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William C Quantrill Awarded The Southern Cross of Honor.

On July 31, 2010 on the 173rd anniversary of his birth in his hometown of Dover, Ohio William Clarke Quantrill was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor by the friends of Quantrill organization, quantrillsguerrillas.com. Founding members; Emory Cantey, Rick Mack, Patrick Marquis, Paul R. Petersen and Claiborne Scholl Nappier voted unanimously to nominate Quantrill for this award.

The award was presented to William Clarke Quantrill's closest living relative, a niece, Linda Harper of Ohio, by Commander Scott C. Morris, of Camp 2087 of the Ohio Chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  

The Southern Cross of Honor was a military decoration meant to honor the officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates for their valor in the armed forces of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. It was formally approved by the Congress of the Confederate States on October 13, 1862, and was originally intended to be on par with the Union Army's Medal of Honor.

The design for the face of the medal consists of a cross with a Confederate battle flag surrounded with a laurel wreath, with the inscription "The Southern Cross of Honor." On the back of the medal is the motto of the Confederate States of America, "Deo Vindice" (With God as Our Vindicator), and the dates 1861-1865. The medal was authorized to be awarded to any Confederate veteran who had provided "loyal, honorable service to the South and given in recognition of this devotion." Below is the most common image of W. C. Quantrill.

Below is the text from the Certificate of Eligibility awarded in recognition of William Clarke Quantrill's honorable service to the Confederate Cause.  

Certificate of Eligibility for the Southern Cross of Honor for William Clarke Quantrill Missouri Cavalry Scouts

He entered the service of the Confederate States during the Spring of 1861 as a private in the First Cherokee Mounted Regiment of Colonel Joel Bryan Mayes before transferring to Captain Stewart's Company B, in Colonel Jeremiah Vardeman Cockrell's Independent Home Guard of the 1st Brigade, 8th Division, Missouri State Guards, commanded by Brigadier General James Spencer Rains. He was afterwards promoted to sergeant in Company I, of the Third Missouri Cavalry. On the 12th day of August, 1862, he was commissioned a captain of cavalry scouts in Colonel Upton B. Hays's regiment of General Joseph Orville Shelby's Brigade sworn into the Confederate States Army by Colonel Gideon W. Thompson. Captured while wounded during a skirmish in Spencer County, Kentucky on the 10th day of May, 1865.  He died from wounds received in honorable service on the 6th day of June, 1865.

After the presentation Andrea Mertz of The Granite Rose Society laid a wreath on Col. Quantrill's grave and 2nd Lt. Jesse Ward sprinkled Missouri soil on Col. Quantrill's headstone.  Special thanks go out to our good friends at Quantrill's Raiders SCV Camp 2087, without them this project never would have happened.

Paul R. Petersen ©2010 quantrillsguerrillas.com. "Permission should be requested and agreed to before using this copyrighted essay." 

 

 

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