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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #61100 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61100)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles W. Quantrell, by Harrison Trow
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll
-have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
-this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: Charles W. Quantrell
- A True Report of his Guerrilla Warfare on the Missouri and
- Kansas Border During the Civil Was of 1861 to 1865
-
-Author: Harrison Trow
-
-Editor: John P. Burch
-
-Release Date: January 4, 2020 [EBook #61100]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES W. QUANTRELL ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by deaurider and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Note: Boldface is indicated with =equals signs=; italics
-is indicated with _underscores_.
-
-
-
-
- CHARLES W. QUANTRELL
-
- A TRUE HISTORY OF HIS GUERRILLA WARFARE
- ON THE MISSOURI AND KANSAS BORDER
- DURING THE CIVIL WAR OF
- 1861 TO 1865
-
- By JOHN P. BURCH
-
- _ILLUSTRATED_
-
- AS TOLD BY
-
- CAPTAIN HARRISON TROW
-
- ONE WHO FOLLOWED QUANTRELL THROUGH
- HIS WHOLE COURSE
-
-
-
-
- COPYRIGHT, 1923
- BY J. P. BURCH
- VEGA TEXAS
-
-[Illustration: CHARLES W. QUANTRELL]
-
-
-[Illustration: CAPTAIN HARRISON TROW]
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
- PAGE
-
- Introduction 11
-
- The False Jonah 13
-
- Early Life of Quantrell 15
-
- Why the Quantrell Guerrillas Were Organized 23
-
- Quantrell’s First Battle in the Civil War 29
-
- Fight at Charles Younger’s Farm 35
-
- Fight at Independence 37
-
- Second Fight at Independence 39
-
- Flanked Independence 41
-
- Fight at Tate House 43
-
- Fight at Clark’s Home 51
-
- Jayhawkers and Militia Murdered Old Man Blythe’s Son 59
-
- The Low House Fight 63
-
- Quantrell and Todd Go After Ammunition 69
-
- A Challenge 73
-
- The Battle and Capture of Independence 77
-
- Lone Jack Fight 85
-
- The March South in 1862 97
-
- Younger Remains in Missouri Winter of 1862 and 1863 105
-
- The Trip North in 1863 121
-
- Jesse James Joins the Command 131
-
- Lawrence Massacre 141
-
- Order Number 11, August, 1863 155
-
- Fights and Skirmishes, Fall and Winter, 1863–1864 159
-
- Blue Springs Fight, 1863 163
-
- Wellington 165
-
- The Grinter Fight 171
-
- The Centralia Massacre 175
-
- Anderson 187
-
- Press Webb, a Born Scout 193
-
- Little Blue 205
-
- Arrock Fight, Spring of 1864 207
-
- Fire Bottom Prairie Fight, Spring of 1864 209
-
- Death of Todd and Anderson, October, 1864 213
-
- Going South, Fall of 1864 223
-
- The Surrender 229
-
- Death of Quantrell 237
-
- The Youngers and Jameses After the War 253
-
-
-
-
- Do not loan this book out to
- neighbors and friends
- If You Do You Will Never Get It Back
-
- Keep it in your Library
- When You Are Not Reading It
-
- If You Want One Send to
-
- J. P. BURCH, VEGA, TEXAS
-
- And He Will Mail You One At Once
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTION
-
-
-Captain Harrison Trow, who will be eighty years old this coming
-October, was with Quantrell during the whole of the conflict from
-1861 to 1865, and for the past twenty years I have been at him to
-give his consent for me to write a true history of the Quantrell
-Band, until at last he has given it.
-
-This narrative was written just as he told it to me, giving
-accounts of fights that he participated in, narrow escapes
-experienced, dilemmas it seemed almost impossible to get out of,
-and also other battles; the life of the James boys and Youngers as
-they were with Quantrell during the war, and after the war, when
-they became outlaws by publicity of the daily newspapers, being
-accused of things which they never did and which were laid at their
-feet.
-
-Captain Trow identified Jesse James when the latter was killed at
-St. Joseph. He also was the last man to surrender in the State of
-Missouri.
-
- JOHN P. BURCH.
-
-
-
-
-THE AUTHOR
-
-
-Captain Harrison Trow was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October
-16, 1843, moved to Illinois in 1848, and thence to Missouri in
-1850, and went to Hereford, Texas, in 1901, where he now resides.
-At the age of nine years, he, having one of the nicest, neatest and
-sweetest stepmothers (as they all are), and things not being as
-pleasant at home as they should be (which is often the case where
-there is a stepmother), and getting all the peach tree sprouts for
-the whole family used on him, he decided the world was too large
-for him to take such treatment, and one day he proceeded to give
-the stepmother a good flogging, such as he had been getting, and
-left for brighter fields.
-
-In a few days he made his way to Independence, Missouri, got into
-a game of marbles, playing keeps, in front of a blacksmith shop,
-and won seventy-five cents. Then and there Uncle George Hudsbath
-rode up and wanted to hire a hand. Young Trow jumped at the job and
-talked to Mr. Hudsbath a few minutes and soon was up behind him and
-riding away to his new home. Young Trow proved to be the lad Uncle
-George was looking for and stayed with him until the war broke out.
-
-
-
-
-The False Jonah
-
-
-Early in the year of 1861, about in January, Jim Lane sent a false
-Jonah down to Missouri to investigate the location of the negroes
-and stock, preparing to make a raid within a short time. This Jonah
-located first at Judge Gray’s house at Bone Hill, was fed by Judge
-Gray’s “niggers” and was secreted in an empty ice house where they
-kept ice in the summer time. He would come out in the night time
-and plan with the “niggers” for their escape into Kansas with the
-horses, buggies and carriages and other valuables belonging to
-their master that they could get possession of. But an old negro
-woman, old Maria by name, gave the Jonah away.
-
-Chat Rennick, one of the neighbors, and two other men secreted
-themselves in the negroes’ cabin so as to hear what he was telling
-the negroes. After he had made all his plans for their escape
-Chat Rennick came out on him with the other two men and took him
-prisoner and started north to the Missouri River. Securing a skiff,
-they floated out into the river and when in about the center there
-came up a heavy gale, and one of these gentlemen thought it best to
-unload part of the cargo, so he was thrown overboard. As for the
-negroes, they repented in sack cloth and ashes and all stayed at
-home and took care of their master and mistress, as Jonah did in
-the olden times. As for the Jonah, I do not know whether the fish
-swallowed him or not, but if one did he did not get sick and throw
-him up. This took place at my wife’s uncle’s home, Judge James
-Gray.
-
-
-
-
-Early Life of Quantrell
-
-
-The early life of Quantrell was obscure and uneventful. He was born
-near Hagerstown, Maryland, July 20, 1836, and was reared there
-until he was sixteen years of age. He remained always an obedient
-and affectionate son. His mother had been left a widow when he was
-only a few years old.
-
-For some time preceding 1857, Quantrell’s only brother lived in
-Kansas. He wrote to his younger brother, Charles, to come there,
-and after his arrival they decided on a trip to California. About
-the middle of the summer of 1857 the two started for California
-with a freight outfit. Upon reaching Little Cottonwood River,
-Kansas, they decided to camp for the night. This they did. All was
-going well. After supper twenty-one outlaws, or Redlegs, belonging
-to Jim Lane at Lawrence, Kansas, rode up and killed the elder
-brother, wounded Charles, and took everything in sight, money,
-and even the “nigger” who went with them to do the cooking. They
-thought more of the d----d “nigger” than they did of all the rest
-of the loot. They left poor Charles there to die and be eaten later
-by wolves or some other wild animal that might come that way.
-Poor Charles lay there for three days before anyone happened by,
-guarding his dead brother, suffering near death from his wounds.
-After three days an old Shawnee Indian named Spye Buck came along,
-buried the elder brother and took Charles to his home and nursed
-him back to life and strength. After six months to a year Charles
-Quantrell was able to go at ease, and having a good education for
-those days, got a school and taught until he had earned enough
-money to pay the old Indian for keeping him while he was sick and
-to get him to Lawrence. He reached Lawrence and went to where Jim
-Lane was stationed with his company. He wanted to get into the
-company that murdered his brother and wounded himself. After a
-few days he was taken in and, from outward appearance, he became
-a full-fledged Redleg, but in his heart he was doing this only to
-seek revenge on those who had killed his brother and wounded him at
-Cottonwood, Kansas.
-
-Quantrell, now known as Charles Hart, became intimate with Lane and
-ostensibly attached himself to the fortunes of the anti-slavery
-party. In order to attain his object and get a step nearer his
-goal, it became necessary for him to speak of John Brown. He always
-spoke of him to General Lane, who was at that time Colonel Lane,
-in command of a regiment at Lawrence, as one for whom he had great
-admiration. Quantrell became enrolled in a company that held all
-but two of the men who had done the deadly work at Cottonwood,
-Kansas. First as a private, then as an orderly and sergeant,
-Quantrell soon gained the esteem of his officers and the confidence
-of his men.
-
-One day Quantrell and three men were sent down in the neighborhood
-of Wyandotte to meet a wagon load of “niggers” coming up to
-Missouri under the pilotage of Jack Winn, a somewhat noted horse
-thief and abolutionist. One of the three men failed to return with
-Quantrell, nor could any account be given of his absence until his
-body was found near a creek several days afterwards. In the center
-of his forehead was the round, smooth hole of a navy revolver
-bullet. Those who looked for Jack Winn’s safe arrival were also
-disappointed. People traveling the road passed the corpse almost
-daily and the buzzards found it first, and afterwards the curious.
-There was the same round hole in the forehead and the same sure
-mark of the navy revolver bullet. This thing went on for several
-months, scarcely a week passing but that some sentinel was found
-dead at his post, some advance picket surprised and shot at his
-outpost watch station.
-
-The men began to whisper, one to another, and to cast about for
-the cavalry Jonah who was in their midst. One company alone, that
-of Captain Pickins, the company to which Quantrell belonged, had
-lost thirteen men between October, 1859 and 1860. Other companies
-had lost two to three each. A railroad conductor named Rogers
-had been shot through the forehead. Quantrell and Pickens became
-intimate, as a captain and lieutenant of the same company should,
-and confided many things to each other. One night the story of
-the Cottonwood River was told and Pickens dwelt with just a
-little relish upon it. Three days later Pickens and two of his
-most reliable men were found dead on Bull Creek, shot like the
-balance, in the middle of the forehead. For a time after Pickens’
-death there was a lull in the constant conscription demanded by
-the Nemesis. The new lieutenant bought himself a splendid uniform,
-owned the best horse in the territory and instead of one navy
-revolver, now had two. Organizations of all sorts now sprang up,
-Free Soil clubs, Men of Equal Rights, Sons of Liberty, Destroying
-Angels, Lane’s Loyal Leaguers, and everyone made haste to get his
-name signed to both constitution and by-laws.
-
-Lawrence especially effected the Liberator Club, whose undivided
-mission was to found freedom for all the slaves now in Missouri.
-
-Quantrell persevered in his efforts to kill all of the men who
-had had a hand in the killing of his brother and the wounding
-of himself. With this in view, he induced seven Liberators to
-co-operate with him in an attack on Morgan Walker. These seven men
-whom Quantrell picked were the last except two of the men he had
-sworn vengeance upon when left to die at Cottonwood River, Kansas.
-He told them that Morgan Walker had a lot of “niggers,” horses and
-cattle and money and that the sole purpose was to rob and kill him.
-Quantrell’s only aim was to get these seven men. Morgan Walker was
-an old citizen of Jackson County, a venerable pioneer who had
-settled there when buffalo grazed on the prairie beyond Westport
-and where, in the soft sands beyond the inland streams, there were
-wolf and moccasin tracks. This man, Morgan Walker, was the man
-Quantrell had proposed to rob. He lived some five or six miles
-from Independence and owned about twenty negroes of various ages
-and sizes. The probabilities were that a skillfully conducted raid
-might leave him without a “nigger.”
-
-Well mounted and armed, the little detachment left Lawrence
-quietly, rode two by two, far apart, until the first rendezvous was
-reached, a clump of timber at a ford on Indian Creek. It was the
-evening of the second day, and they tarried long enough to rest
-their horses and eat a hearty supper.
-
-Before daylight the next morning the entire party were hidden in
-some heavy timber about two miles west of Walker’s house. There
-these seven men stayed, none of them stirring, except Quantrell.
-Several times during the day, however, he went backwards and
-forwards, apparently to the fields where the negroes were at work,
-and whenever he returned he brought something either for the horses
-or the men to eat.
-
-Mr. Walker had two sons, and before it was yet night, these boys
-and their father were seen putting into excellent order their
-double-barrel shotguns, and a little later three neighbors who
-likewise carried double-barrel shotguns rode up to the house.
-Quantrell, who brought news of many other things to his comrades,
-brought no note of this. If he saw it he made no sign. When
-Quantrell arranged his men for the dangerous venture they were to
-proceed, first to the house, gain access to it, capture all the
-male members of the family and put them under guard, assemble all
-the negroes and make them hitch up the horses to the wagons and
-then gallop them for Kansas. Fifty yards from the gate the eight
-men dismounted and fastened their horses, and the march to the
-house began. Quantrell led. He was very cool and seemed to see
-everything. The balance of his men had their revolvers in their
-hands while he had his in his belt. Quantrell knocked loudly at
-the oaken panel of the door. No answer. He knocked again and
-stood perceptibly at one side. Suddenly the door flared open and
-Quantrell leaped into the hall with a bound like a red deer. A
-livid sheet of flame burst out through the darkness where he had
-disappeared, followed by another as the second barrels of the guns
-were discharged and the tragedy was over. Six fell where they
-stood, riddled with buckshot. One staggered to the garden and
-died there. The seventh, hard hit and unable to mount his horse,
-dragged himself to a patch of timber and waited for the dawn. They
-tracked him by the blood upon the leaves and found him early in the
-morning. Another volley, and the last Liberator was liberated.
-
-Walker and his two sons, assisted by three of the stalwart and
-obliging neighbors, had done a clean night’s work, and a righteous
-one. This being the last of the Redlegs, except two, who murdered
-Quantrell’s brother and wounded him in Cottonwood, Kansas, in 1857,
-he closed his eyes and ears from ever being a scout for old Jim
-Lane any more.
-
-In a few days after the ambuscade at Walker’s, Charles W.
-Quantrell, instead of Charles Hart, as he was known, then was not
-afraid to tell his name on Missouri soil. He wrote to Jim Lane,
-telling him what had happened to the scouts sent out by him, and as
-the war was on then, Quantrell told Lane in his letter that he was
-going to Richmond, Virginia, to get a commission from under Jeff
-Davis’ own hand, which he did (as you will read further on in this
-narrative), to operate on the border at will. So Quantrell, being
-fully equipped with all credentials, notified Jim Lane of Missouri,
-telling him he would treat him with the same or better courtesy
-than he (Lane) had treated him and his brother at Cottonwood River,
-Kansas, in 1857. This made Jim Lane mad, and he began to send his
-roving, robbing, and thieving bands into Missouri, and Charles W.
-Quantrell, having a band of well organized guerrillas of about
-fifty men, began to play on their golden harps. Every time they
-came in sight, which was almost every day, they would have a fight
-to the finish.
-
-
-
-
-Why the Quantrell Guerrillas Were Organized
-
-
-It all came about from the Redlegs or Kansas Jayhawkers. For two
-years Kansas hated Missouri and at all times during these two years
-there were Redlegs from old Jim Lane’s army crossing to Missouri,
-stealing everything they could get their hands on, driving stock,
-insulting innocent women and children, and hanging and killing old
-men; so it is the province of history to deal with results, not to
-condemn the phenomena which produce them. Nor has it the right to
-decry the instruments Providence always raises up in the midst of
-great catastrophes to restore the equilibrium of eternal justice.
-Civil War might well have made the Guerrilla, but only the excesses
-of civil war could have made him the untamable and unmerciful
-creature that history finds him. When he first went into the war he
-was somewhat imbued with the old-fashioned belief that soldiering
-meant fighting and that fighting meant killing. He had his own
-ideas of soldiering, however, and desired nothing so much as to
-remain at home and meet its despoilers upon his own premises. Not
-naturally cruel, and averse to invading the territory of any other
-people, he could not understand the patriotism of those who invaded
-his own territory. Patriotism, such as he was required to profess,
-could not spring up in the market place at the bidding of Redleg
-or Jayhawker. He believed, indeed, that the patriotism of Jim Lane
-and Jennison was merely a highway robbery transferred from the
-darkness to the dawn, and he believed the truth. Neither did the
-Guerrilla become merciless all of a sudden. Pastoral in many cases
-by profession, and reared among the bashful and timid surroundings
-of agricultural life, he knew nothing of the tiger that was in
-him until death had been dashed against his eyes in numberless
-and brutal ways, and until the blood of his own kith and kin had
-been sprinkled plentifully upon things that his hands touched, and
-things that entered into his daily existence. And that fury of
-ideas also came to him slowly, which is more implacable than the
-fury of men, for men have heart, and opinion has none. It took him
-likewise some time to learn that the Jayhawkers’ system of saving
-the Union was a system of brutal force, which bewailed not even
-that which it crushed; and it belied its doctrine by its tyranny,
-stained its arrogated right by its violence, and dishonored its
-vaunted struggles by its executions. But blood is as contagious as
-air. The fever of civil war has its delirium.
-
-When the Guerrilla awoke he was a giant! He took in, as it were,
-and at a single glance, all the immensity of the struggle. He saw
-that he was hunted and proscribed; that he had neither a flag nor a
-government; that the rights and the amenities of civilized warfare
-were not to be his; that a dog’s death was certain to be his if
-he surrendered even in the extremest agony of battle; that the
-house which sheltered him had to be burned; the father who succored
-him had to be butchered; the mother who prayed for him had to be
-insulted; the sister who carried him food had to be imprisoned;
-the neighborhood which witnessed his combats had to be laid waste;
-the comrade shot down by his side had to be put to death as a wild
-beast--and he lifted up the black flag in self-defense and fought
-as became a free man and a hero.
-
-Much obloquy has been cast upon the Guerrilla organization because
-in its name bad men plundered the helpless, pillaged the friend and
-foe alike, assaulted non-combatants and murdered the unresisting
-and the innocent. Such devils’ work was not Guerrilla work. It
-fitted all too well the hands of those cowards crouching in the
-rear of either army and courageous only where women defended
-what remained to themselves and their children. Desperate and
-remorseless as he undoubtedly was, the Guerrilla saw shining upon
-his pathway a luminous patriotism, and he followed it eagerly that
-he might kill in the name of God and his country. The nature of his
-warfare made him responsible, of course, for many monstrous things
-he had no personal share in bringing about. Denied a hearing at
-the bar of public opinion, of all the loyal journalists, painted
-blacker than ten devils, and given a countenance that was made
-to retain some shadow of all the death agonies he had seen, is
-it strange in the least that his fiendishness became omnipresent
-as well as omnipotent? To justify one crime on the part of a
-Federal soldier, five crimes more cruel were laid at the door of
-the Guerrilla. His long gallop not only tired, but infuriated his
-hunters. That savage standing at bay and dying always as a wolf
-dies when barked at by hounds and dudgeoned by countrymen, made his
-enemies fear and hate him. Hence, from all their bomb-proofs his
-slanderers fired silly lies at long range, and put afloat unnatural
-stories that hurt him only as it deepened the savage intensity of
-an already savage strife. Save in rare and memorable instances, the
-Guerrilla murdered only when fortune in open and honorable battle
-gave into his hands some victims who were denied that death in
-combat which they afterward found by ditch or lonesome roadside.
-Man for man, he put his life fairly on the cast of the war dice,
-and died when the need came as the red Indian dies, stoical and
-grim as a stone.
-
-As strange as it may seem, the perilous fascination of fighting
-under a black flag--where the wounded could have neither surgeon
-nor hospital, and where all that remained to the prisoners was
-the absolute certainty of speedy death--attracted a number of
-young men to the various Guerrilla bands, gently nurtured, born to
-higher destinies, capable of sustaining exertion in any scheme or
-enterprise, and fit for callings high up in the scale of science
-or philosophy. Others came who had deadly wrongs to avenge, and
-these gave to all their combats that sanguinary hue which still
-remains a part of the Guerrilla’s legacy. Almost from the first
-a large majority of Quantrell’s original command had over them
-the shadow of some terrible crime. This one recalled a father
-murdered, this one a brother waylaid and shot, this one a house
-pillaged and burned, this one a relative assassinated, this one a
-grievous insult while at peace at home, this one a robbery of all
-his earthly possessions, this one the force that compelled him to
-witness the brutal treatment of a mother or sister, this one was
-driven away from his own like a thief in the night, this one was
-threatened with death for opinion’s sake, this one was proscribed
-at the instance of some designing neighbor, this one was arrested
-wantonly and forced to do the degrading work of a menial; while all
-had more or less of wrath laid up against the day when they were to
-meet, face to face and hand to hand, those whom they had good cause
-to regard as the living embodiment of unnumbered wrongs. Honorable
-soldiers in the Confederate army--amenable to every generous
-impulse and exact in the performance of every manly duty--deserted
-even the ranks which they had adorned and became desperate
-Guerillas because the home they had left had been given to the
-flames, or a gray-haired father shot upon his own hearthstone.
-They wanted to avoid the uncertainty of regular battle and know
-by actual results how many died as a propitation or a sacrifice.
-Every other passion became subsidiary to that of revenge. They
-sought personal encounters that their own handiwork might become
-unmistakably manifest. Those who died by other agencies than their
-own were not counted in the general summing up of the fight, nor
-were the solacements of any victory sweet to them unless they had
-the knowledge of being important factors in its achievement.
-
-As this class of Guerrilla increased, the warfare of the border
-became necessarily more cruel and unsparing. Where at first
-there was only killing in ordinary battle, there came to be no
-quarter shown. The wounded of the enemy next felt the might of
-this individual vengeance--acting through a community of bitter
-memories--and from every stricken field there began, by and by, to
-come up the substance of this awful bulletin: Dead, such and such
-a number; _wounded, none_. The war had then passed into its fever
-heat, and thereafter the gentle and the merciful, equally with the
-harsh and the revengeful, spared nothing clad in blue that could be
-captured.
-
-
-
-
-Quantrell’s First Battle in the Civil War
-
-
-Quantrell, together with Captain Blunt, returned from Richmond,
-Virginia, in the fall of 1861, with his commission from under the
-hand of Jeff Davis, to operate at will along the Kansas border. He
-began to organize his band of Guerrillas. His first exploits were
-confined to but eight men. These eight men were William Haller,
-James and John Little, Edward Koger, Andrew Walker, son of Morgan
-Walker, at whose farm Quantrell got rid of the last but two of the
-band that murdered his brother at Cottonwood River, Kansas, and
-left himself to die; John Hampton James Kelley and Solomon Bashman.
-
-This little band knew nothing whatever of war, and knew only how to
-fight and shoot. They lived on the border and had some old scores
-to settle with the Jayhawkers.
-
-These eight men, or rather nine--for Quantrell
-commanded--encountered their first hereditary enemies, the
-Jayhawkers. Lane entered Missouri only on grand occasions; Jennison
-only once in a while as on a frolic. One was a collossal thief;
-the other a picayune one. Lane dealt in mules by herds, horses
-by droves, wagons by parks, negroes by neighborhoods, household
-effects by the ton, and miscellaneous plunder by the cityful;
-Jennison contented himself with the pocketbooks of his prisoners,
-the pin money of the women, and the wearing apparel of the
-children. Lane was a real prophet of demagogism, with insanity
-latent in his blood; Jennison a _sans coulotte_, who, looking upon
-himself as a bastard, sought to become legitimate by becoming
-brutal.
-
-It was in the vicinity of Morgan Walker’s that Quantrell, with
-his little command, ambushed a portion of Jennison’s regiment and
-killed five of his thieves, getting some good horses, saddles and
-bridles and revolvers. The next fight occurred upon the premises
-of Volney Ryan, a citizen of Jackson County, with a company
-of Missouri militia, a company of militia notorious for three
-things--robbing hen roosts, stealing horses, and running away from
-the enemy. The eight Guerrillas struck them just at daylight,
-charged through it, charged back again, and when they returned from
-the pursuit they counted fifteen dead, the fruits of a running
-battle.
-
-An old man by the name of Searcy, claiming to be a Southern man,
-was stealing all over Jackson County and using violence here and
-there when he could not succeed through persuasion. Quantrell
-swooped down upon him one afternoon, tried him that night and
-hanged him the next morning, four Guerrillas dragging on the
-rope. Seventy-five head of horses were found in the dead man’s
-possession, all belonging to the citizens of the county, and any
-number of deeds to small tracts of land, notes and mortgages, and
-private accounts. All were returned. The execution acted as a
-thunder-storm. It restored the equilibrium of the moral atmosphere.
-The border warfare had found a chief.
-
-The eight Guerrillas had now grown to fifty. Among the new recruits
-were David Poole, John Jarrette, William Coger, Richard Burns,
-George Todd, George Shephers, Coleman Younger, myself and several
-others of like enterprise and daring. An organization was at once
-effected, and Quantrell was made captain; William Haller, first
-lieutenant; William Gregg, second; George Todd, third, and John
-Jarrette, orderly sergeant. The eagles were beginning to congregate.
-
-Poole, an unschooled Aristophanes of the Civil War, laughed
-at calamity, and mocked when any man’s fear came. But for its
-picturesqueness, his speech would have been comedy personified. He
-laughed loudest when he was deadliest, and treated fortune with
-no more dignity in one extreme than in another. Gregg, a grim
-Saul among the Guerrillas, made of the Confederacy a mistress,
-and like the Douglass of old, was ever tender and true to her.
-Jarrette, the man who never knew fear, added to fearlessness and
-immense activity an indomitable will. He was a soldier in the
-saddle _par excellence_. John Coger never missed a battle nor a
-bullet. Wounded thirteen times, he lived as an exemplification
-of what a Guerrilla could endure--the amount of lead he could
-comfortably get along with and keep fat. Steadfastness was his
-test of merit--comradeship his point of honor. He who had John
-Coger at his back had a mountain. Todd was the incarnate devil of
-battle. He thought of fighting when awake, dreamed of it at night,
-mingled talk of it in laxation, and went hungry many a day and
-shelterless many a night that he might find his enemy and have his
-fill of fight. Quantrell always had to hold him back, and yet he
-was his thunderbolt. He discussed nothing in the shape of orders.
-A soldier who discusses is like a hand which would think. He only
-charged. Were he attacked in front--a charge; were he attacked
-in the rear--a charge; on either flank--a charge. Finally, in a
-desperate charge, and doing a hero’s work upon the stricken rear of
-the Second Colorado, he was killed. This was George Todd. Shepherd,
-a patient, cool, vigilant leader, knew all the roads and streams,
-all the fords and passes, all modes of egress and ingress, all safe
-and dangerous places, all the treacherous non-combatants, and all
-the trustworthy ones--everything indeed that the few needed to know
-who were fighting the many. In addition, there were few among the
-Guerrillas who were better pistol shots. It used to do Quantrell
-good to see him in the skirmish line. Coleman Younger, a boy having
-still about his neck the purple marks of a rope made the night when
-the Jayhawkers shot down his old father and strung him up to a
-blackjack, spoke rarely, and was away a great deal in the woods.
-“What was he doing?” his companions began to ask one of another.
-He had a mission to perform--he was pistol practicing. Soon he was
-perfect, and then he laughed often and talked a good deal. There
-had come to him now that intrepid gaiety that plays with death. He
-changed devotion to his family into devotion to his country, and he
-fought and killed with the conscience of a hero.
-
-
-
-
-Fight at Charles Younger’s Farm
-
-
-The new organization was about to be baptized. Burris, raiding
-generally along the Missouri border, had a detachment foraging
-in the neighborhood of Charles Younger’s farm. This Charles
-Younger was an uncle of Coleman, and he lived within three miles
-of Independence, Missouri, the county seat of Jackson County.
-The militia detachment numbered eighty-four and the Guerrillas
-thirty-two. At sunset Quantrell struck their camp. Forewarned of
-his coming, they were already in line. One volley settled them.
-Five fell at the first fire and seven more were killed in the
-chase. The shelter of Independence alone, where the balance of
-the regiment was as a breakwater saved the detachment from utter
-extinction. On this day--the 10th of November, 1861--Cole Younger
-killed a militiaman seventy-one measured yards. The pistol practice
-was bearing fruit.
-
-Independence was essentially a city of fruits and flowers. About
-every house there was a _parterre_ and contiguous to every
-_parterre_ there was an orchard. Built where the woods and the
-prairies met, when it was most desirable there was sunlight, and
-when it was most needed there was shade. The war found it rich,
-prosperous and contented, and it left it as an orange that had
-been devoured. Lane hated it because it was a hive of secession,
-and Jennison preyed upon it because Guerrilla bees flew in and
-out. On one side the devil, on the other the deep sea. Patriotism,
-that it might not be tempted, ran the risk very often of being
-drowned. Something also of Spanish intercourse and connection
-belonged to it. Its square was a plaza; its streets centered there;
-its courthouse was a citadel. Truer people never occupied a town;
-braver fathers never sent their sons to war; grander matrons never
-prayed to God for right, and purer women never waited through it
-all--the siege, the sack, the pillage and the battle--for the light
-to break in the East at last, the end to come in fate’s own good
-and appointed time.
-
-
-
-
-Fight at Independence
-
-
-Quantrell had great admiration for Independence; his men adored it.
-Burris’ regiment was still there--fortified in the courthouse--and
-one day in February, 1862, the Guerrillas charged the town. It was
-a desperate assault. Quantrell and Poole dashed down one street.
-Cole Younger and Todd down another, Gregg and Shepherd down a
-third, Haller, Coger, Burns, Walker and others down the balance of
-the approaches to the square. Behind heavy brick walls the militia,
-of course, fought and fought, besides, at a great advantage. Save
-seven surprised in the first moments of the rapid onset and shot
-down, none others were killed, and Quantrell was forced to retire
-from the town, taking some necessary ordnance, quartermaster and
-commissary supplies from the stores under the very guns of the
-courthouse. None of his men were killed, though as many as eleven
-were wounded. This was the initiation of Independence into the
-mysteries as well as the miseries of border warfare, and thereafter
-and without a month of cessation, it was to get darker and darker
-for the beautiful town.
-
-Swinging back past Independence from the east the day after it had
-been charged, Quantrell moved up in the neighborhood of Westport
-and put scouts upon the roads leading to Kansas City. Two officers
-belonging to Jennison’s regiment were picked up--a lieutenant,
-who was young, and a captain, who was of middle age. They had only
-time to pray. Quantrell always gave time for this, and had always
-performed to the letter the last commissions left by those who
-were doomed. The lieutenant did not want to pray. “It could do no
-good,” he said. “God knew about as much concerning the disposition
-it was intended to be made of his soul as he could suggest to
-him.” The captain took a quarter of an hour to make his peace.
-Both were shot. Men commonly die at God’s appointed time, beset
-by Guerrillas, suddenly and unawares. Another of the horrible
-surprises of Civil War.
-
-At first, and because of Quantrell’s presence, Kansas City swarmed
-like an ant hill during a rainstorm; afterwards, and when the dead
-officers were carried in, like a firebrand had been cast thereon.
-
-
-
-
-Second Fight at Independence
-
-
-While at the house of Charles Cowherd, a courier came up with the
-information that Independence, which had not been garrisoned for
-some little time, was again in possession of a company of militia.
-Another attack was resolved upon. On the night of February 20,
-1862, Quantrell marched to the vicinity of the town and waited
-there for daylight. The first few faint streaks in the East
-constituted the signal. There was a dash altogether down South
-Main Street, a storm of cheers and bullets, a roar of iron feet on
-the rocks of the roadway, and the surprise was left to work itself
-out. It did, and reversely. Instead of the one company reported in
-possession of the town, four were found, numbering three hundred
-men. They manned the courthouse in a moment, made of its doors an
-eruption and of its windows a tempest, killed a noble Guerrilla,
-young George, shot Quantrell’s horse from under him, held their own
-everywhere and held the fort. As before, all who were killed among
-the Federals, and they lost seventeen, were those killed in the
-first few moments of the charge. Those who hurried alive into the
-courthouse were safe. Young George, dead in his first battle, had
-all the promise of a bright career. None rode further nor faster in
-the charge, and when he fell he fell so close to the fence about
-the fortified building that it was with difficulty his comrades
-took his body out from under a point blank fire and bore it off in
-safety.
-
-It was a part of Quantrell’s tactics to disband every now and
-then. “Scattered soldiers,” he argued, “make a scattered trail.
-The regiment that has but one man to hunt can never find him.” The
-men needed heavier clothing and better horses, and the winter,
-more than ordinarily severe, was beginning to tell. A heavy
-Federal force was also concentrating in Kansas City, ostensibly to
-do service along the Missouri River, but really to drive out of
-Jackson County a Guerrilla band that under no circumstances at that
-time could possibly have numbered over fifty. Quantrell, therefore,
-for an accumulation of reasons, ordered a brief disbandment. It
-had hardly been accomplished before Independence swapped a witch
-for a devil. Burris evacuated the town; Jennison occupied it. In
-his regiment were trappers who trapped for dry goods; fishermen
-who fished for groceries. At night passers-by were robbed of their
-pocketbooks; in the morning, market women of their meat baskets.
-Neither wiser, perhaps, nor better than the Egyptians, the patient
-and all-suffering citizens had got rid of the lean kine in order to
-make room for the lice.
-
-
-
-
-Flanked Independence
-
-
-At the appointed time, and at the place of David George, the
-assembling was as it should be. Quantrell meant to attack Jennison
-in Independence and destroy him if possible, and so moved in that
-direction as far as Little Blue Church. Here he met Allen Parmer,
-a regular red Indian of a scout, who never forgot to count a
-column or know the line of march of an enemy, and Parmer reported
-that instead of three hundred Jayhawkers being in Independence
-there were six hundred. Too many for thirty-two men to grapple,
-and fortified at that, they all said. It would be murder in the
-first degree and unnecessary murder in addition. Quantrell,
-foregoing with a struggle the chance to get at his old acquaintance
-of Kansas, flanked Independence and stopped for a night at the
-residence of Zan Harris, a true Southern man and a keen observer of
-passing events. Early the next morning he crossed the Big Blue at
-the bridge on the main road to Kansas City, surprised and shot down
-a detachment of thirteen Federals watching it, burned the structure
-to the water, and marched rapidly on in a southwest direction,
-leaving Westport to the right. At noon the command was at the
-residence of Alexander Majors.
-
-
-
-
-Fight at Tate House
-
-
-After the meal at Major’s Quantrell resumed his march, sending
-Haller and Todd ahead with an advance guard and bringing up the
-rear himself with the main body of twenty-two men. Night overtook
-him at the Tate House, three miles east of Little Santa Fe, a small
-town in Jackson County, close to the Kansas line, and he camped
-there. Haller and Todd were still further along, no communication
-being established between these two parts of a common whole. The
-day had been cold and the darkness bitter. That weariness that
-comes with a hard ride, a rousing fire, and a hearty supper, fell
-early upon the Guerrillas. One sentinel at the gate kept drowsy
-watch, and the night began to deepen. In various attitudes and in
-various places, twenty-one of the twenty-two men were sound asleep,
-the twenty-second keeping watch and ward at the gate in freezing
-weather.
-
-It was just twelve o’clock and the fire in the capacious fireplace
-was burning low. Suddenly a shout was heard. The well known
-challenge of “Who are you?” arose on the night air, followed by a
-pistol shot, and then a volley. Quantrell, sleeping always like a
-cat, shook himself loose from his blankets and stood erect in the
-glare of the firelight. Three hundred Federals, following all day
-on his trail, had marked him take cover at night and went to bag
-him, boots and breeches. They had hitched their horses back in
-the brush and stole upon the dwelling afoot. So noiseless had been
-their advance, and so close were they upon the sentinel before they
-were discovered, that he had only time to cry out, fire, and rush
-for the timber. He could not get back to his comrades, for some
-Federals were between him and the door. As he ran he received a
-volley, but in the darkness he escaped.
-
-The house was surrounded. To the men withinside this meant, unless
-they could get out, death by fire and sword. Quantrell was trapped,
-he who had been accorded the fox’s cunning and the panther’s
-activity. He glided to the window and looked out cautiously. The
-cold stars above shone, and the blue figures under them and on
-every hand seemed colossal. The fist of a heavy man struck the door
-hard, and a deep voice commanded, “Make a light.” There had been
-no firing as yet, save the shot of the sentinel and its answering
-volley. Quantrell went quietly to all who were still asleep and
-bade them get up and get ready. It was the moment when death had
-to be looked in the face. Not a word was spoken. The heavy fist
-was still hammering at the door. Quantrell crept to it on tip-toe,
-listened a second at the sounds outside and fired. “Oh,” and a
-stalwart Federal fell prone across the porch, dying. “You asked for
-a light and you got it, d----n you,” Quantrell ejaculated, cooler
-than his pistol barrel. Afterwards there was no more bravado.
-“Bar the doors and barricade the windows,” he shouted; “quick,
-men!” Beds were freely used and applicable furniture. Little and
-Shepherd stood by one door; Jarrette, Younger, Toler and Hoy
-barricaded the other and made the windows bullet-proof. Outside
-the Federal fusilade was incessant. Mistaking Tate’s house for
-a frame house, when it was built of brick, the commander of the
-enemy could be heard encouraging his men to shoot low and riddle
-the building. Presently there was a lull, neither party firing
-for the space of several minutes, and Quantrell spoke to his
-people: “Boys, we are in a tight place. We can’t stay here, and I
-do not mean to surrender. All who want to follow me out can say
-so. I will do the best I can for them.” Four concluded to appeal
-to the Federals for protection; seventeen to follow Quantrell to
-the death. He called a parley, and informed the Federal commander
-that four of his followers wanted to surrender. “Let them come
-out,” was the order. Out they went, and the fight began again. Too
-eager to see what manner of men their prisoners were, the Federals
-holding the west side of the house huddled about them eagerly. Ten
-Guerrillas from the upper story fired at the crowd and brought
-down six. A roar followed this, and a rush back again to cover at
-the double quick. It was hot work now. Quantrell, supported by
-James Little, Cole Younger, Hoy and Stephen Shores held the upper
-story, while Jarrette, Toler, George Shepherd and others held
-the lower. Every shot told. The proprietor of the house, Major
-Tate, was a Southern hero, gray-headed, but Roman. He went about
-laughing. “Help me get my family out, boys,” he said, “and I will
-help you hold the house. It’s about as good a time for me to die,
-I reckon, as any other, if so be that God wills it. But the old
-woman is only a woman.” Another parley. Would the Federal officer
-let the women and children out? Yes, gladly, and the old man,
-too. There was eagerness for this, and much of veritable cunning.
