William Quantrill
William Quantrill | |
---|---|
Birth name | William Clarke Quantrill |
Born | Canal Dover (now Dover), Ohio | July 31, 1837
Died | June 6, 1865 Louisville, Kentucky | (aged 27)
Buried | St. John's Catholic Cemetery Louisville, Kentucky |
Allegiance | Confederate States of America |
Service/ | Confederate States Army Quantrill's Raiders |
Years of service | 1861–1865 |
Battles/wars |
William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865) was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War.
Quantrill experienced a turbulent childhood, became a schoolteacher, and joined a group of bandits who roamed the Missouri and Kansas countryside to apprehend escaped slaves. The group became irregular pro-Confederate soldiers called Quantrill's Raiders, a partisan ranger outfit best known for its often brutal guerrilla tactics, and including the young Jesse James and his older brother Frank James.
The James brothers joined after their family was attacked by Union troops. Jesse at age 14 was surrounded by mounted Union militia while plowing a field behind his house. Refusing to give up information on his brother, Frank, and Quantrill, he was beaten and left bleeding. When he returned home, he found his stepfather, Dr. Reuben Samuel, had been hanged in a tree by Union troops. Samuel was tortured by the Union in an attempt to get information on Quantrill's whereabouts, Jesse found him, and his mother, Zerelda, frantically trying to cut Samuel down. Dr. Samuel did not die from the hanging but his brain was so deprived of oxygen, it left him mentally incapacitated for the rest of his life. Zeralda, pregnant at the time, was also abused causing her to miscarry. Frank Dalton, a cousin of the James brothers, recalls what Federal troops did to Zerelda, "Jennison's Jayhawkers, visiting the home of the James brothers and taking the women, Aunt Zerelda,the mother of Frank and Jesse, their sister, and my mother and sisters, and after stripping them to the waist they tied them to trees and taking a blacksnake whip that they found in the stable they whipped them until they got tired and then rode away, leaving the women and girls to be cut down and carried into the house by our negro slaves, who washed and bandaged their bleeding backs and bodies and put them to bed."[1]
Other men, such as the Berry brothers, Dick, James and Issac, from Callaway County, rode with Quantrill because of savage warfare committed on their civilian families by Union troops from the nearby town of Danville. The Berry brothers found their father hanged from the rafters of his barn, and their sisters, 20 year old Katherine, 18 year old Nancy, 14 year old Elizabeth, and 11 year old Salli Ann, raped by the Federals. In retaliation, the Berry brothers participated in a raid on Danville, in 1864, burning it to the ground and killing many of the men who participated in the rapes of their sisters.[2]
Quantrill was influential to many bandits, outlaws, and hired guns of the American frontier as it was being settled. On August 21, 1863, Quantrill's Raiders committed the Lawrence Massacre. In May 1865, Quantrill was mortally wounded in combat by U.S. troops in Central Kentucky in one of the last engagements of the American Civil War. He died of his wounds in June 1865.
Early life
William Quantrill was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, on July 31, 1837. His father was Thomas Henry Quantrill, formerly of Hagerstown, Maryland, and his mother, Caroline Cornelia Clark, was a native of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. William was the oldest of twelve children, four of whom died in infancy.[3] Quantrill taught school in Ohio when he was sixteen.[4] In 1854, his abusive father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with a huge financial debt. Quantrill's mother turned the home into a boarding house to survive. During this time, Quantrill helped support the family by working as a schoolteacher, but he left home a year later for Mendota, Illinois.[5]: 54 There, Quantrill worked in the lumberyards, unloading timber from rail cars.
