Susan's Books and Gifts

From the Preface of this 205 page book: “Much has been written about Quantrill, but most of it shows him and his men as bloodthirsty demons, who murdered and who robbed and plundered for pleasure. Only in recent years has anything fair been written about him and the guerilla warfare he waged on Union forces which occupied the midwest. Two notable examples are Richard Brownlee’s ‘Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy’ and Albert Castel’s ‘William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times’. The main reason Quantrill was written up to be a barbarian was the Eastern press, which was all pro-Union. There were no newspapers in the midwest that were sympathetic to the Confederacy as the midwest was under Union control. Everything we read of him in the old newspapers published during those years, describe him and his men as demons and murderers. Books written by Easterners tell of his evil ways. It was many years after the war before the voices of the men who rode with Quantrill were heard. The Lawrence Massacre as it is called, gave Quantrill a notoriety which exists today and no doubt made him one of the great villains in American history. This was by far the outstanding event of the Kansas and Missouri warfare. In writing this book, I have tried to place the emphasis on Quantrill, the man himself. It is very difficult at this late date to sort the facts from fiction, but I have tried.” Several photos and illustrations are found along with the descriptive text.