William Quantrill's guerrillas/partisans

[Quantrill's Missouri]

Here is a link to the virtual cemetery of Quantrill's men and associates put together by Ron Mac at FindAGrave.

Capt. William Quantrill's Guerrillas - Find a Grave Virtual Cemetery

A curated virtual cemetery.

www.findagrave.com

Seven more confirmed Quantrill men are:
James "Wick" Welch, Decatur Cemetery, Decatur, Benton County, Arkansas (Warren Welch's brother)
Lemuel "Lem" Welch, Coats Cemetery, Benton County, Arkansas (Warren Welch's brother)
Thomas Warren, Rogers Cemetery, Rogers, Benton County, Arkansas
Joseph Coyl, Bozarth Cemetery, Gentry, Benton County, Arkansas
Jesse Carl, Gentry Cemetery, Gentry, Benton County, Arkansas
Samuel Hays, IOOF Cemetery, Eureka Springs, Carroll County, Arkansas (not kin to Upton Hays)
Mac Poisal, Sons Chapel Cemetery, Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas
Simeon Welch, Maysville Cemetery, Maysville, Benton County, Arkansas (The Welch brothers' father)

This is posted as a follow up to the Jawhawkers-5th Kansas Cavalry. It is for those interested for research, study, analyzing, genealogy or other purpose intended.

 

[DBT]

Thanks for this. James Hendricks was a cousin. I need to spend more time learning about my MO/AR ancestors.

Dave

 

[Paul Gillette]

It's a very interesting part of Civil War history, the Kansas-Missouri conflict, and one that is often overshadowed by the armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia. My father's ancestors were abolitionist Kansas Yankees, my mother's were slave-owning Missouri Confederates. In my lifetime, I knew people from both sides of the family who were born in the 1800's. They all stopped fighting that war a long, long time ago. I'll spend some time in the Quantrill cemetery, thank you very much for posting this.

 

[Quantrill's Missouri]

You're quite welcome, folks.

Paul, the Hawkers had to have someone to tick them off.

 

[Booner]

For me, this has been the most interesting post made on CWT in a long while.

I retired in 2016 and moved back to Missouri, where my interest in the Civil War became narrowed down primarily to the war in Missouri, which of course meant most of my CW studies revolved around the states' guerrilla war. Perhaps a year after I moved back, I read Joseph Beilein's book "BUSHWHACKERS: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri." In Beilein's book, he talks about something called the "Fristoe System" which is in reference to two Fristoe brothers that moved to Jackson County, Mo in the 1830's were they both married and seem to have produced a huge number of daughters. These daughters became the mothers of many of the men who rode with Quantrill. Beilein estimates that at least 30% of these Quantrill men were related to each other, (I think that percentage is higher). For some reason this set me off on a quest to develop a list of names of those Quantrill men in the hopes to further define those relationships among them. I have something in the neighborhood of 800 names of men who rode with Quantrill during the whole war, or perhaps only on a raid or two. It's amazing what I've found. For example, there's 5 or 6 Quantrill men who were all grandsons of Daniel Boone. John Noland, the negro guerrilla. was either the 1/2 brother or 1st cousin to the Noland brothers of Independence, MO. (Nolan Road in Independence/Kansas City is named after John Nolands' owner who was either his uncle or father. John is buried in a cemetery that borders on that road). My favorite guerrilla and one of the youngest of Quantrill's men (actually a boy of 13 when he became a guerrilla), was Riley Crawford. His mother was a Fristoe granddaughter, which means that Cole Younger and John McCorkle were amoung the many of his cousins riding with Quantrill. After Riley's father was killed by Federals and their farm burned leaving his mother destitute, the only option left to her was to take her 13-year-old son and give him over to his only male relatives, those men who rode with Quantrill. Riley was killed in 1864 about ten miles from where I live, and I've been to the cemetery where he is supposed to be buried in an unmarked grave. I note that there were a few Craford graves in the cemetery, so perhaps some distant relative of his who was living here at the time of his death had him buried in their family plot but left the grave unmarked to avoid trouble with the Federal authorities. His cousin, John McCorkle is buried about 8 miles from here, moving to this part of the state after the war. About four miles from me is a hollow in the Missouri river bluffs where in the summer of 1864, Col. Quantrill and his wife/girlfriend/companion, the lovely Cate King, spent the summer alongside a spring in the middle of a grove of trees. A few miles from their wooded campground is the grave of Richard Kimsey, who Quantrill killed during that summer because Richard was steeling horses from Howard County southerners in the name of Quantrill.

