Information AboutBushwhacker |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BUSHWHACKER | |
| confederate states army | |
| guerrillas | |
| bleeding kansas | |
| missouri in the american civil war | |
| kansas in the american civil war | |
| bushwhackers | |
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PARTISAN RANGERS VS. BUSHWHACKERS In most areas, irregular warfare operated as an adjunct to conventional military operations. The most famous such "partisan ranger" (to use the title adopted by the Confederate government, in formally authorizing such insurgents) was Col. John Singleton Mosby , who carried out raids on Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley . In Missouri, however, secessionist bushwhackers operated outside of the Confederate chain of command. On occasion, a prominent bushwhacker chieftain might receive formal Confederate rank (notably William Clarke Quantrill ), or receive written orders from a Confederate general (as "Bloody Bill" Anderson did in October 1864, during a large-scale Southern incursion into Missouri). For the most part, however, Missouri's bushwhacker squads were self-organized groups of young men, predominantly from the strongly slaveholding counties along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, who took it upon themselves to attack federal forces and their Unionist neighbors. MISSOURI'S INTERNECINE WARFARE The guerrilla conflict in Missouri was, in many respects, a civil war within the Civil War. One of the most famous men who fought as a bushwhacker was Jesse James , who began to fight in 1864 at the age of sixteen. During months of often intense combat, he only battled fellow Missourians, ranging from Missouri regiments of U.S. Volunteer troops to state militia to unarmed Unionist civilians. The single confirmed instance of him exchanging fire with federal troops from another state occurred a month after the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee , during a near-fatal encounter with Wisconsin cavalrymen. In the course of the war, his mother was arrested, his stepfather tortured, and his family banished temporarily from Missouri by state militiamen—all Unionist Missourians. ATROCITIES As is often the case in insurgencies, the conflict with Confederate bushwhackers everywhere rapidly escalated into a succession of atrocities committed by both sides. Union troops often executed suspects without trial, and burned the homes of suspected guerrillas. Bushwhackers frequently went house to house, executing Unionist farmers. In August 1863, Quantrill led a raid on Lawrence, Kansas , burning the town and murdering some 200 men and boys. In response, the Union authorities ordered the depopulation of three and a half Missouri counties along the Kansas border. In other areas, individual families (including that of Jesse and Frank James ) were banished from Missouri. Next to the Lawrence raid, perhaps the most notorious atrocity conducted by the bushwhackers was the murder of 22 unarmed Union soldiers, pulled from a train in Centralia, Missouri . In an ambush of pursuing Union forces shortly thereafter, the bushwhackers executed all of their prisoners, killing well over 100 federal troops. In October 1864, "Bloody Bill" Anderson was tricked into an ambush and killed by state militiamen under the command of Col. Samuel P. Cox. Anderson's body was displayed by the jubilant citizens, and his head was severed. POSTWAR BANDITRY After the end of the war, the survivors of Anderson's band (including the James brothers) remained together under the leadership of Archie Clement, one of Anderson's lieutenants, and began a series of armed robberies in February 1866. This group became known as the James-Younger Gang after the death or capture of the older guerrillas (including Clement), and the addition of former bushwhacker Cole Younger and his brothers. In December 1869, Jesse James became the most famous of this group when he emerged as the prime suspect in the robbery of the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri , and the murder of the cashier, John W. Sheets. During the murderer's flight from the scene, he declared that he had killed Samuel P. Cox, and had taken revenge for Anderson's death. (Cox lived in Gallatin, and the killer apparently mistook Sheets for the former militia officer.) Throughout Jesse James's criminal career, he would often write to the newspapers with pride of his role as a bushwhacker, rallying the support of former Confederates. IN POPULAR CULTURE The films The Outlaw Josey Wales and Ride With The Devil are both about bushwhackers. See also External links Sources
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