Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1881-02-24
QUANTRELL, THE GUERILLA.
The Son Of Maryland Felon.-His Fathers In.
famous Life--Coincidence Between Guam
treIl's Death and Booths

The Son of q Maryland FelOn.- His Fatbers Tn.
famous Life coincidence Between Ouau.
trells Death and Booths.
"Gath" in the New York Herald i
A gentleman from the city of Cumberland
in that State told. me the following story
Yesterday. 1.-THE guerilla" he said twas
the son of felon in our city. Jesse D.
E. Quantrell was citizen of or about Will
Transport, Md, on the upper Potomac. He
married respectable young woman there
and soon afterwards was sentenced to Jail
for fraudulent bankruptcy. his wife going
to Jail with him. He then removed to st.
Louis, was again put in Jail there and was
returned to Maryland on the intercession Of
his wife. But he went only to Cincinnati,
thence to New Orleans, abused his wife
shamefully and afterwards committed
a forgery on Cincinnati in a steamboat
coming up the river. He was put in Jail
but reached Hagerstown after seven months
confinement, and began to forge more and
more till he was sent to Jail in Pennsylva.
MIA for three years. His wife got divorce
from the Maryland legislature and he threat
ened revenge; but also married another wo-
man as soon as he was out of Jail, and then
Immediately committing another forgery
was sent to Jail for seven years. His first
wife then married M. A. Cowton, proprie-
tor of the United States Hotel, Cumberland,
Nd. In 184S Jesse Quantrell was released,
and in March, 1S49, he went to Cumber-
land and made an attempt to kill her in her
husbands hotel. He was sentenced to five
but in thirty months was pardoned
on condition that he would leave the
state and never return. He is said to
have married six different women, took
the name of DR.. Hayne, and was BUSH
whacker during the civil war. And," con-
cluded my informant, "James Charles
Quantrell was his son, who was taken to
Cleveland, O., near the origin of john
Brown, and there brought up by friend
of his mother, but the boy was of hard,
domestic temperament, felt the ignominy
of his fathers life, and the old man and his
two sons embarked in the Kansas troubles.
They we're plunderers there before the war,
and one of the boys was killed. The other
swore revenge, and died in his boots after
killing hundreds, perhaps thousands OF
men,"
Quantrell was killed ABOUT fifty miles
south Of Louisville, nearly two months
after the close of the war, on June II, 1865.
He had marched from the neighborhood of
Kansas City in Missouri to the Mississippi
river, which he crossed in December,
1864, with forty seven men, among them
the James boys, since great robbers In Mis-
souri,. His object was to go to Maryland,
where he was born, and, as he said, carry
the torch and the black flag into Pennsyla-
vania. He was perpetually marching and
fighting after he crossed the Mississippi,
but chiefly in Kentucky. He crossed the
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers near
Fort Henry and Donelson, and all the way
along he murdered and hanged Union
soldiery; having his men in blue uniforms,
every man with half dozen to dozen
revolvers on his person. A woman recog-
nized him at Danville, KY, and at the
name of Quantrell the whole State ran to
arms. Near Harrodsburg he lost portion
of his band, and several of them were taken
to Louisville Jail, but soon broke out.
He co-operated with Sue Mundy, Ken
lucky bandit, afterwards executed.
Captain Edward Terrill killed Quantrell;
he was shot with two balls from Spencer
carbine, one of which broke his right collar
bone and paralyzed him, SO that he died
like Wilkes Booth. He was taken to Louis
vile, became a Catholic, had two priests
come to see him daily, and is buried at the
Catholic cemetery in Louisville. He was a
youthful monster, hyena in his methods,
with great resources and cunning. He
hardly ever drank but played high at cards,
never trusted women, never quarreled, had
blue eyes of a penetrating kind and a Rom
an nose He was taciturn and serious, and
about five feet eleven, He drilled his men
to fire their revolvers with each hand and
take aim with each, and the world has prob
ably never seen revolver shooters equal to
the Missouri bandits. At the present day
it is said that the James boys and Younger
boys amuse themselves by riding at the tor
of their speed, and firing at mark with a
revolver in each hand. Quantrell went tc
see the Confederate Secretary of war to get
regular commission, but as he claimed the
right to murder all his prisoners and burn
all union property, he got no commission
Nevertheless, the government allowed the
remnant of his band in Kentucky to surren-
der two weeks after his death. Among
them was Frank James, who has since k4lles
innumerable people.