-The family occupied an ell of the mansion with which there was no
-communication from the main building where Quantrell and his men
-were, save by way of a door which opened upon a porch, and this
-porch was under the concentrating fire of the assailants. After
-the family moved out the attacking party would throw skirmishers
-in and then--the torch. Quantrell understood it in a moment and
-spoke up to the father of the family: “Go out, Major. It is
-your duty to be with your wife and children.” The old man went,
-protesting. Perhaps for forty years the blood had not coursed so
-rapidly and so pleasantly through his veins. Giving ample time
-for the family to get safely beyond the range of the fire of the
-besieged, Quantrell went back to his post and looked out. He saw
-two Federals standing together beyond revolver range. “Is there
-a shotgun here?” he asked. Cole Younger brought him one loaded
-with buckshot. Thrusting half his body out the nearest window, and
-receiving as many volleys as there were sentinels, he fired the
-two barrels of his gun so near together that they sounded as one
-barrel. Both Federals fell, one dead, the other mortally wounded.
-Following this daring and conspicuous feat there went up a yell so
-piercing and exultant that even the horses, hitched in the timber
-fifty yards away, reared in their fright and snorted in terror.
-Black columns of smoke blew past the windows where the Guerrillas
-were, and a bright red flame leaped up towards the sky on the wings
-of the wind. The ell of the house had been fired and was burning
-fiercely. Quantrell’s face--just a little paler than usual--had a
-set look that was not good to see. The tiger was at bay. Many of
-the men’s revolvers were empty, and in order to gain time to reload
-them, another parley was held. The talk was of surrender. The
-Federal commander demanded immediate submission, and Shepherd, with
-a voice heard above the rage and the roar of the flames, pleaded
-for twenty minutes. No. Ten? No. Five? No. Then the commander cried
-out in a voice not a whit inferior to Shepherd’s in compass: “You
-have one minute. If, at its expiration, you have not surrendered,
-not a single man among you shall escape alive.” “Thank you,” said
-Cole Younger, _soto voce_, “catching comes before hanging.” “Count
-sixty, then, and be d----d to you”! Shepherd shouted as a parting
-volley, and then a strange silence fell upon all these desperate
-men face to face with imminent death. When every man was ready,
-Quantrell said briefly, “Shot guns to the front.” Six loaded
-heavily with buck shot, were borne there, and he put himself at the
-head of the six men who carried them. Behind these those having
-only revolvers. In single file, the charging column was formed in
-the main room of the building. The glare of the burning ell lit it
-up as though the sun was shining there. Some tightened their pistol
-belts. One fell upon his knees and prayed. Nobody scoffed at him,
-for God was in that room. He is everywhere when heroes confess.
-There were seventeen about to receive the fire of three hundred.
-
-Ready! Quantrell flung the door wide open and leaped out. The
-shotgun men--Jarrette, Younger, Shepherd, Toler, Little and Hoy,
-were hard behind him. Right and left from the thin short column a
-fierce fire beat into the very faces of the Federals, who recoiled
-in some confusion, shooting, however, from every side. There was a
-yell and a grand rush, and when the end had come and all the fixed
-realities figured up, the enemy had eighteen killed, twenty-nine
-badly wounded; and five prisoners, and the captured horses of
-the Guerrillas. Not a man of Quantrell’s band was touched, as it
-broke through the cordon on the south of the house and gained the
-sheltering timber beyond. Hoy, as he rushed out the third from
-Quantrell and fired both barrels of his gun, was so near to a
-stalwart Federal that he knocked him over the head with a musket
-and rendered him senseless. To capture him afterwards was like
-capturing a dead man. But little pursuit was attempted. Quantrell
-halted at the timber, built a fire, reloaded every gun and pistol,
-and took a philosophical view of the situation. Enemies were all
-about him. He had lost five men--four of whom, however, he was
-glad to get rid of--and the balance were afoot. Patience! He had
-just escaped from an environment sterner than any yet spread for
-him, and fortune was not apt to offset one splendid action by
-another exactly opposite. Choosing, therefore, a rendezvous upon
-the head waters of the Little Blue, another historic stream of
-Jackson County, he reached the residence of David Wilson late
-the next morning, after a forced march of great exhaustion. The
-balance of the night, however, had still to be one of surprises
-and counter-surprises, not alone to the Federals, but to the other
-portion of Quantrell’s command under Haller and Todd.
-
-Encamped four miles south of Tate House, the battle there had
-roused them instantly. Getting to saddle quickly, they were
-galloping back to the help of their comrades when a Federal force,
-one hundred strong, met them full in the road. Some minutes of
-savage fighting ensued, but Haller could not hold his own with
-thirteen men, and he retreated, firing, to the brush.
-
-Afterwards everything was made plain. The four men who surrendered
-so abjectly at the Tate house imagined that it would bring help to
-their condition if they told all they knew, and they told without
-solicitation the story of Haller’s advance and the whereabouts of
-his camp. A hundred men were instantly dispatched to surprise it
-or storm it, but the firing had roused the isolated Guerrillas,
-and they got out in safety after a rattling fight of some twenty
-minutes.
-
-
-
-
-Fight at Clark’s Home
-
-
-In April, 1862, Quantrell, with seventeen men, was camped at the
-residence of Samuel Clark, situated three miles southeast of Stony
-Point, in Jackson County. He had spent the night there and was
-waiting for breakfast the next morning when Captain Peabody, at the
-head of one hundred Federal cavalry, surprised the Guerrillas and
-came on at the charge, shooting and yelling. Instantly dividing
-the detachment in order that the position might be effectively
-held, Quantrell, with nine men, took the dwelling, and Gregg, with
-eight, occupied the smoke house. For a while the fighting was at
-long range, Peabody holding tenaciously to the timber in front of
-Clark’s, distant about one hundred yards, and refusing to come
-out. Presently, however, he did an unsoldierly thing--or rather an
-unskillful thing--he mounted his men and forced them to charge the
-dwelling on horseback. Quantrell’s detachment reserved fire until
-the foremost horseman was within thirty feet, and Gregg permitted
-those operating against his position, to come even closer. Then,
-a quick, sure volley, and twenty-seven men and horses went down
-together. Badly demoralized, but in no manner defeated, Peabody
-rallied again in the timber, while Quantrell, breaking out from
-the dwelling house and gathering up Gregg as he went, charged the
-Federals fiercely in return and with something of success. The
-impetus of the rush carried him past a portion of the Federal line,
-where some of their horses were hitched, and the return of the
-wave brought with it nine valuable animals. It was over the horses
-that Andrew Blunt had a hand-to-hand fight with a splendid Federal
-trooper. Both were very brave.
-
-Blunt had just joined. No one knew his history. He asked no
-questions and he answered none. Some said he had once belonged to
-the cavalry of the regular army; others, that behind the terrible
-record of the Guerrillas he wished to find isolation. Singling
-out a fine sorrel horse from among the number fastened in his
-front, Blunt was just about to unhitch him when a Federal trooper,
-superbly mounted, dashed down to the line and fired and missed.
-Blunt left his position by the side of the horse and strode out
-into the open, accepting the challenge defiantly, and closed with
-his antagonist. The first time he fired he missed, although many
-men believed him a better shot than Quantrell. The Federal sat on
-his horse calmly and fired the second shot deliberately and again
-missed. Blunt went four paces toward him, took a quick aim and
-fired very much as a man would at something running. Out of the
-Federal’s blue overcoat a little jet of dust spurted up and he
-reeled in his seat. The man, hit hard in the breast, did not fall,
-however. He gripped his saddle with his knees, cavalry fashion,
-steadied himself in his stirrups and fired three times at Blunt in
-quick succession. They were now but twenty paces apart, and the
-Guerrilla was shortening the distance. When at ten he fired his
-third shot. The heavy dragoon ball struck the gallant Federal fair
-in the forehead and knocked him dead from his horse.
-
-While the duel was in progress, brief as it was, Blunt had not
-watched his rear, to gain which a dozen Federals had started from
-the extreme right. He saw them, but he did not hurry. Going back
-to the coveted steed, he mounted him deliberately and dashed back
-through the lines closed up behind him, getting a fierce hurrah of
-encouragement from his own comrades, and a wicked volley from the
-enemy.
-
-It was time. A second company of Federals in the neighborhood,
-attracted by the firing, had made a junction with Peabody and were
-already closing in upon the houses from the south. Surrounded now
-by one hundred and sixty men, Quantrell was in almost the same
-straits as at the Tate house. His horses were in the hands of
-the Federals, it was some little distance to the timber, and the
-environment was complete. Captain Peabody, himself a Kansas man,
-knew who led the forces opposed to him and burned with a desire
-to make a finish of this Quantrell and his reckless band at one
-fell sweep. Not content with the one hundred and sixty men already
-in positions about the house, he sent off posthaste to Pink Hill
-for additional reinforcements. Emboldened also by their numbers,
-the Federals had approached so close to the positions held by the
-Guerrillas that it was possible for them to utilize the shelter the
-fences gave. Behind these they ensconced themselves while pouring
-a merciless fusillade upon the dwelling house and smoke house in
-comparative immunity. This annoyed Quantrell, distressed Gregg
-and made Cole Younger--one of the coolest heads in council ever
-consulted--look a little anxious. Finally a solution was found.
-Quantrell would draw the fire of this ambuscade; he would make the
-concealed enemy show himself. Ordering all to be ready and to fire
-the very moment the opportunity for execution was best, he dashed
-out from the dwelling house to the smoke house, and from the smoke
-house back again to the dwelling house. Eager to kill the daring
-man, and excited somewhat by their own efforts made to do it, the
-Federals exposed themselves recklessly. Then, owing to the short
-range, the revolvers of the Guerrillas began to tell with deadly
-effect. Twenty at least were shot down along the fences, and as
-many more wounded and disabled. It was thirty steps from one house
-to the other, yet Quantrell made the venture eight different times,
-not less than one hundred men firing at him as he came and went. On
-his garments there was not even the smell of fire. His life seemed
-to be charmed--his person protected by some superior presence.
-When at last even this artifice would no longer enable his men to
-fight with any degree of equality, Quantrell determined to abandon
-the houses and the horses and make a dash as of old to the nearest
-timber. “I had rather lose a thousand horses,” he said, when some
-one remonstrated with him, “than a single man like those who have
-fought with me this day. Heroes are scarce; horses are everywhere.”
-
-In the swift rush that came now, fortune again favored him. Almost
-every revolver belonging to the Federals was empty. They had
-been relying altogether upon their carbines in the fight. After
-the first onset on horseback--one in which the revolvers were
-principally used--they had failed to reload, and had nothing but
-empty guns in their hands after Quantrell for the last time drew
-their fire and dashed away on the heels of it into the timber.
-Pursuit was not attempted. Enraged at the escape of the Guerrillas,
-and burdened with a number of dead and wounded altogether out of
-proportion to the forces engaged, Captain Peabody caused to be
-burned everything upon the premises which had a plank or shingle
-about it.
-
-Something else was yet to be done. Getting out afoot as best he
-could, Quantrell saw a company of cavalry making haste from toward
-Pink Hill. It was but a short distance to where the road he was
-skirting crossed a creek, and commanding this crossing was a
-perpendicular bluff inaccessible to horsemen. Thither he hurried.
-The work of ambushment was the work of a moment. George Todd,
-alone of all the Guerrillas, had brought with him from the house a
-shotgun. In running for life, the most of them were unencumbered.
-The approaching Federals were the reinforcements Peabody had
-ordered up from Pink Hill, and as Quantrell’s defense had lasted
-one hour and a half, they were well on their way.
-
-As they came to the creek, the foremost riders halted that their
-horses might drink. Soon others crowded in until all the ford was
-thick with animals. Just then from the bluff above a leaden rain
-fell as hail might from a cloudless sky. Rearing steeds trampled
-upon wounded riders; the dead dyed the clear water red. Wild panic
-laid hold of the helpless mass, cut into gaps, and flight beyond
-the range of the deadly revolvers came first of all and uppermost.
-There was a rally, however. Once out from under the fire the
-lieutenant commanding the detachment called a halt. He was full
-of dash, and meant to see more of the unknown on the top of the
-hill. Dismounting his men and putting himself at their head, he
-turned back for a fight, marching resolutely forward to the bluff.
-Quantrell waited for the attack to develop itself. The lieutenant
-moved right onward. When within fifty paces of the position, George
-Todd rose up from behind a rock and covered the young Federal with
-his unerring shotgun. It seemed a pity to kill him, he was so brave
-and collected, and yet he fell riddled just as he had drawn his
-sword and shouted “Forward!” to the lagging men. At Todd’s signal
-there succeeded a fierce revolver volley, and again were the
-Federals driven from the hills and back towards their horses.
-
-Satisfied with the results of this fight--made solely as a matter
-of revenge for burning Clark’s buildings--Quantrell fell away from
-the ford and continued his retreat on towards his rendezvous upon
-the waters of the Sni. Peabody, however, had not had his way.
-Coming on himself in the direction of Pink Hill, and mistaking
-these reinforcements for Guerrillas, he had quite a lively fight
-with them, each detachment getting in several volleys and killing
-and wounding a goodly number before either discovered the mistake.
-
-“The only prisoner I ever shot during the war,” relates Captain
-Trow, “was a ‘nigger’ I captured on guard at Independence,
-Missouri, who claimed that he had killed his master and burned his
-houses and barns. The circumstances were these: Captain Blunt and
-I one night went to town for a little spree and put on our Federal
-uniforms. While there we came in contact with the camp guard,
-which was a ‘nigger’ and a white man. They did not hear us until
-we got right up to them, so we, claiming to be Federals, arrested
-them for not doing their duty in hailing us at a distance. We took
-them prisoners, disarmed them, took them down to the Fire Prairie
-bottom east of Independence about ten miles, and there I thought
-I would have to kill the ‘nigger’ on account of his killing his
-master and burning his property. I shot him in the forehead just
-above the eyes. I even put my finger in the bullet hole to be sure
-I had him. The ball never entered his skull, but went round it. To
-make sure of him, I shot him in the foot and he never flinched, so
-I left him for dead. He came to, however, that night and crawled
-out into the road, and a man from Independence came along the next
-morning and took him in his wagon. This I learned several years
-afterwards at Independence in a saloon when one day I chanced to be
-taking a drink. There I met the ‘nigger’ whom I thought dead. He
-recognized me from hearing my name spoken and asked if I remembered
-shooting a ‘nigger.’ I said ‘Yes.’ I had the pleasure of taking a
-drink with him.”
-
-
-
-
-Jayhawkers and Militia Murder Old Man Blythe’s Son
-
-
-Quantrell and His Company Were on Foot Again and Jackson County
-was filled with troops. At Kansas City there was a large garrison,
-with smaller ones at Independence, Pink Hill, Lone Jack, Stoney
-Point and Sibley. Peabody caused the report to be circulated that
-a majority of Quantrell’s men were wounded, and that if the brush
-were scoured thoroughly they might be picked up here and there and
-summarily disposed of. Raiding bands therefore began the hunt. Old
-men were imprisoned because they could give no information of a
-concealed enemy; young men murdered outright; women were insulted
-and abused. The uneasiness that had heretofore rested upon the
-county gave place now to a feeling of positive fear. The Jayhawkers
-on one side and the militia on the other made matters hot. All
-traveling was dangerous. People at night closed their eyes in dread
-lest the morrow should usher in a terrible awakening. One incident
-of the hunt is a bloody memory yet with many of the older settlers
-of Jackson County.
-
-An aged man by the name of Blythe, believing his own house to be
-his own, fed all whom he pleased to feed, and sheltered all whom it
-pleased him to shelter. Among many of his warm personal friends was
-Cole Younger. The colonel commanding the fort at Independence sent
-a scout one day to find Younger, and to make the country people
-tell where he might be found. Old man Blythe was not at home,
-but his son was, a fearless lad of twelve years. He was taken to
-the barn and ordered to confess everything he knew of Quantrell,
-Younger, and their whereabouts. If he failed to speak truly he was
-to be killed. The boy, in no manner frightened, kept them some
-moments in conversation, waiting for an opportunity to escape.
-Seeing at last what he imagined to be a chance, he dashed away from
-his captors and entered the house under a perfect shower of balls.
-There, seizing a pistol and rushing through the back door towards
-some timber, a ball struck him in the spine just as he reached the
-garden fence and he fell back dying, but splendid in his boyish
-courage to the last. Turning over on his face as the Jayhawkers
-rushed up to finish him he shot one dead, mortally wounded another,
-and severely wounded the third. Before he could shoot a fourth
-time, seventeen bullets were put into his body.
-
-It seemed as if God’s vengeance was especially exercised in the
-righting of this terrible wrong. An old negro man who had happened
-to be at Blythe’s house at the time, was a witness to the bloody
-deed, and, afraid of his own life, ran hurriedly into the brush.
-There he came unawares upon Younger, Quantrell, Haller, Todd, and
-eleven of his men. Noticing the great excitement under which the
-negro labored, they forced him to tell them the whole story. It
-was yet time for an ambuscade. On the road back to Independence was
-a pass between two embankments known as “The Blue Cut.” In width it
-was about fifty yards, and the height of each embankment was about
-thirty feet. Quantrell dismounted his men, stationed some at each
-end of the passageway and some at the top on either side. Not a
-shot was to be fired until the returning Federals had entered it,
-front and rear. From the Blue Cut this fatal spot was afterwards
-known as the Slaughter Pen. Of the thirty-eight Federals sent out
-after Cole Younger, and who, because they could not find him, had
-brutally murdered an innocent boy, seventeen were killed while
-five--not too badly shot to be able to ride--barely managed to
-escape into Independence, the avenging Guerrillas hard upon their
-heels.
-
-
-
-
-The Low House Fight
-
-
-The next rendezvous was at Reuben Harris’, ten miles south of
-Independence, and thither all the command went, splendidly mounted
-again and eager for employment. Some days of preparation were
-necessary. Richard Hall, a fighting blacksmith, who shot as well as
-he shod, and knew a trail as thoroughly as a piece of steel, had
-need to exercise much of his handiwork in order to make the horses
-good for cavalry. Then there were several rounds of cartridges to
-make. A Guerrilla knew nothing whatever of an ordnance master. His
-laboratory was in his luck. If a capture did not bring him caps, he
-had to fall back on ruse, or strategem, or blockade-running square
-out. Powder and lead in the raw were enough, for if with these he
-could not make himself presentable at inspection he had no calling
-as a fighter in the brush.
-
-It was Quantrell’s intention at this time to attack Harrisonville,
-the county seat of Cass County, and capture it if possible. With
-this object in view, and after every preparation was made for a
-vigorous campaign, he moved eight miles east of Independence,
-camping near the Little Blue, in the vicinity of Job Crabtree’s.
-He camped always near or in a house. For this he had two reasons.
-First, that its occupants might gather up for him all the news
-possible; and, second, that in the event of a surprise a sure
-rallying point would always be at hand. He had a theory that after
-a Guerrilla was given time to get over the first effects of a
-sudden charge or ambushment the very nature of his military status
-made him invincible; that after an opportunity was afforded him to
-think, a surrender was next to impossible.
-
-Before there was time to attack Harrisonville, however, a scout
-reported Peabody again on the war path, this time bent on an utter
-extermination of the Guerrillas, and he well-nigh kept his word.
-From Job Crabtree’s, Quantrell had moved to an unoccupied house
-known as the Low house, and then from this house he had gone to
-some contiguous timber to bivouac for the night. About ten o’clock
-the sky suddenly became overcast, a fresh wind blew from the east,
-and rain fell in torrents. Again the house was occupied, the horses
-being hitched along the fence in the rear of it, the door on the
-south, the only door, having a bar across it in lieu of a sentinel.
-Such soldiering was perfectly inexcusable, and it taught Quantrell
-a lesson to remember until the day of his death.
-
-In the morning preceding the day of the attack Lieutenant Nash,
-of Peabody’s regiment, commanding two hundred men, had struck
-Quantrell’s trail, but lost it later on, and then found it again
-just about sunset. He was informed of Quantrell’s having gone from
-the Low house to the brush and of his having come back to it when
-the rain began falling heavily. To a certain extent this seeking
-shelter was a necessity on the part of Quantrell. The men had no
-cartridge boxes, and not all of them had overcoats. If once their
-ammunition were damaged, it would be as though sheep should attack
-wolves.
-
-Nash, supplied with everything needed for the weather, waited
-patiently for the Guerrillas to become snugly settled under
-shelter, and then surrounded the house. Before a gun was fired the
-Federals had every horse belonging to the Guerrillas, and were
-bringing to bear every available carbine in command upon the only
-door. At first all was confusion. Across the logs that once had
-supported an upper floor some boards had been laid, and sleeping
-upon them were Todd, Blunt and William Carr. Favored by the almost
-impenetrable darkness, Quantrell determined upon an immediate
-abandonment of the house. He called loudly twice for all to follow
-him and dashed through the door under a galling fire. Those in
-the loft did not hear him, and maintained in reply to the Federal
-volleys a lively fusillade. Then Cole Younger, James Little, Joseph
-Gilchrist and a young Irish boy--a brave new recruit--turned back
-to help their comrades. The house became a furnace. At each of the
-two corners on the south side four men fought, Younger calling on
-Todd in the intervals of every volley to come out of the loft and
-come to the brush. They started at last. It was four hundred yards
-to the nearest shelter, and the ground was very muddy. Gilchrist
-was shot down, the Irish boy was killed, Blunt was wounded and
-captured, Carr surrendered, Younger had his hat shot away, Little
-was unhurt, and Todd, scratched in four places, finally got safely
-to the timber. But it was a miracle. Twenty Federals singled him
-out as well as they could in the darkness and kept close at his
-heels, firing whenever a gun was loaded. Todd had a musket which,
-when it seemed as if they were all upon him at once, he would point
-at the nearest and make pretense of shooting. When they halted
-and dodged about to get out of range, he would dash away again,
-gaining what space he could until he had to turn and re-enact the
-same unpleasant pantomime. Reaching the woods at last, he fired
-point blank, and in reality now, killing with a single discharge
-one pursuer and wounding four. Part of Nash’s command were still on
-the track of Quantrell, but after losing five killed and a number
-wounded, they returned again to the house, but returned too late
-for the continued battle. The dead and two prisoners were all that
-were left for them.
-
-Little Blue was bank full and the country was swarming with
-militia. For the third time Quantrell was afoot with unrelenting
-pursuers upon his trail in every direction. At daylight Nash would
-be after him again, river or no river. He must get over or fare
-worse. The rain was still pouring down; muddy, forlorn, well-nigh
-worn out, yet in no manner demoralized, just as Quantrell reached
-the Little Blue he saw on the other bank Toler, one of his own
-soldiers, sitting in a canoe. Thence forward the work of crossing
-was easy, and Nash, coming on an hour afterwards, received a
-volley at the ford where he expected to find a lot of helpless and
-unresisting men.
-
-This fight at the Low house occurred the first week in May, 1862,
-and caused the expedition against Harrisonville to be abandoned.
-Three times surprised and three times losing all horses, saddles,
-and bridles, it again became necessary to disband the Guerrillas
-in this instance as in the preceding two. The men were dismissed
-for thirty days with orders to remount themselves, while
-Quantrell--taking Todd into his confidence and acquainting him
-fully with his plans--started in his company for Hannibal. It had
-become urgently necessary to replenish the supply of revolver caps.
-The usual trade with Kansas City was cut off. Of late the captures
-had not been as plentiful as formerly. Recruits were coming in, and
-the season for larger operations was at hand. In exploits where
-peril and excitement were about evenly divided, Quantrell took
-great delight. He was so cool, so calm; he had played before such a
-deadly game; he knew so well how to smile when a smile would win,
-and when to frown when a frown was a better card to play, that
-something in this expedition appealed to every quixotic instinct of
-his intrepidity. Todd was all iron; Quantrell all glue. Todd would
-go at a circular saw; Quantrell would sharpen its teeth and grease
-it where there was friction. One purred and killed, and the other
-roared and killed. What mattered the mode, however, only so the end
-was the same?
-
-
-
-
-Quantrell and Todd Go After Ammunition
-
-
-Clad in the full uniform of Federal majors--a supply of which
-Quantrell kept always on hand, even in a day so early in the war
-as this--Quantrell and Todd rode into Hamilton, a little town on
-the Hannibal & St. Louis Railroad, and remained for the night at
-the principal hotel. A Federal garrison was there--two companies
-of Iowa infantry--and the captain commanding took a great fancy to
-Todd, insisting that he should leave the hotel for his quarters and
-share his blankets with him.
-
-Two days were spent in Hannibal, where an entire Feneral regiment
-was stationed. Here Quantrell was more circumspect. When asked to
-give an account of himself and his companion, he replied promptly
-that Todd was a major of the Sixth Missouri Cavalry and himself
-the major of the Ninth. Unacquainted with either organization, the
-commander at Hannibal had no reason to believe otherwise. Then
-he asked about that special cut-throat Quantrell. Was it true
-that he fought under a black flag? Had he ever really belonged to
-the Jayhawkers? How much truth was there in the stories of the
-newspapers about his operations and prowess? Quantrell became
-voluble. In rapid yet picturesque language he painted a perfect
-picture of the war along the border. He told of Todd, Jarrette,
-Blunt, Younger, Haller, Poole, Shepherd, Gregg, Little, the
-Cogers, and all of his best men just as they were, and himself
-also just as he was, and closed the conversation emphatically by
-remarking: “If you were here, Colonel, surrounded as you are by a
-thousand soldiers, and they wanted you, they would come and get
-you.”
-
-From Hannibal--after buying quietly and at various times and in
-various places fifty thousand revolver caps--Quantrell and Todd
-went boldly into St. Joseph. This city was full of soldiers.
-Colonel Harrison B. Branch was there in command of a regiment
-of militia--a brave, conservative, right-thinking soldier--and
-Quantrell introduced himself to Branch as Major Henderson of
-the Sixth Missouri. Todd, by this time, had put on, in lieu of
-a major’s epaulettes, with its distinguishing leaf, the barred
-ones of a captain. “Too many majors traveling together,” quaintly
-remarked Todd, “are like too many roses in a boquet: the other
-flowers don’t have a chance. Let me be a captain for the balance of
-the trip.”
-
-Colonel Branch made himself very agreeable to Major Henderson
-and Captain Gordon, and asked Todd if he were a relative of the
-somewhat notorious Si Gordon of Platte, relating at the same time
-an interesting adventure he once had with him. En route from St.
-Louis, in 1861, to the headquarters of his regiment, Colonel
-Branch, with one hundred and thirty thousand dollars on his person,
-found that he would have to remain in Weston over night and the
-better part of the next day. Before he got out of the town Gordon
-took it, and with it he took Colonel Branch. Many of Gordon’s men
-were known to him, and it was eminently to his interest just then
-to renew old acquaintanceship and be extremely complaisant to
-the new. Wherever he could find the largest number of Guerrillas
-there he was among them, calling for whiskey every now and then,
-incessantly telling some agreeable story or amusing anecdote.
-Thus he got through with what seemed to him an interminably long
-day. Not a dollar of his money was touched, Gordon releasing him
-unconditionally when the town was abandoned and bidding him make
-haste to get out lest the next lot of raiders made it the worse for
-him.
-
-For three days, off and on, Quantrell was either with Branch at
-his quarters or in company with him about town. Todd, elsewhere
-and indefatigable, was rapidly buying caps and revolvers. Branch
-introduced Quantrell to General Ben Loan, discussed Penick with him
-and Penick’s regiment--a St. Joseph officer destined in the near
-future to give Quantrell some stubborn fighting--passed in review
-the military situation, incidently referred to the Guerrillas of
-Jackson County and the savage nature of the warfare going on there,
-predicted the absolute destruction of African slavery, and assisted
-Quantrell in many ways in making his mission thoroughly successful.
-For the first and last time in his life Colonel Branch was
-disloyal to the government and the flag--he gave undoubted aid and
-encouragement during those three days to about as uncompromising an
-enemy as either ever had.
-
-From St. Joseph Quantrell and Todd came to Kansas City in a hired
-hack, first sending into Jackson County a man unquestionably
-devoted to the South with the whole amount of purchases made in
-both Hannibal and St. Joseph.
-
-
-
-
-A Challenge
-
-
-Quantrell with his band of sixty-three men were being followed by a
-force of seven hundred cavalrymen under Peabody. Peabody came up in
-the advance with three hundred men, while four hundred marched at a
-supporting distance behind him. Quantrell halted at Swearington’s
-barn and the Guerrillas were drying their blankets. One picket,
-Hick George, an iron man, who could sleep in his saddle and eat
-as he ran and who suspected every act until he could fathom it,
-watched the rear against an attack. Peabody received George’s fire,
-for George would fire at an angel or devil in the line of his duty,
-and drove him toward Quantrell at a full run. Every preparation
-possible under the circumstances had been made and if the reception
-was not as cordial as expected, the Federals could attribute it to
-the long march and the rainy weather.
-
-Quantrell stood at the gate calmly with his hand on the latch; when
-George entered he would close and fasten it. Peabody’s forces were
-within thirty feet of the fence when the Guerrillas delivered a
-crashing blow and sixteen Federals crashed against the barricade
-and fell there. Others fell and more dropped out here and there
-before the disorganized mass got back safe again from the deadly
-revolver range. After them Quantrell himself dashed hotly, George
-Maddox, Jarrette, Cole Younger, George Morrow, Gregg, Blunt, Poole
-and Haller following them fast to the timber and upon their return
-gathering all the arms and ammunition of the killed as they went.
-At the timber Peabody rearranged his lines, dismounted his men and
-came forward again at a quick run, yelling. Do what he would, the
-charge spent itself before it could be called a charge.
-
-Peabody arranged his men, dismounted them, and came forward again
-at a double-quick, and yelling. Do what he would, the charge again
-spent itself before it could be called a charge. Never nearer
-than one hundred yards of the fence, he skirmished at long range
-for nearly an hour and finally took up a position one mile south
-of the barn, awaiting reinforcements. Quantrell sent out Cole
-Younger, Poole, John Brinker and William Haller to “lay up close
-to Peabody,” as he expressed it, and keep him and his movements
-steadily in view.
-
-The four daredevils multiplied themselves. They attacked the
-pickets, rode around the whole camp in bravado, firing upon it
-from every side, and finally agreed to send a flag of truce in to
-Peabody with this manner of a challenge:
-
-“We, whose names are hereunto affixed, respectfully ask of Colonel
-Peabody the privilege of fighting eight of his best men, hand to
-hand, and that he himself make the selection and send them out to
-us immediately.”
-
-This was signed by the following: Coleman Younger, William Haller,
-David Poole and John Brinker.
-
-Younger bore it. Tieing a white handkerchief to a stick he rode
-boldly up to the nearest picket and asked for a parley. Six started
-towards him and he bade four go back. The message was carried to
-Peabody, but he laughed at it and scanned the prairie in every
-direction for the coming reinforcements. Meanwhile Quantrell was
-retreating. His four men cavorting about Peabody were to amuse him
-as long as possible and then get away as best they could. Such
-risks are often taken in war; to save one thousand men, one hundred
-are sometimes sacrificed. Death equally with exactness has its
-mathematics.
-
-The reinforcements came up rapidly. One hundred joined Peabody on
-the prairie, and two hundred masked themselves by some timber on
-the north and advanced parallel with Quantrell’s line of retreat--a
-flank movement meant to be final. Haller hurried off to Quantrell
-to report, and Peabody, vigorous and alert, now threw out a cloud
-of cavalry skirmishers after the three remaining Guerrillas. The
-race was one for life. Both started their horses on a keen run.
-It was on the eve of harvest, and the wheat, breast high to the
-horse, flew away from before the feet of the racers as though the
-wind were driving through it an incarnate scythe blade. As Poole
-struck the eastern edge of this wheat a very large jack, belonging
-to Swearingen, joined in the pursuit, braying loudly at every jump,
-and leading the Federals by a length. Comedy and tragedy were in
-the same field together. Carbines rang out, revolvers cracked, the
-jack brayed, the Federals roared with merriment, and looking back
-over his shoulder as he rode on, Poole heard the laughter and saw
-the jack, and imagined the devil to be after him leading a lot of
-crazy people.
-
-
-
-
-The Battle and Capture of Independence
-
-
-“On August 11, 1862,” says Trow, “about a month prior to the
-capture of Independence, while Press Webb and I were out on a
-little frolic, we attended a dance at his father’s, Ace Webb, and
-stayed all night there. During the night a regiment of soldiers
-surrounded the house. We barred the doors against them and I aimed
-to get away in a woman’s garb and had my dress all on, bonnet and
-everything, with permission to get out of the house with the women
-without being fired upon. But old Mrs. Webb objected to my going
-out for fear it would cause her son to be killed, so I had to pull
-off the dress and hide my pistols in the straw tick under the
-feather bed and surrender to them. I was taken to Independence and
-made a prisoner for a month.
-
-“While in prison several incidents happened. A Federal officer in
-the prison who called himself Beauregard, was put into jail with me
-for some misdemeanor and challenged me to a sparring match, with
-the understanding that neither one of us was to strike the other in
-the face. However, he hit me in the face the first thing he did and
-I kicked him in the stomach and kept on kicking him until I kicked
-him down the stairs. For this offense I was chained down on my back
-for ten hours.
-
-“The provost marshal would come in once in a while and entertain
-me while I was chained down. He was a Dutchman, and would say in
-broken Dutch, ‘How duse youse like it?’ and would sing me a song
-something like this: ‘Don’t youse vish you vas in Dixie, you d----d
-old secess?’ and dance around me.
-
-“After I had been there a few days they cleaned up the prison
-and took out the rubbage and dirt. Press Webb, who had been
-captured with me, and I were detailed to do the work. We had an
-understanding that when we went out into the back yard, which was
-walled, we were each to capture the guards who were guarding us,
-take their arms and scale the wall. But Webb weakened and would not
-attempt to take his man, so we did not attempt to get away then.
-Then I was court-martialed and remained there in jail, while Webb
-was sent to Alton prison. I was held there under court-martial and
-sentenced to be shot.
-
-“All this time Quantrell was trying to hear from me, whether I had
-been killed, and at the same time getting the boys together to make
-a raid on Independence and try to capture the town and release me
-from jail, all unbeknown to me, should I still be alive. Colonel
-Hughes had joined Quantrell with his company, the expedition being
-agreed between Quantrell and Colonel Hughes. Colonel Hughes asked
-Quantrell for some accurate information touching the strongest and
-best fortified points about the town. It was three days previous
-to the attack; the day before it was begun the information should
-be forthcoming. ‘Leave it to me,’ said Cole Younger, when the
-promise made to Hughes had been repeated by Quantrell, ‘and when
-you report you can report the facts. A soldier wants nothing else.’
-The two men separated. It was the 7th day of August, 1862.
-
-“On the 8th, at about ten o’clock in the morning, an old woman with
-gray hair and wearing spectacles, rode up to the public square from
-the south. Independence was alive with soldiers; several market
-wagons were about the streets--the trade in vegetables and the
-traffic in fruit were lively. This old woman was one of the ancient
-time. A faded sunbonnet, long and antique, hid almost all her face.
-The riding skirt, which once had been black, was now bleached; some
-tatters also abounded, and here and there an unsightly patch. On
-the horse was a blind bridle, the left rein leather and the right
-one a rope. Neither did it have a throat latch. The saddle was a
-man’s saddle, strong in the stirrups and fit for any service. Women
-resorted often to such saddles then; Civil War had made many a hard
-thing easy. On the old lady’s arm was a huge market basket, covered
-by a white cloth. Under the cloth were beets, garden beans and some
-summer apples. As she passed the first picket he jibed at her.
-‘Good morning, grandmother,’ he said. ‘Does the rebel crop need any
-rain out in your country?’ Where the reserve post was the sergeant
-on duty took her horse by the bridle, and peered up under her
-bonnet and into her face. ‘Were you younger and prettier I might
-kiss you,’ he said. ‘Were I younger and prettier,’ the old lady
-said, ‘I might box your ears for your impudence.’
-
-“‘Oh, ho! you old she-wolf, what claws you have for scratching,’
-and the rude soldier took her hand with an oath and looked at it
-sneeringly. She drew it away with a quick motion and started her
-horse so rapidly ahead that he did not have time to examine it. In
-a moment he was probably ashamed of himself, and so let her ride on
-uninterrupted.
-
-“Once well in town no one noticed her any more. At the camp she was
-seen to stop and give three soldiers some apples out of her basket.
-The sentinel in front of Buell’s headquarters was overheard to say
-to a comrade: ‘There’s the making of four good bushwhacking horses
-yet in that old woman’s horse,’ and two hours later, as she rode
-back past the reserve picket post, the sergeant still on duty, did
-not halt her himself, but caused one of his guards to do it; he was
-anxious to know what the basket contained, for in many ways of late
-arms and ammunition had been smuggled out to the enemy.
-
-“At first the old lady did not heed the summons to halt--that
-short, rasping, ominous call which in all tongues appears to have
-the same sound; she did, however, shift the basket from the
-right arm to the left and straighten up in the saddle for the
-least appreciable bit. Another cry and the old lady looked back
-innocently over one shoulder and snapped out: ‘Do you mean me?’ By
-this time a mounted picket had galloped up to her, ranged alongside
-and seized the bridle of the horse. It was thirty steps back to the
-post, maybe, where the sergeant and eight men were down from their
-horses and the horses hitched. To the outpost it was a hundred
-yards, and a single picket stood there. The old woman said to the
-soldier, as he was turning her horse around and doing it roughly:
-‘What will you have? I’m but a poor lone woman going peacefully to
-my home.’ ‘Didn’t you hear the sergeant call for you, d----n you?
