America’s Civil War: Guerrilla Leader William Clarke Quantrill’s Last Raid in Kentucky

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Following the sack of Danville, the guerrillas rode westward toward Perryville, the scene of an October 1862 battle. Union commanders, however, were not dwelling on past fights–they were searching for a new way to catch Captain Clarke. That afternoon, Union brigadier general and Danville native Speed F. Fry sent Federal forces in Lebanon an order to’send one detachment through Perryville and one directly to Perryville. Order your men not to take any prisoners if they find them. Tell your men to be very careful, as guerrillas are arrayed in Federal uniform.’ Tired of statewide bushwhacker attacks, angered that the guerrillas were so bold as to wear Federal uniforms and sickened by the plundering of his hometown, Fry ordered Union troops to hoist the black flag. As Quantrill’s men had offered no mercy, Fry called for no quarter.

Riding a number of miles toward Perryville, the guerrillas swung north toward Harrodsburg, with Federal patrols on their tail. As night approached, the band split up into several groups to dine and sleep in private homes. Five miles from Harrodsburg, Quantrill slept in the residence of Mrs. Sallie Van Arsdell while other guerrillas found refuge with her neighbor John Adams. Later in the evening, a group of Federal troops under Captain J.H. Bridgewater surrounded the Adams house. As the bushwhackers tried to escape, Bridgewater’s men killed four guerrillas and captured nine others, including Jim Younger.

Quantrill somehow managed to gather his remaining men and escape town. Those killed outside the Adams house were buried in the Oakland Church cemetery, but were re-interred 40 years later in Harrodsburg’s Spring Hill Cemetery, where they could rest with other Southern dead. The prisoners, who stated they were going to Virginia (which could lend credence to Quantrill’s plot to assassinate Lincoln or surrender with Lee), were jailed in Lexington, but eventually moved to Louisville. One guerrilla, accused of killing the Union lieutenant in Hustonville, was held in Lexington but was released after the war. According to McCorkle, the prisoners were constantly threatened with execution, but they bravely defied their captors.

With a portion of the band killed and captured, Quantrill gathered his men and rode to Nelson County. The guerrillas were harassed by Union militia but managed to drive them off. At this time Quantrill may have consolidated forces with Sue Mundy, one of Kentucky’s most notorious guerrillas. Mundy, whose real name was Marcellus Jerome Clarke, was called ‘Sue’ because his youth, flowing locks and cleanshaven face gave him a feminine appearance. Mundy had served in John Hunt Morgan’s command and entered the commonwealth with Morgan’s raiders. After Morgan’s death in September 1864, he re-entered Kentucky to wage a one-man guerrilla war against Federal troops. On January 29, the same day as Quantrill’s Danville raid, Mundy skirmished with the 54th (Union) Kentucky near Bardstown.

By January 30, the chase was on. Union commanders had mobilized all nearby troops to catch or kill the elusive Clarke. Three miles from Chaplintown, Federal soldiers had a running fight with Clarke’s guerrillas and wounded one of them while others with better horses escaped. Two days later, Union Colonel H.M. Buckley, commander of the 54th Kentucky, wrote to his superiors ‘I chased Quantrill all day yesterday from Spencer through Shelby toward the Louisville and Frankfort Railroad; am still after him; will catch him if I can.’ Buckley, who previously had repulsed Sue Mundy’s forces, now hunted both guerrillas. Union forces at last were learning that the mysterious Captain Clarke was the notorious Missouri bushwhacker.

Entering the town of Midway on the night of February 2, the combined force of Quantrill and Mundy robbed citizens, burned the railroad depot and stole 15 thoroughbreds from a nearby farm. The previous night the guerrillas had put a railroad depot and freight cars to the torch at Lair Station. In a panic-ridden dispatch, Buckley reiterated that the dreaded Missourian was in the commonwealth. He wrote: ‘We have chased Sue Munday’s [sic] gang into Henry. Our horses are worn out; can’t do anything without fresh horses. Please send some, if only fifty. Quantrill is with the gang.’

Passing by New Market at 11 a.m. on February 8, the band attacked a Federal wagon train. The guerrillas killed three soldiers, captured four others, burned a number of wagons and shot all the mules. Following the raid, Major Thomas Mahoney of the Lebanon-based 30th Kentucky Mounted Infantry feared that the remainder of his wagon train would be reduced to cinders by Quantrill’s men. Organizing all available troops, the Federals pursued the guerrillas, skirmishing with them all the way to Bradfordsville. Most of the Union soldiers facing the bushwhackers were from the invalid corps–Mahoney wrote that many ‘could not master horses and load their guns.’

Chased to Bradfordsville, the guerrillas wheeled their mounts and prepared to make a stand. The Federals dismounted, and–employing a tactic used numerous times in Missouri–the guerrillas drew their revolvers and charged. According to Mahoney, the guerrillas numbered 45, while 35 ill or disabled men filled the Union ranks. Mahoney remembered that during the excitement of the charge, some of his men ‘let their horses get away, which ran to the guerrillas.’ A portion of Mahoney’s already understrength command then withdrew without orders, causing the frustrated major to halt his pursuit. Following the charge, the guerrillas killed the four Federals they had captured at New Market.

The following day, word spread about the Bradfordsville fight. Union troops stationed at Crab Orchard, Campbellsville, Columbia, Danville, Stanford, Lebanon and Lawrenceburg all moved after the guerrillas. They left the local citizenry to guard each unprotected town. At 2 a.m., the Federal detachment from Stanford, under Captain J.H. Bridgewater (who had attacked the guerrillas at Harrodsburg), again encountered the band on Little South Fork, west of Huston-ville. It is probable the guerrillas were surprised in camp, for Bridgewater’s men ‘killed 4, captured 35 horses and equipments; ran 30 or 35 of their men into the woods, most of whom were barefooted; only 7 got away mounted. Captain Clarke escaped barefooted, but our men in three detachments are hunting for them and with good prospect of finding them as the snow is fresh on the ground.’

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Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures

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