To the Editor:
As the city considers what to do about street names and monuments honoring the Confederacy, let me suggest that a good place to start is with Quantrell Avenue in the city’s West End. In 2011, the Office of Historic Alexandria pretty much confirmed what I had long suspected.
According to the e-mail response from the office‘s information specialist, “Not 100 percent sure, but I believe Quantrell Avenue, like many other West End streets, may have been named for a Confederate officer.
William Clarke Quantrill was a Captain in the CSA.” (Quantrell is frequently spelled “Quantrill” in historical accounts.) And who was
Quantrell you might ask? Well, he was a CSA officer for a while, but deserted his command under CSA General Price to form his own band of — euphemistically referred to as — bushwhackers, guerrillas and border ruffians on the Missouri-Kansas border.
In reality, he led a bunch of thieves, plunderers, rustlers, and murderers. Today, we would also view him as a terrorist. His group
included such outlaws and psychopaths as Jesse and Frank James, the Younger brothers and “Bloody Bill” Anderson. Quantrell’s most infamous and dastardly act was on Aug. 21, 1863, when he led his 450 men on a raid on Lawrence, Kansas, sacking and burning the town. He ordered his men to murder 183 noncombatant men and boys, whose ages ranged from 14 to 90. Historical accounts report that Quantrell was an active participant in the slaughter.
Why should the city honor such a person by naming a street after him?
And what were city officials thinking in the 1950s when they decided to name a street honoring him?
Joe Bennett
Falls Church