- Joined
- May 4, 2015
- Location
- Boonville, MO.
Dang, Booner. ... I have to remind myself that I am a lot older than you!
Like what, 2-3 years? We're both old farts!
Dang, Booner. ... I have to remind myself that I am a lot older than you!
..... 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........
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.
Shhh...don't tell anyone - ....supposedly was an "interest" of Cole Y's ........ I'm not too familiar with Riley - will have to do some googling on him.
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?
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?
I'm only quoting your final sentence, but I want you to know that I think your entire post was very well thought out, very sensitive to the specific topic, and very well stated. Thanks for posting it!While nearly every Missourian suffered during this war, women and children were especially susceptible.
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 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.
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.
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!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, 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.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.
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.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 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.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.