Three Years With Quantrill: A True Story Told by His Scout John McCorkle
Quantrill is often maligned as a psychopathic killer and a despot. McCorkle refutes this common claim by the writers of the winner's history, shows that Quantrill was a compassionate and honorable man. He shows a side to the War of Northern Aggression that is rarely told

Baxter Springs
Civil War Kansas

American Civil War
October 6, 1863

Baxter Springs
Massacre at Baxter Springs
The true-life adventures of a cavalry trooper who finds himself in the middle of a guerilla war. Caught between Quantrill's guerillas and James Blunt, Union general who unwittingly leads his cavalry into a deadly ambush. The narrative describing the battle is based on previously unpublished Wisconsin archival material.

After conducting many raids in Kansas, including the massacre at Lawrence, Quantrill decided to winter in Texas.

Along with other partisans, he headed south on the Texas Road and captured and killed two Union teamsters who had come from a post called Baxter Springs. Quantrill decided to attack the post and divided his force into two columns, one under him and the other commanded by a subordinate, David Poole.

Poole and his men proceeded down the Texas Road, where they encountered Union soldiers, most of whom were African Americans. They chased and attacked the Union troops, killing some of them before they reached the earth and log fort.

After the Union survivors reached the fort, the Rebels attacked, but the garrison, with the help of a howitzer, fought them off.

Quantrill's column moved on the post from another direction and chanced on a Union detachment escorting Major General James G. Blunt and wagons transporting his personal items from his former headquarters of the Department of the Frontier at Fort Scott to his new one at Fort Smith.

Most of this detachment, including the band and Major Henry Z. Curtis (son of Major General Samuel R. Curtis), was murdered, but Blunt and a few mounted men returned to Fort Scott.

Blunt was removed from command for failing to protect his column, but he was soon restored. Touted as a massacre by some, Baxter Springs was another of the events that characterized the vicious Kansas-Missouri border warfare.

Result(s): Confederate victory

Location: Cherokee County

Campaign: Occupation of Indian Territory North of the Arkansas River (1863)

Date(s): October 6, 1863

Principal Commanders: Lieutenant James B. Pond and Major General James G. Blunt [US]; Lieutenant Colonel William C. Quantrill [CS]

Forces Engaged: Detachments from three regiments and an escort [US]; Quantrill's Raiders (approx. 400) [CS]

Estimated Casualties: 106 total (US 103; CS 3)


Charles W. Quantrell
A True History Of His Guerilla Warfare On The Missouri And Kansas Border During The Civil War Of 1861-1865
This book was written just as Captain Harrison Trow told it to John P. Burch, giving accounts of fights that he participated in, narrow escapes experienced, dilemmas it seemed almost impossible to get out of, and also other battles
Civil War Firearms
Standard Catalog of Civil War Firearms
Over 700 photographs and a rarity scale for each gun, this comprehensive guide to the thousands of weapons used by Billy Yank and Johnny Reb will be indispensable for historians and collectors.		 Kansas State Battle Map
State Battle Maps
Civil War Timeline
Ships and Naval Battles
History of Colored Troops
Confederate Navy
Union Hardtack Recipe
American Civil War Exhibits
Civil War Summary
Women in the War
QuarterMaster Resources
Civil War Store
The Civil War Reenactors' Encyclopedia
Besides his weapons, the soldier needed a leather belt with a cap box for the percussion caps that fired his weapon, a box for his cartridges, a sling/scabbard for his bayonet, a haversack and/or knapsack to carry his rations and his few personal items
American Civil War Book Titles

Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861-1865: A Riveting Account of a Bloody Chapter in Civil War History
The guerilla warfare along the Kansas-Missouri boarder brought forth some of the bloodiest incidents of the Civil War
Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War
The state of Missouri witnessed the most widespread, prolonged, and destructive guerrilla fighting in American history. A horrific combination of robbery, arson, torture, murder, and swift and bloody raids on farms and settlements.
Peacekeeping on the Plains: Army Operations in Bleeding Kansas
The useage of the army to conduct police and peacekeeping duties in the newly formed Kansas and Nebraska territories, A meticulous analysis of facts and records, regarding the true story of human greed, desperation, ruthlessness, and military efforts to contain potential riots
Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas Border
The western front was the scene of some of that conflict's bloodiest and most barbaric encounters as Union raiders and Confederate guerrillas pursued each other from farm to farm with equal disregard for civilian casualties

Bloody Dawn: The Story of the Lawrence Massacre
Kansas was a Hotbed for abolitionists and Lawrence was known as the center. For years under the guise of Freedom, abolitionists, known as Jayhawkers and Redlegs crossed the border into Missouri to murder, loot, and plunder. Quantrill raided Lawrence, Kansas killing nearly 200 men
Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era
The civil war tore this territory apart in the 1850s and 60s, and "Bleeding Kansas" became a forbidding symbol for the nationwide clash over slavery that followed
General James G. Blunt
Tarnished Glory
General Blunt was an immensely successful leader. He and John Brown helped escaped slaves reach Canada; he led the defeat of Confederate troops at Fort Wayne, Prairie Grove, and Cane Hill. Also accused of corruption, womanizing, and egotistical tirades throughout his military career
Autobiography of Samuel S. Hildebrand
Figures such as Quantrill and Anderson are better known today, Sam Hildebrand was an equally notorious Missouri bushwhacker in the southeast region of Missouri. Operating with a small group of followers, Hildebrand and his rifle "Kill-Devil" were a terror to local Unionist civilians

Civil War History Documentary DVD Movie Titles

Kansas Pacific
With the Civil War about to begin, Southern saboteurs try to prevent railroad construction from crossing Kansas to the frontier.
Civil War Journal - The Conflict Begins
These four programs from the History Channel series Civil War Journal cover critical aspects of the early days of the war.
Ride With The Devil
The bloody feud among neighbors in the border state of Missouri. In this war zone the destinies of several young Southern bushwhackers as they experience the violence and the seasons 		Bad Blood Civil War Misouri and Kansas
Bad Blood: The Border War That Triggered the Civil War
In the years leading up to the Civil War, a bloody conflict between slaveholders and abolitionists focused the nation's eyes on the state of Missouri and the territory of Kansas. Told through the actual words of slave owners, free-staters, border ruffians, and politicians, Bad Blood presents the complex morality, differing values, and life-and-death decisions faced by those who lived on the Missouri-Kansas border

History Channel Presents The Civil War
From Harper's Ferry, Fort Sumter, and First Bull Run to Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. The most legendary Civil War battles in brilliant detail. A selection of the soldiers and legendary leaders.
The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one
Long Road Back to Kentucky:
The 1862 Confederate Invasion
The often-overlooked Western campaign of the war with a specific emphasis on Kentucky's involvement in the American Civil War.
Blue Vs. Gray - Killing Fields
Relive the most vicious fighting of the Civil War, in which General Ulysses S. Grant forcibly reversed the tide of the conflict by paying with the blood of thousands. It was a desperate time for the Union

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.


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