Union vs CSA Guerrilla

[lupaglupa]

@USS ALASKA it looks like you will never run out of new articles to post on this topic!

 

[Fairfield]

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

An aside. For those of us without Google, JSTR allows free access to anyone for 100 articles per year. From that same page, click on "another way" (something like that), decline the university log-and set up your own account.

Also, many state libraries pay for subscriptions to sites such as JSTR and GALE--they allow anyone in the state free access to these databases as long as the user is in the state (for example, if I tried to log in from NH, I'd be denied even though I am a Maine citizen and pay taxes in Maine). This is true of large in-state libraries as well (you just have to get yourself a remote library card).

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Journal Article
Indebtedness and the Origins of Guerrilla Violence in Civil War Missouri
Mark W. Geiger
The Journal of Southern History
Vol. 75, No. 1 (Feb., 2009), pp. 49-82
Southern Historical Association

View attachment 539511

Indebtedness and the Origins of Guerrilla Violence in Civil War Missouri on JSTOR

Mark W. Geiger, Indebtedness and the Origins of Guerrilla Violence in Civil War Missouri, The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Feb., 2009), pp. 49-82

www.jstor.org

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

The same thing happened to an extent in Arkansas, immediately to the south of Missouri.

 

[USS ALASKA]

From the author of...

Civil War Unionists and Their Legacy in the Arkansas Ozarks

Southern Unionist Chronicles ....Arkansas | Civil War Potpourri

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/northwest-arkansas-union-ancestors.94949/ First Arkansas Union Infantry From A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion Regimental Histories By Frederick H. Dyer Organized at Fayetteville, Arkansas, and mustered in March 25, 1863. Attached to District Southwest...

civilwartalk.com

Journal Article
No Country for Old Men: Patriarchs, Slaves, and Guerrilla War in Northwest Arkansas
Rebecca A. Howard
The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Winter 2016), pp. 336-354
Arkansas Historical Association

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26281726

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Trooper "D"]

Technically a guerrilla is the old name for insurgent. A guerrilla could truly only exist in its own envioronment. Any force that ventures outside its area would not be considered as such.

We need to focus in specifics.

For instance:

How did union guerrillas perform in middle and west tennessee?

How did rebel guerrillas perform in East Tennessee?

Border states such as Kentucky and Missouri are a tough nut to crack.

It may be dependent on who controlled what and when.

This is a hard question indeed, but there is an answer.

Guerrillas are hard to operate against and still are. I think they may have been equally effective until the dominating side began to take control.

That being said, I would suppose the rebel guerrillas would be more effective simply base off the fact the had more time to be effective. The south rarely encroached on the north, but when they did they certainly paid in unconventional warfare.

Guerilla just means Little War. War within war. CW Guerrillas probably did stick to a locale where neighbors and friends could help them. In the 2nd Boer War then cammandoes ranged far but had a home base. The British finally rounded up all the alleged supporters into concentration camps and burned the farmhouses. That really put a damper on Boer commando operations. It turned out horribly with disease running rampant. I think the only way to stop partisan operations would have been to do something similar to the British in South Afrika. The only problem being that the families of both sides lived in close proximity to each other. Weeding out the enemy would have been impossible.
No one has mentioned the Red Legs. Kansas Jayhawkers.

 

[Trooper "D"]

Good point in that Confederate guerrillas (Samuel Hildebrand arguably the most infamous example) used captured Union uniforms and supplies. Of course the flip side of the coin is that federal soldiers in Missouri some times disguised themselves
as Confederate guerrillas . Imagine being a farmer your house is surrounded by armed men and you have no idea who they really are and anything you do may very well be wrong move.
Apparently this COIN technique worked because the British, Portuguese and Rhodesians used this technique in their twentieth century COIN wars. The Taliban and ISIS use disguises to this day. You just can't go wrong with the classics.

I would argue light uniformed cavalry that makes raids behind enemy lines and is based in its own territory are not guerrillas.
I would argue that the basic definition of a guerrilla is a band of fighters that are not members of a recognized armed force and for the most part use hit and run techniques.
Leftyhunter

Partisans.

