when hell came to breakfast: the story of the civil war’s most infamous guerrilla raid (in progress!)

On August 21, 1863, the guerrilla chieftain William Clarke Quantrill led several hundred pro-Confederate bushwhackers from Missouri to the outskirts of Lawrence, Kansas. Just after dawn, they launched a surprise raid against the city. The Missourians claimed nearly 200 victims and left a major stretch of the city in ashes. Ever since, the attack has been known as “the Lawrence Massacre.”

Utilizing the most complete collection of accounts assembled to date—including some never-before-published—this book narrates the most infamous guerrilla raid of the American Civil War. In the process, it asks new questions that force us to reconsider the Massacre’s place in the story of our national bloodletting and the war’s continued role in determining what it means to be American.