Quantrill, William Clarke
A pro-Confederate guerrilla leader who operated primarily in Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian Territory during the Civil War, William Quantrill also spent time in Arkansas during the conflict. His actions against Federal troops and civilians led to much notoriety. William Clarke Quantrill was born on July 31, 1837, to Thomas Henry Quantrill and Caroline Cornelia Clarke Quantrill in Canal Dover, Ohio, where his father was a tinsmith and school principal. He had two brothers and a sister. At the age of sixteen, he began working as teacher and, in 1857, moved to Kansas Territory with a number of other men from Canal Dover. While in Kansas, he espoused abolitionist views. Quantrill received a land claim but fell out with his …