 

[Trooper "D"]

Their was as this thread notes guerrilla warfare in all eleven states of the Confederacy plus major guerrilla activity in Missouri, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Their were some guerrilla raids in Kansas and apparently limited guerrilla warfare in Southern Illinois.
The amount of guerrilla warfare varies from state to state and country to country.
The guerrilla warfare of the Civil War is in a sense the most modern aspect of the Civil War in that other nations as previously mentioned use Civil War guerrilla techniques to this day
Also has in the present day rules of warfare are meant to be broken.
Leftyhunter

Those tactics are ancient. Just different weapons and different causes.

 

[Trooper "D"]

It was an entirely different war in Missouri and to an extent Kansas.The Border had been at war since roughly 1854 on and off, that eventually morphed and heated up in 61 causing Kansas to renew it's raids and attacks on Missouri and also people from slave states living within Kansas, not slave holders as slavery was not legal in the beknighted flatland to west, just people of southern background, Missourians during the border war did raid into Kansas, however the first small partisan bands were in response to Lane and Jennisons raids into Missouri as pretty much retribution for Missouri raids during the Border war and to punish "evil" slave holders and "secesh". Who everyone in the North knew where "secesh and slave holders thanks to that Twit Horace Greely's published screed's against Missouri during the Border Troubles.

The Partisan's units grew from small to larfer and Large when the Union Occupied the "Black Belt" of the MRV blocking routes to the MSG and CS forces for man wishing to enlist. TRhey further enlarged when Gamble required mandetory enrollment in the Unionist EMM,

Missouri's war became every thing a real Civil War is. Nieghbor against Nieghbor father against son brother against brother.It was not the honrable war of the "great" war in the east , excuse me the stalemate in the easet. it was bloody horrible and it in many ways continued well after Saint Bobby E. Lee, gave up the Ghost in Virginny.That's the short of it,

A real civil war is two or more factions fighting for control of the one government. 1861-1865 was not that. Brother against Brother has nothing to do with it. Although that can happen it is not a defining characteristic of civil war. Missouri became a free for all over Pre war issues that still simmered and occasionally boiled over. Extremely brutal at times. Bloody. Not civil war but Clanism. No matter what uniforms were worn it wasn't about CSA or USA.

 

[Trooper "D"]

A quick question, do you all consider the Jayhawkers and Redlegs Union guerrillas? I have done some research on their activities during the war.

A quick question, do you all consider the Jayhawkers and Redlegs Union guerrillas? I have done some research on their activities during the war.

I do.

 

[Trooper "D"]

It would be very difficult to catalog which each and every regiment did or did not do in terms of violating military law in Missouri and or other states. Has you know I am slowly complying a reasonably accurate list of all regiments on all sides involved in COIN duty at some point in their regimental duties.
Other posters have pointed out that French forces in Spain at the turn of the nineteenth century were far more brutal fighting Spanish guerrillas the Union forces 60 odd years later.
Compared to future COIN conflicts including those of the U.S. the mistreatment of civilians by the Union is mild. One could argue that the COIN war against the American Indians was also more brutal.
Leftyhunter

Oh yeah, I saw that on Sharpe.

 

[Trooper "D"]

I think you are right. Looking at COIN conflicts as a whole, the Civil War in Missouri was not that bad. I definitely think that the COIN war against the American Indians was more brutal.

Unless you were the victim.

 

[Trooper "D"]

Without Lee calling it "quits". This could have gone on for at least another 50 years via bushwacking - which would have been devastating to both sides but I think much more so to the South. In April 1865, I think Lee was a much more commanding presence than Davis, Lee surrendered with Honor, Davis fled in a less than noble fashion

I don't think Davis was less then noble when leaving. He had a guard and the government officials and the treasury. He wasn't just giving up.

 

[TnFed]

Of course partisan warfare in East TN was still going strong after the war. Tennessee's Radical Army and the KKK just kept on going at it. I know the Beatty clan was represented in the State Guard for Fentress County and I expect some of their old foes were on the other side.

