Quantrill and His Civil War Guerrillas

Originally published in 1959, Carl W. Breihan’s Quantrill and His Civil War Guerrillas is a concise, well-researched biography of one of the famous Civil War figures, William Clarke Quantrill (1837-1865). The action takes place mostly around the Kansas-Missouri border, dating from before the Civil War to just afterward.

William Clarke Quantrill was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. Having had a knockabout youth resulting in becoming a school teacher, Quantrill joined a group of bandits who roamed the Missouri and Kansas countryside apprehending escaped slaves. Later on this group became Confederate soldiers, who were referred to as “Quantrill’s Raiders”. This group was a pro-Confederate partisan ranger outfit best known for their often brutal guerrilla tactics, which made use of effective Native American field skills. Quantrill’s group included the young Jesse James (1847-1882) and his older brother Frank James (1843-1915), and portraits of both infamous outlaws are included in this engaging biography.