I spent some time looking at the comments made by the people who entered the person's info into Find-a-Grave, I caution everyone that the some of the people who entered this information did sloppy work. Many of the entries just don't make sense. In one case a child was born to one of the guerrillas 2 years after his death. Timelines are wrong. The guerrilla women who were imprisoned and died in the Kansas City jail collapse were imprisoned before Gen Ewing issued General Order #11, not after. It's not to say that the work they did is not valuable (especially to me), but I wish there was a way to edit their information in an easy manner.

I'd like to personally thank Quantrill's Missouri for making this post. I'll be using it to expand the work that I've been doing.

 

[Patrick H]

Here is a link to the virtual cemetery of Quantrill's men and associates put together by Ron Mac at FindAGrave.

Capt. William Quantrill's Guerrillas - Find a Grave Virtual Cemetery

A curated virtual cemetery.

www.findagrave.com

Seven more confirmed Quantrill men are:
James "Wick" Welch, Decatur Cemetery, Decatur, Benton County, Arkansas (Warren Welch's brother)
Lemuel "Lem" Welch, Coats Cemetery, Benton County, Arkansas (Warren Welch's brother)
Thomas Warren, Rogers Cemetery, Rogers, Benton County, Arkansas
Joseph Coyl, Bozarth Cemetery, Gentry, Benton County, Arkansas
Jesse Carl, Gentry Cemetery, Gentry, Benton County, Arkansas
Samuel Hays, IOOF Cemetery, Eureka Springs, Carroll County, Arkansas (not kin to Upton Hays)
Mac Poisal, Sons Chapel Cemetery, Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas
Simeon Welch, Maysville Cemetery, Maysville, Benton County, Arkansas (The Welch brothers' father)

This is posted as a follow up to the Jawhawkers-5th Kansas Cavalry. It is for those interested for research, study, analyzing, genealogy or other purpose intended.

Thank you for this link. I have visited several of these graves--many with our friend @Booner.

 

[Quantrill's Missouri]

I'm glad this thread has gone over so well! It really does my heart good and I appreciate the compliments and thanks very much! I am overwhelmed.

I caution those who do Quantrill research. I learned from the very best in Quantrill research in the Kansas City area. That being Donald Hale, Harold Dellinger, Paul Petersen and Joanne Chiles Eakin. And they told me to do Quantrill research very carefully.
Many men who say they rode with Quantrill might have. BUT.....they might've done it for one event and never did again. There were men who joined Quantrill specifically for the raid on Lawrence and then split. Or at Centralia and split. Or at Independence and split. Some puffed up their family lore by saying they rode with Quantrill, but never did. I learned very well to make absolutely, positively, without a speck of doubt sure that a person did, in fact, ride with Quantrill. Or Anderson or Pool, etc. for that matter. I took the bait of old yarns and fables when I started out and it came back to bite me. There are also gravestones out there that might say "Quantrill's Co." or "Quantrill's Cavalry" and they're false as far as any info because government stones, way back in the day, could be gotten a lot easier than modern times.
Unfortunately, some of you might not have the access to records and research that I have had. I'm sincerely not saying I am better than you. I am pointing out that some of the most confirmable information is hidden in obscure places. Like the many files and records in the Jackson County, Missouri Historical Society in Independence, Missouri that have Quantrill lists, handwritten by Warren Welch, where he names guerrillas outright. There are some Quantrill rosters out there in print. But not all of them. That's where a lot of my research was nailed down. I usually try to confirm what I am looking for by, at least, three different sources before I say it's true.
My advice to anyone doing Quantrill research is DIG! D-e-e-p. A good way to find confirmation of a person riding with Quantrill is, as I said, rosters, files, records, letters from reputable sources, time period newspapers that listed those who took the oath together in Lexington, Missouri and reputable books. I'll give you an example...page 492 from the book, "Branded as Rebels" by Joanne Chiles Eakin and Donald Hale. It was info they got straight from the Kansas City newspapers of the time. This a great example.
The Thomas Warren you see about middle of the right column is who I listed in Rogers, Arkansas. I did extensive work and found him in obscure files at the JCHS and in the Missouri Provost Marshal Records.
So please be careful. I say all of this from experience of stumbling over my own eagerness thinking I had something when I didn't.


