Quantrill's Raiders

• by George Bailey • Published: June 21, 2007

William Clarke Quantrill began as an Ohio schoolteacher; later, he moved to Kansas where he organized a confederate outlaw militia that would turn out to be one of the most relentless guerrilla units the war would see. Capitalizing on the Partisan Ranger Act, Quantrill’s behavior was un-punishable in the confederacy; what’s more, he received a Confederate officer’s commission. Nevertheless, much of his activity exceeded the Confederate chain of command, the most famous example probably being a massacre of two-hundred men and boys Quantrill supervised in Lawrence, Kansas in 1863. Quantrill’s personal history remains somewhat of a mystery. For all his notoriety, we know little of his motivations. Quantrill’s legacy looms even today. After he was killed by Union forces in 1865, none other than Frank and Jesse James, ex-officers of Quantrill’s Raiders, would soon form The James-Younger Gang.