, its
correct spelling was not we11 known and, therefore, was cnisspelled for many years- It is likely that it was
spelled phonetically based upon a Southern pronunciation; thus Quantd sounds like Quantrell. As for
any speculation to the contrary, he signed letters to his mother, "Your Son W.C. Quanmll" and to his
Scott, "Your Obedient S. W.C- Quanuiil", The only report he ever filed during the
boyhood friend, W-Wwar, on October 13, I863 to Confederate Major-General Price, was also signed "W.C- Quantrill". (See
United States War Department. War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Oflcial Records of the Union
arzd Corfederate Army series I, volume X X I I , part I(Washington: Government P ~ t i n Office,
g
1880190l), 701. Hereafter referred to as OR) The Census of 1850 and family headstones in the Fourth Street
Cemetery in Dover, Ohio confirm the spelling of the family name as "Quanmll", (See Skrh Census of
the United States, Schedule I-Free In habitants in Dover Township, Ohio (line 7), ISSO). Charley
Quantrell, the name many of his foIlowers referred to him as, was an amdgamation of his real name and
his alias, Charley Hart. There also is some controversy as to the correct spelling of Caroline Quantrill's
maiden and William's middle name, Clarke- Les Williams, former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of
the Dover Historical Society, believes that Quantrill added the "e" to Clarke to make it more
,
Ohio, October 10, 1992. Quantrill Coliection. Dover
distinguished. (See Dover Times R e p o ~ e rDover,
Historical Society.) This is unlikely as Mrs. Quantrill, after meeting with former Quantrillians at B Iue
Springs, Jackson County, Missouri in 1888, allowed the Louisville Courier-JournaL to publish the names
of her children exactly as she had recorded them into her family bible. She spelled Clarke with an "e"
when she recorded William's birth in 1837. (See Louisville Courier-Jountal, Louisville, Kentucky May
13, 1888. Quantrill Collection, Dover Historical Society, photocopy.)
search of his destiny. Quantrill eventually found it as the 'GuerrUa QuantreLl,"
champion and defender of the slaveholding elite of western Missouri.
In his book Bandits, historian Eric J. Hobsbawm constructs a model of
outlawry that is best described as a form of pre-proletarian social protest. Social
bandits, as he called them, expressed the collective will of an oppressed people
and flourished during periods of crisis which signified a major historical change in
their sociew4 Although Hobsbawm only applied his paradigm to pre-industrial
European peasant classes, it becomes more fluid and dynamic when used in an
American context.' One such instance is western Missouri in the Civil War era,
which gave rise to a variant of social banditry previously unrecognized by
Hobsbawm; the counterrevolutionary social bandit.
William Clarke Quantrill's raiders cannot be defmed simply as guerrillas.
however. They were rural agrarian counterrevolutionaries whose primary interest
was to preserve the status quo rather than effect revolutionary social reform.
Quantrill's command primarily consisted of slaveholders and other members of
the dominant class. These social bandits struggled not to overthrow the existing
social order and effect a revolution, but to preserve the existing hierarchical social
structure and distribution of power which had given form to their aspirations and
expectations.
-
a
-
-
- -
Eric J. Hobsbawrn, Bandirs. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd.. 198 1)
Historian L. Glenn Seretan's critique of Hobsbawm's paradigm argues that. "'socialbanditry is
more polymorphous and resilient than Hobsbawm supposed and that the vagaries of American historicat
evolution [are] quite capable o f casting up authentic variants-" See Hobsbawm, Bandits, 15 1-
Quantrillians fought in a counterrevolution against the Union army and
their civilian suppoaers in western Missouri and Kansas. Western Missourian
slaveholders perceived the Civil War as a revolt against their own Iocal and
regional dominance. Their conduct during the Civil War can be interpreted as a
direct response to threatening social change rather than simply bloodlust and
plunder. The brutality of Quantrill's guerrillas was a reaction to the perceived and
actual threat posed by the Union army to themselves, their families and their way
of life. They made a conscious decision to stay close to home and defend their
own interests rather than join the Confederate army and fight elsewhere.
The relative success of the band, especially in the early years of the war,
and its distinguished alumni, such as members of the James-Younger Gang,
ensured postbeilum infamy outside Missouri and f o k hero status within. Their
exploits in resistance to the disruption of an entire society reflected the resentment
of the slaveholding community of western Missouri over the destruction of its way
of life. In the context of the Civil War in western Missouri, therefore, William
Clarke QuantrilI and his guerrilla band were counterrevolutionary social bandits,
not anarchic outlaws, united not to effect a revolution, but rather in self-defense
and to prevent such a revolution from taking place.
Historical analysis of the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi West, and
Missouri in particular, is underdeveloped. The fust attempt to chronicle the
exploits of Quantrill and his guerrillas was John N. Edwards' Noted Guerrillas, or
the Waflare on the Border. Edwards was a Southern sympathizing Virginian who
had emigrated to Missouri. He sewed in Shelby's command during the war and
was probably the h o s t popular newspaperman west of the M.ississiPpi? Published
in 1877, Noted Guerflas contains more fantasy than fact. It created new and
entrenched old myths as historical truths. Edwards was a professional hero maker,
whose book sought to justify the crimes of the lames-Younger gang in order to
sway public opinion in their favour. He depicted Quantdl and his followers as
brave, chivalrous and heroic.
It was not until 1910 that a proper biography of QuantriU appeared.
William Elsey Connelley' s Quantrill and the Border Wars was based on
exhaustive research and attempted to deflate myths surrounding Quantrill.
Cornelley was the Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society and thus not
without bias. He presented Quantrill as a "depraved" and "degenerate" criminal
with a "thirst for blood" who was literally born to be bad due to the "immutable
law of h e r e d i ~ . "His
~ assessment of Quantrill's men was not much better.
The fust biography of QuantrilI written by a modern scholar appeared over
fifty years after Comelley's. Albert Castel's William Clarke Quantrill: His Life
and Times, published in 1962, was written as an afterthought following A Frontier
State ~t War: Kansas 1861-1865in 1958. Based on the research for his fust book,
6
Barry A, Crouch, "A 'Fiend in Human Shape'?: William Clarke Quanhili and his Biographers" Kansas
History 22, no- 2 (Summer 1999): 144.
'William E. Connelley, Quantill and the Border Wars-(Cedar Rapids. Iowa: The Torch Ress, 1910). 41.
Castel was acutely aware of historical perspective, but was careful to be objective
about the formerly politically-charged subject. Along the same lines is Edward E.
Leslie's me Devil Knows How to Rider The Tme Story of William Clarke
Qccantrill and his Confederate Raiders (1996). Leslie, however, is a professional
writer rather than scholar. His is the most extensive and weU researched
biography to date. Like Castel, Leslie attempts to remain objective without
attempting an analytic study. He presents his materia1 as matter of fact and tries to
identify and expose iingering myths. Although not properly documented, the
depth of the material may stand one day as a building block of a historiography
not yet written.
The most recent publication, psychology professor Duane Schultz's
Quantrill's Wac The Life and Times of William Clarke Quantrill (1996),
continues the simplistic historiographic trend established by Edwards and
Connelley: Quantrill as either hero or vilIain. This work follows Comelley's lead
and demonizes Quantrill. Schultz's book, however, based on secondary source
material, is a collection of diatribes against Quantrill without any analysis or
historical perspective.
With the exception of Edwards, these works concentrate mainly on
Quantrill himself. In efforts to expose either his heroic or villainous nature or
remain totally objective, these works fail to contextualize either Quantrill or his
followers. The most valuable studies to date are historian Michael Fellman's
Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri' During the American Civil War
(1989) and political scientist Don R. Bowen's statistical analyses, "Quantrill.
lames, Younger et al.: Leadership in a Guerrilla Movement, Missouri, 1861-1865"
( 1977), Guerrilla War in Western Missouri, 1862-1865: Historical Extensions of
the Relative Deprivation Thesis" (1977) and ''Counterrevolutionary Guerrilla
War: Missouri, 1861-1865" (1988). Feflman attempts a psychological
interpretation of the behaviour of guerrillas in Missouri, but does not adequately
explain why they chose %ushwhackingTT.FelIman's work contains Little about
Quanuill and his men as he tries to cover more territory than just western
Missouri, but he does state that they are social bandits? Conspicuously absent
from Inside War is the work of Don Bowen. Bowen was the fust to advance the
argument that the guerrilla war in western Missouri was counterrevolutionaryary9
His theories, however, are underdeveloped and his methodolo,~ slightly flawed.
Bowen uses statistics gathered from the Seventh (1850) and Eighth (1860)
Censuses to support his hypotheses in both articles. His data is sound, but his
scope is too narrow. His guerrilla list is taken from an appendix in Carl Breihan's
Qrrantrill and his Civil War Guerrillas (1959) containing only 296 names and of
which he only uses 194. There were many more guerrillas involved. L have
collected, from various sources, the names of over 800 Quantrillians. Bowen's
8
Michaet Fellman, litside Wac The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War. (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 260.
9
Don R. Bowen, "Quantrill, James, Younger, g &: Leadership in a Guerrilla Movement, Missouri, 186 11865" Military Affairs 41 no, I. (February 1977): 42-48, "GuerriIIa War in Western Missouri, 1862-1865:
Historical Extensions of the Relative Deprivation Thesis" Comparative Studies in Society and History 19.
no. 1 (1977): 30-5 1 and "Counterrevolutionary Guerrilla War: Missouri, 186 1-1865" Conflict 8, no. 1
(1988): 68-79.
statistical method is also flawed by focusing solely on Jackson County. The
majority of Quantrill's guerrillas came from Jackson County, but not exclusively.
Many were natives of neighbouring counties. Despite Bowed s Limitations, his
statistics stand as the starting point for a more comprehensive account.
This thesis extends the work undertaken by Bowen, providing a more
comprehensive account. This work will also argue that the violence in western
Missouri before, during and after the Civil War was, with few exceptions, neither
anarchic or chaotic, but rather a coherent response to fear of impending revolution.
In doing so, it will furthermore attempt to account for Quantrill's actions by
locating them within that context-
Chapter One
Tumult and Turmoil: From Border War to Civil War
Unrest and turmoil characterized Missouri society in the decade leading up
to the Civil War. Endemic violence raged in the western border region of the state
as Free-Soilers settled in the adjacent Kansas territory following the Kansas-
Nebraska Act of 1854. This act built upon the Compromise of 1850 which had
repealed the provision of the Missouri Compromise (1820) that prohibited slavery
in the Federal territories north of 36" 30'. The act permitted the extension of
slavery where it had been previously barred by law and allowed the citizens of a
given territory, when applying for statehood, to decide whether or not to permit
slavery in their state. Slaveholders in western Missouri had initially seen the
creation and proposed settlement of the Kansas temtory as a new market for slave
raised crops and as an opportunity to buttress Congressional support for slavery1
Western Missourians believed that the act would protect the state's frontier and
maintain the numerical balance of power between slaveholding and nonslaveholding states2 Pro-slavery Missouri Senator David Rice Atchison
' Harrison Anthony Trexler. Slavery in Mirsoun' 18041865 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.
1914), 186.
Before the settlement of Kansas western Missouri was surrounded by free territory. Iowa was less than
ninety miles from the northern boundary of Jackson County and the Nebraska territory was even closer.
articulated the desire to extend slavery into the Kansas territory in order to ensure
its survival in Missouri. "If the Territory shall be opened for settlement," said
Atchison, we pledge ourselves to each other to extend the institutions of
"
Missouri [slavery] over the Territory at whatever the sacr5ce
of blood and
trea~ure."~
However, prosperous established farms, strong community ties and
established spheres of influence kept western Missourians from expanding their
interests across the state Line into the new temtory. Despite the lack of arable land
left unclaimed in the region, very few permanent settlers went from Missouri to
Kansas with their slaves.
An i n f l u of Northern abolitionists into Kansas shifted the focus of
slaveholding Missourians from expanding slavery into the new territory to
protecting their interests at home.' Proslavery Democrats, who controlled state
politics in the 1850's, experienced a deepening concern over whether or not
Missouri could remain a slave state if Kansas were to be settled by abolitionists.'
Throughout the regions most dependent upon slave labour and most vulnerable to
attack, western Missouri and the Boonslick, the actions of the New England
Emigrant Aid Society gave cause for alarm? This abolitionist sponsored
Quoted in William Riley Bmoksher. Bloody Hill: The Civil War Battle of Wilson's Creek (Washington:
Brassey's, 1995), 10.
'Trexler. Siavery in Missouri. 186 and 188.
Ibid. 187.
Boonslick is a colloquial term for the prosperous area of the Missouri River valley where Chariton.
Saline, Howard, and Cooper counties converge and include Clay, Lafayette, Callaway and Boone
counties as well, Due to its large proportion of siaves and its agricultural prosperity this region was aIso
organization strove to populate the territory with Free-Soilers and Missouri
politicians feared the prospect of their state becoming a "slaveholding peninsula
jutting up into a sea of free-soil."7 This concern reflected the priorities of the men
who governed the state during this period, the slaveholding elite of the Missouri
River counties, the most well established, populous and prosperous area of the
state.*
Notable men of that region such as Sterling Price and Claibome Fox
Jackson had turned their socia1 and economic controI into political controI. AIong
with other powerful slaveholders and merchants they formed an oligarchy, called
"Boonslick Democracy", which totalIy dominated the Democratic party and state
politics in the 1850s: The impending crisis posed by Free-Soil settlers in the
Kansas territory made those in power more conscious of the importance of slavery
as the foundation of their society. The protection of their socid and economic
order became the motivating factor for their political actions during the 1850s. lo
known as "Little Dixie".
7
Trexler, Slavery in Missouri, 173,
The New England Emigrant Aid Society was organized by eastern abolitionists in 1854 to populate
Kansas with Free-Soilers in an effort to shift the balance to their favours Robert E. Shalhope, "Eugene Genovese. The Missouri Elite. and CiviI War Historiography." Bulterin of
the Missouri Historical Society 26, no, 4 (1970): 274,
9
Ibid.. 275-
Democrats had ruled the state relatively unchallenged since 1820, Sterling Price, the governor of
Missouri 1852- 1856,was among the most dominant political figures in the state during the 1850's. Other
prominent members of the "Boonslick Democracy" were Thomas C-ReynoIds, Owen Rawlins, John
Lowry, Joshua Redman, John Sappington, Meredith M. Marmaduke, George Penn. William B-Napton,
and Benjamin ShingfelIow. They were also cdled the "Fayette Clique" and the 'Central CIique",
'O
Ibid.. 277.
Emphasis on the importance of slavery in state politics grew out of the
perception of an immediate threat posed by antislaveryEree-Soil settlers in Kansas
and the rise of manufacturing in the eastern portion of the state. The influence of
eastern Missouri capitalists grew throughout the 1850s. The face of Missouri's
economy was changing. Slave-raised cash crops like tobacco and hemp which had
dominated the economy in the past were slowly and quietly being supplanted, with
help of the railroad, by commercial manufactures based in St. Louis. I ' According
to historian Stephen Carroll, non-slaveholding eastern Missourians, including
more recent settlers, many of them liberal German political refugees from the
Revolution of 1848 with a scant love for slavery, were more "interested in
building a new western society than in being tied to the older culture of the
South." l2 The state's economic interests were becoming increasingly tied to the
North and East rather than the South. Even more alarming to Boonslick
Democrats during this conflict was the politics of influential members of the
emerging St. Louis business elite. They sided against slaveholders and tended to
support free-soilism and abolitionism.I 3
" The state government pledged $26 million to railroad construction in the 1850s. The Hannibal and St.
Joseph Railroad linked western Missouri and the Boonslick to Chicago and tines extending from StLouis through central Missouri connected the state to cities in the east rather than the South.
" Stephen Carroll. "Loyalty or Secession? Missouri Politics and Sentiment Before the Civil War" Missouri
Historical Society Bulletin 1 (1972):25.26-
James Neal Primrn. 'Yankee Merchants in a Border City: A Look at S t Louis Business men in the
1850s." Missouri Historical Review 78, no. 4 (1 984): 386-
l3
Asserting the significance of slavery to Missouri was especially important
to the existing ruling class. Slave property determined economic, political and
social standing and formed the power base of Boonslick Democracy. In a letter to
Claiborne Fox Jackson, William B. Napton wrote of his concern regarding the
looming crisis and its effect on the planter class:
...however unimportant this matter may be to numbers of
our friends differently situated, it is vitally important to us
individudy and alI others similarly situated - whose entire
property consists in large bodies of land and considerable
numbers of slaves.. . We cannot readily shift our position in
life.. .14
Napton expressed the feaf of many slaveholders at the prospect of mass settlement
of Free-Soilers in the Kansas territory. In response, slaveholders were willing to
resort to violence in order to preserve their ''peculiar institution" in Missouri.
L'
Thus, many slaveholders began to abandon their objective of the expansion of
slavery into Kansas for a defensive stance at home. Slaveholders asserted their
-
-
14
Letter dated October 3, 1857, Quoted in Shalhope, "Eugene Genovese, The Missouri Elite, and Civil War
Historiography", 277.
Violent and often deadly reprisal directed at outsiders who appeared to threaten the established social
order was not uncommon in Missouri. Mormons settlers were expelled from Jackson County in the early
1830s as they were betieved to be abolitionists and their numbers had reached the point to where Iocals
feared they would dominate elections. Whig and Know-Nothing supporters rioted in St. Louis on
election day, August 1854. Fearing the rise immigrant political power, nativists rioted through Irish
neighbourhoods in St,Louis on election day in August of 1854. (See John C.Schneider, "Riot and
Reaction in St- Louis 1854-1856," Missouri Hisrorical Review 68 ,no. 2 (1974): 171-185). The same
disdain was shown for all political dissenters especially as the sectional crisis reached a fever pitch in
Missouri, German immigrant Sette Bmns wrote to her brother in the spring of 1861 that. "in aimost
every county vigilante committees have been formed, and they direct their anger against Republicans
and foreigners. .-a few Northern people received notice to leave the state-" See Henriette Anna
Elisabeth Geisberg Bruns to Heim-ch Geisburg in Adolf E. Schroeder and Carla SchuIz-Geisburg eds.
Hold Dear. As Always: Jetre. A German Immigrant Lge in Letters. Adolf E. Schroeder trans.
(Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1988), 176-177,
constitutional right to hold slaves and were determined to defend their property by
force if necessary.
In the western counties response at the local level was even more vehement.
In December 1854, a Gentry County, Missouri newspaper editor reminded his
readers that it was their duty, "...to prevent if possible that beautiful country
Bansas] from becoming an asylum for abolitionists and free sailers."l6 The
leaders of various western counties, including Jackson, Plane, and Clinton.
answered by officially condemning the settlement of Kansas by Northern
abolitionists and advocating proslavery action." The citizens of many towns in
the western region enacted proslavery measures. On January 4, 1855, for
example, the men of KeytesvilIe in Chariton County responded with a declaration,
which read in part:
...we regard the interference of the abolitionists with the
institutions of the South and West as a detestable attempt to
Dictate to us, without authority and.. . we believe that we
have the right to raise our stalwart arms in defense of our
rights.''
Similar sentiments echoed throughout western and Boonslick counties,
culminating in a statewide proslavery convention heid at Lexington in Lafayette
County, Missouri on July 12-14, 1855. This forum attempted to inform all
slaveholders of the threat posed by the antislavery movement believed to be
16
Quoted in Trexler. Slavery in Missouri, 187.
" Ibid.,
I*
193.
Quoted in Roben W.Duffner. "Slavery in the Missouri River Counties 1820-1865" (Ph-D. diss..
presently "at work against their interests" in the state.Ig It further encouraged all
Missourians "to adopt measures to protect siave property."20 The delegates passed
a series of resolutions which revealed the fear Missouri slaveholders felt for their
personal safety at the prospect of active abolitionists in such close proximity.
Among the resolutions passed, the most impassioned proclaimed that,
"...the slaveholding interest of Missouri would not wait tilIwc] the torch is
appIied to our dweIIings or the W
e to our throats, before w e take measures for
our security and the security of our friends."2t Another dealt specifically with the
perceived vulnerability of the western border and the economic necessity of
combating abolitionism:
...the eighteen counties of Missouri lying on or near the
border of Kansas, with only an imaginary boundary
intervening, contain a population of about fifty thousand
slaves, worth twenty-five millions of dollars, and this large
amount of property, one half the entire slave property of the
State, is not merely unsafe but Valueless[s~,if Kansas is
made the abode of an army of hired fanatics, recruited,
transported, armed and paid for the sole purpose of
abolitionising[sa Kansas and ~ i s s o u r i . ~
- -
University of Missouri, 1974). 158.
19
Quoted in ibid., 166.
20
Quoted in ibid., 166.
By 1860 slaves represented 10.8% of the total popuIation of Missouri, In the Boonslick and Jackson
County, however, slaves made up one third and one quarter of the poputation respectively,
" Quoted in ibid., 168.
"Quoted in ibid., 168.
- -
The convention supposedly represented the voice of all Missourians concerning
the situation unfolding before them. However, only twenty-six counties. mostly
from the Boonslick and western Missouri, of one hundred and fourteen
participated and of the ninety-nine convention delegates, all but seventeen had
emigrated from slave states? The resolutions revealed slavocracy's attempt to
propagate their mandate as the collective will of the people of the state. At the
same time it exposed the anxieties of the sIavehoIding minority, who stilI
controlled Missouri politically, but had begun to see their grasp on the state slip
away.
Determined to protect their interests, thousands of proslavery Missourians
had already crossed the border into Kansas in March of 1855 to vote illegally in
the territorial election. This attempt to coerce the territory to accept slavery by
ballot resulted only in violent reprisal. After the Missouri state convention in the
summer of 1855 the citizens of the border counties urged one another to take up
arms against Kansas. Slaveholding western Missourians became convinced that
the abolitionists in Kansas were at war with thelz. Broadsides published and
posted in western Missouri communities by proslavery factions again revealed the
anxieties of slaveholders and attempted to build upon the fears of the citizenry.
One posted in Lexington, Lafayette County, read:
Ibid.. 166. Shalhope. ''Eugene Genovese. The Missouri Elite. and Civil War Historiography". 276 and
John McEtroy, The Struggle for Miksorcrr'(Washington: The National Tribune Company. 1909). 19-
We say to you that war, organized, matured, settled war
is now waged upon us by the Abolitionists, and we call
on all who are not prepared to see their friends butchered,
and to be themselves driven from their homes, to rally to
the rescue [and] ...drive him [abolitionist] from your soil.. .
Now is the time for ACTION.. .Clp men of Lafayette!
BRING YOUR HORSES WITH YOU, YOUR GUNS
AND YOUR CLOTHING -all ready to go to Kansas.. .
This is the decisive moment; for the sake of your lives,
your children, your fuesides, your home -come up, and
let us act in this matter decidedly. and put an end to
Abolitionism in Kansas.. ."
Senator Atchison also c d e d men to arms, urging Missourians not to sit "...at
home and permit the nigger thieves [to] run off with [their] negroes and depreciate
-
the value of [their] slaves. ..,125 Preemptive. offensive, and retaliatory strikes by
Kansas Jayhawkers and Missourian Bushwhackers against one another fueled the
fire of the border war and sustained mutual animosity.'6
The violence in "Bleeding Kansas" reached its climax in May of 1856
when seven hundred proslavery men crossed the border and sacked the town of
Lawrence, razing most of it to the ground. Several days later abolitionist John
Brown responded by brutally slaughtering five proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie
''Quoted in Duffner. "Slavery in the Missouri River Counties 1820- 1865".
2s
163.
Quoted in Trexler. Slavery in Missouri. 187.
" During the border war of the 1850's Kansans were called Jayhawkers by Missourians and Missourians
combatants were known as Bushwhackers or Border-Ruffians. Jay hawker raids were carried out by
radical Republicans such as James H. Lane and fanatic abolitionists like John Brown, Daniel R,
Anthony, Charles R. Jennison and James Montgomery, Most antislavery Kansans were opposed to
Jayhawker raids because they saw them as an "impediment to economic development and civil order."
See Gary L. Cheatham, "Desperate Characters: The Development and Impact of the Confederate
Guerrillas in Kansas" Kansas History 14, no. 3, (199 1)' 146 and Albert CasteI, "Kansas Jayhawking
Raids into Western Missouri in 1861" Missouri Hisrorical Review 54. no. I (October 1959): 1-1 I,
Creek. An enraged Brown declared that it was time to 'Yight f i e with fxe [and]
...strike terror in the hearts of pro-slavery people."27
The violence on the border sparked debate among the politically-minded in
eastern Missouri. In st. Louis, for instance, where less than one percent of the
population were slaves, many were calling for an end to slavery. The conservative
St. Louis Daily Democrat regularly condemned the "peculiar institution". In
January 1857, the paper predicted slavery's end:
Who, that watches passing events and indications, is not
sensible of the fact that great internal convulsions await
the slave states. Dt is] better to grapple with the danger in
time, if danger there be, and avert it, than wait until it
becomes formidable. One thing is certain, or history is no
guide, that is, that slavery cannot be perpetuated
anywhere.'*
Clearly the threat to slavery in western Missouri was not just external.
