Bushwhacker
Encyclopedia
Guerrilla warfare in the American Civil War
Guerrilla warfare in the American Civil War followed the same general patterns of irregular warfare conducted in 19th century Europe. Structurally, they can be divided into three different types of operations—the so-called 'People's War', 'partisan warfare', and 'raiding warfare'...
common during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and other conflicts in which there are large areas of contested land and few Governmental Resources to control these tracts. This was particularly prevalent in rural areas during the Civil War where there were sharp divisions between those favoring the Union and Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
in the conflict. The perpetrators of the attacks were called bushwhackers.
Bushwhackers were generally part of the irregular military forces
Irregular warfare
Irregular warfare is warfare in which one or more combatants are irregular military rather than regular forces. Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare, and so is asymmetric warfare....
on both sides. While bushwhackers conducted a few well-organized raids in which they burned cities, most of the attacks involved ambushes of individuals or families in rural areas. In areas affected by bushwhacking the actions were particularly insidious since it amounted to a fight of neighbor against neighbor. Since the attacks were non-uniformed, the government response was complicated by trying to decide whether they were legitimate military attacks or criminal actions.
Union and Confederate bushwhackers
The term was widely used during the conflict, though it came to be particularly associated with the guerrillas of MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, where such warfare was most intense. Guerrilla warfare also wracked Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, northern Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, and northern Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, among other locations. Two bands operated in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1864.
Pro-Union guerrilla fighters in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
were called "jayhawkers". They used tactics similar to the bushwhackers. A typical jayhawker action was a cross-border raid into Missouri.
In some areas, particularly the Appalachian regions
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
of Tennessee and North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, the term bushwhackers was used for Union partisans who attacked Confederate forces. During the Gettysburg Campaign
Gettysburg Campaign
The Gettysburg Campaign was a series of battles fought in June and July 1863, during the American Civil War. After his victory in the Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia moved north for offensive operations in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
n civilians at times bushwhacked stragglers from the Army of Northern Virginia
Army of Northern Virginia
The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as well as the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac...
.
Partisan rangers
In most areas, irregular warfare operated as an adjunct to conventional military operations. The most famous such "partisan ranger" (to use the title adopted by the Confederate government in formally authorizing such insurgents) was Col. John Singleton Mosby, who carried out raids on Union forces in the Shenandoah ValleyShenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...
and northern Virginia. Partisan rangers were also authorized in Arkansas.
In Missouri, however, secessionist bushwhackers operated outside of the Confederate chain of command. On occasion, a prominent bushwhacker chieftain might receive formal Confederate rank (notably William Clarke Quantrill), or receive written orders from a Confederate general (as "Bloody Bill" Anderson
William T. Anderson
William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson was a pro-Confederate guerrilla leader in the American Civil War.Anderson was known for his brutality towards Union soldiers, and pro Union partisans, who were called Jayhawkers. Anderson participated in Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863...
did in October 1864 during a large-scale Confederate
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
incursion into Missouri, or as when Joseph C. Porter
Joseph C. Porter
Joseph Chrisman Porter was a Confederate officer in the American Civil War, a key leader in the guerrilla campaigns in northern Missouri, and a figure of controversy. The main source for his history, Joseph A...
was authorized by Gen. Sterling Price
Sterling Price
Sterling Price was a lawyer, planter, and politician from the U.S. state of Missouri, who served as the 11th Governor of the state from 1853 to 1857. He also served as a United States Army brigadier general during the Mexican-American War, and a Confederate Army major general in the American Civil...
to recruit in northeast Missouri). Missouri guerrillas frequently assisted Confederate recruiters in Union-held territory. For the most part, however, Missouri's bushwhacker squads were self-organized groups of young men, predominantly from the slave
History of slavery in the United States
Slavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...
-holding counties along the Missouri
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
and Mississippi
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
rivers, who took it upon themselves to attack Federal forces and their Unionist neighbors, both in Kansas and Missouri, the latter in response to what they considered a Federal invasion of their home state.
Jesse James
The guerrilla conflict in Missouri was, in many respects, a civil warCivil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
within the Civil War. One of the most famous men who fought as a bushwhacker was Jesse James
Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. He also faked his own death and was known as J.M James. Already a celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary...
, who began to fight in 1864. During months of often intense combat, he only battled fellow Missourians, ranging from Missouri regiments of U.S. Volunteer troops to state militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
to unarmed Unionist civilians. The single confirmed instance of his exchanging fire with Federal troops from another state occurred a month after the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
, during a near-fatal encounter with Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
cavalrymen. In the course of the war, his mother and sister were arrested, his stepfather tortured, and his family banished temporarily from Missouri by state militiamen— all Unionist Missourians.
