partisan rangers

[penn-state-engr]

Hello, I would like to know if anyone can tell me the coat of a partisan ranger and if they know anyone that can make it? I would also like to see a picture of one. Many say that they dressed liked civilians or used what ever was donated. I have just started researching this and have been on Mosbyrangers.com. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[1stTexas]

It depends on where the partisan rangers were from. For example, Col. Leonidas Martin's 5th Texas Partisan Rangers were first raised with recruits from Collin, Hunt and Fannin County as served one year as Texas State Troops (militia). Col. Martin's militia company was combined with the 9th and 10th Texas Cavalry Battalions at Fort Washita, Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and were called into Confederate service after the Partisan Ranger Act was approved. They saw action in Indian Territory against Union Col. William A. Phillips Kansas Colored Infantry regiments and in north Texas under Confederate Brig. Gen. Henry E. McCulloch arresting slackers, diserters and Union sympathsizers. They had no uniforms and furnished their own arms and mounts but were reimbursed for them. The foraging resupply system provided remounts as the war progressed. The 5th Texas Partisan Rangers received no uniforms and were never dismounted which indicates they were a good cavalry unit.

Most Texas partisan ranger units were used as a mobil strike force which was made up of independent companies. One such unit was Maj. Charles Leroy Morgan's Texas Cavalry Battalion. They also had no uniforms and most were armed with shotguns.

Quantrill's irregular light cavalry were Missouri "Partisan Rangers" according to Confederate Gen. Thomas C. Hindman, the author of the Confederate Partisan Ranger Act. However, Quantrill's raiders were never admitted into the Confederate army because of their reputation for ruthlessness.

[Rob Weaver]

And, of course, Quantrill was a bush-leaguer compared to his lieutenant Bill Anderson, a man so psychotic that Price sent him on a mission in the opposite direction from the movement of the rest of the army.

[1stTexas]

Bill Anderson turned into a homocidal maniac after his sister was killed in a building collapse in Kansas City MO where she and other relatives of guerillas were being held prisoner by Union authorities. The Union officer in command of the garrison at Kansas City was Gen. William T. Sherman's son-in-law and the "accident" precipated the raid on Lawrence Kansas in 1863. After the raid on Lawrence Kansas, Quantrill and his followers fled to north Texas and stayed for the next six months in a camp on Little Mineral Creek in Grayson County. Quantrill and his followers were detailed by Brig. Gen. H.E. McCulloch to arrest diserters, slackers and Union sympathisizers in north Texas. Against McCulloch's orders, Quantrill's "partisans" robbed and hanged the ones they caught on the spot.

Depredations were committed on both sides but history has treated William C. Quantrill and his partisans quite differently because the South lost. To the victors go the spoils.

Kansas Sen. Jim Lane, "Captain" Charles Jennison and "Captain" James Montgomery and their Kansas Jay-hawkers in Federal uniforms committed as many atrocities as Quantrill's partisan guerillas. Union Gen. Henry W. Halleck wrote to Union headquarters in St. Louis the following: "I recommend that Kansas Union troops be transferred away from the Missouri border"... "they are committing murders and robberies and are worse than useless".

[Frenchie]

In other words, there's plenty of blame to go around and "ain't nobody clean". This isn't news and it doesn't mean the South was right. I just thought that should be pointed out.

[1stTexas]

BTW...The character of "Col. Montgomery" in the move "GLORY" was supposed to have been the infamous Col. James Montgomery from Kansas.

I am sure that movie is historically accurate but I did not know James Montgomery made it as far east as the Georgia coast during the war.

[huntdaw]

"Bill Anderson turned into a homocidal maniac after his sister was killed in a building collapse in Kansas City MO where she and other relatives of guerillas were being held prisoner by Union authorities."

Well I don't know about that. He was already pretty pre-disposed to being a homicidal maniac by that time. The occurrence you refer to happened in August of 1863. On Feb. 7 of that same year the "Lexington (Missouri) Weekly Union" said this in an editorial about the gang Bill and his brother Jim were riding with:

"They are the basest robbers ever left at large in a civilized community. They are the men who killed Gaston, Barker, Iddings, Phelps, King, Myres, and McFaddin - who have robbed every loyal man in that whole country (referring to western MO), of money, silver plate, blankets, horses, and everything else which could be turned into money. They boast of their deeds of daring and murder, their robbery of the mail and express at various time, and there is no act of villainy or cold blooded murder, where a dollar could be made, which they will not do"

[Rob Weaver]

James Horan, IIRC, in his book on Jess James, Desperate Men, actually casts some doubt on the whole Anderson/sister story altogether. It seems to play on the emotions of the time. Again, if I'm remembering, there's no documentation to put a sister of his in Kansas City. By the way, Jesse James: The Last Rebel of the Civil War by TJ Stiles is an excellent read.

[Frenchie]

BTW...The character of "Col. Montgomery" in the move "GLORY" was supposed to have been the infamous Col. James Montgomery from Kansas.

I am sure that movie is historically accurate but I did not know James Montgomery made it as far east as the Georgia coast during the war.


He commanded the 2nd South Carolina Colored Volunteers, the red-trousered troops he commands in the movie. Operated in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/representatives/montgomery_james.htm

The movie is not historically accurate. See my posts here: http://www.cwreenactors.com/forum/showthread.php?p=39710#post39710

[1stTexas]

Col. James Montgomery was made a colonel in the U.S. 3rd Kansas Cavalry but the resigned because the army did not fight the type of unconventional warfare he preferred.

