Konterbande

The character "Luke Cottrell" is described as the leader of a band of guerrilla raiders working for the Union army that ravaged the Missouri countryside during the Civil War, robbing and murdering Southern sympathizers. The character is obviously based on the real-life William Quantrill, who was in fact the leader of a band of Confederate guerrillas that terrorized the Missouri and Kansas countryside during the Civil War. His raiders were responsible for the sacking and burning of Lawrence, KS, on Aug. 21, 1863, during which more than 150 men and boys in the town were rounded up and executed. It became known as The Lawrence Massacre. Eventually Quantrill's methods were so brutal--wholesale executions of prisoners, burning and looting towns and villages, etc.--that the Confederacy disowned him and withdrew all support. He was shot in an ambush by Union troops on May 10, 1865, and died in a Union military prison on June 6.

A revolver commonly seen in the film is the famous Colt Single Action Army Revolver. This design did not appear until 1873, much too late for use in the American Civil War.

Referenced in Quicksand (1950)