Customer Reviews

Three Years With Quantrill: A True Story Told by His Scout (Western Frontier Library)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are looking for truth about what happened in Missouri during the War betwen the states this book is for you. The best way to learn what really happened is to read firsthand accounts and that's what this book offers. No one sided historical author can screwup or argue with accurate eyewitness reports. This book records the pure hard facts.

Although I don't like giving a 5 star rating to any book this book deserves 6! This is the real stuff, pre WWII, pre WWI, PRE-TV! It was written at a time before historic brainwashing by movies and television existed. Before people were self conscious about telling the truth. We can see the actual format of the "Civil" War sentiments. He reveals the concepts of dying, of The North, Slavery, and other aspects of the era that we are usually forced to accept from modern day writings, reflecting only current, politically correct viewpoints. The down to earth flow of this book is very enjoyable and is great reading for anyone with interest in this subject matter.

I Highly recommend McCorkles first-hand account. It is not often that we can resolve much of the differing views of history with first-hand accounts by those that were there during most of the events. I would have given this book a five had it not been for the very "out-of-place" commentary at the front of the book by someone named Hattaway (of West Point New York). I taped the aprox 25 pages together with an adivosry to skip this section as it only appeared to be added to censor McCorkles account and done in very poor taste. Why would someone want to take the time to distort someone's personal account of history. The Introduction by Barton is done very well however. Why would the publisher think that a commentary should be added when the work already had an introduction? I think the Commentary might have been added after the book was submitted just to try to promulgate a pre-conceived notion of history. Skip the commentary and its a great short work.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Any interested individual or serious student of this era must read this book. I am fortunate enough to live in the present day setting where the author's story took place. This is the real thing. I only wish there had been more works of this quality produced and saved. We would have a much better insight to those times.

Quantrill is often maligned as a psychopathic killer and a despotic guerilla. John McCorkle not only refutes this common claim by the writers of the winner's history, but shows that Quantrill was a compassionate and honorable man. He shows a side to the War of Northern Aggression that is rarely told.

The introductions decry the author's side of the story, but they provide no evidence that is substantiated. The factual errors that McCorkle relates can easily be relegated to the fact that he was in his 80's when he told his story to O.S. Barton and the ravages of time on the memory are well noted throughout history.

This book is a rare glimpse into what made the Missouri Bushwhacker, or Partisan Ranger as they were properly known, what they were. What they did, how they fought, for what and whom they fought: it's all in here and with a lively color that brings to life the way life was in those most trying of times.

I guess that could be said of our history books too...one-sided perspective. This book is very short account by his scout John McCorkle on his part around the time of the Civil War. This version is Mr. McCorkle sitting and talking to the biographer or whoever wrote this down and so it reads as facts, or incidents that happened in this man's life. He basically gives the confederate side of the story behind Quantrill's Raiders and a few of their engagements.

A few excerpts talked of Cole Younger having his own men to command, but didn't give much detail. This might be an interesting testimony, but I would rather read a book that gave more details and insight behind Cole Younger, Quantril, and Bloody Bill.

This is a great book, period. Ever wonder why the Southern black flaggers were so fixated on killing everybody in Lawrence, Kansas? Read McCorkle.

McCorkle doesn't just write about the vengeance trail of these Missourians, he was on it, and he tells about strategy, weapons, how they survived the winters, all of it. I found this book while I was researching a chapter of my book, about John Brown and the Border Wars, and reading it changed my understanding of Quantrill, and of warfare, forever. Because the North won the war, there has always been prejudice, in books at least, against the Southern Bushwhackers and their Black Flag ways (the best movie ever made about this is Ang Lee's Woe to Live On, based on the book by Missourian Daniel Woodrell). But the fact is, the Kansas Red Legs were as bad as any Missouri Bushwhacker, and many of the boys that rode with Quantrill and McCorkle were orphaned or displaced by the Red Legs and similar bands of murderous northern sympathizers. It was a violent, unimaginably rowdy time, vengeance aplenty, and plenty of reasons for it, and McCorkle tells it real, straight from the horse's mouth. This book makes a great companion to the new biography of Quantrill, and to the Ang Lee movie.