 

[leftyhunter]

Those tactics are ancient. Just different weapons and different causes.

The concept of protected villages and civic action aka hearts and minds arguably goes back to USAF Colonel Landsdale who was an advisor to the Philippines Secretary of Defense in the post WW2 Huk Rebellion. The concept of tracking down guerrillas, ambushing them and population removal are rather old school.
Leftyhunter

 

[TnFed]

"Tracking down guerrillas, ambushing them"
Hence the use of the little spoken TN Mounted Infantry USA. Tennessee Rebs and Tories knew the area. Folks seem to think that Yankees from the streets of Chicago just came down and tracked partisans who had lived in the woods their whole life. Just like no mention of Crow scouts with the US Cavalry. Yeah, white guys from Boston just chased the Sioux around all by themselves. From what I have read the British military knew how to use locals in insurgency warfare. But you know more about that than me.

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/180231298?objectPage=7

"Bushwhacker" John Kirkland
Kirkland was a 1st Lieutenant in Vaughn's 3rd Tennessee until he deserted. He applied for a Confederate pension, then left most of the questions blank.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41225010

(My 4 x removed 2nd cousin)
Captain Joseph C. Gray, a Union officer in the 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (Union), was ambushed at his home near the Little Tennessee River on January 15, 1865. The gang murdered Gray and celebrated with a drunken party, during which their women allegedly danced around a campfire wearing Gray's stolen cavalry boots. Years later, Gray's widow, Rachel McCall Gray, reportedly refused to forgive one of the gang members on his deathbed, responsible for her husband's death, "damming his soul to hell."

 

[TnFed]

View attachment 551889

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/180231298?objectPage=7

"Bushwhacker" John Kirkland
Kirkland was a 1st Lieutenant in Vaughn's 3rd Tennessee until he deserted. He applied for a Confederate pension, then left most of the questions blank.

View attachment 551892

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41225010

View attachment 551895



(My 4 x removed 2nd cousin)
Captain Joseph C. Gray, a Union officer in the 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (Union), was ambushed at his home near the Little Tennessee River on January 15, 1865. The gang murdered Gray and celebrated with a drunken party, during which their women allegedly danced around a campfire wearing Gray's stolen cavalry boots. Years later, Gray's widow, Rachel McCall Gray, reportedly refused to forgive one of the gang members on his deathbed, responsible for her husband's death, "damming his soul to hell."

Gray was also an officer with the 2 TN CAV. USA. He served honorably there also. A couple of my Horton relatives served under him in the 3rd. Just to show how how confusing the war was in East TN. 3 or 4 of the Kirkland clan served under him for the Union...Charles Kirkland, William T Kirkland and two James A Kirklands, don't know if that is a typo or maybe father and son.

 

[TnFed]

Gray was also an officer with the 2 TN CAV. USA. He served honorably there also. A couple of my Horton relatives served under him in the 3rd. Just to show how how confusing the war was in East TN. 3 or 4 of the Kirkland clan served under him for the Union...Charles Kirkland, William T Kirkland and two James A Kirklands, don't know if that is a typo or maybe father and son.

John Jackson Kirkland and his brother Jesse were the most feared of Confederate partisans in the Unaka Mountains. Tim Lyons and James K. Morrow (my g g uncle) were their counterpart for the Union. Jesse had at one time infiltrated Lyons company. Lyons and his men later tracked Jesse down and killed him across the State line in Graham County NC.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Journal Article
Guerrillas: The Real War in Arkansas
Daniel E. Sutherland
The Arkansas Historical Quarterly
Vol. 52, No. 3 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 257-285
Arkansas Historical Association

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40030851

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Journal Article
Guerrillas: The Real War in Arkansas
Daniel E. Sutherland
The Arkansas Historical Quarterly
Vol. 52, No. 3 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 257-285
Arkansas Historical Association

View attachment 551928

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40030851

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

Very interesting to me, as my great grandfather Thomas Rich of the 13th Illinois Cavalry was assigned to Arkansas under General Steele.