Sporadic raids by Jayhawkers and Border Ruffians plagued the populace on
both sides of the western border for the next two years until the fighting
temporarily waned in 1858. The alarm and anger of proslavery Missourians,
however, had not yet calmed when "Old Osawatomie Brown" struck again. He
led two columns of men into Vernon County. Missouri in late December, killing a
slaveholder and taking eleven slaves to freedom in ~ a n s a s .Six
~ ~weeks later three
''Quoted in Stephen B. Oates. To Purge Thir Lond Wirh Blood: A Biography of John Brown (Amherst:
University of Massachusetts Press, 1984). 133.
za
St- Louis Daily Democrat. January 28, 1857. Quoted in Herbert Aptheker. American Negro Slave
Revolts. (New York: International PubIishers, 1974). 52'9
Oates, To Purge
This Lund Wirh Bhod .26 1-262.
Kansan abolitionists carried out a similar raid, invading Clay County and
capturing fourteen slaves.30 Western Missourian slaveholders believed they were
once again under siege.
layhawker raids into Missouri continued throughout the remainder of the
1850s, but the previous abolitionist successes had been inconsequential in relation
to the size of the slave population along the western border. After 1858, however,
because of the few successful and widely publicized slave liberations by Kansan
abolitionists, slaveholders of the border counties believed the slave system itself to
be in jeopardy. Alarmist proslavery newspapers, such as Claiborne Fox Jackson's
widely read Marshal2 Democrat, created an atmosphere of insecurity, instability,
anger, and fear among the slaveholding populace. Even in the east the Daily
Democrat reported that incidents of slaves killing masters were "alarmingly
frequent."31The reactions may have been extreme, but the concerns voiced by
slaveholders were not totally unreasonable, considering that slave escapes had
increased every year throughout the 1850s and the runaway rate in Missouri was
greater than the national averagem3' In December 1859 slaves revolted in Bolivar.
Missouri. They attacked their masters, killing one arid injuring several others
before the uprising could be put down?3
30
Thomas G . Dyer, " AMost Unexplained Exhibition of Madness and Brutality: Judge Lynch in Saline
County, Missouri, 1859," Missouri Hisrorical Review 89, no 3 (ApriI 1995): 274,
31
St. Louis Daily Democrat. July 8. 1859- Quoted in Aptheker, Slave Revolrs. 340,
"Trexler, Slaver). in Missouri.
33
203 and Dyer. "Judge Lynch in Saline County". 273.
Aptheker. Slave Revolts. 353-
As internal unrest and Jayhawker raids continued, slaveholder concerns did
not go unheard, even in Missouri academic circles. President Shannon of the State
University sympathized with the besieged Missourians and expressed his
proslavery position in a speech:
...the whole state is identified in interest and sympathy
with the citizens on our Western border and we will
co-operate with them in all proper measures to prevent
the foul demon of Abolition from planting a colony of
negro-thieves on our frontier to harass our citizens and
steal our property.34
Shannon's sentiments reflected the same commitment that the electorate of
Missouri seemed to have to the peculiar institution. Claibome Fox Jackson was
elected governor and Thomas Caute Reynolds lieutenant governor in 1 8 6 0 . ~ ~
They came into office on a strongly southern platform that held that slavery could
not be excluded from the temtories either by Congress or by territorial
Thus, Missouri watched the secession of South Carolina and the
various other Deep South slaveholding states in reaction to the election of Lincoln
with growing alarm." However, in Jackson's inaugural address he did not call For
3.r
Quoted in Trexler. Slavery in Missouri. 187.
35
Thomas C. ReynoIds was a radical Southern sympathizer.
36 Stephen Carroll. "Loyalty or Secession? Missouri Politics and Sentiment before the CiviI War." Mirzor~ri
Historical Society Bulletin 13, no. L (1972): 22-
Missouri's most influential class. the slaveholding Southern diaspora tended to sympathize with the
South during sectiond disputes. Many of these men were conservative by nature. preferring to stay in the
Union. However, they were Union men with slavery, but not without i t
37
Even though Douglas Democrats were among the minority of the Democrats who held political power in
Missouri, Stephen A- Douglas won the EIectoral College vote of Missouri, the only state he carried, in
the presidential election of 18fX.Of the five candidates in the race Abraham Lincoln came a distant last
the secession of Missouri. Instead, he asserted that the Union as a whole shouId
be dissolved and that Missouri must go with the ~ o u t h . ~ ~
Most Missourians did not share Governor Jackson's vision- The
Presidential election of 1860 showed the reIative conservatism of Missourians as
they overwhelmingly rejected candidates of both the sectional parties?9 The
slaveholding minority in Missouri did not vote for Southern Democrat John C .
Breckenridge, despite h i s radicd Southern pladorm. These voters believed the
real contest lay between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. They
Support
supported Douglas and passionately opposed "Black ~e~ublicanisrn"."~
for Douglas indicated that the non-slaveholding majority in Missouri as a whole
was unwilling to have the relative peace and security of their state disrupted by
extremists, either Northern or southern."
Nonetheless. this result did little to
reassure those committed to the South and slavery.
in the popular vote of the state- Not one person cast a vote for LincoIn in either CIay or Saline counties
and he received only 72 votes in all of the BoonsIick region, See R-Douglas Hurt, Agricnfture atrd
Slavery in Missouri's Litrte Dirie, (Columbia Missouri: University of Missouri Press. 1992). 299.
''Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone. eds., Dictio~~ary
of American Biography. voI. V (New York: Charks
Scribner's Sons, 1932). 538.
During the presidential election of 1860 Jackson, who privately preferred John C-Breckenridge.
pubticly supported DougIas as he beIieved he was the true nominee of the national Democratic party.
See William H.Lyon, "Claiborne Fox Jackson and the Secession Crisis in Missouri." hlissonri
Hisrorical Review 58. no, 4 ( 1964): 429,
39
Northern Democrat Stephen A- Douglas received 35.5 % of the popular vote of Missouri-Constitutional
Unionist fohn Be11 came in a close second with 35.2 8, Southern Democrat Iohn C- Breckenridge third
with 18.9 % and RepubIican Abraham Lincoln Iast with 10.2 %- See Lyon. "Secession Crisis in
Missouri", 33 1.
JO
Breckenridge did not receive a plurality in the counties with the largest numbers of slaveholders, See
Lyon, "Secession Crisis in Missouri". 43 1.
JI
Arthur R. Kirkpatrick. "Missourion the Eve of the CiviI War." Missouri Historical Review. (January
r 96 I ): go.
Governor Jackson's public position was not always clear as his reaction to
the secession of South Carolina can attest. He stated that:
So far as Missouri is concerned her citizens have ever
been devoted to the Union, and she will remain in it so
long as there is any hope that it will maintain the spirit
and guarantees of the constitution. But if the Northern
States have determined to put slaveholding States on a
footing of inequality [then they should] not expect our
submission to a government on terms of inequality and
subordination."
Despite his "devotion" to the W o n , Jackson rejected Lincoln's call for troops
after the attack on Fort Sumter. In a letter to the President he argued that the
proclamation was "illegal, unconstitutional and revolutionary," and added that,
"not a man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry out such an unholy deed
against our southern sister states.""
Jackson's loyalty to the Union was qualified
at best.
A state convention called in February of 1861 attempted to decide the
question of secession. In retrospect, the conclusions of the convention delegates
seemed selfish and shortsighted as they strove to withdraw from national politics
and detach the state from the national slavery debate. Slaveholding Missourians
were scarred by the border war, but more recently by the loss of the frontier to free
soil as Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861.
"Quoted in William E. Parrish. A History of Missouri 1860-1875-(Columbia: University of Missouri
Press, 1973), 4.
Quoted in Charles Harvey. "Missouri from 1849-1861." Missouri Hisroricd Review 92. n o 2 (January
19%): 132- 133 and Mi'ssouri Historical Review 57, no. 3 (April 1963). original reproduced i~zsiderhe back
cover.
'3
Now, if they seceded. the state would stand alone, exposed to free soil on two
sides. The delegates believed, therefore, that however ambivalent, the federal
uovernment offered
u
the only protection for slavery in Missouri. Secession would
harm rather than potect slavery even though seven Southern states had already
left the Union. Secession, they feared, would drive down slave prices, cut
Missouri off from eastern markets, and leave the state isolated economically,
politically, and geographically. Convention deIegates, the majority of whom were
slaveholders, believed that their immediate interests were best sewed by
remaining in the Union and relying on the security of its constitutional guarantees.
such as the Fugitive Slave Law. In February of 1861, despite the secessionist
argument that remaining in the Union was tantamount to accepting abolition, the
majority of Missourians, including all of the delegates, were not yet willing to
fight a war over slavery.
The convention, however, forced Governor Jackson to reveal his hand. He
miscalculated the outcome of the meeting and had already been positioning
Missouri for secession. Jackson had publicly and caustically denied Lincoln's
request for troops. Secretly though, he requested Jefferson Davis to send heavy
artillery to ~issouri." He anticipated internal resistance to his maneuvering and
prepared to combat it.
U
Chiborne Fox Jackson to Jefferson Davis. April f 7, 186 1. In Lynda Lasswell Crist and Mary Seaton
Dix, eds.. The Papers of Jeflerson Davis- vol- 7 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992).
107.
The events of the early months of 186 1 had not yet completely divided
Missourians. However. in the East. Missouri Republican Congressman Francis
Preston Blair, Jr. had been organizing pro-Union forces in the state since the
beginning of the year."s Blair offered his St. Louis based forces to Secretary of
War Simon Cameron, who accepted, in order to fd Missouri's volunteer quota.J6
Boonslick Democrats still controlled the state government, but Blair had, in effect,
usurped the governor's authority and propelled the polarization of Loyalty in
Missouri.
Frank Blair's command was put into federal service as the Union Guard
under another Free-Soiler and passionate opponent of slavocracy, General
Nathaniel Lyon. Lyon had previously been posted to Fort Scott in eastern Kansas
during the turmoil of the 1850's. There he had formed strong Free-Soil and anti-
'' ranc cis Preston Blair Ir. was the son of Francis Preston Blair (a founder of the RepubIican Party). He
was active in the antislavery movement even though he had been a slaveholder. Blair left the
Democratic Party to heIp found the Free-Soil Party in 1848 and established and edited The Barrzbrrrrrer. a
free-soil newspaper. He had served in the Missouri state legislature (1852-1856) and had been critical of
the Kansas-Nebraska Act as a violation of the Missouri Compromise- He served in Congress fiom 185759 and throughout the Civil War. Seven regiments of troops fiom Missouri for the Union army were
raised under Blair and he was commissioned a major-general. See Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone.
eds., Dictionary ofAmerican Biography. vol, 1- (NewYork: Charies Scribner's Sons. 1932). 332,
It is also interesting to note that in order to consolidate pro-Union forces Blair organized a Committee of
Safety and encouraged its members to spy on their neighbours in order to keep him informed of the
movements of secessionists all over Missouri. In order to do this they sent out letters across the state, in
early 1861. requesting information and stressing the importance and urgency of forming ' a great Union
party, opposed to secession and rebellion," It read in part:
We should know ourfriends fiom ourfoes; we should know what facilities
and means exist for promoting our common object. and also what steps are
being taken,..to defeat our wishes, Has any organization been made or
attempted in your county.,,If so, give the number of men, names of officers,
numbers and kinds of arms. kind of oath taken. and any other such facts as
you may deem materidSee James Broadhead, "'Early Events of the War in Missouri." War Papers atld Reminiscences 15611865: Read Before the Cornmundery of the State of Missouri Milirary Order of the Loyal Legiort of tire
Orired States. voI. 1 (St. Louis: Becktold and Company. 1892.), 6-8.
slavocracy opinions.47 He came to Missouri to suppress the "treasonous
insurrection" Blair believed to be brewing in St. Louis and to press the antislavery
issue. As he embaiked upon a steamer for his new post, Lyon prophetically stated
that, "I shall not hesitate to rejoice at the triumph of my principles, though this
triumph may involve an issue in which I certainly expect to expose and very likely
lose my life.""
At the behest of Governor Jackson, an aggressive proslavery minority
gathered in St. Louis early in May 1861. In response, Blair and Lyon were
authorized to raise ten thousand troops, "for the protection of the peaceable
inhabitants of ~ i s s o u r i . "They
~ ~ were instructed by Secretary Cameron to muster
those troops from the "loyal citizens of St. Louis" and reminded by Union army
commander General Winfield Scott that these were "revolutionary times."s0 At
the same time, secessionist militiamen began drilling at Camp Jackson, named in
47
Lyon may have been transferred fiom Kansas to St Louis in February of 1861at the request of Frank
Blair because they shared the same antislavery bdiefs, As early as L854. in a Ietter to his brother
Lorenzo. Lyon accused Stephen Douglas of "*subserviency[sic]to the slave interest [and that]. if it were
in my power to break up our relations [with the South ] and union.-. 1 would do so at once, and decIare
our glorious Union at an end," In that same year he revealed, in another Ietter, his poIitical stance on
slavocracy and foreshadowed his demise when he wrote: '?he aggressions of the pro-slavery men will
not be checked. till a lesson has been taught [to] them in letters of fire and blood." Quoted in Christopher
PhiiIips. Damned Yankee: The L$e of General Nathaniel Lyon (CoIumbia: University of Missouri
Press, 1990), 143.54. 106-107,
''Quoted in Phillips. Damned Yankee. 128.
19
Command sent fiom Secretary of War Simon Cameron to General Nathaniel Lyon. April 30, 1861.
Quoted in Parrish, A History of Missouri 1860-1875. 1 1-
50
Command sent from Secretary of War Simon Cameron to General Nathaniel Lyon, April 30, 1861.
Quoted in Harvey, "Missouri from 1849-186L,". 133-
This command was endorsed by Scott and approved by Lincoln.
the governor's honour. near the federal arsenal with intention of seizing it. Thus.
in St. Louis the leaders of both sides of the issue edged closer to a fight over
slavery.
The fust blow was struck on May 10 when Lyon's Union forces (largely
composed of immigrant Germans) attacked Camp Jackson after the secessionists
received a shipment of arms from Jefferson Davis. Lyon's action directly
contradicted Lincoln's pledge against federal coercion in Missouri. but the
secessionists surrendered peacefully. However. as Blair's regiment took the 669
militiamen into custody, an angry crowd gathered. They harassed the Union
Guard volunteers by spitting on them, yelling, "Hurrah for Jeff Davis," and pelting
them with rocks, brickbats, and dirt clods? A number of the men in the crowd
then opened fire on Blair's troops, killing two of them. The soldiers returned fie.
killing twenty-eight and wounding seventy-five civilians. This was the f i s t
incident in which Union troops turned on partisan citizens, including women, but
the trend would continue throughout the Civil War in Missouri.
The Camp Jackson massacre sparked the Civil War in Missouri and
polarized loyalty in the state?
For example, Sterling Price. hero of the Mexican
War, former governor, and president of the state convention, supported slavery,
Phillips. Damned Yankee, 191.
P' Ibid..
20 1.
The Camp Jackson Massacre caused a stir throughout Missouri. Thousands fled St- Louis as the incident:
forced them to choose sides, One of the strongest opponents of secession at the convention in February.
UrieI Wright decked after the incident that. "if Unionism means such atrocious deeds as I have
witnessed in St- Louis, 1am no longer a Union Man-" See Phillips. Damned Yankee. 193.
but not secession in February of 186L. The massacre, however, enraged him and
he responded by offering his services to Governor Jackson as the commander of
the Missouri State Guard. Sarah Jane Hill, a resident of St. Louis, a Ioyal
Unionist, and a non-slaveholder, saw the Camp Jackson massacre in a different
light. She wrote in her journal that:
...while deploring the shooting and the killing... there
was a feeling [among non-slaveholders in S t Louis] of
satisfaction that at Iast the government was taking some
action to protect its property and the city from becoming
prey to the confederacy?'
Missourians now would have to declare their allegiances.
Hostility continued to mount after the Camp Jackson massacre. To defend
against Lyon and Blair's troops, Governor Jackson called for the enrollment of
every able bodied man in Missouri into the State Guard under Price. Slaveholder
hegemony brought its influence and power to bear throughout Missouri as other
prominent secessionist politicians raised troops to defend their interests against
federal coercion. The mayor of St. Joseph, M. Jeff Thompson foreshadowed the
course of the Civil War in Missouri in a letter to Jefferson Davis in June of 186L.
"Our leading Southern men," wrote Thompson, "Fave] resolved on immediately
throwing the State into a general revolution and [are] trusting to a guerrilla war
until you can send us aid."" Lieutenant Governor Thomas C. Reynolds left for
Mark M. Krug. ed.. Mrs. H a ' s Journal - Civil War Rerninircences (Chicago: Lakeside Press. 1980). 14.
Letter to Jefferson Davis from M. Jeff Thompson. dated June 3. 1861. In Crist and Dix. eds.. The Paperr
of JeffersonDavis- vol. 7, 188,
Richmond to gain Confederate military assistance and Price raised troops to
defend the interior. Secessionists rehsed to be caught unprepared as a
confrontation with Lyon and Blair was inevitable.
Governor Jackson's stance would appear to have determined the destiny of
Missouri. However, influential moderates convinced Jackson and Price to meet
with Lyon and Blair in a last effort to avert full-scale war wirhin the state. The
Planter's House Hotel Conference took place in St. Louis on June I I, I86 1,
dominated by a determined and unyielding Nathaniel Lyon. Forewarned of the
insincerity of Jackson's loyalty, Lyon's hatred of slavocracy and secession
exploded into rage."
Jackson's private secretary, Thomas L. Snead, recorded
General Lyon's impassioned words as his fury reached a crescendo:
Governor Jackson, no man in the state of Missouri has been
more desirous of preserving peace than myself.. . Now,
however, from a failure on the part of the chief executive
[Jackson] to comply with constitutional requirements, I fear
he will be made to feel its power.. .The blood of every man.
woman, and child within the State should flow, than he
should defy the federal government.. . Rather than concede to
the State of Missouri for one single instant the right to dictate
to my Government in any matter, however unimportant, I
would see you [pointing at Jackson], and you [pointing at
-
-
''Lyon. according to historian Christopher Phillips. was by nature argumentative and irrational. See
Phillips. Damned Yankee, 106,
Brigadier-GeneraI W-S- Harney, commander of the Department of the West, received this warning from
Washington on May 27, 1861:
The professions of IoyaIty to the Union by the state authorities OFMissouri
are not to be d i e d upon ...[They] are too far committed to secession to be
entitled to your confidence..-Whenever it is apparent that a movement.
whether by color of the State authority or not, is hostile, you will not
hesitate to put it down.
See John G.Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works (NewYork: The Century
Company, 1920). 52.
Price], and you [pointing at Snead], and every man, woman,
and child in the State, dead and buried- This means war.. .56
Jackson's delegation sat in stunned silence as the general stormed out of the room.
bringing the meeting to an abrupt end. The probability of war had brought
Nathaniel Lyon to Missouri and Lyon had forced war upon the state."
Governor Jackson believed he had to save the state from domination by
General Lyon and his army. Lyon had made the threat of federal intervention
explicit. Jackson replied to Lyon's threats the next day by issuing a proclamation
calling for fifty thousand volunteers to join Price's m y , "...for the protection of
~ ~also declared
the lives, liberties, and property of the citizens of ~ i s s o u r i . "He
that Missouri wouId remain one of the United States, but that Missourians' first
allegiance was to their state, not to Lyon or even to Lincoln.
In response, Lyon started proceedings to have Jackson and other prominent
Boonslick Democrats in the Misso& legislature indicted on charges of treason.59
The governor and a faction of the state legislature took flight to Texas and the
gubernatorial office was declared vacant by the rurnp.6' The remaining members
of the legislature appointed Hamilton R. Gamble governor and Lincoln officially
Quoted in Thomas L. Snead. The Fight for Missouri From the Efecrion ofLincoln to rhe Death of L j m
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1886). 199-200.
57
Phillips. Damned Yarrkee. 214.
58
Quoted in Lyon. "Secession Crisis in Missouri'.. 139 and Snead. The Fighrfor Missouri. 205.
59
Broadhead. "Early Events of the War in Missouri". 22.
"Jackson died shonly thereafter and Lieutenant-governor Thomas C. Reynolds ascended to Governor.
The exiled Confederate government remained in Texas without influence in Missouri for the remainder
of the war.
recognized him as the staterschief executive? His appointment was supported by
Frank Blair's inner circle, composed of influential St. Louisan capitalists, who
tended to support abolitionism and unconditional Unionism. There were two
governments of Missouri in the summer of 1861, one in exile sanctioned by the
people and one created by the exigencies of war.
The exile of Governor Jackson's government drove Missourians even
further apart. On August 5, 1861, a formal declaration of secession, issued in
absentia by Jackson, made Missouri a state in two nations6* The Confederate
Congress formally recognized the state in the fall of 186L and approved one
million dollars for the people of Missouri to aid, "in their efforts to maintain
Constitutional ~ i b e r t ~ .Gamble,
" ~ ~ appointed by legislators left behind, remained
loyal to the Union.
' Gamble was a conservative Whig, born and educated in Virginia.
He moved to Missouri after receiving
a law degree in 1818- He sat on the Missouri Supreme Court and had rendered a dissenting opinion on
the case of Scott. a Man of Color vs, Emerson (1 852) Dred Scott's first unsuccessfu1 bid for freedom.
GambIe decision was that "a master who takes his slave to reside in a State or territory where sIavery is
prohibited, thereby emancipates his slave." He was also the brother-in-law of Lincoln's Attorney
General Bates. He was not necessarily antislavery as he had delivered a pro-Union, but pro-slave
property address in St,Louis in January 1861-He had pointed out that slave property was unsafe
without the protection of the federal government and the fugitive slave law- See Duffner, "Slavery in the
Missouri River Counties 1820-1865", L85 and Johnson and Malone, Dictionary of American Biographyvol. IV,120- 121- and McElroy, The Snuggle fir Missouri, 49.
" Jefferson
Davis anticipated the declaration and the Confederate government excluded Missouri from the
category of enemy states in its formal recognition of war- See Robert McElroy. Jefferson Davk: The
Real and rize Unreal vol. I (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers. 1937). 3 17-
Missouri was officially recognized as the twelfth member of the Confederate States of America on
November 12, L861- However, according to the state constitution, Jackson's faction did not contain
enough members to constitute the official legislative body of Missouri, Therefore. the secession was
illegal at both the state and federal levels and Missouri was never legally in the Confederacy or out of the
Union.
63
Quoted in Crist and Dix. eds., The Papers of Jefferson Davis- vol. 7.265-
Five days after Jackson's declaration, the Civil War in Missouri erupted in
blood. General Price and his Missouri Home Guard militia units along with
Confederate General Ben McCulloch and his regular forces clashed with Lyon's
Union troops at Wilson's Creek near Springfield in Greene
Five
thousand Missourians joined Price in the effort to liberate Missouri? The
resulting battle brought the fitst Confederate victory in the west and the death of
General
o on?
The triumph proved to be short lived. A proclamation issued on August 30.
1861 recognized the tensions within the state. General John Charles Frkmont,
Union commander of the Department of the West, declared martial law in
Missouri and no quarter for rebels stating:
I do hereby extend and declare martial law throughout the
state of Missouri. AU persons who shall be taken in arms
[against the Union government] will be shot. The property,
real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who
shall take up arms against the United States, or who shall be
directly proven to have taken an active part with their
enemies in the field, is declared to be c0nfiscated.6~
More importantly, the proclamation also included a clause that effectively
emancipated all the slaves in Missouri, transforming the conflict in the state into a
Price had officially been given a commission by Jefferson Davis. Union troops included James H.LaneVs
and C!iarIes lennison's layhawkers, mustered into the atmy in M y .
65
Panis h, A History of Mirrouri 1860-1875.47.
"For a complete description of the battle see William Riley Brooksher. Bloody Hill: The Civil War Battle
of Wikon's Creek (Washington: Brassey's, 1995).
OR, ser. I. vol. m.466-467.
war upon slaveholders and confirrming their wont fears. Frkmont intended this
move to punish slaveholders for their perceived disloyalty by crippling them
economically and increasing the chances of a slave revolt.
Fr&nont9sactions proved premature. Lincoln forced him to rescind the
clause concerning confiscation of property and liberation of slaves as it conflicted
with Congress' First C o ~ s c a t i o n
~ c t 6 'The presidential intervention proved
ineffective, however. Union troops in Missouri at that time consisted mainly of
antislavery Missourians and Kansan Jayhawkers hostile towards slaveholders.
They had already adopted an unofficial policy of confiscation and emancipation.
These Union troops considered slaveholding proof of disloyalty. In this climate,
lines of loyalty blurred. Union or Confederate allegiances were not as simple as
slaveholder or non-slaveholder categories. Divergent interests and divided
loyalties clashed and Missourians turned upon one another.
The effects of this unofficial Union army policy were felt most acutely
dong Missouri's western border. These unprotected counties were exposed to
hostile temtory and vulnerable to Jayhawker raids. Moreover, the actions of these
Kansans were now sanctioned by the Federal government as Union troops.