Copyrighted image removed.

 

[archieclement]

Indeed but riding with him would still been riding with him.

Throughout the war in Missouri there's a phenomenon, at least seems on a larger scale, of individuals who would serve with whoever is in their area..........Price, Shelby, Marmaduke, recruiters like Porter or Poindexter, or with countless guerrilla bands...........but if they left their area....they returned home.

Personally I think the Confederacy abandoning aiding the state after WC, left little desire in many Missourians to aid them, other then if they were going to stay in their area. Because whenever the forces left, so did many of the newly joined recruits to go back home.

 

[Quantrill's Missouri]

Well, yes and no, arch. There is a stigma, for lack of a better phrase, of "riding with." Usually, riding with Quantrill is thought of as his usual men that was for awhile or through Quantrill's time of command. I learned that some would, no pun intended, ride that one ride and milk it. "Yeah. I rode with Quantrill." Technically, yes. But they would let it go like they were a long time Quantrill follower. So there's that line of was a person a Quantrill man (James, Pool, McCorkle, Gregg, Todd, etc.) or did they ride with Quantrill into Lawrence for that single time and never again. That's a main reason why you can find someone "rode with" Quantrill in family yarns and front porch stories, but they are nowhere to be found anywhere including the obscure places. I'm not preaching. This has just been the atmosphere of my learning and research.

 

[archieclement]

Well, yes and no, arch. There is a stigma, for lack of a better phrase, of "riding with." Usually, riding with Quantrill is thought of as his usual men that was for awhile or through Quantrill's time of command. I learned that some would, no pun intended, ride that one ride and milk it. "Yeah. I rode with Quantrill." Technically, yes. But they would let it go like they were a long time Quantrill follower. So there's that line of was a person a Quantrill man (James, Pool, McCorkle, Gregg, Todd, etc.) or did they ride with Quantrill into Lawrence for that single time and never again. That's a main reason why you can find someone "rode with" Quantrill in family yarns and front porch stories, but they are nowhere to be found anywhere including the obscure places. I'm not preaching. This has just been the atmosphere of my learning and research.

Again riding with is riding with. Certainly in units as loosely organized as guerrilla and recruiter bands where recruits could freely switch between bands or simply go home if they left their area.

Some you seem to include "with" Quantrill operated as much as their own Captain.........and very few "rode" with Quantrill in 1864-65, if assigning "rode with" as some unit or commander loyality......demonstrating the fluid nature of such commands.

Indeed others such as Anderson, Todd, Clement stars were on the rise as fast as Quantrills was declining. Q had become a dandy........

 

[Patrick H]

There were also some men who left Quantrill after Lawrence. Was it because they thought the raid was too excessive? Too dangerous? Or did they just want to distance themselves from the incident in hopes of escaping retaliation or prosecution? I suspect all of those reasons factored in. And don't forget that Anderson and Todd fell out with Quantrill in the winter of 63-64 because they thought he was too soft. They were more violent, while he was more cunning. I've thought for a long time that Todd's and Anderson's companies were responsible for the worst excesses at Lawrence, but of course I can't prove it. Things were very complicated. There are plenty of people to this day (and some of them are members here) who don't want to take the complicated point of view on Q.

 

[damYankee]

It's a very interesting part of Civil War history, the Kansas-Missouri conflict, and one that is often overshadowed by the armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia. My father's ancestors were abolitionist Kansas Yankees, my mother's were slave-owning Missouri Confederates. In my lifetime, I knew people from both sides of the family who were born in the 1800's. They all stopped fighting that war a long, long time ago. I'll spend some time in the Quantrill cemetery, thank you very much for posting this.

