In Three Years of Quantrell, John McCorkle recounts riding as an irregular with William Quantrell and how they fought against the Federals in Missouri and Kansas during the American Civil War.

It is a sobering look at how war is hell. McCorkle never knew who he could trust and who he couldn’t. During the infamous raid at Lawrence, Kansas, McCorkle says that some good men may have died in the raid, “but that wasn’t our intent.”

It’s hard to imagine what a country at odds with itself must have been like. People would take advantage of each other, steal property, and even the lives of their neighbors.

My one quibble with this memoir is it contains a lot of travel. It feels like McCorkle said we went here, then here, then here… as he goes through his memories of the war. There’s plenty of “hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.”

Recommended for history readers who want an original source for research about the American Civil War.

Thanks for reading!

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