Lincoln appointed James H. Lane, leading radical Republican in Kansas, MajorGeneral of the Kansas State Militia and former leader of Jayhawker attacks against
Missouri in the 1850's. Brigadier-General of Kansas Volunteers with full authority
" The First Confiscation Act (August 1861) fied only slaves who laboured directly in the Confederate war
effort.
"to raise a force."69 Lane believed strongly in emancipation and in arming slaves.
Within a year of his commission he had raised two black regiments without the
permission or support of washington." A force of about 1500 troops under Lane
fought at Wilson's Creek and upon retreat, wreaked havoc in the border counties,
sacking and plundering several towns in Missouri, including Osceola, Butler,
Harrison, and CLinton. The attacks were reminiscent of the 1850s as Jayhawkers
burned scores of buildings and homes and murdered numerous citizens. Among
the property stolen were three hundred slaves who then allegedly fought alongside
Lane's soldiers as they moved into ~ a n s a s . ~ '
Fremont, meanwhile, commissioned Charles R. Jennison, another
Jayhawker leader, to raise a volunteer cavalry regiment in the July of 1861."
They were with Lane after the Battle of Wilson's Creek, even though Jennison had
declared that "no excesses would be committed by any soldier" under his
command.73 Union patrols along Missouri's western border more often than not
69
OR. ser, III, vol. II., 959.
Handon B. Hargrovt. Black Union Soldiers h the Civil War &ondon: McFadand and Company. Inc..
I988), 52 and 54.
" Ibid.,
54.
"lennison's Jayhawkers were mustered into the Union army as Company H of the 7" Kansas Volunteer
Cavalry.
" Quoted in Stephen Z Stan, lennironJsJayhawkers: A Civil War Cavalry Regiment and its Commander
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Press, 1973). 22.87.
During the 1850's Jennison' s Jayhawkers operated as the Mound City Sharp's Rifle Guards, part of the
Kansas State Militia
degenerated into Jayhawker r a i d 4 Homes were plundered and burned
indiscriminately as "the possession of moveable wealth was taken as sufficient
proof of secessionist disposition.*'75 Jennison's forces did not discriminate
between allies and foes, even capturing a Union cache of arms on its way to Fort
Arbuckle in Indian T'erritoryZ6 Loyal or not, the citizens of the border had reason
to fear as Jennison's arbitrary actions were officially sanctioned and supported by
the federal government. J ~ M ~ sinoa~fmd
, act of edmity. issued an ultimatum to
the citizens of Jackson, Lafayette, Cass, Johnson, and Pettis counties:
I have come among you with my command under the
authority of the'General Government, for the purpose of
protecting.. .[the] property of the United States
Government, and for the purpose of throwing a shield of
protection and defense around all men who are loyal to the
Government.. . Neutrality is ended. If you are patriots you
must fight; if you are traitors you will be punished. The
time for fighting has come. Every man who feeds, harbors.
protects or in any way gives aid and comfort to the enemies
of the Union will be held responsible for his treason with
his Life and property.. . desolation will follow treason.. .and
in no case will any be spared, either in person or property.. .77
From June through December 1861, there were no less than twenty-two
Jayhawker raids into western Missouri where property was destroyed and
confiscated slaves and plunder were taken to Kansas .78 Slaveholding Missourians
74
Ibid,, 40.
75 Quoted
76
in ibid.. 24.
Ibid.. 40.
Quoted in ibid.. 87.
78
Castel. "Kansas Jayhawking Raids into Western Missouri in 1861".
living along the border were tom between a natural sympathy for the South and
the desire to avoid an expanded and bloody border war. Confederate forces were
too weak in Missouri to protect slave property as Price's troops left the state after
the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Many slaveholders had believed that their property
could only be protected effectively by remaining in the Union, but continued
Jayhawker attacks undermined their confi~dence.Thus many attempted "armed
neutrality": a policy whereby men armed themselves to protect their f d e s and
property from Union soldiers like Jennison's and Lane's, but in theory remained
politically neutral. When taking this ambiguous position loyalty ostensibly went
undeclared. By these means Missourians prepared to protect slave property and
defend against potential Union attack. This local response served the needs of the
slaveholding areas of Missouri. Those who intended to fight for the greater cause
joined the Confederate army and fought in battles at Wilson's Creek and
Lexington and retreated with Price, leaving their family, homes and property
undefended. Armed neutralists and "Haystack Secessionists" laid in wait at
home.79 In these circumstances, the only truly effective recourse for slaveholders
and other citizens subject to unprovoked attacks was-to form guerrilla bands and
actively defend against and repel Kansan Jayhawkers and Union soldiers from
eastern Missouri and elsewhere.
'' Haystack Secessionist was a colloquial term used in Missouri to described men who stayed home to
protect their property and were outwardly loyal, yet sympathized with the South, secretly aiding their
cause whenever he was abte to do so without putting himself in peril. See William Greenleaf Eliot, The
Story of Archer A ferander From S h r y to Freedom. March 30 I863 (Boston: Cupples. Upham and
The flight of Governor Jackson severed slaveholding western Missourians
from conventional.political recourse representative of theu interests. The exile of
the Boonslick Democrats marked the ascendancy of free labour urban capitalism
over rural slaveholder hegemony. The victor of this conflict, one that had not yet
seen serious discussion or come to a head in the state, was decided overnight with
the exile of the Central Clique and the appointment of Gamble. At the end of
1861 the occupying Union army and the non-~Iaveholdingpro-Union majority
politically and physically controlled the state. No body politic was left in Missouri
to articulate slaveholder values and no alternative legal means of resistance
remained after General Sterling Price's army left Missouri in February 1862.8'
The political future of the state would not be decided on the battlefield, but in the
fields, forests and hollows of western Missouri.
Company, 1885). 45-46,
"Price's army did not return to Missouri until September 1864.
Chapter Two
"at
One Desperate, Fearless Man Can Do": William Clarke
Quantrill Comes to ~issouri'
W i a m Clarke Quantrill was an unlikely hero. He was an unprincipled
drifter without strong political convictions, as well as an ideological chameleon
with the ability to adapt to any situation. No one in western Missouri had seen
him or even heard of him before 1860, yet he quickly won the confidence of
Southern sympathizers and was able to organize a body of men who committed
their lives to his leadership and followed him implicitly throughout the war.
Quantrill was born on July 31, 1837 in Canal Dover, Ohio, raked an
abolitionist and trained as a teacher, teaching at several schools in Ohio and
Illinois, but never staying long in one place. In his early years he perfected the
ability to slip away without suffering the full consequences of his actions, usually
with a string of unpaid boarding house bills and nunours of murder behind him.
In the spring of 1857, Quantrill's recently widowed mother was eager to
see her eldest son settle down and support the family. She convinced two local
I
Elvira Ascenith Weir Scott, Diary (18604887). Western Historical Manuscript Collection, State
HistoricaI Society of Missouri, University of Missouri-Columbia, photocopy of typescript. July 1862, 133Elvira Scott was a Southern sympathizer living in Saline County in the summer of 1862 when she wrote in
her diary that, "Quantrill has held his own in Jackson County, notwithstanding the big expedition against
him, He is exemplifying what one desperate, fearless man can do."
men in Dover, Colonel Harry Torrey and Hannon V. Beeson, to allow her son to
accompany them to the newly opened Kansas Territory to stake a claim for the
family. Beeson was reluctant as he did not have an 'elevated opinion of any of
[memberof the Quantrill family] except for their mother."2 However, this n a m d
affection coupled with the assistance they would need to clear the land when they
arrived in Kansas was incentive enough for Beeson to allow the nineteen year old
QuantrilI to come along.
Q u a n u entered into a contract with the two men. They would stake a
claim for him in Franklin County,Kansas as long as he helped them clear and
farm their landm3He planned to settle down and tried to entice his family to sell
their property in Dover and join him in ~ a n s a s ?In his letters home he described
the flora and fauna in vivid detail as well as the general tranquility of Kansas in
order to persuade his family to join him. The plan never came to fruition.
Quantrill became restless and began to neglect his obligations to Torrey and
Beeson. A neighbour convinced QuantriU that they did not properly remunerate
him for holding their claim. A "squatter's court" agreed and awarded him sixtythree dollars in compensation. Quanuill stole a yoke of oxen, pistol and some
'H.V.Beeson to W.W.Scott, November 27. 1878. Quantrill Collection. Dover Historical Society.
photocopy,
3
H.V. Beeson to W.W. Scott, November 27, L 878- Quantrill CoIlection, Dover Historicd Society.
photocopy,
4
W.C.Quantrill to Caroline Quanmll, May 16, 1857, QuantriII CoIlection- Manuscripts Deparunenc, The
Kansas State Historical Society.
blankets from Torrey and Beeson after they failed to make the fmt of two
payments to him; Despite this indiscretion they allowed Quantrill to stay, but their
amity did not last long?
Soon after the theft, Beeson awoke suddenly one night to fmd Quantrill
leaning over him, his hand raised in the air, about to plunge a knife into the
former's chest. Angry over being reprimanded earlier that evening for constantly
pulling the blanket off Beeson's son as they slept, Qbantrill had decided to kill
him. They struggled and Beeson disarmed and whipped him. QuantriIl was
forced to flee Franklin County, Kansas on the run from trouble once again.
QuantriU's anti-social behaviour, exhibited in this incident, frequently
manifested itself in violence and the inability to forgive and forget. Alone and
desperate, he exercised the only option he believed left to him and fled to
Tuscarora, a nearby settlement of former Doverites. His letters home never
alluded to any of his problems. He portrayed himself as satisfied with his Life in
Kansas and eager to settle in Tuscarora. During this time, though, he lost another
land claim and started stealing from the old "Dover boys" as welL6 He was
ostracized by this community and the other squatter settlements surrounding
Tuscarora Lake.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- --
'JM.. Beeson to W.W.Scott., November 27. 1878. Quantrill Collection. Dover Historical Society.
photocopy.
J.M. Beeson to W.W.S c o ~ November
.
27, 1878. Quantrill Collation. Dover Historical Society.
photocopy.
By the fall of 1858, Quantrill had made his way to Foa Leavenworth and
got a job with the firm of Waddell and Russell as a teamster driving an oxen team
from the Missouri River to Fort Bridger at Salt Lake City, Utah in an effort to flee
~ a n s a s .He
~ lost this job too, however, and began to spend most of his time
gambling under the alias, Charley ~ a r t . 8A soldier and member of the c~mmand
that had escoaed the teamsters remembered Quantrill's exploits in Utah. ''Among
the celebrities of the camp," he recaIIed, "1 had frequently heard the name of
Charlie Hart mentioned, whose notoriety seem derived from his reckless bettings
and phenominai[sic] winnings."g His cocksure demeanor and use of his pistol to
"insure fair play" won him few friends in ~ t a h . ~When
'
QuantriIITsluck finally
ran out and all his money was lost, he left Fort Bridger for Colorado. Having
exhausted all opportunities in Utah, he was lured to Pike's Peak by the gold rush.
However, after two months of scrabbling unsuccessfdly for gold he gave up?
It
was rumoured again that Quantrill had to leave because he killed a man. While he
7
W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill, July 30, 1859. Quantrill Collection- Manuscripts Department, The
Kansas State Historical Society,
QuantriIl got a job with Waddell and Russell who were under government contract to bring supplies to
Federal troops stationed at Fort Bridger under General Johnson,
Robert Morris Peck to William E. Connelley. November 6. 1907. Connelley Collection, Manuscripts
Department, The Kansas State Historical Society.
9
Robert Moms Peck to William E. Connelley. November 6, 1907. Connelley Collection, Manuscripts
Department, The Kansas State Historical Society-
'
Roben Morris Peck to William E.Connelley, November 6. 1907. Connelley Collection, Manuscripts
Department, The Kansas State Historical Society" W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill, July 30. 1859. and Edward E. Leslie. The Devil Knows How to
Ride: The True Story of William Clarke Quantrill and his Confederate Raiders. (New York: Random
House, 1996), 59.
was there he earned only $54.34, barely enough apparently to cover his
expenses.L' It is more likely that economics and not fear of retribution forced his
return to Kansas.
-
Quantrill found his way back to Stanton, Kansas and took a teaching
position during the 1859-1860 school year. This period marked a change in
Quantrill's political allegiance. In a letter he had written in 1858 to W.W. Scott in
Dover he stated that James HILane, the Ieader of the Free State movement, was
"as good a man as we have here" in ~ a n s a s . ' ~At that point it appeared as though
Quantrill supported the same Free-Soil policy as Lane. One of Quanuill's
students at the time, William Stockwell, remembered that he had even spoke in
class of advocacy of that side.14 QuantriU also told Scott that Democrats, "are the
worst men we have, for they are a l l rascals.. .but their day of death is fast
approaching." l5 Nevertheless, in a letter written to his mother in January 1860 he
apparently had a change of heart:
You have undoubtedly heard of the wrongs committed in
this territory by the southern people, or proslavery party,
but when one once knows the facts they can easily see
that it has been the opposite party that have been the
main movers in the troubles [and] by far the most lawless
set of people in the country. They all sympathize for old
.-.-
-
.
.-
Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill, July 30, 1859. Quantrill Collection. Manuscrips Department The
Kansas State Historical Society.
" W.C.
l3 W-C. Quantrill to W-W.
Scott, January 22. 1858. Quantrill Collection. Manuscripts Depanment, The
Kansas State Historical Society.
I4
Charles Boer, Varmint Q. (Chicago: The SwaIIow Press hc., 1972).46-
W.C.Quanail1 to W.W.Scott, January 22, 1858. Quanrrill Collection. Manuscripts Department. The
Kansas State Historical Society.
J. Brown, who should have been hung years ago, indeed
hanging was too good for him. May 1never see a more
contemptible people than those that sympathize for bin.
A murderer and a robber, made a martyr of, just think of it?
The raid at Harpers Ferry may have changed Quantrill's political affiliation
or maybe it was the general tumult of Kansas during his time in the territory- In
addition, many of his letters home also reflected his unhappiness and a desire to
leave. "I do not feel my destiny is fixed in this country [Xansas]," he wrote in
February of 1860, "nor do I wish to be compelled to stay in it any longer than
possible, for the devil has got unlimited sway over this Territory and will hold it
until we have a better set of men in society generally."17 He had grown tired of
the unpredictability of his life and had come to the realization that it was time for
him to settle down. Stating fuaher:
I can see more clearly than ever in my life before, that I
have been striving and working really without any end
in view, and now, since I am more satisfied that such a
course will end in nothing, it tells me that it must be
changed, and soon, or it will be too late.. .One thing is
certain, I am done roving around and seeking a fortune,
for I have found where it may be attained by being
steady and industrious. And now 1have sown wild oats
for so tong, I think it is time to begin harvesting, which
can only be accomplished by putting a different crop in
different soil. l8
I6
W.C. Quantrill to CaroIine Quantrill, February 8, 1860- QuantrilI Collection- Manuscripts Department.
The Kansas State Historical Society.
17
W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill. February 8, 1860- QuantriU Collection. Manuscripts Department,
The Kansas State Historical Society,
I8
W.C. Quantrill to CaroIine Quantrill, February 8, 1860- Quantrill Collection. Manuscripts Department,
The Kansas State Historical Society,
Historian Michael Fellman believes that Quantrill's letters home reveal his
"desire to do something not ordinary but
This only partially explains
Quantrill's motivation. The letters also reveal a son comforting his mother,
addressing her concerns and not necessarily disclosing what he was truly thinking
and feeling at the time."
He never told her of his troubles with Torrey and Beeson
and the other Doverites, nor of his gambling exploits in Utah, or his failure at
Pike's Peak. His actions while living in Lawrence attest to Quanerill's continued
confusion over where his destiny was truly fixed and suggest that he never did
give up seeking his fortune.
At the end of school year Quantrill left his teaching position. He was
lonely, miserable, and dissatisfied with his Life in Stanton, but instead of leaving
the territory, as he had apparently planned, he moved to ~awrence? Shortly after
his arrival Quantrill resumed his alias Charley Hart,and led an enigmatic
existence. He lived briefly on the Delaware Indian reserve just across the river
from Lawrence before moving into the City Hotel on Massachusetts Street in
town. He spent much of his t h e by the docks where the ferry landed, associating
with people whom historian William E. Cornelley described as, "a hard Lot, tough
citizens, border ruffi~ans,drunkards, carousers, fighters, brawlers, reckless of
human Life. These people were kidnappers of negoes who came to Kansas ...[and
['
Fellman, Inside War,141.
"The letters written to Quantrill from his family and friends are as yet undiscovered.
" W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill. March 25,I860 and W.C. Quantrill to Mary Quantrill. March 25,
then were] taken to Missouri and sold back into slavery, even if they were free.""
One of the men who remembered him in the summer of 1860 as Charley Hart
wrote that Qumtrill:
...did not appear to have any business or means of support.
...I don't think he had any positive convictions on
questions that were agitating the territory at the time; if he
did, he certainly kept them to himself. One thing is certain,
he was always willing to go into anything that turned up
that had a dollar in it for Charley Hart.. . he did not appear
to be permanentIy located in any place, a d wodd
frequently leave without warning.. .and be gone for days,
and sometimes weeks, and then turn up again as
unexpectedly as he departed?
Quantrill spent much of his rime playing cards with professional gamblers
and wagering on the occasional foot or horse race." Local residents believed he
was committing armed robbery, apparently skulking around the ferry landing
waiting for the passengers to depart, following them and robbing them at
gunpoint.2s This is speculation. Quantrill may have used a gun to settle disputes
as he had in Utah, but probably did not do so for p e w larceny.
- - -
-
- - -
1860. QuantriIl Collection. Manuscripts Department. The Kansas State Historical Society,
"
William E. Connelley. MisceUaneous Interview Notes. Connelley Collection. Kansas State
Historical Society, photocopy.
WiI liam E. ConneIley's personal notes from his visit to Lawrence on Monday November 4, 1907 while
gathering information for the book he was writing about Quantrill.
'f
Jake Herd to W.WScott, undated. Quantrill Collection, Dover Historical Society, photocopy.
" Statement of H.B. Leonard to William E.Connelley, Miscellaneous Interview Notes. Connelley
Collection, Kansas State HistoricaI Society. photocopy.
25
E.W. Robinson to W-W. Scott, M a y 9, 1881. Quantrill Collection, Dover Historical Society, photocopy.
and William E-ConnelIey's undated interview notes from Box 13 - Connelley Collection, Kansas State
Historical Society.
Robinson claimed Quantrill would wait for people as they got off the ferry at Lawrence, follow them and
Charley Hart was Quantrill's confidence man alter ego. As Hart he was
able to deceive others through f d s e appearances and the manipulation of surface
Men such as John Dean, who organized raids into Missouri to free
slaves, easily fell prey to Quantrill's gambit. Quantrill's aforementioned frequent
disappearances occurred most Likely because he was working for Dean and the
Underground Railroad.
An antislavery lawyer named Iagersoll fxst introduced Quaatrill to Dean.
QuantrilI may have even paid for letters of introduction from men in Lykins
County, Kansas in order to gain Dean's trust."
Dean was suspicious of Quantrill
from the time he had spent at the docks, but Quantrill managed to allay his
apprehension. En Dean's opinion the people who gravitated to the docks were,
"law1ess and reckless neer[sic] do wells," but Quantrill told him he was spying on
them.'8 He informed Dean of their plots to kidnap slaves and sell them back into
slavery. What Dean failed to realize until it was too late was that Quantrill was
aiding them in this.
Quantrill went to work for Dean and was given the task of hiding and
guarding slaves liberated from Missouri until it was safe for them to travel north.
Because of his ulterior motives, many of the raids did not go as planned and Dean
rob them.
" Karen Ha1ttunen. Confidence Men and Painred Women: A Study of Middle-Clm Culture in America,
1830-1870. (New Haven: Yale University Press., L982), 2 and 42.
"John
Dean to W.W.Scott, January 26, 1879. Quantrill Collection, Dover Historical Society, photocopy.
'B John
Dean to W-W.
Scott, h u a r y 26, 1879. Quanmll CoIlection, Dover Historical Society, photocopy-
became suspicious of Quantrill at times. but never dissociated himself £?omhim.
Quantrill would help kidnap and deliver a slave for the Underground Railroad one
day and then kidnap that same slave the next day to be sold back into slavery.'g
QuantrilI was a man of no Fied principles except those that were profitable
to him. The devil, it now seemed, had ' W t e d sway" over William Clarke
QuantliU. In December of 1860, his exploits led to a warrant for his arrest on
charges of theft, horse stealing, and kidnapping. As well, several murders in town
were linked to Charley Hart and he was forced to take flight once again?'
Quantrill hid in the woods outside of town, but was still in contact with
John Dean. He told Dean of a plan to raid the farm of a large slaveholder, Morgan
Walker, near Blue S p ~ g in
s Jackson County, Missouri. Still confident of
QuantriLLTsloyalty, Dean convinced some of his associates to go dong. Initially
Quanhill intended to sell the captured slaves back into slavery. The scheme
changed, however, on the way to Jackson County. Quantrill discovered that the
bounties offered by the slaveholders of the border counties for the lives of the men
in the raiding party were worth much more than the price of a slave? By
forewarning Walker of the coming attack he hoped to find his fortune.
" John Dean to W.W. Scott. January 26. L879. QuantriIl Colkction, Dover Historical Society, photocopy.
Jake Herd to W.W. Scott, undated. Quantrill CoIlection. Dover Historical Society, photocopy.
'' The average price of a slave in Missouri in L859 was $1500 while the bounties on those in the raiding
party ranged kern $300 to $5000. See John Dean to W-W. Scott, January 26, 1879-QuantriIl Collection,
Dover Historical Society, photocopy,
Unbeknownst to him, he was fmally taking the path on which he would meet the
destiny for which he had been desperately searching.
Quanuill rode ahead of the party and told Waker's son, Andrew, of the
planned raid, and in order to gain the latter's confidence, the reasons for his
calculated betrayal. He explained that his name was Charies Quantrill and that he
had been born into a slaveholding family in Hagerstown, Maryland. He claimed
to have lived there until his older brother, living in Kansas, persuaded him to move
west in the summer of L857. He claimed that when he had arrived they decided to
move to California, but their trip had come to an abrupt end when a gang of
twenty-one Jayhawkers viciously attacked them. Quantrill described how the
ambush resulted in the death of his older brother and the how bandits had taken
everything the boys had, including their slave. Quantrill told Walker that he had
been wounded, but had recovered and vowed to avenge the murder of his brother.
To do this he had changed his name to Charley Hart and had joined James Lane's
band of Jayhawkers in order to inf3trate
the antislavery party. The charade had
been successful and thus, he claimed, had slowly enabled him to exact revenge
upon those who had killed his brother. Secretly he had killed every member of the
band who had attacked them until only five remained. Quanuill then explained
how he had persuaded the remaining five to allow him to join them on the raid of
the Waker farm. He told Walker that they planned to kill the Walkers, liberate
their slaves and steal their canle, horses, and money. Quanmll then told Walker
that he wanted his help to kill the men in order to
his vow to avenge the
death of his brother-
Andrew Waker instinctively mistrusted Quantri11, but believed his story.
Years later he wrote that he, "was disarmed by the frank manner of the stranger,
no less than by the fact that 1could think of no reason, in the range of ordinary
probabilities, why he should seek to deceive me."32 Despite WaIker's cooperation,
QuantrilI's plan did not play out exactly as he had envisioned it. The Walkers,
several of their neighbours. and Quantrill did kill the abolitionists, but he received
no reward. Instead, the sheriff arrested Quantrill and jailed him in nearby
Independence. He recounted his supposed history to the sheriff and this, coupled
with the influence of Andrew Walker, effected his release. Despite the
endorsement of the Walkers and the sheriff, an angry crowd, suspicious of
strangers and tired of Jayhawker attacks, gathered outside the jail and prepared to
lynch Quantrill. Walker addressed the crowd and convinced them to let him go.33
In appreciation for what he had done, the Walkers gave Quantrill some money and
a hone. He then left Missouri in the company of a friend of the Walkers, Marcus
Gill, who, having decided it was prudent to move his slaves and livestock to a
"friendlier location," hired Quantrill to accompany him to
ex as.^^
" Weekty Herald. (Weatherford Parker County, Texas), January 15. 1910. In Joanne Chiles Eaken. ed.
Recollections of Quantrill's Guerrifias:As Told by A. I- Walker of Wearhe@ord Texas to VictorE..Manin
irr 1910. (Independence, Missou*:Two Trails Publishing, 1996), 2,
33
3-1
Andrew J. Walker to W.W.Scott, undated. Quanail1 Collection. Dover Historical Society, photocopy.
Andrew J. Walker to W.W. Scott, undated, Quantrill CoIlection, Dover Historical Society, photocopy
and Weekly Herald, (Weatherford, Parker County, Texas), January 15, 19 10. In Joanne ChiIes Eaken. ed,
The outcome of the Morgan Walker Raid in December 1860 confirmed to
Quantrill that his ability to deceive people could save him. As he rode out of
Missouri he was no longer the indecisive school teacher with no direction in Life;
his self-doubt had t-ed
to confidence in himself. He must have believed at this
point that he could do anything he wished with impunity.
