The very sad life of a Guerrilla's wife.

..... I would be willing to bet that most of these men, like my relative George"Bud" Wigginton who rode with Quantrill, settled down after the war and led as peaceful lives as possible........

If George "Bud" Wiggington is your relative, then you're related to many more of Quantrill's guerrillas, such as the Youngers, McCorkles, (including Jabez, first husband of Nannie), the Harris', and my favorite little guerrilla, Riley Crawford. "Bud's" mother maiden name was Fristoe, as was the maiden name of the mothers of all I listed above. (They were all first cousins to each other). It's been estimated that 30 some percent of Quantrill's men were all related to each other, with the Fristoe name being the most prominent.
 
Shhh...don't tell anyone - :bounce: Yes, I have read that before but haven't chased it around too much. George is mentioned a lot in John M's book as was his sister Molly who supported Quantrill's activities and supposedly was an "interest" of Cole Y's somewhere along the line. I'm not too familiar with Riley - will have to do some googling on him.
 
Quantrill's Raiders were not soldiers or guerrillas they were cold-blooded killers who were also rebuked by the Confederacy even Jefferson Davis wanted nothing to do with them. It's naturally easy to feel bad for the wife and their family members but for those people who fort with Quantrill nothing nothing at all.

I certainly think you are entitled to your opinion, but I don't think this forum was designed for debate, and since I started this post I would ask everyone to refrain from making comments that may stir things up.

If you want to make a post regarding guerrillas in the general forum, I'd be happy to debate you there.

my regards,
Booner
 
I had not seen a good image of Nannie H. McCorkle in a long time. I am of the opinion that the collapse was caused by a variety of causes. I have read both new and old articles about the collapse. Some say it is a mystery. George Caleb Bingham said the collapse was destroyed while thus occupied by the soldiers removing support columns. He had a 3rd floor added for a studio. He owned the property. Others pointed to bad construction (built in the late 1850's), the structure was shoddily built and had stress cracks, hogs rooted around the foundation caused it to fail, while others said the women themselves were to blame by trying to tunnel out. The real villain maybe the soldiers who removed supports in the building next to enlarge a first floor common space. No one knows beyond that. The winds probably caused the first building to collapse, and in turn the temporary jail. Some of the info for this post came from a KC Star article.
 
Shhh...don't tell anyone - :bounce: ....supposedly was an "interest" of Cole Y's ........ I'm not too familiar with Riley - will have to do some googling on him.

No offence to John McCorkle's sister, but I think a lot of women held Cole's interest!

And Riley Crawford, another sad sad story. Maybe I should post something on him, as there is a picture of him. Among other things he had two married sisters killed in the jail collapse, (one who's married name was Van Bibber?, I don't remember the other at present). But I think he was 14 when he became one of Quantrills' "Men."
 
Sorry - meant George's sister Molly. From what I've read I'm sure that's the case with Cole. Was just reading up on Riley. So many sad stories on both sides. 14? Can you even imagine?
 
Sorry - meant George's sister Molly. From what I've read I'm sure that's the case with Cole. Was just reading up on Riley. So many sad stories on both sides. 14? Can you even imagine?

No, I can't. His story is so terrible tragic. I'll post something on him in this forum in a few days.
He wasn't the youngest to join though. I'll have to look at my notes but there was a boy who was 13? when he joined, but I don't know his story, but he went by the nick name of "Anderson's Baby."
 
Before you judge, put yourself in some of these men's shoes. For instance, George's father was killed by jayhawkers in front of his mother and sister. What would you do in that situation? Join the jayhawkers?

As can be seen by this thread, and others on cwt, the topic of guerilla warfare is still one that is emotional over 150 years later. It is one thing to face an enemy on the battlefield, it is entirely different to wake up one day and find that neighbors you have broke bread with for years, gone to church with, and even had your kids marry, suddenly might shoot you for your political beliefs. Or to find that ever grudge held can suddenly be resolved with a bullet under the cover of 'war'. And if you think that it is a stretch of the imagination, feel free to study the war in Missouri. But be prepared. It will shake you to your core. And regretfully, the study of the Civil War in Missouri, is the study of guerilla warfare.

