Price was not the only Confederate who wanted to distance himself from Quantrill and his men. Like Price, Brigadier General Henry E. McCulloch was shocked and dismayed when Quantrill arrived in Texas in October 1863. In an illuminating letter to his higher headquarters, McCulloch wrote:

A good many of Colonel Quantrill’s command have come into this sub-district, and it is said that he is now within it…I do not know as much about his mode of warfare as others seem to know; but from all I can learn, it is but little, if at all, removed from that of the wildest savage; so much so, that I do not for a moment believe that our Government can sanction it in one of her officers. Hence, it seems to me if he be an officer of our army, his conduct should be officially noticed, and if he be not an officer of our army, his acts should be disavowed by our Government, and as far as practicable, he be made to understand that we would greatly prefer his remaining away from our army or its vicinity. I appreciate his services, and am anxious to have them; but certainly we cannot, as Christian people, sanction a savage, inhuman warfare, in which men are to be shot down like dogs, after throwing down their arms and holding up their hands supplicating for mercy... (OR, Series I, Vol. 26, p. 348.)

Make no mistake Mr. Gilmore, I would be just as outraged by a book that tried to whitewash the Red Legs or Jayhawkers.