Talk:William Quantrill

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Additional information and associated task forces: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion not met Associated task forces (general topics): Military biography task force Associated task forces (nations and regions): United States military history task force Associated task forces (periods and conflicts): American Civil War task force

[edit] NPOV?

This page is clearly not NPOV--the Union attacks are labelled atrocities, while Quantrill's justification for his own massacre stands unchallenged. Please also note that it's taken almost verbatim from PBS's "New Views on the West," except that the few negative lines (such as the 1860 charges against Quantrill for murder and horse theft) have been edited out: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/quantrill.htm—Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.226.147.36 (talk • contribs)

• sigh* No one can be completely unbiased, although I do find it lacking in many vital details. This guy was fascinating...too bad no psychologist got a crack at him before he died. And the Union attacks were the same attrocities that the Rebel attacks were, just under a different name and wearing different colours. They killed close to the same amounts of people as well.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.186.139.64 (talk • contribs)

True, but this article doesn't particularly capture that. The dead in Lawrence, for instance, are killed for speeches, &c. Statements like "he was a dashing, free-spirited hero," even when giving weak qualifications like they are, still are allowed to stand unchallenged. If one inserted, "and to Northerners, he was a savage, bloodthirsty murderer," that would certainly earn a POV dispute. As pointed out above, the Jayhawkers commit an "atrocity" while the Lawrence Massacre is labeled as legitimate punishment, which certainly isn't the case. I know the Civil War gets us all fired up, but we can still try to be un-biased.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.215.16.12 (talk • contribs)

[edit] Major Revision

I've reworked this article to address two major concerns that I noted above anonymously above (abundance of NPOV language, copyright infringement by taking many sentences direct from PBS). I tried in the new version to present both Northern and Southern views of Quantrill, but I'm no Civil War historian so if anyone else wants to jump in here, please do...

Since I'm the one who put it up in the first place, I also took down the neutrality warning at the top of the article.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.226.147.36 (talk • contribs)

Good work, thanks for putting in the effort. For the future, why not register and get a username? Then you can sign your talk page contributions! Anyway, thanks again. Cheers, -Willmcw 21:11, May 27, 2005 (UTC)