Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West 1861-1865.
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Brownlee, Richard S. Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West 1861-1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1986.
When the Civil War started many people of this nation were not expecting the chaos, destruction, and they certainly did not expect the war to last so long. The history of the guerrilla warfare began shortly before the start of the Civil War and lasted a few years after the war. The guerrillas dominated Missouri to such an extent that the Union army had to station thousands of troops in the state to try to control the turmoil that these guerillas caused. As Richard Brownlee states on page 5 “The history of the western Confederate guerillas began in the state of Missouri several years before 1861. ”
Richard S. Brownlee was long time executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri. Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West 1861-1865 is the only book that was written by Richard S. Brownlee. Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West 1861-1865 is a nonfiction book. It is nonfiction because it is composed of facts and realities that were a part of history.
Browenlees thesis can be found in the first paragraph on page one. ” In the years between 1861 and 1865 when the United States was tormented by the Civil War and while massive armies slowly maneuvered and grappled for control of the Eastern Seaboard and the Mississippi Valley, the vast and lightly settled country just west of the Mississippi, the western boarder, was wracked by insurrection and continuous guerilla warfare. ” (1)
The first theme was loyalty and disloyalty. The first representation of disloyalty was through the newly elected governor Claiborne Jackson. During his campaign he led his state and country to believe that he was anti secessionist. After he was elected Governor Jackson hoped that Missouri would join the Confederacy. When Lincoln called upon the Union states for an order of troops Jackson refused to send any troops; declaring that Missouri would not support the Union. Jackson would later flee Missouri and Hamilton Gamble would act as provisional Governor. This action left the residents of Missouri feeling betrayed and abandon.
Missouri and Kansas had shared much animosity in the years leading up to the Civil War. Kansas, who was a steadfast Union state, used the War as an opportunity to raid Missouri towns as Union Army representatives. Many of the bands of Guerrillas, while they received aid from the Confederacy, never considered themselves a part of any Civil War cause. As Bill Anderson wrote, “I am a guerrilla. I have never belonged to the Confederate Army, nor do my men. I have chosen guerrilla warfare to revenge myself for wrongs that I could not honorably avenge otherwise” (201). When Anderson mentions that he was treated wrong he is referring to the death parents and the imprisonment of his sisters and Brownlee does a good job analyzing the Civil War as it takes place here in Missouri. Missouri was a state that was torn in two by rival loyalty for the Union and the Confederate states. Brownlee uses the men such as William Quantrill, Bloody Bill Anderson, and George Todd to show what life was like for the Missourians during the Civil War. Brownlee uses their state wide activities such as the burning of Lawrence as examples to prove his thesis. Living in Missouri during this time, would have made it very hard to know who to be loyal to. They were being attacked from by Union soliders, Confederates, guerrilla and especially the Jayhawkers. The Jayhawkers did not believe that the people of Missouri were loyal to the Union.
Jim Lane, Jim Montgomery, and Doc Jennison hated Missourians
because of the border war of 1857. Whenever they came into Missouri,
or were ordered into Missouri, they came primarily for revenge and loot.
For the most part, they seemed incapable of seeing the thousands of
Missourians were loyal to Union, in her armies, and entitled to her
protection. Taking advantage of the defensive less border in the summer
of 1861, there armed Kansas gangs swarmed through western and central Missouri. Cloaked with the authority of the Union army, and dressed in blue uniforms as rapidly as they could obtain them, theses men created chaos and hatred that existed for years. (42)
I understand why most Missourians feared and hated the Jayhawkers and Union soldiers. I would have found it very hard to remain loyal to the Union if I was treated the same way.
The theme of loyalty leads to the main thesis of this book; the way the Missourians were treated; which was very badly by everyone. The guerillas thought they were defending their state; but I believe that they caused more harm then good. When they would kill a man the guerillas would also burn his house, and place of business but they would not harm his wife. They did not think or care about what would happen to that woman in the future. Now not only does she not have a husband to provide for