Did Notorious Civil War Guerrilla Leader Escape to Vancouver Island? (Part 2)
(Part 2)
William C. Quantrill was, perhaps, the most notorious participant in the American Civil War. —Wikipedia
“Of his [Quantrill’s] death, burial and exhumation no man has been able to speak with confidence.”—American historian Wm. Elsey Connelley.
Last week I outlined William Quantrill’s career as a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. I also described his death and the dispersal of his remains.
But there’s more to this part of the story that’s crucial to our understanding the belief that, 40 years after the end of the Civil War, John Sharp, Coal Harbour watchman, was in fact a fugitive Quantrill who’d escaped death in Kentucky.
Many also accepted that his murder was the direct result of his identity becoming known and published in Victoria and Seattle newspapers.
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In the spring of 1865, deciding to fight fire with fire, the Union commander in Kentucky engaged a band of Michigan irregulars under Capt. Edwin Terrell. Terrell’s mission, with the war’s official end in April following the surrender of the Confederate armies: to hunt down Southern guerrilla bands who continued to ravish the countryside. In particular, Quantrill and company.
Terrell, only 23, appears to have been the right man for the job, one of his comrades describing him as “a bad man. Perhaps as bad as the man he was hunting down.”
Guerrilla hunter Capt. Edward Terrill. —https://civilwartalk.com/
One of the most detailed descriptions of Quantrill’s last stand is that written by Stuart W. Saunders in the March 1999 issue of American History magazine. Briefly: After an initial skirmish with Terrell’s marauders, Quantrill escaped after losing five of his men. Long the hunters, he and his few surviving followers were now on the run.
Regarded and hated as outlaws, they were hunted around the clock, not just by Terrell’s men, but by all other Union forces in the region. Expecting and giving no quarter, they lived in their saddles, foraging as they went. The news that hated President Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated brought them momentary joy but word of Lee’s surrend brought them face to face with the reality that the war was lost.
One who rode with Quantrill later wrote: “Knowing the war was over, we decided to separate and make the best terms of surrender we could…. This was the last time I ever saw Quantrill.’
This was in Spencer County, Kentucky where, on May 10th, with a handful of exhausted followers, Quantrill took shelter during a heavy rainfall in the barn of a Southern sympathizer, James Wakefield. That’s where Terrell, having been informed of his presence in the area, and seeing numerous hoof prints in the mud leading to the barn, found him.
The Federals achieved almost total surprise.
Leaping from the hayloft, Quantrill ordered his men to mount and charge. But as he pulled himself into the saddle, his stirrup broke and he was thrown across the back of his horse which, panicking, followed the others.
Just as it emerged from the barn, Quantrill was struck in the back by a pistol ball which entered near his left shoulder blade and arced downward into his spine. He fell to the ground, all but paralyzed from the shoulders down. Upon his landing on his face in the mud, a second bullet amputated his right trigger finger.
When most of Quantrill’s men made their escape, Terrell’s troop turned its attention to looting Wakefield’s house until he bought them off with $30 and a just of whisky. They then resumed the chase, leaving Quantrill, who’d identified himself as Captain Clarke of the 4th Missouri Cavalry, at the farmhouse.
Five of his men managed to slip back to the farmhouse with the intention of spiriting him away. But Quantrill, realizing it was useless, told them, “Boys, it is impossible for me to get well, the war is over, and I am in reality a dying man, so let me alone. Goodbye.”
It was two days before Terrell learned that “Captain Clarke” was in fact, Quantrill. He immediately had the wounded man taken to a military hospital in Louisville.
(It’s interesting to note that Quantrill, hardened killer though he was, maintained his sense of humour to the end. Upon asking a doctor if he hadn’t treated him once before, and being told that the doctor had moved to Louisville, Quantrill replied, “So have I.”)
Another of those who attended him in the hospital was a Catholic priest. Quantrill made a full confession, converted to Catholicism, took the sacrament of extreme unction and, shortly after an operation, died on June 6, 1865.
He left a purse of $800 in gold, some of which was to buy a tombstone, the balance going to his mistress (some say wife) Kate King who’d sometimes ridden with the guerrillas dressed as a man. She supposedly used the money to open a brothel in St. Louis.
Such is the accepted account of the death of William Clarke Quantrill. But is it correct?
This brings us back to John Sharp, the hard-drinking old watchman of the Vancouver Coal Co. at isolated Coal Harbour near Quatsino.
His story really begins with a lengthy and extraordinary article beneath the headline, “GUERRILLA CHIEFTAIN’S HOME AT QUATSINO.” I’m going to quote the Aug. 9, 1907 issue of the Victoria Colonist in full:
Bill Quantrill, leader of Quantrill's guerrillas in the American Civil War, 1861 -66 [sic], who, according to history died of wounds in a Kentucky hospital after his raiders were cut up, is alive on the North West Coast of Vancouver Island, under the name of John Sharp. That is the statement made by people who should be in a position to know.
