Confederate Guerillas that hunted the Union – Forgotten History

The Civil War is well known for great battles famous generals and large casualties, but there was a lesser known side of the war, the guerrilla war, where bands of civilians and soldiers joined forces on both sides to create mayhem, chaos, and even, murder, Quantrill’s Raiders, were the best-known and Arguably, quite effective at hit and run raiders tying down Union forces who tried to, locate and eradicate them Their leader, was a man of many contradictions and mystery buthids legacy extended far beyond the war Hewes. Also, a most wanted man and along with Confederate raider, Colonel John S. Mosby had the highest reported bounty on his head, probably Inus’s history.

Until Osama Bin Laden came along Who was, William Quantrill, what were the Quantrill Raiders? Why were they famous What legends dithery create long after the Civil War, hello, I’m Colin, Heaton military veteran historian authored? Welcome to this episode of Forgotten. History, William Clark, Quantrill was born in Canal, Dover. Now, Dover Ohio on October11th 1837, the oldest of 12 children with eight of them surviving infancy,

His father Thomas was a coppersmith, and he and wife, Caroline settled in Canal Dover, in the year 1836 Thomas became a school teacher and was the first principal of the Canal Dover Union School, William himself, attended Union School, graduating in 1853 and following the death of Thomas his father in December 1854, heals Became a teacher at Union School to support the family, but he only taught for a year.

Hethen went west for a better life, but things did not really work out for him there and he became involved in some colorful activity over the next6 years and led a checkered life that ultimately led to crime After holding various unrewarding jobs in Mendota Illinois and Fort Wayne, Indiana Quantrill returned home in 1856,

In February, 1857William headed to Kansas, with locals Henry Torrey and Harmon Beeson, who were also hoping for fora better life out west

They all settled in Johnson County Kansas near the Missouri border and established, the small town of Tuscarora Lake named for, the Tuscarora River back home in Dover, Ohio. Torrey and Beeson made a deal and loaned Quantrill money for land in return for Quantrill providing labor on their land, but Quantrill failed to uphold his End of the bargain, so Tori and Beeson sued him, The court settlement ordered Quantrill to repay, both men, which he never did Quantrill then had to move and live with other settlers arriving from Dover, but they accused Quantrill of stealing from them and he was banished from their community finally leaving for Utah. In 1858,

Quantrill worked with, an army wagon train spending, the following year farther west Out west Quantrill became a gambler poker being his strong suit going by the name of Charlie Hart. He returned to Kansas in1859 and worked again at teaching until later that year he joined a gang again using the name Charlie Hart

Quantrill then separated from that gang due to their being wanted for petty crimes and lived on the Delaware Indian Reservation, north of the Kansas River, while living in both Kansas and Missouri. He purportedly earned money by aiding both free state men in liberating slaves, andpro-slavery men by capturing and returning escaped slaves. In essence, he was an equal opportunity type of guy

Where Quantrill was politically was unclear when, in January 1860, he wrote his mother in stating his contempt for the “ murderer and robber” John Brown, the abolitionist and his sympathizers following the famous Harper’s Ferry raid In a great sense of irony in December, 1860Quantrill and five Quaker abolitionists planned to liberate the slaves Of one Morgan, Walker slave owner in Jackson, County Missouri, but Quantrill warned the Walker’s in advance and the Quakers were killed. Quantrill then openly opposed the violent anti-slavery movement in Kansas, from the Jayhawkers working as a runaway slave catcher earning. The rewards by 1861 Quantrill were in Jailin Lawrence Kansas, charged with horse theft, another crime Making bail on April 3rd, 1861, heled the jurisdiction to avoid standing trial.

