Three Years with Quantrill

A True Story Told by His Scout

By: John McCorkle, O. S. Barton

Narrated by: Dan John Miller

This famous memoir by John McCorkle is the best published account by a scout who "rode with Quantrill".

John McCorkle was a young Missouri farmer of Southern sympathies. After serving briefly in the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard, he became a prominent member of William Clarke Quantrill's infamous guerrillas, who took advantage of the turmoil in the Missouri-Kansas borderland to prey on pro-Union people. McCorkle displayed an unflinchingly violent nature while he participated in raids and engagements including the massacres at Lawrence and Baxter Springs, Kansas; and Centralia, Missouri.

In 1865 he followed Quantrill into Kentucky, where the notorious leader was killed, and his followers, McCorkle among them, surrendered and were paroled by Union authorities. Early in this century, having returned to farming, McCorkle told his remarkable Civil War experiences to O. S. Barton, a lawyer, who wrote this book, first published in 1914.

Public Domain (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

terrific book

a lively take and well told. spectacular performance... remind me of Ang Lee's movie,"Ride with the Devil." which also was terrific!

Fantastic history

Here's the other side of the story. It's important to listen to all sides if we truly intend to know the truth.

History in context

Most history portrays Quantrill and his command as outlaws. This story by John McCorkle paints a different picture. The outrageous and lethal behavior upon the local people was the reason for the formation of this Confederate unit. It is understandable when you are presented with the context of the actual time, how things fall in place. When the common people are brutalized, there comes a point when their young men will rise up and protect their people. A very interesting story.

Excellent

Love the ground level experience and the true feelings of those who were there, not 100-year-later Monday morning quarterbacks.

Appalling History well told

Good narrator, scary to imagine this all really happened so atrocious on all sides I feel worse knowing there are still scars on the people and lack here in CASS county