Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare common during the American Revolutionary War , War of 1812 , American Civil War and other conflicts in which there were large areas of contested land and few governmental resources to control these tracts. This was particularly prevalent in rural areas during the Civil War where there were sharp divisions between those favoring the Union and Confederacy in the conflict. The perpetrators of the attacks were called bushwhackers . The term "bushwhacking" is still in use today to describe ambushes done with the aim of attrition .
30-459: Bushwhackers were generally part of the irregular military forces on both sides. While bushwhackers conducted well-organized raids against the military, the most dire of the attacks involved ambushes of individuals and house raids in rural areas. In the countryside, the actions were particularly inflammatory since they frequently amounted to fighting between neighbors, often to settle personal accounts. The term "bushwhacker" came into wide use during
60-485: A Military Phenomenon" by former Nazi officer Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte . The original 1972 German edition of the book is titled "Der Moderne Kleinkrieg als Wehrpolitisches und Militarisches Phänomen". The German word "Kleinkrieg" is literally translated as "Small War." The word "Irregular," used in the title of the English translation of the book, seems to be a reference to non "regular armed forces" as per
90-567: A house yet standing that it also did not disappear in the general conflagration. Such was the terrible intensity of the recent civil war ... In other areas of Missouri, properties were also pillaged and destroyed by both warring sides since atrocities during the Civil War were in many ways a continuation of Bleeding Kansas violence. Besides the Lawrence Massacre , the most notorious atrocity perpetrated by Confederate bushwhackers
120-493: A month after the 1865 surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee , during a near-fatal encounter with Wisconsin cavalrymen. In the course of the war, James' mother and sister were arrested, his stepfather tortured, and his family banished temporarily from Missouri by state militiamen— all Unionist Missourians. After the end of the war, the survivors of Anderson's band (including the James brothers) remained together under
150-594: A prominent bushwhacker commander might receive formal Confederate rank, as in the case of William Quantrill . Or they might receive written orders from a Confederate general, as "Bloody Bill" Anderson did in October 1864 during a large-scale Confederate incursion into Missouri, or as when Joseph C. Porter was authorized by Gen. Sterling Price to recruit in northeast Missouri. Missouri guerrillas frequently assisted Confederate recruiters in Union-held territory. For
180-472: A succession of atrocities committed in Missouri. Hostage-taking and banishment were employed by local District and Union commanders to punish secessionist sympathizers. Individual families, including that of Jesse and Frank James and the maternal grandparents and mother of future President Harry Truman , were banished from Missouri. Union troops often executed or tortured suspects without trial and burned
210-452: Is also important. Concepts associated with irregular warfare are older than the term itself. Irregular warfare favors indirect warfare and asymmetric warfare approaches, though it may employ the full range of military and other capabilities in order to erode the adversary's power, influence, and will. It is inherently a protracted struggle that will test the resolve of a state and its strategic partners. The term "irregular warfare"
240-570: The American Civil War (1861–1865). It became particularly associated with the pro-Confederate secessionist guerrillas of Missouri , where such warfare was most intense. Guerrilla warfare also wracked Kentucky , Tennessee , northern Georgia , Arkansas , and western Virginia (including the new state of West Virginia ), among other locations. In some areas, particularly the Appalachian regions of Tennessee and North Carolina ,
270-616: The Kurdish Peshmerga against Ansar al-Islam and the forces of Saddam Hussein during the war in Iraq in 2003. Nearly all modern wars include at least some element of irregular warfare. Since the time of Napoleon, approximately 80% of conflict has been irregular in nature. However, the following conflicts may be considered to have exemplified by irregular warfare: Activities and types of conflict included in IW are: According to
300-671: The Third Geneva Convention . Another early use of the term is in a 1996 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) document by Jeffrey B. White. Major military doctrine developments related to IW were done between 2004 and 2007 as a result of the September 11 attacks on the United States . A key proponent of IW within US Department of Defense (DoD) is Michael G. Vickers , a former paramilitary officer in
330-517: The "burnt district". The Missouri–Arkansas border had been desolated as well. The Little Rock Arkansas Gazette wrote in August 1866: Wasted farms, deserted cabins, lone chimneys marking the sites where dwellings have been destroyed by fire, and yards, gardens and fields overgrown with weeds and bushes are everywhere within view. The traveler soon ceases to wonder when he sees the charred remains of burnt buildings, and wonders rather when he beholds
SECTION 10
#1732780036231360-745: The CIA. The CIA's Special Activities Center (SAC) is the premiere American paramilitary clandestine unit for creating and for combating irregular warfare units. For example, SAC paramilitary officers created and led successful irregular units from the Hmong tribe during the war in Laos in the 1960s, from the Northern Alliance against the Taliban during the war in Afghanistan in 2001, and from
390-684: The Confederate government in formally authorizing such insurgents was "partisan ranger". One of them was Col. John Singleton Mosby , who carried out raids on Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley and northern Virginia. He also raided to the north in Kentucky and Tennessee. Partisan rangers were also authorized in Arkansas. In Missouri, however, secessionist bushwhackers operated outside of the Confederate chain of command. On occasion,
420-576: The DoD, there are five core activities of IW: As a result of DoD Directive 3000.07, United States armed forces are studying irregular warfare concepts using modeling and simulation . There have been several military wargames and military exercises associated with IW, including: Individuals: Lawrence Massacre Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include
450-521: The bushwhackers was the Lawrence Massacre . William Quantrill led a raid in August 1863 on Lawrence, Kansas , burning the town and murdering some 150 men in Lawrence. Bushwhackers justified the raid as retaliation for the Sacking of Osceola , Missouri two years earlier, in which the town was set aflame and at least nine men killed, and for the deaths of five female relatives of bushwhackers killed in