While I appreciate the defense of a relation above, it might be worth noting, that Bud Wigginton, who is one of the most documented members of the Quantrill group, joined Quantrill in August of 1862. His father was killed by Federal troops two years later for, according to one account by a fellow member, aiding the enemy (which according to his cousin's account, Bud's sister Mollie was indeed transporting and hiding percussion caps), or according to the historical account written by Paul Peterson, he was killed "in front of his wife and daughter because his son was a guerilla".

Probably not that important in the overall picture, and does not justify shooting an old man for what his kids were doing. But more facts available help the interested reader make a more informed decision.

https://archive.org/stream/threeyearswithqu01mcco/threeyearswithqu01mcco_djvu.txt (Bud, his father and his sister, being related to the author, are mentioned throughout this book - as is Nannie, the topic of this thread

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=175201486

While nearly every Missourian suffered during this war, women and children were especially susceptible.
 
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I had not seen a good image of Nannie H. McCorkle in a long time. I am of the opinion that the collapse was caused by a variety of causes. I have read both new and old articles about the collapse. Some say it is a mystery. George Caleb Bingham said the collapse was destroyed while thus occupied by the soldiers removing support columns. He had a 3rd floor added for a studio. He owned the property. Others pointed to bad construction (built in the late 1850's), the structure was shoddily built and had stress cracks, hogs rooted around the foundation caused it to fail, while others said the women themselves were to blame by trying to tunnel out. The real villain maybe the soldiers who removed supports in the building next to enlarge a first floor common space. No one knows beyond that. The winds probably caused the first building to collapse, and in turn the temporary jail. Some of the info for this post came from a KC Star article.
The building collapse is, indeed, a mystery. It's controversial, too. I tend to agree with your line of thinking. There's no way the female prisoners could have undermined the foundation walls--they were locked on the third floor. The occupying soldiers did knock out supporting columns to make more room in the cellar. That was a very stupid thing to do. A merchant occupied the main floor. He knew the building was in danger of collapse and complained to Gen. Ewing. Ewing did nothing about it. This doesn't make Ewing directly guilty of killing the women, but it makes him negligent. In my opinion, it makes him criminally negligent. The merchant apparently moved most of his inventory out of the building before the collapse. I don't know what happened to the soldiers.

I'm normally a calm, level headed person, but if an enemy force imprisoned my sister or my wife and then my relation died or was injured in the collapse of that prison, I am pretty certain I'd blame the enemy. If the enemy stated that my relative caused the collapse by "tunneling" from the third floor, I'd know they were lying and I'd assume they were covering up their own misdeeds.

One has to admire the courage of people like Nannie McCorckle.
 
It was a tough war for women across the board. Thanks for her story- just came across a newspaper clipping of wives whose husbands were with the Quantrill, making another long trek. It would not have mattered which side a husband fought with- it was an awfully violent area. I'm still so shocked by the stories- problem being when the topic comes up, it tends to become contentious. A lot of History, stories women on both sides had to tell, gets missed.

Wish very much old, tiny cemeteries would receive funding and attention- across the board. Guessing we just do not know how many may have vanished through developing towns and cities.
Well actually findagrave.com is doing that and putting the info on their site. I don't think they have made it to the undocumented grave sites yet, but the small Cemetaries tucked away in the woods here in Mo. are finally being recognized and put on line. When I seen this couple wks ago I thought what an interesting job that would be!
 
If not for a bunch of cold blooded killers in blue whose "fighting" consisted of murdering and robbing old men and women, and burning houses of civilians, there would have been no guerrillas. Plenty of union officers realized the Kansas trash and some of the Missouri home guard was doing far more harm then good for the union cause.
 
If not for a bunch of cold blooded killers in blue whose "fighting" consisted of murdering and robbing old men and women, and burning houses of civilians, there would have been no guerrillas. Plenty of union officers realized the Kansas trash and some of the Missouri home guard was doing far more harm then good for the union cause.
Well, I will welcome you, because that's the polite thing to do where I live in Missouri. But you probably already know that your namesake/handle doesn't have any fans out here.