-Do you want to be carried back?’ the sentinel made answer.
-
-“The face under the sunbonnet transformed itself; the demure eyes
-behind their glasses grew scintillant. From beneath the riding
-skirt a heavy foot emerged; the old horse in the blind bridle
-seemed to undergo an electric impulse; there was the gliding of
-the old hand which the sergeant had inspected into the basket,
-and a cocked pistol came out and was fired almost before it got
-in sight. With his grasp still upon the reins of the old woman’s
-bridle, the Federal picket fell dead under the feet of the horse.
-Then stupified, the impotent reserve saw a weird figure dash away
-down the road, its huge bonnet flapping in the wind, and the trail
-of an antique riding skirt, split at the shoulders, streaming
-back as the smoke that follows a furnace. Coleman Younger had
-accomplished his mission. Beneath the bonnet and the bombazine was
-the Guerrilla, and beneath the white cloth of the basket and its
-apples and beets and beans the unerring revolvers. The furthest
-picket heard the firing, saw the apparition, bethought himself of
-the devil, and took to the brush.
-
-“During this month’s stay in prison, being chained down, drinking
-coffee sweet as molasses, when they knew I did not like sweetened
-coffee they made it that much sweeter, running a boxing match,
-having songs sung to me of the sweet South in an insulting way and
-being janitor for the jail and thousands of other things that go
-with a prison life, and while Cole Younger was getting information
-under disguise as an old lady Sally selling apples and cookies to
-the Federals three days before, I made my bond, my father being a
-Union man and interceding with Colonel Buell in my behalf. I made
-bond for $50,000 to report at headquarters every two hours during
-the day and be locked up at night.
-
-“About the third day after I gave bond and after I was thoroughly
-acquainted with the location of the soldiers I made my escape
-through the back way, through the guard, and found my way to a
-near-by friend by the name of Sullivan and got a horse and saddle,
-went by Webb’s and got my pistols out of a hollow log back of
-the barn where Mrs. Webb had hid them, and rode on to Quantrell’s
-camp, arriving there about eleven o’clock that night. After telling
-Quantrell how the soldiers and camps were located, and as Younger
-had told him about six hours before, it was decided to make the
-charge the next morning, and after a hard night’s riding we struck
-Independence just a little before daylight on the morning of
-August 11, 1862, surprised the camp, and nine hundred soldiers,
-with the exception of the colonel, who was in command, surrendered
-to two hundred and fifty of us. Colonel Buell was quartered in a
-brick building with his body guard and it was not until about nine
-o’clock that he surrendered. Buell lost about three hundred killed,
-besides three hundred and seventy-five wounded. We had a loss of
-only one man killed and four wounded. In attempting to take the
-provost marshal, who tortured me so when I was in prison, Kitt
-Child was shot and killed, making two men lost in the attack, all
-told.
-
-“In the skirmish I was badly cut up by a saber, but I got away from
-them on foot, and so did Quantrell. While the colonel was slashing
-at me I struck him with a heavy dragoon pistol and burst his knee
-cap and he fell off his horse. This ended the fight. That night we
-got together at camp and Quantrell came in on foot, and I had to
-remount.
-
-“If Quantrell’s men could have been decorated for that day’s fight,
-and if at review some typical thing that stood for glory could
-have passed along the ranks, calling the roll of the brave, there
-would have answered modestly, yet righteously, Trow, Haller, Gregg,
-Jarrette, Morris, Poole, Younger, James Tucker, Blunt, George
-Shepherd, Yager, Hicks, George, Sim Whitsett, Fletch Taylor, John
-Ross, Dick Burns, Kit Chiles, Dick Maddox, Fernando Scott, Sam
-Clifton, George Maddox, Sam Hamilton, Press Webb, John Coger, Dan
-Vaughn, and twenty others, some dead now, but dead in vain for
-their country. There were no decorations, however, but there was
-a deliverance. Crammed in the county jail, and sweltering in the
-midsummer’s heat, were old men who had been pioneers in the land,
-and young men who had been sentenced to die. The first preached the
-Confederacy and it triumphant; the last to make it so, enlisted for
-the war. These jailbirds, either as missionaries or militants, had
-work to do.”
-
-
-
-
-The Lone Jack Fight
-
-
-Once there stood a lone blackjack tree, taller than its companions
-and larger than any near it. From this tree the town of Lone
-Jack, in the eastern portion of Jackson County, was named. On the
-afternoon of the 13th of August clouds were seen gathering there.
-These clouds were cavalrymen. Succoring recruits in every manner
-possible, and helping them on to rendezvous by roads, or lanes, or
-water courses, horsemen acquainted with the country kept riding
-continuously up and down. A company of these on the evening of the
-15th were in the village of Lone Jack.
-
-Major Emory L. Foster, doing active scouting duty in the region
-round about Lexington, had his headquarters in the town. The
-capture of Independence had been like a blow upon the cheek; he
-would avenge it. He knew how to fight. There was dash about him;
-he had enterprise. Prairie life had enlarged his vision and he did
-not see the war like a martinet; he felt within him the glow of
-generous ambition; he loved his uniform for the honor it had; he
-would see about that Independence business--about that Quantrell
-living there between the two Blues and raiding the West--about
-those gray recruiting folks riding up from the South--about the
-tales of ambuscades that were told eternally of Jackson County, and
-of all the toils spread for the unwary Jayhawkers. He had heard,
-too, of the company which halted a moment in Lone Jack as it
-passed through, and of course it was Quantrell.
-
-[Illustration: COLE YOUNGER GOING TO INDEPENDENCE]
-
-It was six o’clock when the Confederates were there, and eight
-o’clock when the Federal colonel, Colonel Foster, marched in,
-leading nine hundred and eighty-five cavalrymen, with two pieces
-of Rabb’s Indiana battery--a battery much celebrated for tenacious
-gunners and accurate firing. Cockrell, who was in command, knew
-Foster well; the other Confederates knew nothing of him. He was
-there, however, and that was positive proof enough that he wanted
-to fight. Seven hundred Confederates--armed with shotguns, horse
-pistols, squirrel rifles, regulation guns, and what not--attacked
-nine hundred and eighty-five Federal cavalrymen in a town for a
-position, and armed with Spencer rifles and Colt’s revolvers,
-dragoon size. There was also the artillery. Lone Jack sat quietly
-in the green of emerald prairie, its orchards in fruit and its
-harvests goodly. On the west was timber, and in this timber a
-stream ran musically along. To the east the prairies stretched,
-their glass waves crested with sunshine. On the north there were
-groves in which birds abounded. In some even the murmuring of doves
-was heard, and an infinite tremor ran over all the leaves as the
-wind stirred the languid pulse of summer into fervor.
-
-In the center of the town a large hotel made a strong
-fortification. The house from being a tavern, had come to be a
-redoubt. From the top the Stars and Stripes floated proudly--a
-tricolor that had upon it then more of sunshine than of blood.
-Later the three colors had become as four.
-
-On the verge of the prairie nearest the town a hedge row stood as
-a line of infantry dressed for battle. It was plumed on the sides
-with tawny grass. The morning broke upon it and upon armed men
-crouching there, with a strange barred banner and with guns at
-trail. Here they waited, eager for the signal.
-
-Joining Hays on the left was Cockrell and the detachments of Hays,
-Rathburn and Bohannon. Their arms were as varied as their uniforms.
-It was a duel they were going into and each man had the gun he
-could best handle. From the hedgerow, from the green growing corn,
-from the orchards and the groves, soldiers could not see much save
-the flag flying skyward on the redoubt on the Cave House.
-
-At five o’clock a solitary gunshot aroused camp and garrison, and
-all the soldiers stood face to face with imminent death. No one
-knew thereafter how the fight commenced. It was Missourian against
-Missourian--neighbor against neighbor--the rival flags waved over
-each and the killing went on. This battle had about it a strange
-fascination. The combatants were not numerous, yet they fought as
-men seldom fight in detached bodies. The same fury extended to an
-army would have ended in annihilation. A tree was a fortification.
-A hillock was an ambush. The cornfields, from being green, became
-lurid. Dead men were in the groves. The cries of the wounded
-came in from the apple orchards. All the houses in the town were
-garrisoned. It was daylight upon the prairies, yet there were
-lights in the windows--the light of musket flashes.
-
-There is not much to say about the fight in the way of description.
-The Federals were in Lone Jack; the Confederates had to get them
-out. House fighting and street fighting are always desperate. The
-hotel became a hospital, later a holocaust, and over all rose and
-shone a blessed sun while the airy fingers of the breeze ruffled
-the oak leaves and tuned the swaying branches to the sound of a
-psalm.
-
-The graycoats crept nearer. On east, west, north or south. Hays,
-Cockrell, Tracy, Jackman, Rathburn or Hunter gained ground. Farmer
-lads in their first battle began gawkies and ended grenadiers. Old
-plug hats rose and fell as the red fight ebbed and flowed; the
-shotgun’s heavy boom made clearer still the rifle’s sharp crack. An
-hour passed, the struggle had lasted since daylight.
-
-Foster fought his men splendidly. Wounded once, he did not make
-complaint; wounded again, he kept his place; wounded a third time
-he stood with his men until courage and endurance only prolonged a
-sacrifice. Once Haller, commanding thirty of Quantrell’s old men,
-swept up to the guns and over them, the play of their revolvers
-being as the play of the lightning in a summer cloud. He could not
-hold them, brave as he was. Then Jackman rushed at them again and
-bore them backward twenty paces or more. Counter-charged, they
-hammered his grip loose and drove him down the hill. Then Hays and
-Hunter--with the old plug hats and wheezy rifles--finished the
-throttling; the lions were done roaring.
-
-Tracy had been wounded. Hunter wounded. Hays wounded, Captains
-Bryant and Bradley killed, among the Confederates, together with
-thirty-six others and one hundred and thirty-four wounded. Among
-the Federals, Foster, the commander, was nigh unto death; his
-brother, Captain Foster, mortally shot, died afterwards. One
-hundred and thirty-six dead lay about the streets and houses of the
-town, and five hundred and fifty wounded made up the aggregate of a
-fight, numbers considered, as desperate and bloody as any that ever
-crimsoned the annals of a civil war. A few more than two hundred
-breaking through the Confederate lines on the south, where they
-were weakest, rushed furiously into Lexington, Haller in pursuit as
-some beast of prey, leaping upon everything which attempted to make
-a stand between Lone Jack and Wellington. Captain Trow, who was in
-this battle, narrates that at one time during the battle, “I was
-forced to lie down and roll across the street to save my scalp.”
-
-A mighty blow seemed impending. Commanders turned pale, and lest
-this head or that head felt the trip-hammer, all the heads kept
-wagging and dodging. Burris got out of Cass County; Jennison
-hurried into Kansas; the Guerrillas kept a sort of open house;
-and the recruits--drove after drove and mostly unarmed--hastened
-southward. Then the Federal wave, which had at first receded beyond
-all former boundaries, flowed back again and inundated Western
-Missouri. Quantrell’s nominal battalion, yielding to the exodus,
-left him only the old guard as a rallying point. It was necessary
-again to reorganize.
-
-After the Guerrillas had reorganized they stripped themselves for
-steady fighting. Federal troops were everywhere, infantry at the
-posts, cavalry on the war paths. The somber defiance mingled with
-despair did not come until 1864; in 1862 the Guerrillas laughed as
-they fought. And they fought by streams and bridges, where roads
-crossed and forked and where trees or hollows were. They fought
-from houses and hay stacks; on foot and on horseback; at night
-when the weird laughter of owls could be heard in the thickets; in
-daylight, when the birds sang as they found sweet rest. The black
-flag was being woven, but it had not yet been unfurled.
-
-Breaking suddenly out of Jackson County, Quantrell raided
-Shawneetown, Kansas, and captured its garrison of fifty militia.
-Then at Olathe, Kansas, the next day, the right hand did what the
-left one finished so well at Shawneetown; seventy-five Federals
-surrendered there. Each garrison was patrolled and set free save
-seven from Shawneetown; these were Jennison’s Jayhawkers and they
-had to die. A military execution is where one man kills another;
-it is horrible. In battle, one does not see death. He is there,
-surely--he is in that battery’s smoke, on the crest of that hill
-fringed with the fringe of pallid faces, under the hoofs of the
-horses, yonder where the blue or the gray line creeps onward
-trailing ominous guns--but his cold, calm eyes look at no single
-victim.
-
-The seven men rode into Missouri from Shawneetown puzzled; when the
-heavy timber along the Big Blue was reached and a halt made, they
-were praying. Quantrell sat upon his horse looking at the Kansans.
-His voice was unmoved, his countenance perfectly indifferent as he
-ordered: “Bring ropes; four on one tree, three on another.” All of
-a sudden death stood in the midst of them, and was recognized. One
-poor fellow gave a cry as piercing as the neighing of a frightened
-horse. Two trembled, and trembling is the first step towards
-kneeling. They had not talked any save among themselves up to this
-time, but when they saw Blunt busy with some ropes, one spoke up
-to Quantrell: “Captain, just a word: the pistol before the rope; a
-soldier’s before a dog’s death. As for me, I’m ready.” Of all the
-seven this was the youngest--how brave he was.
-
-The prisoners were arranged in line, the Guerrillas opposite to
-them. They had confessed to belonging to Jennison, but denied the
-charge of killing and burning. Quantrell hesitated a moment. His
-blue eyes searched each face from left to right and back again, and
-then he ordered: “Take six men, Blunt, and do the work. Shoot the
-young man and hang the balance.”
-
-The oldest man there, some white hair was in his beard, prayed
-audibly. Some embraced. Silence and twilight, as twin ghosts, crept
-up the river bank together. Blunt made haste, and before Quantrell
-had ridden far he heard a pistol shot. He did not even look up; it
-affected him no more than the tapping of a woodpecker. At daylight
-the next morning a wood-chopper going early to work saw six stark
-figures swaying in the river breeze. At the foot of another tree
-was a dead man and in his forehead a bullet hole--the old mark.
-
-[Illustration: QUANTRELL HANGS SIX MEN ON THE SNI]
-
-“After Quantrell hanged these men, the only time I was ever scared
-during the war,” relates Captain Trow, “I had left camp one night
-to visit a lady friend of mine, and a company of Federals got after
-me, and in the chase I took to the woods and it was at the place
-where Quantrell had hanged these men. My saddle girth broke right
-there, but I held on to my horse. I thought the devil and all his
-angels were after me, but I made it to the camp.”
-
-
-
-
-The March South in 1862
-
-
-Winter had come and some snow had fallen. There were no longer any
-leaves; nature had nothing more to do with the ambuscades. Bitter
-nights, with a foretaste of more bitter nights to follow, reminded
-Quantrell that it was time to migrate. Most of the wounded men were
-well again. All the dismounted had found serviceable horses. On
-October 22, 1862, a quiet muster on the banks of the Little Blue
-revealed at inspection nearly all the old faces and forms, with a
-sprinkling here and there of new ones. Quantrell counted them two
-by two as the Guerrillas dressed in line, and in front rank and
-rear rank there were just seventy-eight men. On the morrow they
-were moving southward. That old road running between Harrisonville
-and Warrensburg was always to the Guerrilas a road of fire, and
-here again on their march toward Arkansas, and eight miles east
-of Harrisonville, did Todd in the advance strike a Federal scout
-of thirty militia cavalrymen. They were Missourians and led by a
-Lieutenant Satterlee. To say Todd is to say Charge. To associate
-him with something that will illustrate him is to put torch and
-powder magazine together. It was the old, old story. On one side
-a furious rush, on the other panic and imbecile flight. After a
-four-mile race it ended with this for a score: Todd, killed, six;
-Boon Schull, five; Fletch Taylor, three; George Shepherd, two;
-John Coger, one; Sim Whitsett, one; James Little, one; George
-Maddox, one; total, twenty; wounded, none. Even in leaving, what
-sinister farewells these Guerrillas were taking!
-
-The second night out Quantrell stopped over beyond Dayton, in
-Cass County, and ordered a bivouac for the evening. There came to
-his camp here a good looking man, clad like a citizen, who had
-business to transact, and who knew how to state it. He was not fat,
-he was not heavy. He laughed a good deal, and when he laughed he
-showed a perfect set of faultlessly white teeth. He was young. An
-aged man is a thinking ruin; this one did not appear to think--he
-felt and enjoyed. He was tired of dodging about in the brush, he
-said, and he believed he would fight a little. Here, there and
-everywhere the Federals had hunted him and shot at him, and he
-was weary of so much persecution. “Would Quantrell let him become
-a Guerrilla?” “Your name?” asked the chief. The recruit winced
-under the abrupt question slightly, and Quantrell saw the start.
-Attracted by something of novelty in the whole performance, a crowd
-collected. Quantrell, without looking at the newcomer, appeared
-yet to be analyzing him. Suddenly he spoke up: “I have seen you
-before.” “Where?” “Nowhere.” “Think again. I have seen you in
-Lawrence, Kansas.” The face was a murderer’s face now, softened by
-a woman’s blush. There came to it such a look of mingled fear,
-indignation and cruel eagerness that Gregg, standing next to him
-and nearest to him, laid his hand on his revolver. “Stop,” said
-Quantrell, motioning to Gregg; “do not harm him, but disarm him.”
-Two revolvers were taken from his person and a pocket pistol--a
-Derringer. While being searched the white teeth shone in a smile
-that was almost placid. “You suspect me,” he said, so calmly that
-his words sounded as if spoken under the vault of some echoing
-dome. “But I have never been in Lawrence in my life.”
-
-Quantrell was lost in thought again, with the strange man--standing
-up smiling in the midst of the band--watching him with eyes that
-were blue at times and gray at times, and always gentle. More
-wood was put on the bivouac fire, and the flames grew ruddy. In
-their vivid light the young man did not seem quite so young. He
-had also a thick neck, great broad shoulders, and something of
-sensuality about the chin. The back of his skull was bulging and
-prominent. Here and there in his hair were little white streaks.
-Because there was such bloom and color in his cheeks, one could
-not remember these. Quantrell still tried to make out his face,
-to find a name for that Sphinx in front of him, to recall some
-time or circumstance, or place, that would make obscure things
-clear, and at last the past returned to him in the light of a
-swift revealment. “I have it all now,” he said, “and you are a
-Jayhawker. The name is immaterial. I have seen you at Lawrence; I
-have seen you at Lane’s headquarters; I have been a soldier myself
-with you; we have done duty together--but I have to hang you this
-hour, by G--d.” Unabashed, the threatened man drew his breath hard
-and strode a step nearer Quantrell. Gregg put a pistol to his
-head. “Keep back. Can’t you talk where you are? Do you mean to say
-anything?”
-
-The old smile again; could anything ever drive away that
-smile--anything ever keep those teeth from shining? “You ask
-me if I want to talk, just as if I had anything to talk about.
-What can I say? I tell you that I have been hunted, proscribed,
-shot at, driven up and down, until I am tired. I want to kill
-somebody. I want to know what sleeping a sound night’s sleep
-means.” Quantrell’s grave voice broke calmly in: “Bring a rope.”
-Blunt brought it. “Make an end fast.” The end was made fast to
-a low lying limb. In the firelight the noose expanded. “Up with
-him, men.” Four stalwart hands seized him as a vice. He did not
-even defend himself. His flesh beneath their grip felt soft and
-rounded. The face, although all the bloom was there, hardened
-viciously--like the murderer’s face it was. “So you mean to get
-rid of me that way? It is like you, Quantrell. I know you but you
-do not know me. I have been hunting you for three long years.
-You killed my brother in Kansas, you killed others there, your
-comrades. I did not know, till afterwards, what kind of a devil
-we had around our very messes--a devil who prowled about the camp
-fires and shot soldiers in the night that broke bread with him in
-the day. Can you guess what brought me here?”
-
-The shifting phases of this uncommon episode attracted all; even
-Quantrell himself was interested. The prisoner--threw off all
-disguise and defied those who meant to hang him. “You did well to
-disarm me,” he said, addressing Gregg, “for I intended to kill
-your captain. Everything has been against me. At the Tate house
-he escaped; at Clark’s it was no better; we had him surrounded at
-Swearington’s and his men cut him out; we ran him for two hundred
-miles and he escaped, and now after playing my last card and
-staking everything upon it, what is left to me? A dog’s death and
-a brother unavenged.” “Do your worst,” he said, and he folded his
-arms across his breast and stood stolid as the tree over his head.
-Some pity began to stir the men visibly. Gregg turned away and went
-out beyond the firelight. Even Quantrell’s face softened, but only
-for a moment. Then he spoke harshly to Blunt, “He is one of the
-worst of a band that I failed to make a finish of before the war
-came, but what escapes today is dragged up by the next tomorrow. If
-I had not recognized him he would have killed me. I do not hang him
-for that, however, I hang him because the whole breed and race to
-which he belongs should be exterminated. Sergeant, do your duty.”
-Blunt slipped the noose about the prisoner’s neck, and the four men
-who had at first disarmed him, tightened it. To the last the bloom
-abode in his cheeks. He did not pray, neither did he make plaint
-nor moan. No man spoke a word. Something like a huge pendulum swung
-as though spun by a strong hand, quivered once or twice, and then
-swinging to and fro and regularly, stopped forever. Just at this
-moment three quick, hot vollies, and close together, rolled up from
-the northern picket post, and the camp was on its feet. If one had
-looked then at the dead man’s face, something like a smile might
-have been seen there, fixed and sinister, and beneath it the white,
-sharp teeth. James Williams had accepted his fate like a hero. At
-mortal feud with Quantrell, and living only that he might meet him
-face to face in battle, he had joined every regiment, volunteered
-upon every scout, rode foremost in every raid, and fought hardest
-in every combat. It was not to be. Quantrell was leaving Missouri.
-A great gulf was about to separate them. One desperate effort now,
-and years of toil and peril at a single blow, might have been
-rewarded. He struck it and it cost him his life. To this day the
-whole tragic episode is sometimes recalled and discussed along the
-border.
-
-The bivouac was rudely broken up. Three hundred Federal cavalry,
-crossing Quantrell’s trail late in the afternoon, had followed it
-until the darkness fell, halted an hour for supper, and then again,
-at a good round trot, rode straight upon Haller, holding the rear
-of the movement southward. He fought at the outpost half an hour.
-Behind huge trees, he would not fall back until his flanks were in
-danger. All the rest of the night he fought them thus, making six
-splendid charges and holding on to every position until his grasp
-was broken loose by sheer hammering. At Grand River the pursuit
-ended and Quantrell swooped down upon Lamar, in Barton County,
-where a Federal garrison held the courthouse and the houses near
-it. He attacked but got worsted, and attacked again and lost one
-of his best men. He attacked the third time and made no better
-headway. He finally abandoned the town and resumed, unmolested,
-the road to the south. From Jackson County to the Arkansas line
-the whole country was swarming with militia and but for the fact
-that every Guerrilla was clad in Federal clothing, the march would
-have been an incessant battle. As it was, it will never be known
-how many isolated Federals, mistaking Quantrell’s men for comrades
-of other regiments not on duty with them, fell into a trap that
-never gave up their victims alive. Near Cassville in Barry County,
-twenty-two were killed thus. They were coming up from Cassville and
-were meeting the Guerrillas, who were going south. The order given
-by Quantrell was a most simple one, but a most murderous one. By
-the side of each Federal in the approaching column a Guerrilla was
-to range himself, engage him in conversation, and then, at a given
-signal, blow his brains out. Quantrell gave the signal promptly,
-shooting the militiaman assigned to him through the middle of the
-forehead, and where, upon their horses, twenty-two confident men
-laughed and talked in comrade fashion a second before, nothing
-remained of the unconscious detachment, which was literally
-exterminated, save a few who straggled in agony upon the ground,
-and a mass of terrified and plunging horses. Not a Guerrilla missed
-his mark.
-
-
-
-
-Younger Remains in Missouri With a Small Detachment--Winter of 1862
-and 1863
-
-
-The remaining part of this chapter is the escapades of Cole
-Younger, who stayed in Missouri the winter of 1862 and 1863, with
-quite a number of the old band who were not in condition to ride
-when Quantrell and Captain Trow went south. But I know them to be
-true.
-
-Younger was exceedingly enterprising, and fought almost daily. He
-did not seem to be affected by the severity of the winter, and at
-night, under a single blanket, he slept often in the snow while it
-was too bitter cold for Federal scouting parties to leave their
-comfortable cantonments or Federal garrisons to poke their noses
-beyond the snug surroundings of their well furnished barracks.
-
-The Guerrilla rode everywhere and waylaid roads, bridges, lines of
-couriers and routes of travel. Six mail carriers disappeared in one
-week between Independence and Kansas City.
-
-In a month after Quantrell arrived in Texas, George Todd returned
-to Jackson County, bringing with him Fletch Taylor, Boon Schull,
-James Little, Andy Walker and James Reed. Todd and Younger again
-came together by the bloodhound instinct which all men have who
-hunt or are hunted. Todd had scarcely made himself known to the
-Guerrilla in Jackson County before he had commenced to kill
-militiamen. A foraging party from Independence were gathering corn
-from a field belonging to Daniel White, a most worthy citizen of
-the vicinity, when Todd and Younger broke in upon it, shot five
-down in the field and put the rest to flight. Next day, November
-30, 1862, Younger, having with him Josiah and Job McCockle and
-Tom Talley, met four of Jennison’s regiment face to face in
-the neighborhood of the county poor house. Younger, who had an
-extraordinary voice, called out loud enough to be heard a mile,
-“You are four, and we are four. Stand until we come up.” Instead
-of standing, however, the Jayhawkers turned about and rode off as
-rapidly as possible, followed by Younger and his men. All being
-excellently mounted, the ride lasted fully three miles before
-either party won or lost. At last the Guerrillas began to gain
-and kept gaining. Three of the four Jayhawkers were finally shot
-from their saddles and the fourth escaped by superior riding and
-superior running.
-
-Todd, retaining with him those brought up from Arkansas, kept
-adding to them all who either from choice or necessity were forced
-to take refuge in the brush. Never happy except when on the war
-path, he suggested to Younger and Cunningham a ride into Kansas
-City west of Little Santa Fe, always doubtful if not dangerous
-ground. Thirty Guerrillas met sixty-two Jayhawkers. It was a
-prairie fight, brief, bloody, and finished at a gallop. Todd’s
-tactics, the old yell and the old rush, swept everything--a
-revolver in each hand, the bridle reins in his teeth, the horse at
-a full run, the individual rider firing right and left. This is the
-way the Guerrillas charged. The sixty-two Jayhawkers fought better
-than most of the militia had been in the habit of fighting, but
-they could not stand up to the work at revolver range. When Todd
-charged them furiously, which he did as soon as he came in sight of
-them, they stood a volley at one hundred yards and returned it, but
-not a closer grapple.
-
-It was while holding the rear with six men that Cole Younger was
-attacked by fifty-two men and literally run over. In the midst
-of the _melee_ bullets fell like hail stones in summer weather.
-John McDowell’s horse went down, the rider under him and badly
-hit. He cried out to Younger for help. Younger, hurt himself and
-almost overwhelmed, dismounted under fire and rescued McDowell
-and brought him safely back from the furious crash, killing as he
-went a Federal soldier whose horse had carried him beyond Younger
-and McDowell who were struggling in the road together. Afterwards
-Younger was betrayed by the man to save whose life he had risked
-his own.
-
-Divided again, and operating in different localities, Todd, Younger
-and Cunningham carried the terror of the Guerrilla name throughout
-the border counties of Kansas and Missouri. Every day, and
-sometimes twice a day, from December 3rd to December 18th, these
-three fought some scouting party or attacked some picket post.
-At the crossing of the Big Blue on the road to Kansas City--the
-place where the former bridge had been burned by Quantrell--Todd
-surprised six militiamen and killed them all and then hung them up
-on a long pole, resting it, either end upon forks, just as hogs
-are hung in the country after being slaughtered. The Federals,
-seeing this, began to get ready to drive them away from their lines
-of communication. Three heavy columns were sent out to scour the
-country. Surprising Cunningham in camp on Big Creek, they killed
-one of his splendid soldiers, Will Freeman, and drove the rest of
-the Guerrillas back into Jackson County.
-
-Todd, joining himself quickly to Younger, ambuscaded the column
-hunting him, and in a series of combats between Little Blue and
-Kansas City, killed forty-seven of the pursuers, captured five
-wagons and thirty-three head of horses.
-
-There was a lull again in marching and counter marching as the
-winter got colder and colder and some deep snow fell. Christmas
-time came, and the Guerrillas would have a Christmas frolic.
-Nothing bolder or braver is recorded upon the records of either
-side in the Civil War than this so-called Christmas frolic.
-
-Colonel Henry Younger, father of Coleman Younger, was one of the
-most respected citizens of Western Missouri. He was a stalwart
-pioneer of Jackson County, having fourteen children born to him
-and his noble wife, a true Christian woman. A politician of the
-old school, Colonel Younger was for a number of years a judge of
-the county court of Jackson County, and for several terms was a
-member of the state legislature. In 1858, he left Jackson County
-for Cass County where he dealt largely in stock. He was also an
-extensive farmer, an enterprising merchant and the keeper of one of
-the best and most popular livery stables in the West, located at
-Harrisonville, the County seat of Cass County. His blooded horses
-were very superior, and he usually had on hand for speculative
-purposes amounts of money ranging from $6,000 to $10,000. On one
-of Jennison’s periodical raides in the fall of 1862, he sacked and
-burned Harrisonville. Colonel Younger, although a staunch Union
-man, and known to be such, was made to lose heavily. Jennison and
-his officers took from him $4,000 worth of buggies, carriages and
-hacks and fifty head of blooded horses worth $500 each. Then the
-balance of his property that was perishable and not movable, was
-burned. The intention was to kill Colonel Younger, on the principle
-that dead men tell no tales, but he escaped with great difficulty
-and made his way to Independence. Jennison was told that Colonel
-Younger was rich and that he invariably carried with him large
-amounts of money. A plan was immediately laid to kill him. Twenty
-cut-throats were organized as a band, under a Jayhawker named
-Bailey, and set to watch his every movement. They dogged him from
-Independence to Kansas City and from Kansas City down to Cass
-County. Coming upon him at last in an isolated place within a few
-miles of Harrisonville, they riddled his body with bullets, rifled
-his pockets and left his body stark and partially stripped by the
-roadside.
-
-Eight hundred Federals held Kansas City, and on every road was a
-strong picket post. The streets were patrolled continually, and
-ready always for an emergency. Horses saddled and bridled stood in
-their stalls.
-
-Early on the morning of December 25th, 1862, Todd asked Younger if
-he would like to have a little fun. “What kind of fun?” the latter
-inquired. “A portion of the command that murdered your father are
-in Kansas City,” said Todd, “and if you say so we will go into
-the place and kill a few of them.” Younger caught eagerly at the
-proposition and commenced at once to get ready for the enterprise.
-Six were to compose the adventuresome party--Todd, Younger, Abe
-Cunningham, Fletch Taylor, Zach Traber and George Clayton. Clad in
-the uniform of the Federal cavalry, carrying instead of one pistol,
-four, they arrived about dusk at the picket post on the Westport
-and Kansas City road. They were not even halted. The uniform was a
-passport; to get in did not require a countersign. They left the
-horses in charge of Traber, bidding him do the best he could do if
-the worst came to the worst.
-
-The city was filled with revelry. All the saloons were crowded.
-The five Guerrillas, with their heavy cavalry overcoats buttoned
-loosely about them, boldly walked down Main Street and into the
-Christmas revelry. Visiting this saloon and that saloon, they sat
-knee to knee with some of the Jennison men, some of Jennison’s most
-blood-thirsty troopers, and drank confusion over and over again to
-the cut-throat Quantrell and his bushwhacking crew.
-
-Todd knew several of the gang who had waylaid and slain Colonel
-Younger, but hunt how he could, he could not find a single man of
-them. Entering near onto midnight an ordinary drinking place near
-the public square, six soldiers were discovered sitting at two
-tables playing cards, two at one and four at another. A man and a
-boy were behind the bar. Todd, as he entered, spoke low to Younger.
-
-“Run to cover at last. Five of the six men before you were in
-Bailey’s crowd that murdered your father. How does your pulse feel?”
-
-“Like an iron man’s. I feel like I could kill the whole six myself.”
-
-They went up to the bar, called for whiskey and invited the card
-players to join. They did so.
-
-If it was agreeable, the boy might bring their whiskey to them and
-the game could go on.
-
-“Certainly,” said Todd, with purring of a tiger cat ready for a
-spring, “that’s what the boy is here for.”
-
-Over their whiskey the Guerrillas whispered. The killing now was
-as good as accomplished. Cunningham and Clayton were to saunter
-carelessly up to the table where the two players sat, and Todd,
-Younger and Taylor up to the table where the four sat. The signal
-to get ready was to be, “Come, boys, another drink,” and the
-signal to fire was, “Who said drink?” Cole Younger was to give the
-first signal in his deep resonant voice and Todd the last one.
-After the first each Guerrilla was to draw a pistol and hold it
-under the cape of his cavalry coat and after the last he was to
-fire. Younger, as a special privilege, was accorded the right to
-shoot the sixth man. Cole Younger’s deep voice broke suddenly in,
-filling all the room and sounding so jolly and clear. “Come, boys,
-another drink.” Neither so loud nor so caressing as Younger’s,
-yet sharp, distinct, and penetrating, prolonging, as it were, the
-previous proposition, and giving it emphasis, Todd exclaimed, “Who
-said drink?” A thunderclap, a single pistol shot, and then total
-darkness. The barkeeper dum in the presence of death, shivered and
-stood still. Todd, cool as a winter’s night without, extinguished
-every light and stepped upon the street. “Steady,” he said to his
-men, “do not make haste.” So sudden had been the massacre, and so
-quick had been the movements of the Guerrillas, that the pursuers
-were groping for a clue and stumbling in their eagerness to find
-it. At every street corner an alarm was beating.
-
-Past the press in the streets, past the glare and the glitter of
-the thicker lights, past patrol after patrol, Tod had won well his
-way to his horses when a black bar thrust itself suddenly across
-his path and changed itself instantly into a line of soldiers. Some
-paces forward a spokesman advanced and called a halt.
-
-“What do you want?” asked Todd.
-
-“The countersign.”
-
-“We have no countersign. Out for a lark, it’s only a square or two
-further that we desire to go.”
-
-“No matter if its only an inch or two. Orders are orders.”
-
-“Fire; and charge men!” and the black line across the streets as
-a barricade shrivelled up and shrank away. Four did not move,
-however, nor would they ever move again, until, feet foremost,
-their comrades bore them to their burial place. But the hunt was
-hot. Mounted men were abroad, and hurrying feet could be heard
-in all directions. Rallying beyond range and reinforcements,
-the remnant of the patrol were advancing and opening fire. Born
-scout and educated Guerrilla, Traber--judging from the shots
-and shouts--knew what was best for all and dashed up to his
-hard-pressed comrades and horses. Thereafter the fight was a
-frolic. The picket on the Independence road was ridden over and
-through, and the brush beyond gained without an effort; and the
-hospitable house of Reuben Harris, where a roaring fire was blazing
-and a hearty welcome extended to all was reached.
-
-[Illustration: TODD AND YOUNGER WENT TO KANSAS CITY TO HAVE A
-LITTLE FUN]
-
-In a week or less it began snowing. The hillsides were white with
-it. The nights were long, and the days bitter, and the snow did
-not melt. On the 10th of February, 1863, John McDowell reported
-his wife sick and asked Younger permission to visit her. The
-permission was granted, the proviso attached to it being the order
-to report again at 3 o’clock. The illness of the man’s wife was
-a sham. Instead of going home, or even in the direction of home,
-he hastened immediately to Independence and made the commander
-there, Colonel Penick, thoroughly acquainted with Younger’s camp
-and all its surroundings. Penick was a St. Joseph, Missouri, man,
-commanding a regiment of militia. The echoes of the desperate
-adventure of Younger and Todd in Kansas City had long ago reached
-the ears of Colonel Penick, and he seconded the traitor’s story
-with an eagerness worthy the game to be hunted. Eighty cavalry,
-under a resolute officer, were ordered instantly out, and McDowell,
-suspected and closely guarded, was put at their head as a pilot.
-
-Younger had two houses dug in the ground, with a ridge pole to
-each, and rafters. Upon the rafters were boards, and upon the
-boards straw and earth. At one end was a fireplace, at the other a
-door. Architecture was nothing, comfort everything.
-
-The Federal officer dismounted his men two hundred yards from
-Younger’s huts and divided them, sending forty to the south and
-forty to the north. The Federals on the north had approached to
-within twenty yards of Younger’s cabins when a horse snorted
-fiercely and Younger came to the door of one of them. He saw the
-approaching column on foot and mistaking it for a friendly column,
-called out: “Is that you, Todd?” Perceiving his mistake, in a
-moment, however, he fired and killed the lieutenant in command
-of the attacking party and then aroused the men in the houses.
-Out of each the occupants poured, armed, desperate and determined
-to fight but never to surrender. Younger halted behind a tree
-and fought fifteen Federals for several moments, killed another
-who rushed upon him, rescued Hinton and strode away after his
-comrades, untouched and undaunted. Fifty yards further Tom Talley
-was in trouble. He had one boot off and one foot in the leg of the
-other, but try as he would he could get it neither off nor on. He
-could not run, situated as he was, and he had no knife to cut the
-leather. He too called out to Younger to wait for him and to stand
-by him until he could do something to extricate himself. Without
-hurry, and in the teeth of a rattling fusilade. Younger stooped
-to Talley’s assistance, tearing literally from his foot by the
-exercise of immense strength the well-nigh fatal boot, and telling
-him to make the best haste he could and hold to his pistols. Braver
-man than Tom Talley never lived, nor cooler. As he jumped up in his
-stocking feet, the Federals were within twenty yards, firing as
-they advanced, and loading their breech loading guns as they ran.
