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1 day ago · The story of Quantrill’s Raiders and the guerrilla war they waged against the Union is a vital, if often overlooked, aspect of the Civil War. It reveals the darker, more chaotic side of the conflict, where bands of fighters operated outside the conventional boundaries of warfare, leaving a trail of destruction and shaping the course of ...
- Background
- Civil War
- William C. Quantrill
- Band of Irregulars
- Looting of Olathe, Kansas
- The Pillaging of Shawneetown, Kansas
- Raid on Lawrence, Kansas
- Raid on Fort Baxter
- Baxter Springs Massacre
- Dissolution
In some respects, the Civil War began in Kansas and Missouri long before the first salvo fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Nearly seven years earlier, on May 30, 1854, President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which established procedures to expedite the formation of new territories in the Louisiana Purchasewest of Missouri (n...
When the Civil War erupted, these partisan groups morphed into paramilitary units supporting the Northern and Southern causes. Initially, the extra-military “irregulars” endeavored to support Union and Confederate regular forces in the field. Gradually, however, their goals and methods embraced lawlessness. Using guerrilla tactics, these “bushwhack...
The most infamous of these units coalesced around William C. Quantrill, an erstwhile schoolteacher from Canal Dover, Ohio, who pursued an aimless life of depravity after immigrating to Kansas in 1857. When the war began, Quantrill enlisted and served as a private in Company A of the 1st Cherokee Regiment in the Confederate Army. His unit joined up ...
By December 1861, Quantrill had become either disillusioned with Price’s leadership or disenchanted with army life, prompting him to desert. He began assembling a band of irregulars that used guerrilla tactics to ambush Yankee patrols and terrorize Northern sympathizers. By 1862, Quantrill’s feared band of followers, known as Quantrill’s Raiders, i...
As the size of Quantrill’s unit grew, his sorties expanded to include entire communities. Just after midnight on September 7, 1862, Quantrill’s force of roughly 140 men stormed Olathe, Kansas. While holding the citizenry captive, they looted the town’s businesses and homes, after killing six men.
The next month Quantrill’s Raiders came across a Union supply train near Shawneetown (now Shawnee), Kansas on October 17. Quietly surrounding the unsuspecting Federals, the guerrillas launched a surprise attack easily killing thirteen soldiers. Quantrill’s men then donned the uniforms of their victims and rode unmolested into Shawneetown where they...
Quantrill’s most notable raid occurred on August 21, 1863, as retribution for a series of events that began earlier in the year. In early August, Federal troops commanded by Brigadier General Thomas Ewing began rounding up civilians who were aiding guerrillas operating within the District of the Border. Among those arrested were several female rela...
A few weeks after the Lawrence Massacre, Quantrill’s Raiders headed for Texas to spend the winter. As they made their way south, Quantrill raided Fort Blair, a small federal outpost in the southeast corner of Kansas near the town of Baxter Springs. As Quantrill’s advance scouts neared the fort on October 6, 1863, they surprised a black officer and ...
Following the failed sortie, Quantrill reassembled the Raiders north of the fort where he spotted a wagon train approaching. Deprived of his initial objective, the Rebel leader opted to pursue a consolation prize. Led by Major General James G. Blunt, the convoy comprised Blunt’s headquarters staff and a military band accompanied by a few cavalrymen...
Upon arriving in Texas, Quantrill’s outlaws soon began targeting pro-Confederate residents of the Lone Star State. Their presence reached its nadir on March 28, 1864, when authorities arrested Quantrill for murdering a Confederate officer. Before being tried, Quantrill escaped into Indian Territory. Afterward, his outfit dispersed into splinter gan...
- Harry Searles
Quantrill's Raiders were the best-known of the pro-Confederate partisan guerrillas (also known as "bushwhackers") who fought in the American Civil War. Their leader was William Quantrill and they included Jesse James and his brother Frank .
Jan 12, 2024 · Organized by William C. Quantrill, Quantrill’s Raiders was a band of Confederate irregulars that employed guerrilla tactics to ambush Union army patrols and terrorize Northern sympathizers, primarily in Kansas during the Civil War.
- Harry Searles
quantrill's raiders. William Clarke Quantrill (1837–65) earned infamy during the Civil War for his atrocities against citizens and guerrilla warfare against Union soldiers. He served the Confederacy and perhaps hoped to secure high rank and recognition from its leaders.
Dec 7, 2015 · Steve Cochran plays Capt. Allan Wescott, a Confederate officer working undercover as horse trader Mike Davis in order to help plot a Rebel attack on the federal armory in Lawrence, Kansas.
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Steve Cochrane plays a Confederate agent Alan Westcott organising Quantrill's gang on a raid of a federal arsenal in Kansas. Wescott realises that Quantrill (Leo Gordon in an effective performance) is a despicable and amoral villain interested only in murder and plunder.
