Quantrill's Raid, Lawrence Massacre, 1863

Entitled: The destruction of the city of Lawrence, Kansas, and the massacre of its inhabitants by the Rebel guerrillas, August 21, 1863. Quantrill's raid on the free-state town of Lawrence, Kansas was a defining moment in the border conflict. At dawn on August 21, 1863, a group of roughly 400 Confederate guerrillas entered the sleeping town with lists of men to be killed and buildings to be burned. His men burned to the ground a quarter of the buildings in Lawrence, including all but two businesses. They looted most of the banks and stores and killed between 185 and 200 men and boys. While many of the victims of the raid had been specifically targeted beforehand, executions were more indiscriminate among segments of the raiders. Survivors reported that one man was shot while in the arms of his pleading wife, that another was killed with a toddler in his arms, that a group of men who had surrendered under assurances of safety were then gunned down, and that a pair of men were bound and forced into a burning building where they died in horrible agony. The Lawrence Massacre was one of the bloodiest events in the whole history of Kansas. Harper's Weekly, September 5, 1863

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