📅 On This Day in Military History

August 21

1 event across history

⚔️📍 Lawrence, Kansas1863

Quantrill's Raid — Lawrence, Kansas Massacred

Confederate guerrilla William Quantrill led 450 raiders into the Free State town of Lawrence, killing 180 unarmed men and boys and burning 185 buildings. Quantrill had a 'kill list' of abolitionists and targeted men rather than women.

The Lawrence massacre was the worst atrocity of the guerrilla war in Kansas-Missouri and prompted General Order No. 11, which forcibly expelled 20,000 civilians from the Missouri border counties.

Outcome

180 civilians killed; town burned

Casualties

180