The movie "Ride With The Devil" used many reeanctors who are members of the Col. John T. Coffee - Camp 1934, S.C.V. The reenactors accurately depicted the way the Missouri guerillas were dressed. Many guerillas were dressed in captured Union fock and sack coats. George Todd, who was one of Quantrill's partisan captains, always wore a Union colonel's frock coat, belt and kepi. The guerillas who were dressed in Union uniforms identified themselves to other guerillas by wearing the U.S. oval belt buckle upside down.

On August 16, 1862, Confederate Col. John T. Coffee was in command of the 6th S.W. Missouri Cavalry at the battle of Lone Jack Missouri when Bill Anderson offered his partisan cavalry as reinforcements. Col. Coffee refused Anderson's help because of the reputation of the guerillas. When Quantrill's partisans received word of Coffee's refusal, it made Anderson so mad that he threatened to mount a cavalry charge against the Confederates! Quantrill was in Richmond at the time seeking a colonel's commission in the Confederate army, which was refused.

The August 21, 1863 raid on Lawrence Kansas was revenge for the death of Anderson's sister in Kansas City. But the reason they chose Lawrence Kansas is because they had word that many Kansas Jay Hawkers were there including the infamous Jim Lane. When Lane was awakened by his men, and was informed that Quantrill and his guerillas were approaching Lawrence, he saved his skin by fleeing out the back door of the house where he was staying and hid in a corn field. After the Lawrence raid, Lane said, "It is better to be a live coward than a dead hero".

After the raid on Lawrence, Quantrill and his followers rode south to seek refuge and spend the winter of 1863-1864 in north Texas. On October 6, 1863, while in route to Texas, Quantrill's guerillas obtained Union uniforms after a successful attack on Gen. Blunt's supply collumn at Baxter Springs Kansas where Gen. Blunt's son was killed. In late October, Quantrill and his followers arrived a Bonham Texas, about 100 miles northeast of Dallas, and reported to Brig. Gen. Henry E. McCulloch. Quantrill and Anderson had a falling out in December 1863, and Anderson implicated Quantrill in a robbery and murder of a Confederate conscription officer in Sherman Texas.

In early May 1864, Quantrill was arrested by Confederate authorities and was put in jail in Bonham Texas and was being held for the murder of Confederate Maj. George Butt. In two days, Quantrill was broken out of jail by 150 of his loyal followers and they fled into Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and rode back to Missouri. After arriving in Missouri, Quantrill became mentally unstable and hatched a plan to go to Washington and kill President Lincoln. Quantrill and his men got as far as Kentucky when they changed their minds after they saw thousands of Union soldiers and militia.

[penn-state-engr]

Thanks guys for the information. What I am looking for is a sutler that can do the jacket. I am looking for a picture and some insight on what color, style , etc. it should be plus a hat. Thanks again.

[Lee Ragan]

ANY male, period civilian clothing will work for a Partisan Ranger impression. I think this was the message the earlier posters were trying to inpart.

[Ozark Iron John]

Thanks guys for the information. What I am looking for is a sutler that can do the jacket. I am looking for a picture and some insight on what color, style , etc. it should be plus a hat. Thanks again.

You should talk to that lady at James Country Mercantile (http://www.jamescountry.com/). She knows all about Irregular Cavalry / Partisan Ranger / Missouri Guerrilla / Bushwacker / Red Leg / Jay Hawker & Border Ruffian outfits.

http://www.jamescountry.com/shirt.jpg

That's a copy of the Lindsey-Woolsey Shirt one of the boys wore at Centralia that day in 1864.


Guerrilla Warfare Missouri Style!http://www.pricecamp.org/blackflagq2.gif

http://a670.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/90/l_96efdb2a5700aca15a881c208a95a695.jpg

[RJSamp]

Cool Picture. Speaks volumes about using revolvers at more than 50 feet....
and what is that horse shying away from?

[Dave Myrick]

Cool Picture. Speaks volumes about using revolvers at more than 50 feet....
and what is that horse shying away from?

Hmmm don't see what you are talking about with the revolver mention and it looks like the horse is reacting to the reins being pulled to me.

Dave Myrick
Grumpy Horse Soldier

[Ozark Iron John]

Cool Picture. Speaks volumes about using revolvers at more than 50 feet....
and what is that horse shying away from?

He's spooky. We were gettin' ready to go back around to the left and he was ....

It's Cowboy Action when I do it and I've got a permanant bruise in the shape of florida on my hip to prove it.

http://a158.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/93/l_9a2abc397799273a1a0c8a2576d6009d.jpg

[RJSamp]

Hmmm don't see what you are talking about with the revolver mention and it looks like the horse is reacting to the reins being pulled to me.

Dave Myrick
Grumpy Horse Soldier

The shot is from 'lance' range....what you read was the distance for accurate shooting on a moving horse......this isn't a shot being taken at 50 yards ....like you see at reenactments.

It looks like the horse is shying away from the pistol discharge. the right rein has lost contact with the horses neck, its nose is up in the air, and it appears like tension on the left rein is pulling the bit/head back towards to the rider to the left. The horse is fighting the bit. So much for neck reining.

[RJSamp]

He's spooky. We were gettin' ready to go back around to the left and he was ....



That's what I was thinking.....in both pictures the horse looks edgy (eyes, ears, and the tension in his shoulders/neck)......

he's resisting the bit and if you were going to go around to the left you've lost contact with the right rein.....

My grandfather taught us that there were two kinds of riders....those that have been thrown and those that will be..... I've still got a massive bruise/sore spot on my right hip from an Ice sliding off the metal barn roof spooked sideways bucking.....