-He took their fire at a range like that and snapped every barrel of
-his revolver in their faces. Not a cylinder exploded, being wet by
-the snow. He thus held in his hand a useless pistol. About thirty
-of the enemy had by this time outrun the rest and were forcing the
-fighting. Younger called to his men to take to the trees and drive
-them back, or stand and die together. The Guerrillas, hatless and
-some of them barefoot and coatless, rallied instantly and held
-their own. Younger killed two more of the pursuers here--five since
-the fighting began--and Bud Wigginton, like a lion at bay, fought
-without cover and with deadly effect. Here Job McCorkle was badly
-wounded, together with James Morris, John Coger and five others.
-George Talley, fighting splendidly, was shot dead, and Younger
-himself, encouraging his men by his voice and example, got a bullet
-through the left shoulder. The Federal advance fell back to the
-main body and the main body fell back to their horses.
-
-A man by the name of Emmet Goss was now beginning to have it
-whispered of him that he was a tiger. He would fight, the
-Guerrillas said, and when in those savage days one went out upon
-the warpath so endorsed, be sure that it meant all that it was
-intended to mean. Goss lived in Jackson County. He owned a farm
-near Hickman’s mill, and up to the fall of 1861, had worked it
-soberly and industriously. When he concluded to quit farming and
-go fighting, he joined the Jayhawkers. Jennison commanded the
-Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry, and Goss a company in this regiment.
-From a peaceful thrifty citizen he became suddenly a terror to
-the border. He seemed to have a mania for killing. Twenty odd
-unoffending citizens probably died at his hand. When Ewing’s
-famous General Order No. 11 was issued--that order which required
-the wholesale depopulation of Cass, Bates, Vernon and Jackson
-Counties--Goss went about as a destroying angel, with a torch in
-one hand and a revolver in the other. He boasted of having kindled
-the fires in fifty-two houses, of having made fifty-two families
-homeless and shelterless, and of having killed, he declared, until
-he was tired of killing. Death was to come to him at last by the
-hand of Jesse James, but not yet.
-
-Goss had sworn to capture or kill Cole Younger, and went to the
-house of Younger’s mother on Big Creek for the purpose. She was
-living in a double log cabin built for a tenant, by her husband
-before his death, and Cole was at home. It was about eight o’clock
-and quite dark. Cole sat talking with his mother, two little
-sisters and a boy brother. Goss, with forty men, dismounted back
-from the yard, fastened their horses securely, moved up quietly and
-surrounded the house.
-
-Between the two rooms of the cabin there was an open passageway,
-and the Jayhawkers had occupied this before the alarm was given.
-Desiring to go from one room to another, a Miss Younger found the
-porch full of armed men. Instantly springing back and closing the
-door, she shouted Cole’s name, involuntarily. An old negro woman--a
-former slave--with extraordinary presence of mind, blew out the
-light, snatched a coverlet from the bed, threw it over her head and
-shoulders.
-
-“Get behind me, Marse Cole, quick,” she said in a whisper.
-
-And Cole, in a second, with a pistol in each hand, stood close up
-to the old woman, the bed spread covering them both. Then throwing
-wide the door, and receiving in her face the gaping muzzles of a
-dozen guns, she querously cried out:
-
-“Don’t shoot a poor old nigger, Massa Sogers. Its nobody but me
-going to see what’s de matter. Ole missus is nearly scared to
-death.”
-
-Slowly, then, so slowly that it seemed an age to Cole, she strode
-through the crowd of Jayhawkers blocking up the portico, and out
-into the darkness and night. Swarming about the two rooms and
-rumaging everywhere, a portion of the Jayhawkers kept looking for
-Younger, and swearing brutally at their ill-success, while another
-portion, watching the movements of the old negress, saw her throw
-away the bed-spread, clap her hands exultantly and shout: “Run,
-Marse Cole; run for your life. The debbils can’t catch you dis
-time!”
-
-Giving and taking a volley that harmed no one, Cole made his
-escape without a struggle. As for the old negress, Goss debated
-sometime with himself whether he should shoot her or hang her.
-Unquestionably a rebel negro, she was persecuted often and often
-for her opinion’s sake, and hung up twice by militia to make her
-tell the whereabouts of Guerrillas. True to her people and her
-cause, she died at last in the ardor of devotion.
-
-
-
-
-The Trip North in 1863
-
-
-On the return from Texas in the spring of 1863, Quantrell’s journey
-in detail would read like a romance. The whole band, numbering
-thirty, were clad in Federal uniforms, Quantrell wearing that of
-a captain. Whenever questioned, the answer was, “A Federal scout
-on special service.” Such had been the severity of the winter, and
-such the almost dead calm in military quarters, that all ordinary
-vigilance seemed to have relaxed and even ordinary prudence
-forgotten.
-
-South of Spring River a day’s march, ten militia came upon
-Quantrell’s camp and invited themselves to supper. They were fed,
-but they were also killed. Quantrell himself was the host. He
-poured out the coffee, supplied attentively every little want,
-insisted that those whose appetites were first appeased should eat
-more, and then shot at his table the two nearest to him and saw the
-others fall beneath the revolvers of his men, with scarcely so much
-as a change of color in his face.
-
-North of Spring River there was a dramatic episode. Perhaps
-in those days every country had its tyrants. Most generally
-revolutions breed monsters.
-
-On the way to Missouri, they fell in with Marmaduke, who was
-commanding a bunch of Bushwhackers in St. Claire County, Missouri.
-He also had been wintering in Texas, and they camped one night near
-us. Marmaduke was telling Quantrell about an old Federal captain
-named Obediah Smith--what a devil he was and how he was treating
-the Southern people. Quantrell laughed and asked:
-
-“Why don’t you kill him?”
-
-Marmaduke said he was too sharp and cunning for him.
-
-Quantrell said, “If you will detail one or two of your men to come
-with me and show me where he lives, I will kill him with his own
-gun.”
-
-It being agreed upon, the next morning Marmaduke called on Oliver
-Burch to pilot Quantrell to where Smith lived. The following
-morning all marched up to within about a mile or so of where
-Captain Smith lived. Quantrell called his men together, chose Wash
-Haller, Dick Burns, Ben Morrow, Dick Kenney, Frank James and myself
-of his own command, and Oliver Burch of Marmaduke’s command. They
-rode up to Captain Smith’s house, all dressed in Federal uniforms,
-and called at the gate, “Hello.” Smith came walking out and
-Quantrell saluted him and told him he was a scout for the Federals
-from Colonel Penick’s army. Smith saw them in the same uniform as
-himself and did not once think of their betraying him. They talked
-for a few minutes when Quantrell said:
-
-“Captain, that is a fine gun you have there; why don’t you furnish
-us scouts with a gun like that.”
-
-“This is a fine gun,” replied Smith, “it has killed lots of d----d
-bushwhackers.”
-
-Quantrell said, “Captain, would you mind letting me see that gun?”
-
-Taking it from him, Quantrell began to look it over, and turning to
-his pals, said, “Ain’t that a dandy?”
-
-They all answered, “Yes, wish I had one.”
-
-Quantrell kept fooling with the gun and, catching Captain Smith’s
-eye off him, fired it at him, shooting him through the heart and
-killing him instantly. Killing Smith was getting rid of one of the
-worst men in Cedar County.
-
-That day about ten o’clock, three militiamen came to the column and
-were killed. A mile from where dinner was procured, five more came
-out. These also were killed. In the dusk of the evening two more
-were killed, and where we bivouacked, one was killed. The day’s
-work counted eleven in the aggregate, and nothing of an exertion to
-find a single soldier made, at that.
-
-Evil tidings were abroad, however--evil things that took wings
-and flew as birds. Some said from the first that Quantrell’s men
-were not Union men and some swore that no matter what kind of
-clothing they wore, those inside of said clothing were wolves. Shot
-evenly; that is to say, by experienced hands, in the head, the
-corpses of the first discovered ten awakened from their sleep the
-garrison along the Spring River. Smith’s execution stirred them to
-aggression, and the group of dead militiamen crossed continually
-upon the roadside, while it enraged it also horrified every
-cantonment or camp. Two hundred cavalrymen got quickly to horse and
-poured up from the rear after Quantrell. It was not difficult to
-keep on his track. Here a corpse and there a corpse, here a heap
-and there a heap--blue always, and blue continually--what manner of
-a wild beast had been sent out from the unknown to prey upon the
-militia?
-
-At the Osage River the Federal pursuit, gathering volume and
-intensity as it advanced, struck Quantrell hard and brought him to
-an engagement south of the river. Too much haste, however, cost
-him dearly. The advance, being the smaller, had outridden the main
-army and was unsupported and isolated when attacked. Quantrell
-turned upon it savagely and crushed it at a blow. Out of sixty-six
-troopers he killed twenty. In those days there were no wounded.
-Before the main body came up he was over the Osage and away, and
-riding fast to encompass the immense prairie between the river and
-Johnstown. When scarcely over it, a flanking column made a dash at
-him coming from the west, killed Blunt’s horse and drove Quantrell
-to timber. Night fell and he rode out of sight and out of hearing.
-When he drew rein again it was at the farm of Judge Russell Hicks
-on the Sni, in Jackson County. The next morning at David George’s
-he disbanded for ten days, sending messengers out in all directions
-to announce his arrival and make known the rendezvous.
-
-The ten days allotted by Quantrell for concentration purposes
-had not yet expired, but many of the reckless spirits, rapacious
-for air and exercise, could not be kept still. Poole, Ross and
-Greenwood made a dash for the German settlement of Lafayette
-County, and left some marks there that are not yet obliterated.
-Albert Cunningham, glorying in the prowess of a splendid manhood,
-and victor in a dozen combats against desperate odds, fell before
-the spring came, in an insignificant skirmish on the Harrisonville
-and Pleasant Hill road.
-
-In the lull of military movements in Jackson County, Cass was to
-see the inauguration of the heavy Guerrilla work of 1863. Three
-miles west of Pleasant Springs, Younger and his comrades struck
-a blow that had the vigor of the olden days in it. The garrison
-at Pleasant Hill numbered three hundred, and from the garrison of
-Lieutenant Jefferson took thirty-two cavalrymen and advanced three
-miles towards Smith’s, on a scouting expedition. While Hulse and
-Noah Webster, two Guerrilas who seemed never to sleep and to be
-continually hanging about the flanks of the Federals, discovered
-Jefferson and reported his movements to the main body encamped at
-Parson Webster’s. Taking with him eight men, Joe Lee hurried to
-cut Jefferson off from Pleasant Hill. Younger, with eight more,
-was close up from the west. Lee had with him John Webster, Noah
-Webster, Sterling Kennedy, David Kennedy, William Hays, Perry
-Hays, Henry McAninch, James Marshall, Edward Marshall and Edward
-Hink. He was to gain the east end of the lane and halt there until
-Younger came up at its western extremity. Jefferson discovered
-Lee, however, and formed a line of battle in front of Smith’s,
-throwing some skirmishers forward and getting ready apparently for
-a fight, although afterwards it was reported that Lee’s men were
-mistaken for a portion of the garrison left behind at Pleasant
-Hill. Younger had further to go than he at first supposed, but
-was making all the haste possible, when Lee, carried away by the
-uncontrolable impulse of his men, charged down the lane from the
-east, at a furious rate. Jefferson held his troopers fair to their
-line, until the Guerrillas reached a carbine range, but could hold
-them no longer. A volley and a stampede and the wild race was on
-again. About a length ahead and splendidly mounted, William Hays
-led the Guerrillas. Shot dead, his horse fell from under him and
-crushed his senses out for half an hour. John and Noah Webster took
-Hays’ place through sheer superiority of horse flesh and forced
-the fighting, John killing three of the enemy as he ran and Noah,
-four. Noah’s pistols were empty, but he dashed alongside of the
-rearmost trooper and knocked him from his saddle with the butt
-of one of them, and seized another by the collar of his coat and
-dragged him to the ground. Both were dispatched. Too late to block
-the western mouth of the lane, Younger joined in the swift pursuit
-as it passed him to the left and added much to the certainty of
-the killing. Of the thirty-two, four alone escaped, and Jefferson
-was not among them. Hulse shot him running at a distance of fifty
-yards, and before he got to him he was dead.
-
-Pleasant Hill was instantly evacuated. Not a Federal garrison
-remained in Cass, outside of Harrisonville, and the garrison there
-was as effectively imprisoned as if surrounded by the walls of a
-fortress. The Guerrillas rode at ease in every direction.
-
-Younger and Lon Railey hung about the town for a week killing its
-pickets and destroying its foraging parties. Other bands in other
-directions gathered up valuable horses for future service and
-helped onward to the southern army troops of recruits who needed
-only pilots and protection to the Osage River.
-
-Like Cunningham, the man who had fought as a lion in twenty
-different combats, was destined to fall in a sudden and unnoted
-skirmish. Returning northward in the rear of Quantrell, Lieutenant
-William Haller was attacked at sunset and fought till dark. He
-triumphed, but he fell. His comrades buried him and wept for him,
-and left him.
-
-The battle of the year 1863 had commenced; formidable men were
-coming to the surface in every direction. Here and there sudden
-Guerrilla fires leaped up from many places about the State, and
-burned as if fed by oil, until everything in their reach had been
-consumed. It was a year of savage fighting and killing; it was the
-year of the torch and the black flag; it was the year when the
-invisible reaper reaped sorest in the ranks of the Guerrillas and
-gathered into harvest sheaves, the bravest of the brave.
-
-Anderson, newly coming into sight, was flashing across the military
-horizon as a war comet. Left to himself and permitted to pursue
-his placid ways in peace, probably the amiable neighbor and
-working man would never have been developed into a tiger. But see
-how he was wrought upon! One day late in 1862, a body of Federal
-soldiers, especially enrolled and uninformed to persecute women
-and prey upon non-combatants, gathered up in a half day’s raid a
-number of demonstrative Southern girls whose only sin had been
-extravagant talk and pro-Confederacy cheering. They were taken to
-Kansas City and imprisoned in a dilapidated tenement close upon a
-steep place. Food was flung to them at intervals, and brutal guards
-sang ribald songs and used indecent language in their presence.
-With these women, tenderly nurtured and reared, were two of Will
-Anderson’s sisters. Working industriously in Kansas with his
-father, Anderson knew nothing of the real struggles of the war, nor
-of the imprisonment of his sisters. A quiet, courteous, fair-minded
-man who took more delight in a book than in a crowd, he had a most
-excellent name in Randolph County, Missouri, where he was born, and
-in Johnson County, Kansas, where he was living in 1862. Destiny had
-to deal with him, however. The old rickety, ramshackle building in
-which were the huddled women, did not fall down fast enough for
-the brutes who bellowed about it. At night and in the darkness it
-was undermined, and in the morning when a little wind blew upon
-it and it was shaken, it fell with a crash. Covered up, the faces
-disfigured, the limp, lifeless bodies were past all pain! Dead to
-touch, or kiss, or passionate entreaty, Anderson’s eldest sister
-was taken from the ruins a corpse. The younger, badly injured
-in the spine, with one leg broken and her face bruised and cut
-painfully, lived to tell the terrible story of it all to a gentle,
-patient brother kneeling before her at her bedside and looking up
-above to see if God were there.
-
-Soon a stir came along the border. A name new to the strife was
-beginning to pass from band to band and about the camp fires to
-have a respectful hearing.
-
-“Anderson?” “Anderson?” “Who is this Anderson?” The Guerrillas
-asked one of another. “He kills them all. Quantrell spares now and
-then, and Poole and Blunt, and Yager, and Haller, and Jarrette, and
-Younger, and Gregg, and Todd, and Shepherd, and all the balance;
-but Anderson, never. Is he a devil in uniform?”
-
-
-
-
-Jesse James Joins Command
-
-
-Jesse James, younger brother of Frank James, had now emerged from
-the awkwardness of youth. He was scarcely thirteen years of age,
-while Frank was four years older. The war made them Guerrillas.
-Jesse was at home with his stepfather, Dr. Reuben Samuels, of Clay
-County. He knew nothing of the strife save the echoes of it now and
-then as it reached his mother’s isolated farm. One day a company
-of militia visited this farm, hanged Dr. Samuels to a tree until
-he was left for dead, and seized upon Jesse, a mere boy in the
-fields plowing, put a rope about his neck and abused him harshly,
-pricking him with sabers, and finally threatening him with death
-should they ever again hear of his giving aid or information to the
-Guerrillas. That same week his mother and sisters were arrested,
-carried to St. Joseph and thrown into a filthy prison, where the
-hardships they endured were dreadful. Often without adequate food,
-insulted by sentinels who neither understood nor cared to learn
-the first lesson of a soldier--courtesy to women--cut off from
-all communication with the world, the sister was brought near to
-death’s door from a fever which followed the punishment, while the
-mother--a high spirited and courageous matron--was released only
-after suffering and emaciation had aged her in her prime. Before
-Mrs. Samuels returned to her home, Jesse had joined Frank in the
-camp of Quantrell, who had preceded him a few years, and who had
-already, notwithstanding the briefness of his service, made a name
-for supreme and conspicuous daring. Jesse James had a face as
-smooth and innocent as the face of a school girl. The blue eyes,
-very clear and penetrating, were never at rest. His form, tall and
-finely moulded--was capable of great effort and great endurance. On
-his lips there was always a smile, and for every comrade a pleasant
-word or a compliment. Looking at the small white hands with their
-long, tapering fingers, it was not then written or recorded
-that they were to become with a revolver among the quickest and
-deadliest hands in the West. Frank was four years older, and
-somewhat taller than Jesse. Jesse’s face was something of an oval;
-Frank’s was long, wide about the forehead, square and massive about
-the jaw and chin, and set always in a look of fixed repose. Jesse
-laughed at many things; Frank laughed not at all. Jesse was light
-hearted, reckless, devil-may-care; Frank sober, sedate, a splendid
-man always for ambush or scouting parties.
-
-Scott had to come back from the South and, eager for action,
-crossed the Missouri River at Sibley May 20, 1863, taking with him
-twelve men. Frank James and James Little led the advance. Beyond
-the river thirteen miles, and at the house of Moses McCoy, the
-Guerrillas camped, concocting a plan whereby the Federal garrison
-at Richfield, numbering thirty, might be got at and worsted.
-
-Captain Sessions was in command at Richfield, and his grave had
-already been dug. Scott found a friendly citizen named Peter
-Mahoney who volunteered to do the decoy work. He loaded up a wagon
-with wood, clothed himself in the roughest and raggedest clothes
-he had, and rumbled away behind as scrawny and fidgety a yoke of
-oxen as ever felt a north wind in the winter bite their bones, or
-deceptive buckeye in the spring swell their body.
-
-“Mr. Mahoney, what is the news?” This was the greeting he got.
-
-“No news, I have wood for sale. Yes, there is some news, too.
-I like to have forgot. Eight or ten of those Quantrell men are
-prowling about my way, the infernal scoundrels, and I hope they may
-be hunted out of the country.”
-
-Mahoney did well, but Scott did better. He secreted his men three
-miles from Richfield, and near the crossing of a bridge. If an
-enemy came the bridge was a sentinel--its resounding planks, the
-explosion of a musket. Scott, with eight men, dismounted and lay
-close along the road. Gregg, with Fletch Taylor, James Little and
-Joe Hart, mounted and ready to charge, kept still and expectant
-fifty yards in the rear in ambush. Presently at the crossing a dull
-booming was heard, and the Guerrillas knew that Sessions had bit
-at the bait Mahoney offered. A sudden clinking along the line--the
-eight were in a hurry.
-
-“Be still,” said Scott; “You cock too soon. I had rather have two
-cool men than ten impatient ones.”
-
-The Federals came right onward; they rode along gaily in front of
-the ambuscade; they had no skirmishers out and they were doomed.
-The leading files were abreast of Scott on the right when he
-ordered a volley, and Sessions, Lieutenant Graffenstein and seven
-privates fell dead. What was left of the Federal array turned
-itself into a rout; Gregg, Taylor, Little, and Hart thundered down
-to the charge. Scott mounted again, and altogether and away at a
-rush, pursuers and pursued dashed into Richfield. The remnant of
-the wreck surrendered, and Scott, more merciful than many among
-whom he soldiered, spared the prisoners and paroled them.
-
-
-House Occupied by Women Light of Love
-
-Four miles from Independence, and a little back from the road
-leading to Kansas City, stood a house occupied by several women
-light of love. Thither regularly went Federal soldiers from the
-Independence garrison, and the drinking was deep and the orgies
-shameful. Gregg set a trap to catch a few of the comers and goers.
-Within the lines of the enemy much circumspection was required
-to make an envelopment of the house successful. Jesse James was
-chosen from among the number of volunteers and sent forward to
-reconnoiter the premises. Jesse, arrayed in coquettish female
-apparel, with his smooth face, blue eyes, and blooming cheeks,
-looked the image of a bashful country girl, not yet acquainted
-with vice, though half eager and half reluctant to walk a step
-nearer to the edge of its perilous precipice. As he mounted, woman
-fashion, upon a fiery horse, the wind blew all about his peach
-colored face the pink ribbons of a garish bonnet and lifted the
-tell-tale riding habit just enough to reveal instead of laced shoes
-or gaiters, the muddy boots of a born cavalryman. Gregg, taking
-twelve men, followed in the rear of James to within a half a mile
-of the nearest picket post and hid in the woods until word could be
-brought from the bagnio ahead. If by a certain hour the disguised
-Guerilla did not return to his comrades, the pickets were to be
-driven in, the house surrounded, and the inmates forced to give
-such information as they possessed, of his whereabouts.
-
-Jesse James, having pointed out to him with tolerable accuracy the
-direction of the house, left the road, skirted the timber rapidly,
-leaped several ravines, floundered over a few marshy places and
-finally reached his destination without meeting a citizen or
-encountering an enemy. He would not dismount, but sat upon his
-horse at the fence and asked that the mistress of the establishment
-might come out to him. Little by little, and with many gawky
-protests and many a bashful simper, he told a plausible story of
-parental _espionage_ and family discipline. He, ostensibly a she,
-could not have a beau, could not go with the soldiers, could not
-sit with them late, nor ride with them, nor romp with them. She was
-tired of it all and wanted a little fun. Would the mistress let her
-come to her house occasionally and bring some of the neighborhood
-girls with her, who were in the same predicament? The mistress
-laughed and was glad. New faces to her were like new coin, and
-she put forth a hand and patted the merchantable thing upon the
-knee, and ogled her smiling mouth and girlish features gleefully.
-As the she-wolf and venturesome lamb separated, the assignation
-was assured. That night the amorous country girl, accompanied by
-three of her female companions, was to return, and the mistress,
-confident of her ability to provide lovers was to make known among
-the soldiers the attractive acquisition.
-
-It lacked an hour of sunset when Jesse James got back to Gregg; an
-hour after sunset the Guerrillas, following hard upon the tracks
-made by the boy spy, rode rapidly on to keep the trysting place.
-The house was aglow with lights and jubilant with laughter. Drink
-abounded, and under cover of the clinking glasses, the men kissed
-the women. Anticipating the orgy of unusual attraction, twelve
-Federals had been lured out from the garrison and made to believe
-that barefoot maidens ran wild in the woods and buxom lasses hid
-for the hunting. No guards were out; no sentinels posted. Jesse
-James crept close to a window and peered in. The night was chilly
-and a large wood fire blazed upon a large hearth. All the company
-were in one room, five women and a dozen men. Scattered about,
-yet ready for the grasping, the cavalry carbines were in easy
-reach, and the revolvers handy about the persons. Sampson trusting
-everything to Delilah, might not have trusted so much if under the
-old dispensation there had been anything of bushwhacking.
-
-Gregg loved everybody who wore the gray, and what exercised him
-most was the question just now of attack. Should he demand a
-surrender? Jesse James, the boy, said no to the veteran. Twelve
-men inside the house, and the house inside their own lines where
-reinforcements might be hurried quickly to them, would surely hold
-their own against eleven outside, if indeed they did not make it
-worse. The best thing to do was to fire through the windows and
-kill what could be killed by a carbine volley, then rush through
-the door and finish, under the cover of the smoke, horror and
-panic, those who should survive the broadside.
-
-[Illustration: JESSE JAMES GOING TO HOUSE OF LIGHT OF LOVE]
-
-Luckily the women sat in a corner to themselves and close to a
-large bed fixed to the wall and to the right of the fireplace. On
-the side of the house the bed was on, two broad windows opened low
-upon the ground, and between the windows there was a door, not
-ajar, but not fastened. Gregg, with five men, went to the upper
-window, and Taylor, with four, took possession of the lower. The
-women were out of immediate range. The house shook; the glass
-shivered, the door was hurled backward, there was a hot stifling
-crash of revolvers; and on the dresses of the women and the white
-coverlet of the bed great red splotches. Eight out of the twelve
-fell dead or wounded at the first fire; after the last fire all
-were dead. It was a spectacle ghastly beyond any ever witnessed by
-the Guerrillas, because so circumscribed. Piled two deep the dead
-men lay, one with a glass grasped tightly in his stiffened fingers,
-and one in his shut hand the picture of a woman scantily clad.
-How they wept, the poor, painted things, for the slain soldiers,
-and how they blasphemed; but Gregg tarried not, neither did he
-make atonement. As they lay there heaped where they fell and piled
-together, so they lay still when he mounted and rode away.
-
- * * * * *
-
-In the three months preceding the Lawrence massacre, over two
-hundred citizens were killed and their property burned or stolen.
-In mid-winter houses were burned by the hundred and whole
-neighborhoods devastated and laid waste. Aroused as he had never
-been before, Quantrell meditated a terrible vengeance.
-
-
-
-
-Lawrence Massacre
-
-
-In the spring of 1863, Quantrell issued a proclamation to the
-Federal forces of Kansas that if they did not stop burning and
-robbing houses, killing old men and women, he would in return come
-to Lawrence at some unexpected time and paint the city blacker than
-hades and make its streets run with blood.
-
-On Blackwater, in Johnson County, and at the house of Captain
-Purdee, Quantrell called the Guerrillas together for the Lawrence
-massacre. Todd, Jarrette, Blunt, Gregg, Trow, Anderson, Yager,
-Younger, Estes and Holt, all were there, and when the roll was
-called three hundred and ten answered promptly to their names.
-Up to the mustering hour Quantrell had probably not let his left
-hand know what his right hand had intended. Secrecy necessarily
-was to be the salvation of the expedition, if indeed there was
-any salvation for it. The rendezvous night was an August night--a
-blessed, balmy, mid-summer night--just such a night as would be
-chosen to give force to reflections and permit the secrets of the
-soul to escape. The sultry summer day had lain swarthily in the
-sun and panting; the sultry summer winds had whispered nothing of
-the shadowy woods, nothing of the babble of unseen brooks. Birds
-spoke goodbye to birds in the tree tops, and the foliage was filled
-with twilight. Quantrell sat grave and calm in the midst of his
-chieftains who were grouped about him. Further away where the
-shadows were, the men massed themselves in silent companies or
-spoke low to one another, and briefly. Something of a foreboding,
-occult though it was, and undefinable, made itself manifest. The
-shadow of a great tragedy was impending.
-
-Without in the least degree minimizing or magnifying the
-difficulties of the undertaking, Quantrell laid before his
-officers his plans for attacking Lawrence. For a week a man of the
-command--a cool, bold, plausible, desperate man--had been in the
-city--thought it, over it, about it and around it--and he was here
-in their midst to speak. Would they listen to him?
-
-“Let him speak,” said Todd, sententiously.
-
-Lieutenant Fletcher Taylor came out from the shadow, bowed gravely
-to the group, and with the brevity of a soldier who knew better
-how to fight than to talk, laid bare the situation. Disguised as a
-stock trader, or rather, assuming the role of a speculating man,
-he had boldly entered Lawrence. Liberal, for he was bountifully
-supplied with money; keeping open rooms at the Eldridge House, and
-agreeable in every way and upon every occasion, he had seen all
-that it was necessary to see, and learned all that could be of
-any possible advantage to the Guerrillas. The city proper was but
-weakly garrisoned; the camp beyond the river was not strong; the
-idea of a raid by Quantrell was honestly derided; the streets were
-broad and good for charging horsemen, and the hour for the venture
-was near at hand.
-
-“You have heard the report,” Quantrell said with a deep voice,
-“but before you decide it is proper that you should know it all.
-The march to Lawrence is a long one; in every little town there
-are soldiers; we leave soldiers behind us; we march through
-soldiers; we attack the town garrisoned by soldiers; we retreat
-through soldiers; and when we would rest and refit after the
-exhaustive expedition, we have to do the best we can in the midst
-of a multitude of soldiers. Come, speak out, somebody. What is it,
-Anderson?”
-
-“Lawrence or hell, but with one proviso, that we kill every male
-thing.”
-
-“Todd?”
-
-“Lawrence, if I knew not a man would get back alive.”
-
-“Gregg?”
-
-“Lawrence, it is the home of Jim Lane; the foster mother of the Red
-Legs; the nurse of the Jayhawkers.”
-
-“Shepherd?”
-
-“Lawrence. I know it of old; ‘niggers’ and white men are just the
-same there; its a Boston colony and it should be wiped out.”
-
-“Jarrette?”
-
-“Lawrence, by all means. I’ve had my eye on it for a long time. The
-head devil of all this killing and burning in Jackson County; I
-vote to fight it with fire--to burn it before we leave it.”
-
-“Dick Maddox?”
-
-“Lawrence; and an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; God
-understands better than we do the equilibrium of Civil War.”
-
-“Holt?”
-
-“Lawrence, and be quick about it.”
-
-“Yager?”
-
-“Where my house once stood there is a heap of ruins. I haven’t a
-neighbor that’s got a house--Lawrence and the torch.”
-
-“Blunt?”
-
-“Count me whenever there is killing. Lawrence first and then some
-other Kansas town; the name is nothing.”
-
-“Have you all voted?”
-
-“All.”
-
-“Then Lawrence it is; saddle up, men!”
-
-Thus was the Lawrence Massacre inaugurated.
-
-Was it justifiable? Is there much of anything that is justifiable
-in Civil War? Originally, the Jayhawkers in Kansas had been very
-poor. They coveted the goods of their Missouri neighbors, made
-wealthy or well-to-do by prosperous years of peace and African
-slavery. Before they became soldiers they had been brigands, and
-before they destroyed houses in the name of retaliation they had
-plundered them at the instance of personal greed. The first
-Federal officers operating in Kansas; that is to say, those who
-belonged to the state, were land pirates or pilferers. Lane was a
-wholesale plunderer; Jennison, in the scaly gradation, stood next
-to Lane; Anthony next to Jennison; Montgomery next to Anthony;
-Ransom next to Montgomery, and so on down until it reached to the
-turn of captains, lieutenants, sergeants, corporals and privates.
-Stock in herds, droves and multitudes were driven from Missouri
-into Kansas. Houses gave up their furniture; women, their jewels;
-children, their wearing apparel; store-rooms, their contents; the
-land, their crops, and the banks, their deposits. To robbery was
-added murder; to murder, arson, and to arson depopulation. Is it
-any wonder, then, that the Missourian whose father was killed
-should kill in return, whose house was burnt should burn in return,
-whose property was plundered, should pillage in return, whose
-life was made miserable, should hunt as a wild beast and rend
-accordingly? Many such were in Quantrell’s command--many whose
-lives were blighted; who in a night were made orphans and paupers;
-who saw the labor and accumulation of years swept away in an hour
-of wanton destruction; who for no reason on earth save that they
-were Missourians, were hunted from hiding place to hiding place;
-who were preyed upon while not a single cow remained or a single
-shock of grain; who were shot at, bedeviled and proscribed, and
-who, no matter whether Union or disunion, were permitted to have
-neither flag nor country.
-
-It was the summer night of August 16, 1863, that the Guerilla
-column, having at its head its ominous banner, marched west from
-Purdee’s place on Blackwater. With its simple soldiers, or rather
-volunteers for the expedition, were Colonels Joseph Holt and Boaz
-Roberts. Officers of the regular Confederate army, who were in
-Missouri on recruiting service when the march began, fell into line
-as much from habit as from inclination.
-
-The first camp was made upon a stream midway between Pleasant Hill
-and Lone Jack, where the grazing was good and the hiding places
-excellent. All day Quantrell concealed himself there, getting to
-saddle just at dark and ordering Todd up from the rear to the
-advance. Passing Pleasant Hill to the north and marching on rapidly
-fifteen miles, the second camp was at Harrelson’s, twenty-five
-miles from the place of starting. At three o’clock in the afternoon
-of the second day, the route was resumed and followed due west to
-Aubrey, a pleasant Kansas stream, abounding in grass and timber.
-Here Quantrell halted until darkness set in, feeding the horses
-well and permitting the men to cook and eat heartily. At eight
-o’clock the march began again and continued on throughout the
-night, in the direction of Lawrence. Three pilots were pressed into
-service, carried with the command as far as they knew anything of
-the road or the country, and then shot down remorselessly in the
-nearest timber.
-
-On the morning of the 21st, Lawrence was in sight. An old man a
-short distance upon the right of the road was feeding his hogs
-in the gray dawn, the first person seen to stir about the doomed
-place. Quantrell sent Cole Younger over to the hog-pen to catechize
-the industrious old farmer and learn from him what changes had
-taken place in the situation since Taylor had so thoroughly
-accomplished his mission. Younger, dressed as a Federal lieutenant,
-exhausted speedily the old man’s limited stock. Really, but little
-change had taken place. Across the Kansas river there were probably
-four hundred soldiers in camp, and on the Lawrence side about
-seventy-five. As for the rebels, he didn’t suppose there was one
-nearer than Missouri; certainly none within striking distance of
-Lawrence.
-
-It was a lovely morning. The green of the fields and the blue of
-the skies were glad together. Birds sang sweetly. The footsteps of
-autumn had not yet been heard in the land.
-
-“The camp first,” was the cry which ran through the ranks, and
-Todd, leading Quantrell’s old company, dashed down, yelling and
-shooting. Scarcely any resistance was made, as every time they
-stuck their heads out of a tent it was met with a bullet. Ridden
-over, shot in their blankets, paralyzed, some of them with terror,
-they ran frantically about. What could they do against the
-quickest and deadliest pistol shots along the border?
-
-Bill Anderson, Todd, Jarrette, Little, McGuire, Long, Bill McGuire,
-Richard Kenney, Allen Parmer, Frank James, Clemmons, Shepherd,
-Hinton, Blunt, Harrison Trow, and the balance of the older men did
-the most of the killing. They went for revenge, and they took it.
-These men killed. They burned. The Federals on the opposite side of
-the river made scarcely any attempt to come to the rescue of their
-butchered comrades. A few skirmishes held them in check. It was a
-day of darkness and woe. Killing ran riot. The torch was applied
-to every residence; the air was filled with cries for mercy;
-dead men lay in cellars, upon streets, in parlors where costly
-furniture was, on velvet carpets. The sun came up and flooded the
-sky with its radiance and yet the devil’s work was not done. Smoke
-ascended into the air, and the crackling of blazing rafters and
-crashing of falling walls filled the air. A true story of the day’s
-terrible work will never be told. Nobody knows it. It is a story of
-episodes, tragic--a story full of collossal horrors and unexpected
-deliverances.
-
-Frank James, just as he was in the act of shooting a soldier in
-uniform who had been caught in a cellar--his pistol was at the
-Federal’s head--heard an exceedingly soft and penetrating voice
-calling out to him, “Do not kill him for my sake. He has eight
-children who have no mother.” James looked and saw a beautiful
-girl just turned sixteen, blushing at her boldness and trembling
-before him. In the presence of so much grace and loveliness her
-father was disarmed. He remembered his own happy youth, his sister,
-not older than the girl beside him, his mother who had always
-instilled into his mind lessons of mercy and charity. He put up his
-pistol.
-
-“Take him, he is yours. I would not harm a hair of his head for the
-whole state of Kansas,” said James.
-
-Judge Carpenter was killed in the yard of H. C. Clark, and Colonel
-Holt, one of the Confederate officers with the expedition, saved
-Clark. He saved others besides Clark. He had been a Union man doing
-business in Vernon County, Missouri, as a merchant. Jennison,
-belonging to old Jim Lane of Lawrence, noted “nigger” thief,
-robber and house burner, who always ran from the enemy, raided the
-neighborhood in which he lived, plundered him of his goods, burnt
-his property, insulted his family, and Holt joined the Confederate
-army for revenge. The notorious general, James H. Lane, to get whom
-Quantrell would gladly have left and sacrificed the balance of the
-victims, made his escape through a corn field, hotly pursued but
-too speedily mounted to be captured. He swam the river.
-
-There were two camps in Lawrence at the time of the attack, one
-camp of the “nigger” troops being located at the southern end of
-Massachusetts street and the other camp of white soldiers were
-camped in the heart of the city. In this latter camp there were
-twenty-one infantry, eighteen of whom were killed in the first wild
-charge.
-
-Cole Younger had dragged from his hiding place in a closet a very
-large man who had the asthma. In his fright and what with his hurry
-the poor man could not articulate. Younger’s pistol was against his
-heart when his old wife cried out, “For God’s sake, do not shoot
-him. He has not slept in a bed for nine years.” This appeal and the
-asthma together, caused Younger to roar out, “I never intended to
-harm a hair of his head.”
-
-Todd and Jarrette, while roaming through Eldridge’s house in search
-of adventure, came upon a door that was locked. Todd knocked and
-cried out that the building was in flames and it was time to get
-away. “Let it burn and be d----d,” a deep voice answered, and then
-the voices of three men were heard in conversation. Jarrette threw
-his whole weight against the door, bursting it open, and as he did
-so Todd fired and killed one of the three, Jarrette another and
-Todd the third, who were hiding there. They were soldiers who had
-escaped in the morning’s massacre, and who did not even make an
-effort to defend themselves. Perhaps the number killed will never
-be accurately known, but I should say there were at least one
-thousand killed, and none wounded. The loss of property amounted
-to the enormous sum of $1,500,000. The total buildings consumed
-were one hundred and eighty-nine. In the city proper Quantrell had
-one man killed and two wounded. The man who lost his life was drunk
-when the firing began. His name was Larkin Skaggs, and the fighting
-at Lawrence was the first he had ever done as a Guerilla.
