William Clarke Quantrill

• Born: July 31, 1837
• Birthplace: Canal Dover (now Dover), Ohio
• Died: June 6, 1865
• Place of death: Louisville, Kentucky

Confederate partisan leader during the American Civil War

Cause of notoriety: As the leader of the most active of the pro-Confederate irregular forces operating along the Kansas-Missouri borderlands, Quantrill received international notice as the perpetrator of one of the Civil War’s most horrific atrocities, the sack of Lawrence, Kansas.

Active: August 21, 1863

Locale: Missouri, Kansas, and Kentucky

Early Life

William Clarke Quantrill (KAN-trihl) was the eldest child of Thomas Henry Quantrill, a tin fashioner turned school principal, and his wife, Caroline Cornelia Clarke. His father having died when William was seventeen, the younger Quantrill tried to make his way by teaching school, hunting, and doing odd jobs in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Suspected of committing murder in Mendota, Illinois, he briefly returned home, then made his way west as far as Utah before arriving in Kansas Territory to take part in the border wars between antislavery and proslavery forces. Gaining an unsavory reputation as a con artist, rustler, and, again, homicide suspect, Quantrill, under the assumed name of Charley Hart, first sided with antislavery “Jayhawkers.” In 1860 he betrayed three companions and henceforth identified himself with the proslavery and, later, Confederate cause.

Military Career

Joining Confederate forces at the outbreak of the Civil War (though never apparently as part of a regular unit), Quantrill was present at the Confederate victory at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, on August 10, 1861. However, organized warfare was not to his liking, and he became part of the impromptu, irregular bands that emerged along the frontiers of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and the Indian Territory (Oklahoma), and which, while proclaiming their support for either side, usually had their own agenda. Quantrill’s marksmanship and ruthlessness had made him a local hero in Blue Springs, Missouri, and he joined the partisans there, operating under the command of Andrew Walker. In December, 1861, upon Walker’s resignation, Quantrill became the undisputed leader.

Quantrill’s Raiders became the most audacious and effective of the partisan guerrilla forces along the Missouri border, terrorizing and quite often murdering prisoners in cold blood. Quantrill’s forces were instrumental in capturing Independence, Missouri, August 10-11, 1862. Four days later, General Thomas C. Hindman fully authorized Quantrill’s unit. Quantrill was thus elected to his only known commission, as captain in the Confederate forces, though he would claim the title of colonel by war’s end.

In 1863, he met and married Sarah Catherine King; they apparently had no children. On August 21, 1863, having eluded the defensive cordon erected at the Kansas border by General Thomas Ewing, Jr., Quantrill descended with 450 men on the town of Lawrence, Kansas, pillaged and torched most of the buildings, and shot down some 200 men, most of whom were unarmed. Others died in the flames. The sack of Lawrence was Quantrill’s most controversial action but was followed on October 6, 1863, by the ambush of the ceremonial escort for Major General James G. Blunt at Baxter Springs, Kansas. About ninety of Blunt’s men were shot after surrendering, and fewer than ten of the command (including Blunt himself) were able to escape death.

Retreating to Texas for the winter of 1863-1864, Quantrill’s men proved so unruly and disruptive, and revelations of the full nature of Quantrill’s atrocities so disgusted Confederate authorities, that the guerrilla chief was arrested by General Henry McCulloch on March 30, 1864, but almost immediately escaped. In 1864, Quantrill’s band broke apart; a group under William “Bloody Bill” Anderson defected, and in the summer of 1864 Quantrill himself was deposed from the leadership by George Todd. Before the year was done, both Todd and Anderson were slain, and Quantrill’s activities were relegated to occasional, minor raids. At some time in November-December, 1864, Quantrill hatched a plan to move his operations to Kentucky, ostensibly to get as far as Virginia, but the surrender at Appomattox seemed to eliminate that option. Quantrill’s band was finally tracked down by Edwin Terrell’s pro-Union partisans at Taylorsville, Kentucky, on May 10, 1865. During a brief skirmish, Quantrill was shot in the spine; he later died of his wound in the Louisville military prison hospital.

Impact

As the leading pro-Confederate guerrilla during most of the conflict, William Clarke Quantrill occupied Union troops that might have otherwise been used elsewhere; thus Quantrill probably much prolonged the fighting in the war’s Western theater. The atrocities he perpetrated, however, were widely condemned even by pro-Confederates and bequeathed to the region within which he operated a lasting legacy of horror and revulsion. The relentless fashion, moreover, in which the Raiders conducted their campaigns spilled over into the postwar period when outlawed bands and vigilante groups carried on old feuds, attempted to avenge past grudges, and continued to unsettle the Missouri-Kansas frontier for years to come. The desperado gang led by Frank and Jesse James, and Cole and Jim Younger—all of whom had served under Quantrill—proved to be the most successful and was not disbanded until the 1880’s.

Bibliography

Goodrich, Thomas. Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861-1865. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. Places Quantrill in the overall context of the fighting on the fringes of the Confederacy. Includes detailed campaign maps.

Leslie, Edward E. The Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Story of William Clarke Quantrill and His Confederate Raiders. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. This account, one of the most balanced on the subject, skillfully places the Quantrill phenomenon within the context of its era and region, fitting it into the overall pattern of atrocity and retaliation practiced by both sides.

Martin, Jane A., and Jeremy Ross, eds. Spies, Scouts, and Raiders: Irregular Operations. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1985. Fourteen pages are devoted to the details of the story of Quantrill’s Raiders and the offshoot bands of George Todd and “Bloody Bill” Anderson.

Nichols, Bruce. Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri, 1862. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004. Quantrill plays a significant role in this “slice” of the war in the West.

Schultz, Duane. Quantrill’s War: The Life and Times of William Clarke Quantrill, 1837-1865. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. Detailed and highly readable account which nonetheless relies too much on anecdotal material and makes Quantrill more one-dimensional than he actually was.