Quantrill’s Raiders

William Clarke Quantrill was the most famous and the most feared of the Confederate guerrilla leaders to emerge from the American Civil War. Born in Canal Dover, Ohio, on 31 July, 1837, he was neither born a Southerner nor raised in a slave- owning family. He fought for the South as a matter of choice.

As a child he had, what can only be described as, behavioural problems. As a teenager he displayed a quick and violent temper, and early in life had a conviction for murder overturned on appeal. As a young man he worked as a teacher for the United States Army in Utah, and later tried to make ends meet as a professional gambler. In this he failed and returned to teaching, moving to Lawrence, Kansas. It wasn’t long before he was forced to flee the town after being accused of horse-theft and murder. Lawrence was an abolitionist town and Quantrill had no doubt that it was his outspoken pro-slavery views that had led to his being charged. It was something he was not inclined to forget.

Quantrill was violently pro-slavery and he hated free-soilers (those who wanted the border states of Kansas and Missouri to be slave free). At the outbreak of the war he joined the Missouri State Militia but army discipline was not for him. So he left to form his own guerrilla band of Bushwhackers. Though he was a leader of irregular forces he did, in fact, acquire a commission in the Confederate States Army as a Captain of Partisan Rangers.

Whilst recruiting his guerrilla band he claimed to be a native of Maryland so as to bolster his Southern credentials; and what he created was to be the most ruthless and effective guerrilla army of the entire war. He operated mainly in the Kansas-Missouri border region. He perfected standard military tactics and adapted them to guerrilla warfare. He meticulously pre-planned, organised and synchronised his attacks. He adopted the tactic of dispersal of forces, mapped out his routes in advance and established relays of horses for a quick getaway. He also armed his men with long-barrelled revolvers and used concentrated fire for greater effectiveness. He took no prisoners and focused his attacks on mainly civilian targets. He robbed trains and stage coaches, fire-bombed homes and pillaged towns. His intention was to drive all pro-Union supporters from Kansas and Missouri. However, at Baxter Springs, Kansas, in early 1863, he ambushed 100 Union troops killing 65, including those already wounded. He then stripped and mutilated the bodies.