Forum / Quantrill

• 
  mxi wodd

  Aug 07, 12:33am

  From Wiki.

  Here's a novel/movie that should be written:

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  **
  Early on the morning of August 21, Quantrill descended from Mount Oread and attacked Lawrence at the head of a combined force of as many as 450 guerrillas. Senator Lane, a prime target of the raid, managed to escape through a cornfield in his nightshirt, but the guerrillas, on Quantrill's orders, killed 183 men and boys "old enough to carry a rifle", Quantrill, known to be armed with several French pinfire revolvers, his favorite weapon of choice, carried out several personally, dragging many from their homes to execute them before their families. The ages of those killed ranged from as young as 14 all the way up to 90. When Quantrill's men rode out at 9 a.m., most of Lawrence's buildings were burning, including all but two businesses. His raiders looted indiscriminately and robbed the town's bank.
  On August 25, in retaliation for the raid, General Ewing authorized General Order No. 11 (not to be confused with General Ulysses S. Grant's General Order of the same name). The edict ordered the depopulation of three-and-a-half Missouri counties along the Kansas border (with the exception of a few designated towns), forcing tens of thousands of civilians to abandon their homes. Union troops marched through behind them, burning buildings, torching planted fields and shooting down livestock to deprive the guerrillas of food, fodder, and support. The area was so thoroughly devastated that it became known thereafter as the "Burnt District". Quantrill and his men rode south to Texas, where they passed the winter with the Confederate forces.

  Last years:
  While in Texas, Quantrill and his 400 men quarreled. His once-large band broke up into several smaller guerrilla companies. One was led by his lieutenant, "Bloody Bill" Anderson, whose men came to be known for tying the scalps of slain unionists to the saddles and bridles of their horses. Quantrill joined them briefly in the fall of 1863 during fighting north of the Missouri River.
  In the spring of 1865, now leading only a few dozen men, Quantrill staged a series of raids in western Kentucky. He rode into a Union ambush on May 10 near Taylorsville, Kentucky, armed with several French pinfires which bore his name, and received a gunshot wound to the chest. He was brought by wagon to Louisville, Kentucky and taken to the military prison hospital, located on the north side of Broadway at 10th Street. He died from his wounds on June 6, 1865, at the age of 27.

  Claim of post-1865 survival:
  In August, 1907, news articles appeared in Canada and the United States claiming that J.E. Duffy, a member of a Michigan cavalry troop that dealt with Quantrill's raiders during the Civil War, had met Quantrill at Quatsino Sound, on northern Vancouver Island while investigating timber rights in the area. Duffy claimed to recognize the man, living under the name of John Sharp, as Quantrill. Duffy said that Sharp admitted he was Quantrill and discussed in detail raids in Kansas and elsewhere. Sharp claimed that he had survived the ambush in Kentucky, though receiving a bayonet and bullet wound, making his way to South America where he lived some years in Chile. He returned to the United States, working as a cattleman in Fort Worth, Texas. He then moved to Oregon, acting as a cowpuncher and drover, before reaching British Columbia in the 1890s, where he worked in logging, trapping and finally as a mine caretaker at Coal Harbour at Quatsino.

  Within some weeks after the news stories were published, two men came to British Columbia, travelling to Quatsino from Victoria, leaving Quatsino on a return voyage of a coastal steamer the next day. On that day, Sharp was found severely beaten, dying several hours later without giving information about his attackers. The police were unable to solve the murder.

• 
  Gone

  Aug 07, 02:13am

  I read a lot about Quantrill and his people, but never heard this story.

  I tried to write about the man once, but there is an essential but arresting, penultimate evil to his character that's difficult to capture. Some people swore by him. There's no question that he could be charismatic.

  Thanks, gonna pursue this.

• 
  mxi wodd

  Aug 07, 02:29am

  I'd never heard of him.

  But what a name/title for a novel/movie.

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  We forget/were never taught how MONSTROUSLY shit/blood and pus-filled the (un)Civil War was.

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  On a side-note: so many of the young people that fill our prisons today would have been HEROES back then.

  Vicious, nearly-psychotic killers/rapists/arsonists/thugs/thieves...

  mother-rapers, father-rapers...

  ;-)

  But it all gets glossed over in the 5th-12th grade as the glorious, clean, uplifting and God-approved Story of America.

  And the memorabilia IS cool, the uniforms (those who had 'em) were sharp, the cannons were neat...

  But the starvation, murder, slaughter, destruction and utter devastation of the old and the young noncombatants...

  Unspeakable.

• 
  mxi wodd

  Aug 07, 02:34am

  And the suffering of the young soldiers in the war hospitals?

  Ask Walt Whitman about it.

• 
  Gone

  Aug 07, 02:53am

  People like Quantrill are seldom depicted au naturel. You have to really tap into the utter maw to get their rhythm. It's not impossible, but difficult to access for the length of a novel.

  The story of America is seldom very pretty.

  On a side note, there have been many books written and movies made about the guerillas involved in the Kansas-Missouri troubles, Quantrill, the James and Younger families, Bloody Bill Anderson et. al. Even John Brown had his first blood in those feuds over Slave State/Free State hegemony.

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