-
-Fate favored Quantrell from the time he left Missouri until he
-returned to Missouri. A man from Johnson County, Kansas, started by
-an Indian trail to inform the people of Lawrence of his coming. He
-rode too carelessly and his horse fell and so injured him that he
-died. A full company of soldiers were situated at Oxford, but they
-seemed more anxious to keep out of the way than to fight.
-
-As Quantrell retreated from Lawrence, he sat upon the right end,
-William Gregg with twenty men upon the left. Bill Anderson with
-twenty men, Gregg took with him Frank James, Arch Clemmons, Little,
-Morrow, Harrison Trow and others of the most desperate men of the
-band. Anderson took Hockinsmith, Long, McGuire, Parmer, Hicks, Hi
-George, Doc Campbell and other equally desperate characters. Each
-was ordered to burn a swath as they marched back parallel with the
-main body and to kill in proportion as he burned. Soon on every
-hand were columns of smoke beginning to rise, and soon was heard
-the rattle of firing arms from around the consuming houses, and
-old farmers who had taken up arms were shot down as a holiday
-frolic. This unforgiving farewell lasted for twelve miles until
-pressed too heavily in the rear. Quantrell was forced to recall his
-detachments and look to the safety of his aggregate columns.
-
-Missouriward from Kansas ten miles, Quantrell halted to rest and
-eat a little. Cole Younger rode out into a cabbage patch and got
-himself a cabbage head and began to eat it. The lady of the house
-came out. Younger said:
-
-“This is a very fine cabbage you have.” The lady replied:
-
-“I hope it will choke you to death, you d----d old rebel
-son-of-a-buck.”
-
-“Thank you, ma’am,” was the reply. “Where is your husband?”
-
-Before any of the men had finished eating, the pickets were drawn
-into the rear, pressed to the girth. Todd and Jarrette held out as
-two lines that had not broken fast. Step by step, and firing at
-everyone in pursuit, at arm’s length, for ten miles further the
-Federals would not charge. Overwhelming in numbers though they
-were, and capable of taking at any moment everything in opposition
-to them, they contented themselves with firing at long range and
-keeping always at and about a deadly distance from the rear. The
-Guerillas, relying principally upon dash and revolver, felt the
-need of a charge. Quantrell halted the whole column for a charge.
-The detachments on either flank had some time since been gathered
-up and the men brought face to face with urgent need. Turned about
-quickly and dressed up in line handsomely as he came trotting up
-in the rear guard Todd fell into line upon the left and Quantrell
-gave the word. The Federal pursuit had hardly time to fire a volley
-before it was rent into shreds and scattered upon the prairie.
-
-
-
-
-Order Number 11, August, 1863
-
-
-Two days after his safe arrival in Missouri from the Lawrence
-massacre, Quantrell disbanded the Guerrillas. Fully six thousand
-Federals were on his track. The savageness of the blow struck there
-had appalled and infuriated the country. The journalistic pulse
-of the North rose to fever heat and beat as though to its raging
-fever there had been added raving insanity. In the delirium of
-the governing powers impossible things were demanded. Quantrell
-was to be hunted to the death; he was to be hanged, drawn and
-quartered; his band was to be annihilated; he was to be fought
-with fire, persecution, depopulation and wholesale destruction. At
-the height of the very worst of these terrible paroxysms, Ewing’s
-famous General Order No. 11 was issued. It required every citizen
-of Jackson, Cass, Bates and a portion of Vernon counties to abandon
-their houses and come either into the lines of designated places
-that were fortified, or within the jurisdiction of said lines. If
-neither was done, and said citizens remained outside beyond the
-time limit specified for such removal, they were to be regarded
-as outlaws and punished accordingly. Innocent and guilty alike
-felt the rigors of this unprecedented proscription. For the Union
-man there was the same line of demarkation that was drawn for
-the secessionist. Age had no immunity; sex was not regarded. The
-rights of property vanished; predatory bands preyed at will;
-nothing could be sold; everything had to be abandoned; it was the
-obliterating of prosperity by counties; it was the depopulation of
-miles upon miles of fertile territory in a night.
-
-General Ewing had been unjustly censured for the promulgation of
-such an order and held responsible in many ways for its execution.
-The genius of a celebrated painter, Captain George C. Bingham of
-Missouri, had been evoked to give infamy to the vandalism of the
-dead and voice to the indignation of history over its consummation.
-Bingham’s picture of burning and plundering houses, of a sky made
-awful with mingling flames and smoke, of a long line of helpless
-fugitives going away they knew not whither, of appealing women
-and gray haired non-combatants, of skeleton chimneys rising like
-wrathful and accusing things from the wreck of pillaged homesteads,
-of uniformed things called officers rummaging in trunks and
-drawers, of colonels loaded with plunder, and captains gaudy in
-stolen jewelry, will live longer than the memories of the strife,
-and keep alive horrible memories long after Guerrilla and Jayhawker
-are well forgotten.
-
-Ewing, however, was a soldier. General Order No. 11 came from
-district headquarters at St. Louis where Scofield commanded,
-and through Scofield from Washington City direct. Ewing had
-neither choice nor discretion in the matter. He was a brave,
-conscientious, hard fighting officer who did his duty as it came
-to his hands to do. He could not have made, if he had tried, one
-hair of the infamous Order white or black. It was a portion of
-the extraordinary order of things, and Ewing occupied towards it
-scarcely the attitude of an instrument. He promulgated it but he
-did not originate it; he gave it voice but he did not give it form
-and substance; his name had been linked to it as to something that
-should justly cause shame and reproach, but history in the end
-will separate the soldier from the man and render unto the garb of
-the civilian what it has failed to concede to the uniform of the
-commander. As a citizen of the republic he deplored the cruelty of
-an enactment which he knew to be monstrous; but as a soldier in the
-line of duty, the necessity of the situation could not justify a
-moment’s argument. He had but to obey and to execute, and he did
-both--and mercifully.
-
-For nearly three weeks Jackson County was a Pandemonium, together
-with the counties of Cass, Bates, Vernon, Clay and Lafayette. Six
-thousand Federals were in the saddle, but Quantrell held his grip
-upon these counties despite everything. Depopulation was going on
-in a two-fold sense--one by emigration or exodus, and one by the
-skillful killing of perpetual ambushment and lyings-in-waiting.
-In detachments of ten, the Guerrillas divided up and fought
-everywhere. Scattered, they came together as if by instinct.
-Driven from the flanks of one column, they appeared in the rear
-of another. They had voices that were as the voices of the night
-birds. Mysterious horsemen appeared on all the roads. Not a single
-Federal scouting or exploring party escaped paying toll. Sometimes
-the aggregate of the day’s dead was simply enormous. Frequently the
-assailants were never seen. Of a sudden, and rising, as it were,
-out of the ground, they delivered a deadly blow and rode away in
-the darkness--invisible.
-
-
-
-
-Fights and Skirmishes During Fall and Winter, 1863–1864
-
-
-As the Lawrence raid put the whole Federal forces after us, it
-was a continuous fight from September 1, 1863, to Price’s raid in
-August, 1864, but Quantrell held his own.
-
-Up to the time of the Lawrence massacre there had been no scalping
-done; after it a good deal. Abe Haller, brother of Lieutenant
-William Haller, was wounded and hiding in some timber near Texas
-Prairie in the eastern edge of Jackson County. Alone, he faced
-seventy-two men, killing and wounding five of the attacking party,
-when he fell. His slayers scalped him and cut off his ears. Shortly
-afterwards Andy Blunt came upon the body, mutilated as it was, and
-pointed out the marks of the knife to his companions.
-
-“We have something to learn yet, boys,” he said, “and we have
-learned it.” “Scalp for scalp hereafter!”
-
-The next day Blunt, Long, Clemens, Bill Anderson and McGuire
-captured four militiamen from a regiment belonging to North
-Missouri. Blunt scalped each of the four, leaving their ears
-intact, however. He said he had no use for them.
-
-
-Fire Prairie
-
-The killing went on. Between Fire Prairie and Napoleon Gregg,
-Taylor, Nolan, Little and Frank James captured six of Pennick’s
-militiamen. They held over them a kind of court martial and killed
-them all. These were not scalped.
-
-
-Wellington
-
-The next day Richard Kenney, John Farretts, Jesse James and Sim
-Whitsett attacked a picket post of eight men about a mile from
-Wellington and annihilated it, cutting them off from the town and
-running them in a contrary direction. Not a man escaped.
-
-
-Lexington Road
-
-Two days afterwards Ben Morrow, Pat O’Donald and Frank James
-ambushed an entire Federal company between Salem church on the
-Lexington road and Widow Child’s. They fought eighty men for nearly
-an hour, killing seven and wounding thirteen. O’Donald was wounded
-three times and James and Morrow each once slightly.
-
-
-Shawnee Town Road
-
-Todd gathered together thirty of his old men and, getting a
-volunteer guide who knew every hog path in the country, went around
-past Kansas City boldly and took up a position on the Shawnee Town
-road, looking for a train of wagons bringing infantry into Kansas
-City. There were twenty wagons with twenty soldiers to the wagon,
-besides the drivers. Here and there between the wagons intervals
-of fifty yards had been permitted to grow. Todd waited until all
-the wagons but three had passed by the point of his ambush when
-he sprang out upon them and poured into them and upon their jammed
-and crowded freight a deadly rain of bullets. Every shot told. Todd
-butchered sixty in the three wagons and turned away from his work
-of death and pursued the balance.
-
-
-Independence
-
-Cole Younger, while Todd was operating in Kansas, gathered about
-him ten men and hid himself as close to Independence as it was
-possible to get without getting into town. His eyes for some time
-had been fastened upon a large corral. He sent William Hulse out
-to reconnoiter the position and bring word of the guard stationed
-to protect it. Younger avoided the pickets and by eleven o’clock
-had made the distance, halting at the turning off place on the main
-road and giving his horses in charge of two of the detachment. With
-the other eight on foot led by Hulse, he crept close to the reserve
-post and fired point blank into the sleeping guard, some rolled up
-in their blankets and some resting at ease about the fire. Choosing
-his way as well as possible by the uncertain light. Younger escaped
-unpursued with three excellent horses to the man after killing
-seventeen Federals in the night attack and wounding many more.
-
-
-
-
-Blue Springs Fight in December, 1863
-
-
-Colonel Pennick’s men came from Independence down to Blue Springs
-and burned houses, killed old men--too old to be in the service.
-They numbered two hundred, while Quantrell’s men numbered one
-hundred. On the road from Blue Springs to Independence they killed
-John Sanders and a man named Kimberland--both old men--and left
-them lying in the roadway. If neighbors had not offered their
-services the hogs would have eaten their bodies. They burned from
-two to twelve houses and left the families homeless.
-
-The people of the neighborhood sent a runner to Quantrell. We
-mounted, struck a gallop and did not slow down until we charged the
-rear and went through them like fire through stubble, killing as we
-went. After the battle was over we counted seventy-five killed and
-an equal number wounded. Those who were not hit were so scared that
-we had no more trouble with them.
-
-On our retreat Quantrell’s password was, “Bat them, boys, over the
-left eye.”
-
-A good old citizen by the name of Uncle George Rider, hearing the
-firing and seeing us coming, got off his horse and laid down in
-the woods close to the road, face up, having a belly on him like a
-ten-gallon beer keg. Quantrell said to Dick Burns, “You go out and
-bat him over the left eye.” Burns went out to him and hollered
-back to Quantrell that “he has been dead a week; see how he is
-swelled up.” We had lots of fun afterwards about his belly saving
-him.
-
-
-
-
-Wellington
-
-
-Four miles east of Wellington stood a large house occupied by some
-lewd women, notorious for their favors and their enticements.
-Poole knew the situation well, and suggested to Jarrette that
-a sufficient detour should be made to encompass the building.
-Arriving there about eleven o’clock at night, it appeared from the
-outside as if there were some kind of a frolic. Lights shone from
-many of the windows, music and the sound of dancing feet could be
-heard occasionally. Frank James crept to a back door and looked in
-and counted five women and eleven men. Some of the men were sitting
-on the laps of the women and some were so close to others that to
-risk a volley would be murderous. At no time without hitting a
-woman could they make sure of hitting a man. They waited an hour to
-gain a favorable opportunity, but waited in vain. Jarrette solved
-the problem.
-
-He was dressed in Federal uniform, and after placing his men so as
-to cut off any escape from the house if the occupants once came
-outside, he rode boldly up to the fence in front of the premises
-and cried, “Hello!” A soldier came to the door with a gun in his
-hand and answered him. Jarrette continued, “Who are you that you
-come to this place in defiance of every order issued for a month?
-What business have you here tonight? Who gave you permission
-to come? Where are your passes? Come out here and let me read
-them.” Thinking Jarrette a provost captain scouting for runaways
-from the Lexington garrison, ten of the eleven militiamen started
-confidently for the fence, receiving, when half way, the crushing
-fire of twenty concealed Guerrillas. In a space four blankets might
-have covered the ten fell and died, only one of the lot discharging
-a weapon or making a pretense of resistance.
-
-Frank James stooped to count them, and as he rose he remarked:
-“There are but ten here. Awhile ago there were eleven.” The
-building was entered, searched from top to bottom in every nook and
-corner, but no soldier. The women were questioned, one at a time,
-separately. They knew only that when the man at the fence called
-they all went out together.
-
-Frank James, whose passive face had from the first expressed
-neither curiosity nor doubt, spoke up again and briefly: “Awhile
-ago I counted but five women, now there are six.” Save four
-sentinels on duty at either end of the main road, Guerrillas had
-gathered together in the lower large room of the dwelling house.
-The fire had burned low, and was fitful and flickering. Where there
-had been half a dozen candles there were now only two.
-
-“Bring more,” said Poole, “and we will separate this wolf from the
-ewes.”
-
-“Aye, if we have to strip the lot,” spoke up a coarse voice in the
-crowd.
-
-“Silence,” cried Jarrette, laying a hand upon a pistol and turning
-to his men in the shadow, “not a woman shall be touched. We are
-wild beasts, yes, but we war on wild beasts.”
-
-More light was brought, and with a candle in each hand Poole
-went from woman to woman, scanning the face of each long and
-searchingly, and saying when he had finished, “I give it up. If one
-of the six here is a man, let him keep his dress and his scalp.”
-
-Frank James, just behind Poole, had inspected each countenance also
-as the candles passed before it, and when Poole had done speaking,
-he laid a finger upon a woman’s shoulder and spoke as one having
-authority: “This is the man. If I miss my reckoning, shoot me dead.”
-
-The marvelous nerve, which up to this time had stood with the
-militiaman as a shield and a defense, deserted him when the
-extremity came, and he turned ghastly white, trembled to his
-feet, and fell, sobbing and praying on his knees. Horrified by
-the slaughter in the yard, and afraid to rush from the house lest
-he be shot down also, he hurriedly put on the garments of one of
-the women, composed his features as best he could, and waited in
-suspense the departure of the Guerrillas. Almost a boy, his smooth
-face was fresher and fairer than the face of any real woman there.
-His hair, worn naturally long and inclined to be brown, was thick
-and fine. The dress hid his feet, or the boots would have betrayed
-him at the start. Not knowing that an observation had been made
-before the firing, and the number accurately taken of both men and
-women, he hoped to brave it through and laugh afterwards and tell
-to his messmates how near death had passed by him and did not stop.
-The reaction, however, upon discovery, was pitiful. He was too
-young to die, he pleaded. He had never harmed a human being in his
-life. If he was spared he would abandon the army and throw away his
-gun. As he prayed he wept, but Jarrette abated further abasement of
-his manhood.
-
-“He is yours, James,” he said, “and fairly yours. When he changed
-color ever so little under Poole’s inspection you saw it and no
-other man saw it, and he belongs to you. Take him.” Property in
-human flesh was often disposed of in this way.
-
-“Come,” said Frank James, lifting the young Federal up to his feet
-with his left hand and drawing his revolver with his right; “come
-outside, it is not far to go.”
-
-Scarcely able to stand, yet unresisting, the militiaman followed
-the Guerrilla--the lamb following the tiger. As they went by the
-ghastly heap, all ragged and intangible in the uncertain light,
-the one shuddered and the other was glad. At the fence the poor
-prisoner was so weak he could scarcely climb it. Beyond the fence
-was the road and down this road a few hundred yards towards
-Lexington Frank James led his victim. Under the shadows of a huge
-tree he halted. It was quite dark there. Only the good God could
-see what was done; the leaves shut the stars out.
-
-“Do not kill me for my mother’s sake,” came from the pinched lips
-of the poor victim, “for I have no one else to pray for me. Spare
-me just this once.”
-
-“You are free,” said James, “go,” and as he spoke he pointed in the
-direction of Lexington.
-
-“Free? You do not kill me? You tell me go? Great God, am I sleeping
-or awake!” and the man’s teeth chattered and he shook as if in a
-fit of ague.
-
-“Yes, go and go quickly; you are past the guards, past all danger;
-you belong to me and I give you your life. =Go!=”
-
-At that moment Frank James lifted his pistol in the air and fired.
-When he returned to the house Jarrette, who had heard the pistol
-shot, rallied him.
-
-“Yes,” he said, “it was soon over. Boys and babies are not hard
-to kill.” James had just taken the trouble to save the life of a
-Federal soldier because he had appealed to him in the name of his
-mother.
-
-Jarrette continued on his raid. South of Lexington six miles he
-came suddenly upon nine Federals in a school house, sheltered
-against a heavy rain that was falling. After shooting the nine and
-appropriating the house, he propped each corpse up to a desk, put
-a book before it and wrote upon the blackboard fixed against the
-wall: “John Jarrette and David Poole taught this school today for
-one hour. We found the pupils all loyal and we left them as we
-found them.”
-
-Again in the German settlement a company of militia were engaged
-and cut to pieces. Near Dover five militiamen from Carroll County
-were caught encamped at Tebo bridge and shot. Near Waverly ten men
-at odd times were picked up and put out of the way. And on the
-return march to Jackson County no less than forty-three straggling
-Federals, in squads of from three to nine, were either surprised or
-overtaken and executed without trial or discussion.
-
-
-
-
-The Grinter Fight
-
-
-A Dutch colonel, with his company of men, one day came into Piser’s
-saloon in Independence, Mo., and got to drinking pretty freely and
-said to Piser, the saloon keeper:
-
-“Dose you’se knows where dot Quantrell, dot kill-devil, iss? Gife
-us another drink. We are going out and get dot Quantrells today,
-brings his scalps in on ours vidle bits.”
-
-Piser, a friend of both Federals and Confederates, pleaded with him
-to leave the job alone. The Dutch colonel wore a pair of earrings
-as big as a ring in a bull’s nose.
-
-“Give us another drinks,” the Dutch colonel said. “Ills tells youse
-we are going after Quantrells, and ven I finds him I is going to
-says, ‘Haltz!’ and ven I says ‘haltz’ dot means him stops a little
-viles.”
-
-So they took the Independence and Harrisonville road and found
-Quantrell camped close to old man Grinter’s and as usual always
-ready for any surprise, for he had been surprised so much. When the
-Dutch colonel and his company came in sight, Quantrell ordered his
-men to mount and charge, which they did, and when the smoke cleared
-away only two remained to tell the story. They were a couple
-hundred yards away sitting on their horses cursing us, calling us
-all kinds of d----d “secesh,” telling us to come on. I said to
-Sim Whitsett, “Let’s give them a little chase. They seem to be so
-brave.” We took after them but they would not stand. They broke
-and ran. We ran them for a quarter of a mile down the big road.
-One fell off his horse dead, the other one jumped off and ran into
-old man Grinter’s house. Mrs. Grinter was in the yard. He ran to
-her and said, “Hide me.” She put him under a bee gum. Sim and I
-stopped but never could find him. Sim does not to this day like the
-Grinter name. Sim said, “I got the earring, but he is the lad.” He
-afterwards gave them to a girl on Texas Prairie, Missouri. Poor old
-Dutchman. He lost his life with all his men but one.
-
-[Illustration: TAKING DINNER WITH THE FEDERALS]
-
-
-
-
-The Centralia Massacre
-
-
-In history, this is called a battle of massacre, but there never
-was a fight during the Civil War that was fought any more fairly
-than this battle was fought.
-
-Along about September, 1864, at Paris, in Monroe County, there had
-been a Federal garrison three hundred strong, under the command of
-a Major Johnson. These soldiers, on the watch for Anderson, had
-been busy in scouting expeditions and had come down as near to
-Centralia as Sturgeon.
-
-After Anderson had done all the devilment that he could lay his
-hands to in Centralia and had retired again to the Singleton camp,
-Major Johnson came into the pillaged town, swearing all kind of
-fearful and frightful things.
-
-At the head of his column a black flag was carried. So also was
-there one at the head of Todd’s column. In Johnson’s ranks the
-Stars and Stripes for this day had been laid aside. In the ranks
-of the Guerrillas the Stars and Stripes flew fair and free, as if
-there had been the intention to add to the desperation of the sable
-banner the gracefulness and abandon of legitimate war.
-
-The Union citizens of Centralia, knowing Anderson only in his
-transactions, besought Johnson to beware of him. He was no match
-for Anderson. It was useless to sacrifice both himself and his
-men. Anderson had not retreated; he was in ambush somewhere about
-the prairie. He would swoop down like an eagle; he would smite
-and spare not. Johnson was as brave as the best of them, but he
-did not know what he was doing. He had never in his life fought
-Guerrillas--such Guerrillas as were now to meet him.
-
-He listened patiently to the warnings that were well meant, and
-he put away firmly the hands that were lifted to stay his horse.
-He pointed gleefully to his black flag, and boasted that quarter
-should neither be given nor asked. He had come to carry back with
-him the body of Bill Anderson, and that body he would have, dead or
-alive.
-
-Fate, however, had not yet entirely turned its face away from the
-Federal officer. As he rode out from the town at the head of his
-column a young Union girl, described as very fair and beautiful,
-rushed up to Major Johnson and halted him. She spoke as one
-inspired. She declared that a presentiment had come to her, and
-that if he led his men that day against Bill Anderson, she felt and
-knew that but few of them would return alive. The girl almost knelt
-in the dust as she besought the leader, but to no avail.
-
-Johnson’s blood was all on fire, and he would march and fight, no
-matter whether death waited for him one mile off, or one hundred
-miles off. He not only carried a black flag himself, and swore
-to give no quarter, but he declared on his return that he would
-devastate the country and leave of the habitations of the southern
-men not one stone upon another. He was greatly enraged towards the
-last. He cursed the people as “damned secesh,” and swore that they
-were in league with the murderers and robbers. Extermination, in
-fact, was what they all needed, and if fortune favored him in the
-fight, it was extermination that all should have. Fortune did not
-favor him.
-
-Johnson rode east of south, probably three miles. The scouts who
-went to Singleton’s barn, where Anderson camped, came back to say
-that the Guerrillas had been there, had fed there, had rested
-there, and had gone down into the timber beyond to hide themselves.
-It was now about four o’clock in the afternoon.
-
-Back from the barn, a long, high ridge lifted itself up from the
-undulating level of the more regular country and broke the vision
-southward. Beyond this ridge a wide, smooth prairie stretched
-itself out, and still beyond this prairie, and further to the
-south, was the timber in which the scouts said Bill Anderson was
-hiding.
-
-As Johnson rode towards the ridge, still distant from it a mile
-or so, ten men anticipated him by coming up fair to view, and in
-skirmishing order. The leader of this little band, Captain John
-Thrailkill, had picked for the occasion David and John Poole, Frank
-and Jesse James, Tuck Hill, Peyton Long, Ben Morrow, James Younger,
-E. P. DeHart, Ed Greenwood and Harrison Trow. Next to Thrailkill
-rode Jesse James, and next to Jesse, Frank. Johnson had need to
-beware of what might be before him in the unknown when such giants
-as these began to show themselves.
-
-The Guerrillas numbered, all told, exactly two hundred and
-sixty-two. In Anderson’s company there were sixty-one men, in
-George Todd’s forty-eight, in Poole’s forty-nine, in Thomas Todd’s
-fifty-four, and in Thrailkill’s fifty--two hundred and sixty-two
-against three hundred.
-
-As Thrailkill went forward to skirmish with the advancing enemy,
-Todd came out of the timber where he had been hiding, and formed
-a line of battle in an old field in front of it. Still further
-to the front a sloping hill, half a mile away, arose between
-Johnson and the Guerillas. Todd rode to the crest of this, pushing
-Thrailkill well forward into the prairie beyond, and took his
-position there. When he lifted his hat and waved it the whole
-force was to move rapidly on. Anderson held the right, George Todd
-joined to Anderson, Poole to George Todd, Thomas Todd to Poole, and
-Thrailkill to Thomas Todd--and thus were the ranks arrayed.
-
-The ten skirmishers quickly surmounted the hill and disappeared.
-Todd, as a carved statue, stood his horse upon its summit. Johnson
-moved right onward. Some shots at long range were fired and some
-bullets from the muskets of the Federals reached to and beyond the
-ridge where Todd watched, Peyton Long by his side. From a column of
-fours Johnson’s men galloped at once into line of battle, right in
-front, and marched so, pressing up well and calmly.
-
-The advanced Guerillas opened fire briskly at last, and the
-skirmishing grew suddenly hot. Thrailkill, however, knew his
-business too well to tarry long at such work, and fell back towards
-the ridge.
-
-As this movement was being executed, Johnson’s men raised a shout
-and dashed forward together and in a compact mass order formation,
-ranks all gone. This looked bad. Such sudden exultation over a
-skirmish wherein none were killed exhibited nervousness. Such a
-spontaneous giving way of the body, even beyond the will of their
-commander, should have manifested neither surprise nor delight and
-looked ominous for discipline.
-
-Thrailkill formed again when he reached Todd’s line of battle, and
-Johnson rearranged his ranks and went towards the slope at a brisk
-walk. Some upon the right broke into a trot, but he halted them,
-cursed them, and bade them look better to their line.
-
-Up the hill’s crest, however, a column of men suddenly rode into
-view, halted, dismounted and seemed to be busy or confused about
-something.
-
-Inexperienced, Johnson is declared to have said to his adjutant:
-“They will fight on foot--what does that mean?” It meant that the
-men were tightening their saddle girths, putting fresh caps on
-their revolvers, looking well to bridle reins and bridle bits,
-and preparing for a charge that would have about it the fury of
-a whirlwind. By and by the Guerrillas were mounted again. From a
-column they transformed themselves into a line two deep and with a
-double interval between all files. At a slow walk they moved over
-the crest towards Major Johnson, now advancing at a walk that was
-more brisk.
-
-Perhaps it was now five o’clock. The September sun was low in the
-west, not red nor angry, but an Indian summer sun, full yet of
-generous warmth and grateful beaming. The crisp grass crinkled
-under foot. A distance of five hundred yards separated the two
-lines. Not a shot had been fired. Todd showed a naked front, bare
-of skirmishers and stripped for a fight that he knew would be
-murderous to the Federals. And why should they not stand? The black
-flag waved alike over each, and from the lips of the leaders of
-each there had been all that day only threats of extermination and
-death.
-
-Johnson halted his men and rode along his front speaking a few
-calm and collected words. They could not be heard in Todd’s ranks,
-but they might have been divined. Most battle speeches are the
-same. They abound in good advice. They are generally full of such
-sentences as this: “Aim low, keep cool, fire when you get loaded.
-Let the wounded lie till the fight is over.”
-
-But could it be possible that Johnson meant to receive the charge
-of the Guerrillas at a halt! What cavalry books had he read?
-Who had taught him such ruinous and suicidal tactics? And yet,
-monstrous as the resolution was in a military sense, it had
-actually been made, and Johnson called out loud enough to be heard
-by the opposing force: “Come on, we are ready for the fight!”
-
-The challenge was accepted. The Guerillas gathered themselves
-together as if by a sudden impulse, and took the bridle reins
-between their teeth. In the hands of each man there was a deadly
-revolver. There were carbines, too, and yet they had never been
-unslung. The sun was not high, and there was great need to finish
-quickly whatever had need to be done. Riding the best and fastest
-horses in Missouri, George Shepherd, Oll Shepherd, Frank Shepherd,
-Frank Gregg, Morrow, McGuire, Allen Parmer, Hence and Lafe Privin,
-James Younger, Press Webb, Babe Hudspeth, Dick Burnes, Ambrose
-and Thomas Maxwell, Richard Kinney, Si and Ike Flannery, Jesse
-and Frank James, David Poole; John Poole, Ed Greenwood, Al Scott,
-Frank Gray, George Maddox, Dick Maddox, De Hart, Jeff Emery,
-Bill Anderson, Tuck Hill, James Cummings, John Rupe, Silas King,
-James Corum, Moses Huffaker, Ben Broomfield, Peyton Long, Jack
-Southerland, William Reynolds, William and Charles Stewart, Bud
-Pence, Nat Tigue, Gooly Robertson, Hiram Guess, Buster Parr,
-William Gaw, Chat Rennick, Henry Porter, Arch and Henry Clements,
-Jesse Hamlet, John Thrailkill, Si Gordon, George Todd, Thomas Todd,
-William and Hugh Archie, Plunk Murray, Ling Litten, Joshua Esters,
-Sam Wade, Creth Creek, Theodore Castle, John Chatman and three
-score men of other unnamed heroes struck fast the Federal ranks as
-if the rush was a rush of tigers. Frank James, riding a splendid
-race mare, led by half a length, then Arch Clements, then Ben
-Morrow, then Peyton Long and then Harrison Trow.
-
-There was neither trot not gallop. The Guerrillas simply dashed
-from a walk into a full run. The attack was a hurricane. Johnson’s
-command fired one volley and not a gun thereafter. It scarcely
-stood until the five hundred yards were passed over. Johnson cried
-out to his men to fight to the death, but they did not wait even
-to hear him through. Some broke ranks as soon as they had fired,
-and fled. Others were attempting to reload their muskets when the
-Guerrillas, firing right and left, hurled themselves upon them.
-Johnson fell among the first. Mounted as described, Frank James
-singled out the leader of the Federals. He did not know him then.
-No words were spoken between the two. When James had reached within
-five feet of Johnson’s position, he put out a pistol suddenly and
-sent a bullet through his brain. Johnson threw out his hands as
-if trying to reach something above his head and pitched forward
-heavily, a corpse. There was no quarter. Many begged for mercy
-on their knees. The Guerrillas heeded the prayer as a wolf might
-the bleating of a lamb. The wild route broke up near Sturgeon,
-the implacable pursuit, vengeful as hate, thundering in the rear.
-Death did its work in twos, threes, in squads--singly. Beyond the
-first volley not a single Guerrilla was hurt, but in this volley
-Frank Shepherd, Hank Williams and young Peyton were killed, and
-Richard Kenney mortally wounded. Thomas Maxwell and Harrison Carter
-were also slightly wounded by the same volley, and two horses were
-killed, one under Dave Poole and one under Harrison Trow. Shepherd,
-a giant in size, and brave as the best in a command where all
-are brave, fought the good fight and died in the harness. Hank
-Williams, only a short time before, had deserted from the Federals
-and joined Poole, giving rare evidences, in his brief Guerrilla
-career, of great enterprise and consummate daring. Peyton was but
-a beardless boy from Howard County, who in his first battle after
-becoming a Guerrilla, was shot dead.
-
-Probably sixty of Johnson’s command gained their horses before
-the fierce wave of the charge broke over them, and these were
-pursued by five Guerrillas--Ben Morrow, Frank James, Peyton Long,
-Arch Clements and Harrison Trow--for six miles at a dead run. Of
-the sixty, fifty-two were killed on the road from Centralia to
-Sturgeon. Todd drew up the command and watched the chase go on. For
-three miles nothing obstructed the vision. Side by side over the
-level prairie the five stretched away like the wind, gaining step
-by step and bound by bound, upon the rearmost rider. Then little
-puffs of smoke rose. No sounds could be heard, but dashing ahead
-from the white spurts terrified steeds ran riderless.
-
-Knight and Sturgeon ended the killing. Five men had shot down
-fifty-two. Arch Clements, in apportionment made afterwards, had
-credited to himself fourteen. Trow ten, Peyton Long nine, Ben
-Morrow eight, Frank James, besides killing Major Johnson and others
-in the charge upon the dismounted troopers, killed in the chase an
-additional eleven.
-
-Johnson’s loss was two hundred ninety one. Out of the three
-hundred, only nine escaped.
-
-History has chosen to call the ferocious killing at Centralia a
-butchery. In civil war, encounters are not called butcheries where
-the combatants are man to man and where over either ranks there
-waves a black flag.
-
-Johnson’s overthrow, probably, was a decree of fate. He rushed
-upon it as if impelled by a power stronger than himself. He did
-not know how to command and his men did not know how to fight. He
-had, by the sheer force of circumstances, been brought face to
-face with two hundred and sixty-two of the most terrible revolver
-fighters the American war or any other war ever produced; and he
-deliberately tied his hands by the very act of dismounting, and
-stood in the shambles until he was shot down. Abject and pitiable
-cowardice matched itself against recklessness and desperation, and
-the end could be only just what the end was. The Guerrillas did
-unto the militia just what the militia would have done unto them
-if fate had reversed the decision and given to Johnson what it
-permitted to Todd.
-
-
-
-
-Anderson
-
-
-In June, 1864, Anderson crossed the Missouri River. Four miles
-out from the crossing place, he encountered twenty-five Federals,
-routed them at the first onset, killing eight, two of whom Arch
-Clements scalped, hanging the ghastly trophies at the head-stall of
-his bridle. One of the two scalped was a captain and the commander
-of the squad.
-
-Killing as he marched, Anderson moved from Carroll into Howard,
-entered Huntsville the last of June with twenty-five men, took
-from the county treasury $30,000, and disbanded for a few days for
-purposes of recruiting.
-
-The first act of the next foray was an ambuscade into which
-Anderson fell headlong. Forty militia waylaid him as he rode
-through a stretch of heavy bottom land, filled his left shoulder
-full of turkey shot, killed two of his men and wounded three
-others. Hurt as he was, he charged the brush, killing eighteen
-of his assailants, captured every horse and followed the flying
-remnant as far as a single fugitive could be tracked through the
-tangled undergrowth.
-
-In July Anderson took Arch Clements, John Maupin, Tuck and Woot
-Hill, Hiram Guess, Jesse Hamlet, William Reynolds, Polk Helms,
-Cave Wyatt and Ben Broomfield and moved up into Clay County to
-form a junction with Fletch Taylor. By ones and twos he killed
-twenty-five militiamen on the march and was taking breakfast at
-a house in Carroll County when thirty-eight Federals fired upon
-him through doors and windows, the balls knocking dishes onto the
-floor and playing havoc with chinaware and eatables generally. The
-Guerrillas, used to every phase of desperate warfare, routed their
-assailants after a crashing volley or two, and held the field, or
-rather the house. In the melee Anderson accidentally shot a lady in
-the shoulder, inflicting a painful wound, and John Maupin killed
-the captain commanding the scouts, cut off his head and stuck it
-upon a gate-post to shrivel and blacken in the sun.
-
-In Ray County, one hundred and fifty Federal cavalrymen found
-Andersons’ trail, followed it all day, and just at nightfall
-struck hard and viciously at the Guerrillas. Anderson would not
-be driven without a fight. He charged their advance guard, killed
-fourteen out of sixty, and drove the guard back upon the main body.
-Clements, Woot Hill, Hamlet and Hiram Guess had their horses killed
-and were left afoot in the night to shift for themselves. Walking
-to the Missouri River, ten miles distant, and fashioning a rude
-raft from the logs and withes, Hamlet crossed to Jackson County and
-made his way safe into the camp of Todd.
-
-While with Anderson John Coger was wounded again in the right
-leg. Suffering from this wound and with another one in the left
-shoulder, he had been carried by his comrades to a house close to
-Big Creek, in Cass County, and when it was night, and by no road
-that was generally traveled. Coger, without a wound of some kind or
-in some portion of his body, would have appeared as unaccountable
-to the Guerrillas as a revolver without a mainspring.
-
-At the end of every battle some one reckless fighter asked of
-another: “Of course, John can’t be killed, but where is he hit this
-time?” And Coger, himself, no matter how often or how badly hurt,
-scarcely ever waited for a old wound to get well before he was in
-the front again looking for a new one. He lived for fifty years
-after the battle, carrying thirteen bullet wounds.
-
-The wonderful nerve of the man saved him many times during the war
-in open and desperate conflicts, but never when the outlook was so
-unpromising as it was now, with the chances as fifty to one against
-him.
-
-Despite his two hurts, Coger would dress himself every day and
-hobble about the house, watching all the roads for the Federals.
-His pistols were kept under the bolster of his bed.
-
-One day a scout of sixty militiamen approached the house so
-suddenly that Coger had barely time to undress and hurry to bed,
-dragging in with him his clothes, his boots, his tell-tale shirt
-and his four revolvers. Without the help of the lady of the house
-he surely would have been lost. To save him she surely--well, she
-did not tell the truth.
-
-The sick man lying there was her husband, weak from a fever.
-Bottles were ostentatiously displayed for the occasion. At
-intervals Coger groaned and ground his teeth, the brave, true woman
-standing close to his bedside, wiping his brow every now and then
-and putting some kind of smelling stuff to his lips.
-
-A Federal soldier, perhaps a bit of a doctor, felt Coger’s left
-wrist, held it awhile, shook his head, and murmured seriously: “A
-bad case, madam, a bad case, indeed. Most likely pneumonia.”
-
-Coger groaned again.
-
-“Are you in pain, dear?” the ostensible wife tenderly inquired.
-
-“Dreadful!” and a spasm of agony shot over the bushwhacker’s
-sun-burnt face.
-
-For nearly an hour the Federal soldiers came and went and looked
-upon the sick man moaning in his bed, as deadly a Guerrilla as ever
-mounted a horse or fired a pistol.
-
-Once the would-be doctor skirted the edge of the precipice so
-closely that if he had stepped a step further he would have
-pitched headlong into the abyss. He insisted upon making a minute
-examination of Coger’s lungs and laid a hand upon the coverlet to
-uncover the patient. Coger held his breath hard and felt upward for
-a revolver. The first inspection would have ruined him. Nothing
-could have explained the ugly, ragged wound in the left shoulder,
-nor the older and not entirely healed one in the right leg. The
-iron man, however, did not wince. He neither made protest nor
-yielded acquiescence. He meant to kill the doctor, kill as many
-more as he could while life lasted and his pistol balls held out,
-and be carried from the room, when he was carried at all, feet
-foremost and limp as a lock of hair. Happily a woman’s wit saved
-him. She pushed away the doctor’s hand from the coverlet and gave
-as the emphatic order of her family physician that the sick man
-should not be disturbed until his return.
