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Veteran Affairs

2010-08-01 13:01:00

Quantrill’s Raid

Question: What is Quantrill’s Raid?

Answer: The Quantrill’s Raid, is also known as the Lawrence Massacre. Quantrill was a rebel leader during the U.S. Civil War. Quantrill’s Raiders, led by William Clarke Quantrill, lead the attack on the pro-Union town of Lawrence, Kansas. In the summer of 1856, the first sacking of Lawrence sparked a guerrilla war in Kansas that lasted for months. John Brown might be the best known participant, but numerous groups fought for each side in Bleeding Kansas. The attack on August 21, 1863 targeted Lawrence due to the town’s long support of abolition and its reputation as a center for Redlegs and Jayhawkers which were free-state militia and vigilante groups known for attacking and destroying farms and plantations in Missouri’s pro-slavery western counties. By 1863, Kansas had long been the center of strife and warfare over the admission of slave and Free states. By the beginning of the American Civil War, Lawrence, Kansas, was already a target for pro-slavery ire, having been seen as the anti-slavery stronghold in the state and more importantly, a staging area for Union and Jayhawker incursions into Missouri. Kansas Redlegs or Jayhawkers raided into Missouri and as a sideline freeing slaves, including those who were owned by pro-union Missourians. Missouri Ruffians and/or Bushwackers raided into Kansas taking blacks back into slavery even if they had always been free. This was a common occurrence mostly seen by the CSA raid into Pennsylvania. Long term black residences’ were sent to south into slavery not to be seen again until the end of the war. General Thomas Ewing, Jr. issued General Order No. 10, which ordered the arrest of anyone giving aid or comfort to Quantrill’s raiders. In a bid to put down the Missouri guerrilla raiders operating in Kansas, this General Order meant chiefly women and children. They were placed in the makeshift prison in Kansas City. On August 13, 1863, this building collapsed, killing five women, including 14-year-old Josephine Anderson, sister of William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson. A third story had been added to the structure by George Bingham prior to conversion of the building into a jail. Some (later including Bingham who held a personal grudge against Ewing) claimed that the structure was undermined by the guards to cause its collapse while others maintained that it was structurally unsound before it was occupied. Other structures in Kansas City also collapsed; building codes were almost nonexistent at that time.[1] One possible reason, if they needed one for the attack on Lawrence may have also stemmed from reprisal for the Union’s attack on Osceola, Missouri in September 1861, led by Senator or General James H. Lane. Nine Osceola men were executed after this raid. The second Lawrence raid was in 1863 two years after the Osceola raid. The town was looted and burned and the men hanged. The attack was the product of planning. Quantrill had been able to gain the confidence of many of the leaders of independent Bushwhacker groups, and chose the day and time of the attack well in advance. The different groups of Missouri riders approached Lawrence from the east in several columns, and converged with well-timed precision in the final miles before Lawrence during the pre-dawn hours of the day. Many of the men had been riding for over 24 hours to make the rendezvous and had lashed themselves to their saddles to keep riding if they fell asleep. They were almost all armed with multiple, long-barreled, cap-and-ball revolvers, shoved crossways thru double-breasted shirt-fronts so they would not have to reload in the heat of a battle. [2]. Three or four hundred riders, descended with Quantrill into Lawrence, KS. In over a four hour period, Lawrence was pillaged and set fire to the town and murdered most of its male population. Quantrill’s men burned to the ground one in four buildings in Lawrence, including all but two businesses. They looted most of the banks and stores, as well. I had been researching my own family background. A distant cousin named Charles Swap//Swope was located in Lawrence at this time. He disappeared about the time of the raid, unfortunately the names Charles was a common name in my family line. A Charles Swap/Swope was also killed by Dr. Holliday some time after the war. Finally, they killed between 185 and 200 men and boys. According to an 1897 account, among the dead were 18 out of 23 “unmustered” army recruits. [3] There were numerous unidentified bodies. Less than an hour later, the raiders were on their way out of town, the few Union units that came in pursuit, were unable to catch up with Quantrill and his men. The real target of the raid may have been Jayhawking Senator James H. Lane, who had been responsible for the raid in Osceola, Missouri, two years earlier. He managed to escape death by racing through a cornfield in his nightshirt. The Lawrence Massacre was one of the bloodiest events in the whole history of Kansas. A day after the attack, the surviving citizens of Lawrence lynched a member of Quantrill’s Raiders caught in the town. On August 25, General Ewing authorized General Order No. 11 (not to be confused with Grant’s famous General Order of the same name) evicting thousands of Missourians in four counties from their homes near the Kansas border. Virtually everything in these counties was then systematically burned to the ground. The action was carried out by the infamous Jayhawker, Charles “Doc” Jennison. Jenison’s raids into Missouri were thorough and indiscriminate, and left five counties in western Missouri wasted, save for the standing brick chimneys of the two-storey period houses, which are still called “Jennison Monuments” in those parts. As with General Butler’s action in New Orleans to prevent harassing action against his officers and men, General Ewing’s action was effective against pro southern sympathizers. Unfortunately, it also drove pro union sympathizers into the Southern camp. After the war, lawyers were in short supply for those who wanted compensation for this action. The city seal of Lawrence, KS commemorates Quantrill’s attack with its depiction of a Phoenix rising from the ashes of the burnt city. For his part, Quantrill led his men south for the winter. By the next year, the raiders broken up, so were unable to achieve similar successes. Quantrill died of wounds received in 1865. In the city of Lawrence, there are various plaques or markers in memory of the massacre. I don’t know if the city of Osceola, Mo has similar plaques or markers for their massacre. Frank Bergquist graduated from Eddyville, IA, high school in 1958. After graduation, he entered the Army, serving 20 years in Missouri, Maryland, New Mexico, Germany, Iowa, Turkey, Kansas, S.E. Asia, and finally retiring in 1978 in Louisiana. Before retiring, Frank was assigned as an ROTC instructor at WSU and Kemper Military School until 1974. In 1978 he served as the Non-Commissioned officer in charge of operations at Fort Polk, LA. He has served as the Veterans Counselor (DVOP) with the Kansas Job Service Center National Service Office, with the Disabled American Veterans at the VA Regional Office in Wichita; Veterans Employment and Training Coordinator with the US Dept. of Labor at Ft. Riley, KS; Service Coordinator with Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation; Dept Adjutant-Treasurer and the Dept. Executive Director Dept. of Kansas Disabled American Veterans; and past President of the Wichita Civil War Round Table. Currently he is doing graduate work as an instructor in Genealogy and Military History at Wichita State and Kansas State Universities, and is the CEO for the Disabled American Veterans Thrift Stores in Wichita, KS. Bergquist has an AA from Kemper Military School and College from Boonville, MO. and a BGS from Wichita State University. He can be reached by phone at (316) 262-6501 or e-mail at davtswceo@sbcglobal.net and is located at 5455 E. Central, Wichita, KS. 67208.