In the following months, Quantrill spent some time in the Cherokee Nation,
where he supposedly schooled in the art of gueda'war?5 He resurfaced in
Kansas in April 1861. However, he was still a wanted man in the new state and
was soon arrested, but secured his release after petitioning for and obtaining a writ
of habeas cotpus? He then returned to Missouri with an euphoric feeling of
Recollections of Quanrnrnll
S GuernmlIus:
As Told 6y A, J. Walker of Weatherford, Texas to Victor E- Martin
in 1910. (Independence, Missouri: Two Trails Publishing, 1996),9.
'' Quantrill is said to have learned guerrilla tactics during this time from a Confederate sympathizer named
Joel B. Hayes, who Iater joined General Benjamin McCulloch, C - S A See Atbert CasteI, WifliamClarke
Qmnrrill: His Llye and Times- 1962- (Columbus: The Generai's Books, 1992).64-65; Leslie, The Devil
Knows How to Ride,82; Leroy H-Fischer and Lary C-Rampp. "Quantriil's Civil War Operations in
Indian Territory," ChronicLesof Okfdzoma46, no, 2 (Summer 1968): 155-18 1-
36
Affidavit of EIi Snyder concerning crimes committed by Quantrill signed by Samuel R Houser. Justice
of the Peace, Lykins County, Kansas,dated April 2, 1861. QuantriIl Collection- Manuscripts
Department, The Kansas State Historical Society.
Warrant issued for the arrest of W.C- Quanail on charges of Larceny signed Samuel J. Houser, Justice
of the Peace, Lykins County, Kansas, dated April 2, 186 1- QuantrilI Collection- Manuscripts
Department, The Kansas State Historical Society,
Petition for a writ of habeas corpus signed W.C. QuantrilI, dated April 2, 1861-Quantrill Collection.
Manuscripts Department, The Kansas State Historicai Society,
Writ of Habeas Corpus signed by Thomas Roberts, Probate Judge, Lykins County, Kansas, dated April
3, 1861. QuantriIl ColIection, Manuscripts Department, The Kansas State Historical Society- It read, in
part:
W C Quantriil is illegally detained and restrained of his Iiberty contrary to
law,, .Ordered and ajudged [sic]that said W.C- QuantriIl be discharged
&om further custody of the jailer of said Lykins County.,,
invincibility out of which developed his new found charisma and courage. He had
become fearless,
When the Civil War began in Missouri, QuanuilI maintained the Charley
Quantrill persona he had developed for the Walker raid and embraced the
slaveholder's cause. He fought in the initial battles with General Price's
Confederate forces at Wilson's Creek and at Lexington. When Price's battered
forces were compeIied to retreat, the general encouraged his men to go home.
QuanmlI returned to the Walker farxn near Bfue Springs. "He had no other
alternative," according to historian Albert Castel. "but to exist on the hospitality of
the still gratefid ~ i s s o u r i a n s . " Quanhill
~~
had burned his bridges in Kansas. His
fellow Doverites ostracized him and warrants for his arrest remained outstanding
in Lawrence. It was in his best interest to "impose himself' on the Walkers and
their neighbours?'
The retreat of the Confederate army left the border undefended against
Union attack. In response, Andrew Walker formed a patrol to protect the citizens
of Jackson County from Jennison's and Lane's Jayhawkers who struck shortly
after the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Walker, Quantrill, and thirteen others regularly
confronted these Jayhawkers, now mustered into the Union army, in response to
the latter's harassment of the Missouri populace. The f i s t federal soldier killed in
37 Castel.
William Clarke Quanrriii, 64.
William E. Connelley. Quantrill's first bio,mpher. wrote that Quanail1 had. "voluntarily imposed
hi mseIf on the South," See ConnelIey. Quanrriil and the Border Wars. 6.
jS
Jackson County in the Civil War was allegedly shot by Quantrill in retaliation for
razing Suawder Stone's house to the ground and pistol whipping his wife. The
death of the soldier resulted in the arrest of Mr- Stone and another Jackson
Countian, Billy Thompson, who had also been burned out in the raid?9 Quantrill
swore out an affidavit before a justice of the peace in Independence, assuming
responsibility for the murder, but authorities were subsequently unable to catch
and arrest him. Stone and Thompson were released and Quanuill had further
ingratiated himself in the hearts and minds of the Southern sympathizing residents
of Jackson County.
Late in the fall of 1861 Morgan Walker asked his son, Andrew, to resume
his work on the farm and QuantriU took command of the patrol. His intelligence,
superb marksmanship and horsemanship, fearless demeanor, self-confidence, and
apparent loyalty made him a natural leader. He had gained the confidence and
admiration of the people of Blue Springs at the right time. His actions to
exonerate Thompson and Stone and the myth he created to explain his conduct
during the Morgan WaIker raid made him, in their minds, the champion of their
cause. They believed that Quantrill had come to Jackson County to avenge the
death of his brother in December of 1860, but by the fall of 1861 it seemed he was
prepared to protect and avenge them.
'' Thompson and Stone were residents of Jackson County who were among the fust to be harassed by
Jayhawkers mustered into the Union army under Jennison and Lane-
Chapter Three
L6Shotdown Like dogs": Guerrilla War in Western Missouri
The Civil War in western Missouri was primarily an economic and political
struggle. The guerda war waged by Quantrillians in the western counties can be
interpreted as a continuation of slaveholder political discourse, the outgrowth of
the border war of the 1850s and a spontaneous uprising in defense of slaveholder
property. Slaveholders also perceived their property was threatened by the Union
sympathizing state government imposed upon them after the exile of Jackson. The
flight of Jackson and Price effectively ended legal support for slavery in Missouri
and occupying Union forces jeopardized the traditional social and economic
position of the remaining sIavehoIders.
Civil and social order as slaveholders understood it, and slave and other
property were in severejeopardy in the border counties by the end of 1861.
Jayhawkers mustered into the Union army had free reign in the area as they
burned, plundered and liberated slaves indiscriminately. Old enemies of the
border Charles Jennison and James Lane received official commissions in the
Union Army and General Fremont issued an emancipation proclamation for
Missouri. Although Lincoln quickly rescinded Fremont's order, for slaveholders
the revolution they had been resisting for a decade was at hand. Slavocracy was
effectively usurped. The aggressive response of the inhabitants of the border was
a natural reaction. As Pmssian military theorist Karl von Clausewitz observed, "a
nation [or a people] on the brink of an abyss will try and save itself by any
means."' The only instrument of defense left to the inhabitants of western
Missouri was Quantrill's guerrilla band. Quantrillians wielded tactics honed in the
conflict over Kansas in the 1850s to defend the old order and to prevent the rise of
the new dominant class and social structures that antislavery represented.
The aggressive response of Quantrillians evolved from their exposure to the
violence in the Border War of the 1850s. Many of those who joined QuantriIl
came to manhood in an environment where violence and aggression were deemed
normal. acceptable and expected responses to actual or perceived attack. The
brutal warfare employed by Quantrillians throughout the war grew out of
behaviour learned in boyhood, through the direct experience of living on the
border during the 1850s and observing the behaviour of those embroiled in that
struggle? Moreover, after the departure of Jackson and Price, fighting with
Quantrill presented a better opportunity to defend one's family, home, honour and
I
Karl von Clausewitz, On War. 1832.0.J. Matthijs Joles, trans. (Washington: Combat Forces Press, t 943).
483.
In contrast to inherent theories of aggression. sociologist Greg Cashman argues that aggression is learned
from social environment,, This would appear to apply to the Quantrillian response to perceived injustice.
'The form that aggression takes, the situations in which it occurs, its frequency and intensity, and the
targets against which it is demonstrated are largely determined by social experience, The socialization
process is instrumental in determining the context in which aggression is permitted and the targets that
are permissible." See Greg Cashman, What Causes War? An introduction to Theories of lnrernarional
Corflict. (NewYork: Lexington Books, 1993). 32-33.
personal interests than joining the regular Confederate anny and possibly being
sent to fight elsewhere.
Price's retreat increased incidents of guerrilla resistance throughout the
western border region of Missouri. As Union forces occupied the area, lines
between combatants and non-combatants blurred. Inhabitants of the border
counties were subject to the hostility and depredations of troops strongly opposed
to s~aveholdin~.'Threatened by seen and unseen guerrilla bands and believing all
slaveholding citizens to be rebels harboring guerrillas Union soldiers attacked
civilians. According to historian Richard Brownlee, the conduct of Union troops
further polarized loyalty and can account in part for the Quantrillian response:
The most direct factor contributing to the great insurrection
which took place on the western border in 1861 lay in the
abuses visited upon the civil population by the Union
military forces.. . The population which was to create and
support g u e d a warfare against the Union had grown
larger and larger during the winter of 1861-1862 because
of the outrages perpetrated against the people of Missouri
by occupational forces.. .3
Quantrill and his band provided immediate retribution on those perpetrating
wrongs against slaveholders and their families.
Quantrillian accounts vary, but do seem to substantiate Brownlee's
concl~sion.~
Cole Younger joined Quantrill in late 1861 at the age of seventeen.
The troops active in the border counties consisted of Kansan troops under former Jayhawker leaders
James Lane, Charles Jennison, and James Montgomery, Many of the oher Union troops were mustered
from the loyal citizens of Missouri.
Richard S. B rownlee, Grey Ghosts of the Confederacy.-Guerrillasin the West 1861-1865.(Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 195%).3 1.50,
J
He became involved in a fist fight with a Union soldier, Captain k i n WaUey, to
defend his sister's honour at "'dancing party" in September 186 1. Later that
evening WalIey went to the Younger farm and accused Cole of being a spy for
Quantrill and demanded he give himself up. After the incident Younger was
labeled an outlaw. Jayhawkers targeted his family and confiscated $20,000 worth
of property. Younger took to the bush with Quantrill to avoid arrest and to help
defend his famiIy's ho1din~s.6O n JuIy 20. I862 Capt. W d e y robbed and
murdered Cole's father, Henry Washington Younger, as Younger Senior made his
way home to Cass County from Kansas city.' An enraged Cole Younger sought
retribution. "The knowledge that my father had been killed in cold blood," wrote
Younger years afterward, 'Zlled my heart with the lust for vengeance."'
"They wnion soldiers] burned and took everything I had," wrote another
QuantrilLian, Hiram George, "[they] killed my father, [and] hung my br~ther."~
Federal soldiers killed two of Sam Hildebrand's brothers and an uncle, burned
Accounts of the war were often romanticized by Quantrillians. Don R. Bowen srates that they were
written, "anywhere From 30 to 60 years after the events [and are] - .. memoirs of old men trying to recreate
a brief. exciting, and. to them. glorious period of youth." See Don R. Bowen, "QuantriIl. lames,
Younger, g A,:Leadership in a Guerrilla Movement, Missouri. 1861- 1865' Military Affairs, (February
1977):43-
This expression as well as "took to the brush" and "'taketo the bush". were contemporary colloquiaIisrns
used to imply becoming a guerrilla o r joining Quantrill,
7
MarIey Brant, The Outlaw Youngers: A Confederate Brotherhood. (New York: Madison Books. 1992).
25-26-29 and Thomas CoIeman Younger, The Story of Cole Younger by Himelf, 1903. (Provo: Triton
Press, 1988). 18- 19,34-35,
Younger. The Story of Cole Younger,37Thomas Goodrich. BIack Flag: Guerrilla Warfareon the Western Border 1861-1865,(Indianapolis:
Indiana University Press, 1995): 35,
9
down his house, and forced his mother off her land.1° William H.Gregg joined
Quantrill on Christmas day 1861 after Jayhawkers murdered his uncle. Gregg's
uncle was on his way home fiom a mill in Parkeville, Clay County when Charles
Jennison shot him and butchered his oxen for his troops."
"It
all seemed
hopeIess," recalled George Barnett in 193 1 explaining why he had joined
Quantrill's band, "but there was no choice. I saw my brother killed. I saw our
farm home in ashes and my mother left desolate, robbed of all the livestock and
provisions we had gotten together to keep her.. .,r 12
Similarly, a Union patrol hanged Kicks George from a tree near his home
for his Southern sympathies. He survived the ordeal and joined Quantrill soon
after.I3 Frank James joined Price's army and fought in the battles at Wilson's
Creek and Independence. He had contracted measles and had been left behind by
the retreating army, only to be anested by Union Troops and then paroled. After
being arrested twice more on charges of aiding and abetting the Confederate
cause, in violation of his parole. James escaped fiom the Liberty jail and "took to
10
Carl W. Breihan. Sam H i l d e b r d Guerrilla. (Wanwatosa: Pine Mountain Press, 1984). 1 L22.24.
1I
William H,Gregg, ' A Little Dab of History Without Embellishment." BJ. George Sr- Collection,
Western Historical Manuscript Collection, Stare Historical Society of Missouri, photocopy o f typescript, 1
and Transcript of an interview conducted by William E. Conneltey with WiIliarn H,Gregg on July 27,
1905. Connelley Collection, Kansas State Historical Society. photocopy.
I2
Kansas Daily Capitol. January 25, 193 1- Newspaper ColIection of the Kansas State Historical Society.
DonaId R Hale, We Rode With Quantri1I: QuantriIf and the Guerrilla WarAs Told By the Men and
Women Who Were With Him, With a True Skerch of Quantrill's Lqe. (Clinton. Missouri: The Printery,
1974). 101.
l3
the brush with ~uantrill.'~
Frank James' brother, Jesse and Don Pence joined
Quanail1 after federal soIdiers came to their respective farms to demand the
whereabouts of their older brothers who were already Quantrillians. Their fathers
were strung up by the neck and both James and Pence were beaten by Union
soldiers after failing to give up the iaf~rmation.'~
Federal authorities told John McCorkle that he must join the Union army or
they would put his female reIatives in jd.This onIawfoI coercion enraged
McCorkle:
1could not.. .take up arms against the cause I loved and
against my own people.. . would no longer submit,
and I then resolved that if I die, I must; I would die
fighting for my own people and for their cause.. . I was
m
going to fmd Colonel Quantrill's command and join i d 6
A desire to seekjustice and not simply revenge motivated Quantrill's
men." Perceived injustice to western Missourians' material welface, coupled with
anger at the usurpation of slaveholder power and thus, a loss of self-determination,
motivated these men to fight with and support Quantrill. This perception created a
unique sense of moral outrage among many western Missourians and in order to
' Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride, 184-185.
l5 Hale. We Rode With Quanrrill. 138 and Homer Croy, Jesse James War My Neighbor. (NewYorlc Dell
Publishing Ltd., 1949). 3 1-32.
l6 O.S. Barton. Three Years With QuontreN: A True Story Told by Hi3 Scout fohn McCorkle. (Armstrong
Missouri, 19 14), 52,
motive of war is a model developed by sociologist Melvin Lerner. Lerner detines the desire
for justice as, "the drive to correct a perceived discrepancy between entitlements and benefits." The
entitlement, however, must be believed to be a right rather than simply a desire. See David A, Welch,
Justice and the Genesis of War. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1993). 19-
" The justice
promote justice it moved them to extremes of self-sacrifice. Similarly it led to
conflict and to an increased willingness to run risks, such as taking up arms
against Union forces. It also increased the likelihood of violence, especially
among those socialized in a violent environment. The socialization of
Quantrillians, therefore, predisposed their response, as they had to seek justice in
order to defend the perceived rights and honour of their families within their
community.
The majority of Quantrill's guerrillas came from wealthy and influential
families in western Missouri. William H.Gregg wrote that, "Quantrill's command
was composed originally of men and boys from the very best families of
~ i s s o u r i . "Similarly,
~~
Jim Cummins described his comrades as the "sons of the
most prominent men in Jackson ~ o u n t ~ In
. " 1909,
~ ~ Quantrillian Morgan T.
Mattox told historian William E. Cornelley that indeed, "all were from the best
families in Jackson, Cass and Lafayette co~nties."~'Cole Younger wrote in 1903
that the typical Quantrillian. "was in many cases, if not most. a man who had been
born to better things."u Quantrillian Harrison Trow reiterated Younger's
la
For discussion of the correlation between Southern honour and violence see Bertram Wyatt Brown.
Honor and Violence in the Old South- (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).
Gregg, "A Little Dab o f History Without Embellishment". 3
"Jim Cummins, Jim Cumminr' Book by H i m s e e The Life Story of the l a m e s and Younger Gang and their
Comrades, including the Operationsof Quantrelt's Guerrillas by One Who Rode With Them, A True Brit
Terrible Tale of Outlawry, @ewer: The Reed Publishing Company, 1903). 32-
"
William E. Connelley. Mi~scellaneousInterview Notes- Connelley Collection. Kansas State Historical
Society, photocopy.
" Younger. The Story of Cole Younger. 56.
conclusion. He told his biographer that QuantriUTsband attracted, "a number of
young men.. .gently nurtured, born to higher de~tinies."~
The Eighth Census of ths United States of America corroborates the
recollections of these fomer guerrillas.24 Western Missouri was an agricultural
region composed of fanners living and working on their own land with their
slaves. They raised crops such as hemp, corn, and wheat mainly for a regional
market, but had recently begun exporting to non-slaveholding states? According
to political scientist Don R. Bowen, the majority of Quantrillians were the elder
sons of wealthy western Missourian farmers, constituting the elite families in their
c~mmunities.~~
Families with sons with Quantrill enjoyed a mean propeay value
of $1l,7 1 1, as opposed to $5,678 for the rest of Jackson county?' The fortunes of
the guerrillas' families had been on the rise at the outbreak of war as their real
property holdings had increased by 105%from 1850 to 1860 while the rest of the
county had only risen by a mere 32% .28 This increase most likely resulted from
" Barton, Three Years With Quantretl.26-27.
'' The statistics were compiled by Don R. Bowen from the 1850 and L860 census returns for Jackson
County.
R. Bowen. b'CounterrevolutionaryGuerrilla War: Missouri. L86 1-L865" Conflict 8. no.1
(1988): 72.
'
IDon
'6
The average age of a Quantrillian in 1860 was 20.3 years. See the Eighth Census of rhe Unired SraresFree Schedules, Bates, Barton. Cass, Clay, Jackson, Johnson. Lafayene, Saiine, Vernon Counties-
" Don R. Bowen, "Guerrilla War in Western Missouri. 1862-1865: Historical Extensions of the Relative
Deprivation Thesis" Comparative Studies in Society and Hisrory 19, no. 1 (1977): 46.
" Bowen, "Countemvolutionary Guerrilla War". 74.
the rising value of slaves in ~issouri.'~Of families with one or more sons with
Quantrill, Bowen concluded that 55.6% were slaveholders, owning an average of
7.4 slaves each in contrast to 25.1% for the whole of Jackson County with an
average of 4.1 slaves eachm30Therefore, Jayhawker invasions and Union army
occupation represented a much greater threat to the families of Quantrillians than
to the general population of Jackson county?
Property values and number of slaves owned were even higher among the
families of leaders within Quantrill's band. Families who produced these leaders
had a mean property value of $13,848 and 70.8% were slaveholders? With the
exception of Quantrill, leadership within the group was local, reflecting the
antebellum world of Jackson County, ~issouri." They held those roles under
Quantrill because they had occupied them in western Missouri society before the
war. They had the most to lose and, thus, the most to protect.
-
"The
average price of a slave in Miwuri in 1959 was $1.514- See Duffner, "Slavery in the Missouri River
Counties 1820-1865". 274.
30 Bowen,
"bQuantrill,lames. Younger g
t #.43.
Over 50% if Quantrill's guemllas had kinship ties (i-e. brothers. cousins) within the band itself. See
Eighth Census of the United Stares, Free Schedules. Bates. Barton, Cass, CIay. lackson, l ohnson,
Lafayette, Saline, Vernon Counties.
Bowen. bbCounterrevolutionGuerrilla War". 45.
Those who joined Quantrill were more likely to have been born in Missouri than the general population
of Jackson County (62.4% vs. 39.1%). 68% of the parents of Quanuill's guerrillas were born in the
South in contrast to only 3 1.1% of rest of county were born in the South- See Bowen,
"Counterrevolutionary Guerrilla War", 45.
" Bowen. "Quantrill. James, Younger g a'.42.
The Civil War severeIy threatened the weaith and status of the families of
Quantrill's guerrillas. The abolition of slavery, which they believed to be the
outcome if they lost, wouId mean the end of their source of wealth and dominance.
These men aspired to wield the same level of power and influence, monetarily,
socially, and politically, as their fathers had. The Civil War, however, according
to Bowen caused an "acute discrepancy between [these] valued goals and [their]
enjoyment thereof.'T3q The war thwarted their expectations of wealth and a
position in society which would have been "considerably greater than the general
~tandard."~'Thus, they intended to preserve the pre-war social order of Missouri
rather than succumb to what they perceived as impending revolution.
Quantrill's band cannot be defined narrowly as guerrillas, however. Their
existence reflects the disruption of an entire society. Their resistance constituted
the response of the entire slaveholding community of western Missouri against the
potential destruction of its way of We. Quantrillians defended the traditional
Southern order in western Missouri against the social and political breakdown
which they perceived to be taking place as a consequence of Union occupation.
The retreat of the Confederacy from the state left slaveholders exposed and
vulnerable in a situation where they were ruled, oppressed, and exploited by Union
troops and old Jayhawker enemies. These conditions which gave rise to
counterrevolutionary social banditry.
- -
" Bowen,
35
"GuerriIla War in Western Missouri, 1862- 1865". 34.
bid., 43.
Guerrilla warfare was the only viable option dissidents in western Missouri
believed was available to them and the primary mode of resistance employed by
Quantrillian counterrevolutionary social bandits. After the flight of Price and
Jackson, the Confederacy effectively abandoned Missouri for three reasons. First,
the Confederate government lacked the resources for a full-scale campaign in the
state.36 Jefferson Davis wrote in The Rise and Fall of the Confderate
Government that his:
...wishes for the defense of Missouri were fully
reciprocated by the Executive of the Confederacy.. . put]
the Confederate Government could not supply them with
arms, munitions. and e uipage necessary for campaigns
and battles and sieges .97
Davis, buoyed by early the successes of Price at Wilson's Creek and Lexington,
had initially promised one million dollars for military support.38 Despite this
pledge, Confederate forces in the state never received it. Missouri's prospects
looked too bleak and Confederate resources were spread too thin for Davis to
make good on his promise. Second, President Davis and his military advisers had
initially been reluctant to appoint Price to command in Missouri because he lacked
formal military training and on account of his former strong Union sympathy.
36
George C. Rable, The Confederate Republic: A Revolution Agaimr Politics. (Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press, 1993). 1 18,
37
Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Governmenr.vol, I (New York: Thomas Yoseloff.
1958). 427,
38
'The victories in Missouri [Wilson's Creek and Lexington]. ..far exceeded what might have been
expected from the small forces by which they were achieved,,.[and it] must b e conclusive that the
ordinance of secession was the expression of popular will of Missouri. See Davis, The Rise and Fall of
the Confederate Government. vol. I., 432.
John Beauregarde Jones, who has been called the Samuel Pepys of the
Confederacy and who was privy to much Confederate "insider information"
during the war, wrote in his diary shortly after the retreat of Price that, "Gen.
Price, of Missouri, is too popular, and there is a determination on the part of the
West Pointers to 'kill him off. I fear he will gain no more victories."3g According
to Jones, Price's success became a point of contention and jealousy for his better
trained, but less successful eastern counterparts. This may or may not have
contributed to the Confederacy's seeming withdrawal of support from its "twelfth
state". Last and most important, the Confederacy's main concern was the eastern
theatre as it was there that the South was most vulnerable to invasion. Therefore,
Missourians sympathetic to the Southern cause and persecuted for it, felt they had
no other option but to wage war themselves.
"Taking to the brush" was a conscious decision made by Quantrillians and
not the outcome of anarchy or total war." They became perrillas at great
personal risk to themselves as guerrillas and their supporters were outlawed and
39
John B.Jones. A Rebel Clerk's Diary. 1866- Earl S. Miers, ed- (NewYork: AS- Barnes and Company,
fnc., 1961)- ix, 153.
"West Pointers" is a reference to formally trained military commanders, Price had no formal military
training, but, heroically commanded a Missouri regiment in the Mexican War.
"Several historians have argued that a state of total war existed in Missouri. see; Harry Soltysiak.
"Anarchy in Missouri" Civil War Times Ilfusrrated. vol. 24. no. 8, (1985): 26-35., James M,McPherson.
"From Limited to Total War:Missouri and the Nation, 1861-1 865" Gateway Herirage. vol, 12. no, 4,
(1992): 4-19., Donald L. Gilmore. 'Total War on the Missouri Border" Journal of the West- vol- 35,no3, (July 1996): 70-80.
Lines between combatants and non-combatants definitely blurred at times. It was not, however, the
design of either side to wage war on civilians, although their actions at times belied this policy.