-
-Etiquette saved John Coger, for it was so unprofessional for one
-physician to interfere with another physician’s patient, and the
-Federal soldier left the room and afterwards the house.
-
-
-
-
-Press Webb, a Born Scout
-
-
-Press Webb was a born scout crossed upon a highlander. He had the
-eyes of an eagle and the endurance of the red deer. He first taught
-himself coolness, and then he taught it to others. In traveling
-he did not travel twice the same road. Many more were like him in
-this--so practicing the same kind of woodcraft and cunning--until
-the enemy began to say: “That man Quantrell has a thousand eyes.”
-
-Press Webb was ordered to take with him one day Sim Whitsett,
-George Maddox, Harrison Trow and Noah Webster and hide himself
-anywhere in the vicinity of Kansas City that would give him a good
-view of the main roads leading east, and a reasonably accurate
-insight into the comings and going of the Federal troops.
-
-The weather was very cold. Some snow had fallen the week before and
-melted, and the ground was frozen again until all over the country
-the ground was glazed with ice and traveling was made well nigh
-impossible. The Guerrillas, however, prepared themselves and their
-horses well for the expedition. Other cavalrymen were forced to
-remain comparatively inactive, but Quantrell’s men were coming and
-going daily and killing here and there.
-
-On the march to his field of operation, Webb overtook two
-Kansas infantrymen five miles west of Independence on the old
-Independence road. The load under which each soldier staggered
-proved that their foraging expedition had been successful. One
-had a goose, two turkeys, a sack of dried apples, some yarn
-socks, a basket full of eggs and the half of a cheese; while the
-other, more powerful or more greedy than the first--toiled slowly
-homeward, carrying carefully over the slippery highway a huge
-bag miscellaneously filled with butter, sausages, roasted and
-unroasted coffee, the head of a recently killed hog, some wheaten
-biscuits not remarkably well cooked, more cheese and probably a
-peck of green Jenniton apples. As Webb and his four men rode up the
-foragers halted and set their loads on the ground as if to rest.
-Piled about them, each load was about as large as a forager.
-
-Webb remarked that they were not armed and inquired of the nearest
-forager--him with the dried apples--why he ventured so far from
-headquarters without his gun.
-
-“There is no need of a gun,” was the reply, “because the fighting
-rebels are all out of the country and the stay-at-homes are all
-subjugated. What we want we take, and we generally want a good
-deal.”
-
-“A blind man might see that,” Webb rather grimly replied, “but
-suppose some of Quantrell’s cut-throats were to ride up to you
-as we have done, stop to talk with you as we have done, draw out
-a pistol as I am doing this minute, cover you thus, and bid you
-surrender now as I do, you infernal thief and son of a thief, what
-would you say then?”
-
-“Say!”--and the look of simple surprise yet cool indifference which
-came to the Jayhawker’s face was the strongest feature of the
-tragedy--“what could I say but that you are the cut-throat and I am
-the victim? Caught fairly, I can understand the balance. Be quick.”
-
-Then the Jayhawker rose up from the midst of his spoils with a sort
-of quiet dignity, lifted his hat as if to let his brow feel the
-north wind, and faced without a tremor the pistol which covered him.
-
-“I cannot kill you so,” Webb faltered, “nor do I know whether I can
-kill you at all. We must take a vote first.”
-
-Then to himself: “To shoot an unarmed man, and a brave man at that,
-is awful.”
-
-There amid the sausages and cheese, the turkeys and the coffee
-grains, the dried apples and the green, five men sat down in
-judgment upon two. Whitsett held the hat; Webster fashioned the
-ballots. No arguments were had. The five self-appointed jurors
-were five among Quantrell’s best and bravest. In extremity they
-had always stood forth ready to fight to the death; in the way
-of killing they had done their share. The two Kansas Jayhawkers
-came close together as if in the final summing up they might find
-in the mere act of dying together some solace. One by one the
-Guerrillas put into the hat of Whitsett a piece of paper upon which
-was written his vote. All had voted. Harrison Trow drew forth
-the ballots silently. As he unfolded the first and read from it
-deliberately; “Death,” the younger Jayhawker blanched to his chin
-and put a hand on the shoulder of his comrade. The two listened
-to the count, with every human faculty roused and abnormally
-impressionable. Should any one not understanding the scene pass,
-they would not be able to comprehend the situation--one man
-standing bareheaded, solemnly, and all the eyes bent keenly forward
-as another man drew from a hat a dirty slip of folded paper and
-read therefrom something that was short like a monosyllable and
-sepulchral like a shroud.
-
-“Life,” said the second ballot, and “Life” said the third. The
-fourth was for death and made a tie. Something like the beating
-of a strong man’s heart might have been heard, and something as
-though a brave man were breathing painfully through his teeth lest
-a sigh escape him. Whitsett cried out: “One more ballot yet to be
-opened. Let it tell the tale, Trow, and make an end to this thing
-speedily.” Trow, with scarcely any more emotion than a surgeon
-has when he probes a bullet wound, unfolded the remaining slip of
-paper, and read, “Life”!
-
-The younger Jayhawker fell upon his knees and the elder ejaculated
-solemnly: “Thank God, how glad my wife will be.”
-
-Webb breathed as one from whose breast a great load had been lifted
-and put back into its scabbard his revolver. The verdict surprised
-him all the more because it was so totally unexpected, and yet the
-two men there--Jayhawkers though they were and loaded with spoils
-of plundered farm houses--were as free to go as the north wind that
-blew or the stream that was running by.
-
-As they rode away the Guerrillas did not even suggest to one
-another the virtue of the parole. At the two extremities of their
-peculiar warfare there was either life or death. Having chosen
-deliberately as between the two, no middle ground was known to them.
-
-Press Webb approached to within sight of Kansas City from the old
-Independence road, made a complete circle about the place, as
-difficult as the traveling was, entered Westport notwithstanding
-the presence of a garrison there; heard many things told of the
-plans and number of the Federal forces upon the border; passed
-down between the Kansas river and what is now known as West Kansas
-City, killed three foragers and captured two six-mule wagons
-near the site of the present gas works; gathered up five head of
-excellent horses, and concealed himself for two days in the Blue
-Bottom, watching a somewhat notorious bawdy house much frequented
-by Federal soldiers. This kind of houses during the war, and when
-located upon dangerous or debatable grounds, were man traps of more
-or less sinister histories.
-
-Eleven women belonged to this bagnio proper, but on the night Webb
-stalked it and struck it, there had come five additional inmates
-from other quarters equally as disreputable. Altogether the male
-attendants numbered twenty, two lieutenants, one sergeant major, a
-corporal, four citizens and twelve privates from an Iowa regiment.
-Webb’s attacking column, not much larger than a yard stick, was
-composed of the original detail, four besides himself.
-
-The night was dark; the nearest timber to the house was two hundred
-and fifty yards. There was ice on everything. The tramping of iron
-shod feet over the frozen earth reverberated as artillery wheels.
-At the timber line Maddox suggested that one man should be left in
-charge of the horses, but Webb overruled the point.
-
-“No man shall stir tonight,” he argued, “except he be hunted for
-either war or women. The horses are safe here. Let us dismount and
-make them fast.”
-
-As they crept to the house in single file, a huge dog went at
-Harrison Trow as if he would not be denied, and barked so furiously
-and made so many other extravagant manifestations of rage, that a
-man and a woman came to the door of the house and bade the dog
-devour the disturber. Thus encouraged he leaped full at Trow’s
-throat and Trow shot him dead.
-
-In a moment the house emptied itself of its male occupants, who
-explored the darkness, found the dog with the bullet through its
-head, searched everywhere for the author of the act, and saw no
-man, nor heard any retreating steps, and so returned unsatisfied to
-the house, yet returned, which was a great deal.
-
-As for the Guerrillas, as soon as Trow found himself obliged to
-shoot or be throttled, they rushed back safely and noiselessly
-to their horses, mounted them and waited. A pistol shot, unless
-explained, is always sinister to soldiers. It is not to be denied.
-Fighting men never fire at nothing. This is a maxim not indigenous
-to the brush, nor an outcome of the philosophy of those who were
-there. A pistol shot says in so many words: “Something is coming,
-is creeping, is crawling, is about--look out!”
-
-The Federals heard this one--just as pertinent and as intelligible
-as any that was ever fired--but they failed to interpret aright
-this significant language of the ambuscade, and they suffered
-accordingly.
-
-Webb waited an hour in the cold, listening. No voices were heard,
-no skirmishers approached his position, no scouts from the house
-hunted further away than the lights from the windows shone, no
-alarm had been raised, and he dismounted with his men and again
-approached the house.
-
-By this time it was well on to twelve o’clock. Chickens were
-crowing in every direction. The north wind had risen high and was
-blowing as a winter wind always blows when there are shelterless
-men abroad in a winter night.
-
-The house, a rickety frame house, was two stories high, with two
-windows on the north and two on the south.
-
-George Maddox looked in at one of these windows and counted
-fourteen men, some well advanced in liquor and some sober and
-silent and confidential with the women. None were vigilant. The six
-upstairs were neither seen nor counted.
-
-At first it was difficult to proceed upon a plan of action. All the
-Federals were armed, and twenty armed men holding a house against
-five are generally apt, whatever else may happen, to get the best
-of the fighting.
-
-“We cannot fire through the windows,” said Webb, “for women are in
-the way.”
-
-“Certainly” replied Whitsett, “we do not war upon women.”
-
-“We cannot get the drop on them,” added Trow, “because we cannot
-get to them.”
-
-“True again,” replied Maddox, “but I have an idea which will
-simplify matters amazingly. On the south there is a stable half
-full of plank and plunder. It will burn like pitch pine. The wind
-is from the north is strong, and it will blow away all danger from
-the house. Were it otherwise I would fight against the torch, for
-not even a badger should be turned out of its hole tonight on word
-of mine, much less a lot of women. See for yourself and say if the
-plan suits you.”
-
-They saw, endorsed the proposition, and put a match at once to the
-hay and to the bundles of fodder. Before the fire had increased
-perceptibly the five men warmed their hands and laughed. They were
-getting the frost out of their fingers to shoot well, they said. A
-delicate trigger touch is necessary to a dead shot.
-
-“Fire!”
-
-All of a sudden there was a great flare of flames, a shriek from
-the women and a shout from the men. The north wind drove full head
-upon the stable, roared as like some great wild beast in pain.
-
-The Federals rushed to the rescue. Not all caught up their arms as
-they hurried out--not all even were dressed.
-
-The women looked from the doors and windows of the dwelling, and
-thus made certain the killing that followed. Beyond the glare
-of the burning outhouse, and massed behind a fence fifty paces
-to the right of the consuming stable, the Guerrillas fired five
-deadly volleys into the surprised and terrified mass before them,
-and they scattered, panic-striken and cut to pieces,--the remnant
-frantically regained the sheltering mansion.
-
-[Illustration: PRESS WEBB, A BORN SCOUT]
-
-Eight were killed where they stood about the fire; two were
-mortally wounded and died afterwards; one, wounded and disabled,
-quit the service; five, severely or slightly wounded, recovered;
-and four, unhurt, reported that night in Kansas City that Quantrell
-had attacked them with two hundred men, and had been driven off,
-hurt and badly worsted, after three-quarters of an hour’s fight.
-Press Webb and his four men did what work was done in less than
-five minutes.
-
-
-
-
-Little Blue
-
-
-Captain Dick Yager, commanding ten men, the usual number the
-Guerrillas then operated with, engaged twenty Federals under
-Lieutenant Blackstone of the Missouri Militia regiments, and slew
-fourteen.
-
-Yager had ambushed a little above a ford over the Little Blue
-and hid behind some rocks about fifteen feet above the crossing
-place, and Blackstone, unconscious of danger, rode with his troops
-leisurely into the water and halted midway in the stream that his
-horses might drink. He had a tin cup tied to his saddle and a
-bottle of whiskey in one of his pockets. After having drunk and
-while bending over from his stirrups to dip the cup into the water,
-a volley hit him and knocked him off his horse dead, thirteen
-others falling close to and about him at the same time.
-
-Jarrette and Poole, each commanding ten men, made a dash into
-Lafayette County and struck some blows to the right and left, which
-resounded throughout the West.
-
-Poole pushed into the German settlement and comparatively surprised
-them.
-
-Where Concordia now is, there was then a store and a fort, strong
-and well built. This day, however, Poole came upon them unawares
-and found many who properly belonged to the militia feeding stock
-and in an exposed position. Fifteen of these he killed and ten he
-wounded severely but not so severely as to prevent them from making
-their way back to the fort.
-
-
-
-
-Arrock Fight, Spring of 1864
-
-
-Todd and Dave Poole went east through Fayette County to Saline
-County and thence to Arrock, with one hundred and twenty men to
-avenge the death of Jim Janes, Charles Bochman and Perkins, who
-were captured by the Federals under Captain Sims.
-
-The men who captured the boys made them dig their own graves and
-shot them and rolled them into them. We made the raid for the
-benefit of this captain and were successful. We caught him and his
-men playing marbles in the street, unaware of any danger. We rode
-slowly into town with our Federal uniforms on, Sim Whitsett in
-advance.
-
-“Boys,” said he, “I will knock the middle man out for you.”
-
-He fired the first shot. Then it was a continuous fire and the
-Federals surrendered in a very few minutes.
-
-We killed twenty-five men, wounded thirty-five and had only one
-man, Dick Yager, wounded.
-
-Ben Morrow and I had the pleasure of capturing the captain in an
-upstairs bed room of a hotel. He died with quick consumption with a
-bullet through his head.
-
-We captured one hundred and fifty men and swore them out of
-service.
-
-
-
-
-Fire Bottom Prairie Fight, Spring of 1864
-
-
-One of the most daring things I ever witnessed was when Ben Morrow
-saved my life at the time they got me off my horse at the battle of
-Fire Prairie Creek near Napoleon, Missouri, in the spring of 1864.
-
-George Todd, in command, was sent out to meet a bunch of Federals
-going from Lexington to Independence. We expected to meet them in
-the road and charge them in the usual way, but they got word we
-were coming and dismounted, hid their horses in the woods and came
-up, on foot, and fired on us from the brush as we charged. They
-caught my horse by the bridle and before they could shoot me I
-jumped off over the horse’s head. As I went over, I fired at the
-man holding him and he fell. I was on foot amidst the worst of
-them. This gave me an advantage as I could fire in any direction I
-wanted to and they could not, as their men were all around me and
-in danger of being hit by their own bullets. I saw a hole where a
-large tree had been uprooted, a hole large enough to conceal me
-almost, and I made direct for it, firing at everything in sight as
-I went.
-
-Captain Todd ordered his men back, with three of them, Babe
-Hudspath, Bill McGuire and Tid Sanders, so badly wounded they were
-unable to go further.
-
-I was left there in the hole, bullets blowing up the dirt all
-around me, the hole being deep enough for me to get out of sight.
-I lay on my back, loading my pistols and watched close as a hawk.
-They said I was dead and wanted to come up and get my pistols.
-Whenever one would show his head I took a shot at him and they saw
-that I was very much alive and their scheme would not work.
-
-One of the blue billies climbed a tree close by, thinking he would
-be able to get a better shot at me. I waited until he got fairly up
-in the tree and then shot him in the thigh and down he came. I kept
-up firing, thinking the boys would hear it and come back and help
-me.
-
-They were a quarter of a mile off when Ben Morrow said, “Boys, we
-are all here except Harrison Trow, and do you hear that shooting?
-He is still alive and by G--d I am going back to get him.” So on
-came Ben Morrow, yelling and shooting with a pistol in each hand.
-When within forty yards of me and letting in on the enemy with a
-pistol in each hand, he saw me and came straight for me. I caught
-the crupper of his saddle, jumped up behind him, and pulling two
-pistols, one in each hand, firing as we went, we got safely away.
-From that day on, I would have died any where, and any place and
-any how for Ben Morrow, who saved my life at the risk of his own.
-
-After the Fayette fight Lieutenant Jim Little, one of Quantrell’s
-best men, was badly wounded in Howard County, Missouri, and
-Quantrell went with him to the woods to take care of him until he
-recovered.
-
-Then, after the Centralia fight, Ben Morrow, Bill Hulsh and I went
-to where Quantrell and Jim Little were in the woods. Jim was much
-better by this time, so that Quantrell could leave him and he came
-back to us in Jackson County, where we swam the river on our horses
-near Saline City. After we had crossed the river we went to a house
-to get breakfast and dry our clothes. Quantrell wanted to intercept
-General Price who was on a raid and have a consultation with him.
-
-At this house we discovered some Federal clothing--caps, etc.--in
-the hall and asked whose they were. We were told they belonged to
-some Federal soldiers who had stayed there through the night and
-attended a dance. We captured them at once and swore them out of
-service. We then went on to intercept Price at Waverly, Saline
-County, Missouri, where arrangements were made for Quantrell’s
-men to take the advance clear on up through Fayette and Jackson
-Counties, and up through Kansas City. We were in advance all of the
-way from that time until Price started south, and we went with him,
-about one hundred miles, almost to the Arkansas line, and turned
-back to Jackson County.
-
-
-
-
-Death of Todd and Anderson, October, 1864
-
-
-Curtis’ heavy division, retreating before General Price all the way
-from Lexington to Independence, held the western bank of the Little
-Blue, and some heavy stone walls and fences beyond. Marmaduke and
-Shelby broke his hold from these, and pressed him rapidly back to
-and through Independence, the two Colorado regiments covering his
-rear stubbornly and well. Side by side McCoy and Todd had made
-several brilliant charges during the morning, and had driven before
-them with great dash and spirit every Colorado squadron halted to
-resist the continual marching forward of the Confederate cavalry.
-
-Ere the pursuit ended for the day, half of the 2nd Colorado
-regiment drew up on the crest of a bold hill and made a gallant
-fight. Their major, Smith, a brave and dashing officer, was killed
-there, and there Todd fell. General Shelby, as was his wont, was
-well up with the advance, and leading recklessly the two companies
-of Todd and McCoy. Next to Shelby’s right rode Todd and upon his
-left was McCoy. Close to these and near to the front files were
-Colonels Nichols, Thrailkill, Ben Morrow, Ike Flannery and Jesse
-James.
-
-The trot had deepened into a gallop, and all the crowd of
-skirmishers covering the head of the rushing column were at it,
-fierce and hot, when the 2nd Colorado swept the road with a furious
-volley, broke away from the strong position held by them and
-hurried on through the streets of Independence, followed by the
-untiring McCoy, as lank as a fox-hound and as eager.
-
-That volley killed Todd. A Spencer rifle ball entered his neck in
-front, passed through and out near the spine, and paralyzed him.
-Dying as he fell, he was yet tenderly taken up and carried to the
-house of Mrs. Burns, in Independence. Articulating with great
-difficulty and leaving now and then almost incoherent messages to
-favorite comrade or friend, he lingered for two hours insensible to
-pain, and died at last as a Roman.
-
-George Todd was a Scotchman born, his father holding an honorable
-position in the British navy. Destined also for the sea, it was the
-misfortune of the son to become engaged in a personal difficulty
-in his eighteenth year and kill the man with whom he quarreled. He
-fled to Canada, and from Canada to the United States. His father
-soon after resigned and followed him, and when the war began both
-were railroad contractors in North Missouri, standing well with
-everybody for business energy, capacity and integrity.
-
-Todd made a name by exceeding desperation. His features presented
-nothing that could attract attention. There was no sign in visible
-characters of the powers that was in him. They were calm always,
-and in repose a little stern; but if anything that indicated “a
-look of destiny” was sought for, it was not to be found in the face
-of George Todd. His was simple and confiding, and a circumspect
-regard for his word made him a very true but sometimes a very blunt
-man. In his eyes the fittest person to command a Guerrilla was
-he who inspired the enemy before people began to say: “That man,
-George Todd, is a tiger. He fights always; he is not happy unless
-he is fighting. He will either be killed soon or he will do a great
-amount of killing.” It has just been seen that he was not to be
-killed until October, 1864--a three years’ lease of life for that
-desperate Guerrilla work never had a counterpart. By and by the
-Guerrillas themselves felt confidence in such a name, reliance in
-such an arm, favor for such a face. It was sufficient for Todd to
-order a march to be implicitly followed; to plan an expedition to
-have it immediately carried out; to indicate a spot on which to
-assemble to cause an organization sometimes widely scattered or
-dispersed to come together as the jaws of a steel trap.
-
-Nature gave him the restlessness of a born cavalryman and
-the exterior and the power of voice necessary to the leader
-of desperate men. Coolness, and great activity were his main
-attributes as a commander. Always more ready to strike than to
-speak, if he talked at all it was only after a combat had been
-had, and then modestly. His conviction was the part he played, and
-he sustained with unflinching courage and unflagging energy that
-which he had set down for his hands to do.
-
-A splendid pistol shot, fearless as a horseman, knowing nature well
-enough to choose desperate men and ambitious men, reticent, heroic
-beyond the conception of most conservative people, and covered with
-blood as he was to his brow, his fall was yet majestic, because it
-was accompanied by patriotism.
-
-Before the evacuation of Independence, Todd was buried by his men
-in the cemetery there, and Poole succeeded to the command of his
-company, leading it splendidly.
-
-The night they buried Todd, Ike Flannery, Dick Burns, Andy McGuire,
-Ben Morrow, Press Webb, Harrison Trow, Lafe Privin, George
-Shepherd, George Maddox, Allen Parmer, Dan Vaughn, Jess and Frank
-James and John Ross took a solemn oath by the open grave of the
-dead man to avenge his death, and for the following three days of
-incessant battle it was remarkable how desperately they fought--and
-how long.
-
-Until General Price started southward from Mine Creek in full
-retreat, the Guerrillas under Poole remained with him, scouting and
-picketing, and fighting with the advance. After Mine Creek they
-returned to Bone Hill, in Jackson County, some going afterwards to
-Kentucky with Quantrell, and some to Texas with George Shepherd.
-
-Henceforward the history of the Guerrillas of Missouri must be the
-history of detachments and isolated squads, fighting always, but
-fighting without coherency or other desire than to kill.
-
-Anderson had joined Price at Boonville and the meeting was a
-memorable one. The bridles of the horses the men rode were adorned
-with scalps. One huge red-bearded Guerrilla--six feet and over, and
-girdled about the waist with an armory of revolvers--had dangling
-from every conceivable angle a profuse array of these ghastly
-trophies. Ben Price was shocked at such evidence of a warfare
-so utterly repugnant to a commander of his known generosity and
-forbearance, and he ordered sternly that they be thrown away at
-once. He questioned Anderson Long of Missouri, of the forces in
-the state, of the temper of the people, of the nature of Guerrilla
-warfare, of its relative advantages and disadvantages and then when
-he had heard all he blessed the Guerrillas probably with about as
-much unction as Balaam blessed Israel.
-
-General Price was a merciful man. Equable in every relation of
-life, conservative by nature and largely tolerant through his
-earlier political training, thousands are alive today solely
-because none of the harsher or crueler indulgences of the Civil
-War were permitted to the troops commanded by this conscientious
-officer.
-
-Finally, however, he ordered Anderson back into North Missouri,
-and he crossed at Boonville upon his last career of leave taking,
-desperation and death.
-
-Tired of tearing up railroad tracks, cutting down telegraph poles,
-destroying miles and miles of wire, burning depots, and picking up
-and killing isolated militiamen, terrified at the uprising in favor
-of Price, Anderson dashed into Danville, Montgomery County, where
-sixty Federals were stationed in houses and strong places.
-
-He had but fifty-seven men, and the fight was close and hot.
-
-Gooley Robinson, one of his best soldiers, was mortally wounded
-while exposing himself in a most reckless manner.
-
-It was difficult to get the enemy out of the houses. Snatching up
-torches and braving the guns of the entrenched Federals, Dick and
-Ike Berry put fire to one house. Arch Clements and Dick West to
-another, Theo. Castle, John Maupin and Mose Huffaker to a third,
-and Ben Broomfield, Tuck, Tom and Woot Hill to the fourth.
-
-It was a night of terror and agony. As the militiamen ran out they
-were shot down by the Guerrillas in the shadow. Some wounded,
-burnt to death, and others, stifled by the heat and smoke, rushed,
-gasping and blackened into the air, to be riddled with bullets.
-Eight, barely, of the garrison escaped the holocaust.
-
-Anderson turned west towards Kansas City, expecting to overtake
-General Price there. En route he killed as he rode. Scarcely an
-hour of all the long march was barren of a victim. Union men,
-militiamen, Federal soldiers, home guards, Germans on general
-principles--no matter what the class or the organization--if they
-were pro-United States, they were killed.
-
-Later on, in the month of October, while well advanced in Ray
-County, Anderson received the first news of the death of Todd and
-the retreat of Price. By this time, however, he had recruited his
-own command to several hundred, and had joined to it a detachment
-of regular Confederates, guiding and guarding to the South a motley
-aggregation of recruits, old and young. Halting one day to rest
-and to prepare for a passage across the Missouri River, close to
-Missouri City, Anderson found one thousand Federals--eight hundred
-infantry and two hundred cavalry. He made haste to attack them.
-His young lieutenant, Arch Clements, advised him urgently against
-the attack, as did Captain A. E. Asbury, a young and gallant
-Confederate officer, who was in company with him, commanding fifty
-recruits. Others of his associates did the same, notably Colonel
-John Holt, a Confederate officer, and Colonel James H. R. Condiff.
-Captain Asbury was a cool, brave, wary man who had had large
-experience in border fighting, and who knew that for a desperate
-charge raw recruits could not be depended upon.
-
-Anderson would not be held back. Ordering a charge, his horse ran
-away with him and he was seventy-five yards ahead of his followers
-when he was killed. Next to him was William Smith, a veteran
-Guerrilla of four years’ service. Five balls struck him, and three
-struck Anderson. Next to Smith was John Maupin, who was wounded
-twice, and next to Maupin, Cundill, who was also hit, and next to
-Cundill, Asbury, who got four bullets through his clothes. John
-Holt, Jim Crow Chiles and Peyton Long had their horses killed. The
-three Hill brothers and Dick West and ten others of Anderson’s old
-company fought their way up to Anderson’s body and sought to bring
-it out. Tuck Hill was shot, so was his brother Woot and Dick West.
-Their wounds were severe, but not mortal. Once they succeeded in
-placing it upon a horse; the horse was killed and fell upon the
-corpse and held it to the ground. Still struggling heroically over
-the body of his idolized commander, Hank Patterson fell dead, not
-a foot from the dead Guerrilla. Next, Simmons was killed, and then
-Anson Tolliver, and then Paul Debonhorst, and then Smith Jobson,
-and then Luckett, then John McIlvaine, and finally Jasper Moody
-and William Tarkington. Nothing could live before the fire of the
-concealed infantry and the Spencer carbines of the cavalry.
-
-A single blanket might have covered the terrible heap of dead and
-wounded who fought to recover all that remained of that tiger of
-the jungle. John Pringle, the red-headed giant of the Boonville
-scalps, far ahead of his company, was the last man killed,
-struggling even to the death to bear back the corpse. He was a
-captain of a company, and a veteran of the Mexican war, but he did
-what he would not order his men to do--he rushed up to the corpse
-heap and fastened about the leg of Anderson a lariat that he might
-drag the body away. The Federals killed his horse. Shot once,
-he tugged at the rope himself, bleeding pitifully. Shot again,
-he fell, struggled up to his feet, fired every barrel of three
-revolvers into the enemy, and received as a counter blow two more
-bullets.
-
-This time he did not rise again or stir, or make a moan. All the
-wild boar blood in his veins had been poured out, and the bronzed
-face, from being rigid, had become august.
-
-Joseph and Arch Nicholson, William James, Clell Miller and John
-Warren, all young recruits in their first battle, fought savagely
-in the melee, and all were wounded. Miller, among those who strove
-to rescue the corpse of Anderson, was shot, and Warren, wounded
-four times, crawled back from the slaughter pen with difficulty. A
-minie ball had found the heart of Anderson. Life, thank God, was
-gone when a rope was put around his neck and his body dragged as
-the body of a dog slain in the woods.
-
-Many a picture was taken of the dead lion, with his great flowing
-beard, and that indescribable pallor of death on his bronzed face.
-The Federals cut his head off and stuck it on a telegraph pole.
-
-
-
-
-Going South, Fall of 1864
-
-
-Todd’s death fell upon the spirits of his men as a sudden
-bereavement upon the hearts of a happy and devoted family. Those
-who mourned for him mourned all the more tenderly because they
-could not weep. Nature, having denied to them the consolation of
-tears, left them the infinite intercourse and remembrances of
-comradeship and soldierly affection.
-
-The old bands, however, were breaking up. Lieutenant George
-Shepherd, taking with him Matt Wyman, John Maupin, Theo. Castle,
-Jack Rupe, Silas King, James and Alfred Corum, Bud Story, Perry
-Smith, Jack Williams, Jesse James and Arthur Devers, Press Webb,
-John Norfolk and others to the number of twenty-six, started south
-to Texas, on the 13th of November, 1864. With Shepherd also were
-William Gregg and wife, Richard Maddox and wife, and James Hendrix
-and wife. These ladies were just as brave and just as devoted and
-just as intrepid in peril or extremity as were the men who marched
-with them to guard them.
-
-Jesse and Frank James separated at White River, Arkansas, Frank to
-go to Kentucky with Quantrell, and Jesse to follow the remnant of
-Todd’s still organized veterans into Texas.
-
-Besides killing isolated squads of Federals and making way for
-every individual militiaman who supposed that the roads were
-absolutely safe for travelers because General Price and his army
-had long been gone, Shepherd’s fighting for several days was only
-fun. On the 22nd, however, Captain Emmett Goss, an old acquaintance
-of the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry, Jennison’s, was encountered,
-commanding thirty-two Jayhawkers.
-
-Of late Goss had been varying his orgies somewhat. He would drink
-to excess and lavish his plunder and money on ill-famed mistresses,
-who were sometimes Indians, sometimes negresses, and but rarely
-pure white. He was about thirty-five years old, square built, had
-broad shoulders, a swaggering gait, stood six feet when at himself,
-and erect, had red hair and a bad eye and a face that meant fight
-when cornered--and desperate fight at that.
-
-November 22, 1864, was an autumn day full of sunshine and falling
-leaves. Riding southward from Missouri Lieutenant Shepherd met
-Captain Goss riding northward from Cane Hill. Shepherd had
-twenty-six men, rank and file. It was an accidental meeting--one of
-those sudden, forlorn, isolated, murderous meetings not rare during
-the war--a meeting of outlying detachments that asked no quarter
-and gave none. It took place on Cabin Creek, in the Cherokee
-Nation. Each rank arrayed itself speedily. There were twenty-six
-men against thirty-two. The odds were not great--indeed they never
-had been considered at all. There came a charge and a sudden and
-terrible storm of revolver bullets.
-
-Nothing so weak as the Kansas detachment could possibly live before
-the deadly prowess and pistol practice of the Missourians. Of the
-thirty-two, twenty-nine were killed. One, riding a magnificent
-race horse, escaped on the wings of the wind--one, a negro barber,
-was taken along to wait upon the Guerrillas, and the third, a poor
-emaciated skeleton, as good as dead of consumption, was permitted
-to ride on northward, bearing the story of the thunderbolt.
-
-Among the Missourians four were killed. In the melee Jesse James
-encountered Goss and singled him out from all the rest. As
-James bore down upon him, he found that his horse, an extremely
-high-spirited and powerful one, had taken the bit in its teeth and
-was perfectly unmanageable. Besides, his left arm being left weak
-from a scarcely healed wound, it was impossible for him to control
-his horse or even to guide him.
-
-Pistol balls were as plentiful as the leaves that were pattering
-down. However, James had to put up his revolver as he rode, and
-rely upon his right hand to reinforce his left. Before he could
-turn his horse and break its hold upon his bit, Goss had fired upon
-him four times. Close upon him at last James shot him through and
-through. Goss swayed heavily in his saddle, but held on.
-
-“Will you surrender?” Jesse asked, recocking his pistol and
-presenting it again.
-
-“Never,” was the stern reply. Goss, still reeling in the saddle and
-bleeding dreadfully.
-
-When the blue white smoke curled up again there was a riderless
-steed among the trees and a guilty spirit somewhere out in the
-darkness of the unknown. It took two dragoon revolver bullets to
-finish this one, and yet James was not satisfied with his work.
-
-There was a preacher along who also had sat himself steadfast in
-the saddle, and had fought as the best of them did. James rode
-straight at him after he had finished Goss. The parson’s heart
-failed him at last, however, and he started to run. James gained
-upon him at every step. When close enough for a shot, he called out
-to him:
-
-“Turn about like a man, that I may not shoot you in the back.” The
-Jayhawker turned, and his face was white and his tongue voluble.
-
-“Don’t shoot me,” he pleaded, “I am the chaplain of the Thirteenth
-Kansas; my name is U. P. Gardner, I have killed no man, but have
-prayed for many; spare me.” James did not answer. Perhaps he turned
-away his head a little as he drew out his revolver. When the smoke
-lifted, Gardner was dead upon the crisp sere grass with a bullet
-through his brain.
-
-Maddox, in this fight, killed three of Goss’ men, Gregg five, Press
-Webb three, Wayman four, Hendrix three, and others one or two each.
-
-The march through the Indian country was one long stretch of
-ambushments and skirmishes.
-
-Wayman stirred up a hornet’s nest one afternoon, and though stung
-twice himself quite severely, he killed four Indians in single
-combat and wounded the fifth who escaped.
-
-Press Webb, hunting the same day for a horse, was ambushed by three
-Pins and wounded slightly in the arm. He charged singlehanded into
-the brush and was shot again before he got out of it, but he killed
-the three Indians and captured three excellent ponies, veritably a
-god-send to all.
-
-The next day about noon the rear guard, composed of Jesse James,
-Bud Story, Harrison Trow and Jack Rupe, was savagely attacked by
-seventy-five Federal Cherokees and driven back upon the main body
-rapidly. Shepherd, one of the quickest and keenest soldiers the
-war produced, had formed every man of the command in the rear of
-an open field through which the enemy must advance and over which
-in return a telling charge could be made. The three heroic women,
-mounted on excellent horses and given shelter in some timber still
-further to the rear of the Guerrilla line, bade their husbands,
-as they kissed them, fight to the death or conquer. The Indians
-bore down as if they meant to ride down a regiment. Firing their
-pistols into their very faces with deadly effect, the rear guard
-had not succeeded in stopping them a single second, but when in
-the counter-charge Shepherd dashed at the oncoming line, it melted
-away as snow in a thaw. Shepherd, Maddox, Gregg, the two Corums,
-Rupe, Story, James, Hendrick, Webb, Smith Commons, Castle, Wayman
-and King fought like men who wanted to make a clean and a merciless
-sweep.
-
-John Maupin, not yet well from the two ugly wounds received the day
-Anderson was killed, insisted on riding in the charge, and was shot
-the third time by the Indian into whom he had put two bullets and
-whose horse he rushed up to secure.
-
-Jesse James had his horse killed and a pistol shot from his
-hand. Several other Guerrillas were wounded but none killed, and
-Williams, James Corum and Maddox lost horses.
-
-Of the sixty-five Indians, fifty-two were counted killed, while
-some, known to be wounded, dragged themselves off into the mountain
-and escaped.
-
-During the battle Dick Maddox’s wife could not keep still under
-cover, and commenced to shoot at the enemy, and had a lock of her
-hair shot off just above the ear.
-
-
-
-
-The Surrender
-
-
-Early in the month of March, 1865, Captain Clements, having been
-reinforced by ten men under the command of Captain David Poole,
-marched from Sherman, Texas, to Mount Pleasant, Titus County,
-Arkansas. From Mount Pleasant, on the 14th of April, the march
-began once more and for the last time into Missouri. Forming an
-advance of David Poole, John Poole, John Maupin, Jack Bishop, Theo.
-Castle, Jesse James and Press Webb, Clements pushed on rapidly,
-killing five militiamen in one squad, ten in another, here and
-there a single one, and now and then as many together as twenty. In
-Benton County, Missouri, a Federal militiaman named Harkness, was
-captured, who had halted a brother of Clements and burnt the house
-of his mother. James, Maupin and Castle held Harkness tightly while
-Clements cut his throat and afterwards scalped him.
-
-At Kingsville, in Johnson County, something of a skirmish took
-place and ten Federals were killed. A militiaman named Duncan,
-who had a bad name locally and who was described as being a
-highwayman and a house burner, also was captured at the same
-time. Being fifty-five years of age and gray headed did not save
-him. But before he surrendered he fought a desperate battle.
-Knowing instinctively what his fate would be if he fell alive into
-the hands of any hostile organization, much less a Guerrilla
-organization, he took a stand behind a plank fence, armed with a
-Spencer rifle and two revolvers, and faced the enemy, now close
-upon him. Arch Clements, Jesse James and Jack Bishop dashed at
-Duncan. The first shot killed his horse, and in falling the horse
-fell upon the rider. At the second fire Clement’s horse also was
-killed, but James stopped neither for the deadly aim of the old man
-nor for the help of his comrades who were coming up as fast as they
-could on foot. He shot him three times before he knocked him from
-his feet to his knees, but the fourth shot, striking him fair in
-the middle of the forehead, finished the old man and all his sins
-together.
-
-The last of April a council was held among the Guerrillas to
-discuss the pros and cons of a surrender. Virtually the war was
-over. Everywhere the regular Confederate armies had surrendered and
-disbanded, and in no direction could any evidences be discovered of
-that Guerrilla warfare which many predicted would succeed to the
-war of the regular army and the general order. All decided to do as
-the rest of the Southern forces had done.