Atrocities
The conflict with Confederate bushwhackers everywhere rapidly escalated into a succession of atrocities committed by both sides. Union troops often executed or tortured suspects without trial and burned the homes of suspected guerrillas and those suspected of aiding or harboring them. Where credentials were suspect, the accused bushwhacker was often executed, as in the case of Lt. Col. Frisby McCulloughFrisby McCullough
Frisby McCullough was a Confederate States Army soldier in the American Civil War, executed on the orders of Union Colonel John McNeil after the Battle of Kirksville.-Early years:...
after the Battle of Kirksville
Battle of Kirksville
The Battle of Kirksville was a battle in the American Civil War, fought in the town of Kirksville, Missouri, on August 6, 1862. The Union victory helped consolidate Federal control over northeastern Missouri.-Battle:...
. Bushwhackers frequently went house to house, executing Unionist farmers.
One of the most vicious actions during the Civil War by the bushwhackers was the Lawrence Massacre. William Quantrill
William Quantrill
William Clarke Quantrill was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. After leading a Confederate bushwhacker unit along the Missouri-Kansas border in the early 1860s, which included the infamous raid and sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863, Quantrill eventually ended up in...
led a raid in August 1863 on Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...
, burning the town and murdering some 150 men and boys in Lawrence. The raiders justified the raid in retaliation for the Sacking of Osceola
Sacking of Osceola
The Sacking of Osceola was a Union Jayhawker initiative on September 23, 1861, to push out pro-Southern elements at Osceola, Missouri. It was not authorized by Union military authorities but was the work of an informal group of Kansas pro-Union "Jayhawkers"...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
two years earlier (in which the town was set aflame and at least nine men killed) and for the deaths of five female relatives of bushwhackers killed in the collapse of a Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
jail. Following the Lawrence raid, the Union district commander, Thomas Ewing, Jr.
Thomas Ewing, Jr.
Thomas Ewing, Jr. was an attorney, the first chief justice of Kansas and leading free state advocate, Union Army general during the American Civil War, and two-term United States Congressman from Ohio, 1877-1881. He narrowly lost the 1880 campaign for Ohio Governor.-Early life and career:Ewing...
, ordered the total depopulation of all men, women, and children (both Unionists and Southern sympathizers) of three and a half Missouri counties along the Kansas border from Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
south, under his infamous General Order No. 11. (The Missouri-Kansas border conflict was in many ways a continuation of Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858...
violence.) In other areas, individual families (including that of Jesse and Frank James
Frank James
Alexander Franklin "Frank" James was a famous American outlaw. He was the older brother of outlaw Jesse James.-Childhood:...
and the grandparents and mother of future President Harry Truman) were banished from Missouri.
Next to the attack on Lawrence, the most notorious atrocity by Confederate bushwhackers was the murder of 22 unarmed Union soldiers pulled from a train in the Centralia Massacre
Centralia Massacre (Missouri)
The Centralia Massacre was an incident during the American Civil War in which twenty-four unarmed Union soldiers were captured and executed at Centralia, Missouri on September 27, 1864 by the pro-Confederate guerrilla leader William T. Anderson...
in retaliation for the earlier execution of a number of Anderson's own men. In an ambush of pursuing Union forces shortly thereafter, the bushwhackers killed well over 100 Federal troops. In October 1864, "Bloody Bill" Anderson
William T. Anderson
William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson was a pro-Confederate guerrilla leader in the American Civil War.Anderson was known for his brutality towards Union soldiers, and pro Union partisans, who were called Jayhawkers. Anderson participated in Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863...
was tricked into an ambush and killed by state militiamen under the command of Col. Samuel P. Cox. Anderson's body was displayed and his head was severed.
Postwar banditry
After the end of the war, the survivors of Anderson's band (including the James brothers) remained together under the leadership of Archie ClementArchie Clement
Archie Clement , a.k.a "Little Arch", was a pro-Confederate guerrilla leader in the American Civil War, known for his brutality towards Union soldiers and pro-Union civilians in Missouri.-Little Archie, the bushwhacker:...
, one of Anderson's lieutenants, and began a series of armed robberies in February 1866. This group became known as the James-Younger Gang
James-Younger gang
The James-Younger Gang was a notable 19th-century gang of American outlaws that included Jesse James.The gang was centered in the state of Missouri. Membership fluctuated from robbery to robbery, as the outlaws' raids were usually separated by many months...
, after the death or capture of the older outlaws (including Clement) and the addition of former bushwhacker Cole Younger
Cole Younger
Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger was an American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw with the James-Younger gang...
and his brothers. In December 1869, Jesse James became the most famous of this group when he emerged as the prime suspect in the robbery of the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri
Gallatin, Missouri
Gallatin is a city in Daviess County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,789 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Daviess County.-History:...
, and the murder of the cashier, John W. Sheets. During Jesse's flight from the scene, he declared that he had killed Samuel P. Cox and had taken revenge for Anderson's death. (Cox lived in Gallatin, and the killer apparently mistook Sheets for the former militia officer.) Throughout Jesse James' criminal career, he often wrote to the newspapers with pride of his role as a bushwhacker, rallying the support of former Confederates and other Missourians who had been brutalized by Federal authorities during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
After the end of the war in 1865, the Mason Henry Gang
Mason Henry Gang
Mason Henry Gang 1864-1865, a bandit gang that posed as Confederate partisan rangers but acted as outlaws, committing robberies, thefts and murders in the southern San Joaquin Valley, Santa Cruz County, Monterey County, Santa Clara County, and in counties of Southern California.- Mason and Henry as...
continued as outlaws in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
with a price on their heads for the November 1864 "Copperhead Murders" of three men they believed to be Republicans, in the San Joaquin Valley
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley is the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta in Stockton...
