William Clark Quantrill
| William Clarke Quantrill | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
July 31, 1837 Canal Dover (now Dover), Ohio |
| Died | June 6, 1865 (aged 27) Louisville, Kentucky |
| Buried at | St. John's Catholic Cemetery Louisville, Kentucky |
| Allegiance | |
| Service/branch | |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Battles/wars | |
William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865) was a Confederate leader during the American Civil War.
After a knockabout youth, he joined a group of bandits who roamed Missouri and Kansas, kidnapping escaped slaves in exchange for reward money. This apparently confirmed his pro-slavery views, and his group became Confederate 'bushwhackers', feared for their terror tactics, which used effective Native American field skills. They included Jesse James and his brother. In August 1863, the bandits murdered nearly 200 civilians in Lawrence, Kansas, a stronghold of anti-slavery sentiment. In May 1865, Quantrill was mortally wounded by Union troops in Western Kentucky, in one of the last engagements of the Civil War.
Quantrill was the oldest of twelve children, four of whom died in infancy. He was born at Canal Dover (now just Dover), Ohio, on July 31, 1837. His father was Thomas Henry Quantrill, formerly of Hagerstown, Maryland. His mother, Caroline Cornelia Clark, was a native of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. They were married on October 11, 1836 and moved to Canal Dover the following December.
Quantrill was well-educated and followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a schoolteacher at the age of sixteen. In 1854, his abusive father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with a huge financial debt. Quantrill's mother had to turn her home into a boarding house in order to survive. Quantrill helped support the family by working as a schoolteacher but left home a year later and headed to Mendota, Illinois. Here, Quantrill took up a job in the lumberyards, unloading timber from rail cars.
One night while working the late shift, he shot a man dead. Authorities briefly arrested Quantrill, who claimed self-defense. Since there were no eyewitnesses and the victim was a stranger who knew no one in town, William was set free. But police strongly urged him to leave Mendota. Quantrill continued his career as a teacher, moving to Fort Wayne, Indiana in February 1856. And although the district was impressed with Quantrill's teaching abilities, the wages remained meager. Quantrill journeyed back home to Canal Dover that fall, with no more money in his pockets than when he had left.
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