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THIS WEEK IN TEXAS HISTORY**N\\Guerrillas Torment N. Texas^ceNiLHHi* Quantrill’s Raiders Camp Was Near ShermanBy BARTER HAILEDec. 31. 1863, a New Year’s Eve bash at a Sherman dance hall ended in a wall-to-wall brawl. The party-goers who pounded each other senseless all were members of the notorious guerrilla band, Quantrill’s Raiders.After leaving Lawrence, Kansas, in ashes, Col. William Clarke Quantrill wisely decided to lie low for the winter. On a creek north of Sherman, hundreds of miles from his familiar haunts, he ordered the 300 Confederate irregulars to make camp. For rest and recreation, the marauders tormented North Texans and fought among themselves like cats andA 26 year-old ex-teacher, Quantrill seemingly started his checkered career with honorable intentions. During the first months of the Civil War. he rallied Missouri farmers to resist the frequent attacks of Jayhawkers from neighboring Kansas.Northern authorities only made matters worse in early 1862 by branding the sod-busters as outlaws subject to summary execution. Strengthened by a wave of angry recruits, Quantrill wrested control from the Yankees of Independence, Missouri, an achievement that won mm a commission as a Confederate captain.The schoolmaster’s style of all-out combat attracted a cast of shady characters. Cole Younger and the James Brothers, Frank and Jesse, represented Missouri youths craving revenge against the Union army, while others like Little Archie Clement, who scalped fallen foes, were murderous maniacs. Many of the rest were common criminals interested in no-tantly obeyed and was not surprised by the results. The trtrigger happy raiders were good alright at hunting down deserters but even better at finding excuses to riddle them with bullets. Very few lived long enough to return to active duty.The New Year’s Eve melee revealed the seething conflicts festering within the Quantrill ranks. The Lawrence slaughter gnawed at the consciences of a few raiders, while others had surmised that the Southern cause was doomed after the defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. But most simply felt they were not receiving a fair share of the loot.A rash of murders and robberies in January 1864 was blamed on the Quantrill incorrigible* and again prompted McCulloch to write Kirby-Smith. Swearing that the Missourians were but one shade better than highwaymen, he maintained that the guerrillas regard the life of a man less than you would a sheep-killingBy the time the undaunted Texan amassed sufficient evidence to call Quantrill on the carpet, petty squabbles and defections had reduced the band to less than a hundred. WhenQuantrill set foot in Bonham, he instantly was arrested for the recent crime wave.However, while McCulloch took a dinner break, the resourceful prisoner escaped from his hotel room cell. Quantrill rallied his remaining riders.hurriedly broke camp and left Texas for good.In less than a year, the colonel was replacedat gunpoint by an ambitious underling. But with his blood ccurdling reputation, he had nolirrrViil* ftml iIlOp-EdA Page Of OpinionPAGE 5ASunday, December 28. 1986thing more than plunder.Failing to find the elusive guerrillas, Northern soldiers seized the wives, mothers and sisters of identified Quantrill followers. The unsuspecting citizens of Lawrence. Kansas, paid dearly for this blunder. In the bloody raid of August 1863, 150 inhabitants were killed, and the town went up in flames.At his headquarters in nearby Bonham, Brigadier General Henry McCulloch was informed of the raiders’ arrival. Well acquainted with their dubious exploits, he protested to his superior that certainly we cannot as a Christian people sanction a savage, inhuman warfare in which men are shot down like dogs.In an effort to calm the fears of his subordinate, Gen. Edmund Kirby-Smith replied that the Quantrill contingent was composed of bold, fearless men” and the very best class of Missourians.” He encouraged McCulloch to utilize their special expertise by sicking die guerrillas on the Confederate deserters hiding out in North Texas.Against better judgment, McCulloch reluc-trouble starting over with a new batch of volunteers. Out to prove that he was no has-been. Quantrill dreamed up his most daring and diabolical deed to date.On his way to Washington to kill Abraham Lincoln, he discovered in April 1865 that an upstaging actor had beaten him to the President. Seriously wounded the next month in a Kentucky skirmish with a Federal patrol, helingered three weeks before finally dying. At the request of his mother, Quantill’sremains were dug up 22 years later. However, before a second burial in his native Ohio, a family friend with an ironclad stomach sold several of his famous bones to the highest bidder.In the 1940’s the missing skull was located in a college fraternity house where the relic was used for initiation rites. The ghoulish episode seemed strangely appropriate for Quantrill. whom many thought had lost his head while still alive and kiclung.lt;Bartee Haile is a free-lance writer based in Pearland, Texas.)
Newspaper Details
Kerrville Daily Times
Kerrville, Texas, US
Sun, Dec 28, 1986
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Natalie B.
TX, USA 14 Oct 2016
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