William Quantrill joined the Confederate Army on the outbreak of the American Civil War. He fought at Lexington but disliked the regimentation of army life and decided to form a band of guerrilla fighters. As well as attacking Union troops Quantrill Raiders also robbed mail coaches, murdered supporters of Abraham Lincoln, and persecuted communities in Missouri and Kansas that Quantrill considered to be anti-Confederate. He also gained a reputation for murdering members of the Union Army that the gang had taken prisoner. In 1862, Quantrill and his men were formally declared to be outlaws. By 1863 Quantrill was the leader of over 450 men, including Frank James, Jessie James, Cole Younger, and James Younger. With this large force he committed one of the worst atrocities of the Civil War when he attacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas. During the raid on August 21, 1863, Quantrill's gang killed 150 residents of the town and destroyed over 180 buildings. The district Union commander, General Thomas Ewing, was furious when he heard what the Quantill Raiders had done. On August 25 he issued Order No 11 which gave an eviction notice to all people in the area who could not prove their loyalty to the Union cause. Ewing's decree virtually wiped out the entire region. The population of Cass County dropped from 10,000 to 600. Quantrill found it difficult to keep his men under control as they tended to go off and commit their own crimes. By 1865 he had only 33 followers left. On May 10, 1865, Quantrill was ambushed by federal troops. He died from his wounds on June 6, 1865. Many of the group continued under the leadership of Archie Clement, who kept the Raiders together after the war and harassed the state government of Missouri during the tumultuous year of 1866. In December 1866, state militiamen killed Clement in Lexington, Missouri, but his men continued on as outlaws, emerging in time as the James-Younger Gang.
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