Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-11-27
STORIES OFQUANTRuI
How the Noted Outlaw Began His o..
of Crime, and Where 1t Ended

of Crime, and Where 1t Endaa
Few persons are better qualified A.
Colonel Richard J. Hinton ia snail 'uan
curately OF Quantrill, writes Nv. R ("
IN the St Louis 'Glo5e-Democrat n.
acquaintance with the guerrilla dates h d,I
some years before the war. This acona oarS
ance was intimate enough to account for
bullet hole in Quantrill's left sbonlda1a
The wound was the result of meetinc, ~
tween the Missouri kidnapers and the Kae
sas Free State men in Southeast KanSa ,'i'
When one exchanges looks with anotbo.
along rifle barrels, the impression is ill.,
to be vivid and lasting A foolish fei no!
who had falsely claimed to be Ouantr;I
was saved once from vengeance of Kan'
sans by Hinton's ability to say be was nnt
the guerrilla. Some time after the Saol ~ ~
Lawrence, Hinton visited Quantrilrs oId
home in Ohio. He remained there seve U-I
weeks, making il his business to add ali ba
could to his stock of information ahont
that outlaw. And so it comes about tbat
ne 1t well qualified to talk about OuantriI's
life and death.
'Quantrill, said Colonel Hinton awas
wounded In Kentucky during guerrilla
fight in the very last days of the war. Es
vas taken from the place of combat a
prisoner to Louisville, and was in hosni.
tai there, lingering between life and dpatb
for several mouths General Blunt, after
his muster out of service late in the snm.
mer of 1865, came to Washington. Sidney
Clarke and others of Kansas were here
We were all at the Metropolitan one even.
ing, when word was brought to the room
by somebody that Quantrill was below in
the bar room. We hurried down. The
man who had represented himself to he
Quantrill had departed. We could Get no
trace of him. President Johnson was ok.
ercising the pardoning power rather freely
at that time toward ex Confederates. The
impression got out that Quantrill was here
to receive a pardon.
"The next day we went in body to the
White House to protest as Kansans against
such an outrage as pardoning the leader
IN the Lawrence massacre Sidney Clarke
did most of the talking, which was rather
exciting. He had his own experience with
Quantrill. The guerrilla went after him on
one occasion and Clarke escaped in his
shit, jumping from the window, hurrying
out of town, and only coming back after he
had procured some clean clothing and
gun, and had aroused the Free State men.
Something that was said to the Pres
ident was construed by the latter as
threat.
d" Suppose do choose to pardon this
man?' Mr.. Johnson inquired, throwing
back his head.
by, sir, Clarke Numbered, If you
do, I'll shoot him at your feet
"Well," Colonel Hinton resumed after
that interview with Johnson we went in
search of the supposed Quantrill in earnest
Our intention was to make him prisoner
and take him back to Lawrence to answer
for that crime. 1t was three or four days
before we got on the trail The fellow was
on a spree and had gone off to a place of
hiding We rounded him up one night.
Blunt, Clarke and other kansans were in
party. The man was about over his de-
bauch, and when he found himself in our
hands ne was badly frightened. He at
once denied that lie was Quantrill. Some
of our party thought he was the guerrilla
The resemblance was striking. But on
looking closely we saw that the droop of
one eye, which was characteristic of Guam
trill. was wanting in the man. After
awhile the prisoner was told that he could
90 and Lecanle ennlnannl - L Xe L. -Ez=-
a Mississippian, and an ex-rebel, of course,
He knew of his resemblance to Quantrill,
and had assumed Quantri!l's pane as an act
of drunken deviltry When he found him
self out of the scrape he said to us
Il can tell you where the real Quantrillis.
He is in hospital at Louisville under an
as umed name, ,and is dying"
General Blunt. Colonel Hinton went
on, had become greatly interested. The
recollections of the outrage bad returned
to us all most wildly in the search we had
been making. Blunt thought that the
story of the Mississippian was worthy of at
tention. Without any delay he got on the
train and went to Louisville. After con-
siderable search be found and fully identif-
ed Quantrill, who died just about that time.
Blunt came back and told us of the result.
There has never been any doubt in our
minds that the man whom Blunt found was
the leader who planned, ordered and par,
ticipated in the massacre of 26O unarmed
Uni On men at Lawrence on the 18th OF
August. 1868. | believe that the hospital
records will show that identification at
Louisville.