Quantrill’s Raiders Last Stand

On Monday night, February 10, the Meade County Historical and Archaeological Preservation Society (MCHAPS) had their monthly meeting in the banquet hall adjacent to the Meade County History Museum. Following a short business meeting conducted by MCHAPS president Gerry Fischer, there was a special presentation by guest speaker Dr. Tom Sabetta. Dr. Sabetta is a retired professor of Communications from the University of Kentucky. He graduated from Western Kentucky University and got his PhD at Wayne State University. He is currently the Lt. Commander of the Kentucky Division of the Sons of the Confederacy.
Dr. Sabetta related the history of Quantrill’s Raiders, most specifically the founder, William Clarke Quantrill, and how he ended up in Kentucky. William Clarke Quantrill was born in Ohio in 1837. At the age of 16 he became a school teacher in order to help his widowed mother provide for her and his younger siblings. As a teacher he did not make very much money, so he tried several other occupations, including working at a lumber yard in Illinois, but there he supposedly killed a man in self defense and was asked to leave. From there he moved to Kansas, Colorado, and Utah, working various jobs, but found he was best at teaching. So at age 19 he went back to teaching and he taught at a schoolhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. When the school closed in 1860 he turned to hanging out with a gang of plunderers, who rustled cattle and did anything else where they could get their hands on money.
When the Civil War began, Quantrill joined the Confederate Army and was commissioned a Captain by General Robert E. Lee. He fought in a few battles in Texas, but then he deserted and formed his own army near the Kansas and Missouri border. Quantrill’s men were very young, most under 21 years of age, and included Frank and Jesse James, and Jim, Bob and for a while Coleman Younger (who later formed the James-Younger Gang of outlaws). At one point Quantrill commanded about 400 men.

Read it here!