Quantrill Special Collections Research

[Andymeets1880s]

 Hey Everyone!
I wanted to pass on my project for the Gentry Public Library in Gentry, Arkansas. Gentry is about 20 miles slighty southwest of Bentonville, Ark. I am currently building (materials, not brick by brick) the "Quantrill Special Collections Research" in an effort to inform and educate the northwest Arkansas area about the border wars of Kansas-Missouri and the Indian Territory of west Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. There are MANY ties to Quantrill, the KS-MO. war, Kansas and Missouri Union units and many of the Missouri Confederate units under JO Shelby and Upton Hays buried throughout the nw Ark. area!
I am looking for any, all and everything you could contribute to this project. I am needing books, papers, stories, eyewitness accounts, lists, documents, pictures, military reports, magazines, and anything else you can think of! This is a legitimate project that can be found at www.quantrillsguerrillas.com and you can scroll down to find under IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. I have seen some of you are Civil War enthusiasts and would be most grateful for any help I can get. Please contact me if you think you can help! Thanks!

[History Buff]

Nice to have you aboard, Richard.  I must admit, I am more of an armchair history buff, picking up bits and pieces from family vacations, books, and documentaries.  I know little about the border wars, but have learned a bit from visiting Ft. Scott, Pea Ridge, the Carthage battlefield, and Wilson's Creek.  I must say, I was surprised with the information we received at the Frontier Trails museum in Independence - more on the covered wagon ride than inside the museum.  The tie-ins with George Caleb Bingham's house were very interesting.  We also learned recently of some ties to an area here in Joplin.  This was reported in our newspaper.  I said all that to give you this link to the Joplin Globe article from November 11 of last year:

http://www.joplinglobe.com/joplin_metro/x546218682/-img-src-http-www-joplinglobeonline-com-images-zope-extra-gif-border-0-Dedication-to-highlight-plans-for-memorial-to-Civil-War-casualties-font-color-ff0000-w-video-font?start:int=0

[/u]

The video on this page was interesting to me.

[Andymeets1880s]

Thanks for the article, HB! I will have to go to a better computer to play the video, but I liked the article. I am trying to bring a balance to the border wars. Not all of Quantrill's men were brutal. Some that were at the Lawrence, Kansas raid were actually appalled at the behavior of some of their fellow guerrillas!
Plus the fact that the Kansas Union units, such as Charles Jennison's 7th Kansas (also know as Jennison's Jayhawkers" were quite a brutal bunch as well. Several Kansas Union units were pretty cut throat and ruthless. The 6th Kansas, 15th Kansas and anyone under James Lane pulled some dasterdly deeds! I want people to re-analyze and re-study the subject and make their own opinions are more of the facts that are out there! I am hoping some people can kick in for this. I live in Independence, Mo (Quantrill central) and have been egtting help from some history friends here.There are about fifteen of Quantrill's men buried just around the corner from me.

[History Buff]

I do the same for the Civil War in general with my fourth graders.  They have to know the war was about more than just slavery, that slavery itself is a deeply-rooted and complex issue that wasn't the easiest thing to solve after 400 years, and that all Northerners were not good guys.  That complexity is what grabs their attention and makes them think - and fourth graders can think for themselves if given the chance.  It's fascinating and sad that our founding fathers were working on the issue of slavery and could not, even then, figure out how to end it.  Even Lincoln did not intend to end it altogether - just wanted to keep it from spreading into the territories.  Anyway, seeing both sides of an issue is sometimes difficult, but it's important that both sides be brought to the table for serious consideration.

Enlighten me on the Border Wars, though:  were those guys fighting over the issue of slavery, territory, wild oats, or what?  What were they really fighting about?

[Junior]

Glad to see this line of discussion. I am an armchair historian of Ozarks history myself. I have a library of hundreds of books, magazine and newspaper articles about the region. Some stuff on the Civil War and Outlaws of the region. I encourage you to attend living history weekends at some of the battlefields. Pea Ridge has excellent programs, usually two times a year. Get involved with the reinactor groups, and you will find a deep trough of knowlege among them. Prairie Grove State Park in Arkansas, too. Perhaps I can thumb through my books and provide a list of titles here you might want to try and find.

[Junior]

Oh, by the way Andy...I'm over in Pea Ridge myself! Glad to have a Gentry, AR fellow here at SDCFans. One of the long time contributors, BetaMike, is from Benton County, too, although he lives in Florida now. I think he told me he was from around Gentry, or Siloam Springs, or Sulpher Springs...I'd have to check back on some other threads and see.

