The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-09-11
oUANrRELDs RAID ON LAWRENCE.
Boyish RecollectiOns OF the Massacre and
the Vengeance That Followed.

bOy1sn hcCOIIect1OnB OF the MaRSacre and
the Vengeance hat Followed.
II read with much interest a story recently
printed in THE SUN under the title of Guam
trell's Black Flag, said q Kansau who is Wis
iting New York. II was a boy of twelve, living
at Lawrence. Kan. when the city was sacked
and burned by Quantrell and his followers.
To understand the situation fully you must
bear in mind the intense hatred that during
the civil war existed between the Kan
sans and Missourians. This hatred grew
out of the struggle between the pro-
slavery men from Missouri. bent upon ex-
tending slavery into Kansas. and the Free
State immigrants from the North. equally
determined that Kansas should come into the
Union as a free State. It was a little war Of
itself waRed with great bitterness. When the
pro-slavery men massacred In cold blood a
peaceable settlement Of Northern men at Ma
rails des Cygnes. old John Brown OF the free
State cause Offset 1t by putting to death with
the sword the pro-slavery settlers along Ossa-
watomie Creek. With these events fresh in
mind it is easy to imagine the feeling of vim
dictiveness toward each other with which the
Kansans and Missourians went into the civil
war.
AT the time Of the Quantrell raid. on Aug.
20. 1888. / was living in Lawrence at the
house Of a man named Ellis, attending school.
In the early morning. before daylight. 1 was
awakened by the sound OF firing. I jumped
from bed. pulled on my trousers and ran down
stairs. Ellis had already got up and gone to the
front gate. As soon as l. had stepped to the
| door l could see plainly the blaze of rifles down
the street and hear the sound Of horses hoofs
beating the road with a noise like cavalry ad-
vancing. and with them the shouts of men and
the screaming of women and children.
Ellis turned back from the gate. ran through
tho hn1ao Onfahtpv I'm htc chnfnttn q q ha want
and, calling to me to follow him. started for the
nearest cornfeld. a hundred yards back from
the house. looked once over my shoulder
and saw horsemen riding after us through the
yard: and II ever / used my legs for all they
wore worth. l did then. They fired three or
four revolver shots at us while we were in view.
but Ellis and l got to the corn1eld ahead Of
them. and, once among the corn; ten feet high:
From all along the main street Of the town
and its cross streets came the constant sound
of shooting. with the calling out OF orders and
screaming OF frightened women. Other flu
children and . man or two. and as soon as they
found out that Ellis and I were not Confeder-
d dS%a sh Tna t4d HS af qt th SIsb doors and fh isths s9id s t6s
rH aH6oT Te ! o' ypocInEE Els nSe ssiS that he was going
back near enough to the town TO see what was
going. on. II he did not return in half an hour
might follow him. So. carrying his gun at
u COCk. Ae CIcIi OI IHIOuRn II puSItc III
c~ornfleld toward the town. He did not come
back, and when l Thought the half hour was up
went after him. The raiders. had gone and
the people were coming back from the woods
where, lying as they had fallen. in the street
and yards. in the doorways. and in the burning
buildings. My impression Is that there were
100 men killed in the massacre. though / have
since seen the figures placed at $50. The hor-
ror OF. the thing was like 2 shadow oyer, the
town for years, and nc one felt really safe there
against another raid until after the close OF the
war.
with the inevitable delay in summoning
troops, Quantrcll was able to make good his re-
treat into Missouri, where most OF his force
disbanded and went to their homes. But VEN
them, a detachment of Kansas troops was
soon in Missouri, and when they found any of
the plumber from. Lawrence in the house OF a
man II sealed his fate.
"'Twenty-seven men we hanged in one day
because they were wearing checked shirts n
CAPTAIN In a Kansas regiment said to me. In
lootinR one OF the Lawrence stores the raiders
had oo taken 3 quantity o OF 81 shirts RS OF a rsGH,ia q
Missouri, we struck a community, where the
men generally were wearing new shirts OF this
pattern, we know we had got among the Guam
trial or waste of time. When we caught a man
with one OF these shirts on. he went up toward
the limb Of q cottonwood tree about as fast as
n rope could be made to work I.
the military necessity OF Gen. EwinG's famous
move in depopulating. a strip some fifty miles
in width Of western Missouri, along the entire
eastern b3rderof kansas SOM toTnsli ke Kan
were spared; but the country people had al, to
60. leaving their farms and taking their choice
whether 70 go east In Missouri or west into
Kansas, 1t was a cruel stroke OF war. but It
guerrillas and rendered Kansas practically safe
against another raid like that OF Quantrell."