During this escapade, Quantrill joined the slave Trader Marcus Gill on a trip to Texas in 1861where, they met one Joel B,

Mayes a Cherokee Scottland, they joined the Cherokees living there, Mayes was a Confederate sympathizer and a war chief of the Cherokee band Originally from Georgia. Maize had lived in the Indian Territory since 1838 and he enlisted as a private in Company A 1st Cherokee Regiment in the Confederate Army. It was Mayes who taught Quantrill guerrilla warfare, methods tactics ambush skills, camouflage stalking, and tracking

When the Civil War erupted Quantrill joined the Confederate Army, then he was later assigned to Colonel John T. Hughes on March11 1862, all serving under General Sterling Price operating as raiders. They served in the battles of Wilson’s Creek and Lexington Missouri then at the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Pea Ridge. From March 6 to 8 1862, with the Union taking control of Missouri for the rest of the war, Quantrill, Mayes and 10, other men followed Quantrill full-time in his pro Confederate guerrilla organization and the Cherokee Nations joined with General Sterling Price and fought at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, which is where Bad blood began to exist. Quantrill was according to, some sources appointed as a captain in the Confederate Army by Colonel M

Jeff Thompson following the Battle of Independence, Missourian August 11th, 1862, but his commission is not recorded in the old archives, but it is possible. His commission much like John S.

Mosby would beIN a reserve status as a raider In late September Quantrill, Mayes and others deserted Price’s army and fled to Blue Springs Missouri and to gather fighters he claimed that his brother was killed and. He had been shot twice, robbed and left forded. After several days with his brother’s body, he said that a Shawnee Indian found him and aided in his recovery,

The problem was Quantrill, did not even, have an older brother Quantrill, then told the men that he had recruited that he had joined the Union Army just to locate and kill the men who attacked him and his brother Quantrill never served in the Union Army After deserting Price’s command and deciding to fight The war his own way he started his own small force in 1862, which he called Quantrill’s Raiders. The group was made upon various criminals and social outcasts.

The specialized in using guerrilla warfare, tactic swore civilian clothes, most of the time, ambushing Union troops and patrols, stealing munitions weapons and horses Union payrolls as well as attacking Union sympathizers Quantrill finally had around 400 men to attack Union supporters and troops along the Missouri Kansas border becoming major threat, Then Quantrill met Sarah Katherine king and they married in secret due to her family not approving of him or the relationship. Ashe was apparently only 13 years old, so shelved with the raiders in their various camps and took his middle name Clark as her married name, not long afterward. In 1862, the raiders ‘numbers grew with John Barrett John Brown (not the, Abolitionist) Cole, Younger, William T’ “, Bloody Bill” Anderson and Frank and Jesse James joining Quantrill’s, Raiders

On March 7, 1862, Quantrill’s Raiders attacked a Union Outpost in Aubry Kansas,

Quantrill’s Raiders were becoming notorious. Before dawn on September 7th, 1862, 140 Raiders attacked Olathe Kansas capturing 125 US Army soldiers. On October 5th, 1862, Quantrill sacked and, attacked Shawnee town Kansas Later William Anderson returned and set fire to the town. Astha locals were rebuilding

On November 5th 1862Quantrill “ joined Colonel Warner, Lewis to stage an attack on Lamar Missouri, where a company of, the 8th Regiment, Missouri Volunteer. Cavalry protected, a US Army Outpost Warned about the attack the US soldiers repelled the invaders who torched part of the town before they retreated “ Quantrill’s Raiders became a main focus of the Union Army in that area and federal authorities after. The Lawrence Massacre on August 21st, 1863when Quantrill led approximately 450 Confederate raiders into the town of Lawrence, a Unionist andante slavery, stronghold. That was also home. To republican Senator James H,

Lane who had become target of pro-slavery forces, Quantrill hated Lane well known as a Jayhawker who had authorized guerrilla raids against pro-slavery civilians, in Missouri

Due to Lane’s activities and “, the deaths of nine local citizens, including the sacking of Osceola Missouri two years previously, particularly incensed Quantrill” Lane managed to escape but Quantrill’s men, “ killed between 160 and 190 Menand boys, many In cold blood before looting and burning much of the town before they rode out And burned nearly one quarter of the town’s buildings, including all but two businesses, robbed the bank and looted every home In reprisal. Union general Thomas Ewing, Jr’s General Order. Number 11on August 25th, 1863, detained pro Confederate civilians and “ systematically depopulated four Missouri counties along the Kansas border.” Union soldiers gathered every civilian to determine their loyalties Among those arrested were several female relatives and friends of Quantrill’s Raiders, with the women kept in a temporary Jailin Kansas City “. On August 13th, 1863, the building collapsed killing four of the prisoners, including the sister of William T, “ Bloody Bill” Anderson. A few days later, a fifth girl died from her injuries .”. Most of the men involved in the Lawrence Massacre had already fled to Texas, taking Union payroll money and an untold number of guns in a wagon and the raiders splintered into several smaller bands, primarily two groups. Each led by his junior officers such as William T,