Oh, and none of it changes the historical fact that Quantrill was one nasty, homicidal character, who was a schoolteaching, murdering nutball for a long time before the Civil War broke out for real and gave him the opportunity to really turn up the volume and the cruelty!

Hal Herring

author of

Famous Firearms of the Old West: From Wild Bill Hickok's Colt Revolvers to Geronimo's Winchester, Twelve Guns That Shaped Our History]]

This easy-to-read book provides a unique perspective on guerilla battle tactics and how the outlaw rebels of Missouri saw the Civil War conflict. As a former Kansan, it gave me an insight into the slaughter at Lawrence that I was unaware of. Other than John Brown, this subject was rarely discussed in the Kansas history classes I took! And, the viewpoint certainly would have been taboo. The story filled a void in my educational background. Should be required reading for high school students in the Plains States. No wonder the sports rivalry between KU and MU is so bitter! Ironically, published by the University of Oklahoma Press (1992), 232 pp.

Three Years With Quantrill: A True Story Told by His Scout John McCorkle (Western Frontier Library, Vol 60)

Students of the Kansas-Missouri border wars owe the University of Oklahoma Press a debt of gratitude for making once again available John McCorkle's account of his experiences, as told to and written by O.S. Barton. Of course, this account, despite its pretensions of impartial devotion to the truth, is tendentious ... but it is no less so than the introductory commentary by Henry Hattaway. Moreover, since Hattaway's opinions reflect contemporary conventional values that assign villainy to all aspects of the Confederacy and heroism to all elements of the Union, the pro-Southern bias of McCorkle's account may actually restore some balance to the appraisal of students who have swallowed whole the victors' version of the border wars story. In any case, original sources are an indispensable part of the study of any history in spite of - to an extent, in fact, because of - the inevitable prejudices of first-hand accounts.

A great read for anyone interested in a "behind the scenes" look at the Civil War and the effect the war had on those that participated in the local efforts such as home guard and guerillas, as well as the effects these groups and the war had on the families and local communities. While John McCorkle tries to justify the deeds that were done on their behalf as retribution for the atrocities that were committed to them, you realize that the general state of lawlessness created this atmosphere on both sides. The reader soon realizes that this environment was fertile ground to grow the likes of Cole Younger, and Frank and Jesse James--and how easily the transition was for them to become bank and train robbers after the war.

One gets an overview of the "kill or be killed" way of life these guerrilla fighters endured throughout this time and the constant need to be on the move. It is amazing how they were able to live off of the community throughout this time, no matter where they went. It was a constant problem in trying to identify which side a person was on when they met, where they freind or foe? It's interesting to see how they sometimes wore union uniforms freely and passed through the ranks of the enemy at freewill was amazing. The one phrase that puts these guerrilla fighters and their lifestyle into perspective is John McCorkle's statement at the end of the war when he was invited in a house to spend the night that this was the first time in 3 years that he had slept inside in a bed. I thought spoke volumes about their lifestyle during this time. The accounts end in Kentucky which was interesting for me, being a native Kentuckian, and living only 45 miles from where Quantrill was shot and captured.

I did question how anyone could remember the detail that McCorkle supposedly did in recalling these events during the later years of his life and dictating them at that late time. However, even if half of the events and detail were accurate, this would still be a good read and allow one the insight of what this guerilla lifestyle was like. Fortunately, the language he uses has not been edited in the sense of political correctness that is prevalent today by history revisionists, and allows the reader to grasp the understanding of the mindset and culture during this time. It is a page turner and I hated to see it end. I believe anyone interested in this guerilla style of fighting, would enjoy this book. I would suggest if you enjoy the topic of querilla fighting in Kentucky, to check out the excellent book "Morgan's Coming" by Betty Jane Gorin, which can be found on Amazon. This book also reminded me of the diary of George "Lightning" Ellsworth, John Hunt Morgan's telegraph operator, that was recently published in an edition of the Kentucky Historical Society's magazine.