This is a semi-history of Quantrill's Raiders, the vicious guerrilla raiders during the Civil War. There's a big surprise right off the bat.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about VENGEANCE IN MY HEART is that William Clark Quantrill, the leader of the Lawrence raid, lived in Lawrence prior to the war. He was a teacher and an abolitionist who participated in raids of Missouri, helping to free slaves. He was also run out of town, accused of thieving and cheating the Delaware Indians. When he switched sides he claimed that he had been working undercover to avenge the death of a brother at the hands of the Jayhawkers. There was no brother. This tidbit lends an aura of personal revenge as a possible motivation for the raid when we consider that many of the raider captains were opposed to it.
The author describes VENGEANCE IN MY HEART as a "novel of the civil war." Yet David K. Moore used only "reported dialogue" gleaned from diaries, memoirs, interviews, and newspapers. According to an end note, the work is a "true and complete" account of the Lawrence Raid. About the only thing lacking to make this a bonified history is an index and a bibliography. But it's definitely not a novel.
The book details family after family giving its account of its male members being brutally murdered. They were asked if they were from New England or Missouri. If they answered in the affirmative, they were killed since the raiders were after abolitionists and Missouri Unionists.
We also get to meet James Henry Lane, leader of the Jayhawkers. Quantrill's spies had informed him that Lane was not at home, but he was, living in the most ornate mansion in town. He managed to escape by hiding in a cornfield behind his house.
Perhaps the most interesting and disturbing character in the book is raider Larkin Skaggs, a Baptist preacher who believed in an eye for an eye. He has a definite story arc and we watch him kill townsman after townsman, then stay too long and suffer a fate similar to his victims.
Something else I wasn't aware of was that when the raiders finally left Lawrence, the Union cavalry was hot on their trail and that they came close to trapping them several times.
Rather than help the Confederate plight, the Lawrence Raid proved disastrous. In retaliation the army carried out General Order Number 11 forcing people in Jackson, Butler, Bates, and Saline counties to abandon their homes, thus depriving the bushwhackers of sanctuary.
The last illustration in the book seems rather shocking to Northern sensibilities. It shows a 1898 reunion of former Quantrill raiders where such luminaries as Frank James and Cole Younger were held up as romantic heroes. Click here to post or read comments.
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