All Red Legs were Jayhawkers, but not all Jayhawkers were Red Legs, and -- despite your most ignorant assertion otherwise, nincompoop -- Red Legs and Jayhawkers were not Missourians, CBJ7. BTW, CJ7, your ignorance is on display here and here. Meanwhile, your ignorant ass can't back up your asinine lie with a citation, jackass. Originally Posted by I B Hankering
not that it matters ...
A Red Leg is a specific term, not a generalized or generic one.
It pertains to a group of men who were from the Atchison, Kansas area. They were organized by General James G. Blunt at the behest of Kansas Governor Thomas Carney and Kansas Senator Jim Lane. Governor Carney personally financed this armed group of Red Legs.
As a side-note adding to historical fact and actuality - Blunt, was well known to ride the coattails of Senator Lane. Regardless of his so called "accomplishments", his downfall came through acts of corruption and womanizing. Blunt died in an insane asylum due to syphilis, in 1881.
The Kansas Red Legs, gained their name from the knee high, red yarn leggings they wore over their boots. See image of General Thomas Ewing in his "Red Legs" from the legendary painting "General Order Number 11" by artist George Caleb Bingham.
Redlegs were a band of band of militants who refused to join units officially sanctioned by the U.S. Army. These so called "men" terrorized the Kansas-Missouri border, and which in turn incurred the wrath of Quantrill, Anderson, Todd, etc.
Some of the men which comprised the Red Legs were "Wild Bill" Hickok and William S. Tough. Matter of fact, William Tough was known even around his own men as "He is pure horse thief and murderer."
Something a Red Leg could be proud of !
Jayhawkers
This is a term applied to Kansan guerrilla fighters opposed to Missouri during the struggle over Kansas in the years prior, as well as directly into to so called the Civil War.
Later, during the war, it was the nickname of part of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Charles R. Jennison -or- Jennison's Jayhawkers. Which, even later, would officially be designated the 7th Kansas Cavalry, U.S.
The jawhaker bands actually scorned U.S goverment sanction and were typically even more vicious and indiscriminate in their methods than their bureaucratically recognized counterparts. Even within Kansas, the jayhawkers were not always popular because, in the absence of federal support, they supplied themselves by stealing horses and supplies from fellow Kansans and Kansas farmers.
Jayhawker bands waged numerous bloody and gruesome invasions of Missouri and also committed some of the most notorious atrocities of the Civil War, including the Lane-led massacre on September 23, 1861 at Osceola, Missouri, in which the entire town was set aflame and many of it's residents killed. (The sacking of Osceola, Missouri inspired the 1976 film "The Outlaw Josey Wales."
Jayhawkers also engineered and implimented the August 13, 1863 Collapse of yankee jail in Kansas City in which innocent civilian female relatives of The Missouri Partisan Rangers were incarcerated by yankee soldiers because of their connection to the pro-Confederate guerrillas. Supports beams of the jail had been intentionally weakened and sabotaged, and the ensuing collapse of the structure killed four women including 14 year old Josephine Anderson, sister of William T. Anderson. Bill's other sister, Mary Anderson was badly injured (both legs broken).
Also arrested and incarcerated during the collapse were Charity Kerr, sister of John McCorkle (killed), Mrs. Nannie McCorkle, sister-in-law of John McCorkle (uninjured), Susan Vandever, cousin of Cole Younger (killed), Armenia Whitsett Selvey, cousin of Cole Younger (killed).
These two incidents of the Osceola Massacre and the Kansas City Jail Collapse were prior to, and set the stage for the "Pay Back". Also known as the Lawrence Raid in Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863, led by William Quantrill and his men.
The origin of the term Jayhawker is widely believed to signify a mythical bird which is a mongrel cross between a blue jay and a sparrow hawk. Significantly, a bird that ambushes and attacks a weaker prey. Sound familiar ?
The term came to prominence just before the Border War, in Kansas, where it was adopted by militant abolitionist groups known as jayhawkers.
Actually, it is a term that still is used today. Kansans are most often called and proudly boast themselves as jayhawkers.
Even their sports teams at Kansas University in Lawrence are the named Jayhawks.
It takes a lot of pride to name yourselves after a bunch of terrorists, murderers, rapists and child killers. Fine example to set for modern day students.
There are also instances of late war diaries, accounts etc, of troops from Iowa, Illinois, etc. that "set out jayhawking". Items stolen in raids into Missouri were frequently referred to as having been "Jayhawked."
It had became a term to be used to describe terror, robbery, pillaging, destruction and even murder. Much as if it were some type of "sport" or "recreation." Regardless, it is a heartless term, and one of evil and destruction of Biblical proportions
