William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times (review)

Book Reviews219 Joining the service to fight, Benson quickly discovered that battles were relatively few. His was mainly a life of long marches and frequent drills, widi litde resemblance between die training for battle and die actual fighting. He describes in moving prose die unimportant events of military life: a refreshing bath after a march, eager men searching for food, snowbaU fights, the discomforts caused by lice or "graybacks," or a frightened rabbit running franticaUy between the lines during a battle. His description of the cutting of bacon into small pieces and die method of selecting a particular piece for a soldier emphasizes the importance of food. Although not at Gettysburg, he used only a few words to picture the fighting: "Gettysburg!!! Twas an awful place, four days of volleyed diunder ..." (p. 45) . He recaUs walking over a battlefield where cadavers were "swollen to twice the size of men. The air was horribly foul with the stench of decaying bodies. ... I had to pick my way amongst them. And to shun the fearful gaze of their open eyes, I held my head up, looking ahead, afraid to look down" (p. 77). Benson is at his best in a long account of Lee's demoralized army after its defeat at Petersburg. After the war Benson worked as a teacher and an accountant in Augusta, Georgia. In addition, he contributed articles to newspapers and had essays published in die Outlook and Century magazines. Wilson achieved national distinction as a college president and a legislator in the U.S. House of Representatives . Botii men left valuable sources for students of die Civil War. Rembert W. Patrick University of Florida William Ctoke QuantriU: His Life and Times. By Albert Castel. (New York: Frederick Fell, Inc., 1962. Pp. 250. $6.00.) The only excuse for another life of Quantrill is to set die record straight, introduce new material, or to offer a fresh point of view. The author is fairly successful on die last two counts. The bitter passions of the Kansas-Missouri border inhabitants, engendered by a squatter-sovereign policy, provided die hotbed in which the guerrillas of both Union and Confederacy spawned. Perhaps Stephen A. Douglas and his political foUowers may not have foreseen aU the consequences of their irresponsible doctrine, but the Kansas-Nebraska BiU as it was applied became an express license for aU the wild young men of this frontier to take the criminal path to easy living. QuantriU and his Missouri cohorts were just a little more vicious and successful than many odiers, and so achieved more fame or infamy—depending on whedier one admires bloody crime. It was a blot on die Soutiiem cause that Quantrill, BiU Anderson, and their ilk were ever tolerated. Until after die QuantriU raid on Lawrence and die resulting Order No. 11, aU the activity of die guerriUas was confined to raiding into Kansas, and killing and robbing defenseless Union men in rural Missouri. Before Lawrence, every town but one in Johnson County, Kansas, had been raided, pillaged, and bumed by die bushwhackers. Order No. 11 was wonderfuUy effective, since after its execution diere was no more raiding into Kansas (a point the author fails to make). Thereafter, QuantriU and die other guerriUa leaders in quest of spoils piUaged odier Missourians, and even Texans. While their true talents were not fully appreciated by the Confederate high command , dieir guns were nevertheless welcomed whenever diere was any fighting to do. This book gains an advantage over former accounts by using the "Smith Manuscript." This is a narrative diat was dictated by Frank Smith, one of Quantrill's men, to his son when die veteran was past eighty years of age. The Smith family, who have always intended to publish die manuscript, aUowed die author to see a copy, but were much surprised by its present use. In his own time and for decades afterward QuantriU was almost a mysterious figure, but Smith's account plugs all the blank spots. To assess fully die reliability of die Smidi manuscript, it would be necessary to verify its details so far as is now possible, but unfortunately it is not available for checking or research at this...