64
given no quarter in Missouri. Special Order Number 47 (April 21, 1862) stated
that:
All those found in arms and open opposition to the laws
and legitimate authorities, who are known familiarly as
guerrillas. ..will be shot down by the military on the
spot.. .AU who have knowingly harbored or encouraged
these outlaws in their lawless deeds will be arrested and
tried by a military commission for their offenses.. .41
As traditional social values and expectations of slaveholders were being
overturned, understandings of where loyalty should lie changed. Western
Missourians did not think of themselves as disloyal. They were designated as such
for opposing the Union forces that persecuted them. Troops such as those under
Iennison and Lane specifically targeted slaveholders. One concerned resident of
Saline County wrote in her diary that, "Gentlemen of the highest social and
political standing a year ago are hunted down and shot Like dogs."42 Many had no
other choice but to identify themselves as opposing the Union as the Union
seemingly opposed them.
Once he assumed command of Andrew Walker's patrol, Quantrill's
reputation as one actively protecting slaveholder interests spread quickly among
western Missourians during the winter of 1861-1862 and his band grew rapidly.
The guerrillas initially protected Jackson County slaveholders from Jayhawkers
41
OR., ser. II, vol. IIT. 468.
Scott. Diary (1860-1887). Western Historical Manuscript Collection. State
Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri-Columbia, photocopy of typescript. April 26. 1862,
"Elvira Ascenith Weir
105.
who had been molesting the populace throughout the border region. Lane.
Iennison and Daniel Anthony commanded the Kansan Union forces which preyed
on the area."
These troops consisted mainly of the same Jayhawkers who had
harassed and attacked western Missourians throughout the border war of the
1850s. In late 1861 and early 1862 they attacked and destroyed the towns of
Osceola, Butler, Harrison, and Clinton in Missouri. The guerrillas responded by
attacking Union patrols occupying the border region.
Quantrifians learned the art of offensive guerrilla warfare by engaging
Union troops in skirmishes throughout the course of the f i t few months of 1862.
The shooting skills they had learned as boys coupled with this early tactical
experience transformed them into accomplished killers." Success was measured
in enemy casualties. Guerrilla casualties were relatively few, even though they
regularly opposed Union troops superior in number."
Quantrill's men were
untrained and relatively inexperienced, but they had an advantage in terms of fire
power and mobility. Each guerrilla was an expert shot and carried as many as
twelve six shot, -36 caliber 1851 Navy Colt and -44 caliber 1860 Army Colt
revolvers? These pistols, however, were inaccurate unless fued at close range?'
" Daniel R. Anthony was "a hot-headed abolitionist", the editor of the Leavenworth Daily Conservative the
most radical abolitionist newspaper in Kansas, and a brother of abolitionist and suffragist Susan B.
Anthony. See Castel, William Clarke Quantrill, 58.
Castel, William Clarke Quant'll, 84.
" Gregg,
"A Little Dab o f History Without Embellishment?. 5.
46
Castel, William Clarke QuantriIf. 113. and Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride, 179.
47
As William H-Gregg observed, "ourmen were armed with pistols and couId do but little execution at
To overcome this ~ c d t yQuantrillians
,
often wore Union uniforms in order to
draw in the enemy and get as close as possible. This blue-coated pistol warfiue
was very successN as the guerrillas were able to get off multiple rounds in a very
short span. Federal cavalry men found themselves at a distinct disadvantage as
their main weapons were one-shot muzzle loading carbines which were impossible
to reload on horseback. Given this tactical advantage Union cavalry were easily
slaughtered by the sure-shot guerrillas.a
In his memoirs, Quantrillian W i a m H. Gregg described an encounter of
about one hundred guerrillas with Union troops at Black Jack Point, Kansas in
1863:
...when we came in sight of Paola, where in the broad
sunlight, glittered the guns of fifteen hundred cavalry, we
were near the timbered heights of Bull Creek, the enemy
could see this force as well as we.. . [and] the whole earth
was blue behind us. "Halt",
says Quanmll, %ace about",
the men faced about, not a single man disobeyed, the
enemy were within sixty yards. "Steady men, charge!",
rang out upon the Kansas breeze. The men charged, the
enemy stood, our men were thinning their ranks, the
enemy were falling thick and fast, their line began to
break, QuantrU ordered another charge, our boys went at
them again, and drove them pell-mell like sheep for a half
a mile or more, the fi ht in Kansas was ended.. .Quantrill
only lost one man.. .f
long range," See Gregg, "A Little Dab o f History Without EmbeIlishment", 958
Castel, William Clarke Quantrill, 114. and Leslie, The Devil Knows Haw to Ride, 180.
59
Gregg, "A Little Dab of History Without Embellishment". 25-26,
C
This account, although perhaps slightly exaggerated and self-congratulatory,
typified a QuantrilIian attack on federal troops. The circumstances that brought
about skirmishes varied. but the strategy usually did not: multiple charges into the
Union line for close range shots to kill or force the enemy to break ranks and
retreat.
Quantrill's men did not back down when they encountered superior
numbers. Although this contradicts one of the cardhal rules of guerrilla warfare,
namely, to avoid combat unless you have an overwhelming advantage, Quantrill's
forces were generally more mobile and better anned than their Union
adversaries."
They tended to go into battle with well-rested, fresh mounts and
were not bound by rigid attack formations. Quantrill's men would charge
headlong into bade, swarm the enemy, discharge their weapons and then scatter to
avoid effective pursuit by the Union cavalry." This tactic ensured that the entire
band would not be wiped out or caught in one fell swoop. Cole Younger wrote,
"Captain Quantrell believed that it was harder to trail one man than a company,
and every little while the company would break up, to rally again at a moment's
notice."52 Thus, the whole band never traveled together. At times the band
worked in small factions and it appeared as though Quantrill was everywhere.s3
SO
Samuel Payne Jr., The Conduct of Wac An Introduction to Modern Wa$are. (New York: Basil
Blackwell Inc., 1989), 227.
" Gregg. "A LittIe Dab of History Without Embellishment". 14.
Younger. The Story of Cole Younger, 58.
''The O f l c i d Records of the Warof the Rebelfion is rife with reports of Quanail1 present at two
Quantrill's men flourished in the remate and inaccessible areas that made
up the landscape of the border."
Edward Leslie described the Sni-A-Bar River
country of the border as, "a region of deep, narrow ravines and high hills with
steep, rocky slopes, thickly covered by dense woods and tangled thickets and
pocketed with leaves.""
The Quantrillians' intimate knowledge of the countryside
contributed to their stealth and survival, enabling them to escape easily from any
pursuer. As Jackson County natives, many of Quantrill's men, seemed to vanish
into their surroundings while Union troops searched in vain for them on main
roads and well known trails. Quantrill's band also benefited from what Bowen
described as the "benevolent neutrality', of the local slaveholding and Southern
sympathizing population.56 This helped concealment of guerrillas during times of
pursuit and scatter.
Individuals from the slaveholding commu~tiesof the border became the
guerrillas' quartermasters. Quantrillians depended on kinship connections within
their communities for intelligence on Union troop movements, m u n i t i o n ,
shelter, horses, and food. For example, the women of Jackson and other counties
--
comptetety different piaces at the same time.
5J
Hobsbawm,Bandiirs., 21.
Hobsbawm describes the ideal landscape for social banditry as, "mountains. trackless plains, fenland,
forest or estuaries with their endless labyrinth of creeks and waterways."
"Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride. 180. See Map C "Western Missouri". v i c .
Bowen. bCounterrevolutionaryGuerrilla War':
69.
regularly bought caps, lead, and powder for Quantrill and his men? Their support
proved invaluable. Years later, Quanuillian William H.Gregg remembered their
assistance and sang their praises. "Heaven bless the Women," he wrote, ""they
were friends in need and indeed, no braver and truer Women lived than the
'Southern ladies' of Missouri. We often owed our lives to them, so I say
again to them, Heaven bless them."'* The guerrillas found shelter on the property
and food in the homes of western Missourian farmers- Frustrated Union
commanders were well aware of the situation. One complained that:
[There is] an old lady in Missouri in whom the fedemls
have the utmost confidence, but who cooks for and secrets
Quantrill's men.. .she told her rebel friends she loves the
bushwhackers better than any other class of men. She
gives Quantrill most of his inf~rmation?~
In hun, some non-combatants paid with their lives for their support as a Union
report filed on Dec 6, 1864 can attest. While searching for Quantrill in Saline
County, '"one McReynolds, near Miami, confessed to have fed and aided him all
he could voluntarily. The scout shot him."60 Despite this, Southern sympathizing
families were notorious in western Missouri for passing along intelligence to
Leslie, The Devil Knows How m Ride. 121. and Dorothy Brown Thompson. ed.. " AYoung Girt in the
Missouri Border War" Missouri Hisran'cal Review 57, no- 3 (October 1963): 63.
'* Gregg, " ALittle Dab of History Without Embellishment". 5.
59
OR., ser. II,vol- Vm.,302,
When the families were unable to help the guerrillas for fear of arousing the suspicion of occupying
federal troops they would send their slaves with food and messages- See George P-Rawick, The
American Slave: A Composite Auto biography. vol, 7 , part 8 (Missouri Narratives), (Connecticut:
Greenwood Publishing Company, 1972). 166, 195,
OR., ser. I, vol. XLT., 960-
QuantriIlians. George S. Park, a loyal resident of the area, wrote to the
Department of the West voicing his concern. ccQuantrill'sassassins are scouting
all through the woods. We see them on the bluffs. Secesh receive them with open
arms, and they hide and feed them when they scatter.. .[.J"~' A pro-Union
newspaper in Jackson County agreed. "One of the greatest difficulties the military
have to encounter, is the constant and correct information which families of the
bushwhackers give of every movement the troops make..-[.]"62
Quanhillians quickly developed a special relationship with the Southern
sympathizing and slaveholding population of western Missouri: support by any
means possible, self-sacrifice by both parties, and, at times, unmitigated adoration.
Despite the reputation that preceded them, Quantrill's men were generally well
received by Confederate minded supporters. Elvira Scott was impressed by them
when they ate dinner at her home in Saline County. She wrote in her diary that:
They were nicely dressed, very clean, fme looking men;
polite, refined, and courteous in their manners, their
language correct and gentlemanly.. .L expected to see
dirty, ruffidy(sic] desperate wretches, judging from
what I had heard of thernP3
An encounter with QuantriII himself prompted a resident of Jackson County to
recollect that he, "always robbed, destroyed and comported himself debonairly and
'' OR.. ser. I. vol. XLI, part I.
-
102.
62
Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce. August 13, 1863, quoted in Charles F-Hams. "Catalyst for
Terror: The Collapse of the Women's Prison in Kansas City" Missouri Historical Review. (April 1995):
295.
(I860-1887).Western Historical Manuscript Collection, Stare
Historical Society of Missouri. University of Missouri-Columbia photocopy of typescript, June 1363,203.
" Elvira Ascenith Weir Scott, Diary
polite~y."64SimiIarly, Mrs. R.T. Bass of Kansas City remembered Quantrill as.
"modest, quiet.. .gentle of manner and courteous as well."6s The actions of
Quantrill's men were not so important as the perceptions of their supporters. In
this beleaguered society their exploits soon made them f o k heroes.
Gradually, Quantrillians shifted their focus from simply protecting
slaveholder property and skirmishing with Union troops in Missouri to bringing
the Civil War to Kansas in the same manner as it had been brought to western
Missouri. Many Missouri towns had been sacked and plundered by Kansas troops.
Guerrilla raids into Kansas by Quantrill's band were usually retaliatory. The f ~ s t
one, on March 7, 1862 in Aubrey, was a reprisal for the burning of Dayton and
Columbus, Missouri by the Seventh Kansas Cavalry (Colonel Jennison's troops)
led by Daniel Anthony. Q u a n t a and forty guerrillas plundered every store and
house in Aubrey and robbed aIl the men they could before returning to Missouri.
A similar retaliatory raid on September 6, 1862 in Olathe, Kansas avenged
the execution of Quantrillian Perry Hoy under the no quarter provision of General
Henry W. Halleck's Special Order Number 2P6 Quantrill and one hundred and
64
Edward Miller Jefferys. Family History, Volume I. Jackson County Historical Society, photocopy of
typescript.
R.T. Bass. "Recollections of Quanmll" in Missouri Division. United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Reminiscences of the Women of Missouri During the Sixties. Jackson County Historical Society,
photocopy, 234.
Special Order Number 2 (March 13, 1862) in reaction to Jefferson Davis' Partisan Ranger Act (April 21,
1862) states in part:
Every man who enlists in such an organization [Partisan Rangers] forfeits
his life and becomes an outlaw- All persons are hereby warned that if they
join any guerriIla band they will not, if captured, be treated as ordinary
fifty bushwhackers surprised Olathe and its inhabitants and proceeded to sack the
town in the same fashion as Jayhawkers had sacked theirs. The guerrillas rounded
up and put all the male citizens of the town into a c o d . They scattered in dl
directions, looting shops and homes, stealing horses and wagon and carrying away
as much as they could? Those who resisted were immediately shot except
women and children upon whom QuantrilI's guemIlas, without exception, never
preyed.
Dr. Thomas Hamill, a resident of Olathe, expressed his indignation in a
letter to the commander of the Department of Missouri. "Wedo not care for being
robbed," he wrote, "[Quanuill's guerrillas] killed our citizens in cold blood, taking
our best citizens from the bosom of their families and shooting them down like so
many hogs."68 At Olathe, QuantriU and his men struck another blow for the
victimized slaveholders of Missouri, killing fourteen men to avenge H O ~ . ~ ' This
raid temporarily satisfied the resentment Missourian slaveholders had towards
their Kansan Jayhawker oppressors.70
Quantrillians raided towns close to the Kansas-Missouri border in order to
facilitate easy escapes. Many of the citizens of these town recognized Quantrill
prisoners of war,but will be hung as robbers and murderers- See OR- ser-
II, V O ~ .m,468.
Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride. 144- 14%
OR., ser- I, voI. Xm., 803.
69
Castel. William Clarke QuantriII* 96.
'O
A vital element of the politics of social banditry is to satisfy the resentments of the exploited against their
exploiters. See Hobsbawm, Bandits., 95.
from his time in Kansas. During the raid on OIathe, Quantrill recognized E.W.
Robinson, a former acquaintance and invited him out of the corral where he had
been confi~ned.The NO sat and talked for more than an hour while the guerrillas
plundered the town. Robinson recalled that:
During the conversation I addressed him as "BiIl" [and] he
very politely requested that I address him as 'Captain
Quantrill" and took from his pocket and showed me what
he claimed was a Commission from the Confederate
~overnrnent.?
'
Despite Robinson's skepticism, Quantrill's commission may well have been
authentic as Jefferson Davis passed the Partisan Ranger Act on April 21, 1862
which commissioned officers "with the authority to form bands of Partisan
Rangers" (i.e. perrilla~).'~In August 1862, Sterling Price submitted Quantrill's
name to the Confederate Secretary of War as one who should be authorized to
muster Confederate troops in ~ i s s o u r i . ' ~By the fall of 1862 QuantrilI and his
guerrillas had received official endorsement from the Confederacy and, thus,
operated under a thin veil of legitimacy. The federal government, however,
explicitly rejected such commissions and Quantrillians were considered
" E.W.
outlaw^.^'
Robinson to W.W.Scott, May 9. 1881. Quantrill Collection. Dover Historical Society. photocopy.
" OR quoted in Leslie, The Devil Knows How ro Ride. 1 19.
QuantrilI's name was submitted by General Price in 186 1 to the Confederate Secretary of War as one
who should be allowed to muster troops in Jackson County.
73
OR., ser. I, vol. LIE, 823-824-
74
Special Order Number 2 (March 13. 1862) in reaction to Jefferson Davis' Partisan Ranger Act (April 2 1,
1862) states in part:
Every man who enlists in such an organization [Partisan Rangers] forfeits his
The hostility of Union authorities towards Quantrill posed a definite threat.
He realized that if captured he would be immediately executed. h November
1862 he left George Todd in charge of the band and traveled to Richmond,
Virginia to seek a higher commission. Quantrill obtained an interview with
Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon and asked that he be
commissioned a colonel under the Pardsan Rangers Act. Seddon apparently did
not care for the mode of warfare emptoyed by Quantrill and denied his request.
Undaunted, Quantrill returned to his men and used the rank anyway7'
Quantrill's guerrillas became infamous and feared among Kansans. Adela
E. Orpen, who Lived in Linn County,Kansas, wrote of the alarm of Kansans as
news of Quantdlian raids spread throughout the state, "'Quantrell! Quantrell !'
was the cry taken up by a hundred voices.. . in trembling fear [who]
...fled before
the very shadow of Quantrell in unspeakable terror."76 'The cry of 'Wolf' had
been raised too often," wrote Reverend Hugh D. Fisher of Douglas County.
Iife and becomes an outlaw. A11 persons are hereby warned that if they join
any guemlla band they will not, if captured, be treated as ordinary prisoners
of war, but will be hung as robbers and murderers. See OR. ser- II, vol- III,
468.
75
Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride, 157- 1%.
Quantrill signed the only report he ever filed during the Civil War as ' W C Quantrill, Colonel,
Commanding and c.** ,but is referred to in official dispatches as both captain and colonel- It is most
Iikely that QuantriII received a fieId commission colonelcy from General Sterling Price o r General E,
Kirby Smith during the winter of 1863-1864. See OR-, ser, I, vol, XXE, part I., 701. and OR, ser- I, vol.
XMCIV, part I., 853. and OR., ser I, vol. LIE, 908-
76
Adela E. Orpen, Memories of Old Emigrant Days in Kamas 1862-1865. ( London: William Blackwood
and Sons Limited, 1926), 118,120-121.
Kansas and many towns were, therefore. caught off guard without any defense?
No one ever knew where or when Quantrill's men would strike next and Kansans
cowered in fear at the very thought of one of his "rapid and ruthless" raids.78
Rumours of his presence caused panic and mass hysteria. In Kansas the call of
"QuantreIl!" was an omen of death.
Quantrillians acted as what Hobsbawm described as, "terror bringing
avengers" in ~ a n s a s . 7Raids
~
into Kansas served no strategic military function
other than to tie up Union troops. Sacking undefended towns asserted the political
position of western Missouri, but did not advance the Confederate war effort in the
West. It did, however, bring the Civil War to Kansas in the same manner as it was
perceived to have been waged by Jayhawkers in western Missouri. Quantrillians
were motivated by revenge, plunder, and the opportunity to strike terror into the
hearts of Kansans.
The military authorities of the District of the Border, issued an order on
January 20, 1863 which they hoped would erode the guerriIIaTsbase of support. It
stated in part:
All persons who shall knowingly harbor, conceal, aid, or
abet, by furnishing food. clothing, information, protection,
or any assistance whatever to any such emissary,
TI
H.D. Fischer, Gun and the Gospel: Early Kansas and Chapfain Fischer. (Medical Century Company.
1897). 182,
'*
79
Orpen, Memories of Oid Emigrant Days. 12L.
Hobsbawm, Bandits., 20.
According to Hobsbawm's theory there are three types o f social bandits: noble tobber or Robin Hood,
resistance fighter or guerrilla unit. and the terror-bringing avenger-
Confederate officer or soldier, partisan ranger,
bushwhacker, robber, or thief, s h d be promptly
executed?'
Its terms Mere defmed further on April 22, 1863:
A person dwelling within a district under military
occupation and giving information to the enemy is
universally treated as a spy - a spy of a peculiarly
dangerous character. ..
...whosoever shall be convicted of holding correspondence
with, or giving information to, the enemy, either directly or
indirectly, shall suffer. or such other punishment as shall be
ordered by the sentence of a court-martial. Persons engaged
in carrying such correspondence will be held Liable to the
same punishment as the correspondents themsel~es.~
Special orders from military authorities again blurred the line between combatants
and non-combatants. Loyal Unionists called for action against the families of
Quantrill's guerrillas. An editorial in the pro-Union Jackson County Kansas Ciry
Daily Journal of Commerce read, in part:
It is an utter impossibility to rid the country of these
pestilent outlaws, so long as their families remain.. . With
the aid of these spies, dotted all over the country and Living
in perfect security, a hundred Bushwhackers may defy the
utmost efforts of five hundred soldiers to exterminate
them.'*
Disloyalty, especially by guerrilla bands, would not be tolerated by Union officials
in Missouri.
OR-. ser. I. vol. XW. p t II. 65.
The District of the Border was created June 9, 1862 to deal with guem*llaconflict in the border counties
of Kansas and Missouri- See Harris,'Catalyst for Terror". 293.
OR., ser. I. vol. XW. p t IT, 237.
'' Kansas Ciy Daib JoulMI of Commerce. August 13. 1863. quoted in Harris, "Catalyst for Terror*: 195.
Coincidentally, on the same day that the above editorial ran, a building
housing women prisoners collapsed in Kansas City. Several of those imprisoned
there had brothers and cousins with QuantriIl. They had been arrested for aiding
and abetting guerrill&.83 In the rubble lay the Lifeless bodies of Josephine
Anderson (sister of William Anderson), Charity McCorkle Ken (sister of John
McCorkle, wife of Nathan Ken, and cousin of Cole Younger), Armenia Crawford
Selvey, and Susan Crawford Vandevere (sisters of Riley crawford)."
Two more
of Anderson's sisters and McCorkle's sister-in-law were severely injured. In
Jackson County, rumours abounded suggesting that the structure of the building
had been compromised by Union soldiers with the intent to kill the relatives of the
Quantrill's guerrillas. The incident was interpreted in western Missouri as the
Union making war on women. The deaths in Kansas City only heightened
Quantrillians' desire for justice and vengeance. They decided to attack Lawrence,
Kansas in an effort to put an end to the oppression by Union troops in westem83
The parents of Frank and James had been arrested on the same charges in May 1863, but reieased- See
LesIie, The Devil Knows How t o Ride. 186.
" Also among the wounded were relatives of Quantrillians Matt Ken; Sim Whitsitt, and Reuben Ham-s.
In May 1863 Bill Anderson's father was killed by local authorities in Kansas after disputing a charge of
horse theft, Anderson never recovered £?omthe death of his sister which was. in part, his fault for taking
to the bush. Albert CasteL best described Anderson's reaction:
Already a merciless kilter of men,.. the death and crippling of his sisters
seemingly unhinged his mind and transformed him into a veritable
homicidal maniac. Henceforth. his sole object was to kill as many Yankees
as possible. And the more he killed, the more he wanted to kill, It is said,
even, that he at times literally foamed a t the mouth and wouid go into battle
sobbing with sheer blood lust See Castel, WiHiam Clarke Quantrill, 120.
Bloody Bill. as he was known, tied a knot on a silk cord he wore around his neck for every man he killed
after the colIapse of the women's prison in Kansas City, It was found still tied around his neck when he
was killed in October 1864 knotted fifty-fourtimes, See Carl W.Breihan. The Complete and Authenric
Lge of Jesse James. (New York: Frederick Fell, hc.. Publishers. 1953). 8 1-
Missouri. The raid on Lawrence on August 21, 1963 avenged the deaths in
Kansas City and demonstrated the destructive power of QuantrilITsRaiders. but it
would also mark the beginning of the end for the guerrilla band.
Lawrence was the center of the antislavery movement in the West and the
home of the New England Immigrant Aid Society and James H. Lane. The
inhabitants of western Missouri viewed Lawrence as the center of Jayhawker
activity in ~ansas." It was the perfect target. Tt was less than 50 miles from the
border and undefended as a consequence of too many false a l m s in anticipation
of a raid.86 Western Missourians also believed Jayhawkers stored slaveholder
booty in Lawrence. QuantrilIian William H. Gregg later claimed he saw about
forty shanties in the southern part of Lawrence containing cchouseholdeffects
stolen from Missouri." He also stated that he recognized many of the ex-slaves
guarding the plunder, as having been kidnapped from Jackson county.8'
Quantrill had tentatively planned a raid on Lawrence, Kansas even before
the collapse of the jail. He had intended to sack the town as he had Aubry and
OLathe, but Lawrence was more personal to him. He had been driven out of
'* Lawrence was previously sacked and burned during the Border War in 1856. For a complete description
of the 1 863 Raid on Lawrence see Thomas Goodrich, Bloody Dawn: The Story of the Lawrence
Massacre. (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 199 1).
Reverend Fischer wrote that in Lawrence. "thecry of wolf had been raised too often." See Fischer.
Gun and the Gospel, 182-
86 The
87
Gregg, "A Little Dab of History Without Embellishment". 23,
John McCorkle also believed that he had seen the pianos of two Jackson County famities in the parlor of
James Lane. See Barton, Three Years With Quanrrell, 126.
Lawrence on charges of horse stealing and kidnapping and it was his turn to seek
vengeance. Quantrill may have envisioned himself riding into the town ahead of
his guerrillas so as to ensure that old friends and enemies could see that he had
finally achieved soloe measure of success, despite them. He never forgot how his
impending arrest in Lawrence had forced him to flee. The raid would exceed all
expectations of vengeance Quantrill could have ever hoped to mastermind in his
Lifetime. It was the singIe largest massacre of the CiviI War and ensured that his
name would ever exist as the ''bloodiest man in American history."88
It took three days to get to Lawrence from Blue Springs, Jackson County in
August 1863 and Quantriil gathered a force of approximately 450 along the way.
