Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on the song:

Quantrell

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold robbers and open your ears, Of QuantrelI the lion-heart you quickly will hear." Quantrell raids and burns Lawrence, Kansas, but allegedly he supports to the poor, and "a brave man or woman he'll never annoy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 21, 1863 - Quantrill's Raiders destroy Lawrence, Kansas, killing about 150 men.
May 10, 1865 - Quantrill is mortally wounded on his way to Washington (where he hoped to stir up trouble by assassination). He dies 20 days later.
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 132-133, "Quantrell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, QUANTRLL*
Roud #4094
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Quantrell" (subject)
cf. "The Call of Quantrell" (subject)
Notes: As is so often the case with outlaw ballads, this paints much too pretty a picture.
William Clarke Quantrill (this is the spelling used in the official records) was a pro-Confederate terrorist (having fought at Wilson's Creek, he was commissioned Captain C.S.A. in August 1862) whose raiders brought fear and pillage to Nebraska and any other Union area that looked vulnerable. After the war was over, a number of Quantrill's followers (including the James Brothers) took off on their own -- but in fact used the techniques they learned from Quantrill.
To tell this song from other Quantrell pieces, consider this first stanza:
Come all you bold robbers and open your ears
Of QuantrelI the lion-heart you quickly will hear

With his band of bold raiders in double-quick time
He came to burn Lawrence just over the line.
This song is item dE33 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: LoA132

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2006 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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The Version in the Digital Tradition is a pretty good transcription of the song in Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs, which is "from the singing of R.R. Critchlow (Slim Slocum), radio broadcasting station KSL, Salt Lake City, Utah."
The only difference I noted in the Lomax book was in the first two lines:

"Come all ye bold robbers and open your ears,
Of QuantrelI the lion-heart you quickly shall hear."

No big difference, I'd say.

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There are a few entries to explore in Roud.
One is the 1938 edition of Cowboy Songs by Lomax, which I don't have - and it isn't in the 1916 edition. The version in Lingenfelter & Dwyer's Songs of the American West is taken from Finger, Frontier Ballads (1927) - it's almost word-for-word the same as the Lomax version, so I won't post it. According to Roud, there are different versions in Isern & Weeks: Mid-America Folklore, but I don't have access to Isern & Weeks.

-Joe Offer-