[History Buff]

I didn't mention Prairie Grove.  We were just at Pea Ridge a couple of weeks ago and I got a great shot of my six-year-old daughter, looking pensive as she looks over the battlefield.  She's entirely interested in all things history (much to her mother's chagrin), and way too empathetic for someone her age.

[rubedugans]

I think I am somewhat the resident archivist for many, many different things around here. It happens that I have not failed anyone on this front either!

I teach a large unit on The Border Wars, which includes bushwackers (my personal favorites), border ruffians, jayhawkers, Bleeding Kansas, John Brown (and his subsequent raid) . I have a decent amount of info. on Bloody Bill Anderson since I live fairly close to Danville MO, where he raided and burned much of the town on Oct 14, 1864. I have photos of the surviving plantation with burnt floor from his raid along with the accounts of the night. As you might know, Anderson participated in Quantrill's raid (he was a lieutenant for him-and in 1864 assumed general command).

Send me an email, and we can talk more about what I have if you'd like. What follows are books I checked out in my search for Bloody Bill....Much also pertains to Quantrill also.

Books helpful for me as a history teacher pertaining to this topic:
Cavaliers of the brush: Quantrill and his men By Michael E. Banasik
Quantrill's war: the life and times of William Clarke Quantrill, 1837-1865 By Duane Schultz
Quantrill and the Border Wars By William Elsey Connelley
The Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Story of William Clarke Quantril and HIs Confederate Raiders By Edward E. Leslie
Bloody Bill Anderson Books
Wildwood Boys: A Novel By James Carlos Blake
Bloody Bill Anderson: the short, savage life of a Civil War guerrilla By Albert E. Castel, Thomas Goodrich

[History Buff]

Serious question for you experts:  Why is Pitt State's mascot the gorillas?  Was this, perchance, a conscious play on words - guerillas/gorillas - since PSU is just across the state line?

[rubedugans]

Their website states that in 1920, a group of young men dissatisfied with the state of school spirit organized themselves as the Gorillas in order to accelerate college spirit and enthusiasm until it shall permeate the state.  A Gorillas (a 1920s slang term for roughnecks) sponsored pep rallies, freshman hazing, special trains to athletic events, mock burials and weddings, and nightshirt stampedes through downtown Pittsburg. Their membership quickly grew in just a few years.

[History Buff]

If only it were true - I like my made up history better than what their website says.

[Andymeets1880s]

Thanks Rube! I would love to email you and see what you have to donate! I dont know how to do it though since you dont have one posted. Can you write my email and I can get back to you or give me a way to contact you?!

Thanks to you and everyone that has seemed to take an interest in this! My ultimate goal....make the Gentry Library the "Quantrill headquarters" of nw Arkansas! The ties to Shelby, Sidney Jackman, John Coffee, Upton Hays, Hiram Bledsoe and Quantrill himself are strong in Benton County, Arkansas!

[Andymeets1880s]

 Well, History Buff....the border wars was a battle of farmers, farmer's sons and young men that had had enough of the Kansas Union units terrorizing Missouri. Kansas Senator, James Lane and his "Lane's Brigade" hit Osceola, Missouri and pretty much wiped it off of the map. When Quantrill hit Lawrence, the guerrillas were crying "Remember Osceola!"

Also, Jennison's Jayhawkers had no reserve about kicking elderly people whom they thought were related to guerrillas or were southern smypathizers out into the snow on a bitterly cold night in a heavy snow and setting fire to their home! There is even one story of an old woman who was done this way and, as she watched her house burn, she broke down and sobbed. The soldiers yanked her hands down from her face and cussed her out basically repremanding her and telling her that she brought it on herself!

Some of Quantrill's men went overboard and did some horrific things. But a majority of them fought as the Kansans did and fought the good fight.

[Junior]

Wow...shades of "The Outlaw Josie Wales," Batman!

[Andymeets1880s]

I believe "Josey Wales" was loosely based from a Quantrill man. I just cant remember which one! Very loosely based I should say. There are no...I do repeat...NO historically accurate films on Quantrill or Jesse James. The films regarding Quantrill, like "Kansas Raiders" with Audie Murphy and "American Outlaws" with Colin Ferrell were WAAAAAYYYY off. I guess "Assassination of Jesse James" with Brad Pitt wasn't too bad. But pretty much all of the others were not even in the parking lot much less the ballpark!