One night, while working the late shift, Quantrill killed a man.[failed verification] Authorities briefly arrested him, but Quantrill claimed he had acted in self-defense. Quantrill was set free since there were no eyewitnesses, and the victim was a stranger who knew no one in town. Nevertheless, the police strongly urged him to leave Mendota. Quantrill continued teaching, moving to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in February 1856. Quantrill journeyed back home to Canal Dover late that year.[5]: 55
Quantrill spent the winter in his family's diminutive shack in the impoverished town and soon grew restless. Many Ohioans migrated to the Kansas Territory for cheap land and opportunity. This included Henry Torrey and Harmon Beeson, two local men hoping to build a large farm for their families out west. Although they mistrusted the 19-year-old Quantrill, his mother's pleadings persuaded them to let Quantrill accompany them to turn his life around. The party of three departed in late February 1857. Torrey and Beeson agreed to pay for Quantrill's land in exchange for a couple of months' worth of work. They settled at Marais des Cygnes, but a dispute arose over the claim, and Quantrill sued Torrey and Beeson. The court awarded Torrey and Beeson what was owed to them, but Quantrill paid only half of what the court had mandated. Although his relationship with Beeson was never the same, Quantrill remained friends with Torrey.[citation needed]
Soon, Quantrill accompanied a large group of hometown friends in their quest to settle near Tuscarora Lake. However, neighbors soon began to notice Quantrill stealing goods out of other people's cabins and banished him from the community in January 1858.[
Before 1860, Quantrill appeared to oppose slavery. He wrote to his good friend W.W. Scott in January 1858 that the
Guerrilla leader
In 1861, Quantrill went to Texas with the enslaver Marcus Gill. They met
In late September, Quantrill deserted Price's army and fled to
On March 11, 1862, Quantrill joined Confederate forces under Colonel John T. Hughes and took part in an attack on Independence, Missouri. After what became known as the First Battle of Independence, the Confederate government decided to secure the loyalty of Quantrill by issuing him a "formal army commission" to the rank of captain.[12]
In the early hours of September 7, 1862, William Quantrill and a force of 140 men seized control of
Lawrence Massacre
The most significant event in Quantrill's guerrilla career occurred on August 21, 1863. Lawrence had been seen for years as the stronghold of the
During the weeks immediately preceding the raid,
Some historians have suggested that Quantrill planned to raid Lawrence before the building's collapse, in retaliation for earlier Jayhawker attacks[16][page needed] as well as the burning of Osceola, Missouri.
Early in the morning of August 21, Quantrill descended from Mount Oread and attacked Lawrence with a combined force of 450 guerrilla fighters. Lane, a prime target of the raid, managed to escape through a cornfield in his nightshirt, but the guerrillas, on Quantrill's orders, killed around 150 men and boys who could carry a rifle.[17] When Quantrill's men rode out at 9 a.m., most of Lawrence's buildings were burning, including all but two businesses.
By comparison Lane's Union raid on Osceola was four times more destructive than Quantrill's raid on Lawrence. Of the 800 buildings in Osceola, only 3 were left standing. Lane's plunder included 350 horses, 400 head of cattle, 3000 sacks of flower, 500 pounds of molasses/sugar, and 50 sacks of coffee. Lane's plunder wagon consisted of 150 wagons stretching a mile long. Osceola property loses were estimated at a million dollars.[18]
On August 25, in retaliation for the raid, General Ewing authorized General Order No. 11 (not to be confused with General Ulysses S. Grant's order of the same name). The edict ordered the depopulation of three and a half Missouri counties along the Kansas border except for a few designated towns, which forced tens of thousands of civilians to abandon their homes. Union troops marched through behind them and burned buildings, torched planted fields, and shot down livestock to deprive the guerrillas of food, fodder, and support. The area was so thoroughly devastated that it was known as the "Burnt District".[19]
In early October, Quantrill and his men rode south to Texas, to pass the winter. On the way, on October 6, Quantrill attacked Fort Blair in Baxter Springs, Kansas, which resulted in the so-called Battle of Baxter Springs. After being repelled, Quantrill surprised and destroyed a US Army relief column under General James G. Blunt, who escaped, but Quantrill killed almost 100 US Army soldiers.[20]
In Texas, on May 18, 1864, Quantrill's sympathizers
Last years
While in Texas, Quantrill and his 400 men quarreled. His once-large band broke up into several smaller guerrilla companies. One was led by his lieutenant, "Bloody Bill" Anderson, and Quantrill joined it briefly in the fall of 1864 during a fight north of the Missouri River.
