Guerrilla Warfare in
Civil War Missouri, 1862
 Bruce
Nichols
McFarland & Company, Inc
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
1-800-253-2187
Hardcover, 256 pages, including index
published March 2004
Suggested Price: $45 + $4 s&h from publisher
now available for purchase
Reviewed by G. E. Rule
There is power in repetition. The mind can accept the
explanations of historians that the Civil War in Missouri was a widespread
conflict largely prosecuted by small groups of men in creek beds, wooded
hillsides, farmyards, and dusty country roads from one end of the state to the
other –but it takes a work like the new one by Bruce Nichols, Guerrilla
Warfare in Civil War Missouri, 1862 to really internalize this fact at an
emotional level.
Much admirable work has been done by previous chroniclers
of the history of given Missouri guerrilla groups such as those lead by
Quantrill and William Anderson. Michael Fellman’s Inside War provides a
chronicling of the psychological impact on both sides of the guerrilla warfare
that inflamed Missouri for four years. However, no previous chronicler has
undertaken what Nichols does here –a discussion of every known action in the
state for a given year.
This results, as might be imagined, in a great deal of the
repetition noted above. Many of the same situations occur over and over again
from county to county, month to month. For the general reader new to the story
of Missouri in the Civil War, this probably makes Nichol’s book not the best
place to start their education. For someone who has read a bit, and is
interested in digging beyond the high-level summaries provided by others –in
reaching an emotional understanding that exceeds the anecdotal through the sheer
power of repetition—Nichol’s book will be greatly appreciated.
Nichols reports that he originally intended to take this
approach to the entirety of the war in Missouri, rather than the single year
presented here. He found the full project too daunting. Only those who can
relate to the amount of time hunched over a microfilm reader and at tables in
county historical societies can fully appreciate the amount of work this book
represents, and the decision to limit it to one year. Still, if one had to pick
one year above the others, clearly 1862 was the right choice. This was the year
when the guerrilla war in Missouri really kicked into high gear, with both
guerrillas and “recruiting commands” spread from one end of the state to the
other. Having said that, one can hope that some day Nichols or someone else will
complete the set –we would particularly love to see 1864 next –the lead-up,
during, and aftermath of General Price’s Great Raid at this level of detail
would be a quite interesting and useful addition to the historical record.
Nichols’ approach here is to divide the state into four
quadrants, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, and deal with each
through the four seasons of year, starting with the winter of 1861-1862. He also
breaks up the narrative by inserting some independent essays between sections on
relevant topics such as “Why Guerrillas?” and “The Enrolled Missouri Militia:
Guerrilla’s Controversial New Enemy”. By taking this approach, one gets a very
vivid picture of the Confederate tide rolling in from Arkansas early in the
year, peaking in the summer in the Northern section of the state, and then
receding again in the Fall, with its collection of new Confederate recruits to
add to the CSA army and guerrillas on their way to winter in Texas.
Nichols style is sober and clearly makes every effort to
tell the story in a balanced and thoughtful way for both Union and Confederate.
He tries to use neutral language in describing situations and people, though no
doubt some will find fault with his use in certain instances. Simply including
the stories of the “recruiting commands” of Coffee, Porter, Cockrell, et al in a
book titled “Guerrilla Warfare” will cause some to bristle. Indeed, Nichols
includes a nice passage on the relative inability, and deadly consequences, of
Unionists to perceive the difference between these commands and “bushwhackers”
at the time. The effort to be balanced, does not, however, prevent Nichols from
making the occasional trenchant observation, such as this one: “As it happened,
each succeeding northern unit sent to squelch Quantrill in Jackson County had to
learn the same painful lessons over again. As indicated in such battle reports,
all they seemed to pass along to each other was an ignorance of who they were
fighting and how to do it.”
Indeed, it is in chronicling the formations and doings of
the Missouri State Militia and Enrolled Missouri Militia at this level of detail
that is one of the greatest contributions of the book. These units, some good,
some bad, some horrible, have generally not received this level of detailed
attention in a major work. The number of mentions of southerners –maybe
bushwhackers, maybe not—“shot while trying to escape” by these units is truly
horrifying. On the other hand, it was heartening to read of several instances of
the Union militia going after Kansas Jayhawkers with gusto.
All in all, Nichols’ book is a welcome and worthy addition
to the field. Physically it is of sturdy and quality construction with a glossy
cover and gorgeous illustration rather than a dust jacket. It is also supplied
with a goodly number of illustrations and photos from the period, including many
from familiar Missouri works such as Noted Guerrillas and With Porter
in North Missouri. One suspects that public libraries and historical
societies are one of the target markets that the publisher has in mind. Should
you decide to make the not-inconsiderable investment for this book, it will
grace your Missouri Civil War library in style for many years.
now available for purchase
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From the webmasters of Civil War St. Louis...
Noted Guerrillas and, the extremely rare,
A Terrible Quintette
on a searchable CD-ROM:
Click here for more
information and to order
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