Quantrill and the Border Wars, by William Elsey Connelly, 1909:

Much has been said of the course of the Federal troops enlisted in Kansas and their actions in Missouri. Also, of the brigandage practiced there by irregular troops from Kansas, and even persons not in any way connected with the Federal military forces. The burning of Osceola by General James H. Lane was much complained of, and the destruction of private property in that town by him must be condemned. The federal troops went there because ordered by the Federal government to do so, and this order was given for the reason that Osceola was the supply-base for General Sterling Price for operations in Missouri. To capture the town and destroy the military stores belonging to the Confederate government there was legitimate procedure under the rules governing the awful condition of society called Civil War.

As to the course of Colonel Jennison in Missouri, very little in justification can be said. Jennison was a bad man, certainly. He committed outrages and crimes in Missouri. There is no doubt that the people of Missouri had just cause of complaint against him. But the service of Jennison was cut short by the Federal government. It must be remembered that he was appointed and commissioned by Governor Robinson of Kansas, and that after a campaign of about ninety days in Missouri, he was ordered out by the Federal government and resigned. Jennison did not have the approval of the government in his course in Missouri,

George W. Martin, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, in regards to the burning of Osceola by General James H. Lane:

James H. Lane, in command of the United States troops, on the 22^nd day of September 1861, destroyed the town of Osceola, St. Clair County, Missouri. Lane went to Osceola on a legitimate errand of warfare – to destroy certain supplies of the enemy – Sterling Price at this time having captured Colonel Mulligan at Lexington. Lane was fired on from ambush, and in returning the fire killed one man. Lane’s men helped the women get their personal effects from their houses. Lane took the records from the courthouse before applying the torch, and returned them at the close of the war.

That some of these Kansas men as soldiers committed excesses and crimes in Missouri has always been admitted. General Schofield, in his official report of the Lawrence Massacre, admits it, and it has never been denied. And in Kansas it was never justified, palliated, nor excused. The perpetrators of these crimes were never in good standing in Kansas. They slunk out of sight and disappeared.

No body of men ever gained such notoriety as the Red Legs. They were an efficient body of scouts organized by General Ewing and General Blunt for desperate service along the border. In the letters of C.M. Chase from Kansas to the True Republican and Sentinel, Sycamore, Illinois, are found definitions of the terms in use on the border in 1863. Writing from Leavenworth, August 10^th, he says:

Jayhawkers, Red Legs and Bushwackers are everyday terms in Kansas and Western Missouri. A Jayhawker is a Unionist who professes to rob, burn out and murder only rebels in arms against the government. A Red Leg is a Jayhawker originally distinguished by the uniform of red leggings. A Red Leg, however, is regarded as more purely an indiscriminate thief and murderer than the Jayhawker or Bushwacker. A Bushwhacker is a rebel Jayhawker, or a rebel who bands with others for the purpose of praying upon the lives and property of Union citizens. They are all lawless and indiscriminate in their iniquities. Their occupation, unless crashed out speedily, will end in a system of highway robbery exceeding anything which has existed in any country. It excites the mind, destroys the moral sensibilities, creates a thirst for wild life and adventure which will, on the restoration of peace, find gratification in nothing but highway robbery.

Every thief who wanted to steal from the Missouri people counterfeited the uniform of the Red Legs and went forth to pillage. This gave the organization a bad name, and much of the plundering done along the border was attributed to them, when, in fact, they did little in their line themselves. There were some bad characters among them – very bad. But they were, generally, honest and patriotic men. They finally hunted down the men who falsely represented themselves to be Red Legs, and they killed every man they found wearing the uniform without authority. The uniform was that of a commissioned company officer, but which one is not now known, supplemented with red leggings, usually made from the red sheepskins used by shoemakers. There were about thirty of them. They received usually the salary of the commissioned officer whose uniform they were authorized to wear.