I am in the same boat, my mothers side of the family were New Englanders and mostly fire breathing abolitionist, my fathers side was 75% Yankee (Dutch Reformers) and 25% Rebels who had settled in Missouri and Kansas, so yeah, they actually faced each other in several battles/skirmishes in the war.
Do I feel any guilt over what my some of my ancestors did? Nope. Do I feel proud of what some of them did? Yep, and I don't feel any angst in making that conflicting statement, I can't take credit for or guilt for what others did before I was born, but I can and will take solace in the fact that our ancestors, (if your an American whose family roots go back to the 1600's or the 1700s) were part of the rich history of this nation.

 

[Quantrill's Missouri]

Right, arch. I get your point. I don't know. Maybe it's a more local thing or research thing. But again, there is the point of following Quantrill and making a single appearance. Maybe the correct phrasing is "follower." I'm just saying that there were many who milked the Quantrill closeness. Another example...there was one story I read where a man said that he was with Quantrill, but later backtracked a bit and said he rode with some of Quantrill's men, but never saw Capt. Quantrill personally. So, it's like "Yeah, I rode with Quantrill." to "Well, I, uh, rode with some of his men, but not with him directly." That's what I mean by milking it and being careful.

 

[Paul Gillette]

Right, arch. I get your point. I don't know. Maybe it's a more local thing or research thing. But again, there is the point of following Quantrill and making a single appearance. Maybe the correct phrasing is "follower." I'm just saying that there were many who milked the Quantrill closeness. Another example...there was one story I read where a man said that he was with Quantrill, but later backtracked a bit and said he rode with some of Quantrill's men, but never saw Capt. Quantrill personally. So, it's like "Yeah, I rode with Quantrill." to "Well, I, uh, rode with some of his men, but not with him directly." That's what I mean by milking it and being careful.

I find the same thing with Gen. N.B. Forrest. He commanded literally thousands of men during the war, some for only a few weeks, but every southern cavalryman after the war said he "rode with Forrest!".

 

[Booner]

Well, yes and no, arch. There is a stigma, for lack of a better phrase, of "riding with." Usually, riding with Quantrill is thought of as his usual men that was for awhile or through Quantrill's time of command. I learned that some would, no pun intended, ride that one ride and milk it. "Yeah. I rode with Quantrill." Technically, yes. But they would let it go like they were a long time Quantrill follower. So there's that line of was a person a Quantrill man (James, Pool, McCorkle, Gregg, Todd, etc.) or did they ride with Quantrill into Lawrence for that single time and never again. That's a main reason why you can find someone "rode with" Quantrill in family yarns and front porch stories, but they are nowhere to be found anywhere including the obscure places. I'm not preaching. This has just been the atmosphere of my learning and research.

From what you've written here QM, I'd say you and I of are of a like mind when it comes to the study of the guerillas. With the lack of any real form of organization, no rosters, no quarterly reports, it's very difficult to come up with a definitive history of their operations, much less who took part. With all of the information that I've gathered on them, if 70% of my work is close to being correct, I'd think I've done a good job. Sometimes, it just comes down to your "best guess" on what happened or who took part. As an example, every book that I've read that was written by someone who "rode with Quantrill" give a different story of the death of Al Carter, and none of them mention "Buck" Collins, and I feel, none of these accounts have the correct story. I have seen Carter named in a few of the action that occurred in western MO., which leads me to believe that he was a member of one of the guerrilla bands that operated under Quantrill before 1864. In the summer of that year, Central MO. was the center of guerrilla activity. Al Carter comes to Howard County under the command of Anderson where local guerrilla bands (like Capt. Jackman's) join forces with Anderson. Al Carter meets "Buck" Collins and they form a friendship, and they end up getting killed together. The story of how this happened is given in each of their "find-a Grave" accounts, so I don't need to repeat it here other than to say that the "find-a-Grave account is given by an eyewitness to what happened, and there's a grave over in the Salt Creek Cemetery that contains their two bodies. But their story does point out that one has to be very careful with their studies of the Guerrillas and the conclusions they come to as to who and what and why. Perhaps that is why so few historians have risked their reputations in telling the guerilla story.

