The guerrilla Quantrell.
It has been lately represented that this celebrated guerrilla chief of
Missouri was at one time a member of the
Free-Soil Kansas Jayhawker and, on account of some wrong which he received at their hands, deserted to the
Southern side.
We learn from reliable authority that there is no foundation for this statement.
Our informant, a distinguished Western officer, who has long known
Quantrell says that he has always been on the
Southern side, is a Southern man by birth, and thoroughly devoted to the
Southern cause.
From all accounts,
Quantrell is just the man for a guerrilla chief, combining the courage of the lion and the cunning of the fox, inexhaustible in activity and in resources, neither to be caught when he is the pursued, nor to be avoided when he is the pursuer.
Our informant states that he has under his command about a hundred and twenty men, a number sufficient for his purposes, and all that he wants.
With this force he is striking terror to the enemy in
Missouri and doing an amount of mischief which some commanders of large armies have not been able to accomplish.
If any of his men fall into the enemy's hands, which is rarely the case, they are treated with the most ‘"distinguished consideration."’ The reason is that, at an early period of his career, the
Yankees hung one or two of his guerrillas whom they had taken prisoners, whereupon
Quantrell, who is a gentleman of sense as well as true humanity, hung five Yankees for one guerrilla, a proceeding which had the instant effect of civilizing the
Federal and teaching them to observe the ordinary rules of war.
Col. Tracy, one of the most gallant and efficient of the
Confederate officers in
Missouri, has adopted the retaliatory system in the same proportion of five to one, and with equally happy effects.