In early 1865, now leading only a few dozen
Burial
Quantrill was buried in an unmarked grave in what became known as St. John's Cemetery in Louisville. A boyhood friend of Quantrill, the newspaper reporter William W. Scott, claimed to have dug up the Louisville grave in 1887 and brought Quantrill's remains back to Dover at the request of Quantrill's mother. The remains were supposedly buried in Dover in 1889, but Scott attempted to sell what he said were Quantrill's bones, so it is unknown if the remains he returned to Dover or buried in Dover were genuine. In the early 1990s, the Missouri division of the
Claims of survival
In August 1907, news articles appeared in Canada and the US that claimed that J.E. Duffy, a member of a Michigan cavalry troop that had dealt with Quantrill's raiders during the war, met Quantrill at
Another legend that has circulated claims that Quantrill may have escaped custody and fled to Arkansas, where he lived under the name of L.J. Crocker until he died in 1917.[26]
The family of Major Cornelius Boyle believed that Quantrill had actually served as a bodyguard for the Provost Marshal General when he visited Mexico after the war, while Jubal Early was also in the country as they sought out an alternate resolution.[27]
Personal life
During the war, Quantrill met the 13-year-old Sarah Katherine King at her parents' farm in Blue Springs, Missouri. They never married, although she often visited and lived in camp with Quantrill and his men. At the time of his death, she was 17.[citation needed]
Legacy
Quantrill's actions remain controversial. Historians view him as an opportunistic, bloodthirsty outlaw. James M. McPherson, one of the most prominent experts on the American Civil War, calls Quantrill and Anderson "pathological killers" who "murdered and burned out Missouri Unionists".[28] The historian Matthew Christopher Hulbert argues that Quantrill "ruled the bushwhacker pantheon" established by the ex-Confederate officer and propagandist John Newman Edwards in the 1870s to provide Missouri with its own "irregular Lost Cause".[29] Some of Quantrill's celebrity later rubbed off on other ex-Raiders, like John Jarrett, George and Oliver Shepherd, Jesse and Frank James, and Cole Younger, who went on after the war to apply Quantrill's hit-and-run tactics to bank and train robbery.[30]
In popular culture
Film
- Dark Command (1940), in which John Wayne opposes former schoolteacher turned guerrilla fighter "William Cantrell" in the early days of the Civil War. William Cantrell is a thinly veiled portrayal of William Quantrill by Walter Pidgeon.
- Ray Corriganplays Quantrill.
- Kansas Raiders (1950), Brian Donlevy (at age 49) portrayed Quantrill, in which Jesse James (played by Audie Murphy) falls under the influence of the guerilla leader.
- In Best of the Badmen (1951), Robert Ryan plays a Union officer who goes to Missouri after the Civil War to persuade the remnants of Quantrill's band to swear allegiance to the Union in return for a pardon. They are betrayed, and he becomes their leader in a fight against corrupt law officers.
- In John Ireland.
- Quantrill's Raiders (1958) focuses on the raid on Lawrence. Leo Gordon plays Quantrill.
- Young Jesse James (1960) also depicts Quantrill's influence on Jesse James.
- In The Legend of the Golden Gun (1979), two men attempt to track down and kill Quantrill.
- Lawrence: Free State Fortress (1998) depicts the attack on Lawrence.
- In Ride with the Devil (1999), protagonists ride with "Black John Ambrose", who is a loose portrayal of "Bloody Bill" Andersonand later join with Quantrill for the raid on Kansas. Quantrill, Anderson, and most Raiders are portrayed as bloodthirsty and murderous.
Literature
- Quantrill is a major character in Wildwood Boys (2000), James Carlos Blake's biographical novel of Bloody Bill Anderson.
- In the novel Asa (aka Forrest) Carter, Josey Wales is a former member of a Confederate raiding party led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson. The book is the basis of the Clint Eastwood film The Outlaw Josey Wales(1976).
- In Bradley Denton's alternate history tale "The Territory" (1992), Samuel Clemens joins Quantrill's Raiders and is with them when they attack Lawrence, Kansas. It was nominated for a Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award for best novella.
- Frank Gruber's article "Quantrell's Flag" (1940), for Adventure Magazine (March through May 1940), was published as a book titled Quantrell's Raiders (Ace Original, 954366 bound with Rebel Road).
