| Autobiography
of Samuel S. Hildebrand
The Renowned Missouri Bushwhacker
Edited
by Kirby Ross
1870 Edition Edited by James W. Evans and A. Wendell Keith,
M.D.
Preface by Daniel E. Sutherland
The
“true story” of one of the Confederate’s
most notorious guerrillas
Most
Civil War historians now agree that the guerrilla conflict
shaped the entire war in significant ways. Some of these “bushwhackers”—Nathan
Bedford Forrest, William Clarke Quantrill, John Singleton
Mosby—have become quite infamous. Illiterate Sam Hildebrand,
one of Missouri’s most notorious guerrillas—often
compared to “Rob Roy,” and the subject of dime
novels—was one of the few to survive the war and have
his story taken down and published. Shortly after this he
was killed in a barroom brawl.
Hildebrand’s
reign of terror gave the Union army fits and kept much of
the Trans-Mississippi, especially Missouri, roiling in the
1860s. Over seven years of fighting he and his men killed
dozens of soldiers and civilians, whites and blacks; he claimed
to have killed nearly one hundred himself. He was accused
of many heinous acts.
The historical significance of Hildebrand’s story is
substantial, but his bloody tale is eminently readable and
stands quite well on its own as a cold-blooded portrait of
a violent time in American history. Like the nightmarish and
depraved world of the Kid in Cormac McCarthy’s novel
Blood Meridian, Hildebrand’s world is truly
ruthless and his story is brutally descriptive in its coolly
detached rendering of one man’s personal war.
Published in 1870, Hildebrand’s autobiography has long
been out of print and has been a rare and highly prized acquisition
among Civil War historians and enthusiasts.
“A
superb modern edition of a rare 1870 imprint . . . a vivid
impression of a boastfully murderous mentality unique in Civil
War historiography.”
—Michael
Fellman, author of The Making of Robert E. Lee and Inside
War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American
Civil War
“This
is a must book for all interested in separating the fact from
fiction regarding Civil War guerrilla warfare and those who
waged it.”
— Albert
Castel, author of William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and
Times
“An
exciting ‘read’ combined with the truth behind
Hildebrand’s story.”
—Robert
R. Mackey, author of The Uncivil War: Irregular Warfare
in the Upper South, 1861–1865
Author/historian
Kirby Ross
is the recipient of a Kansas Governor’s Proclamation
for his first book, The True Life Wild West Memoir of
a Bush-popping Cow Waddy. He is a feature writer for
the online magazine CivilWarStLouis.com and lives in Kirwin,
Kansas.
November
280 pages, 8 illustrations, index
6" x 9"
$28.95 (s) Cloth
ISBN 978-1-55728-799-1 | 1-55728-799-6
|
