The Guerrillas Were Wearing Union Blue

The Battle of Fort Blair also known as the Baxter Springs Massacre, was fought October 6^th 1863 near the town of Baxter Springs Kansas. About 400 of William Quantrill’s Raiders a Confederate guerrilla band captured and killed two Union teamsters from Fort Blair. Quantrill split his force into two columns one under his command, the other under David Poole to attack the Fort. As Poole’s men advanced on the Fort they ran into Union troops; most of whom were African Americans, and chased them back into the Fort, killing some. Quantrill’s men advancing from another direction encountered Union troops under the command of Major General James G Blunt. Not realizing the blue clad guerrilla troops where the enemy, all but Blunt and a few other mounted men where killed while retreating and trying to surrender. Poole’s advance of Confederates attacked Fort Blair, but the soldiers in the Fort where able to fight them off. After destroying the Union forces Quantrill’s men plundered Blunt’s supply wagons, taking food, weapons and liquor. The skirmish was a Confederate victory, with ninety-one Union men killed and eighteen others wounded, the guerrillas lost about thirty.