Did Notorious Civil War Guerrilla Leader Escape to Vancouver Island?

Google William Clarke Quantrill and you’ll find reference after reference to a man who’s immortalized not as a hero or great Confederate general of the American Civil War but as what we term today, a war criminal.

From school teacher to “butcher” in a matter of just a few years, his was quite a career, one that ended violently at the age of 27 during a skirmish with Federal troops.

At least, that’s the accepted version of Quantrill’s death.

But there were those who strongly disagreed. Including two Americans who allegedly travelled all the way to Vancouver Island’s isolated Coal Harbour, where the fugitive guerrilla was living under cover as a watchman by the name of John Sharp. Their mission: to settle old scores.

Or so that version goes.

The fascinating story of John Sharp alias William Quantrill is one that intrigued me at the start of my writing career. How fortunate I was to follow it up and make contact with the last living man who’d known Sharp on Vancouver Island.

He’d been just a boy at the time, a neighbour and friend of the old caretaker, and it was he who found Sharp as he lay, dying, in a pool of blood.  

If ever I’ve had doubts as to my choice of career, it’s stories like the mystery of John Sharp that quickly put them to rest.

You’ll see why in next week’s Chronicles

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PHOTO: William C. Quantrill was, perhaps, the most notorious participant in the American Civil War. —Wikipeida