Raiders of the Civil War
Forsaken Falls, book nine in my Redemption
Mountain series includes a key sub-plot which has to do with a pro-confederate
guerilla group I’ve named Price’s Raiders. Researching bands such as these who
came together throughout the Civil War was fascinating, and became the source
for this post.
In 1861 Missouri delegates to a
statewide convention rejected secession. In turn, several semi-organized groups
of raiders quickly formed and guerrilla warfare erupted throughout the Kansas and
Missouri area. The pro-confederate forces were called Bushwhackers and the pro-Union
guerrillas were known as Jayhawkers.
Quantrill's Raiders
Before the civil war, William C.
Quantrill lived in Indian Territory and learned Cherokee guerrilla tactics from
his friend, Joel B. Mayes, future chief of the Cherokee Nation. Quantrill served
in the Confederate Army for a while, but the disciplined structure of military
life didn’t suit him and he left to form a band of fighters in
Missouri.
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| William Quantrill |
Under the Confederate Partisan
Ranger Act, Quantrill was granted a field commission as a captain in the
Confederate army, but he often referred to himself as a colonel. He usually
acted on his own with little regard for his government's policy or orders.
In August 1863 Union authorities
imprisoned the female family members of the known guerrillas so they could
banish them. Several of these ladies, some were teens, were maimed and killed
when the women’s jail collapsed. John Noland, a freed slave, was one of Quantrill's
men and his best scout. Noland helped scout Lawrence, then Quantrill led 450
men into the city to avenge the women’s deaths. Quantrill ordered his raiders to
kill every man big enough to carry a gun. At least 150 men and boys were shot
dead.
After the devastation at Lawrence,
Federal General Thomas Ewing, Jr. forced 10,000 men, women, and children on the
Missouri border from their homes. Jayhawkers plundered and burned the empty
houses and the region became known as the Burnt District.
12,000 Confederate troops rode in to
help Quantrill and the bushwhackers but Federal troops chased the Confederates
to Arkansas. Quantrill fled with his men
to Texas. In 1864, a Collin County Texas magistrate, a sheriff, and a third man
were lynched in Tyler, Texas to revenge the deaths of two of Quantrill's
Raiders, who were killed in a gunfight with a Texas posse.
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| Bloody Bill Anderson |
During the raid, the guerrillas
massed their forces near the Confederate soldiers. But, Major General Sterling
Price failed to adequately use regular and irregular forces simultaneously
against the union, so he lost the advantage. He also failed due to the slow
progress of the regular force during the raid and the irregulars massing so
close to Price's regular troops. Price was defeated and retreated back to
Louisiana. Anderson and Todd died. Anderson was reportedly shot north of
Orrick. George Todd was shot out of his saddle by a Union sniper, north of
Independence, Missouri.
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| Quantrill's Raiders Reunion 1898 |
Quantrill took several of his loyal
men, a group of 30 guerrillas, and headed east toward Kentucky. There, Quantrill's
group of guerrillas were cornered in a barn. A shootout resulted in Quantrill getting
wounded in the spine, unable to move. He was arrested but died from his wounds
just a week later.
Some of the guerrillas continued
under the leadership of Archie Clement, who kept the Raiders together after the
war. In 1866, he was killed by the state militia in Lexington. His men became
the outlaws known as the James-Younger Gang, which included Jessie James.
There were many other organized
guerrilla groups during the Civil War, here are a few:
·
Morgan's
Raiders
John Hunt Morgan, known as the
thunderbolt of the Confederacy and the great raider, led Morgan’s Raiders,
which operated as part of the cavalry forces of the Confederate Army of
Tennessee in 1862 and 1863. Morgan also led daring raids into Kentucky as well.
In his last raid, he disobeyed orders by crossing the river bordering the state
and raiding Ohio and then Indiana as well. He captured nearly 6,000 union
troops, destroyed bridges, and fortifications, and ran off livestock. This was
the furthest raid north of any organized cavalry invading from the south. Morgan
was captured and surrendered in Ohio but later made a daring escape from the
Ohio State Penitentiary and returned to service. Morgan's Raiders was mostly disbanded
in the late days of the Great Raid of 1863.
Mosby’s
Rangers
Even though he stood only five feet
tall, the most feared and respected Confederate guerrilla commander was John
Singleton Mosby. He was a University of Virginia educated lawyer and a self-educated
warrior. His rangers struck Union forces throughout northern Virginia. Stealth
was one of the group’s greatest qualities.
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| John Singleton Mosgy |
They would leave the hard roads where
the horses’ hooves could be heard and they cut through the grassy fields taking
down bars or fences and quietly pass through. They stole supplies, destroyed telegraph
lines, and attacked Union patrols, effectively tying down Federal forces behind
Union lines in northern Virginia in the last two years of the war. Federal
attempts to defeat Mosby's Partisan Rangers fell short of success because Mosby
wisely used small units (10–15 men) operating in areas that were friendly to
the Confederacy.
Thomas’
Legion
A regiment of white and anti-Union
Cherokee Indians merged into a guerrilla force and fought in the remote
mountain back-country of western North Carolina for a month after Lee's
surrender at Appomattox. They voluntarily ceased hostilities after capturing
the town of Waynesville on May 10, 1865.
Throughout the American Civil War,
units of partisan rangers fought bloody campaigns of guerrilla warfare against enemy
soldiers as well as civilians. These raiders with loose ties to the Confederate
and Union Armies were commanded by men like the infamous William C. Quantrill, who
operated outside the standard rules of warfare.
I've used this information in a couple of novellas. However, you have the best explanation I've seen.
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