Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1998
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 4, Fall 1998, pp. 343-344
Abstract
Edward E. Leslie has written a provocative book about one of the most notorious characters of the American Civil War. He has certainly achieved his goal of offering "an anecdotal history of William Clarke Quantrill, the guerrilla band he led, the enemies he fought, and the war they waged on the KansasMissouri border." This is one of the fullest treatments of Quantrill yet. Leslie's research is impressive; and he does an admirable job of shredding past myths about his subject. The first four chapters cover the ground of "Bleeding Kansas," a time when this "quiet schoolteacher" from Ohio came to the new territory for a fresh start. Leslie traces Quantrill's conversion from a staunch Free Stater to pro-slave sympathizer as a result of his experiences in the Mormon War and the Pikes Peak gold rush. Then Leslie explores Quantrill's fame-or infamy- as a Confederate guerrilla, along with devoting two full chapters to the brutal raid on Lawrence, Kansas, on 21 August 1863.
The author is particularly strong in suggesting the motivation of Quantrill's followers, such as George Todd, who usurped Quantrill's leadership in 1864, or the crazed, callous Bill Anderson, whose butchery at Centralia, Missouri, is almost beyond depiction. A great many of these men had family members who were terribly affected by border warfare and Union policies throughout western Missouri. But not so Quantrill; and what comes through is a sensationalized story of a violence-prone man. For example, Leslie overplays "bleeding" Kansas, and fails to consider the work of William Unrau and Craig Miner, who argue that the endeavors of Euro-Americans' to strip Indian,peoples of their land was the real story of the territorial period.
Comments
Copyright 1998 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska- Lincoln