skillfully eluded scores of vengeful pursuers
with consummate skill.
On October 6, 1863, Quantrill compounded
his reign of terror by ambushing and killing
100 prisoners captured from the headquarters
train of Gen. James Blunt. Among the slain
were 17 noncombatants, including members
of a military band. The guerrillas then win-
tered in Texas. For unknown reasons, mem-
bers began questioning Quantrill’s leadership,
and he was deposed as leader. Once the band
splintered, George Todd and Bloody Bill An-
derson formed gangs of their own, each oper-
ating independently. Probably for this reason,
both were killed in October of that year.
Quantrill, meanwhile, kept a low profile with
his mistress in northern Missouri until the fall
of 1864, when he collected the remnants of
his old band and started another bloody raid
toward Kentucky. On May 10, 1865, he was
surprised by Union forces under Capt. Ed-
ward Terrill at Taylorsville, critically injured,
and taken prisoner. He lingered for nearly a
month at a Louisville prison before dying on
June 6, 1865. Thus, the curtain fell on the
“bloodiest man in American history,” one of
the most merciless fiends to ever stalk the
American West. His behavior was beyond the
pale of civilized warfare—and served as the
training ground for a generation of frontier
outlaws that succeeded him. Quantrill, in
sum, was by far more criminal than guerrilla.
But in all fairness, it must be admitted that the
behavior of most Union Jayhawkers was
equally despicable.Bibliography
Barton, O. S., ed. Three Years with Quantrill: A True
Story Told by His Scout John McCorkle.Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1992; Castle, Albert E.
William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times.New
York: F. Fell, 1962; Fellman, Michael.Inside War: The
Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the Civil War.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1989; Foster,
Terry G. “Altered Destinies: Quantrill’s Guerrillas and
the Civil War in Western Missouri.” Unpublished mas-
ter’s thesis, University of Ontario, 1999; Goodrich,
Thomas. Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the West-
ern Border, 1961–1865.Bloomington: Indiana Uni-
versity Press, 1995; Goodrich, Thomas.Bloody Dawn:
The Story of the Lawrence Massacre.Kent, OH: Kent
State University Press, 1991; Leslie, Edward E. The
Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Story of William
Clarke Quantrill and His Confederate Raiders.New
York: Random House, 1996; Pollard, William C. Dark
Friday: The Story of Quantrill’s Lawrence Raid.
Blue Springs, KS: Baranski, 1990; Schultz, Duane.
Quantrill’s War: The Life and Times of William
Clarke Quantrill.New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996;
Steele, Philip W., and Steve Cotrell. Civil War in the
Ozarks.Gretna, LA: Pelican, 1993.RAIN-IN-THE-FACE
Rain-in-the-Face
(ca. 1835–September 14, 1905)
Sioux War Chief
F
earless Rain-in-the-Face was an active
fighter during latter phases of the plains
wars. He had a long-standing feud with
Capt. Tom Custer, younger brother of the fa-
mous general, and may have slain him in battle.
Rain-in-the-Face (Iromagaja, also trans-
lated as “His Face Is Like a Storm”) was born
in the forks of the Cheyenne River, North
Dakota, around 1835. He belonged to the
Hunkpapa tribe of the larger Sioux nation,
then the strongest Native American grouping
on the northern Great Plains. He apparently
acquired his name from two incidents occur-
ring in his youth. When he was ten, Rain-in-