480-668: The collapse of a Kansas City, Missouri jail. To end guerrilla raids into Kansas, the Union commander of the District of the Border, which comprised counties along the Missouri-Kansas state line, Thomas Ewing, Jr. , ordered the total depopulation of Jackson, Cass, Bates, and northern Vernon counties in Missouri under his General Order No. 11 . Nearly twenty-five thousand rural inhabitants had to go to areas near Union camps or leave
510-499: The conditions of the campaign become distinct from the conditions of modern regular warfare, and it is with hostilities of this nature that this volume proposes to deal. Upon the organization of armies for irregular warfare valuable information is to be found in many instructive military works, official and non-official." A similar usage appears in the 1986 English edition of "Modern Irregular Warfare in Defense Policy and as
540-462: The homes of guerrillas and those suspected of aiding or harboring them. If official credentials were doubted, the suspects were often executed, as in the case of Lt. Col. Frisby McCullough after the Battle of Kirksville . Bushwhackers retaliated by ambushing federal soldiers and frequently going house to house and executing Unionist sympathizers. One of the most vicious actions during the Civil War by
570-472: The leadership of Archie Clement , one of Anderson's lieutenants. In February 1866, they began a series of armed robberies. This group became known as the James-Younger Gang , after the death or capture of the older outlaws (including Clement) and the addition of former bushwhacker Cole Younger and his brothers. In December 1869, Jesse James became the most famous of this group when he emerged as
600-586: The most part, however, Missouri's bushwhacker squads were self-organized groups of young men, predominantly from the slave -holding counties along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. They independently organized and fought against Federal forces and their Unionist neighbors, both in Kansas and Missouri. Their actions were in retaliation for what they considered a Federal invasion of their home state. The conflict with Confederate bushwhackers rapidly escalated into
630-764: The newspapers portraying himself as a bushwhacker, and rallying the support of former Confederates and other Missourians who were harmed by Federal authorities during the Civil War and Reconstruction . After the end of the war in 1865, the Mason Henry Gang continued as outlaws in Southern California with a price on their heads for the November 1864 "Copperhead Murders" in the San Joaquin Valley of three men they believed to be Republicans . Tom McCauley , known as "James" or "Jim Henry",
SECTION 20
#1732780036231660-542: The partisan warfare which usually arises when trained soldiers are employed in the quelling of sedition and of insurrections in civilised countries; they include campaigns of conquest when a Great Power adds the territory of barbarous races to its possessions; and they include punitive expeditions against tribes bordering upon distant colonies....Whenever a regular army finds itself engaged upon hostilities against irregular forces, or forces which in their armament, their organization, and their discipline are palpably inferior to it,
690-640: The prime suspect in the robbery of the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri , and the murder of cashier John W. Sheets. During Jesse James's flight from the scene, he declared that he had killed Samuel P. Cox and had taken revenge for Bloody Bill Anderson's death. (Cox lived in Gallatin, and the killer apparently mistook Sheets for the former militia officer.) Throughout James' criminal career, he often wrote to
720-474: The state; their houses were burned to prevent them from returning; altogether, twenty-two hundred square miles of western Missouri became a desolation by the end of September 1863. A minister, George Miller, who lived in Kansas City, wrote, "For miles and miles we saw nothing but lone chimneys. It seemed like a vast cemetery – not a living thing to break the silence." The District of the Border became known as
750-568: The term bushwhackers was used for Confederate partisans who attacked Union forces. Residents of southern Alabama used the name in the same manner. Several bushwhacker bands operated in California in 1864. Pro-Union guerrilla fighters in Kansas were called " Jayhawkers ". They were involved in cross-border raids into Missouri. In most areas, guerrilla warfare operated as an adjunct to conventional military operations. The title adopted by
780-440: Was attempting to arrest them. Among those suspected of his killing was William McWaters , who once rode with Anderson and Quantrill. Notes Further reading Irregular warfare Irregular warfare ( IW ) is defined in United States joint doctrine as "a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations." In practice, control of institutions and infrastructure
810-582: Was killed in a shootout with a posse from San Bernardino on September 14 of that year, in San Jacinto Canyon , in what was then San Diego County . John Mason was killed by a fellow gang member for the reward in April 1866 near Fort Tejon in Kern County . In 1867, near Nevada, Missouri , a band of bushwhackers shot and killed Sheriff Joseph Bailey , a former Union brigadier general, who
840-640: Was lured into an ambush and killed in the ensuing battle by soldiers of the pro-Union Missouri State Militia under the command of Col. Samuel P. Cox . Anderson's body was displayed following his death. The guerrilla conflict in Missouri was, in many respects, a civil war within the Civil War. Jesse James began to fight as an insurgent in 1864. During months of often intense combat, he battled only fellow Missourians, ranging from Missouri regiments of U.S. Volunteer troops, to state militia , to unarmed Unionist civilians. The single confirmed instance of his exchanging fire with Federal troops from another state occurred
870-501: Was settled upon in distinction from " traditional warfare " and " unconventional warfare ", and to differentiate it as such; it is unrelated to the distinction between " regular " and " irregular forces ". One of the earliest known uses of the term irregular warfare is a 1906 article for the United Kingdom War Office in 1906, where Colonel Charles Callwell, in defining Small Wars, noted: "Small wars include
900-560: Was the Centralia Massacre of September 27, 1864, in which 24 unarmed Union soldiers were pulled from a train in Centralia, Missouri and murdered by a band of guerrillas under the command of "Bloody Bill" Anderson , in retaliation for the earlier execution of a number of Anderson's own men. In an ambush of pursuing Union forces shortly thereafter, the bushwhackers killed well over 100 Federal troops. In October 1864, Anderson
#230769