William Gregg's Civil War: The Battle to Shape the History of Guerrilla Warfare [Paperback]

During the Civil War, William H. Gregg served as William Clarke Quantrill’s de facto adjutant from December 1861 until the spring of 1864, making him one of the closest people to the Confederate guerrilla leader. Quantrill’s raiders were a partisan ranger outfit best known for their brutal guerrilla tactics, which made use of Native American field skills. Whether it was the origins of Quantrill’s band, the early warfare along the border, the planning and execution of the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, the Battle of Baxter Springs, or the dissolution of the company in early 1864, Gregg was there as a participant and observer. This book includes his personal account of that era.

The book also includes correspondence between Gregg and William E. Connelley, a historian. Connelley was deeply affected by the war and was a staunch Unionist and Republican. Even as much of the country was focusing on reunification, Connelley refused to forgive the South and felt little if any empathy for his Southern peers. Connelley’s relationship with Gregg was complicated and exploitive. Their bond appeared mutually beneficial, but Connelley manipulated an old, weak, and naïve Gregg, offering to help him publish his memoir in exchange for Gregg’s inside information for a biography of Quantrill.

How Quantrill and his raiders changed Civil War battleground tacticsGregg’s prose is brisk and lively as the guerrilla moves through his many experiences serving under William Quantrill. Rather than simply an edited version of Gregg’s memoir. . . Beilein uses the work as a thoughtful case study of the ways in which history is made and unmade.An important new editing and interpretation of a valuable primary source, William Gregg's Civil War is a decidedly useful contribution to the burgeoning historiography of the guerrilla conflict in Missouri and elsewhere. Highly recommended.William Gregg’s Civil Wlã'