Lawrence massacre

The **Lawrence massacre** (also known as '''Quantrill's Raid''') was an attack on the town of Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863. The attack was a battle in the U.S. Civil War. The Confederates won the battle. They won because groups of guerillas led by William Quantrill rode into town and shot every man they saw. They killed about 150 people.

The guerrillas attacked Lawrence because the city supported abolition and because it was a center for the Jayhawkers. The Jayhawkers were free-state militia groups known for attacking plantations in the pro-slavery western counties of Missouri.

## Background
By 1863, there had been a lot of violence in Kansas. This is because people disagreed about whether Kansas should allow slavery or not.

In the summer of 1856, the first sacking of Lawrence started a guerrilla war in Kansas that lasted for years. John Brown might be the most famous person involved in the violence of the late 1850s that fought on the abolitionist or Jayhawker side. However, there were many groups on each side that fought during the "Bleeding Kansas" period.

## Reasons for the attack
### Revenge for Jayhawker attacks
Lawrence was a headquarters for a group of Jayhawkers (sometimes called "Red Legs"). They had started a campaign in late March 1863. They had a goal to end support from the people for the Confederate guerillas. Union General Blunt said the actions of the soldiers were as if "a reign of terror started, and no man's property was safe, nor was his life worth much if he fought them in their plans to rob and steal." Many Jayhawker leaders like Charles "Doc" Jennison, James Montgomery, and George Henry Hoyt attacked Western Missouri. This made both pro-southern and pro-Union civilians and politicians angry. The historian Albert Castel says that the bushwhackers under Quantrill also wanted to steal, but revenge was their main reason. Charles L. Robinson, the first Governor of Kansas, was an eyewitness to the attack. He said the attack happened for revenge: "Before this raid the entire border counties of Missouri had experienced more terrible outrages (events) than ever the Quantrill raid at Lawrence... There was no burning of feet and torture by hanging in Lawrence as there was in Missouri, neither were women and children outraged."

Quantrill said that his reason for the attack was "to steal and  the town as revenge for Osceola." He was talking about the Union's attack on Osceola, Missouri in September 1861. Senator James H. Lane led it. His forces plundered Osceola, gave nine men a drumhead court-martial trial, and executed them.

### Destruction of the Women's Prison in Kansas City
The  of the Women's Prison in Kansas City is also often believed to have made some people want to join in on the attack. To try to stop the Missouri guerrillas from being in Kansas, General Thomas Ewing, Jr. issued "General Order No. 10" in April 1863. This ordered anyone helping or comforting the Confederate guerrillas to be arrested. This mostly meant women or girls who were relatives of the guerrillas. Ewing sent the arrested people to some  prisons in Kansas City. The women were then kept in two buildings which were either too small or too dirty. Then they were moved to an empty building at 1425 Grand Boulevard. This building was part of the estate of Robert S. Thomas, George Caleb Bingham's father-in-law. In 1861, Bingham and his family were living in the building. However, in early 1862, he and his family moved to Jefferson City when he was chosen to be the treasurer of Missouri. Bingham had added a third level to the building to use as a studio.

At least ten women or girls, all under the age of 20, were prisoners in the building when it collapsed on August 13, 1863, killing four: Charity McCorkle Kerr, Susan Crawford Vandever, Armenia Crawford Selvey, and Josephine Anderson—the 15-year-old sister of William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson. A few days later, Nannie Harris died from her wounds. The people who did not die from the collapse were Jenny Anderson (injured by the accident), Susan Anne Mundy Womacks, Martha "Mattie" Mundy, Lucinda "Lou" Mundy Gray, Elizabeth Harris (later married to Deal), and Mollie Grindstaff. Anderson's 13-year-old sister, who was stuck to a ball-and-chain inside the jail, got many injuries, including two broken legs.

Even before the jail fell, the arrest and planned deportation of the girls had made Quantrill's guerrillas angry; George Todd left a note for General Ewing threatening to burn Kansas City unless the girls were freed. Quantrill's raid on Lawrence was planned before the jail collapse, and even before General Ewing issued "General Order No. 10".

