Who rode with Quantrill?
Cole Younger described his participation with Quantrill in a 1916 interview
There is no incident of the war which has been so distorted and misrepresented as the Lawrence Raid. To understand what brought it about one has to dig into the history of the federal raids on the homes of southern sympathizers all over Missouri. My father was opposed to the war and had friends on both sides, but he was shot down in cold blood and robbed by a gang of Federal free-booters as he was coming home from Kansas City. … That day changed the course of my whole life, for, like Bill Anderson, whose sister was killed in the wreck of the federal prison in Kansas City, and whose mother and brother were shot to death in their home , the knowledge that my father had been killed in cold blood filled my heart for the lust for vengeance. … I was nineteen on the day we started on the Lawrence raid.
Post card depicting a reunion of Quantrill’s men, undated. Postmark on back of card is 1909.
Reunion pin, “Sixth Annual Reunion of Survivors of Quantrill’s Guerrillas at Independence, Missouri, August 22, 1903”
Charles W. Quantrill A True History of his Guerrilla Warfare on the Missouri and Kansas Border During the Civil War of 1861-1865, as told by Capt. Harrison Trow – one who followed Quantrill through his whole course, c. 1923. (RH C5074)
Well I went with Quantrill when I was just sixteen years of age and was captured by General Buell’s forces. I was fixing to go out on the plains when the federals captured me. They took my mule from me, my clothes and everything else I had and then set me loose. It angered me as a boy, I was angry all over. I ran with Quantrill then, stayed with him for some time.
Letter, Charles F. Taylor, Joplin, Missouri, Jan. 18, 1879 to W.W. Scott
Taylor is writing to W.W. Scott (a boyhood friend of Quantrill’s) in response to a request from Scott to provide information about his experience as one of Quantrill’s men. Taylor, who, as we can see from the letterhead, is the Vice President of the Joplin Mining and Smelting Company, confirms that he did ride with Quantrill, but will only provide information if he can be assured that an impartial history will be written.