Two weeks later, the band perpetrated another slaughter at Baxter Springs, Kan., where the bushwhackers attacked a Union headquarters train. Quantrill, who was rapidly becoming infamous for murder, robbery and the mutilation of the dead, masterminded the August 21, 1863, massacre at Lawrence, Kan., in which 150 men and boys were brutally slain. By Christmas 1861, however, the 24-year-old Quantrill had organized a small band of pro-Confederate guerrillas to fight and kill Union soldiers and pro-Northern civilians whenever and wherever the opportunity arose.Īs the guerrilla band gained notoriety, the group expanded in number. When the Civil War erupted, Quantrill–who had already committed several brutal murders–eagerly fought with the Confederate army at Wilson’s Creek and Lexington, Mo. One historian described him as ‘bold and physically courageous a sham and almost completely amoral.’ Quantrill honed his violent nature while living with thieves, murderers and brigands in Kansas. Standing 5 feet 9 inches tall, young Quantrill had a slight frame, reddish hair and cold, steel-blue eyes. Not content to tutor others, in 1857 the restless young man moved to Kansas in search of his fortune. Walking through fields, he would stab horses and slice open cows.įollowing in his father’s footsteps, Quantrill began teaching school at age 16. He nailed snakes to trees, shot pigs through the ears to hear them squeal, and tied cats together by their tails and watched them claw each other to death. Even as a child, he evinced a twisted, cruel nature. ![]() Quantrill was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, on July 31, 1837, the oldest of 12 children. ‘I have but one wish, and that is that you were here,’ he told her, ‘for I cannot be happy here all alone & it seems that I am the only person or thing that is not happy along this beautiful stream.’ Eight years later this apparently tender, lonely young man would die in a Louisville, Kentucky, prison, notorious for being one of the most vicious butchers in the Civil War. In July 1857, William Clarke Quantrill wrote to his mother back home in Ohio. America's Civil War: Guerrilla Leader William Clarke Quantrill's Last Raid in Kentucky Close
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