The guerrillas avoided detection by wearing federal uniforms and riding only at
night. They entered the town unmolested at daybreak on August 21 and Quanuill
gave the order, as William H. Gregg remembered, to, "Kill Kill, and you will
make no mistakes. Lawrence is the hotbed, and should be thoroughly cleansed,
and the only way to cleanse it, is to
ill."^^ In Gun and the Gospel massacre
survivor Reverend H. D. Fisher described what ensued after QuantriLl gave his
command:
With demonic yells the scoundrels flew hither and yon,
wherever a man was to be seen, shooting him down like a
dog. Men were called from their beds and murdered before
the eyes of wives and children on their doorsteps. Tears,
.
88
-
Quoted in Albert Castel "BIoodiest Man in American History" American Heritage. (October 1960): 22-
25,97-99.
89
Gregg, "A Little Dab of History Without EmbelIishment", 22.
entreaties, prayers availed nothing. The fiends of he11 were
among us and under the demands of their revengeful black
teader they satisfied their thint for blood with fiendish
delight. .. As affrighted people flew for safety, no matter
what the direction, they were confronted by squads of
guerrillas so stationed as to cut off escape. A cordon of
death had been thrown around us while we slept.. .Not
only was the torch applied for the destruction of stores and
homes, but in many instances the bullet-pierced bodies of
their owners were consigned to flames, in individual
instances before the M e was extinct- Such scenes of
barbarity have never been witnessed.. .except among the
most degraded tribes of the earth?
Quantrill and his men killed one hundred and eighty-five men and razed one
hundred and fifty-four buildings and houses to the ground. They destroyed and
plundered over one and a half million dollars worth of property?1 The guerrillas
sustained only one casualty, a drunken straggler who was shot in the back of the
head by William Spear whose brothers had been killed in the raid?' The rest of
the command scattered throughout the countryside.
Fischer. Gun and the Gospel. 189- 190.
Despite Reverend Fischer's obvious bias and hostility, his colourful description of the events of the
morning of August 2 1, 1863 in Lawrence are accurate. Fischer lived in Lawrence before and after the
raid and was there when it happened and barely escaped with his life. He was also the first to pubIish a
true biographical section on Quantrill, predating Connelley by thirteen years- See Leslie, The Devil
Knows How to Ride, 157-245, Goodrich, Bloody Dawn,Castel. Willram Clarke Quantrill, and
Connelley, Quanfdland the Border Wars. 284-421 for complete descriptions of the raid,
9'
Fischer, G u n and the Gospel. L9 1.
The popuIation of Lawrence in 1863, according to Fischer. was one thousand two hundred. Eight
hundred were women and boys as most men had joined the Union army. Quantrill's raiders had
slaughtered over 42% of the male population and over 15%of the total population- The most
noteworthy survivor was General James Lane whom they wanted to kill more than any other. He fled
just before guerrilias overran his house.
92
Andrew Williams. Manuscript. Connelley Collection. Kansas State Historical Society. photocopy.
Williams was a former slave from Vernon County who was living in Lawrence at the time of the raid
and asked by William Connelley in the 1890's to write down what he remembered of that day:
..,thir was one of them that got So drunk h e could not get a way h e was
Following the raid Quantrill's men reached Jackson County relatively
unscathed. Their pursuers gave chase too late. and with inferior numbers. When
the raiders arrived home, Quantdl had intended to distribute any money they
appropriated from Lawrence to the people in Jackson County who had supported
thernP3 He told W i a m H. Gregg just before the raid that he wanted to
"compensate the people who have and still will divide the last biscuit with us.""
Thus. Quantrill rode out of Lawrence not simply as a murderer. but as a noble
robber, the Robin Hood of western Missouri. His plan, however, was foiled when
an unscrupulous member of the band disappeared with most of the money?'
Nothing, therefore, had been gained by the raid. Slaveholders. who were
victimized by Jayhawkers received no compensation for their losses. The raid
failed to demoralize the population of Kansas. It did, however, fan the fire of
animosity towards disloyal inhabitants of the western border counties of Missouri.
Union forces were never so intent on eliminating the Quantrillian scourge and
their supporters as they were in late August 1863. Disloyalty could no longer be
tolerated in western Missouri.
-
--
-
Shoot in the Back of the head and the Ball come out through his mouth
knocking out all of his teeth out--. it was William Sppear[sic] that Shoot
him.. .they taken him and hitched a Rope a Round his neck and atchted a
horse and drug him all over town and then taken him down to a Revene
and put him in it and Burned him up- [sic]
93 Gregg,
'&ALittle Dab of History Without Embellishment", 28-29.
94
Gregg, "A Little Dab of History Without Embellishment". 28.
95
Gregg. " ALittle Dab of History Without Embellishment". 29.
These men were most likely some of the more recent recruits picked up dong the way the Lawrence,
In and effort to placate them the rest of the money may have been divided between George Todd's men-
James H.Lane, who was a principle target, but had escaped the flames that
consumed Lawrence, articulated an extreme reaction to the massacre. In a speech,
just days after the attack, he said, "'Iwant to see every foot of ground in Jackson,
Cass, and Bates counties burned over - everything laid to waste."% He also told
Major-General John M. Schofield that he intended to "lay waste to the border
counties of Missouri and exterminate [all] the disloyal people."g7
Union reaction to the massacre was swift, but'less extreme. Major-General
Schofield asked Brigadier-General Thomas Ewing Jr.(commanding the District of
the Border) if his, "whole cavalry force could be put in the field after QuantriU?"
and urged him to. "spare no means by which he may be destroyed."g8 This request
was reiterated by President Lincoln who suggested that Ewing do his "utmost to
punish their [Lawrence' s] invaders."99
On August 25, 1863 Ewing responded. He issued General Order No. 11,
described by historian Albert Caste1 as, "the most drastic and repressive military
DaiLy Missouri Democrat (St. Louis). September 1. 1863. quoted in Charles R. Mink. "GeneraL Orders.
No. 11: The Forced Evacuation of Civilians During the Civil War"Military Affairs. vol, 34, (1970): 132,
96
97
Quoted in John M. Schofield. Forty-six Years in the A m y , (NewYork, 1897), 81,
General Lane's popularity in Kansas had begun to wane as Jayhawkers and their tactics fell out of
favour with many Kansans. layhawking, by 1863, was thought of as "a fancy name for horse-stealing."
See Cheatham., 147. Lane may have been trying to win back the favour of Kansans by striking a
decisive and devastating blow in Missouri. However. he was never abte to carry out his threat as
Schofield promised to use Missourian troops to repel him, See Mink. "General Orders, No- 11", 132-
98
OR.. ser. I. vol. XXII. part K.469.
99
OR.. ser. I, vol. XW, part 11.. 479.
The Lawrence Massacre was the most famous guemlla raid of the Civil War, It shocked the nation and
the world as even the London Times carried the story- See London Times, September 10. 1863.
measure directed against civilians by the Union Army during the Civil
It
read in part:
All persons living in Jackson, Cass and Bates Counties,
Missouri, and in that part of Vernon included in this
district.. .are hereby ordered to remove fiom their
present places of residence within fifteen days hereof. lo'
This order was an attempt to eliminate the guerrillas' base of support, which
Union military authorities recognized as essential to their existence, once and for
all. General Ewing justified ordering all citizens to vacate their homes by
suggesting that Quantrill and his men had, "driven out or murdered alI the loyal
people of those counties.
'9
LO2
The Kansas CCiry Western Journal of Commerce
estimated that nine-tenths of the people of area affected by Order No. 11 "supplied
and aided" guerrillas. lo3 This estimation may have been high, but the Union forces
in western Missouri reacted, nonetheless, as though they had been opposed by an
entire people. This was evident by the mistreatment of the populace by Union
troops that culminated in Order No. 11. The feeling among the slaveholding
citizenry of the border was mutual. They felt that, as a people, they were under
siege and, thus, supported Quantrill and his guerrillas in any way possible.
100
AIbert Castel, O r d e r No. I 1 and the Civil War on the Border" Missouri Historical Review. (July 1963):
357.
lo'
OR.. ser. I. vol. m.part 11.. 473.
The northern half of Vernon County was included in the District of the Border.
'ol
OR.. ser. I. vol. XXD, part II.. 471.
Io3 Kcufsm City Daily Jouml of Commerce. January 23. 1864 quoted in Castel. 'Order No. I I and the
Civil War on the Border", 358.
Union commander at Lexington and witness to the political cleansing of the
region, Colonel Bazel F. Lazear described the scene to his wife:
...you olight to have been with me coming down from
Kansas City and saw the secesh women and children and
a few men with them fleeing fiom'the wrath to come.
They were all from Jackson County and were leaving in
accordance with General Ewings [sic] order.. .It is
heartsickening [sic]to see what I have seen.. .A
desolated country and men and women and children,
some of them all most [sic]naked. Some on foot and
some on old wagons. Oh ~ o d . ' ~
The antebellum population of the affected counties was approximately forty
thousand but. by mid-September 1863. only about six hundred remained.'"
Those
who had formed the basis of QuanWan support were left destitute and forced
into exile.
The immediate effect of Order No. 11on Quantrill's guerrillas was that it
brought in new recruits from families that had been exiled.'06 William H. Gregg,
however, noted that. "after the return from the Lawrence raid there was never
again the unity of purpose which had animated the command up to that time.
9,
LO7
Order No. 11 had demoralized the Quantrillians, but when the people Left they did
not disband. The evacuated area had to be protected from Union troops. Colonel
-
IM
Vivian Kirkpatrick McLarty, 'The Civil War Letters of Colonel Bare1 F. Lazear" Missouri Historical
Review. (April 1950): 390-392.
Io5
Castel, Order No-11 and the Civil War on the Border", 357,365.
lM
Warren Welch joined Quanmil after his f h l y was banished to an island on the Missouri River. See
Independence Eraminer. Independence, Missouri December 22, 1915, (Jackson County Historical
Society) Cole Younger's sixteen year oId brother joined Quantrill after his mother was forced to torch
her house by Union troops. See Brant, The Outlaw Youngers 3 1.
'07 Gregg.
"A Little Dab o f History Without Embellishment", 33.
Lazear wrote to his wife remarking that there were about three hundred
Quanvillians scattered throughout Jackson County and they continued to skirmish
with federd troops.'08 Despite these minor skirmishes, Gregg described the time
in Jackson County after the Lawrence raid as, "a lull.. .whatever was done was of
minor importance."'0g They sustained themselves on what had been left behind
and did not head south until the weather and Union pressure forced them to
retreat.
'O
Quantrill reassembled his command in late September. Union troops were
hunting them more intensely than ever before and the guerrillas had to flee. Some
went with their families in exile, but most went to Texas with Quanhill. In the
guerrillas' absence, the vacated homes of western Missourians were looted and
burned and their remaining crops were confiscated or destroyed. This area
became known as the "BurntDistrict" and Quantrillians would have nothing to
come home to in the spring.'
'
'08
McLatty, 'The CiviI War Letters of Colonel Bazel F. Lazear". 390-39 1.
109
Gregg, "A Little Dab of History Without Embellishment". 29.
[I0
Quantrillian Frank Smith. in his memoirs. recalled that. despite Order No. 11:
Quantrill was in no hurry to leave the country for the South- The farmhouses
were nearly all vacated..., but in every smoke house there hung from the
rafters hams and bacon, and the country was full of stray hogs, cattle, and
chickens which the owners had been forced to leave behind. There was
plenty of feed for [the] horses, and the men gathered the food at night, See
Frank Smith, Memoirs, BJ,George Collection. Western Manuscript
Collection, Missouri State Historical Society.
"' Parrish. A Hisrory of Mksouri 1860-1875, 101.
Chapter Four
'You deserve a better fate": The Death of Quantrill and the Experience of
Reconstruction in Missouri
All these men fought for principle, not
for plunder, and they were true-hearted,
honorable soldiers, fighting for what
they esteemed was a righteous cause.
-Cole Younger 188 1
'
The guerrillas' futures looked bleak in the fall of 1863. Their homes were
subject to devastation and the source of much of their families' wealth was nearly
worthless. The Emancipation Proclamation drastically reduced the value of slaves
in Missouri as emancipation in even "loyal states", it seemed, was inevitable as
well. The average price of a Missouri slave in 1863 was only about ten per cent of
what it had been in 1859.' The system of slavery had been unstable in Missouri
since the outbreak of war as guerrillas had infested slave counties and fighting was
constant. Forty thousand slaves had escaped or were voluntarily freed during the
course of the war, interrupting harvests and destabilizing the economy in the
' I.W. BueI, An Authentic and Thrilling History of the Most Noted Bandits of Ancient and Modern Times,
The Younger Brothers, Jesse and Frank James, and their Comrades in Crime. (St,Louis: Ryan, Jacks and
Company, L88 I), 24 1.
'The average price of slave in 1859 was $15 14 and by 1863 the state auditor of Missouri valued the
state's 73.8 10 slaves at $L 1,704,809, thus the average price of a slave was $158.58. See Duffner,
"Slavery in the Missouri River Counties 1820-1865", Table 2 and 198,
western c o ~ n t i e s .Vacated
~
homes lay in ruins in the depopulated area: "nothing
remained save stone fences and chimneys.""
The attack on Lawrence had failed to tum the war in slaveholders favor in
but neither had the Union army succeeded in exterminating the
western
-errillas
D
and the struggle was still alive in the fall of 1863. However, all that
remained was hope. The slaveholders of western Missouri believed they were not
yet beaten as long as QuantdI remained.'
The march to Texas yielded the last victory QuantrilI's guerrillas would
have together as a cohesive unit when the band stumbled upon a Union fort at
Baxter Springs, ~ansas.6They approached the troops under a federal flag dressed
in Union uniform and took the Union soldiers by complete surprise.' The attack
did not alter the course of the Civil War in the West. It did again show the
savagery of Quantrillysmen as they slaughtered soldiers even as they tried to
surrender?
In 1860 there were L 14,931 slaves in Missouri. By 1863 only 73,s 10 remained. The vast majority
had escaped, some were set free by loyal Unionists who complied with the Emancipation Proclamation,
even though it only applied to states in rebellion, Others were given their freedom by sIavehoIders in
order to protect their families from molestation by Union troops. See Duffner, "SIavery in the Missouri
River Counties 1820-1865". 191, 198 and Rawick, The American Slave, 254,
Liberty Tribune. (Jackson County), Missouri June 9, 1865, Quoted in Castel, W i f f i mCfarke QuanrrilC.
93 1
"For the bandit's defeat and death is the defeat of his people; and what is worse, of hope." See
Hobsbawm, Bandits-. 3 1.
For a complete account of the Raxter's Springs Massacre see Lary C. Rampp. "Incident at Baxter
Springs on October 6. 1863" Kmas Historical Quarterly. voI- 36. no. 2 (1970): 183-ig7,
Quantrill's men kilIed eighty nine. wounded eight, and sustained only three casualties.
OR., ser. I. vol. X X I . part 1.. 697. The report reads. in parc
The incident at Baxter Springs and the Lawrence massacre drew even the
criticism of the Confederacy when the band reached Texas. Appalled by the
actions of Quantrill's men, General Henry McCulloch commander of the SubDistrict of North Texas, expostulated:
...certainly we cannot, as a Christian people, sanction
savage, inhuman warfare, in which men are to be shot
down like dogs, after throwing down their arms and
holding up their hands supplicating for mercy.. .I have
little confidence in men who fight for booty.. . they are
afraid to enter our army regularly?
Quantrill's command became d
y upon their arrival and, on Christmas Day
1863, several dozen of them got drunk and "shot up" the town of Sherman, Texas.
A second episode occurred on New Year's Eve when forty Quantrillians started a
brawl in a Sherman brothel. Quantrill was summoned on both occasions to restore
order and pay for the damages. McCuUoch responded by attempting to transfer
-..they were told [by QuantriIITsmen], in every instance, that If they would
surrender, and deliver up their arms they should be treated as prisoners of
war, and upon doing so were immediateIy shot down- ~ & g Jack
t
Splane...
was treated in this way,and the fiend that shot him, after taking his arms,
said, 'TeU old God that the last man you saw on earth was Quantritl."
9
OR., ser. I, vol. XXVI,, 348 and 379.
McCuIloch represented the prevailing Confederate opinion of Quantrill's guerrillas, but there were
some dissenters such as General E. Kirby Smith who, in support, wrote:
.,.no better force could be employed than that of QuantriUTsMissourians,,,
They are bold, fearless men,-, composed of the very best class of
Missourians-They have suffered every outrage in their person and their
families at the hands of the Federals, and, being outlawed and their lives
forfeited. have waged a war of no quarter whenever they have come into
contact with the enemy. See O R , ser- I, vo1- XXVI., 383.
QuantriU's command to Houston under Major-General John B. Magruder with
orders that they be "placed in the face of
Boonslick ~emocratsexiled in Texas were also concerned about the fate of
the Quantrillians. General Price pressured Q u a n u to enlist himself and his men
into regular service." Governor Jackson's successor, Thomas Caute Reynolds,
even wrote Qumtrilla letter urging him to abandon his guerrilla operations:
...a man of your ability should look forward to a higher
future. You must see that guerrilla warfare, as an
honourable pursuit, is prew nearly "pIayed out", and if
you wish to rise, you should acquire the confiidence of the
regular authorities by conforming to the policy they adopt.
Strive to organize a regular command and enter the regular
Confederate service.. .The history of every guerrilla chief
has been the same. He either becomes the sIave of his men,
or if he attempts to control them, some officer or some
private rises up, disputes his authority, gains the men, and
puts him down. My opinion of you is that you deserve a
better fate. ,,L2
Despite Governor Reynolds' prophetic advice, Quantrill refused to join the regular
Confederate army, and, under the terns of the Confederate Partisan Ranger Act of
1862, declared that he would continue to act independently. "
10
OR., ser.1, vol. XXXIV.,853-
I'
Albert Castel, "Quantrill in Texas" Civil War T h e s Mustrated. vol. 11, no. 3 (1972): 23.
I' Thomas Caute Reynolds to W- C. Quantrill. March I I. L8fX Quoted in Castel, "Quantrill in Texas". 24
and Leslie The Devil Knows How to Ride, 294-295,
Governor Jackson had died in exile in December I862 and Lt. Governor T C Reynolds succeeded him.
I3
OR.. ser. I, vol- X X X N . , 685.
Officers commissioned under the terms of the Partisan Ranger Act of 1862 raised their own troops and
operated independently of the regular army. Quantrill, apparently, interpreted that to mean that he was
outside of the jurisdiction of Confederategenerals in the field-
General McCulloch, frustrated by his inability to control Quantrill's
guerrillas, ordered them arrested and took Quantrill into custody.14 It did not take
Long after his capture, however, for him to escape? Quantrill gathered his men
and fled Texas. McCulloch reversed his initial decision and chose not to pursue
them as he feared the Quantrillians would scatter and attack Confederate troops,
Texan civilians, or both?
In the winter of 1863-64QuantriUTscontrol of his command slipped even
further. Discipline had broken down in Texas and criminal and violent behaviour
had escalated among Quantdl's followers. Several citizens and one Confederate
officer had been murdered and robbed by those under ~uantrill.'~
In an effort to
escape punishment for crimes committed at Lawrence and to gain better terms at a
future surrender some of the guemllas deserted QuantrilI and joined regular
Confederate units.18 Conflict among the leaders of the group split the p e d a s
14
OR., ser. I, vo1. MCMV.,942, McCulIoch wrote to Magruder
Quantrill and his men will not obey orders, and so much mischief is charged
to his command here that I have determined to disarm[and] arrest-,. his
entire command.., This is the only chance to get them out of this section of
the country. which they have nearly ruined-.- They regard the life of a man
Iess than a sheep killing dog. .. My plan is to arrest Quantrill's men--.
QuantrilI and his men are determined never to go into the army or fight in
any general battle.. .because it will not pay men who fight for plunder.
For a complete description of Quantrill's escape see Castel, "Quanaill in Texas", 26.
l6
OR., ser. I, voI. MCXIN.,958Fearing attack McCuIloch reported that, "If these men are not kept in partisan service they will disband
and scatter.. ,[andl they will do us great harm; if kept under QuantriIl they can be controlled. ,."
17
Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride, 295-297,
" WiIliam 8. Gregg
and Cole Younger are examples o f long serving Quanmllian who joined Confederate
units during the winter of 1863-64- In all probability they hoped to gain better terms of surrender,
into factions. William "'Bloody Bill" Anderson and about twenty others, including
Jesse James, left Quantrill while in Texas. Anderson, described by historian Carl
Breihan as a "homicidal maniac" at this time owing to the death and injury of his
sisters, was M a t e d when Q u a n t a ordered the execution of a guerrilla for
robbing a farmer.lg The group m e r splintered when George Todd, with whom
Quantrill had been feuding for months, forced QuantrilI, at gun point, to admit he
was afraid of him. The guerrillas' heretofore respected and fearless leader had
been publicly and shamefully humiliated by an underling. Quaatrill's authority
had been usurped by Todd and not one guerrilla moved to suppoa him."
Had this incident occurred a year earlier Quantrill surely would not have
backed down. He had risen to similar challenges from Todd in the past. However,
Quantrill's outlook had changed by 1864. He realized that there was no future for
the men as a guerrilla band. Both the Union and Confederacy were hostile
towards them. While in Texas he again contemplated his fate and remaining alive
was a priority. Thoughts of desertion and restarting elsewhere, as he had always
managed to do in the past, no doubt passed through his mind. However, he was
too notorious to simply slip away as he would surely be hunted and killed. As the
momentum turned towards the North in the summer of 1863 after the Fall of
Vicksburg and Gettysburg, Quantrill's hopes for future of the Confederacy
19
Breihan, The Complete and Authentic Life of Jesse James., 54.
" For a compiete account of the Todd incident see, Castel, Willtam Clarke Quantrill, and Leslie, The Devil
Knows How to Ride, 299-30 1.
dimmed." He had discussed his thoughts on the matter with an acquaintance who
later recalled the conversation:
I inquired what he intended to do when the war was over,
and where-heexpected to go. He replied that he did not
know what he would do. Him and I had talked this matter
over before. We were each satisfied that the Confederacy
was lost and that nothing but a blunder on the part of the
w o n ] commanders east of the Missippi [sic]would ever
save the South and that the only thing that we could do by
fighting was [gaia better terms [of surrender]. ..22
Quantdl knew if he surrendered he would certainly be executed. He had to
continue fighting in order to obtain, if at all possible, better terms of surrender.
His supporters in ~acksonCounty whom he had protected from Jayhawkers after
the Morgan Walker raid and who had sheltered, supplied, and fed him throughout
the course of the war were gone. There was nothing more to be gained and much
to be lost by leading raids into Kansas or actively fighting federal troops. With
these realities in mind, he rode out of Todd's camp and spent the summer and fall
of 1864 in relative seclusion.23
" W.L. Potter to W.W- Scott, undated. ConnelleyCollection, Kansas State Historical Society. It
read, in part:
Quantrill, in conversation with me, said that h e had littIe hopes of the
Confederate States ever gaining their independence-.- if Vicksbwg was
surrendered, we would lose control ofthe Missippi [sic] [and] our success
was doubthi- In the summer of 1863, with the fa11 of Vicksburg, the South
lost its strategic stronghold on the Mississippi River and the Confederate
offensive strategy was destroyed at the Battle of Gettysburg as it arrested
the Confederates' last major invasion of the North and forced them to fight
a defensive war-
"W.L. Potter to W.W. Scott, undated. Connelley Collection. Kansas State Historical Society.
Potter indicates in the letter that this conversation took place in March 1864.
23
Gregg, "A Little Dab of History Without Embetlishment", 32.
It is not known what Quantrill was doing at this time.
The most active among Quantrill's former command during the summer of
1864 were Anderson's guerrillas. They were involved in several skirmishes with
Union troops and raided several towns in western ~ i s s o u d ?Anderson's
~
reign of
terror climaxed at Centralia, Missouri on September 27, 1864. The former
Quantrillians stopped a train passing through town during the raid and ordered the
riders off and onto the platform. They proceeded to rob, shoot and kill several of
them. Among the passengers were thirty-three furloughed Union soldiers, they
were separated from the rest of the passengers and immediately executed.
Retreating from Centralia, the guerrillas encountered more Union soldiers, the
Thirtyninth Missouri State Militia mounted infantry under Major A X E .
Johnston. Bolstered by George Todd's command, the guerrillas, on horseback,
attacked and slaughtered Johnson's troops who had dismounted to fight. Of the
Thirty-ninth Missouri, one hundred and twenty-four of one hundred and foq-five
men, including Major Johnston, lay dead."
Excessive ferocity and brutality by former Quantrillians marked this period.
