"Q" is For "Quantrill"

 

"Q" is For "Quantrill"

    When researching my subject for the letter “Q,” I was in a bit of a quandary (itself a ‘q’ word).  There’s not a whole bunch of people who fit the bill.  I could have chosen the late Libyan president, Muammar al-Qaddafi, I suppose, but most spellings of his name use a “G.”

Although it would have been great fun
mocking his predilection of wearing drapes

    I didn’t want to confuse everyone or have people think I was cheating just because the Encyclopedia Brittanica used “Q.”

    NOTE:  The British are notorious for their wacky way of spelling things.  I mean, who actually writes cheques?

"I suppose you colonials spell it with a...sniff...'k'?"

"Well...yeah."

"Right.  Off you go."

    “Quisling” might have worked.  But I wrote about him only last year.  I didn’t want to inflict a rerun on you so soon.  Heck, someone actually may have read that post and actually may have remembered it.  Doubtful though that may be.

    But, I finally found someone who fit the “Q” requirement: “William Quantrill.”  Although, I would be hard-pressed to find anything funny about him because his exploits are hardly the stuff of chortles, chuckles, or guffaws.

Much less titters

    Hey, I'll go for the cheap laugh when I can get it.

    William Quantrill was a notorious Southern guerrilla fighter before and during the American Civil War.

With a face that only a mother could love

Not you, though.

  NOTE:  For my non-American followers (I’m talking to you, Birgit), the Civil War may not be well-known.  Suffice to say, this tragedy which drew its origins to whether states rights trumps (no pun intended) the federal government or not.  Since one of those included the right to own human beings, I would say the South certainly didn't hold the moral high ground.

    William Quantrill was born on July 31, 1832 in Canal Dover, Ohio.  At least in his early years, he was against slavery.  However, he soon lost his mind and believed slavery was perfectly fine.  In fact, he thought hanging abolitionist John Brown for leading a raid against the Federal weapons depot at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, was “too good for him.”

"He said what!?"

    He became quite radicalized and formed a group of likeminded brutes which he called “Quantrill’s Raiders.”  This group of murderous thugs specialized in savage tactics and included the likes of Jesse James and his older brother, Frank.

Yeah, that Jesse James

    They terrorized regions of Missouri and Kansas by dropping houses on people.

No. Wait. Wrong story.

    Well, anyway, it was bad.

    In 1862, Quantrill was designated a captain in the Confederate Army.

After receiving a Rebel Decoder Ring in the mail

    The most notorious chapter in the brutal history of “Quantrill’s Raiders” occurred on August 21, 1863 when 150 men and boys were murdered during the “Lawrence Massacre.”

No joke here.  Massacre.  Move along.

    The Civil War began to peter out in 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses Grant on April 9th and Joseph E. Johnston surrendered much of the rest of rebel forces to William Sherman on April 26th.

    However, Quantrill refused to give up and wasn’t vanquished until he was ambushed by Union forces in Wakefield, Kentucky, on May 10th.  Attempting to flee on a skittish horse, he was shot in the back and paralyzed from the chest down.

"The captain wants you.  I told him it wasn't a good idea."

    William Quantrill died of his wounds on June 6^th.    

     At first buried in an unmarked grave, his remains were disinterred; his final burial spot was in 1992 at the Old Confederate Veteran’s Home Cemetery in Higginsville, Missouri.

    Given the terror he inflicted on so many people, I’m sure John Brown would have concluded that it was “too good for him.”

"You got that right."