St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-26
Quantrill,

SOurian who is So
The Guerilla. journeying in st. Paul
said to me yesterday:
1.-The somewhat sensational report that
was telegraphed throughout the country
that the former noted Missouri guerilla.
Charles William Quantrill. died re-
Gently near Birmingham, Ala, is ut
terly without foundation, and can only
be believed by those who have forgotten
the facts, or who never knew them.
In February, 1865, Quanlrill, at the
head of about seventy-fiye mounted
and well-armed Missouri guerillas, left
Lafayette county, Mo-. for another field
OF operations. The guerillaS were all
dressed in Federal uniform and looked
as blue as indigo and as loyal as ''bleed-
ing Kansans." They successfully
passed numerous Union posts and de
tachments. and eventually reached
Western Kentucky, where they re-
newed their peculiar savage warfare
against all who were anti-Confedelate.
The loyal kentuckians defeated them
I'D several encounters. and at last, in the
early spring of 1S65-about the time OF
Lees surrender. think-in fight i'm a
barnyard, some miles back of Louisville,
with company of Kentucky troops
under Lieut.. TerrIll, QuantrilI was
men killed outright, and bis band
broken up, never again to reasonable.
AT the instant he received his death
wound, Quantrill was on foot endeavor-
ing to mount behind one of his men, a
boy named Newton Hockensmith. who
was killed in his efforts to save his
leader. The stricken guerrilla chieftain
was we'll cared for and taken to the
Sisters hospital at Louisville, where he
died two or three days later. His body
was buried in the Catholic cemetery
two or three days later. and his grave
may. think, yet be seen.
1.-The noted bandit, Frank James, and
Clay Evans, OF Saline county, Missouri,
were with Quantrill i'll his last fight,
and from them l long ago received
these particulars, and, besides, the facts
were widely published at the time.
have also met the mother of the dead
guerrilla, Mrs. Caroline Quantrill, IF
Canal Dover, Ohio, who is still living,
and neither she nor any one else that
KNOWS anything about the subject has
any doubt that her son is dead, or that
he died under the circumstances have
described. The offenses of the civil war
were amneStied by its termination, and
buried in the ''bioodly chasm," and if
Quantrill had lived all these years with
out revealing his existence and identity,
1t would have been very foolish in HIM,
and Charlie Quantrill was not fool.
ut is not generally known that Guam
trIll was an Ohio man. He was born at
Canal Dover. in that state, and was edu-
Gated in his native village and at Fort
Wayne, Ind. He went to Kansas in
1883 as Free State man, and for time
was engaged in school teaching in the
then territory. But finally he went
astray, and to escape punishment for q
certain OtfenSe fled to Missouri. where.
protesting a change of political senti-
ment. he was well received. When the
war came on he entered the rebel sery-
ice. but in few months deserted the
regular army. and organizing company
In Western Missouri, inaugurated that
fearful system of guerrilla warfare
which produced so many horrors in
Missouri and Kansas. At the time of
his death he was about thirty years of
age. 1t is asserted by his ex-comrades
that he was not at all so desperate and
so mercltss as he has been described.
lie spared many prisoner. and
the best informed say that i'm all
his career lie did not kill more than
dozen men with his own hand. Other
guerrlllas never spared the life of pro-
Federal, and had more than a score of
nUtciIeS on their revolver butts.
Cole and Jim Younger were both
members of Quantrill's band. though
Jim was very young at the time. On
the occasion of the massacre at, and the
sacking and burning of Lawrence. Kan,
Cole Younger was Quantrill's principal
lieutenant. and it was he who. i'm the
uniform of Federal officer. rode into
the town on the morning of the attack
and inspected the situation and reported
it to Quantrill.
But this is DEPRESSING from the point
l wish to make and emphasize-thata any
assertion that Quantrill died less than
a quarter of century ago is really
prrpo;terOuS. As Frank james once
said, L would hate to be as deaa as
Charlie Quantrill is.':'