Killed and Captured: Missouri Civil War Guerrillas in Myth and Reality
Open Access
Author:
Lesnett, Matthew Mccoy
Area of Honors:
History (Behrend)
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Joseph Michael Beilein Jr., Thesis Supervisor John King Gamble Jr., Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Missouri Guerrillas Bushwhackers Civil War Kansas Jayhawkers Military History James Anderson Clements Equipment
Abstract:
Within the larger picture of the Civil War, guerrilla soldiers were not only killed, but they were captured, oftentimes along with their horses, weapons and any other equipment or stores they may have had on their persons. With this being said, my research determines that there is a correlation between the death or capture of a Civil War guerrilla, and the equipment carried on his immediate person. I used a variety of research methods, utilizing census records, the Official Records of the Civil War, other primary resources that provide witness observations of the war, guerrilla memoirs, and secondary sources to analyze the arguments of other scholars. Furthermore, my research shows that the equipment carried on or about the immediate person of a claimed guerrilla, in the end, provides itself as a determining factor as to whether the man was a true guerrilla fighter or rather a Confederate soldier, deserter, partisan soldier, or simply an outlaw. This correlation, along with the other relationships drawn between a captured or killed guerrilla and his circumstance at the time, will allow us to further understand the Missouri guerrilla, and thus further understand their unique place in the war at large.
