Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri by Joseph M. Beilein Jr (review)

The history of the guerrilla war in Missouri and of such famous partisans as William Clarke Quantrill and "Bloody" Bill Anderson has been given new scholarly treatment by author Joseph M. Beilein Jr. In the introduction to Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri, Beilein brushes aside past studies of guerrillas in Missouri as either too mystifying or overly deterministic and argues for a hybrid approach that combines military history and gender history to "restore proportion and clarity to the guerrilla conflict" (p. 8). The book, accordingly, aims to "offer the first multi-dimensional portrait of the masculine identity of the guerrilla" (p. 12).

From the outset, the author contends that the essential logic for the guerrilla war in Missouri emanated from the gendered identities forged in the household. From the household, Beilein expands outward to consider kinship networks, including those founded by Richard Fristoe and Clifton Holtzclaw, that operated across western and central Missouri, respectively. This focus helps explain why multiple members of the same family took up arms and supports Beilein's view that "the guerrilla conflict in Missouri was a war fought by the family, for the family" (p. 59). Similarly, the author's framing of William Clarke Quantrill as a hired hand connects the imperatives of the "household war" to the interests of slaveholders in Missouri, while Quantrill's rise and fall as a guerrilla leader reflects his station as an "agent of the household war" (pp. 62, 63).

Aspects of material culture also receive extended treatment. A chapter on rebel foodways highlights how diets, especially those consisting of corn, wheat, and hogs, integrated basic aspects of household operations with those of guerrillas. A photograph depicting the deceased "Bloody" Bill Anderson prompts the author to examine the guerrilla's clothing, hair, and general style; Beilein finds evidence of a man who "wore his heart on his sleeve" (p. 122). The horse was not only a military asset to Missouri guerrillas but also an important component of their identities as fighting men. Next, Beilein reframes the act of killing among guerrillas through a chapter on guns, especially revolvers. The author is at his most sophisticated theoretically in this analysis—the phrase "artisan killers" is particularly memorable (p. 154). A final, composite chapter about the act of fighting centers on the Centralia Massacre and explains the military context for guerrilla conflict, capturing the many changes that took place among bushwhackers during the war.

The key theoretical contribution of this book relates to the concept of masculinity. In each of the descriptive chapters, the author frames a cultural or social practice among Missouri guerrillas in gendered terms. Some of these examples work better and more precisely than others, but they are nevertheless grounded in a solid understanding of the literature on the topic. With a gendered lens, Beilein productively intervenes in academic scholarship and demystifies the popular mythos of guerrillas in Civil War–era Missouri.

In a coda on the deaths and final resting places of guerrillas, the author concludes that bushwhacker masculinity comported with a form of historical gendered conduct that is not destined to be our own. The thought offers little comfort, for while the bones of William Quantrill may now rest peacefully in an Ohio grave, his form of manhood and violent way of life are clearly alive and well in the martial climate of the twenty-first century. Accordingly, Beilein has written not only a cogently supported history of guerrillas in Civil War–era Missouri but also a timely study of the interconnected nature of warfare, manhood, and the household.