As far as who "rode" with Quantrill; I suppose that a man who went on one raid with them could qualify in saying that he rode with him. But it's not the same as a man who actually served with Quantrill, a man that endured the hardships of being one of the "Boys of the Bush" for months if not years.

I'm kind of busy today so I'll have to stop here. Again, Thanks QM for bringing this subject back to life, it's one of the few areas of the CW that I feel confident in what I think I know.

 

[archieclement]

There were also some men who left Quantrill after Lawrence. Was it because they thought the raid was too excessive? Too dangerous? Or did they just want to distance themselves from the incident in hopes of escaping retaliation or prosecution? I suspect all of those reasons factored in. And don't forget that Anderson and Todd fell out with Quantrill in the winter of 63-64 because they thought he was too soft. They were more violent, while he was more cunning. I've thought for a long time that Todd's and Anderson's companies were responsible for the worst excesses at Lawrence, but of course I can't prove it. Things were very complicated. There are plenty of people to this day (and some of them are members here) who don't want to take the complicated point of view on Q.

I've always felt it was Q had become a dandy, think it became evident that he was more interested in personal fame/glory then revenge to set the justice scale right. Certainly fame/glory doesn't seem to been a primary motivation of his men during the war.

Ironically though they achieved fame/glory postwar where reunions were celebrated events as to have rode with Quantrill was comparable to served with Lee or rode with Forrest.

 

[Patrick H]

I've always felt it was Q had become a dandy, think it became evident that he was more interested in personal fame/glory then revenge to set the justice scale right. Certainly fame/glory doesn't seem to been a primary motivation of his men during the war.

Ironically though they achieved fame/glory postwar where reunions were celebrated events as to have rode with Quantrill was comparable to served with Lee or rode with Forrest.

Perhaps, archie, but remember that he retired with Kate to a deep hollow in Howard County, Missouri for most of the summer of 1864, and only came out for the raid on Fayette, and to "chastise" a horse thief. Does that sound like a guy who saw himself as a dandy? I won't argue with you on this point too much, but I just don't see him that way. I see him during this period as a war-weary guy who just wanted to rest in the arms of his lover for as long as he could. If you think about it, who could blame him?

 

[archieclement]

Perhaps, archie, but remember that he retired with Kate to a deep hollow in Howard County, Missouri for most of the summer of 1864, and only came out for the raid on Fayette, and to "chastise" a horse thief. Does that sound like a guy who saw himself as a dandy? I won't argue with you on this point too much, but I just don't see him that way. I see him during this period as a war-weary guy who just wanted to rest in the arms of his lover for as long as he could. If you think about it, who could blame him?

How much gloryseeking could he do when his men had abandoned him as a fraud and dandy?

Most rejected leaders retire, what else can they do? In 65 he gathers what few he can, and trys to escape, again rather self serving motivation........

I tend to think to use the phrase earlier, he milked the Walker raid for about a year and half...............

His various prewar stories he told different people didn't add up......nor did his motivation, which was highlighted by Lawrence IMO, which he played up and sold as a vengeance raid to set things right.......what vengeance did he take? Instead he walked around Lawrence as some sort of self proclaimed celebrity protecting various people instead of taking any revenge..........I tend to think his fall was so complete, because he was increasingly seen as a total fraud, both in his accounts and motivation.

 

[archieclement]

Wouldn't think its coincidence his star wanes as men like Anderson and Clement's rose.......they didn't give speeches about revenge, to walk around like a dandy and have dreams of being welcomed a hero.....they breathed, ate and reveled in vengeance.

 

[Booner]

Perhaps, archie, but remember that he retired with Kate to a deep hollow in Howard County, Missouri for most of the summer of 1864, and only came out for the raid on Fayette, and to "chastise" a horse thief. Does that sound like a guy who saw himself as a dandy? I won't argue with you on this point too much, but I just don't see him that way. I see him during this period as a war-weary guy who just wanted to rest in the arms of his lover for as long as he could. If you think about it, who could blame him?

Have you have seen a picture of the lovely Kate King?
If the picture I have is of her, I'd say Q had good taste in women. I'd spend a summer with her. Maybe into fall and football season. Hmm. I'll have to think about that. It would depend on how my summer went.