Guerrilla, ger-ril'la, a Spanish word meaning skirmishing warfare, and hence a body of skirmishers. The word is akin to the French guerre meaning war. In European warfare the term was used to designate a light body of troops calculated to do scouting or to surprise the enemy. . The word came into prominence during the invasion of Spain by French armies in the Napoleonic Wars. Of late the word has acquired a sinister meaning. During our Civil War bands of guerrillas responsible to nobody, little better in character and deed than bandits and horse thieves, roamed the borders, especially in Missouri, plundering and murdering. Quantrell, the James Brothers, and the Younger Boys were products of the guerrilla bands. Guerrillas are now associated in the popular mind with raiding, looting, train robbing, and the like.