- In Charles Portis's novel True Grit, and the 1969 and 2010 film versions thereof, Rooster Cogburn boasts of being a former member of Quantrill's Raiders. Laboeuf excoriates him for being part of the "border gang" that murdered men and children alike during the raid on Lawrence.
- The novel Woe To Live On (1987) by Daniel Woodrell was filmed as Ride With The Devil (1999) by Ang Lee. The film features a harrowing recreation of the Lawrence Massacre with authenticity. Quantrill, played by John Ales, makes brief appearances.
- In the novelization of the 1999 film John Singleton Mosby.
- In the novel Lincoln's Sword (2010) by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald, the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, is told from the point of view of Cole Younger.
- In the story Hewn in Pieces for the Lord by John J. Miller – published in Drakas!, an anthology of stories set in S. M. Stirling's alternate history series The Domination – Quantrill managed to escape after the fall of the Confederacy, get to the slave-holding Draka society in Africa, and join its ruthless Security Directorate, where he tangles with the rebellious Madhi in Sudan.
- In the novel Shadow of the Outlaw: Quantrill's Initiation (2021) by Mason Stone - Historical fiction summarizing Quantrill's adult life.
Other
- He is depicted in Robert Schenkkan's series of one-act plays, The Kentucky Cycle.
- Quantrill's Lawrence Massacre of 1863 is depicted in Steven Spielberg's mini-series Into the West (2005)
References
- ISBN 1-58182-359-2.
- ISBN 1-58182-359-2.
- ^ Edward E. Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride, Random House, 1996. pp. 406–406, 410
- ^ Blackmar, Frank, ed. (1912). "Quantrill, William". Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc. Standard Publishing Company. p. 524. Archived from the original on June 25, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
- ^ a b c Brownlee, Richard (1958). Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy. Library of Congress. Retrieved December 25, 2023 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Edward E. Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride, Random House, 1996
- ^ William Connelley, Quantrill and the Border Wars, Pageant Book Co, 1956, pp. 72–74
- ^ William Connelley, Quantrill and the Border Wars, Pageant Book Co, 1956, pp. 94–96. "My Dear Mother", February 8, 1860
- ^ Oklahoma Historical Society, John Bartlett Meserve, Chronicles of Oklahoma Archived February 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Vol. 15, no. 1, March 1937, pp. 57–59. Accessed on August 30, 2009.
- ^ John McCorkle, Accessed on 09-08-2009 Three Years With Quantrill Archived April 19, 2023, at the Wayback Machine, written by O.S. Barton, Armstrong Herald Print, 1914. pp. 25–26. Accessed through the Library of Congress online catalog
- ^ Quantrill's Raid on Aubry Archived May 13, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1855–1865
- ISBN 9781940804279
- ^ Quantrill's Raid on Olathe Archived May 11, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1855–1865
- ^ In Kansas, Confederate guerrillas attack and burn Shawneetown for the second time Archived October 16, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, The House Divided Project at Dickinson College
- ^ Andra Bryan Stefanoni. Civil War raid on Lamar to be re-enacted for 150th anniversary Archived August 27, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, The Joplin Globe, October 2, 2012
- ^ Paul Wellman, A Dynasty of Western Outlaws, 1961
- ^ Pringle, Heather (April 2010). "Digging the Scorched Earth". Archaeology. 63 (2): 21.
- ISBN 1-58182-359-2.
- ^ General Order No. 11 Archived February 7, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, by Jeremy Neely, Missouri State University, Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1855-1865
- ^ Quantrill Attacks Fort Blair Archived October 11, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1855-1865
- ^ A hard history lesson: 'A Civil War Tragedy' details 1864 lynching of Collin County judge, sheriff and sheriff's brother-in-law, McKinney Courier-Gazette, August 30, 2008 Archived
- ^ Matthew Christopher Hulbert, "The Rise and Fall of Edwin Terrell, Guerrilla Hunter, U.S.A.", Ohio Valley History 18, No. 3 (Fall 2018), pp. 49, 52–53.
