FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Most Civil War historians now agree that the guerrilla conflict shaped the entire war in significant ways. Some of these “bushwhackers” - Nathan Bedford Forrest, William Clarke Quantrill, John Singleton Mosby - have become quite infamous. Very few of them ever lived to tell their own story. Sam Hildebrand did.

The University of Arkansas Press has just published “The Autobiography of Samuel S. Hildebrand: The Renowned Missouri Bushwhacker,” edited by Kirby Ross (cloth $24.95, 294 pages). Illiterate Sam Hildebrand, one of Missouri’s most notorious guerrillas - often compared to “Rob Roy,” and the subject of dime novels - had his story taken down and published in 1870. Shortly afterward he was killed after a barroom brawl.

Hildebrand’s reign of terror gave the Union army fits and kept much of the Trans-Mississippi, especially Missouri and southern Arkansas, roiling in the 1860s. Over seven years of fighting, he and his men killed dozens of soldiers and civilians, whites and blacks; he claimed to have killed nearly 100 himself. He was accused of many heinous acts.

The historical significance of Hildebrand’s story is substantial, but his bloody tale is eminently readable and stands quite well on its own as a cold-blooded portrait of a violent time in American history. Hildebrand’s world is truly ruthless and his story is brutally descriptive in its coolly detached rendering of one man’s personal war: “I make no apology to mankind for my acts of retaliation; I make no whining appeal to the world for sympathy. I sought revenge and I found it; the key of hell was not suffered to rust in the lock while I was on the war path.”

Published in the University of Arkansas Press’s Civil War in the West Series, edited by Daniel E. Sutherland, professor of history at the University of Arkansas, Hildebrand’s autobiography has long been out of print and has been a rare and highly prized acquisition among Civil War historians and enthusiasts. Noted Civil War historian Michael Fellman, author of “The Making of Robert E. Lee,” describes this book as a “superb modern edition, ... a vivid impression of a boastfully murderous mentality unique in Civil War historiography.”

Journalist and author/historian Kirby Ross is the recipient of a Kansas Governor’s Proclamation for his first book, “The True Life Wild West Memoir of a Bush-popping Cow Waddy.” Ross is a staff writer for a major Kansas newspaper chain and has been a feature story contributor for North & South Magazine as well as the online magazine CivilWarStLouis.com. He resides in north central Kansas. An excerpt from the book will be published in the Fall 2005 issue of the Missouri Historical Society’s Gateway magazine.