The guerrillas under Anderson and Todd lost their focus and fought without
'*
The following incidents were chosen as examples of Anderson's excessive brutality; June 1 L. 1864 Anderson attacks a Union dettachment of thirteen near Warrensburg, killing twelve. June 13, t 864 Anderson's guerrillas attack a federal supply main near Lexington. July 6, 1864 - Anderson and thirtyfive guerrillas kill nine loyal Union men in Carroll County. July 15, I864 - $45,000 is stolen by the band
From the bank during a raid on Huntsville, Missouri. July 24. 1864 - the guerrillas ambush Union troops
near Huntsville, Missouri. August 28,1864 - Ambush of Fourth Missouri Cavalry. August 30, 1864 Raid on Rocheport, Missouri,
Castel. Wfiam Clarke Quantriit, 187- 192. and Goodrich. Black Flag. 139- 142.
restraint. Corpses of ambushed troops were often found scalped and rnuti~ated.'~
Guerrillas carried scalps as trophies, displaying them on their saddle-bows and
sometimes showidg them to female admirers? Despite this savageness, the
oppressed people of western Missouri still revered them. A letter written by a
witness in November 1864described the reaction of the girls of the Danville
Female Academy in Missouri to "Bloody Bill" Anderson and his guerrillas:
The g a s begged Anderson for buttons untiI he cut them
all off. That coat was off of one of the murdered men at
Centralia, and the girls knew it and yet they begged for
them. One [of the] young ladies has a lock of Anderson's
hair.. . One of the grown young ladies told one of them she
would kiss him if he would give her a knife. She got the
knife.. .28
Quantrillians remained folk heroes among Southern sympathizers in
Missouri and kept the expectation of victory alive during the fall of 1864 when
General Price and his army finally returned to Missouri for one fmal Confederate
push.29 Governor Reynolds returned as well,accompanying Price with the
-
'6
--
-
Castel. William Clarke Quantriil, 192. and Goodrich, Black Flag. 144.
Dead soldiers were found with their skuIls crushed and ears, noses, genitals, and heads cut off- The
heads were ofien placed on different bodies, fence posts, saddIe-horns, and the barrels of rifles and the
genitals were sliced off and put into the mouths of the corpses.
" Arthur G. Draper, ed., "Dear Sister: Letters from War-Torn Missouri. 1864" Gateway Heritage. vol. 13.
no. 4 (1993): 54- A letter, dated November 12. 1864,read in part:
One of those men remarked to some of the girls he was talking to that he had
scalped the man at Centrdia off of whom he had gotten his vest, and another
one actually pulled a scalp out of his bosom by !he hair and showed it. -.
" Draper, "Dear
Sister': 54.
" Price invaded Missouri in the fall of 1864, according to historian R o k n E.Shalhop with the hope of
gaining, " enough support in the state to allow him to occupy it and keep it within the
Confederacy.-.[and] felt that a successfid raid at the time of the pnion presidential] election might be a
powerful prod to the people of the North to defeat Lincoln and sue for peace." See Robert E-Shalhope,
intention of establishing a Confederate government at Jefferson
They
hoped to occupy the state and gain enough support so as to keep Missouri within
the ~ o n f e d e r a c ~ Todd
. ~ ' and Anderson attached their commands to General
Joseph 0.Shelby's "Iron Brigade" and fought along with Price. However, all
hopes of Missouri ever being truly claimed as a Confederate State ended when the
Confederate army was forced, once again, to retreat. Union troops defeated
Confederate forces in battles at Mine Creek, Marmiton, and Newtonla Iate in
1864, Both Anderson and Todd were killed in action and the war was lost in
~issouri."
The Quanaillian counterrevolution officially ended on January 11, 1865
when a Missouri constitutional convention abolished slavery. Nothing was left to
fight for or defend in Missouri. QuantrilI gathered what was left his loyal
followers and set forth in the hope of reaching General Robert E. Lee and
participating in a mass ~urrender?~They knew it would have been impossible to
Sterling Price: Portrait of a Good Southerner. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1971). 262.
3%es~ie,
The Devil Knows How to Ride, 329-
Price beIieved unfounded rumours that the North was dissatisfied with the war and a successful raid
would prompt the defeat of Lincoln in the upcoming November election and Northerners would to sue
for peace. See Robert Shalhope, Sterling Price: Portrait of a Southerner. (Columbia, Missouri:
University of Missouri Press, 1971), 262-
'' AndersonPsbody was photographed and then its head cut off and stuck on a telegraph pole. The
decapitated copse was dragged around Richmond, Missouri behind a horse while people threw rocks at
it, "BIoody Bill's final resting place was face down in one foot deep unmarked grave in the town's
cemetery. See Castel, William Clarke Quantrill, 199- and Edwin A- Harris, "Bloody Bill Anderson'"
Westporr Historical Quarterly. vol. 8, no. 1 (1972): 31.
Some historians have suggested that Quantrill's intended to assassinate Abraham Lincoln when he left
Missouri in January, but better terms of surrender rather than the President is more likely what the
guerrillas pursued, See Castel, William Clarke Qumtrilf, 201.
surrender in Missouri without punition. The Quanwans
got as far as Kentucky,
traveling as the fictitious Fourth Missouri FederaI Cavalry under Captain Clarke
(Quantrill) in search of Confederate g u e d a s . 'Tn a strange land among strange
people," as Gregg described it, Quantrillians were not as successfd as they had
been in the past.34 Federal troops were not as easily fooled in Kentucky. They
were well aware of QuantriU's presence in the area and concerned about the
possibility of another Lawrence-type raid in the state? Major-GeneraI John M.
Palmer, Union commander in Kentucky, commissioned a band of Federal
guerrillas, led by a Union guerrilla leader named Edwin T e d , to hunt down the
~uantrillians.~~
Terrill's troops caught the bushwhackers by surprise on the night of May
10,1 865 near Bloomfield in Spencer County, Kentucky. Quantrill was shot and
paralyzed in the skirmish that ensued. He was taken to the military prison hospital
at Louisville and succumbed to his wounds less than a month later. The federal
authorities were never sure if the Quantrill they had was the infamous "GuemlIa
Quantrell", as he had been known throughout the war. The Louisville Daily
Democrat wrote:
Captain Term and his company arrived here yesterday
from TaylorsviLle. They brought with them the guerrilla
who bears the name of "Quantrill". It is not the Quaneill
-
34
Gregg, "A Little Dab of History Without EmbelIishment", 33.
35
OR., ser. I, vol. XLWII. 1077.
''Castel. William CfarkeQuantriN. 207.
--
--
of Kansas notoriety, for we have been assured that he was
at last accounts a colonel in the rebel army under Price.. .
The prisoner brought down is confined in the military
hospital and is said to be in a dying condition."
Ironically or perhaps prophetically, Quantrill had written his own epitaph a
month before his fatal wound in the autograph book of Nannie Dawson, whose
father had sheltered the Missourian guerrillas:
M y horse is at the door,
And the enemy 1may soon see.
But before I go Miss NaMie
Here's a double health to thee.
Here's a sigh to those who love me
And a smile to those who hate.
And whatever sky's above me.
Here's a heart for every fate.
Though the cannons roar around me,
Yet it still shall bear me on.
Though dark clouds are above me
It hath springs which may be won.
In this verse as with the wine
The Libation I would pour
Should be peace with thine and mine
And a health to thee and all in door.
Feb. 25,1865
Very respectfully your friend
w.c.Q.~~
Quanhill's last great escape failed and his plan to surrender never
materialized. Had he been able to reach General Lee before his surrender at
Appomattox he might have disappeared, only to reappear somewhere else as
37 Daily
Democrat (Louisville) quoted in Connelley, Qruurtdl and rfie Border Wars, 482-
" This is Quantrili's adaptation of
Wars. 463-465.
a Lord Byron verse. quotcd in Connelley, Quantrill and the Border
someone else. He might have tried to use his notoriety to his benefit or perhaps
joined, or even led, the James-Younger gang. His antebellum career suggests he
would have been unlikely to settle down to quiet Life.
The death of Quantrill assured that his destiny was indeed "fixed" in
Kansas and marked the end of resistance. Those who followed him to Kentucky
were the last of Quantrill's guerrillas and they finally surrendered on July 26,
1865, more than three months after the Civil War had symbolically ended?' They
trickled back home to Missouri and tried to return to normal life, although for
some this dificuIt.
On the afternoon of February 13,1866 a dozen or so young men rode into
Liberty, Missouri. They converged upon the Clay County Savings Association
and two of them, dressed in blue Union soldier's overcoats, dismounted and
entered the bank. One warmed himself by the fxe as the other approached the
counter to ask for change. As the cashier stepped forward to assist him he was
met by the drawn revolvers of customers now turned bandits and forced to turn
over cash and government bonds. The thieves fled into the street with nearly
$60,000, mounted their horses and rode off with their accomplices firing their
"The
war officially ended with the surrender of Confederate forces at Appomattox Courthouse on April
9. 1865.
ouns into the air and shouting the rebel yell. A posse gathered and gave chase, but
b
to no avail as the fresh fallen snow obscured the bandits' tracks behind them?
Among the bandits were former Quaatrillians Cole Younger and Frank
James. They had been unable to return to their lives as they h e w them before the
war. Embittered by the outcome and frustrated by the restrictions placed upon
their civil rights by the new state government, they lashed out. The political
balance had shifted out of their favour as the old ~e'mocraticorder, which reigned
since Missouri joined the Union in 1820, was usurped by a Radical Republican
coalition. Slaveholder hegemony collapsed. Their reversal of fortune in Missouri
was nearly complete by 1866 as former members of the ruling class were reduced
to pariahs in the state.
Exhausted by the long struggle, many returning Confederate soldiers,
Partisan Rangers and guerrillas were anxious to rebuild their farms and recIaim the
antebellum prominence they enjoyed in their communities. This task, however,
would prove difficult. The very act of returning home was daunting as Union
patrols often did not distinguish between former Confederate soldiers and the
guerrillas for whom no quarter was granted. Jesse James, for example, was shot in
the chest as he and a group of guerrillas attempted to surrender? The
JO
For a h t l description of the Liberty Bank robbery see, Marley Brant, Jesse James: The Man and the
Myth. (New York: Berkley Books, 1998),46-54,Marley Brant, The Outlaw Youngers-(Lanham,
Maryland: Madison Books, 1992).71-79,and William A. Settle, Jr., Jesse James was his Name,or Fact
and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Mksouri. (Columbia, Missouri:
University of Missouri Press, 1966), 33-34,
41
Settie, Jesse James,30.
demobilization of Union troops also forced "loyal" civilians, fearful of guerrilla
attack and h u n m for vengeance, to introduce "lynch law.""
Staunch Union men,
who had lain dormant during the war, were unwilling to forget guerrilla
depredations. Wartime fear and quiescence metastasized into lynch mobs and
posses which boldly and relentlessly pursued Quantd's men and other
bushwhackers. Historian Michael Fellman accurately described this period as one
in which ccvengeancerather than forgiveness" dominated social relations."
The wartime suspension of the constitutional and civil rights of
Confederates and their supporters continued in postbellurn Missouri. The
Missouri legislature fearful of ex-slaveholder hegemony, passed an act in 1864
which "disenfranchised those of questionable
The state was now
controlled by radical Unionists who wished to punish their wartime foes rather
than renew good will. Leading radical Republican, Charles Drake, wrote that the
state intended:
...to erect a wall and barrier in the shape of a constitution
that shall be as high as the eternal heavens [and] deep as
the very center of the earth, so that they [Democrats,
former slaveholders and former Confederates] shall never
climb over it nor dig below.. .45
a letter written to his wife on May 7. L865 while stationed in central Missouri. Sergeant Moses
Webster of the Kansas Cavairy wrote that it was no longer up to the army to arbitrate between factions
and "the citizens will have to introduce lynch law," Quoted in Fellman, h i d e War, 234,
'" In
43
FeIlman, Inside War,236.
44
Quoted in Parish, A History of Missourf, 1 18.
" Quoted
in Parris h. A Hirrory of Missouri, 120.
tot
A new state Constitution was indeed drawn up and included one of most extreme
and extensive disenfranchising measures in the nation. In this state which had not
seceded, ~issouri'stest oath required one to be innocent of 81 different acts of
disloyalty against the Union in order to vote? This effectively disenftanchised
one third of Missouri's voting population and excommunicated former
Confederates from civil religion.*' The constitution also included an ouster
ordinance which declared vacant the offices of all judges of the Missouri Supreme
Court, circuit courts, county courts, special courts, circuit attorneys and sheriffs.
By early 1867, former slaves were granted full civil rights including the right to
vote while many of their former masters were denied that right. The new regime
was determined to sweep away all vestiges of the old order.
In western Missouri, the area affected by Order No. 11 and known
thereafter as the "Burnt District," residents returned to scenes of devastation. In
most cases, all that remained of their property were charred remnants and
blackened chimneys. These ccJennison'sTombstones," as they were called,
marked the spot where their homes had once stood. Anything that they had not
taken with them was gone. In other areas of the state, communities served notice
46
Among these were armed rebeltion or "'giving help, comfort, countenance or support who did so",
"contributingmoney, goods, letters or information to the enemy", "advising anyone to enter Confederate
service", "expressing sympathy for the rebel cause", and "engaging in guerrilla warfare or abetting those
who did-" Constitution of the State of Missouri, 1865, art, 2, sec, 3. Quoted in Parrish, A History of
Missouri, 121 and Martha Kohl, ''Enforcing a Vision of Community: The Role of the Test Oath in
Missouri's Reconstruction," Civil War History 40, no. 4 (December 1994): 292-
47
Martha Kohl estimates between 35,000 and 50.000 voters were affected, See Kohl, 'The Role of the Test
Oath", 292.
that former Confederates would not be welcomed back, Guerrillas were excluded
from the general amnesty after the war. The grand jury in Jackson County issued
an indictment for former guerrillas and the mayor of Lawrence followed suit.
Quantrillians were even hunted by former comrades in an attempt to either parole
or indict them.
The stability and continuity of western Missourian society was broken. A
contemporary observer described this as a time of "dislocation [and] depression-"*
M a n y guerrillas had to escape fiom their past in order to make their futures. They
exiled themselves born their traditional values in order to participate in public life.
Others, Like the Jameses and the Youngers continued the struggle.
The postbellurn actions of the James-Younger gang reflected the alienation
of Missourians who lamented the existential separation from antebellum traditions
and social order. Their extreme and sometimes violent resistance to-political and
social circumstances that they considered unacceptable, was a continuation of
western Missourian tradition. They did not necessarily adopt this tradition from
Quantrill. This response had evolved from the time the fxst Free-Soiler settled in
the Kansas temtory. Their crimes can be interpreted as acts to preserve the
collective honour of the former ruling class as they lashed out against symbols of
the new repressive regime: banks and railroadsPg
''
James W. Goodrich and David B. Oster. eds.. "'Few Men But Many Widows ...The Daniel Fogle Letters
August 8 - September 4, 1867" Missouri Historical Review 80, no. 3 (April 1986): 303.
49
See David TheIen, Paths of Resistance: Traditionand Democracy in Industralirrng Missouri (Columbia.
Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1986).
The legend of Quantrill's Guerrillas grew from the celebration of the
exploits of the lames-Younger Gang. In his book, Noted Guerrillas, written after
the James Gang came to national attention, John N.Edwards sought to give
significance to Quantfi himself, Frank and Jesse James, Cole Younger and other
Quantrillians. His purple prose coloured the truth and he created the legend of the
noble guerrilla?* Their cause became the "noblest of lost cau~es."~'
Published in 1877, Noted Guerrillas was undoubtedly read by a number of
former Quantrillians. For these former guerrillas and others, Edwards helped to
blur the demarcation point between acceptable and unacceptable conduct with
regard to their actions during the war. Out of the social disorganization of the
postbellurn period, former Quantrillians interpreted themselves through Edwards'
book and were able to reconsecrate themselves as heroes rather than losers.s2
FeIlman, Inside War, 247-263.
Myths Quantrill told to western Missourian slaveholders regarding his background became accepted fact.
The legendary Quanmll diverged from the historical Quantrill. These myths were so entrenched that
when Quantrill's mother came to Blue Springs, Jackson County in 1888 to visit former QuantriIlians
early life conflicted with theirs.
some of them believed her to be an imposter as her version of Quantrill*~
See Anna Ford, 'When Quantrill's Mother Came to BIue Springs" Wespon Hisrorical Quarterly 4. no.
1 (June 1968): 17-20.
FeIIman, Inside War, 247,
"There were other contemporary boob about the lames-Younger Gang such as J.W. Buel's The Border
Outlaws in 1881. lay Donaid's Outlaws of the Border in 1882, Frank TripIett's The Lijfe, T h e s and
Treacherous Death of Jesse James in 1882 and another book that same year by an unknown author,
entitled Bank and Train Robbers of the West. However, Edward's was £kstand the only book to recount
the Quantrillians' history in such a heroic manner with intimate detail. Even though h e fabricated much
the minute details, he included many of the names of those involved. hi effect, many Quantrillians
were reading a persona1 history.
They carried the burden of historicd memory, but were able to reexamine
their actions via Edwards and "reclaim a past of their own creation."" With the
exception of a few, most notably members of the lames-Younger gang and the
Dalton gang, many former Quantrillians were eventually able to reintegrate into
Missourian society success£blly." The attendance roles taken at reunions of
QuantrillTsmen, for example, list a number of doctors, lawyers and prominent
businessmen? The Civil War forever altered the destinies of these men, but for
more than a few the path they ended up on may not have been so far from the one
they would have inherited.
" Several Quantrillians wrote memoirs of their time with Quantrill (see Bibliography). The majority were
written after they began to reunite on a annual basis beginning in 1898 and at Ieast one, Harrison Trow's
A True Srory of Chm- W,Quantrell and his Gueriiia Band, is copied directly kom Edward's Noted
GuerrillasThe phrase "reclaimed past of their own creation" is borrowed fiom Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the
Attic. He discusses the burden of historical memory and the divisive na&e of modern historical
revisionism by certain segments of the populace in the American South, See Tony Horwitz,
Confederates in the Atric: Disparchesfiom the Unfinkhed Civil War, ( N e w York: Random House,
1998). 101
" For more information on the Dalton Gang see Robert Barr Srnith, Daltom!: The Raid on Coffeyviile,
Kartsax (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996).
55
For example in 1917, the Kansas City Star described Alien Parmer as "pretty well-to-do-" Lee C-Miller
went to medical school and became a doctor after the war- CharIes T. 'Wetch Taylor operated a
successfir1 mining company, A J - Liddil was a judge in Jackson County. Joseph Vaughn. John Wigginton
and Robert N-Hudspeth were prominent farmers and listed in the biographical section of the Hiirory of
Jackson Corurry published in 1881. See Kmar Ciry Star, August 22, 19 17. BJ. George Sr. Collection.
Western Manuscripts Collection- State Historical Society of Missouri, photocopy- Lee Caruth Miller,
Memoir of the Life of Lee Caruth MilLer, M.D.: Wrinen by HimseFfor His Children- (Knob Noster,
Missouri, 1903). Jackson Examiner, August 28, 1903 reprinted in Verna Gail Johnson, ed-, "Quantrell
Revisited-" The Pioneer Wagon 12, no. 2 (July 1992): 66. History of Jackon. Counry Missouri (Kansas
City, Missouri: Union Historical Company, Birdsall, WiIIiams and Company, 188I), 904.9 10,973-971.
Warren Welch CoIIection, Jackson Ccunty Historical Society,
Conclusion
Counterrevolution did not succeed in western Missouri as the efforts of
QuantriU's guerrillas alone were not enough to preserve the antebellum status quo.
The flight of Price and Jackson ended official support for slavery in the state and
left southern sympathizing slaveholders in Missouri without a means of self-
defens.e or political expression. The slaveholders of western Missouri perceived
themselves as well as their property and institutions as being under attack. Under
QuantriIl's leadership, sons of prominent western Missouri families responded and
tried to defend and restore the traditional social order of western Missouri in order
to protect their families' futures and secure their own. They simply wanted to
inherit the same world in which they had been raised.
The violent reaction of Quantrillians to what they regarded as the
breakdown of legitimate authority in western Missouri reflected the environment
in which these young men had been socialized and in which they found
themselves. This was the response of a people to a rapidly changing social and
political situation that constituted the disruption of an entire society. Quantrill's
followers attempted to challenge the rise of a new class of urban nonslaveholders
as evidenced by the Union sympathizing government of Hamilton Gamble with all
that entailed (antislavery/abolitioo/free-soil). With the elected government of
Claiborne Fox Jackson in exile, no local authority remained to right perceived
wrongs and avenge cases of injustice. In the absence of any other source of justice
they lashed out against all whom they perceived threatened them,fiom Union
soldiers to the unaimed citizens of Lawrence, Kansas.
The Southern sympathizers of the border states, especially Jackson County,
idolized Quantrill and his guerrillas. Quantrillians were of the people and
represented the resistance of the entire slaveholding community to the destruction
of its way of life. The conduct of war by Union troops, especiaIIy those of Lane
and Jennison in western Missouri, and the disregard for constitutional guarantees,
by men such as Frhont, signaled a major historical change for slaveholders.
Quantrillians, as figures of social protest, emerged to deal with these crises. Eric
Hobsbawm observed that social banditry is likely to emerge, "wherever societies
are ruled, oppressed and exploited by someone else."' Quanuill's guemllas were
western Missourians' only line of defense against the exploitation and oppression
of the Union government and, thus, became more than simply guerrillas. Quantrill
was their champion, their avenger, and their Robin Hood as a popular ballad can
attest:
Come all you bold robbers and open your ears,
Of Quantrell the lion heart you quickly shall hear.
With his band of bold raiders in double quick time,
He came lay Lawrence low, over the line.
Oh, Quantrell's a fighter, a bold-hearted boy,
A brave man or woman he'd never annoy.
He'd take fiom the wealthy and give to the poor,
' Hobsbawm. Bandits., 19-20,
For brave men there's never a bolt to his door?
Quantrillians did not choose social banditry. This response evolved out of the
special reciprocal relationship that existed between themselves and the Southern
sympathizing populace of western Missouri, a relationship that developed as they
tried to preserve the status quo. Even if these men had not joined Quantrill their
lives would have been irrevocably changed by the events of the Civil War. They
may have been "bornto higher destinies", but the historicd epoch in which they
existed would not allow those destinies to be fdfiied-
'Charles J. Finger. Frontier Ballads- (New York: Doubleday. Page and Company, 1927). 64-67.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
I. Manuscript Collections
B.J. George Sr. Collection, Western Historical Manuscript Collection. State
Historical Society of Missouri, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.
Gregg, William H. A Linle Dab of Hisrory Without Embellishment.
Photocopy of typescript.
James Shumley to W.W. Scott, November 30,1878. Letter.
Smith, Frank. The Memoirs of Frank Smith. Photocopy of Typescript.
(Frank Smith was one of Quantrill's Guerrillas)
Connelley Collection, Manuscripts Department, The Kansas State Historical
Society, Topeka, Kansas.
Transcript of an interview conducted by William E. Cornelley with William
H. Gregg on July 27, 1905.
William E. Connelley's personal notes from his visit to Lawrence dated
Monday November 4,1907.
Robert Morris Peck to William E. Comelley, November 6, 1907. Letter.
W.C. Quantrill to W.W. Scott, January 22, 1858. Letter
Williams, Andrew. Handwritten manuscript.
W.L. Potter to W.W. Scott, undated. Letter.
Jeffreys, Edward Miller. Family History, Volume r. Jackson County Historical
Society, Independence, Missouri, photocopy of typescript.
Manuscripts Department, The Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas.
Retcher Pomeroy, Diary 1861-1865.
Missouri Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy. Reminiscences of the
Women of Missouri During the Sixties. Jackson County Historical Society,
Independence, Missouri, photocopy.
Quantrill Collection, Dover Historical Society, Dover, Ohio.
J.M. Beeson to W.W. Scott., November 27, 1878. Letter. Photocopy.
John Dean to W.W. Scott, January 26, 1879.Letter. Photocopy.
Jake Herd To W.W. Scott, undated Letter. Photocopy.
E.W. Robinson to W.W. Scott, May 9, 1881. Letter. Photocopy.
Andrew J. Walker to W.W. Scott, undated. Letter. Photocopy.
Quantrill Collection. Manuscripts Department, The Kansas State Historical
Society, Topeka, Kansas.
W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill, March 8, 1857. Letter.
W.C. QuanmlI to Caroline Quantrill, May 16, 1857. Letter.
W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill, August 23, 1857. Letter.
W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill, October 15, 1858. Letter.
W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill, December 1. 1858. Letter.
W.C. QuantriIl to Caroline QuantrU, January 9, 1859. Letter.
W.C. Quantrill to Caroline QuantrilI, July 30, 1859. Letter.
W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill, January 26, 1860. Letter.
W.C. QuantriU to Caroline Quantrill, February 8, 1860. Letter.
W.C. Quanuill to Mary Quantrill, March 23, 1860. Letter.
W.C. Quantrill to Caroline Quantrill, March 25, 1860. Letter.
W.C. Quanuill to Caroline Quantrill, June 23, 1860. Letter.