Among them is J.E. Duffy, a prominent timberman who recently became interested in timberlands at Quatsino. He met the so-called ‘John Sharp’ and recognized him at once as Quantrill. Duffy was a member of a Michigan troop of Cavalry which cut up Quantrill's force, and had no difficulty in recognizing his man.
Sharp, or more properly Quantrill, admitted to Duffy that he was correct in his recognition. Quantrell, who is over 70 years old, is now gray, but he is still active and wiry.
Sharp, the name by which he chooses to be known, said he had been left on the field at Louisville with life apparently extinct, but had recovered sufficiently to take a horse and had ridden 70 miles and disappeared. He made his way to South America, remaining a number of years in Chile, when he went to Texas, where he engaged in the cattle business, making considerable money, which he, however, soon went through.
After several years in Chile Sharp engaged in the cattle business in Texas. —www.Pinterest.com
He then went to Oregon, where he punched cows and drove cattle over the mountains. From Oregon he came to British Columbia nearly two decades ago and engaged in logging at different camps on the North West Coast of Vancouver Island until 10 years ago when he became a trapper on the Northern coast. Six or seven years ago he went to Quatsino, where he was made caretaker of the mines of the West Vancouver Coal Company at Coal Harbour.
Quantrill ‘protege’ Jesse James who, with brother Frank, went on to undying fame for robbing banks and trains until his murder by an associate. —Wikipedia
The story the old man at Quatsino told to the informant of The Colonist, was that when his band had been cut up he had been bayoneted in the chest, and had a bullet wound through his shoulder. History says Bill Quantrill, the guerrilla, died of such wounds. Those who talked with John Sharp, who says he is Quantrill, say that he has scars of two such wounds.
“After he told me he was Quantrill,” another Quatsino resident said, “I had a number of talks with him, and he told me of many incidents of the raiding in the Southern states, although I do not remember all the details.
“He told me of how on one occasion he and 67 Horseman had ambushed a whole troop of Northern cavalry from hiding places by a roadside and decimated it and scattered it.”
The cavalry was seen from a distance coming down a long lane, and Quantrill and his men hid on either side of the road, covered by a stone wall. The calvarymen, riding leisurely without thought that the foe was near, were in close formation, almost solid, and were shot down from all sides, being completely taken by surprise.
In telling the story, Sharp or Quantrlil, said he rode out in the uniform of the Northern cavalrymen and made right towards the colonel of the troop. He fired but missed him. He had often wondered how he came to miss the Northerner, for he was usually a good shot.
Another story was of the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, where a large number of people were killed. Sharp, or Quantrill, was always strong in pointing out, when he told the story, that although they killed many, not a woman nor a child was injured, and he was indignant regarding some histories’ accounts in respect of this raid.
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So wrote the Colonist, a full 42 years after William Quantrill’s reported death in a Kentucky military hospital. This, really, is where our mystery begins...
When Seattle newspapers picked up the story, several residents said that they, too, had met “the mystery man of Quatsino.”
Prior to Sharp's being “recognized” by Duffy, he’d spoken of having Civil War experiences, of having made a long ride while badly wounded, and of having been cared for by a quadroon girl. And rumours did exist that he was the notorious guerrilla chieftain who’d somehow escaped death in Kentucky.
The press stories prompted R. F. Montgomery of Quatsino to say he remembered Sharp from Fort Worth, Texas. Quatsino postmaster H.O Bergh added he, too, had heard stories that Sharp was Quantrill and how he’d survived being bayoneted in the chest and shot in the shoulder. He’d seen the scars.
Quantrill had been nearly six feet tall, had thick blonde hair, grey blue eyes, a down-curling mouth, fine features with a “Roman nose,” and was considered to be handsome. Almost all agree that Sharp, then between 70 and 80 years of age, had probably answered to this description in his earlier years.
The late Sidney Saunders, former member of the British Columbia Provincial Police, game warden, timber cruiser, prospector and First World War veteran, knew Sharp, too.
“I heard the story of John Sharp being Quantrill. It always interested me and I know many persons who were more intimate with him than I could possibly be, believed it. They did not say much. according to what I could learn. Sharp, when half-tanked, would boast of being the Southern leader, but when he was sober would resent any reference to the subject.
“He was an old man as I recall him; about five feet 11 inches in height, straight, wiry and active. He was possessed of snapping blue eyes and a powerful voice.
“You will understand that it was no business of the B.C. Police if he was Quantrill. As far as our records went, Quantrill had committed no offence against the laws of B.C. or of Canada. It was no crime for him to fight against the Union in the Civil war. It was curiosity on my part only.
“I would say he was about the same age as Quantrill—in other words, he was born about the same year. He was of similar height and general appearance fitting the description of Quantrill. It was known that his body bore marks of several gunshot wounds, and a bayonet or knife cut.”
Other witnesses reported Sharp was a crack shot with pistol and rifle. (Quantrill had been an excellent marksman.)
(To be continued)
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