There are inconsistencies in the reports of how much of Lawrence was burned during Quantrill’s Raid. There seems to be nearly unanimous agreement that almost all of the business district was burned. The inconsistency is on the number of private residences that were destroyed. A number of reports (probably the majority) are consistent with what Cordley reported in his 1895 History of Lawrence: “Besides the buildings on the business street, about one hundred houses had been burned, and probably as many more had been set on fire and saved by the heroic exertions of the women.”

However, other reports downplay the destruction of the residential areas. For example, an eye-witness report that appeared in a number of newspapers stated, “Nearly every house was sacked, and the best ones fired ; but owing, to the very stillness of the air at the time, the flames were extinguished in many of the houses.” This implies only a subset of all houses was targeted by the raiders, and many within that subset were saved. This is consistent with what is reported in Cutler’s 1883 History of Kansas: “The business of the place was mainly on Massachusetts Street, between Winthrop and Warren, a space of about 1800 feet. This was one continued line of stores on both sides. In this space, about seventy-five buildings were destroyed. Only one block, containing two stores, remained, and those two stores were robbed. On the lower end of the street, there also remain one or two or three small buildings and one grocery store. In other parts of the town more were fired, but saved by the women…” If there was more widespread arson and destruction of the residential areas, it seems that would have merited greater emphasis in these reports.

The City of Lawrence Visitors Bureau has published a brochure on Quantrill’s Raid (copyright 1997). It includes a detailed map of Lawrence that shows each building that existed at the time of the raid, and which were burned. There are just over 300 buildings shown, and approximately 85 of those are shown as being destroyed. The level of detail in this map implies it was a result of pretty meticulous research, apparently performed by a Professor McCleary at University of Kansas. I have no other details on the research behind this map at this time.

Question: How much of Lawrence was burned? According to the Visitors Bureau map, just over one-quarter of the buildings were destroyed. If the map is correct on the total number of buildings, but there were 100 residences destroyed in addition to the 75 in the commercial district, the percentage is close to 60 percent. Is there a definitive assessment of this matter?

Thanks for any insights you can share on this topic.