Was there an officers name 'Quantrill?

Question

In the American civil war was there an officer who continued his hate campaign after the war...I am not sure if his name is Quantrill or Quantrell?

Answer 1

William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865), was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. After leading a Confederate bushwhacker gang along the Missouri-Kansas border in the early 1860s, which included the infamous raid and sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863, Quantrill eventually ended up in Kentucky where he was killed in a Union ambush in 1865, aged 27.

Answer 2

Quantrill is the actual name.  I think that one of the sources of the confusion of this officer's name is that John Wayne made a very popular film for director Raul Walsh called "Dark Command" where Walter Pidgeon played "William Cantrell," who commands a brigade of guerrillas as did the real-life Quantrill.

In the fictional movie, "Cantrell" changes sides in order to reap profits from the war, and in one scene raids a plantation to free the slaves, and then sells those same slaves downriver!  He's a classic movie villain of the 1940s!

Answer 3

Quantrill's raiders operated in the Missori, Kansas area.  Jesse and Frank James learned to raid under him.

Answer 4

William Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas has been the subject of much study and debate. It occured during a very turbulent time in Kansas history, when the question of slavery was being sorted out.

As the headquarters of Free-State sympathizers, Lawrence Kansas was a prime targe for Quantrill and his supporters, who raided it on August 21, 1863.

There's an interesting article on it here in the KS Journal of History

http://www.kshs.org/publicat/khq/1968/68...

At the time Quantrill was, of course, seen as a great hero by many, and as a cruel villain by others.

Whe the raid ended, nearly 150 male inhabitants were dead or dying and a large portion of the town's business and residential districts were in ashes.