. Tom McCauley
Tom McCauley
Tom McCauley, better known by his alias as James Henry or Jim Henry , was one of the many California Gold Rush criminals in Tuolumne County convicted of murder with his brother in 1857 and imprisoned for ten years...
, known as James or Jim Henry, was killed in a shootout with a posse from San Bernardino
San Bernardino
San Bernardino, California is a large city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California.San Bernardino may also refer to:-Landforms:*San Bernardino , a torrent that flows through the Italian province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola...
on September 14 of that year, in San Jacinto Canyon
Railroad Canyon
Railroad Canyon, also known as San Jacinto Canyon, Cottonwood Canyon, and Annie Orton Canyon, lies along the course of the San Jacinto River at the point where the river passes south through the hills from Perris, California, through Canyon Lake, California, then west to Lake Elsinore, California...
, in what was then San Diego County. John Mason
John Mason (outlaw)
John Mason, was one of the leaders of the Mason Henry Gang organized by secessionist Judge George Gordon Belt, that posed as Confederate partisan rangers but acted as outlaws, committing robberies, thefts and murders in the southern San Joaquin Valley, Monterey County, Santa Clara County, Santa...
was killed by a fellow gang member for the reward in April 1866 near Fort Tejon
Fort Tejon
Fort Tejon in California is a former United States Army outpost which was intermittently active from June 24, 1854, until September 11, 1864. It is located in the Grapevine Canyon area of Tejon Pass along Interstate 5, the main route through the mountains separating the Central Valley from Los...
in Kern County.
In 1867, near Nevada, Missouri
Nevada, Missouri
Nevada is a city in Vernon County, Missouri, United States. The population was 8,327 at the 2011 census. It is the county seat of Vernon County. Nevada is the home of Cottey College, a junior college for women operated by the P.E.O. Sisterhood....
, a band of bushwhackers shot and killed Sheriff Joseph Bailey
Joseph Bailey (general)
Joseph Bailey was a civil engineer who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Early life:...
, a former Union brigadier general, who was attempting to arrest them.
Popular culture
- The films The Outlaw Josey WalesThe Outlaw Josey WalesThe Outlaw Josey Wales is a 1976 American revisionist Western film set during and after the end of the American Civil War. It was directed by and starred Clint Eastwood , with Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Sam Bottoms, and Geraldine Keams.The film was adapted by Sonia Chernus and Philip Kaufman...
and Ride with the Devil are both about bushwhackers.
See also
- AmbushAmbushAn ambush is a long-established military tactic, in which the aggressors take advantage of concealment and the element of surprise to attack an unsuspecting enemy from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops...
- Border RuffianBorder RuffianIn the decade leading up to the American Civil War, pro-slavery activists infiltrated Kansas Territory from the neighboring slave state of Missouri. To abolitionists and other Free-Staters, who desired Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a free state, they were collectively known as Border...
- JayhawkerJayhawkerJayhawkers is a term that came to prominence just before the American Civil War in Bleeding Kansas, where it was adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause. These bands, known as "Jayhawkers", were guerrilla fighters who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri known...
- Knights of the Golden CircleKnights of the Golden CircleThe Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret society. Some researchers believe the objective of the KGC was to prepare the way for annexation of a golden circle of territories in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean for inclusion in the United States as slave states...
- Asymmetric warfareAsymmetric warfareAsymmetric warfare is war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly....
- Irregular warfareIrregular warfareIrregular warfare is warfare in which one or more combatants are irregular military rather than regular forces. Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare, and so is asymmetric warfare....
- Copperheads (politics)Copperheads (politics)The Copperheads were a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads," likening them to the venomous snake...
- Francs-tireursFrancs-tireursFrancs-tireurs – literally "free shooters" – was used to describe irregular military formations deployed by France during the early stages of the Franco-Prussian War...
- Partisan (military)Partisan (military)A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
- HajdukHajdukHajduk is a term most commonly referring to outlaws, highwaymen or freedom fighters in the Balkans, Central- and Eastern Europe....
- William QuantrillWilliam QuantrillWilliam Clarke Quantrill was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. After leading a Confederate bushwhacker unit along the Missouri-Kansas border in the early 1860s, which included the infamous raid and sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863, Quantrill eventually ended up in...
- William T. AndersonWilliam T. AndersonWilliam T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson was a pro-Confederate guerrilla leader in the American Civil War.Anderson was known for his brutality towards Union soldiers, and pro Union partisans, who were called Jayhawkers. Anderson participated in Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863...