QUANTRILL'S LAST RIDE

By Stuart W. Sanders

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When Confederate fortunes plummeted in Missouri, fearsome guerrilla leader William Clarke Quantrill and his band of hardened killers headed east to terrorize Union soldiers and civilians in Kentucky. It would be Quantrill’s last hurrah.

In July 1857, William Clarke Quantrill wrote to his mother back home in Ohio. “I have but one wish, and that is that you were here,” he told her, “for I cannot be happy here all alone; & it seems that I am the only person or thing that is not happy along this beautiful stream.” Eight years later this apparently tender, lonely young man would die in a Louisville, Kentucky, prison, notorious for being one of the most vicious butchers in the Civil War.

Quantrill was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, on July 31, 1837, the oldest of 12 children. Even as a child, he evinced a twisted, cruel nature. He nailed snakes to trees, shot pigs through the ears to hear them squeal, and tied cats together by their tails and watched them claw each other to death. Walking through fields, he would stab horses and slice open cows.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Quantrill began teaching school at age 16. Not content to tutor others, in 1857 the restless young man moved to Kansas in search of his fortune.

Standing 5 feet 9 inches tall, young Quantrill had a slight frame, reddish hair and cold, steel-blue eyes. One historian described him as “bold and physically courageous [but] a sham and almost completely amoral.” Quantrill honed his violent nature while living with thieves, murderers and brigands in Kansas. When the Civil War erupted, Quantrill–who had already committed several brutal murders–eagerly fought with the Confederate army at Wilson’s Creek and Lexington, Mo. By Christmas 1861, however, the 24-year-old Quantrill had organized a small band of pro-Confederate guerrillas to fight and kill Union soldiers and pro-Northern civilians whenever and wherever the opportunity arose.

As the guerrilla band gained notoriety, the group expanded in number. Quantrill, who was rapidly becoming infamous for murder, robbery and the mutilation of the dead, masterminded the August 21, 1863, massacre at Lawrence, Kan., in which 150 men and boys were brutally slain. Two weeks later, the band perpetrated another slaughter at Baxter Springs, Kan., where the bushwhackers attacked a Union headquarters train. The merciless guerrillas killed 98 Federals and lost only six of their own men. It was later reported that the guerrillas had mutilated the dead bluecoats.

Despite his often demonstrated adeptness at killing, Quantrill’s band grew annoyed with their leader’s frequent absences and attempts to secure a high Confederate rank, and soon dissolved into rival factions. Although his personal popularity waned, Quantrill still kept many well-known guerrillas in his service, including Jim Younger and his cousin, Frank James.

In October 1864, Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price was defeated at Westport, Mo., and Mine Creek, Kan. As Southern hopes for a Confederate-controlled Missouri plummeted, Quantrill’s guerrilla band faced imminent destruction. Fearing capture and execution by Union authorities in Missouri, Quantrill gathered approximately 40 bushwhackers in mid-December and headed east, forever turning his back on Missouri.

Crossing the Mississippi River above Memphis on New Year’s Day, the guerrillas, wearing captured Federal uniforms, assumed the identity of the nonexistent U.S. 4th Missouri Cavalry. Posing as “Captain Clarke,” Quantrill informed his men that they would enter Kentucky and ride to Washington, D.C., where the guerrilla chieftain planned to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Quantrill may have made the statement in jest, for many in his command later scoffed at this claim. Others vowed that their commander did plan to kill the Union commander in chief. Conversely, Quantrill, knowing that the war would soon end, may have planned to go to Virginia to surrender his band with Robert E. Lee’s army, believing his men would get a reprieve in Virginia. In Missouri they faced certain execution.

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