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During the Civil War, raiders from both Kansas and Missouri fought along theMissouri-Kansas border to antagonize settlements with opposing loyalties. For somereason, the conflict of northern and southern ideals managed to inspire military leaders toexercise unspeakable cruelty on their former countryman. Such offenders were KansasSenator James H. Lane and “Bloody” Bill Andersen. But none of their atrocities hold acandle to the level of infamy that “Bloody” Bill Quantrill, whose barbaric tactics earnedhim the distinction of being one of the most ruthless killers in American history.Atrocities were committed on both sides of the conflict. City after city and town after town were destroyed by both Confederate and Union forces. They were left in smolderingruins and never the same again. Missouri bares the scars of many Civil War battles. Asthe clash between northern and southern ideals was raging all over the country, they were playing out on a statewide level in Missouri. The ruthless defense of these ideals (i.e.slavery) drove men into some of the most ferocious fighting of the war. Missouri wasturned into a chaotic mess of blood, turmoil, and death.On May 30, 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the two territories to whitesettlement. The signing of the act was used to expand railroads westward and started acourse of events that would last until the end of the Civil War. The act had also left thedecision of whether or not to become a slave territory up to the governing bodies of eachof the territories. That was the initial controversy between both abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates in both Missouri and Kansas, and it was the spark that lit the powder keg that was the “Border War”. What followed was six years of strife and conflict alongthe border that led up to the Civil War. During that time raids had been conducted fromDanchus-1
 
 both sides of the of the Missouri-Kansas border, as tensions grew between the two newstates.
1
 Despite the fact that most Missourians were pro-slavery, the state remainedneutral throughout the war. Missouri was officially a pro-Union state with a majority of its population pro-Confederacy. The result this was a war within Missouri’s own bordersthat involved the U.S. Army, Missouri citizens, and militias (i.e. Quantrill’s band)throughout the state. Because of this, the state of Missouri never officially joined the war due, in large part, to its own internal struggles.
2
 One of the first shots of the Missouri Kansas border war during the Civil War erawas shot by Senator James H. Lane and a group that would later be nicknames “Lane’sBrigade.” Supposedly composed of Kansas infantry and cavalry, the regiment was morelike a violent band of bushwhackers. His exploits earn him the nickname of "GrimChieftain" for the death and destruction he brought to the people of Missouri. Oneunfortunate victim of his wrath was the Missouri town of Osceola. In September 1861Lane’s Brigade descended on the town. When his troops found a cache of Confederatemilitary supplies in the town, Lane decided to wipe Osceola off the map.In 1862, another ruthless killer gained power in what was quickly becoming avery bloody affair in Missouri. William Clarke Quantrill was the most hated of theleaders of the Missouri partisan units. Quantrill directed his men in a series of raids alongthe Kansas-Missouri border. Military men in both the North and the South condemned
1
Richter, William “A History Of Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas:Being an Account of the Early Settlements, the Civil War, the Ku-Klux, and Times of Peace,” Arkansas Quarterly Review 64 (2006): 90-92
2
William E. Parrish ,
 A History of Missouri: 1860-1875
(Columbia: University of Missori Press, 1997, University of Missouri Press, 2004) 75.Danchus-2
 
his brutal tactics. He was despised so much so that a Confederate general even threatenedto have him and his men arrested. An Ohio native, Quantrill had joined the Confederateforces in 1860 but was unhappy with their reluctance in aggressively prosecuting Unionsympathizers in Southern states. He then took it upon himself to take a more forcefulcourse with his own-guerilla warfare. In 1892 “Bloody” Bill Quantrill began hisinfamous raiding career in western Missouri and then across the border in Kansas by pillaging the towns of Olathe, Spring Hill and Shawnee. His raids gained the attention of other opportunistic desperados. By 1863, Quantrill recruited others who joined hiscompany including “Bloody” Bill Anderson and the eventually famous Frank and JesseJames.
3
 Quantrill was heavily involved in many of the military conflicts in Missouri andeastern Kansas. On August 11, 1862, Colonel Hughes’s Confederate forces, whichincluded the barbaric Quantrill, attacked Independence, Missouri. An eventualConfederate victory, the fight gave the Confederacy control over the Kansas City area for a short while. On October 17, Quantrill moved to attack Shawnee. On his way there, heand his band raided a federal supply train. Union soldiers later found all of the operatorsof the train dead, murdered execution style.
4
But that pales in comparison to the atrocities he inflicted on the population of thecity of Lawrence, Kansas. Quantrill hated Lawrence with a passion. It was the home of vigilant abolitionist James H. Lane and the dreaded “Red Legs,” who were responsiblefor countless raids into Missouri. An attack on Lawrence would provide Quantrill and his band a chance at revenge. Early on the morning of August 21, 1863, Quantrill, along with
3
MAJ Jeffrey Wingo,, “Civil War on the Missouri Kansas Border,” MilitaryReview, 13 (May-June 2006) 119
4
Ibid.Danchus-3
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