author
Samuel S. Hildebrand
1836–1872
A notorious Civil War–era Missouri bushwhacker, he left behind a firsthand narrative that blends confession, self-defense, and frontier legend. His autobiography offers a vivid look at guerrilla violence in the Ozarks and the way outlaws shaped their own stories.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Missouri in 1836, Samuel S. Hildebrand became known as one of the most feared guerrilla fighters in the Civil War border region. He is remembered less as a conventional author than as the subject and voice behind Autobiography of Samuel S. Hildebrand, the Renowned Missouri "Bushwhacker", first published in 1870.
That book presents his version of how grief, revenge, and wartime chaos pulled him into bushwhacking in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Modern descriptions of the work note both its value as a vivid firsthand account of irregular warfare and its limits as a reliable record, since Hildebrand was shaping his own legend even as he told his story.
He died in 1872, only a short time after the book appeared. Today, his autobiography remains of interest to readers of Civil War history because it captures the violent world of guerrilla conflict from the perspective of a man who lived it and wanted his side of the story preserved.