-
-Anxious, however, to give to those of the command who preferred
-a contrary course the dignity and the formality of official
-authority, Captain Clements entered Lexington, Mo., on the
-fifteenth, with Jesse James, Jess Hamlet, Jack Rupe, Willis King
-and John Vanmeter, bearing a flag of truce. The provost marshall
-of Lexington, Major J. B. Rogers, was a liberal officer of the
-old regime, who understood in its fullest and broadest sense that
-the war was over, and that however cruel or desperate certain
-organizations or certain bodies of men had been in the past, all
-proscription of them ceased with their surrender.
-
-Shortly after the surrender, and as Jesse James was riding at the
-head of a column with the white flag, eight Federals were met who
-were drunk and who did not see the flag of truce or did not regard
-it. They fired point blank at the Guerrillas, and were charged
-in turn and routed with the loss of four killed and two wounded.
-These eight men were the advance of a larger party of sixty, thirty
-Johnson County militia, and thirty of the Second Wisconsin Cavalry.
-These in the counter attack drove back the Guerrillas and followed
-them fiercely, especially the Second Wisconsin. Vanmeter’s horse
-was killed but Jack Rupe stopped under fire for him and carried him
-to safety. James and Clements, although riding jaded horses--the
-same horses, in fact, which had made the long inhospitable trip up
-from Texas--galloped steadily away in retreat side by side, and
-fighting as best they could. Mounted on a superb black horse, a
-single Wisconsin trooper dashed ahead of the balance and closed
-in swiftly upon James, who halted to court the encounter. At a
-distance of ten feet both fired simultaneously and when the smoke
-cleared away the brave Wisconsin man was dead with a dragoon ball
-through his heart. Scarcely had this combat closed before another
-Wisconsin trooper rushed at James, firing rapidly, and closing
-in as he fired. James killed his horse, and the Federal in turn
-sent a bullet through James’ right lung. Then the rush passed over
-and past him. Another volley killed his horse, and as the Johnson
-County militia galloped by, five fired at him as he lay bleeding
-under the prostrate horse.
-
-Clements, seeing horse and rider going down together, believed his
-beloved comrade was killed, and strove thereafter to make good his
-own escape.
-
-Extricating himself with infinite toil and pain, Jesse James left
-the road for the woods, pursued by five Federals, who fired at him
-constantly as they followed. At a distance of two hundred yards he
-killed the foremost Federal and halted long enough under fire to
-disencumber himself of his heavy cavalry boots, one of which was a
-quarter full of blood. He fired again and shattered the pistol arm
-of the second pursuer, the other three closing up and pressing the
-maimed Guerrilla as ravenous hounds the torn flanks of a crippled
-stag. James was getting weaker and weaker. The foremost of the
-three pursuers could be heard distinctly yelling: “Oh! g----d----n
-your little soul, we have you at last! Stop, and be killed like a
-gentleman!”
-
-James did not reply, but when he attempted to lift his trusty
-dragoon pistol to halt the nearest trooper, he found it too heavy
-for his hand. But reinforcing his right arm with his left, he fired
-finally at the Wisconsin man almost upon him and killed him in the
-saddle.
-
-Perhaps then and there might have been an end made to the career
-of the desperate Guerrilla if the two remaining pursuers had been
-Wisconsin Cavalry instead of Johnson County militia; but terrified
-at the prowess of one who had been so terribly wounded, and who
-killed even as he reeled along, the militiamen abandoned the chase
-and James, staggering on four or five hundred yards further, fell
-upon the edge of a creek and fainted. From the 15th to the 17th he
-lay alongside the water, bathing his wound continually and drinking
-vast quantities of water to quench his burning thirst and fever.
-Towards sunset, on the evening of the 17th, he crawled to a field
-where a man was plowing, who proved to be a Southern man and a
-friend.
-
-That night he rode fifteen miles to the house of a Mr. Bowman, held
-upon a horse by his new-found friend, where he remained, waited
-upon by Clements and Rupe, until the surrender of Poole, on the
-21st, with one hundred and twenty-nine Guerrillas.
-
-Major Rogers was so well satisfied that James would die that he
-thought it unnecessary to parole him, and so declared. To give him
-every chance, however, for his life, and to enable him to reach
-his mother, then a fugitive in Nebraska, Rodgers furnished him with
-transportation, money and a pass.
-
-A good many of my men surrendered with Poole, while others planned
-to go to Old Mexico with me and not surrender at all. However,
-when I came up from the South, planning to go back to Old Mexico
-and join General Shelby with his old command, some of my best
-citizen friends insisted on my surrendering and going home, and
-through their influence arrangements were made with Major Rodgers
-to meet me at the Dillard farm, on Texas Prairie. There we held
-a consultation, he and I, for about half a day, regarding my
-surrender. He promised me protection and my side arms, and the
-horse that I had, and I surrendered, receiving the protection he
-had promised me.
-
-I went home and went to work and took my part in trying to make
-peace with the Federal soldiers, some of whom proved to be very
-good friends to me, and we lived very peacefully after the war.
-
-I very much opposed and tried to put a stop to the robbery,
-thieving and horse stealing that was so prominent after the war,
-and advised the boys that got into trouble to leave the country
-time and time again, and go to Old Mexico while it was yet time to
-get away.
-
-I returned home with no money and no means at all, but found plenty
-of friends who were ready to help me and who furnished me money to
-start with.
-
-I advise all who read this book to appreciate character above
-money.
-
-
-
-
-Death of Quantrell
-
-
-Quantrell, with forty-eight of the most daring of his old band,
-accompanied Shepherd as far south as White River, Arkansas. He
-left them there to go to his old home in Maryland. He passed all
-Federal camps, had no trouble staying in Federal camps, eating with
-Federal soldiers, playing Federal himself until he reached Upton
-Station, in Hart County, Kentucky, where he crossed the Louisiana
-& Nashville Railroad, still representing himself and his men as
-Federal soldiers.
-
-Near Marion County he entered the Lebanon and Campbellville
-turnpike at Rolling Fork and traveled north to New Market, thence
-east to Bradford, and from Bradford towards Hustonville, camping
-for the night preceding the entrance into this place at Major
-Dray’s, on Rolling Fork. Thirty Federal soldiers were at garrison
-at Hustonville, possessed of as many horses in splendid condition,
-and these Quantrell determined to appropriate. No opposition was
-made to his entrance into the town. No one imagined him to be other
-than a Union officer on a scout.
-
-He dismounted quietly at a hotel in the place and entered at once
-into a pleasant conversation with the commander of the post.
-Authorized by their chieftain, however, to remount themselves as
-speedily as possible and as thoroughly as possible, the Guerrillas
-spread quickly over the town in search for horses, appropriating
-first what could be found in the public stables and later on those
-that were still needed to supply the deficiency, from private
-places.
-
-As Quantrell conversed with the commander, a Federal private
-made haste to inform him of the kind of work the newcomers were
-doing, and to complain loudly of the unwarranted and outrageous
-appropriation.
-
-Enraged and excited, the commander snatched up a brace of revolvers
-as he left his headquarters and buckled them about him and hurried
-to the nearest livery stable where the best among the animals of
-his men had been kept. Just as he arrived, Allen Parmer was riding
-out mounted on a splendid horse. The Federal major laid hands upon
-the bridle and bade Parmer dismount. It was as the grappling of a
-wave with a rock.
-
-No Guerrilla in the service of the South was cooler or deadlier;
-none less given to the emotion of fear. He looked at the Federal
-major a little curiously when he first barred the passageway of his
-horse and even smiled pleasantly as he took the trouble to explain
-to him the nature of the instructions under which he was operating.
-
-“D----n you and d----n your instructions,” the major replied
-fiercely. “Dismount!”
-
-“Ah,” ejaculated Parmer, “has it really come to this?” and then
-the two men began to draw. Unquestionably there could be but one
-result. The right hand of the Federal major had hardly reached
-the flap of his revolver, before Parmer’s pistol was against his
-forehead, and Parmer’s bullet had torn half the top of his head off.
-
-In June, 1865, Quantrell started from Bedford Russell’s, in
-Nelson County, with John Ross, William Hulse, Payne Jones, Clark
-Hockinsmith, Isaac Hall, Richard Glasscock, Robert Hall, Bud
-Spence, Allen Parmer, Dave Helton and Lee McMurtry. His destination
-was Salt River.
-
-At Newel McClaskey’s the turnpike was gained and traveled several
-miles, when a singularly severe and penetrating rain storm began.
-Quantrell, to escape this, turned from the road on the left and
-into a woods pasture near a postoffice called Smiley. Through this
-pasture and for half a mile further he rode until he reached the
-residence of a Mr. Wakefield, in whose barn the Guerrillas took
-shelter. Unsuspicious of danger and of the belief that the nearest
-enemy was at least twenty miles away, the men dismounted, unbridled
-their horses, and fed them at the racks ranged about the shed
-embracing two sides of the barn.
-
-While the horses were eating the Guerrillas amused themselves with
-a sham battle, choosing sides and using corncobs for ammunition. In
-the midst of much hilarity and boisterousness, Glasscock’s keen
-eye saw through the blinding rain a column of cavalry, one hundred
-and twenty strong, approaching the barn at a trot.
-
-He cried out instantly, and loud enough to be heard at Wakefield’s
-house sixty yards away: “Here they are! Here they are.” Instantly
-all the men were in motion and rushing to their horses.
-
-Captain Edward Terrell, known well to Quantrell and fought
-stubbornly once before, had been traveling the turnpike from the
-direction of Taylorsville, as completely ignorant of Quantrell’s
-proximity as Quantrell had been of his, and would have passed on
-undoubtedly without a combat if the trail left by the Guerrillas in
-passing from the road to the pasture had not attracted attention.
-This he followed to within sight of the barn, understood in a
-moment the character of the men sheltered there, and closed upon it
-rapidly, firing as he came on.
-
-Before a single Guerrilla had put a bridle upon a horse, Terrill
-was at the main gate of the lot, a distance of some fifty feet
-from the barn, and pouring such a storm of carbine bullets among
-them that their horses ran furiously about the lot, difficult to
-approach and impossible to restrain.
-
-Fighting desperately and deliberately, and driving away from the
-main gate a dozen or more Federals stationed there, John Ross,
-William Hulse, Allen Parmer, Lee McMurtry, and Bud Pence, cut
-their way through, mounted and defiant. The entire combat did not
-last ten minutes. It was a fight in which every man had to do for
-himself and do what was done speedily.
-
-Once above the rattling of musketry, the neighing of horses and the
-shouting of combatants, Quantrell’s voice rang out loud and clear:
-“Cut through, boys, cut through somehow! Don’t surrender while
-there is a chance to get out.”
-
-The fire upon the Guerrillas was furious. Quantrell’s horse, a
-thoroughbred animal of great spirit and speed, could not be caught.
-His master, anxious to secure him, followed him composedly about
-the lot for several minutes, trying under showers of bullets to get
-hands upon his favorite.
-
-At this moment Clark Hockingsmith, who was mounted and free to go
-away at a run, saw the peril of his chief, and galloped to his
-rescue. Quantrell, touched by this act of devotion, recognized it
-by a smile, and held out his hand to his comrade without speaking.
-Hockingsmith dismounted until Quantrell took his own place in the
-saddle, and then sprang up behind him.
-
-Another furious volley from Terrill’s men lining all the fence
-about the great gate, killed Hockingsmith and killed the horse
-he and Quantrell were upon. The second hero now gave his life to
-Quantrell. Richard Glasscock also had secured his own horse as
-Hockingsmith had done and was free to ride’ away in safety as he
-had been.
-
-Opposite the main entrance to the barn lot there was an exit
-uncovered by the enemy and beyond this exit a stretch of heavy
-timber. Those who gained the timber were safe. Hockingsmith knew
-it when he deliberately laid down his life for his chief, and
-Glasscock knew it when he also turned about and hurried up to the
-two men struggling there--Quantrell to drag himself out from under
-the horse and Hockingsmith in the agonies of death.
-
-The second volley from the gate mortally wounded Quantrell and
-killed Glasscock’s horse. Then a charge of fifty shouting, shooting
-men swept over the barn lot. Robert Hall, Payne Jones, David
-Helton, and Isaac Hall had gone out some time before on foot.
-J. B. Tooley, A. B. Southwick and C. H. Southwick, wounded badly,
-escaped fighting. Only the dead man lying by his wounded chief,
-and Glasscock, erect, splendid, and fighting to the last, remained
-as trophies of the desperate combat. Two balls struck Quantrell.
-The first, the heavy ball of a Spencer carbine, entered close to
-the right collar bone, ranged down along the spine, injuring it
-severely, and hid itself somewhere in the body. The second ball cut
-off the finger next to the little finger of the left hand, tearing
-it from its socket, and lacerating the hand itself badly. The
-shoulder wound did its work, however, for it was a mortal wound.
-All the lower portion of Quantrell’s body was paralyzed and as he
-was lifted and carried to Wakefield’s house his legs were limp and
-his extremities cold and totally without sensation.
-
-At no time did he either make complaint or moan. His wonderful
-endurance remained unimpaired to the end. His mind, always clear in
-danger, seemed to recognize that his last battle had been fought
-and his last encounter finished. He talked very little. Terrill
-came to him and asked if there was any good service he might do
-that would be acceptable.
-
-“Yes,” said Quantrell quietly, “have Clark Hockingsmith buried like
-a soldier.”
-
-After he had been carried to the house of Wakefield and deposited
-upon a pallet, he spoke once more to Terrell:
-
-“While I live let me stay here. It is useless to haul a dying man
-about in a wagon, jolting out what little life there is left in
-him.”
-
-Terrell pledged his word that he should not be removed, and rode
-away in pursuit of those who had escaped.
-
-Some of the fugitive Guerrillas soon reached the well known
-rendezvous at the house of Alexander Sayers, twenty-three miles
-from Wakefield’s, with tidings of the fight.
-
-Frank James heard the story through with a set face, strangely
-white and sorrowful, and then he arose and cried out: “Volunteers
-to go back. Who will follow me to see our chief, living or dead?”
-
-“I will go back,” said Allen Parmer, “and I,” said John Ross, and
-“I,” said William Hulse.
-
-“Let us ride, then,” rejoined James, and in twenty minutes
-more--John Ross having exchanged his jaded horse for a fresh
-one--these four devoted men were galloping away to Wakefield’s.
-
-At two o’clock in the morning they were there. Frank James
-dismounted and knocked low upon the door. There was the trailing
-of a woman’s garments, the circumspect tread of a watching woman’s
-feet, the noiseless work of a woman’s hand upon the latch and Mrs.
-Wakefield, cool and courtly, bade the strange armed men upon the
-threshold to enter.
-
-Just across on the other side of the room from the door a man lay
-on a trundle bed. James stood over the bed, but he could not speak.
-If one had cared to look into his eyes they might have seen them
-full of tears.
-
-Quantrell, by the dim light of a single candle, recognized James,
-smiled and held out his hand, and said to him very gently, though a
-little reproachfully: “Why did you come back? The enemy are thick
-about you here; they are passing every hour.”
-
-“To see if you were alive or dead, Captain. If the first, to save
-you; if the last, to put you in a grave.”
-
-“I thank you very much, Frank, but why try to take me away? I am
-cold below the hips. I can neither ride, walk nor crawl; I am dead
-and yet I am alive.”
-
-Frank James went to the door and called in Parmer, Ross and Hulse.
-Quantrell recognized them all in his old, calm, quiet fashion, and
-bade them wipe away their tears, for they were crying visibly.
-
-Then Frank James, joined in his entreaties by the entreaties of his
-comrades, pleaded with Quantrell for permission to carry him away
-to the mountains of Nelson County by slow and easy stages, each
-swearing to guard him hour by hour until he recovered or died over
-his body, defending it to the last. He knew that every pledge made
-by them would be kept to the death. He felt that every word spoken
-was a golden word and meant absolute devotion. His faith in their
-affection was as steadfast and abiding as of old. He listened until
-they had done talking, with the old staid courtesy of victorious
-Guerrilla days, and then he silenced them with an answer which,
-from its resoluteness, they knew to be unalterable.
-
-“I cannot live. I have run a long time; I have come out unhurt from
-many desperate places; I have fought to kill and I have killed; I
-regret nothing. The end is close at hand. I am resting easy here
-and will die so. You do not know how your devotion has touched my
-heart, nor can you understand how grateful I am for the love you
-have shown me. Try and get back to your homes, and avoid if you can
-the perils that beset you.”
-
-Until 10 o’clock the next day these men remained with Quantrell.
-He talked with them very freely of the past, but never of the
-earlier life in Kansas. Many messages were sent to absent friends,
-and much good advice was given touching the surrender of the
-remnant of the band. Again and again he returned to the earlier
-struggles in Missouri and dwelt long over the recollections and the
-reminiscences of the first two years of Guerrilla warfare.
-
-Finally the parting came, and those who looked last upon
-Quantrell’s face that morning as they stooped to tell him goodbye,
-looked their last upon it forever.
-
-Terrill had promised Quantrell positively that he should not be
-removed from Wakefield’s house, but in three days he had either
-forgotten his promise or had deliberately broken his pledge. He
-informed General Palmer, commanding the department of Kentucky,
-of the facts of the fight, and of the desperate character of the
-wounded officer left paralyzed behind him, suggesting at the same
-time the advisability of having him removed to a place of safety.
-
-General Palmer sent an ambulance under a heavy escort to
-Wakefield’s house and Quantrell, suffering greatly and scarcely
-more alive than dead, was hauled to the military hospital in
-Louisville and deposited there.
-
-Until the question of recovery had been absolutely decided against
-him, but few friends were permitted into his presence. If any
-one conversed with him at all, the conversation of necessity was
-required to be carried on in the presence of an official. Mrs. Ross
-visited him thus--Christian woman, devoted to the South, and of
-active and practical patriotism--and took some dying messages to
-loved and true ones in Missouri.
-
-Mrs. Ross left him at one o’clock in the afternoon and at four the
-next afternoon the great Guerrilla died.
-
-His passing away, after a life so singularly fitful and
-tempestuous, was as the passing of a summer cloud. He had been
-asleep, and as he awoke he called for water. A Sister of Charity at
-the bedside put a glass of water to his lips, but he did not drink.
-She heard him murmur once audibly--“Boys, get ready.” Then a long
-pause, then one word more--“Steady!” and then when she drew back
-from bending over the murmuring man, she fell upon her knees and
-prayed. Quantrell was dead.
-
-Before his death he had become a Catholic and had been visited
-daily by two old priests. To one of these he made confession, and
-such a confession! He told everything. He was too serious and
-earnest a man to do less. He kept nothing back, not even the least
-justifiable of his many homicides.
-
-As the priest listened and listened, and as year after year of the
-wild war work was made to give up its secrets, what manner of a man
-must the priest have imagined lay dying there.
-
-Let history be just. On that hospital bed, watched by the calm,
-colorless face of a Sister of Charity, a dead man lay who, when
-living, had filled with his deeds four years of terrible war
-history. A singularly placid look had come with the great change.
-Alike was praise or censure, reward or punishment. Fate had
-done its worst and the future stood revealed to the spirit made
-omniscient by its journey through the Valley of the Shadow of
-Death. He had done with summer’s heat and winter’s cold, with
-spectral ambuscades and midnight vigils. There would never be any
-war in the land of the hereafter. The swoop of cavalry, the roar of
-combat, the agony of defeat, white faces trampled by the iron hoofs
-of horses, the march--the bivouac, the battle; what remains of
-these when the transfiguration was done and when the river called
-Jordan rolled between the shores of the finite and the infinite?
-Nothing! And yet by those, standing or falling, must the great
-Guerrilla be judged.
-
-Quantrell differed in some degree from every Guerrilla who was
-either a comrade or his contemporary. Not superior to Todd in
-courage and enterprise, nor to Haller, Poole, Jarrette, Younger,
-Taylor, Anderson, Frank James, Gregg, Lea, Maddox, Dan Vaughn, or
-Yager, he yet had one peculiar quality which none of these save
-Gregg, Frank James, Thrailkill, Lea and Younger possessed to the
-same pre-eminent degree--extraordinary resource and cunning.
-
-All the Guerrillas fought. Indeed, at certain times and under
-certain conditions fighting might justly have been considered the
-least of their accomplishments. A successful leader requires
-coolness, intrepidity, robust health, fine horsemanship, expert
-pistol practice, quick perception in peril, great rapidity of
-movement, immense activity, and inexorable fixedness of purpose.
-
-Those mentioned excelled in these qualities, but at times they were
-too eager to fight, took too many desperate chances, or rushed too
-recklessly into combats where they could not win. Quantrell counted
-the cost of everything; watched every way lest an advantage should
-be taken of him; sought to shield and save his men; strove by much
-strategy to have the odds with rather than against him; traveled
-a multitude of long roads rather than one short one once too
-often; took upon himself many disguises to prevent an embarrassing
-familiarity; retreat often rather than fight and be worsted; kept
-scouts everywhere; had the faculty of divination to an almost
-occult degree; believed in young men; paid attention to small
-things; listened to every man’s advice and then took his own; stood
-by his soldiers; obeyed strictly the law of retaliation; preferred
-the old dispensation to the new--that is to say, the code of Moses
-to the code of Jesus Christ; inculcated by precept and example
-the self abnegation and devotion to comrade; fought desperately;
-carried a black flag; killed everything; made the idea of surrender
-ridiculous; snapped his fingers at death; was something of a
-fatalist; rarely drank; trusted few women, but these with his
-life; played high at cards; believed in religion; respected its
-ordinances; went at intervals to church; understood human nature
-thoroughly; never quarreled; was generally taciturn and one of the
-coolest and deadliest men in a personal combat known to the border.
-He rode like he was carved from the horse beneath him. In an
-organization where skill with a pistol was a passport to leadership
-he shot with a revolver as Leatherstocking shot with a rifle. He
-drilled his men to fight equally with either hand. Fairly matched,
-God help the column that came in contact with him.
-
-As to the kind of warfare Quantrell waged, that is another matter.
-Like the war of La Vendee, the Guerrilla war was one rather of
-hatred than of opinion. The regular Confederates were fighting for
-a cause and a nationality--the Guerrilla for vengeance. Mementoes
-of murdered kinsmen mingled with their weapons; vows consecrated
-the act of enlistment and the cry for blood was heard from
-homestead to homestead. Quantrell became a Guerrilla because he had
-been most savagely dealt with, and he became a chief because he had
-prudence, firmness, courage, audacity and common sense. In personal
-intrepidity he was inferior to no man. His features were pleasing
-without being handsome, his eyes were blue and penetrating. He
-had a Roman nose. In height he was five feet, eleven inches, and
-his form was well knit, graceful and sinewy. His constitution was
-vigorous, and his physical endurance equal to an Indian. His
-glance was rapid and unerring. His judgment was clearest and surest
-when the responsibility was heaviest, and when the difficulties
-gathered thickest about him. Based upon skill, energy, perspicacity
-and unusual presence of mind, his fame as a Guerrilla will endure
-for generations.
-
-Quantrell died a Catholic and was buried in a Catholic cemetery at
-Louisville, Kentucky.
-
-
-
-
-The Youngers and Jameses After the War
-
-
-The end of the war also brought an end to armed resistance by the
-Guerrillas. As an organization, they never fought again. The most
-of them kept their weapons; and a few of them had great need to
-keep them. Some were killed because of the terrible renown won in
-the four years’ war; some were forced to hide themselves in the
-unknown of the outlying territories, and some were persecuted and
-driven into desperate defiance and resistance because they were
-human and intrepid. To this latter class the Jameses and Youngers
-belonged.
-
-No men ever strove harder to put the past behind them. No men ever
-submitted more sincerely to the results of a war that had as many
-excesses on one side as on the other. No men ever went to work
-with a heartier good will to keep good faith with society and make
-themselves amenable to the law. No men ever sacrificed more for
-peace, and for the bare privilege of doing just as hundreds like
-them had done--the privilege of going back again into the obscurity
-of civil life and becoming again a part of the enterprising economy
-of the commonwealth. They were not permitted so to do, try how they
-would, and as hard, and as patiently.
-
-After the death of Quantrell and the surrender of the remnant of
-his Guerrillas, Frank James was not permitted, at first, to return
-to Missouri at all, much less to his home in Clay County.
-
-He lingered in Clay County as long as possible, very circumspect
-in his actions and very conservative in his behavior. Tempted one
-day by his beardless face and innocent walk and to bear upon him
-roughly, four Federal soldiers set upon Frank James in Brandenburg
-and made haste to force an issue. For a moment the old fire of his
-earlier and stormier days flared up all of a sudden from the ashes
-of the past and consumed as with a single hot blast of passion
-prudence, accountability, caution and discretion. He fought as he
-had fought at Centralia. Two of the Federals were killed instantly,
-the third was desperately wounded, while the fourth shot Frank
-badly in the joint of the left hip, inflicting a grievous hurt and
-one which caused him afterwards a great deal of pain and trouble.
-
-Staunch friends hid him while the hue and cry were heaviest, and
-careful surgical attention brought him back to life when he lay so
-close to death’s door that by the lifting of a hand he also might
-have lifted its latch.
-
-This fight, however, was not one of his own seeking, nor one
-which he could have avoided without the exhibition of a quality
-he never had known anything about and never could know anything
-about--physical cowardice.
-
-Jesse James, emaciated, tottering as he walked, fighting what
-seemed to everyone a hopeless battle--of “the skeleton boy against
-skeleton death”--joined his mother in Nebraska and returned with
-her to their home near Kearney, in Clay County. His wound would
-not heal, and more ominous still, every now and then there was a
-hemorrhage.
-
-In the spring of 1866 he was just barely able to mount a horse and
-ride a bit. And he did ride, but he rode armed, watchful, vigilant,
-haunted. He might be killed, waylaid, ambuscaded, assassinated; but
-he would be killed with his eyes open and his pistols about him.
-
-The hunt for this maimed and emaciated Guerrilla culminated on the
-night of February 18th, 1867. On this night an effort was made to
-kill him. Five militiamen, well armed and mounted, came to his
-mother’s house and demanded admittance. The weather was bitterly
-cold, and Jesse James, parched with fever, was tossing wearily in
-bed. His pistols were under his head. His step-father. Dr. Samuels,
-heard the militiamen as they walked upon the front porch, and
-demanded to know what they wanted. They told him to open the door.
-He came up to Jesse’s room and asked him what he should do. “Help
-me to the window,” was the low, calm reply, “that I may look out.”
-He did so.
-
-There was snow on the ground and the moon was shining. He saw that
-all the horses hitched to the fence had on cavalry saddles, and
-then he knew that the men were soldiers. He had but one of two
-things to do--drive them away or die.
-
-Incensed at the step-father’s silence, they were hammering at the
-door with the butts of their muskets and calling out to Jesse to
-come down stairs, swearing that they knew he was in the house, and
-that they would have him out, dead or alive.
-
-He went down stairs softly, having first dressed himself, crept
-close up to the front door and listened until from the talk of the
-men he thought he was able to get a fairly accurate pistol range.
-Then he put a heavy dragoon pistol to within three inches of the
-upper panel of the door and fired. A man cried out and fell. Before
-the surprise was off he threw the door wide open, and with a pistol
-in each hand began a rapid fusillade. A second man was killed as
-he ran, two men were wounded severely, and surrendered, while the
-fifth marauder, terrified, yet unhurt, rushed swiftly to his horse
-and escaped in the darkness.
-
-What else could Jesse James have done? In those evil days bad men
-in bands were doing bad things continually in the name of the law,
-order and vigilance committees.
-
-He had been a desperate Guerrilla; he had fought under a black
-flag, he had made a name for terrible prowess along the border;
-he had survived dreadful wounds; it was known that he would fight
-at any hour or in any way; he could not be frightened out from
-his native county; he could be neither intimidated nor robbed,
-and hence the wanton war waged upon Jesse and Frank James, and
-this is the reason they became outlaws, and hence the reason also
-that--outlaws as they were and proscribed in county, or state or
-territory--they had more friends than the officers who hunted them,
-and more defenders than the armed men who sought to secure their
-bodies, dead or alive.
-
-The future of the Youngers after the war was similar to the
-Jameses. Cole was in California when the surrender came, and he
-immediately accepted the situation. He returned to Missouri,
-determined to forget the past, and fixed in his purpose to reunite
-the scattered members of his once prosperous and happy family, and
-prepare and make comfortable a home for his stricken and suffering
-mother.
-
-Despite everything that has been said and written of this man,
-he was, during all the border warfare, a generous and merciful
-man. Others killed and that in any form or guise or fashion; he
-alone in open and honorable battle. His heart was always kind, and
-his sympathies always easily aroused. He not only took prisoners
-himself, but he treated them afterwards as prisoners, and released
-them to rejoin commands that spared nothing alive of Guerrilla
-associations that fell into their hands.
-
-He was the oldest son, and all the family looked up to him. His
-mother had been driven out of Cass County into Jackson, out of
-Jackson into Lafayette, and out of Lafayette into Jackson again.
-Not content with butchering the father in cold blood, the ravenous
-cut-throats and thieves followed the mother with a malignity
-unparalleled. Every house she owned or inhabited was burnt, every
-outbuilding, every rail, every straw stack, every corn pen, every
-pound of food and every store of forage. Her stock was stolen. Her
-household goods were even appropriated. She had no place to lay
-her head that could be called her own, and but for the kindness
-and Christianity of her devoted neighbors, she must have suffered
-greatly.
-
-At this time Coleman and James returned to Missouri and went
-hopefully and bravely to work. Their father’s land remained to
-them. That at least had neither been set fire to nor hauled away in
-wagons, nor driven into Kansas.
-
-Western Missouri was then full of disbanded Federal soldiers,
-organized squads of predatory Redlegs and Jayhawkers, horse thieves
-disguised as vigilance committees, and highway robbers known as law
-and order men.
-
-In addition, Drake’s constitution disfranchised every property
-owner along the border. An honest man could not officially stand
-between the helpless of his community and the imported lazzaroni
-who preyed upon them; a decent man’s voice could not be heard
-above the clamor of the beggars quarreling over stolen plunder; and
-a just man’s expostulations penetrated never into the councils of
-the chief scoundrels who planned the murders and the robberies.
-
-Coleman Younger’s work was like the work of a pioneer in the
-wilderness, but he did it as became the hardy descendants of a
-stalwart race of pioneers. He cut logs and built a comfortable log
-house for his mother. He made rails and fenced in his land. In lieu
-of horses or mules, he plowed with oxen. He stayed steadfastly
-at home. He heard rumors of threats being made against his life,
-but he paid no attention to them. He took part in no political
-meetings. He tried to hide himself and be forgotten.
-
-The bloodhounds were on his track, however, and swore either to
-kill him or drive him from the country. A vigilance committee
-composed of skulking murderers and red-handed robbers went one
-night to surprise the two brothers and end the hunt with a
-massacre. Forewarned, James and Coleman fled. The family were
-wantonly insulted, and a younger brother, John, a mere boy, was
-brutally beaten and then hung until life was almost extinct. This
-was done to force him to tell the whereabouts of James and Coleman.
-
-Mrs. Younger never entirely recovered from the shock of that
-night’s work, lingering along hopelessly yet patiently for several
-months and finally dying in the full assurance of the Christian’s
-blessed hereafter.
-
-The death of this persecuted woman, however, did not end the
-persecution. Cole Younger was repeatedly waylaid and fired at. His
-stock was killed through mere deviltry, or driven off to swell
-the gains of insatiable wolves. His life was in hourly jeopardy,
-as was the life of his brother James. They plowed in the fields
-as men who saw suspended above them a naked sword blade. They
-permitted no light to be lit in the house at night. They traveled
-the public highway warily. They were hunted men and proscribed men
-in the midst of their own people. They were chased away from their
-premises by armed men. Once Cole was badly wounded by the bullet of
-an assassin. Once, half dressed, he had to flee for his life. If he
-made a crop, he was not permitted to gather it and when something
-of a success might have come to him after the expenditure of so
-much toil, energy, long-suffering and forbearance, he was not let
-alone in peace long enough to utilize his returns and make out of
-his resources their legitimate gains.
-
-Of course there could be but one ending to all this long and
-unbroken series of malignant persecutions, lying-in-wait, midnight
-surprises, perpetual robbings, and most villainous assaults and
-attempted murders--Coleman and James Younger left home and left
-Jackson County. They buckled on their pistols and rode away to
-Texas, resolved from that time on to protect themselves, to fight
-when they were attacked, and to make it so hot for the assassins
-and the detectives who were eternally on their track that by and
-by the contract taken to murder them would be a contract not
-particularly conducive to steady investments. They were hounded to
-it.
-
-They endured every species of insult and attack, and would have
-still continued to endure it in silence and almost non-resistance
-if such forbearance had mitigated in any manner the virulence
-of their enemies, or brought any nearer to an appeasement the
-merciless fate which seemed to be eternally at their heels. The
-peaceful pursuits of life were denied them. The law which should
-have protected them was overridden. Indeed, there was no law.
-The courts were instruments of plunder. The civil officers were
-cutthroats. Instead of a legal process, there was a vigilance
-committee. Men were hung because of a very natural desire to keep
-hold of their own property. To the cruel vigor of actual war, there
-had succeeded the irresponsible despotism of greedy highwaymen
-buttressed upon assassination. The border counties were overrun
-with bands of predatory plunderers. Some Confederate soldiers dared
-not return home and many Guerrillas fled the country. It was dark
-everywhere, and the bravest held their breath, not knowing how much
-longer they would be permitted to remain peacefully at home, or
-suffered to enjoy the fruits of the labors they had endured.
-
-Fortunately for all, however, the well nigh extinct embers of
-a merciless border war were not blown upon long enough and
-persistently enough to kindle another conflagration.
-
-But neither the Jameses nor the Youngers had been permitted to
-rest long at any one time since the surrender of the Confederate
-armies. Some dastardly deeds had been done against them, too, in
-the name of the law. Take for example, Pinkerton’s midnight raid
-upon the house of Mrs. Zerelda Samuels, mother of the James boys.
-The family was wrapped in profound sleep. Only women and children
-were about the premises, and an old man long past his prime. The
-cowards--how many is not accurately known, probably a dozen--crept
-close to this house through the midnight, surrounded it, found its
-inmates asleep, and threw into the kitchen where an old negress was
-in bed with her children, a lighted hand grenade, wrapped about
-with flannel saturated with turpentine. The lurid light from this
-inflammable fluid awakened the negro woman and she in turn awakened
-the sleeping whites. They rushed to subdue the flames and save
-their property. Children were gathered together in the kitchen,
-little things, helpless and terrified. All of a sudden there was a
-terrible explosion. Mrs. Samuels’ right arm was blown off above the
-elbow, a bright little boy, eight years old, had his bowels torn
-out. Dr. Samuels was seriously cut and hurt, the old negro woman
-was maimed, and several of the other children more or less injured.
-The hand grenade had done its work, and there had been a tragedy
-performed by men calling themselves civilized, in the midst of a
-peaceful community and upon a helpless family of women and children
-and what would have disgraced Nero or made some of the monstrous
-murders of Diocletian was as white is to black. Yet Pinkerton’s
-paid assassins did this because his paid assassins knew better how
-to kill women and children than armed men in open combat.
-
-Dear Reader, what would you have done under the same circumstances?
-Put yourself in the Jameses’ and Youngers’ places, and think it
-over.
-
-When Jesse James was killed at St. Joseph, Missouri, Governor
-Crittenden, then governor of the state of Missouri, wired me to
-know if I would go up and identify him.
-
-I wired him I would, providing I could go armed.
-
-He answered, “Perfectly satisfactory to me. Meet me at Union
-Station, Kansas City, Missouri, tomorrow morning.”
-
-I secured several of my old Guerrilla friends to accompany the
-Governor and myself to St. Joseph, Missouri, unbeknown to the
-Governor, however, for I did not know how I stood with the people
-at St. Joseph. I was just playing safety first. I met the Governor
-at the depot. He asked me what attitude I thought Frank James would
-take towards him for offering a reward and having Jesse killed. I
-told him “If Frank wanted to kill him for revenge, he surely would.”
-
-He looked pale, but not half so pale as he did the day Frank
-surrendered. A heavy reward hanging over Frank James’ head, he made
-his way past the guards and sergeant-at-arms, stationed at the
-Governor’s mansion at Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri, and
-surrendered to Governor Crittenden in his office. On entering his
-office, Frank said:
-
-“Is this Governor Crittenden?”
-
-“Yes,” was the reply.
-
-“This is Frank James. I came to surrender,” at the same time
-pulling two heavy dragoon pistols and handing them to the Governor.
-“Here are arms, Governor, but not all I have, nor will I give them
-up until I know you will give me protection.”
-
-Frank told me afterwards that “Governor Crittenden’s face will
-never be whiter when he is dead than it was the day I surrendered.”
-
-I identified Jesse James at St. Joseph, Missouri, to the Governor’s
-entire satisfaction. Since then it has been said that Jesse was
-still alive and that it was a wax figure that was buried, but this
-is all a lie.
-
-There is one good act the James boys did while they were outlaws.
-
-A southern widow woman some time soon after the war had mortgaged
-her farm to an old Redleg who had moved from Lawrence, Kansas, to
-Kansas City.
-
-When the loan expired he drove out to see her and informed her that
-if she did not have the money by ten o’clock the next morning he
-would foreclose.
-
-Soon after he had left, up rode Jesse and Frank James, and found
-the lady crying and taking on. They inquired what was wrong, and
-she related the whole story.
-
-Frank said, “You send your son in the morning and tell the old
-Federal to bring all releases and all papers fully signed and you
-will pay him in full. Jesse and I will let you have the money.”
-
-Next morning the boy went with the message, and in the evening out
-came the old Federal in his bus with his negro driver, drove up
-to the house, went in, and the lady paid him in full with cash,
-getting all releases and papers fixed up. The old man bowed and
-scraped and, tipping his hat, said, “Goodbye, lady,” and he and his
-“nigger” driver started back to Kansas City. When but a few hundred
-yards or so from the house and close to a ravine, Jesse and Frank
-held him up and relieved him of the money they had loaned the lady,
-together with all the rest he had for interest.
