Quantrill received his field commission on the 15th of August 1862 under the Confederate Partisan Ranger Act. He often referred to himself as a colonel despite holding the rank of captain.
Quantrill's men burned a quarter of the town's buildings and killed at least 150 men and boys during the raid on Lawrence, Kansas. Abolitionist U.S. Sen. Jim Lane escaped by fleeing into corn fields while Union authorities had previously imprisoned female relatives of guerrillas in a house that collapsed killing several women.
Quantrill led his men behind Confederate lines down to Sherman, Texas where they wintered during 1863 and 1864. They continued to operate from there until late winter 1863 when he lost control over his men.
Union soldiers cornered Quantrill in a barn where a shootout resulted in him being injured in the spine and left unable to move. He died a week later from these wounds while pro-Union troops tracked him east toward Kentucky.
Guerrillas returned to Missouri in separate bands commanded by Lieutenants Bloody Bill Anderson and George M. Todd after Quantrill's death. Some guerrillas continued under leadership of Archie Clement who was killed by state militiamen in Lexington on the 2nd of May 1866.