- ^ Albert Castel, William Clarke Quantrill His Life and Times, Frederick Fell, 1962, pp. 208–213
- ^ "Replica Head of Confederate Raider Quantrill". Roadside America. Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
- ^ McKelvie, B.A., Magic, Murder & Mystery, Cowichan Leader Ltd. (printer), 1966, pp. 55 to 62.; The American West, Vol. 10, American West Pub. Co., 1973, pp. 13 to 17; Leslie, Edward E., The Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Story of William Clarke Quantrill and his Confederate Raiders, Da Capo Press, 1996, p. 404, 417, 488, 501.
- ^ Gary Telford. "The Great Quantrill - Crocker Mystery in Augusta, Arkansas". Woodruff County, ARGenWeb. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
- ^ "Scottie transcript of Emily Hardestys Boylehardesty cassette taped history" (PDF). www.heritagestatic.com.
- ^ "Was It More Restrained Than You Think? Archived August 29, 2018, at the Wayback Machine", James M. McPherson, The New York Review of Books, February 14, 2008
- ^ Matthew Christopher Hulbert, The Ghosts of Guerrilla Memory: How Civil War Bushwhackers Became Gunslingers in the American West. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016), pp. 47-48.
- ^ "William Clarke Quantrill Society". Archived from the original on April 27, 2010. Retrieved November 21, 2009.
Bibliography
- The American West, Vol. 10, American West Pub. Co., 1973, pp. 13 to 17.
- Banasik, Michael E., Cavaliers of the bush: Quantrill and his men, Press of the Camp Pope Bookshop, 2003.
- Connelley, William Elsey, Quantrill and the border wars, The Torch Press, 1910 (reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2004).
- Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, and Bongard, David L., ISBN 0-7858-0437-4.
- Edwards, John N., Noted Guerillas: The Warfare of the Border, St. Louis: Bryan, Brand, & Company, 1877.
- ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
- Gilmore, Donald L., Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas border, Pelican Publishing, 2006.
- Hulbert, Matthew Christopher. The Ghosts of Guerrilla Memory: How Civil War Bushwhackers Became Gunslingers in the American West. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0820350028.
- Leslie, Edward E., The Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Story of William Clarke Quantrill and his Confederate Raiders, Da Capo Press, 1996, ISBN 0-306-80865-X.
- McKelvie, B.A., Magic, Murder & Mystery, Cowichan Leader Ltd. (printer), 1966, pp. 55 to 62
- Mills, Charles, Treasure Legends Of The Civil War, Apple Cheeks Press, 2001, ISBN 1-58898-646-2.
- Schultz, Duane, Quantrill's war: the life and times of William Clarke Quantrill, 1837-1865, St. Martin's Press, 1997.
- ISBN 0-8032-9709-2.
Further reading
- Castel, Albert E., William Clarke Quantrill, University of Oklahoma Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8061-3081-4.
- Geiger, Mark W. Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri's Civil War, 1861–1865, Yale University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-300-15151-0
- Hulbert, Matthew Christopher The Ghosts of Guerrilla Memory: How Civil War Bushwhackers Became Gunslingers in the American West. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0820350028.
- Schultz, Duane, Quantrill's War: The Life and Times of William Clarke Quantrill, 1837–1865, Macmillan Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-312-16972-8.
- Crouch, Barry A. "A 'Fiend in Human Shape?' William Clarke Quantrill and his Biographers", Kansas History (1999) 22#2 pp 142–156 analyzes the highly polarized historiography
External links
- William Clark Quantrill Society
- Official website for the Family of Frank & Jesse James: Stray Leaves, A James Family in America Since 1650 Archived February 28, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
- T.J. Stiles, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War
- Guerrilla raiders in an 1862 Harper's Weekly story, with illustration
- Quantrill's Guerrillas Members In The Civil War
- Quantrill flag at Kansas Museum of History
- "Guerilla Warfare in Kentucky" – Article by Civil War historian/author Bryan S. Bush
- Charles W. Quantrell: A True Report of his Guerrilla Warfare on the Missouri and Kansas Border at Project Gutenberg (1923 book of reminiscences by Harrison Trow)