Kansas State Historical Society / Quantrill...An American Terrorist

Tucson, Arizona: A Plus Printing Co. Compiler, 2005. John N. Edwards, in his book, "Noted Guerrillas, or the Warfare of the Border," says of William Quantrill "From him sprang all the other guerrilla leaders and bands which belong largely to Missouri and the part Missouri took in the civil war..." Our booklet "Quantrill ... an American Terrorist" looks at this early guerrilla through various writings, many of them first-hand accounts. The NEW spiral-bound 74 page booklet is compiled from excerpts from various volumes of the Kansas State Historical Society. It is printed on 8.5" x 11" 60# paper. The front cover is protected by a vinyl sheet. CONTENTS "Early Life of Quantrill in Kansas" -- W. A. Johnson, a captain of Company M, Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry, disputes a 1901 account of Quantrill by survivors of his band, who excused Quantrill's "acts of murder, arson, robbery and rapine" as just revenge for the murder of his brother by Kansas jayhawkers. Johnson's arguments are seconded in an article by Samuel Riggs of Lawrence, KS, originally published in the Kansas City Journal, October 24, 1901. Another Lawrence resident, Holland Wheeler, recalls Quantrill as "a Suspicious Loafer." A member of the First Kansas Battery, Sidney Herd, writes of Quantrill as "Always under an alias, and without visible means of support." (Vol. VII 1901-1902) "Quantrill and the Morgan Walker Tragedy" -- "Of the first tragedy in which the notorious guerrilla, William Clark Quantrill was the leading actor -- the Morgan Walker tragedy, enacted in the fall of 1860, in Jackson County, Missouri -- a numbr of conflicting accounts have from time to time appeared." The Rev. John J. Lutz attempts to separate fact from fiction in this article. (Vol. VIII 1903-1904) "The Lawrence Raid" -- This personal account of the Lawrence Raid is written by H.E. Palmer, a captain of Campany A, Eleventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. He writes "The bushwhacker or guerrilla had the advantage of union men in more ways than superior mounting and knowledge of the country. A great advantage was in their being untrammeled by any of the rules of civilized warfare..." (Vol. VI 1897-1900 ) "What I Saw of the Quantrill Raid" --Albert R. Greene, a solier in the ranks of the Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company A, gives his personal narrative of the 1863 raid on Lawrence Kansas, with an emphasis on the pursuit that followed. (Vol. XIII 1913-1914) "Statement of Captain J.A. Pike" -- Capt. Joshua Pike, company K Ninth Kansas Cavalry, was in command of the Union forces stationed at Aubry in Johnson county, Kansas, in the summer of 1863. He has been criticized for his failure to capture Quantrill's force following the Lawrence rail. (Vol. XIV 1915-1918) "The Burning of Osceola, Missouri, by Lane, and the Quantrill Massacre Contrasted" -- "In the conflicts of the war, Gen. James H. Lane, in command of the Kansas briggade of United States troops, destroyed the thriving town of Osceola, Mo.; and the principal defense of the most terrible massacre of the war comes from enemies of the union, claiming that the destruction of Lawrence and the murder of 180 unarmed citizens by Quantrill was an act of justifiable retaliation for Lane's act in the destruction of Osceola." (Vol. VI 1897-1900) . Limited Edition Reprint. Spiral/Comb. New/No Jacket. 8.5" x 11". Private Press.