## Attack
A man from Hesper named Henry Thompson tried to run to Lawrence to tell the people there that an attack was coming. He was able to run all the way to Eudora before he was too tired. An unknown man riding a chaise came across Thompson to ask if he needed help. Thompson told him that he ran all the way from Hester, and that he needed to  Lawrence. Thompson and the man were able to get some people from Eudora to go to Lawrence to warn of an attack. They were too late. Their first goal was to get to the Eldridge House, a big brick hotel in the middle of Lawrence. They gained control of the building (which became Quantrill's headquarters during the raid). After that, Quantrill's men went into smaller groups that spread throughout Lawrence. For the next four hours, the raiders pillaged and burned 25% of the buildings in Lawrence. They burned all businesses except for two. They looted most of the banks and stores in town. They killed more than 150 people. All of the victims were men and boys. Some sources say 183 people were killed. By 9 a.m., the raiders were leaving Lawrence.

Mayor George W. Collamore hid in his family's well so that the guerillas would not find him. However, they set his house on fire, and he died from breathing in smoke.

George Burt was standing near a fence when a guerilla came to him. The guerilla asked for all of his money. When Burt gave the guerilla his pocket book, the guerilla took it with one hand and shot Burt with the other.

The raiders wanted revenge, so they had a list of people they wanted to kill and buildings they wanted to burn. James H. Lane was at the top of the list. Lane was a military leader and a supporter of the Jayhawkers. Lane  by running through a  while wearing his nightshirt. John Speer was one of Lane's biggest political supporters. Lane had put Speer into the newspaper business. Speer was also on the list. Charles L. Robinson, first governor of Kansas and an abolitionist, may also have been on the list. However, he was not killed. 

Many said that Quantrill's decision to kill young boys was a very bad part of the attack. Bobbie Martin is generally said to be the youngest person who died. Some stories of the raid say he may have been as young as ten to twelve years old, but others say he was fourteen years old. Most sources say he was wearing a Union soldier uniform or clothing made from his father's uniform, but others say he was holding a musket and cartridges. Most of Quantrill's guerrilla fighters were teenagers. One of the youngest was Riley Crawford. He was thirteen years old when his mother took him to Quantrill after Union soldiers shot her husband and burned her home.

The *Kansas State Journal* was the first newspaper in Lawrence to continue publishing after the attack. They released their first copy on October 1, 1863. In it, it said that every business in Lawrence had been sacked; every business except five had been burned; every house in Lawrence had been plundered; 160 men and boys had been killed. The Leavenworth *Daily Conservative,* on August 23, 1863, said that the guerrillas caused $2,000,000 worth of damage, and stole $250,000 worth of money.

A day after the attack, some of the people of Lawrence lynched Thomas Corlew, a member of Quantrill's raiders who was still in Lawrence. They believed he was a spy. They hanged him in a barn on Massachusetts Street.

After the attack, Quantrill brought his men south to Texas for the winter. By the next year, however, the raiders broke up as a group. They were unable to get similar successes. Quantrill died of wounds he got in Kentucky in 1865. By that point, he had only a few supporters left. Frank James and his younger brother, Jesse James were some of his supporters.

After Quantrill's attack, the Union built multiple military posts on Mount Oread. They built these to help guard the rebuilt city. However, no more attacks happened in Lawrence, and these forts were removed.

## Related pages
* Bushwhacking, a kind of guerrilla warfare used a lot during the American Revolutionary War, American Civil War

## Notes
## References
## More reading
* Albert E. Castel. *Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind* (1997)
* Albert E. Castel. *William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times* (1999) excerpt and text search
* Thomas Goodrich, *Bloody Dawn: The Story of the Lawrence Massacre* (1992)
*Paul I. Wellman. *A Dynasty of Western Outlaws* (1961). (On the formative background of the Kansas-Missouri border wars on the post-war western outlaws, notably the James-Younger gang.)
*Richard F. Sunderwirth, "The Burning" Of Osceola Missouri" (2007)

## Other websites
*National Park Service battle description
*Tour and photos of Lawrence Quantrill's Raid sites
*Other reports that mention Quantrill's Raid and the Lawrence Massacre
*Civil War history site article on Quantrill
*Rev. R. Cordley's Description of the Massacre (published in 1865) {Partial list of killed/wounded/missing}
*1897 account "Guns and the Gospel" with listing of Lawrence Massacre Victims at the end of Chapter 22 
*Monument to victims of William C. Quantrill