Gurdon Grovenor

During the Civil War, Confederate guerrilla bands roamed far and wide on the western frontier, disrupting Northern supply routes, burning depots, robbing mail trains and coaches, capturing runaway slaves, and attacking civilians. The most notorious of these raiders was William C. Quantrill, a former schoolteacher whose extracurricular activities included horse stealing, theft and murder. In 1862, the Confederate army commissioned him a captain and made his band into a regular unit of the Confederate army.

Targeted for special attention by Confederate raiders were towns and settlements known for their sympathies toward the Union cause. In August, 1863, Quantrill and 450 of his followers swooped down on Lawrence, Kansas, a city established and settled by committed Northern abolitionists. The result was a day and night of fighting, destruction, and utter terror for the civilian inhabitants of Lawrence, as described in the following account...