U.S. A name given to members of the bands who carried on irregular warfare in and around eastern Kansas, in the free soil conflict, and the early part of the American civil war, and who combined pillage with guerilla fighting; hence, generally, a raiding guerilla or irregular soldier, (See also quot. 1890.)
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., No. 143. 5/1. Sneaking, cowardly jay-hawkers, cutthroats, and thieves.
1867. A. D. Richardson, Beyond the Mississippi, x. 125. Found all the settlers justifying the ‘Jayhawkers,’ a name universally applied to Montgomery’s men, from the celerity of their movements and their habit of suddenly pouncing upon an enemy.
1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, 20 Jan. (Farmer, Americanisms). He was connected with what is known as the Jayhawker war that raged on the borders of Kansas about twenty-five years since.
1900. R. Kipling, in Times, 15 March, 8/1. Let us suppose that you who read these lines had been out with Rimington’s jay-hawkers or somebody else’s fly-by-nights, riding hard and sleeping light for weeks.
