AMERICAN GUERILLAS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 62, 2 December 1863, Page 6

AMERICAN GUERILLAS.

Massacre of 180 Persons. ! The massacre of Cawnpore, which so j startled the world some few years since, and introduced the terrible scenes of the last East India war, has just had its counterpart on our j own soil. The massacre of Lawrence will henceforth take rank beside it in history, and when the name of Nana Sahib awakens feelings of hate and indignation, that of Quantrell, the Missouri border ruffian, will be associated with it. The massacre took place at the " noon of the night," and the startled peaceful citizens were sent to their last account by the bullets of murderers in the glare of their burning houses, and in the agonised embraces of their wives and children. One hundred and eighty persons are said to have fallen victims. These comprise the principal citizens, with the mayor and his son at the head of the list. There does not appear to have been any resistance whatever, offered. It was a sudden incursion of fiendish guerillas, a repetition of the scenes that used to be enacted on our borders by the savage Indians, when villages were given to the flames by some Monster Brandt, With all his ho who g, desolating band. One incid°nt is related of twelve men having been driven into a building and there shot and the house burned over them. Another is reported where twenty-five negro recruits were shot dead The bodies of the murdered people were thrown into wells and cisterns. There was but one hotel left standing, which was spared by Quantrell because he had been entertained there some years ago without expense. Its proprietor, however, was shot. The principal part of the city has been reduced to ashes, the loss being set down roughly at two millions of dollars. Two banks were robbed, and the third only escaped because the safe could not be forced quick enough. Of course whatever valuables the guerillas could lay their hands on they carried off, and it is supposed that they are now safe with their plunder in their Missouri homes, where they assume the character of Union men, and whence they will be ready to start on a new marauding and murdering expedition whenever they are called upon by their leader. Lawrence is situated about 30 miles west from Leavenworth, on the right or western bank of the Kansas River, which is here about 80 yards wide. The western end of the town reached to near the foot of a high hill, which had been named Mount Oread, where in the winter of 1855 the citizens of Lawrence entrenched themselves to resist an army of some fifteen hundred border ruffians under Sheriff Jones and other Missouri men, whose names were pretty famous in those times. The siege lasted about a fortnight, and was brought to a close by regular articles of negotiation and adjustment, signed by Wilson Shannon, regular governor of the territory on behalf of the besiegers, and by C. Robinson, the irregularly elected free state governor, on behalf of the besieged. These articles recite that there had been a misunderstanding between the people of Kansas, or a portion of them, and the Governor thereof, arising out of the rescue near Hickory Point of a citizen under arrest, and some other matters. The citizens on their part agreed to disclaim consenting to the rescue, and to aid in the execution of legal process in the town or vicinity of Lawrence; while Governor Shannon on his part stipulated to use his influence to secure to the citizens remuneration for any damages sustained, or unlawful depredation committed by the sheriff's posse in Douglas county, of which Lawrence is the capital The treaty being signed, Governor Shannon ordered the disbandonmeut of the besieging army, and so the siege was raised. But Lawrence did not continue to enjoy the blessings of peace. Its citizens were for the most part natives of New England, and therefore, being prima facia as well as really abolitionists, they incurred a double share of the odium of their Missouri neighbors. The town had been founded under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Society in the fall of 1854 receiving its name in honor of Mr. A. A. Lawrence, of Boston, one of the organizers of the Society. On the morning of May 21, 1856, the inhabitants awoke to find Mount Oread occupied by an advanced guard of 200 horsemen under the lead of the redoubtable Colonel Titus. There were no preparations made for defence, and the town surrendered at discretion. Senator Pomeroy, who represented the citizens, conferred with Sheriff Jones, who demanded the surrender of all arms in the town on the penalty of bombardment, giving half an hour to have the arms stacked in the streets. Pomeroy represented that he had no power over the arms of individuals, which were private property; that if Jones wanted them he must collect them himself; but that he was willing to surrender the artillery, which had been used in defence of the place during the siege. Jones

acceded to the offer, and received a fifteen" pounder brass howitzer, and four other small brass breech-loading cannon carrying a pound ball. In the meantime the forces collected at Mount Oread—under the command of Atchison, Buford, Stringfellow, and Titus—marched down to the town, where they were addressed by Atchison, who commenced his speech with " Boys, to-day I'm a Kickapoo ranger, by G—. This day we have entered Lawrence, and the Abolitionists have not dared to fire a gun." At the winding-up of a long speech, he said *» And now we'll go on with our highly honorable Jones, and test the strength of that d—d Free State Hotel." The Free State Hotel had been built as a joint-stock concern, and was then conducted by two brothers, named Eldridge. They were ordered to remove the furniture out of it before it was demolished. Ihere was little effort made, however, to do so. The wines, liquors, and cigars were sent freely round. The hotel was cleared, and Senator Atchison insisted on firing the first gun at it. Cannon were drawn up on the opposite side of the street, and although some fifty rounds were fired, it proved to be slow work. Gunpowder was then resorted to, and two kegs exploded without much effect, except to communicate fire to the house, which was soon a mass of flames. Two newspaper offices were sacked, and their printing materials destroyed ; Governor Robinson's dwelling house on Mount Oread was burned and plundered, and there was considerable pillage carried on in the town. This event is known in history as the sacking of Lawrence. Finally, the Federal troops under the late Major-General Edwin V. Summer interfered and put a stop to these atrocious outrages in Kansas, and established some sort of order under which it was subsequently admitted as a free State.

It is reported that Colonel Jennison, formerly of the 6th Kansas, we believe, has got command of a regiment and has been sent after the murderers. If he should overtake them there would be a speedy reckoning with them. Jennison boasts that he carries six rebel bullets in his pockets, and no mercy in his heart. He is therefore just the man to be set on the train of Quantrell and his savages. He had been removed from command because of his showing too little regard for secessionists and their sympathisers, just as the sth Missouri cavalry was disbanded at St. Joseph last July, because they were too active and merciless in hunting out and extirpating bushwackers. We only pray that Jennison and his jayhawkers may overtake Quantrell and his savages, and take summary vengeance upon them for this Lawrence massacre. We may say in conclusion that Lawrence was a New England town, transferred to the Far West, with all its refinement of life and manners. On the side-walks of its business streets were to be seen as elegant and well-dressed ladies as may be met with in New York or Philadelphia, and society was on a level far above what would be looked for in a frontier town. The massacre of Lawrence, we fear, will be the preface to a border warfare more terrible and relentless than any that history affords.— New York Paper.