![]() ![]() His most notable operation was the Lawrence massacre, a revenge raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1863. Despite the legal responsibility assumed by the Confederate government, Quantrill often acted on his own with little concern for his government's policy or orders. Other officers were elected by the men, and Quantrill often referred to himself as a colonel. On 15 August 1862, Quantrill was granted a field commission as a captain in the Confederate army under the Confederate Partisan Ranger Act. Colt revolvers for increased firepower and their improved accuracy over the. Under his direction, Confederate guerrillas perfected military tactics such as disguises, co-ordinated and synchronized attacks, planned dispersal after an attack that used preplanned routes and relays of horses, and technical methods such as the use of multiple. Quantrill's guerrillas attacked Jayhawkers, Missouri State Militia, and Union troops and relied primarily on ambush and raids. Reflecting the internecine nature of the guerrilla conflict in Missouri, Quantrill directed much of his effort against pro-Union civilians by attempting to drive them from the territory that he operated. ![]() He and his men ambushed Union patrols and supply convoys, seized the mail, and occasionally struck towns on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri border. Quantrill was not the only Confederate guerrilla operating in Missouri, but he rapidly gained the greatest notoriety. Methods and legal status Early photo of Captain William Clarke Quantrill The most notorious guerrilla force was led by William Clarke Quantrill. This was a war of stealth and raid without a front, without formal organization, and with almost no division between the civilian and the warrior." īy August 1862, with the Union victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Missouri was free of significant regular Confederate troops, but the insurgent violence continued. "When regular troops were absent, the improvised war often assumed a deadly guerrilla nature as local citizens took up arms spontaneously against their neighbors. Unlike other border areas in Maryland and Kentucky, local conflicts, bushwhacking, sniping, and guerrilla fighting marked this period of Missouri history. One historical work describes the situation in the state after Wilson's Creek: Guerrilla warfare erupted throughout the state and intensified in August after the Union defeat at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. By June, open warfare occurred between Union forces and troops supporting the Confederacy. Unionists, led by regular US Army commander Nathaniel Lyon and Frank Blair of the politically-powerful Blair family, fought for political and military control across the state against the increasingly pro-secessionist forces, led by Governor Claiborne Jackson and future Confederate General Sterling Price. In February 1861, Missouri voters elected delegates to a statewide convention, which rejected secession by a vote of 89-1. Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, its prairies had been the stage for an almost incessant series of political conventions, raids, massacres, pitched battles, and atrocities, all part of a fierce conflict between the Free State and pro-slavery forces that had come to Kansas to settle and to battle. The historian Albert Castel wrote:įor over six years, ever since Kansas was opened up as a territory by Stephen A. The Missouri- Kansas border area was fertile ground for the outbreak of guerrilla warfare when the Civil War erupted in 1861. The James brothers formed their own gang and conducted robberies for years as a continuing insurgency in the region.įurther information: Bleeding Kansas and Missouri in the American Civil War Others lived on to hold reunions many years later, when the name Quantrill's Raiders began to be used. Some, including Quantrill, were killed in various engagements. By 1864 Quantrill had lost control of the group, which split up into small bands. The Confederate government, which had granted Quantrill a field commission under the Partisan Ranger Act, was outraged and withdrew support for such irregular forces. ![]() In August 1863, Quantrill led an attack on the town, killing more than 180 civilians, supposedly in retaliation for the casualties caused when the women's jail collapsed. The town of Lawrence, Kansas, a center of anti-slavery sentiment, had outlawed Quantrill's men and jailed some of their young women. Their leader was William Quantrill and they included Jesse James and his brother Frank.Įarly in the war Missouri and Kansas were nominally under Union government control and became subject to widespread violence as groups of Confederate bushwhackers and anti-slavery Jayhawkers competed for control. Quantrill's Raiders were the best-known of the pro- Confederate partisan guerrillas (also known as " bushwhackers") who fought in the American Civil War. ![]()
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