Great story.... I knew very little of it....
The annual game between Missouri and Kansas used to be called “The Border War”. They changed the name because that was not PC.
Now that Missouri is in the SEC, I don’t know if they even still play.
Today, Quantrill might be best described as “not mentally all together”
Bloody Bill Anderson was at the Lawrence raid and I think he led the raid-not Quantrill.
The wife and I have stayed in Lawrence a number of times when driving back to Wisconsin from Texas. Very pretty country. We’ve never brought up the raid with any of the locals.
Also, the Jayhawker leaders and instigators of the Missouri raids cut and ran from Quantrill, leaving their fellow townspeople to face William Quantrill’s wrath.
Although the majority of townsmen were away fighting in the Civil War, those remaining drilled with guns, which were stored at the town’s armory.
As a result, on the day of the attack – which started while many residents were still at home in bed – they had little to defend themselves with ...
Mr. Mercat grew up in Lawrence. I went to KU and met and married Mr. Mercat and we lived there for another ten. Our son was an extra in Ride with the Devil. There’s a story of my mother’s grandfather who was only 12 at the time of the civil war. He was with his parents on the family farm in SW Missouri with his five older brothers off fighting for the confederates (four died). A young slave woman came to the door one night and warned them that the neighboring farm was being raided by irregulars from Kansas. They went and hid in the fields until it was over. Here’s a trivia question, what other state was admitted to the Union when Missouri was to keep the number of slave and free states even?
For what it’s worth, Quantrill was a Yankee. Born and raised in Dover, Ohio. He moved out west and embraced the Southern cause as the Civil War approached. All that said, I suspect both he and Bloody Bill would be in straitjackets were they alive today.
When I was in college there was another student who confessed that his family had changed their name to hide the fact that they were closely related to Quantrill. I scoffed at the notion that there would after more than 100 years, be
revenge sought. He assured me that there was.
Now, in looking back almost 40 years I have to agree with him. Some pain takes a very long time to be forgotten.
We lost a great great great great grandfather in the border war. They took him off on a horse and the family never saw him again. This happened in South Missouri. My fathers family never wanted us to live in Kansas to this day. Not that I am tempted. Blech
If these morons really had any any idea of how brutal and bloody that border war was, they'd shut the hell up. Examples like the attacks on Osceola and Lawrence would shut them up if they had a clue.
Mark
Regardless of the scumbag redlegs
His men should not have slain innocents to make point
Goes for either side
Thanks for the post. The Missouri Border War and Bloody Kansas is one of my favorite areas of reading. Lesser known, were similar partisan wars in WV, and the mountains of KY, TN and the Carolinas.
Hill folk were mostly unionist in the South.”...jest cawz them uppity flatlanders warn’t.” No love lost.
I would say Kansas manhood should have some real self-esteem issues coming out of this dust up. I can see why Missouri would remember it…even if guiltily…..but only in an age of victimization would Kansas willingly commemorate such a shameful showing of its manhood.
It was a war for cripes sakes…..fight. As horrible as many think the Raiders were, in effect these Kansas men abandoned their women to them and hid. Good Lord, with blood like this in his veins, no wonder Bob Dole needed Viagra to get it up.
Missouri Heroes:
Bloody Bill Anderson, Cole and James Younger and two more of their later gang, Bill Quantrill, Frank James, Daniel Boone’s great grand son Upton Hayes.....to name a few remembered well.
Kansan Heroes:
Fisher – Prominent citizen - Hides in basement. Hides under wife’s dress, then hides under a rug.
Murdock – newsman and editor – Hides in a pit.
Lane – Senator – hides in cornfield.
Robinson – Former Governor – Hid in barn....probably in the manure pile...the best place to hide.
Speer – Editor. He survives but his two sons are killed.
Forgotten now except that they hid.
And not a single Missourian bagged? My mom would have plugged at least one....
Of course, we know better now. As our betters tell us everyday. Don’t resist. It only makes it worse.
Proud to live in the free state of Kansas. Missouri is full of racist slavers who attend the Missouri state fair. Just ask the NAACP and Jesse Jackson who wants the Secret Service and the DOJ to investigate the Missouri slavers.