Q is for William Clarke Quantrill

Anyone who knows about Missouri's Civil War could predict what my "Q" entry to the A to Z blogfest would be. Who else but the most dangerous bushwhacker of them all? While I've written about Quantrill before, this man is endlessly fascinating.

During Bleeding Kansas before the war he fought on whatever side promised the most loot, raiding both proslavery men and Free Staters as the opportunity arose. When the Civil War started in 1861 and Quantrill had to pick a side, he picked the South. Quantrill soon built up one of the most effective guerrilla bands of the war and gave the Union troops no end of trouble. He kept looting, though, and in one infamous incident burned down Lawrence, Kansas, killing about 200 men and boys and making off with an immense plunder.

While it would be easy to dismiss Quantrill as a bloodthirsty opportunist who simply used the war as a cover for his own personal gain, as many guerrillas on both sides did, he was more complex than that. He fought right to the end, long after most Southerners realized the game was up and had gone home. He must have known he'd never make it out alive, yet he kept going.he even boasted that he'd ride to Washington, DC, and assassinate President Lincoln! He got as far as Kentucky before he was run to ground.

Photo courtesy Rex Dickson from our visit to a Confederate rest home in Missouri. Only three arm bones, two leg bones, and a lock of hair are buried here. The rest of his body is scattered in two other locations.