Army's policy of exterminating his men on sight without trial or capture. He was a typical guerrilla chieftain whose violent actions are understandable in their correct context, given the U.S. Even William Clarke Quantrill, best known for leading the massacre of August 21, 1863, in which 450 Confederate guerrillas descended on Lawrence, Kansas, an abolitionist stronghold, and slaughtered 150 citizens, was not the devil, as he is usually depicted. For example, David Rice Atchison, leader of the so-called Border Ruffians, was in fact a cultured man, a respected Missouri senator, and president pro tem of the United States Senate. He also questions the accepted characterization of all bushwhackers as bloodthirsty demons.
Gilmore sets the record straight by spotlighting the depredations and atrocities performed by Kansas senator and Union major general James Lane and his men, which are often ignored or underreported in most historical accounts. Jayhawkers and bushwhackers were equally ruthless in this hard-fought "war without quarter." Mr. It is no wonder that, faced with the loss of their farms and their livelihoods, Missourians struck back with equal force. As early as 1858, Kansan and Union troops carried out unbridled confiscation or destruction of Missouri private property, until the state became known as "the burnt region." These outrages escalated to include martial law throughout Missouri and finally the infamous General Orders Number 11 of September 1863 in which Union general Thomas Ewing, Federal commander of the region, ordered the deportation of the entire population of the border counties. Gilmore discusses President Lincoln's utmost desire to keep Missouri in the Union by any and all means. In reexamining many of the long-held historical assumptions about this period, Donald L. "Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas Border is a riveting glimpse into the calculated ruthlessness of both sides in a vicious, prolonged conflict."-The Midwest Book Review A thorough, well-researched study of the realities of life during a particularly volatile time." "A captivating account of western life during the violent years prior to and during the Civil War. "Gilmore's new book is a bombshell! It turns the 'standard textbook' Civil War history of the bloody Missouri-Kansas border war right on its head-and about time, too!"
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