Your comments (I presume about jayhawkers and Redlegs) will have lots of sympathy here, but don't expect that to extend to Little Archie Clements.
 
Odd from what I've read he was respected with the men he served with and was 2nd in command of Bill Anderson, and at various times lead independent commands, during and after the war many a lad was named Archie or Clement after him in western mo. Major Montgomery who was responsible for his death even stated he'd never met a man with more grit.

I assume you mean he was a very violent man to his enemies, no denying that, but so were the times he lived in, violence to the point of sadism was hardly unique to him, and exhibited by both sides throughout the war in mo
 
SWMODave - You're right about the timeframe with respect to George. I knew he was suspected of being with Quantrill before his father's murder but didn't realize it had been that long. I've read McCorkle's book but don't remember Mollie being at the jail collapse being in there. Have you any other references for that as I would like to look that up. Haven't spent a lot of time researching her but do know that she is buried in the cemetery in Lee's Summitt as are George and their mother.

Also, do you know of any war time photos of George? I have seen the one supposedly from his wedding around 1900 I believe. As I tell people we are related up the tree and then back down again - "xth cousin x-removed" ha! His wedding portrait does bear a definite family resemblance to an uncle of mine.

As horrible as the war in Missouri was it does make for a fascinating study.
 
Odd from what I've read he was respected with the men he served with and was 2nd in command of Bill Anderson, and at various times lead independent commands, during and after the war many a lad was named Archie or Clement after him in western mo. Major Montgomery who was responsible for his death even stated he'd never met a man with more grit.

I assume you mean he was a very violent man to his enemies, no denying that, but so were the times he lived in, violence to the point of sadism was hardly unique to him, and exhibited by both sides throughout the war in mo
I would not go so far as to say he was respected. Feared by some, perhaps. Despised by others, perhaps. The very young Jesse Jame certainly came under his influence.

Do you know about the incident at Rawlings Lane? Little Archie was supposed to lure the militia soldiers into the lane, but he charged them instead. Ironically, the militia soldiers fought a well-executed retreat back towards Boonville. Their Captain panicked and abandoned them on the field (what a loser). In spite of that, they fought a good retreat. The fine militia officer, Reeves Leonard, came to the rescue and ran the Anderson men off. It is said that Anderson gave Little Archie a dressing down that he NEVER FORGOT!

I have always said the Missouri guerrillas should be evaluated as individuals. However, you must understand that I have also asserted that Anderson was probably insane with vengeance (William Gregg said he rode into battle frothing at the mouth) and I have always said that Little Archie was Andersons's toadie.

You will not like this appraisal, but that's okay, too.
 
Well I reckon archie made amends when they say he was the one who calmly led the decoy force that lead AVE Johnston out of town and to the selected ambush outside centralia, which lead to the most successfull charge of light horse of the war.

Which is pretty amazing since apparently the most successful large scale irregular attack of the war, which was carefully laid out and perfectly executed was conducted by an insane guy and his toadie according to your appraisial.....which i'm probally not going to put a lot of faith in and that's OK too
 
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I would not go so far as to say he was respected. Feared by some, perhaps. Despised by others, perhaps. The very young Jesse Jame certainly came under his influence.

Do you know about the incident at Rawlings Lane? Little Archie was supposed to lure the militia soldiers into the lane, but he charged them instead. Ironically, the militia soldiers fought a well-executed retreat back towards Boonville. Their Captain panicked and abandoned them on the field (what a loser). In spite of that, they fought a good retreat. The fine militia officer, Reeves Leonard, came to the rescue and ran the Anderson men off. It is said that Anderson gave Little Archie a dressing down that he NEVER FORGOT!

I have always said the Missouri guerrillas should be evaluated as individuals. However, you must understand that I have also asserted that Anderson was probably insane with vengeance (William Gregg said he rode into battle frothing at the mouth) and I have always said that Little Archie was Andersons's toadie.

You will not like this appraisal, but that's okay, too.
I like what you say about evaluating them as individuals. That's exactly how I feel. They were non conformist and that's much different than a soldiers mindset. Three men that come to mind that were completely different in their Cause, but fought together... Quantril, Anderson and Clement. Thats why they are so interesting to study.
 
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