Affidavit of Eli Snyder concerning crimes commmitted by Quantrill signed
by Samuel H- Houser, Justice of the Peace, Lykins County, Kansas, dated
April 2, 1861.
Warrant issued for the arrest of W.C. QuantrilI on charges of Larceny
signed Samuel I. Houser, Justice of the Peace, Lykins County, Kansas,
dated April 2, 1861.
Petition for a writ of habeas corpus signed W.C. Quanuill, dated April 2,
1861.
Writ of Habeas Corpus signed by Thomas Roberts, Probate Judge, Lykins
County, Kansas, dated April 3, 1861.
Warren Welch Collection, Jackson County Historical Society, Independence
Missouri,
Western Historical Manuscript Collection, State Historical Society of Missouri,
University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri.
Scott, Elvira Ascenith Weir, Diary 1860-1887.photocopy of typescript.
Claiborne Fox Jackson to Hon. David Walker, April 19, 1861. Letter
][I. Public Documents
United States Department of the Interior. Sixrh Census of the United States,
Schedule I - Free Inhabitants in Dover Township, Ohio, 1850.
-
Eighth Census of the United States of America, Free and Slave Schedules
for Bates, Barton, Cass, Clay, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Saline, Vernon
Counties, Missouri, 1860.
United States War Department. War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the
Oficial Records of the Union and Confederate Army. Volumes 1-140.
Washington: Government Printing Offke, 1880-190 1.
m*Books
Barton, O.S. Three Years with Quantrell: A True Story, told by his Scout John
Mc Corkle. Armstrong, Missouri: Herald Print, 1914.
John McCorkle was one of Quantrill's Guerrillas.
Burch, J.P. A True Story of Chas. W.Qiiantrell and his Guerilla Band, as told by
Capt. Harrison Trow. Vega, Texas: 1923.
Harrison
row was one of Quantrili's Guerrillas.
Cummins, Jim. Jim Crcmmins' Book Wrinen by Himselfr The Life Story of the
James Younger Gang and Their Comrades, Inclciding the Operations 4
Quantrell's Guerillas by One Who Rode With Them. A True But Terrible
Tale of Outlawry. Denver: The Reed Publishing Company, 1903.
J i m Cummins was one of QuantriUTsGuerriIlas and a member of the JamesYounger gang.
Dalton, Kit. Under the Black Flag Captain Kit Dalton: A Confederate Soldier.
Memphis: Lockhart Publishing Company, 1914.
Kit Dalton was one o f Quantrill's Guerrillas.
Davis, Jefferson. The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. Volume I.
New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1958.
Eaken, Joanne Chiles, ed. Recollections of Quantrill ' s Guerrillas: As Told by A.
J. Walker of Weathe@ord, Texas to Victor E. Martin in 1910.
Independence, Missouri: Two Trails Publishing, 1996.
Andrew Walker was Morgan Walker's son and one o f Quantrill's
Guerrillas.
. Tears and Turmoil: Order No. 11. Independence, Missouri: Two Trails
Publishing, 1996.
Eliot, William Greenleaf. The Story of Archer Alexander From Slavery to
Freedom as told to William Greenleaf Eliot- Boston, Cupples, Upham and
Company, 1885.
Finger, Charles J., ed. Frontier Ballads. New York: Doubleday, Page and
Company, 1927.
Fischer, H.D. Gun and the Gospel: Early Kansas and Chaplain Fisher.
Medical Century Company, 1897.
Hale, Donald R., ed. We Rode With Quantrill: Quantrill and the Guerrilla War
as told by the Men and Women who were with Him: With a True Sketch of
Quantrill's Life. Clinton, Missouri: The Printery, 1974.
Jones, John B .A Rebel Clerk's Diary. 1866. New York: A.S. Barnes and
Company, Inc., 1961.
Krug, Mark M., ed. Mrs. Hill's Journal - Civil WarReminiscences. Chicago:
Lakeside Press, 1980-
Lasswell Crist, Lynda and Mary Seaton Dix, eds. The Papers of Jefferson Davis.
Volume 7.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.
Mattox, George T. Hard Trial and Tribulations of an Old Confederate Soldier.
Van Buren, Arkansas: Argus Office, 1897.
Miller, Lee Caruth. Memoir of the Life of Lee Canrth Miller, M.D.: Wn'tten by
Himselffor His Children. Knob Noster, Missouri, 1903.
Dr. Miller was one of Quantdl's Guerrillas.
Schroeder, Adolf E. and Carla Schulz-Geisberg, eds. Hold Dear, As Always: Jette
A German Immigrant Life in Letters. Adolf E. Schroeder, trans. Columbia,
Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1988.
Snead, Thomas L. The Fightfor Missouri: From the Election of Lincoln to the
Death of lyon.New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1886.
Thomas L.Snead was Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson's Private Secretary
and was present at the Planter's Hotel Conference June 11, 1861.
Watts, Hamp B. The Babe of the Company: An Unfolded Leaf From the NeverTo-Be-Forgotten Years. Fayette, Missouri: The Democrat-Leader Press,
1913.
Hamp Watts was one of Bill Anderson's Guerrillas.
Younger, Thomas Coleman. The Story of Cole Younger By Himself. Lee's
Summit, Missouri: T.C. Younger and D. McCarthy, 1903
Cole Younger was one of Quantrill's Guerrillas and a member of the JamesYounger Gang.
N . Articles
Broadhead, James 0. (Lieutenant-Colonel) "Early Events of the War in Missouri."
1-28. and HOW,J.F. (Lieutenant-Colonel 2 ~U.S.
' ~Missouri Infantry),
"Frank P. Blair in 1861." 382-396. In War Papers and Reminiscences
1861486.5: Read Before the Cumrnandery of the State of Missorin'
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. VoIume 1. St.
Louis: Becktold and Company, 1892.
Brown-Thompson, Dorthy, ed. "A Young Girl in the Missouri Border War." in
Missouri Ur'sroricalReview. 57 (October 1963): 55-64.
This series of letters were written by Laura Brown who lived with her older
married sister in Mexico, Audrain County. Although not right on the border
the letters reveal the actions of a Confederate family in Union territory.
Doerschuk, Albert N., ed. "Extracts From Wartime Letters 1861-1864." Missouri
Historical R e v h 23 (1928):99-1 10.
(These letters were written by Margaret J. Hays who Lived in Jackson
County, Missouri. She was married to Colonel Upton Hays C.S.A. who was
a large slaveholder and a member one of the most prominent families in the
county and whose ancestors included Daniel Boone. He sewed under
General Sterling Price during the Civil War, but frequently rode with
Quantriil. His brother and at least seven of his cousins were Quantrillians,
including; Samuel Upton, Boone SchulI, Boone Muir, Dick Berry, Isaac
Berry, Dick Yeager, Hamp Watts, and Lee McMurtry. Mrs. Hays wrote
letters to her mother, from her home in Westport, Missouri describing the
events which were unfolding around her.
Draper, Arthur G., ed. "Dear Sister: Letters from War-Torn Missouri, 1864."
Gateway Heritage. vol. 13, no. 4 (1993): 48-57.
Goodrich, James W. and Donald B. Oster, eds. "'Few Men But Many Widows.. .'
The Daniel Fogle Letters, August 8- September 4, 1867." Missouri
Historical Review 80, no. 3(April1986): 273-303.
Kirkpatrick-McLarty, Vivian., ed. 'The Civil War Letters of Colonel Bazel F.
Lazear," M i s s ~ rKistorfcuL
c~
Review 44 (1950): 254-277 and 38740 1.
Colonel Lazear was a Union officer from Pike County, Missouri
commanding the Pike County Home Guards who, in 1863, clashed with
Quanhilland was a witness to the aftermath of General Ewing's Order No.
11.
Johnson, Verna Gail, ed., "QuantreU Revisited." The Pioneer Wagon 12,no. 2
(July 1992): 66-67.
Lentz, M. "Qumtrill No Ruffian: T.L Walker Remembered Him as Kindly."
Jackron County Historical Society Journal. (March 1974):8-9.
Miller, T.C. 'I Rode with Quantd." Johnson County Histo~calSociev Bullerin.
(September 1994): 3 and 6.
T.C.Miller was Dr. L.C. Miller, one of Quantrill's Guerrillas.
Sanborn, John B. (Brevet Major-General) "Reminiscences of the War In the
Department of the Missouri." 224-257. Ln Glimpses of the Nation's
Struggle: A Series of Papers Read Before the Minnesota Commandery of
the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. St. Pad: St.
Paul Book and Stationary Company, 1887.
Unrau, William E., ed. 'Tn Pursuit of Quantrill: An Enlisted Man's Response."
Kansas Historical Quarterly 39, no. 3 (1973): 379-39 1.
V. Newspapers
London Times, September 10,1863.
Kansas Daily Capitol. Kansas City, January 25, 1931.
Secondary Sources
I. Books
Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro Slave Revolts. New York: International
Publishers, 1974.
Basler, Roy P., ed. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. vol. 5. New
Brunswick: Rutgea University Press, 1953.
Boer, Charles. Vannint Q. Chicago: The Swallow Press Incorporated, 1972.
Brant, Marley. The OutIaw Youngers: A Confederate Brotherhood. Maryland:
Madison Books, 1992.
- Jesse James: The Man and the Myth. New York: Berkley Books,
1998.
Briehan, Carl W. Quantdl and His Civil War Guerrillas. Denver: Sage Books,
1959.
.The Killer Legions of Quantrill. Seattle: Hangman Press/Supenor
Publishing Company, 197 1.
. Sam Hildebrand. Guerrilla. Wisconsin:Pine Mountain Press Limited,
1984.
Brownlee, Richard S . Grey Ghosts of the Confdet-acy: Guerrillas in the West
1861-1865.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State ~&versityPress, 1958.
Buel, I.W. The Border Outlaws: An Authentic and Thrilling History of the Most
Noted Bandits of Ancient and Modern Times, The Younger Brothers.
Jesse and Frank James, and their Comrades in Crime.St. Louis: Ryan,
Jacks and Co., 1881.
Castel, Albert. A Frontier State at W a c Kansas 1861-1865.Cornell University
Press, 1958-
- William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times. 1962. Columbus:
The GeneraL's Books, 1996.
Connelly, WilliamElsey. Quantrill and the Border Wars. New York: Pageant
Book Comgkny, 1956.
Croy, Homer. Jesse James WasMy Neighbor. New York: Dell Publishing
Company, Inc., 1949.
Donald, Jay. Outlaws of the Border A Complete and Authentic History of the
Lives of Frank and Jesse James, the Younger Brothers, and their Robber
Companions, including Quantrell and his Noted Guerillas, the Greatest
Bandits the World has Ever Known- Cincinnati, Ohio: Forshee and
McMakin, 1882,
Fellman, Michael. Inside Wac The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the
American Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Edwards, John N. Noted Guerrillas or the Wa@are of the Bordec Being a
History of the Lives and Adventures of Quantrell, Bill Anderson, George
Todd, Dave Poole, Fletcher Taylor, Peyton Long, 011 Shepherd, Arch
Clements, John Maupin, Tuck and Woot Hill. Wm. Gregg, Thomas
Maupin, m e James Brothers, The Younger Brothers, Arthur McCoy and
Numerous Other Well Known GuemNos of the West. St. Louis: Becktold
and Company, 1877.
Ellis, John. Guerrilla Waflare. London: Ian Allen Ltd., 1975.
Goodrich, Thomas. Bloody Dawn: The Story of the Lawrence Massacre. Ohio:
Kent State University Press, 1991.
-.B lack Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border. hciianapolis:
Indiana State Press, 1995,
Guevara, Che. On Guerrilla [email protected] York: Frederick A. Praeger Publishers,
1961.
Hale, Donald R. They Culled Him Bloody Bill: The Ljte of WilliamAnderson,
Missouri Guerrilla. Clinton, Missouri: The Printery, 1992.
Halttunen, Karen. Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle Class
Culture in America, 1830-1870.New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
Hobsbawm, Eric I. Bandits. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd., 198 1.
Honuitz, Tony. Confederates in the Anicr Dispatchesfrom an Unfinished Civil
War- New York: Random House, 1998.
Hurt, Douglas R Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's L i d e Dixie. Columbia,
Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1992.
Ianciardi, James A., Lyle A. Hallowell and Alan Block. Historical Approaches to
Crime. London, Sage Publications, 1977.
Joes, Anthony James. Guerrilla Conflct Before the Cold War. Westport: Praeger
Publishers, 1996.
. Guerrilla
Wafare. London: Greenwood Press., 1996.
Karpisek, Marian E. William Clarke Quantrill. Dover, Ohio: The Dover Historical
Society, 1980.
Kooistra, Paul. Criminals as Heroes: Structure, Power and fdentiry. Bowling
Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Press, 1989.
Leslie, Edward E. The Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Story of William
Clarke Quantrill and His Confederate Raiders. New York: Random
House, 1996.
McEIroy, Robert. Jefferson Davis: The Real and the Unreal. Volume I. New
York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1937.
McPherson, James M. Drawn With The Sword: Reflections on the American Civil
War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Monaghan, Jay. Civil War on the Western Border 1854-1856. Toronto: Little,
Brown and Company, 1955.
Oates, Stephen B. To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown.
Arnherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984.
07Flaherty,Daniel. General Jo Shelby: Undefeated Rebel. Chapel Hill: The
University of Noah Carolina Press, 1954.
Orpen, Mrs. Memories of Old Emigrant Days in Kansas 1862-1865. Edinburgh
and London: William Blockwood and Sons Limited, 1926,
Payne, Samuel B. The Conduct of Wac An Introduction to Modern Walfare.
New York: Basil Blackwell Inc., 1989.
Parrish, WilliamE- Missouri Under Radical Rule 18654870.Columbia,
Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1965.
-.A History of Missourir Volume 1.11860-1875. Columbia:
University of Missouri Press, 1973.
Phillips, Christopher. Durrtrted Yankee: The Life of General Nathan Lyon.
Columbia, University of Missouri Press, 1990.
Pick, Daniel. War Machine: The Rationalization of Slaughter in the Modem Age.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
Rable, George C. The Confederate Republic: A Revolution Against Politics.
Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
Rawick, George P., ed. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography.
vol. 11, parts 7 and 8. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1972
Riley Brooksher, William.Bloody Hill: The Civil War Battle of Wilson's Creek.
Washington: Brassey' s, 1995.
Schofield, John M. Forry-sir Years in the Army. New York, 1897.
Settle, William A. Jesse James Was His Name or, Fact and Fiction Concerning
the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri. Columbia,
Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1966
Shalhope, Robert E. Sterling Price: Portrait of a Good Southerner. Columbia:
University of Missouri Press, 1971.
Schultz, Duane. Quantrill's War: The Life and Times of William Clarke
Quantrill. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.
Smith, Robert Barr Smith Daltons!: The Raid on Coffeyvile, Kansas. Norman,
Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
Spring, Leverett Wilson. The Prelude to the Warfor the Union. Boston:
Koughton, MiMin and Company, 1887.
Stam. Stephen 2. Jennison ' s Jayhawkers: A Civil War Regiment and its
Commander. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Press, 1973.
Steckmesser, Kent Ladd. The WesternHero in History and Legend. Norman,
Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. 1965.
Switzer, William F. Switzer's Illustrated History of Missourifiom 15414877.
1877. New York, Atno Press, 1975.
Thayer, Eli. A History of the Kansas Crusade: Its Friends and Foes. New York:
Harper Brothers, 1889.
Thelen, David. Paths of Resistance: Tradition and Democracy in Industrializing
Mi~soctn.Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1986.
Trexler, Harrison Anthony. Slavery in Missouri 1804-1865. Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins Press, 1914.
Triplett, Frank. me L i f , Times and Treacherous Death of Jesse James. 1882.
New York: The Swallow Press, 1970.
VexIer, Robert I. and William F. Swindler, eds. Chronology and Documentary
Handbook of the State of Missouri. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana
Publications Inc., 1978.
von Clausewitz, Karl. On War. 0.J. Mathijis, aans. Washington: Combat Forces
Press, 1943.
Welch, David A. Justice and the Genesis of War. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1993.
The History of Jackson Counm Missouri. Kansas City: Union Historical
Company, Birdsall. W i a m s and Company, 188 1.
Bank and Train Robbers of rhe West: James Brothers, Younger Brothers,
etc. New York and Chicago: Belford, Clarke and Co., 1882.
II. Articles
Barr-Smith, Robert "The James Boys Go to War." Civil War Times Illustrated
32, no. 6 (1994): 28-33 and 58-62.
Bidlack, Russel E. "Erastus D. Ladd's Description of the Lawrence Massacre."
The Kansas Historical Qtcarterly 29, no. 2 (Summer 1963): 113- 121.
Bowen, Don R. "Quantrill, James, Younger et al.: Leadership in a Guerrilla
Movement, Missouri, 1861-1865." Military Affairs 41, no. 1 (February
1977): 42-48-
."Guerrilla War in Western Missouri, 1862-1865: Historical Extensions of the
Relative Deprivation Thesis." Comparative Studies in S o c i e ~and History
19, no. 1 (1977): 30-51.
."CounterrevolutionaryG u e d a War: Missouri, 1861-1865." Conflict 8, no.
1 (1988): 69-78.
Briehan, Carl W. "Quantrill and His Lieutenants." Civil War Times Illustrated
(undated), Quantrill Collection, Dover Historical Society, Dover, Ohio,
photocopy.
Carrol, Stephen. "Loyalty or Seccession?: Missouri Politics and Sentiment before
the Civil War." Missouri Historical Society Bulletin 13, no. 1 (1972): 203 1Castel, Albert. "KansasJayhawking Raids into Western Missouri in 1861."
Missouri Historical Review 54, no. I (October 1959): 1-11.
. "Order No. 11 and the Civil War on the order." Missouri
Historical Review 57, no.4 (1963): 357-368.
.'They Called Him Bloody BiLL" Journal of the West 3 , no. 2 (1964):233242.
."QuantriLL's Bushwackers: A Case Study in Partisan Warfare." Journal of
the West 13, no. 1 (1967): 40-50.
.'The Bloodiest Man in American History." American Herirage (October
1960): 22-25 and 97-99.
."QuantrilI in Texas." Civil War Times Illustrated 1 1, n0.3 (1972): 2 1-27.
.'The Guerrilla War L 861- l86S." Civil War Times Illustrated 3 (October
1974): 2-50:
Cheatham, Gary L. "Desperate Characters: The Development and Impact of
Confederate Guerrillas in Kansas." Kansas History 14, no. 3 (199 1): 14416 1,
Christopher, Adrienne Tinker. "Kate King Clarke - Quantrill's Forgotten Girl
Bride." Westpon Historical Quarterly 4, no. L (June 1968): 21-24.
Cronan, Michael. ''Trial of the Century! The Acquittal of Frank lames." Missouri
Historical Review 9 1, no. 2 (January 1997): 133-153.
Crouch, Barry A. "A 'Fiend in Human Shape'?: William Clarke Quantrill and
Biographers." Kansas History 22, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 142-156.
Dobak, Wiiam A. "Civil War on the Kansas Missouri Border: The Narrative of
Former Slave Andrew Williams." Kansas History 6, no. 4 (1983- 1984):
237-242.
Duffner, Robert W. "Guerrilla Victory at Centralia, September 27, 1864." BuLletin
of the Missouri Historical Society 29, no. 3 (1973): 131-144.
Dyer, Thomas G. "A Most Unexplained Exhibition of Madness and Brutality:
Judge Lynch in Saline County,Missouri, 1859." Missouri Historical
Review 89 (April 1995): 269-289 and (July 1995): 367-383.
Fellman, Michael. "Emancipation in Missouri." Missouri Historical Review
82 (October 1988): 36-56.
Fischer, Leroy H. and Lacy C. Rarnpp. "Quantrill's Civil War Operation in Indian
Territory." Chronicles of Oklahoma 46, no. 2 (Summer 1968): 155- 18 1.
Ford, Anna. "When Quanaill's Mother Came to Blue Springs." Westport
Historical Quarterly 4, no. 1 (June 1968): 17-20.
Gilmore, Donald, L. "Total War on the Missouri Border." Journal of the West 35,
no. 3 (July 1996): 70-80.
Giatthar, Joseph T. "Black Glory: The African-American Role in the Union
Victory." 133-162. In Why the Confederacy Lost. Gabor S. Boritt, ed. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Hardeman, NichoIas P. 'The Bloody Battle that Almost Happened: W i a m
Clarke Quantrill and Peter Hardeman on the Western Border." Civil War
History 23, no. 3 (1977): 251-258.
Harris, Charles F. "Catalyst for Terror: The Collapse of the Women's Prison in
Kansas City." Missouri Historical Review 89 (April 1995): 290-306.
Harris, Edwin A. "Bloody Bill Anderson." Z?ze Westport Historical Quarterly 8,
no. 1 (1972): 29-32-
Harvey, Charles "Missouri from 1849- 1861."Missouri Historical Review 92, no.
2 (January 1998): 119-134.
Kohl, Martha. ccEnforcinga Vision of Comnunity: The Role of the Test Oath in
Missouri' s Reconstruction." Civil War History 40, no. 4 (December
1994):292-307.
Laforte, Robert S. "Cyrus Leland Jr. and the Lawrence Massacre." Kansas History
9, no. 4 (1986-1987): 175-181.
Lentz, M. "Quantrill No Ruffian: T.I. Walker Remembered Him as Kindly."
Jackson County Historical Society Newsletter (March 1974): 8-9.
Leslie, Edward E. "Quanhill's Bones." American Heritage (July/August 1995):
53-61,
Lyon, William H. "Claiborne Fox Jackson and the Secession Crisis in Missouri."
Missouri Historical Review 58, no. 4 (1964): 422-441.
Martin, James B. '%lack Flag over the Bluegrass." The Register of the Kentucky
Historical Society 86, no. 4 (1988): 352-375.
McDermott, John. ''The Mystery Man of Quatsino Sound." American West 10,
no. 2 (1973): 12-16 and 63.
McPherson, James M. "From Limited to Total War: Missouri and the Nation,
1861-1865." Gateway Heritage 12, no. 4 (1992): 4-19.
Mitchell, Reid. "The Perseverance of the Soldiers." In Why the Confderacy Lust.
109-132Gabor S. Boritt, e d New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Neely, Mark. "Unbeknownst to Lincoln: A Note on Radical Pacification in
Missouri During the Civil War.'' Civil war ~ & o r y44,110.3 (September
1998): 212-216.
Niepman, Ann Davis, 'General Orders No. 11 and Border Warfare During the
Civil War." Missouri Historical Review 66, no. 2 (January 1972): 188210-
Primm, James Neal.'The GAR. in Missouri, 18661870.'' The Journal of
Southern History 20, no. 3 (1954): 356-375.
- ''Yankee Merchants in a Border City: St. Louis Businessmen
in the 1850s." Missow-i Historical Review 78, no. 4 (1984): 375-386.
Rarnpp, Lary C. cclncidentat Baxter Springs on October 6 1863." Kansas
Historical Quarterly 36, no. 2 (1970): 183-197.
Rozar, L.B."Bullet Hole Ellis." The Westport Historical Quarterly 9, no. 1 (June
1968): 12-15.
Scheider, John C. "Riot and Reaction St. Louis 18544856.'' Missowi Histotical
Review 68, no 2 (1974): 171-185.
Shalope, Robert E. "Eugene Genovese, The Missouri Elite and the Civil War."
Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society 26, no. 4 (1970): U 1-282.
Smith, W. Wayne. "An Experiment in Counterinsurgency: The Assessment of
Confederate Sympathizers in Missouri." The Journal of Southern History
35, no. 3 (1969): 361-380
Soltysiak, Harry. "Anarchy in Missouri." Civil War Times Illustrated 24, no. 8
(1985): 26-35.
Stewart, William C. "Bill Anderson: Guerrilla." Texas Monthly (April 1929): 455462.
Thies, Randall M. "'What Would His Skull Be Worth.. .';Quanaill's Posthumous
Journey in Kansas." Kansas Heritage 1, no. 3 (Autumn 1993): 43-45.
Thruston, Ethylene Bdard. "Captain Dick Yeager - QuantrilI Man." The
Westport Historical Society Quarterly (1974):3-6.
Vaughn, Francis Eloise. 'William QuantrilI and Kate (Wife or Girl Friend)." The
United Daughters of the Confederacy Magazine (January 1994): 9-10.
Wellman, Paul I. 'Why QuantrilI Sacked Lawrence." Kansas Magazine.
(1939): 36-38.
W i a m s , Burton I. "Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence: A Question of Complicity."
Kansas Historical Quarterly 34, no. 2 (1968): 143-149.
Wilson, Charles Reagan. "The Religion of the L o a cause: Ritual and Organization
of the Southern Civil Religion, 1865-1920." The Journal of Southern
History 46, no. 2 (May 1980): 219-238.
Wood, Larry. 'They Rode With Quantrill." America's Civil War. (November
1996): 58-64.
HI.Dissertations
Duffner, Robert W . Slavery in Missouri River Counties 18204865.Ph.D. diss..
University of Missouri, 1974.