Anderson andone other officer unknown on the way to Texas Quantrill raided the federal outpost of Fort Blair in southeast Kansas near Baxter Springs. “ As Quantrill advance scouts neared the fort on October 6th, 1863, they surprised a black officer and, a civilian practicing, their marksmanship and murdered, both unsuspecting men,” Quantrill then split his force and attacked Fort Blair from two directions

At around noon, the raiders attacked the 90 soldiers, as they sat down for lunch outside the fort and Union soldiers fled for the safety of the fort and managed to stave off the attack. Quantrill halted. The attack after losing 10men, as well as the element of surprise After that failure at Fort Blair, the raiders attacked a union wagon train led by Major General James G

Blunt which included his entire staff and “ a military band, accompanied by a few cavalry men on their way to Fort Smith, Arkansas.”, Concealing most of his men in a grove of nearby trees. Quantrill Ina ruse de guerre sent an advanced party in Union uniforms to ride forward, to meet blunt who seethes chief scout Captain William Tough forward to meet the advancing party

Tough soon recognized the approaching riders as members of Quantrill’s band of raiders, and he beat a hasty retreat. Towan Blunt But Tough’s warning was “ too late, for Blunt to mount a defense against the guerrillas who swarmed out of the woods.” Many of the Union men ran and the raiders quickly rode them downland killed them.

The raiders also killed others trying to escape on foot or after surrendering. Hey, murdered the band members who were unarmed but. There were 80 of his men dead.

Blunt and 14 of his men escaped by hiding the thick woods or tallgrass. Then once reaching Texas, the raiders foursome reason targeted, pro- Confederate residents and. On March 28th, 1864, the local authorities” arrested Quantrill for murdering a Confederate officer.” Quantrill escaped before his trial and fled into Indian Territory.

Afterward his outfit dispersed initially into the original two elements led by lieutenants George Todd and Bill Anderson. This. One group under Anderson began handing out rifles and ammunition in a deal with the Comanches and Apaches, converting them over to fight the union. While Quantrill went back to Missourian reunited with his young wife, Kate to hide out for a while

Late in 1864, Quantrill gathered some raiders and “, reportedly hatched a plot to travel to Washington, to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.”, The raiders left for that mission, in December 1864 and crossed the Mississippi Riveron New Year’s Day, headed for Kentucky but that plan was abandoned, and they resorted to more criminal activity. Quantrill’s fortune turned for the worse, when on May 10th, 1865, abend of federal Irregulars found Quantrill and his men in a barn owned by James H.

Wakefield in Taylorsville in Spencer, County Kentucky. During, the battle Quantrill was shot in the back as he tried to ride away. The Union soldiers took the paralyzed desperado toa military hospital in Louisville, where he died a few weeks later on June 6, 1865, at age27, William C Quantrill, was buried in St. John’s Catholic Cemetery in Louisville “. Although some of his remains were later re-interred in Dover Ohio and Higginsville Missouri“ “ The skull became, a curiosity that college fraternities used in rituals until that ended up with the Dover Historical Society in 1972 In 1992the organization reunited with the bones with those brought from Louisville in 1887.” Tithe Union. He was just another outlaw and leader Ofa terrorist group to many Confederates. He was an avenging demon, helping the cause His legacy. And legend was enhanced due to the later escapades of some of his soldiers, such as the James and Younger Brothers,

His value to the Confederacy is debatable, although the Union did spend a lot of time, money and manpower trying to locate and defeat the raiders

What is not in dispute is his legacy of terror and the legendary criminals spawned from his guerrilla unit, such as Cole Younger and Frank and Jesse James. These famous outlaws used the guerrilla warfare tactics from their days with the raiders to become the most famous outlaws in US history but were the Quantrill Raiders. A viable and effective component of the Confederacy We will let you decide.

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