New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-08-06

The True story OF the Gfeat Guerr1lla2s
Death In LouisviIle.
[From the Louisville LEDGER
Paragraphs to the effect that Quantrell,
| the great guerrilla is still alive, regularly
go the rounds of the newspapers. The st.
Louis Republican has an account of several
attempts to personate him, and refers to the
real facts of his death, as detailed by the
Kansas City tMissouri) Times. We did not
see the number of the Times referred to,
but, from the summary of that article as re-
peated by the Republican, we have no doubt
of it's general correctness. We have con-
vincing evidence that in the spring of 1864,
Quantrell, with picked set ofhis old stand
bys, being hard pressed, crossed the Missis-
sippi into Ballard county, Kentucky, dressed
in federal uniforms, and made his way up
to interior Kentucky, being Hospitality en-
tertained en- route by such federal camps as
lay in his way. He reached Nelson county
without his true character being suspected,
and for while was quartered in the neigh
borhood of Bloomfield, contiguous to some
families who had been banished from Mis-
souri,, and whom Qaantrell had known be-
fore their Punishment. Through the i'm
prudence of some of his adherents, sus-
picions got abroad that the company were
Confederates in disguise, but there did not
seem to be any suspicion that the leader was
the notorious Quantrell, of the so-called
Lawrence massacre, for whose head bleed
ing Kansas had offered SO large a sum.
The federal guerrilla, Terrell, was in
formed of the suspicious, and he organized
a force for the capture of the strangers. He
laid his plans well, and quietly surrounded
a barn in which they were sleeping, during
a heavy rain, took several prisoners. shot
two or three, and severely wounded the
leader, who was brought to this city and
placed in the military prison. On the day
he arrived he was seen and recognized by
gentleman who had known him in Kansas,
and for fear of being called upon to identify
the prisoner as Quantrell, the gentleman
left town on the evening train. The pris-
oner's wound was not necessarily fatal, but
it no doubt fastened his death. For months
before he had suffered from disease of the
lungs, induced by exposure in the brush of
Missouri and ON the prairies Of Kansas.
Feeling his end approaching, he sent for a
priest Zone who is now the Jealous and be-
loved pastor of one of the most prosperous
congregations in this city,, from whom he
received all the rites dispensed by that
church to the dying penitent. That clergy
man says that this penitent was the warrior
Quantrell. The families in Nelson, who
had been banished from Missouri, say that
the man was Quantrell. An order for
money, given on friend by this man be-
fore he died, was signed w. c. Quantrell,
ana the order was promptly honored, with
the remark that there was more money
back to meet any orders Quantren might
give.
He died without the military authorities
knowing his real name and character, and
was buried at a spot between Louisville and |
Portland, which can be pointed out to his
friends, if any so desire.
The fact of Quantre1 sending for priest |
on his deathbed will not surprise those who
know that he was raised in Catholic COM
munity, near Hagerstown, Maryland, and |
that his mother was member of the Cath |
Ole Church. 1t was but natural-let his |
previous life be what it may-that in his |
last hours he would revert to the lessons of |
his childhood, and seek all possible aids |
from his mother church. And this is not the |
least of the facts which confirm us in the |
decided opinion that the real Quantrell died |
in this city as we have mentioned, and that |
those men in Texas, New Mexico and else |
where. of whom we hear so often in the |
newspapers, are counterfeit, bogus adyen- |
turerS. 1