Quantrill's War: The Life and Times of William Clarke Quantrill (1837-1865)

.....and fightin' means killin'. The great Nathan Bedford Forrest said that, and though he has nothing to do with this book, the saying sure does. Our Civil War can still ignite passions....one would have to look hard for an event from which the participants are all deceased to find one that inspires equal controversy. Just go to any large bookstore...In the border states, families were divided, friends became enemies, and brother really did fight against brother. Nowhere was this more true than in Missouri. Now, for the disclaimer: I am not a Quantrill's Raiders descendent [my ancestors fought for the Confederacy in southwestern Virginia]. My wife, however, is, and thus our two kids are. Our son will be happy to tell you. And not of just any Raider, but of Captain George Todd, the number two, and, later, number one, man in the whole outfit. Bear that in mind as you question my objectivity; I make no pretense to any. In the 1850's, America's house inexorably divided, and nowhere was this more obvious than Kansas and Missouri....Kansas-Nebraska...bleeding Kansas...Jayhawkers...John Brown's open, and above board, murders of the innocent in the name of abolitionism. Enter an intelligent, well-mannered, school teacher from Canal Dover, Ohio, William Clarke Quantrill. Young Quantrill went to Kansas seeking his fortune, or at least a living. According to legend, he was, in fact, a respected teacher. His pro slavery views got him in trouble with the half of the population that opposed slavery...and then.... .....came the war. Never in doubt about which side to fight for, Quantrill initially attached himself to regular Confederate units, under the overall command of Major General Sterling Price. Price was a good, decent, loyal, man, but not much of a General. Quantrill struck out on his own, with a varying number of followers, forming the prototype for modern Special Operations units. The followers became the stuff of legend...Jesse and Frank James...Cole Younger...Bill Anderson...George Todd...Fletch Taylor...Bill Gregg...Archie Clements... Initially, they played be the same rules that soldiers in other parts of the country did, taking prisoners, giving paroles, protecting civilians, etc. But, after the Union determined to treat the "Missouri Partisan Rangers" as outlaws, despite their official Confederate status, and after Osceola was burned, the black flag flew. Thomas Ewing issued the infamous Special Order No. 11 in 1863, banishing civilians from northwest Missouri. A number of the sisters, and other relatives, of Quantrill's troops were held in an unsafe jail in Kansas City. Whether the building was deliberately undermined, or just unsound, it collapsed, killing five women, and injuring more. Among the dead were Bill Anderson's sister and Cole Younger's cousin. Colonel Quantrill, and the others, had had enough...Lawrence was the result... As the war dragged on, men came and went, and Captain Todd eventually supplanted Colonel Quantrill.

I liked the book but there is a bias here on the part of the author. The book starts out doing an ok job of trying to separate fact from fiction. By the time in the narrative that we get to the Lawence Raid the author's bias slipped out. What is interesting is that Cole Younger is portrayed as a hero while the James Brothers and Quantrill are portrayed as the villains. Also I felt that too much time was spent listing the dead of the Lawerence Raid it was almost a blow by blow account. Overall-Still something that I and the author can agree on is that Quantrill was a terminal coward who was only out for his own personal glory. A previous reviewer mentioned Castel's biography and that should also serve as a companion book. Both have strength and flaws.

I grew up in Lawrence, KS, where 140 years after Quantrill's raid his name and legacy still carry some weight. I recommend ignoring the negative reviews on this page. These critics wrongly accuse Shultz of writing a book filled with inaccuracies. Personally, I think this would make a great high school history text for all KS and MO students. It is gripping and emotional, with some humor and a captivating narrator voice.

"Quantrill's War" by military historian and psychology professor Duane Schultz is meticulously researched and as fast-paced as a John Grisham novel. Schultz traces Quantrill's life from his birth in Ohio to his death in Kentucky, detailing how he went from a common hoodlum to a blood-thirsty guerrilla leader. Schultz clearly shows how Quantrill used the Civil War as an excuse to kill, pillage and terrorize the Kansas-Missouri border region. Schultz presents a well-documented and objective description of the bitter Kansas-Missouri civil war that began in the early 1850s with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It is a time that spawned fanatical killers like John Brown, Jim Lane (who Schultz correctly identifies as a Kansas senator contrary to the assertions of another reviewer) and the pro-Union Jayhawkers like Charles Jennison. Likewise, the Confederate side contributed Bushwhackers and Border Ruffians like Quantrill, Bloody Bill Anderson and George Todd - not to mention Cole Younger and his brothers and Frank and Jesse James. Schultz demonstrates how these men were not regular Confederate soldiers; they were a roving band of marauders who refused to take orders and prisoners - nor did they expect their enemies to have mercy on them. They torched the homes of civilians and then shot them "like sheep-killing dogs." And -- if possible -- they treated Union troops with even less respect, gunning down in cold blood those who tried to surrender. Schultz recounts in excruciating detail the massacre at Lawrence, going house to house with the raiders as they drag men from their homes and shoot them and set the town afire. Schultz presented the murders in a sequence that vividly created a sense of the mayhem of the raid. And make no mistake, Quantrill's men committed cold-blooded murder. They dragged men and boys from their homes and shot them to death in front of their wives and mothers. Women and children were spared in a strange recognition of chivalry. Lawrence wasn't a regular Civil War battle and Quantrill wasn't a regular Civil War leader, so neither the raid nor the man has been much more than a footnote in Civil War studies. But the historical significance of guerilla warfare by both Bushwhackers and Union Jayhawkers during the Civil War is finally receiving the attention it deserves. Schultz has done a fantastic job of making it accessible.

Written in an accessible style, this book will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in the civil War and the legend of the (in)famous William Quantrill. It reveals how the war helped create both the legend and reality of Quantrill and his gang, the Bushwhackers. According to Duane Schultz, Cpt Quantrill was a man hungry of power and thirsty of vengeance; a common outlaw and a killer. Quantrill ordered the raid on Lawrence in 1963. For hours the Bushwhackers rode through the street killing, burning and stealing. They had killed 150 men that day. The author tried to picture the psychological's profile of William Quantrill and sometimes gives subjectives affirmations to convince the readers he was the fiend incarnate. Nobody never get a truly balanced picture of the Civil war and Quantrill was probably not the devil Schultz thought he was. However "Quantrill's war" is a richly drawn study of the most controversial antihero of the United States history. PH. S.