William Quantrill

William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865), was a pro-Confederate guerrilla fighter during the American Civil War whose actions, particularly a bloody raid on Lawrence, Kansas, remain controversial to this day.

Early life

Little is known of Quantrill’s early life in Dover, Ohio, though it appears that he grew up in a Unionist family and initially espoused Free-Soil beliefs. After several years working as a school teacher, Quantrill traveled to Utah with the Federal Army in 1858, but there left the army to try his hand at professional gambling. In 1859, he returned to Lawrence, Kansas, and again taught school but, after charges were brought against him for murder and horse theft, fled to Missouri.

Guerrilla leader

By now a staunch Southern supporter, Quantrill joined the Confederate Army with the outbreak of the American Civil War, though his dislike of the strictures of army life would lead him to form the independent guerrilla band known as Quantrill's Raiders by the end of 1861. The group began as a force of no more than a dozen men who staged raids into Kansas from Missouri, harassed Union soldiers, raided towns, robbed mail coaches, and attacked Unionist civilians. On occasion they skirmished with Jayhawkers, Unionists from Kansas who raided Missouri. The Union command soon declared him an outlaw, and the Confederacy officially made him a captain. Quantrill quickly became known to his opponents as a notoriously bloody raider, and to his supporters as a dashing, free-spirited hero.

Lawrence Massacre

The most significant event of Quantrill's guerrilla career occurred on August 21, 1863. Lawrence had been seen for years as the bastion of anti-slavery forces in Kansas; it was also the home of James H. Lane, a Senator infamous in Missouri for his anti-slavery views. In the weeks immediately preceding the raid, Union General Thomas Ewing, Jr., had ordered the detention of any citizens giving aid to Quantrill's raiders. A number of female relatives of the raiders were detained in a jail in Kansas City, Missouri, which collapsed on August 14, killing four women. Quantrill's supporters alleged the collapse to be a deliberate attack, and the event fanned them into a fury. Many historians, however, believe that Quantrill had planned the raid in advance of the building collapse.

In the early morning of August 21, Quantrill attacked Lawrence with a force estimated at anywhere from 200 to 450 raiders. Though Senator Lane, a prime target of the raid, managed to escape through a cornfield in his nightshirt, the bushwhackers killed an estimated 200 men and boys, dragging many from their homes to kill them before their families. When Quantrill rode out at 9 a.m., most of Lawrence's buildings had been burned, including all but two businesses; his raiders looted indiscriminately and also robbed the town's bank. The raid would become notorious in the North as one of the most vicious atrocities of the Civil War.

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 General Order of the same name). The edict forced the depopulation of three and a half Missouri counties along the Kansas border (with the exception of a few designated towns), forcing tens of thousands of civilians to abandon their homes. Union troops marched through, burning buildings and fields and killing livestock in an effort to deprive the guerrillas of food, fodder, and support. The region was so thoroughly destroyed it became known as the "Burnt District." Quantrill and his fellow guerrillas, however, successfully escaped to Texas, where they passed the winter with conventional Confederate forces.

Later life

In Texas, Quantrill and his 400 men quarrelled, and his once-large band broke up into several smaller units. One such was led by his vicious lieutenant, William "Bloody Bill" Anderson, who tied the scalps of his victims to his saddle. Quantrill joined them briefly in the fall of 1864 during fighting north of the Missouri River. In 1865, now leading only a few dozen men, he staged a series of raids in Kentucky. On May 10, Quantrill was shot in a Union ambush and died from the wound on June 6 at the age of 27 from a gun shot in the chest.

As was often the case with notorious and elusive figures, however, fanciful stories of his survival proliferated. One apocryphal story from the Canadian province of British Columbia tells of a recluse living in an isolated cabin on Quatsino Sound on northern Vancouver Island later in the 19th Century. Inquiries after this recluse made in Victoria by unidentified Americans led to their killing of the recluse, who they claimed was no less than William Quantrill and whom they sought out to avenge the deaths of fellow Union soldiers.

Legacy

Quantrill’s actions remain controversial to this day. Some historians remember him as an opportunistic, bloodthirsty outlaw, while others continue to view him as a daring soldier and local folk hero. Something of this celebrity later rubbed off on several ex-Raiders—Jesse and Frank James, and Cole and Jim Younger—who went on in the late 1860s to apply Quantrill's hit-and-run tactics to bank and train robbery. The William Clarke Quantrill Society continues to research and celebrate his life and deeds.

Major League Baseball relief pitcher Paul Quantrill is a distant relative of William.

The John Wayne film Dark Command pits John Wayne against former schoolteacher and guerilla fighter "William Cantrell" in the early days of the Civil War. William Cantrell is a thinly veiled portrayal of William Quantrill.

There is also Ride with the Devil, starring Tobey Maguire, which features the attack on Lawrence.

External links

1837 births | 1865 deaths | American Civil War people