The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-08-24
From the st. Louis Republican.
The Fate Of Quantrell, the FamoussMissOnrl
Guerrilla.

Guerrllla.
Despite the detailed account Of Quantrell's
death given by the Kansas City Times two
! weeks ago, q paragraph describing that noted
guerrilla as still living is going the rounds of
the press. The curiosity felt concerning his
ultimate fate and the attempts made to per-
senate him, remarkably illustrate the attrac-
ton of mystery, and the morbid admiration
felt by some coarse natures to usurp notoriety
for deeds of blood. Soon after the close OF our
civil war; as the Times relates, some adventurer
was bold enough to go into the very midst OF
the Confederate colonists at Vera Cruz and
claim to be Quantrell but too many of them
were well acquainted with the guerrilla's fea-
lures, and the imposture was soon exposed.
Some of these colonists removed to Honduras,
and there they heard that Quantrell had pre-
coded them on inspection, this second impos-
tor turned out to be a swarthy New Orleans
creole, who could scarcely speak English. The
latest revival of Quantrell is in the shape of
an account by two different "reliable" gentle
men, that they met him in 1865 at Fort Lyon,
New Mexico, and converscd with him about
his exploits in the war, and his raid into Kan
sas i'm 1863. But, however vigorous these
sham Quantrells may be, the real cne is very
effectually buried by the Kansas City Times.
1t says that two men who attended him i'll his
last moments, and saw him buried, now reside
in Jackson County, m this State. Their state
ment is that he was mortally wounded in a fight
with Federal troops in Kentucky in 1864, and
taken under an assumed name to a hospital in
Louisville, where he died. Disguised as civil
ians, those faithful followers attended him in
the hospital and to the grave. A mystery has
hung about the movements of Quantrell after
his retreat to Texas, Immediately subsequent
to his raid on the town of Lawrence, in Kan
sas, in 1863. The Times says merely that he
'became tired of the war in Missouri" and in
1864 went to bushwhack east of the Mississippi,
making his way far up into Kentucky. But
from the various accounts brought home by
returning Confederates, it would appear that
he had very good reasons for being tired" OF
war in Missouri. The usual fate of guerrilla
chiefs with their own bands pursued him.
Quarrels originating, it is believed, in the dis
satisfaction of some of his followers with the
distribution of the real or supposed spoils OF
Lawrence, led his band to select some other
leaders. Commanders of regular forces are
almost always hostile to partisan warfare, as 1t
reacts injuriously on the discipline OF their
own troops, complicates questions of exchange
of prisoners and retaliation" and often serl-
ously interferes with regular military opera
tions. 1t so happened that Quantrel's massa-
ere at Lawrence not only excited general dis
gust and horror among rejecting Confederates,
but completely thwarted very daring project
of the Confederate authorities. The incursion
of General Shelby into Missouri in the fall of
1863 was planned on the information, correct at
the time, that Missouri wss almost denuded of
available Union troops; and he was expected
to be able to maintain himself for at least
fortnight on the Missouri River, and gather in
a large number of recruits before being forced
to return. The Lawrence outrage occasioned
sudden reunion of formidable force to pur-
sue Quantrcl, and Shelby, unexpectedly find.
ing himself in the very jaws of it, was forced
to retreat without accomplishing all he had
aimed at. When Quantrcll got within the
Confederate lines he consequently found him
self not very welcome to the authorities, and
they consented to his remaining in Texas with
his band till "frst grass" of the next spring,
only on condition that he and his comrades
should then leave and in their future opera
tions under the black flag should not in any
way claim to be Confederate troops, or ask
protection as such. Thus practically outlawed
by both sides, and his influence with his own
men impaired, Quantrell had to seek some
other field of operations than Missouri. Un-
familiar with Kentucky, he was at disadvan-
tage in exercising his skill in guerrilla warfare,
and soon fell into the hands of the Union
forces, ending his bloody career by a death so
obscure as TO be now even disputed altogether.