An Ohio School Teacher, a Black Freeman, and the Battle of Fort Blair

Here at Historic Fort Blair, Baxter Springs, Kansas, Confederate troops lead by a former school teacher from Dover, Ohio and a free man of color from Missouri, were victorious in a battle against the Union army during the War Between the States.

On October 6, 1863, a Confederate cavalry unit of about 400 men, lead by Captain William Clarke Quantrill, a former Ohio school teacher, traveled along the Texas Road near the Missouri-Kansas border. Helping lead the way was Quantrill’s primary scout John Noland, a free man of African descent, who had joined the Confederate army because his family in Missouri was severely abused by Union soldiers. At least two other black men, John Lobb and Henry Wilson, and Cherokee Indian Adam Wilson were also members of the integrated Confederate company.

Upon approaching Fort Blair, Quantrill divided his force into two columns, one under him and the other commanded by a subordinate, David Poole. Poole and his men proceeded down the Texas Road, where they encountered Union soldiers. They chased the Union troops, killing some of them before they reached the earth and log fort.

Poole's column then attacked Fort Blair, but the garrison fought them off with the aid of a howitzer. Quantrill's column moved on the post from another direction where they encountered a Union detachment escorting Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt who was in the process of moving his command headquarters from Fort Scott to Fort Smith.

Most of this detachment, including the military band, Maj. Henry Z. Curtis (son of Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis), and Johnny Fry (first official westbound rider of the Pony Express) was killed.  Blunt and a few mounted men escaped and returned to Fort Scott. Blunt was removed from command by his superiors for failing to protect his column.  However, he was later restored.

The Union troops took such heavy losses in the Battle of Fort Blair that, to this day, some people tout the Confederate victory as a massacre. They did not call it a massacre earlier when Union soliders committed numerous acts of genocide against innocent Missouri civilians simply because they were suspected of sympathising with the Confederate quest for freedom from an out of control centrailzed government.  It was these Northern attrocities that caused the Confederates to take up arms and defend themselves.

In the spring of 1865, Quantrill rode into a Union ambush near Taylorsville, Kentucky. There, on May 10, he received a gunshot wound to the chest, leading to his death in a Louisville hospital on June 6 at the age of 27.

After the war, when veterans would hold reunions, Captain Quantrill’s troops came to be known as "Quantrill's Raiders." Historic Photographs of the reunions prominently show John Noland, the African-American Confederate scout, with his comrades in the group. At the reunions, Noland enjoyed recounting the story of how the Federals once offered him $10,000 (an enormous sum at that time) to betray the Confederates.  Being a man of honor and integrity, Noland scorned the Yankee bribe.  Other soldiers reminisced that when they were in battle Noland was a true leader, shouting commands than any other of Quantrill's men.

Some Northern apologists have tried to villify Quantrill and his men as blood thirsty, opportunistic outlaws. Those who have come to Quantrill’s defense include none other than a former president of the United States from Missouri, Harry S. Truman. He said, “But Quantrill and his men were no more bandits than the men on the other side. I’ve been to reunions of Quantrill’s men two or three times. All they were trying to do was protect the property on the Missouri side of the line.”

In truth, that’s what Confederates were doing everywhere that they fought in the War for Southern Independence – defending themselves, their families, and their property against a hostile, invading Union Army.

1901 Quantrill Raider's Reunion, Blue Springs, Missouri