-
- * * * * *
-
-During the World War, in conversation with friends, I told them
-to take away from Germany her airplanes, gases and machine guns,
-and if it were possible to call Quantrell’s old band together, of
-which at no time were there over three hundred and fifty men, all
-told, under Todd, Poole, Yager, Anderson, Younger, Jarrett, Haller,
-Quantrell and myself, I could take these three hundred and fifty
-men and go to Berlin in a gallop, for history does not now and
-never will know the power there was in the Quantrell band. It has
-been given up long ago that they were the most fighting devils the
-world has ever known or ever will know.
-
-
-THE END
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Notes
-
-
-Transcriber added six missing chapter references to the Table of
-Contents.
-
-Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
-predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise
-they were not changed.
-
-Many simple typographical errors were silently corrected, but
-several words that today would be considered misspelled have not
-been changed.
-
-Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
-and outside quotations.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles W. Quantrell, by Harrison Trow
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-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles W. Quantrell, by Harrison Trow
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll
-have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
-this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: Charles W. Quantrell
- A True Report of his Guerrilla Warfare on the Missouri and
- Kansas Border During the Civil Was of 1861 to 1865
-
-Author: Harrison Trow
-
-Editor: John P. Burch
-
-Release Date: January 4, 2020 [EBook #61100]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES W. QUANTRELL ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by deaurider and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive)
-
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-</pre>
-
-
-<div class="center vspace wspace larger">
-<h1>CHARLES W. QUANTRELL<br /><br />
-
-<span class="subhead">A TRUE HISTORY OF HIS GUERRILLA WARFARE<br />
-ON THE MISSOURI AND KANSAS BORDER<br />
-DURING THE CIVIL WAR OF<br />
-1861 TO 1865</span></h1>
-
-<p class="large">By JOHN P. BURCH</p>
-
-<p class="p2"><i><span class="btb">ILLUSTRATED</span></i></p>
-
-<p class="p2">AS TOLD BY</p>
-
-<p class="larger">CAPTAIN HARRISON TROW</p>
-
-<p>ONE WHO FOLLOWED QUANTRELL THROUGH<br />
-HIS WHOLE COURSE
-</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p class="newpage p4 center vspace">
-<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1923<br />
-By J. P. Burch<br />
-Vega Texas</span>
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<div id="ip_3" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 32em;">
- <img src="images/i_003.jpg" width="510" height="700" alt="" />
- <div class="caption">CHARLES W. QUANTRELL</div></div>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span></p>
-<div id="ip_5" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 30em;">
- <img src="images/i_005.jpg" width="477" height="700" alt="" />
- <div class="caption">CAPTAIN HARRISON TROW</div></div>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table id="toc" summary="Contents">
- <tr class="smaller">
- <td> </td>
- <td class="tdr">PAGE</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Introduction</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_1">11</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">The False Jonah</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_2">13</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Early Life of Quantrell</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_3">15</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Why the Quantrell Guerrillas Were Organized</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_4">23</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Quantrell’s First Battle in the Civil War</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_5">29</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Fight at Charles Younger’s Farm</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_6">35</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Fight at Independence</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_7">37</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Second Fight at Independence</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_8">39</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Flanked Independence</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_9">41</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Fight at Tate House</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_10">43</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Fight at Clark’s Home</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_11">51</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Jayhawkers and Militia Murdered Old Man Blythe’s Son</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_12">59</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">The Low House Fight</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_13">63</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Quantrell and Todd Go After Ammunition</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_14">69</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">A Challenge</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_15">73</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">The Battle and Capture of Independence</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_16">77</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Lone Jack Fight</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_17">85</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">The March South in 1862</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_18">97</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Younger Remains in Missouri Winter of 1862 and 1863</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_19">105</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">The Trip North in 1863</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_20">121</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Jesse James Joins the Command</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_21">131</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Lawrence Massacre</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_22">141</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Order Number 11, August, 1863</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_23">155</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Fights and Skirmishes, Fall and Winter, 1863–1864</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_24">159</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Blue Springs Fight, 1863</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_25">163</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Wellington</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_26">165</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">The Grinter Fight</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_27">171</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">The Centralia Massacre</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_28">175</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Anderson</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_29">187</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Press Webb, a Born Scout</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_30">193</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Little Blue</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_31">205</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Arrock Fight, Spring of 1864</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_32">207</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Fire Bottom Prairie Fight, Spring of 1864</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_33">209</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Death of Todd and Anderson, October, 1864</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_34">213</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Going South, Fall of 1864</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_35">223</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">The Surrender</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_36">229</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">Death of Quantrell</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_37">237</a></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="tdl">The Youngers and Jameses After the War</td>
- <td class="tdr"><a href="#hdr_38">253</a></td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p class="newpage p4 center vspace wspace2 larger">
-Do not loan this book out to<br />
-neighbors and friends<br />
-If You Do You Will Never Get It Back<br />
-<br />
-Keep it in your Library<br />
-When You Are Not Reading It<br />
-<br />
-If You Want One Send to<br />
-
-<span class="larger">J. P. BURCH, VEGA, TEXAS</span><br />
-
-And He Will Mail You One At Once
-</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_1">INTRODUCTION</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Captain Harrison Trow,</span> who will be eighty
-years old this coming October, was with Quantrell
-during the whole of the conflict from 1861 to 1865, and
-for the past twenty years I have been at him to give
-his consent for me to write a true history of the Quantrell
-Band, until at last he has given it.</p>
-
-<p>This narrative was written just as he told it to
-me, giving accounts of fights that he participated in,
-narrow escapes experienced, dilemmas it seemed
-almost impossible to get out of, and also other battles;
-the life of the James boys and Youngers as they were
-with Quantrell during the war, and after the war,
-when they became outlaws by publicity of the daily
-newspapers, being accused of things which they never
-did and which were laid at their feet.</p>
-
-<p>Captain Trow identified Jesse James when the latter
-was killed at St. Joseph. He also was the last man
-to surrender in the State of Missouri.</p>
-
-<p class="sigright"><span class="smcap">John P. Burch.</span></p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="THE_AUTHOR">THE AUTHOR</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Captain Harrison Trow</span> was born in Pittsburgh,
-Pennsylvania, October 16, 1843, moved to
-Illinois in 1848, and thence to Missouri in 1850, and
-went to Hereford, Texas, in 1901, where he now resides.
-At the age of nine years, he, having one of the
-nicest, neatest and sweetest stepmothers (as they all
-are), and things not being as pleasant at home as they
-should be (which is often the case where there is a
-stepmother), and getting all the peach tree sprouts
-for the whole family used on him, he decided the world
-was too large for him to take such treatment, and one
-day he proceeded to give the stepmother a good flogging,
-such as he had been getting, and left for brighter
-fields.</p>
-
-<p>In a few days he made his way to Independence,
-Missouri, got into a game of marbles, playing keeps,
-in front of a blacksmith shop, and won seventy-five
-cents. Then and there Uncle George Hudsbath rode
-up and wanted to hire a hand. Young Trow jumped
-at the job and talked to Mr. Hudsbath a few minutes
-and soon was up behind him and riding away to his
-new home. Young Trow proved to be the lad Uncle
-George was looking for and stayed with him until the
-war broke out.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_2">The False Jonah</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Early</span> in the year of 1861, about in January, Jim
-Lane sent a false Jonah down to Missouri to investigate
-the location of the negroes and stock, preparing
-to make a raid within a short time. This Jonah
-located first at Judge Gray’s house at Bone Hill, was
-fed by Judge Gray’s “niggers” and was secreted in an
-empty ice house where they kept ice in the summer
-time. He would come out in the night time and plan
-with the “niggers” for their escape into Kansas with
-the horses, buggies and carriages and other valuables
-belonging to their master that they could get possession
-of. But an old negro woman, old Maria by name, gave
-the Jonah away.</p>
-
-<p>Chat Rennick, one of the neighbors, and two other
-men secreted themselves in the negroes’ cabin so as to
-hear what he was telling the negroes. After he had
-made all his plans for their escape Chat Rennick came
-out on him with the other two men and took him prisoner
-and started north to the Missouri River. Securing
-a skiff, they floated out into the river and when
-in about the center there came up a heavy gale, and
-one of these gentlemen thought it best to unload part
-of the cargo, so he was thrown overboard. As for the
-negroes, they repented in sack cloth and ashes and all
-stayed at home and took care of their master and
-mistress, as Jonah did in the olden times. As for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span>
-Jonah, I do not know whether the fish swallowed him
-or not, but if one did he did not get sick and throw
-him up. This took place at my wife’s uncle’s home,
-Judge James Gray.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_3">Early Life of Quantrell</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> early life of Quantrell was obscure and uneventful.
-He was born near Hagerstown, Maryland,
-July 20, 1836, and was reared there until he was
-sixteen years of age. He remained always an obedient
-and affectionate son. His mother had been left a
-widow when he was only a few years old.</p>
-
-<p>For some time preceding 1857, Quantrell’s only
-brother lived in Kansas. He wrote to his younger
-brother, Charles, to come there, and after his arrival
-they decided on a trip to California. About the middle
-of the summer of 1857 the two started for California
-with a freight outfit. Upon reaching Little Cottonwood
-River, Kansas, they decided to camp for the
-night. This they did. All was going well. After supper
-twenty-one outlaws, or Redlegs, belonging to Jim
-Lane at Lawrence, Kansas, rode up and killed the
-elder brother, wounded Charles, and took everything
-in sight, money, and even the “nigger” who went with
-them to do the cooking. They thought more of the
-d——d “nigger” than they did of all the rest of the loot.
-They left poor Charles there to die and be eaten later
-by wolves or some other wild animal that might come
-that way. Poor Charles lay there for three days before
-anyone happened by, guarding his dead brother, suffering
-near death from his wounds. After three days
-an old Shawnee Indian named Spye Buck came along,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span>
-buried the elder brother and took Charles to his home
-and nursed him back to life and strength. After six
-months to a year Charles Quantrell was able to go at
-ease, and having a good education for those days, got
-a school and taught until he had earned enough money
-to pay the old Indian for keeping him while he was sick
-and to get him to Lawrence. He reached Lawrence
-and went to where Jim Lane was stationed with his
-company. He wanted to get into the company that
-murdered his brother and wounded himself. After a few
-days he was taken in and, from outward appearance, he
-became a full-fledged Redleg, but in his heart he was doing
-this only to seek revenge on those who had killed his
-brother and wounded him at Cottonwood, Kansas.</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell, now known as Charles Hart, became
-intimate with Lane and ostensibly attached himself
-to the fortunes of the anti-slavery party. In order
-to attain his object and get a step nearer his goal, it
-became necessary for him to speak of John Brown.
-He always spoke of him to General Lane, who was at
-that time Colonel Lane, in command of a regiment at
-Lawrence, as one for whom he had great admiration.
-Quantrell became enrolled in a company that held all
-but two of the men who had done the deadly work at
-Cottonwood, Kansas. First as a private, then as an
-orderly and sergeant, Quantrell soon gained the esteem
-of his officers and the confidence of his men.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span>
-One day Quantrell and three men were sent down
-in the neighborhood of Wyandotte to meet a wagon
-load of “niggers” coming up to Missouri under the pilotage
-of Jack Winn, a somewhat noted horse thief and
-abolutionist. One of the three men failed to return
-with Quantrell, nor could any account be given of his
-absence until his body was found near a creek several
-days afterwards. In the center of his forehead was
-the round, smooth hole of a navy revolver bullet. Those
-who looked for Jack Winn’s safe arrival were also disappointed.
-People traveling the road passed the corpse
-almost daily and the buzzards found it first, and afterwards
-the curious. There was the same round hole in
-the forehead and the same sure mark of the navy revolver
-bullet. This thing went on for several months,
-scarcely a week passing but that some sentinel was
-found dead at his post, some advance picket surprised
-and shot at his outpost watch station.</p>
-
-<p>The men began to whisper, one to another, and to
-cast about for the cavalry Jonah who was in their midst.
-One company alone, that of Captain Pickins, the company
-to which Quantrell belonged, had lost thirteen men
-between October, 1859 and 1860. Other companies had
-lost two to three each. A railroad conductor named
-Rogers had been shot through the forehead. Quantrell
-and Pickens became intimate, as a captain and lieutenant
-of the same company should, and confided many
-things to each other. One night the story of the Cottonwood<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span>
-River was told and Pickens dwelt with just a little
-relish upon it. Three days later Pickens and two of
-his most reliable men were found dead on Bull Creek,
-shot like the balance, in the middle of the forehead.
-For a time after Pickens’ death there was a lull in the
-constant conscription demanded by the Nemesis. The
-new lieutenant bought himself a splendid uniform,
-owned the best horse in the territory and instead of
-one navy revolver, now had two. Organizations of all
-sorts now sprang up, Free Soil clubs, Men of Equal
-Rights, Sons of Liberty, Destroying Angels, Lane’s
-Loyal Leaguers, and everyone made haste to get his
-name signed to both constitution and by-laws.</p>
-
-<p>Lawrence especially effected the Liberator Club,
-whose undivided mission was to found freedom for all
-the slaves now in Missouri.</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell persevered in his efforts to kill all of the
-men who had had a hand in the killing of his brother
-and the wounding of himself. With this in view, he
-induced seven Liberators to co-operate with him in an
-attack on Morgan Walker. These seven men whom
-Quantrell picked were the last except two of the men
-he had sworn vengeance upon when left to die at Cottonwood
-River, Kansas. He told them that Morgan
-Walker had a lot of “niggers,” horses and cattle and
-money and that the sole purpose was to rob and kill
-him. Quantrell’s only aim was to get these seven men.
-Morgan Walker was an old citizen of Jackson County,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span>
-a venerable pioneer who had settled there when buffalo
-grazed on the prairie beyond Westport and where,
-in the soft sands beyond the inland streams, there were
-wolf and moccasin tracks. This man, Morgan Walker,
-was the man Quantrell had proposed to rob. He lived
-some five or six miles from Independence and owned
-about twenty negroes of various ages and sizes. The
-probabilities were that a skillfully conducted raid
-might leave him without a “nigger.”</p>
-
-<p>Well mounted and armed, the little detachment left
-Lawrence quietly, rode two by two, far apart, until the
-first rendezvous was reached, a clump of timber at a
-ford on Indian Creek. It was the evening of the second
-day, and they tarried long enough to rest their
-horses and eat a hearty supper.</p>
-
-<p>Before daylight the next morning the entire party
-were hidden in some heavy timber about two miles
-west of Walker’s house. There these seven men stayed,
-none of them stirring, except Quantrell. Several times
-during the day, however, he went backwards and forwards,
-apparently to the fields where the negroes were
-at work, and whenever he returned he brought something
-either for the horses or the men to eat.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Walker had two sons, and before it was yet
-night, these boys and their father were seen putting
-into excellent order their double-barrel shotguns, and
-a little later three neighbors who likewise carried
-double-barrel shotguns rode up to the house. Quantrell,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span>
-who brought news of many other things to his
-comrades, brought no note of this. If he saw it he
-made no sign. When Quantrell arranged his men for
-the dangerous venture they were to proceed, first to
-the house, gain access to it, capture all the male members
-of the family and put them under guard, assemble
-all the negroes and make them hitch up the horses to
-the wagons and then gallop them for Kansas. Fifty
-yards from the gate the eight men dismounted and
-fastened their horses, and the march to the house began.
-Quantrell led. He was very cool and seemed to
-see everything. The balance of his men had their
-revolvers in their hands while he had his in his belt.
-Quantrell knocked loudly at the oaken panel of the
-door. No answer. He knocked again and stood perceptibly
-at one side. Suddenly the door flared open
-and Quantrell leaped into the hall with a bound like
-a red deer. A livid sheet of flame burst out through
-the darkness where he had disappeared, followed by
-another as the second barrels of the guns were discharged
-and the tragedy was over. Six fell where they
-stood, riddled with buckshot. One staggered to the
-garden and died there. The seventh, hard hit and unable
-to mount his horse, dragged himself to a patch of
-timber and waited for the dawn. They tracked him by
-the blood upon the leaves and found him early in the
-morning. Another volley, and the last Liberator was
-liberated.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span>
-Walker and his two sons, assisted by three of the
-stalwart and obliging neighbors, had done a clean
-night’s work, and a righteous one. This being the last
-of the Redlegs, except two, who murdered Quantrell’s
-brother and wounded him in Cottonwood, Kansas, in
-1857, he closed his eyes and ears from ever being a scout
-for old Jim Lane any more.</p>
-
-<p>In a few days after the ambuscade at Walker’s,
-Charles W. Quantrell, instead of Charles Hart, as he
-was known, then was not afraid to tell his name on
-Missouri soil. He wrote to Jim Lane, telling him what
-had happened to the scouts sent out by him, and as the
-war was on then, Quantrell told Lane in his letter that
-he was going to Richmond, Virginia, to get a commission
-from under Jeff Davis’ own hand, which he did
-(as you will read further on in this narrative), to operate
-on the border at will. So Quantrell, being fully
-equipped with all credentials, notified Jim Lane of
-Missouri, telling him he would treat him with the
-same or better courtesy than he (Lane) had treated
-him and his brother at Cottonwood River, Kansas, in
-1857. This made Jim Lane mad, and he began to send
-his roving, robbing, and thieving bands into Missouri,
-and Charles W. Quantrell, having a band of well organized
-guerrillas of about fifty men, began to play
-on their golden harps. Every time they came in sight,
-which was almost every day, they would have a fight
-to the finish.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_4">Why the Quantrell Guerrillas Were
-Organized</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">It</span> all came about from the Redlegs or Kansas Jayhawkers.
-For two years Kansas hated Missouri and
-at all times during these two years there were Redlegs
-from old Jim Lane’s army crossing to Missouri,
-stealing everything they could get their hands on,
-driving stock, insulting innocent women and children,
-and hanging and killing old men; so it is the province
-of history to deal with results, not to condemn the
-phenomena which produce them. Nor has it the right
-to decry the instruments Providence always raises up
-in the midst of great catastrophes to restore the equilibrium
-of eternal justice. Civil War might well have
-made the Guerrilla, but only the excesses of civil war
-could have made him the untamable and unmerciful
-creature that history finds him. When he first went
-into the war he was somewhat imbued with the old-fashioned
-belief that soldiering meant fighting and
-that fighting meant killing. He had his own ideas of
-soldiering, however, and desired nothing so much as
-to remain at home and meet its despoilers upon his
-own premises. Not naturally cruel, and averse to invading
-the territory of any other people, he could not
-understand the patriotism of those who invaded his
-own territory. Patriotism, such as he was required
-to profess, could not spring up in the market place at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span>
-the bidding of Redleg or Jayhawker. He believed,
-indeed, that the patriotism of Jim Lane and Jennison
-was merely a highway robbery transferred from the
-darkness to the dawn, and he believed the truth.
-Neither did the Guerrilla become merciless all of a
-sudden. Pastoral in many cases by profession, and
-reared among the bashful and timid surroundings of
-agricultural life, he knew nothing of the tiger that was
-in him until death had been dashed against his eyes in
-numberless and brutal ways, and until the blood of his
-own kith and kin had been sprinkled plentifully upon
-things that his hands touched, and things that entered
-into his daily existence. And that fury of ideas also
-came to him slowly, which is more implacable than the
-fury of men, for men have heart, and opinion has none.
-It took him likewise some time to learn that the Jayhawkers’
-system of saving the Union was a system of
-brutal force, which bewailed not even that which it
-crushed; and it belied its doctrine by its tyranny, stained
-its arrogated right by its violence, and dishonored its
-vaunted struggles by its executions. But blood is as contagious
-as air. The fever of civil war has its delirium.</p>
-
-<p>When the Guerrilla awoke he was a giant!
-He took in, as it were, and at a single
-glance, all the immensity of the struggle. He saw that
-he was hunted and proscribed; that he had neither a
-flag nor a government; that the rights and the amenities
-of civilized warfare were not to be his; that a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span>
-dog’s death was certain to be his if he surrendered
-even in the extremest agony of battle; that the house
-which sheltered him had to be burned; the father who
-succored him had to be butchered; the mother who
-prayed for him had to be insulted; the sister who carried
-him food had to be imprisoned; the neighborhood
-which witnessed his combats had to be laid waste; the
-comrade shot down by his side had to be put to death
-as a wild beast—and he lifted up the black flag in self-defense
-and fought as became a free man and a hero.</p>
-
-<p>Much obloquy has been cast upon the Guerrilla organization
-because in its name bad men plundered the
-helpless, pillaged the friend and foe alike, assaulted
-non-combatants and murdered the unresisting and the
-innocent. Such devils’ work was not Guerrilla work.
-It fitted all too well the hands of those cowards crouching
-in the rear of either army and courageous only
-where women defended what remained to themselves
-and their children. Desperate and remorseless as he
-undoubtedly was, the Guerrilla saw shining upon his
-pathway a luminous patriotism, and he followed it
-eagerly that he might kill in the name of God and his
-country. The nature of his warfare made him responsible,
-of course, for many monstrous things he had no
-personal share in bringing about. Denied a hearing
-at the bar of public opinion, of all the loyal journalists,
-painted blacker than ten devils, and given a countenance
-that was made to retain some shadow of all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span>
-the death agonies he had seen, is it strange in the least
-that his fiendishness became omnipresent as well as
-omnipotent? To justify one crime on the part of a
-Federal soldier, five crimes more cruel were laid at
-the door of the Guerrilla. His long gallop not only
-tired, but infuriated his hunters. That savage standing
-at bay and dying always as a wolf dies when barked
-at by hounds and dudgeoned by countrymen, made his
-enemies fear and hate him. Hence, from all their
-bomb-proofs his slanderers fired silly lies at long
-range, and put afloat unnatural stories that hurt him
-only as it deepened the savage intensity of an already
-savage strife. Save in rare and memorable instances,
-the Guerrilla murdered only when fortune in open and
-honorable battle gave into his hands some victims who
-were denied that death in combat which they afterward
-found by ditch or lonesome roadside. Man for
-man, he put his life fairly on the cast of the war dice,
-and died when the need came as the red Indian dies,
-stoical and grim as a stone.</p>
-
-<p>As strange as it may seem, the perilous fascination
-of fighting under a black flag—where the wounded
-could have neither surgeon nor hospital, and where all
-that remained to the prisoners was the absolute certainty
-of speedy death—attracted a number of young
-men to the various Guerrilla bands, gently nurtured,
-born to higher destinies, capable of sustaining exertion
-in any scheme or enterprise, and fit for callings high<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span>
-up in the scale of science or philosophy. Others came
-who had deadly wrongs to avenge, and these gave to
-all their combats that sanguinary hue which still remains
-a part of the Guerrilla’s legacy. Almost from
-the first a large majority of Quantrell’s original command
-had over them the shadow of some terrible crime.
-This one recalled a father murdered, this one a brother
-waylaid and shot, this one a house pillaged and burned,
-this one a relative assassinated, this one a grievous
-insult while at peace at home, this one a robbery of all
-his earthly possessions, this one the force that compelled
-him to witness the brutal treatment of a mother
-or sister, this one was driven away from his own like
-a thief in the night, this one was threatened with
-death for opinion’s sake, this one was proscribed at the
-instance of some designing neighbor, this one was arrested
-wantonly and forced to do the degrading work
-of a menial; while all had more or less of wrath laid
-up against the day when they were to meet, face to
-face and hand to hand, those whom they had good
-cause to regard as the living embodiment of unnumbered
-wrongs. Honorable soldiers in the Confederate
-army—amenable to every generous impulse and exact
-in the performance of every manly duty—deserted
-even the ranks which they had adorned and became
-desperate Guerillas because the home they had left
-had been given to the flames, or a gray-haired father
-shot upon his own hearthstone. They wanted to avoid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span>
-the uncertainty of regular battle and know by actual
-results how many died as a propitation or a sacrifice.
-Every other passion became subsidiary to that of revenge.
-They sought personal encounters that their
-own handiwork might become unmistakably manifest.
-Those who died by other agencies than their own were
-not counted in the general summing up of the fight,
-nor were the solacements of any victory sweet to them
-unless they had the knowledge of being important factors
-in its achievement.</p>
-
-<p>As this class of Guerrilla increased, the warfare of the
-border became necessarily more cruel and unsparing.
-Where at first there was only killing in ordinary battle,
-there came to be no quarter shown. The wounded of the
-enemy next felt the might of this individual vengeance—acting
-through a community of bitter memories—and
-from every stricken field there began, by and by, to come
-up the substance of this awful bulletin: Dead, such and
-such a number; <em>wounded, none</em>. The war had then passed
-into its fever heat, and thereafter the gentle and the
-merciful, equally with the harsh and the revengeful,
-spared nothing clad in blue that could be captured.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_5">Quantrell’s First Battle in the Civil War</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Quantrell,</span> together with Captain Blunt, returned
-from Richmond, Virginia, in the fall of
-1861, with his commission from under the hand of
-Jeff Davis, to operate at will along the Kansas border.
-He began to organize his band of Guerrillas. His first
-exploits were confined to but eight men. These eight
-men were William Haller, James and John Little, Edward
-Koger, Andrew Walker, son of Morgan Walker,
-at whose farm Quantrell got rid of the last but two of
-the band that murdered his brother at Cottonwood
-River, Kansas, and left himself to die; John Hampton
-James Kelley and Solomon Bashman.</p>
-
-<p>This little band knew nothing whatever of war,
-and knew only how to fight and shoot. They lived on
-the border and had some old scores to settle with the
-Jayhawkers.</p>
-
-<p>These eight men, or rather nine—for Quantrell
-commanded—encountered their first hereditary enemies,
-the Jayhawkers. Lane entered Missouri only on
-grand occasions; Jennison only once in a while as on
-a frolic. One was a collossal thief; the other a picayune
-one. Lane dealt in mules by herds, horses by
-droves, wagons by parks, negroes by neighborhoods,
-household effects by the ton, and miscellaneous plunder
-by the cityful; Jennison contented himself with
-the pocketbooks of his prisoners, the pin money of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span>
-women, and the wearing apparel of the children. Lane
-was a real prophet of demagogism, with insanity latent
-in his blood; Jennison a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">sans coulotte</i>, who, looking
-upon himself as a bastard, sought to become legitimate
-by becoming brutal.</p>
-
-<p>It was in the vicinity of Morgan Walker’s that
-Quantrell, with his little command, ambushed a portion
-of Jennison’s regiment and killed five of his
-thieves, getting some good horses, saddles and bridles
-and revolvers. The next fight occurred upon the premises
-of Volney Ryan, a citizen of Jackson County, with
-a company of Missouri militia, a company of militia
-notorious for three things—robbing hen roosts, stealing
-horses, and running away from the enemy. The
-eight Guerrillas struck them just at daylight, charged
-through it, charged back again, and when they returned
-from the pursuit they counted fifteen dead, the
-fruits of a running battle.</p>
-
-<p>An old man by the name of Searcy, claiming to be
-a Southern man, was stealing all over Jackson County
-and using violence here and there when he could not
-succeed through persuasion. Quantrell swooped down
-upon him one afternoon, tried him that night and
-hanged him the next morning, four Guerrillas dragging
-on the rope. Seventy-five head of horses were
-found in the dead man’s possession, all belonging to
-the citizens of the county, and any number of deeds to
-small tracts of land, notes and mortgages, and private<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span>
-accounts. All were returned. The execution acted as
-a thunder-storm. It restored the equilibrium of the
-moral atmosphere. The border warfare had found a
-chief.</p>
-
-<p>The eight Guerrillas had now grown to fifty. Among
-the new recruits were David Poole, John Jarrette,
-William Coger, Richard Burns, George Todd, George
-Shephers, Coleman Younger, myself and several others
-of like enterprise and daring. An organization was at
-once effected, and Quantrell was made captain; William
-Haller, first lieutenant; William Gregg, second;
-George Todd, third, and John Jarrette, orderly sergeant.
-The eagles were beginning to congregate.</p>
-
-<p>Poole, an unschooled Aristophanes of the Civil
-War, laughed at calamity, and mocked when any man’s
-fear came. But for its picturesqueness, his speech
-would have been comedy personified. He laughed loudest
-when he was deadliest, and treated fortune with no
-more dignity in one extreme than in another. Gregg,
-a grim Saul among the Guerrillas, made of the Confederacy
-a mistress, and like the Douglass of old, was
-ever tender and true to her. Jarrette, the man who
-never knew fear, added to fearlessness and immense
-activity an indomitable will. He was a soldier in the
-saddle <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">par excellence</i>. John Coger never missed a
-battle nor a bullet. Wounded thirteen times, he lived
-as an exemplification of what a Guerrilla could endure—the
-amount of lead he could comfortably get along<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span>
-with and keep fat. Steadfastness was his test of merit—comradeship
-his point of honor. He who had John
-Coger at his back had a mountain. Todd was the incarnate
-devil of battle. He thought of fighting when
-awake, dreamed of it at night, mingled talk of it in
-laxation, and went hungry many a day and shelterless
-many a night that he might find his enemy and have
-his fill of fight. Quantrell always had to hold him
-back, and yet he was his thunderbolt. He discussed
-nothing in the shape of orders. A soldier who discusses
-is like a hand which would think. He only
-charged. Were he attacked in front—a charge; were
-he attacked in the rear—a charge; on either flank—a
-charge. Finally, in a desperate charge, and doing a
-hero’s work upon the stricken rear of the Second Colorado,
-he was killed. This was George Todd. Shepherd,
-a patient, cool, vigilant leader, knew all the roads
-and streams, all the fords and passes, all modes of
-egress and ingress, all safe and dangerous places, all
-the treacherous non-combatants, and all the trustworthy
-ones—everything indeed that the few needed
-to know who were fighting the many. In addition, there
-were few among the Guerrillas who were better pistol
-shots. It used to do Quantrell good to see him in the
-skirmish line. Coleman Younger, a boy having still
-about his neck the purple marks of a rope made the
-night when the Jayhawkers shot down his old father
-and strung him up to a blackjack, spoke rarely, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span>
-was away a great deal in the woods. “What was he
-doing?” his companions began to ask one of another.
-He had a mission to perform—he was pistol practicing.
-Soon he was perfect, and then he laughed often
-and talked a good deal. There had come to him now
-that intrepid gaiety that plays with death. He
-changed devotion to his family into devotion to his
-country, and he fought and killed with the conscience
-of a hero.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_6">Fight at Charles Younger’s Farm</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> new organization was about to be baptized.
-Burris, raiding generally along the Missouri border,
-had a detachment foraging in the neighborhood of
-Charles Younger’s farm. This Charles Younger was
-an uncle of Coleman, and he lived within three miles
-of Independence, Missouri, the county seat of Jackson
-County. The militia detachment numbered eighty-four
-and the Guerrillas thirty-two. At sunset Quantrell
-struck their camp. Forewarned of his coming,
-they were already in line. One volley settled them.
-Five fell at the first fire and seven more were killed
-in the chase. The shelter of Independence alone, where
-the balance of the regiment was as a breakwater
-saved the detachment from utter extinction. On this
-day—the 10th of November, 1861—Cole Younger
-killed a militiaman seventy-one measured yards. The
-pistol practice was bearing fruit.</p>
-
-<p>Independence was essentially a city of fruits and
-flowers. About every house there was a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">parterre</i> and
-contiguous to every <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">parterre</i> there was an orchard.
-Built where the woods and the prairies met, when it
-was most desirable there was sunlight, and when it
-was most needed there was shade. The war found it
-rich, prosperous and contented, and it left it as an
-orange that had been devoured. Lane hated it because
-it was a hive of secession, and Jennison preyed upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span>
-it because Guerrilla bees flew in and out. On one side
-the devil, on the other the deep sea. Patriotism, that
-it might not be tempted, ran the risk very often of
-being drowned. Something also of Spanish intercourse
-and connection belonged to it. Its square was a plaza;
-its streets centered there; its courthouse was a citadel.
-Truer people never occupied a town; braver
-fathers never sent their sons to war; grander matrons
-never prayed to God for right, and purer women never
-waited through it all—the siege, the sack, the pillage
-and the battle—for the light to break in the East at
-last, the end to come in fate’s own good and appointed
-time.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_7">Fight at Independence</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Quantrell</span> had great admiration for Independence;
-his men adored it. Burris’ regiment was
-still there—fortified in the courthouse—and one day in
-February, 1862, the Guerrillas charged the town. It was
-a desperate assault. Quantrell and Poole dashed down
-one street. Cole Younger and Todd down another, Gregg
-and Shepherd down a third, Haller, Coger, Burns, Walker
-and others down the balance of the approaches to
-the square. Behind heavy brick walls the militia, of
-course, fought and fought, besides, at a great advantage.
-Save seven surprised in the first moments of the
-rapid onset and shot down, none others were killed,
-and Quantrell was forced to retire from the town, taking
-some necessary ordnance, quartermaster and commissary
-supplies from the stores under the very guns
-of the courthouse. None of his men were killed,
-though as many as eleven were wounded. This was
-the initiation of Independence into the mysteries as
-well as the miseries of border warfare, and thereafter
-and without a month of cessation, it was to get darker
-and darker for the beautiful town.</p>
-
-<p>Swinging back past Independence from the east
-the day after it had been charged, Quantrell moved up
-in the neighborhood of Westport and put scouts upon
-the roads leading to Kansas City. Two officers belonging
-to Jennison’s regiment were picked up—a lieutenant,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span>
-who was young, and a captain, who was of
-middle age. They had only time to pray. Quantrell
-always gave time for this, and had always performed
-to the letter the last commissions left by those who
-were doomed. The lieutenant did not want to pray.
-“It could do no good,” he said. “God knew about as
-much concerning the disposition it was intended to be
-made of his soul as he could suggest to him.” The captain
-took a quarter of an hour to make his peace. Both
-were shot. Men commonly die at God’s appointed
-time, beset by Guerrillas, suddenly and unawares. Another
-of the horrible surprises of Civil War.</p>
-
-<p>At first, and because of Quantrell’s presence, Kansas
-City swarmed like an ant hill during a rainstorm;
-afterwards, and when the dead officers were carried
-in, like a firebrand had been cast thereon.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_8">Second Fight at Independence</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">While</span> at the house of Charles Cowherd, a courier
-came up with the information that Independence,
-which had not been garrisoned for some little time,
-was again in possession of a company of militia. Another
-attack was resolved upon. On the night of February
-20, 1862, Quantrell marched to the vicinity of
-the town and waited there for daylight. The first few
-faint streaks in the East constituted the signal. There
-was a dash altogether down South Main Street, a storm
-of cheers and bullets, a roar of iron feet on the rocks
-of the roadway, and the surprise was left to work itself
-out. It did, and reversely. Instead of the one company
-reported in possession of the town, four were
-found, numbering three hundred men. They manned
-the courthouse in a moment, made of its doors an eruption
-and of its windows a tempest, killed a noble Guerrilla,
-young George, shot Quantrell’s horse from under
-him, held their own everywhere and held the fort. As
-before, all who were killed among the Federals, and
-they lost seventeen, were those killed in the first few
-moments of the charge. Those who hurried alive into
-the courthouse were safe. Young George, dead in his
-first battle, had all the promise of a bright career.
-None rode further nor faster in the charge, and when
-he fell he fell so close to the fence about the fortified
-building that it was with difficulty his comrades took<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span>
-his body out from under a point blank fire and bore it
-off in safety.</p>
-
-<p>It was a part of Quantrell’s tactics to disband every
-now and then. “Scattered soldiers,” he argued, “make
-a scattered trail. The regiment that has but one man
-to hunt can never find him.” The men needed heavier
-clothing and better horses, and the winter, more than
-ordinarily severe, was beginning to tell. A heavy Federal
-force was also concentrating in Kansas City,
-ostensibly to do service along the Missouri River, but
-really to drive out of Jackson County a Guerrilla band
-that under no circumstances at that time could possibly
-have numbered over fifty. Quantrell, therefore,
-for an accumulation of reasons, ordered a brief disbandment.
-It had hardly been accomplished before
-Independence swapped a witch for a devil. Burris
-evacuated the town; Jennison occupied it. In his regiment
-were trappers who trapped for dry goods; fishermen
-who fished for groceries. At night passers-by
-were robbed of their pocketbooks; in the morning, market
-women of their meat baskets. Neither wiser, perhaps,
-nor better than the Egyptians, the patient and
-all-suffering citizens had got rid of the lean kine in
-order to make room for the lice.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_9">Flanked Independence</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">At</span> the appointed time, and at the place of David
-George, the assembling was as it should be. Quantrell
-meant to attack Jennison in Independence and
-destroy him if possible, and so moved in that direction
-as far as Little Blue Church. Here he met Allen
-Parmer, a regular red Indian of a scout, who never
-forgot to count a column or know the line of march of
-an enemy, and Parmer reported that instead of three
-hundred Jayhawkers being in Independence there were
-six hundred. Too many for thirty-two men to grapple,
-and fortified at that, they all said. It would be murder
-in the first degree and unnecessary murder in addition.
-Quantrell, foregoing with a struggle the chance
-to get at his old acquaintance of Kansas, flanked Independence
-and stopped for a night at the residence of
-Zan Harris, a true Southern man and a keen observer
-of passing events. Early the next morning he crossed
-the Big Blue at the bridge on the main road to Kansas
-City, surprised and shot down a detachment of thirteen
-Federals watching it, burned the structure to the
-water, and marched rapidly on in a southwest direction,
-leaving Westport to the right. At noon the command
-was at the residence of Alexander Majors.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_10">Fight at Tate House</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">After</span> the meal at Major’s Quantrell resumed his
-march, sending Haller and Todd ahead with an advance
-guard and bringing up the rear himself with the
-main body of twenty-two men. Night overtook him
-at the Tate House, three miles east of Little Santa Fe,
-a small town in Jackson County, close to the Kansas
-line, and he camped there. Haller and Todd were still
-further along, no communication being established between
-these two parts of a common whole. The day
-had been cold and the darkness bitter. That weariness
-that comes with a hard ride, a rousing fire, and a
-hearty supper, fell early upon the Guerrillas. One
-sentinel at the gate kept drowsy watch, and the night
-began to deepen. In various attitudes and in various
-places, twenty-one of the twenty-two men were sound
-asleep, the twenty-second keeping watch and ward at
-the gate in freezing weather.</p>
-
-<p>It was just twelve o’clock and the fire in the capacious
-fireplace was burning low. Suddenly a shout was
-heard. The well known challenge of “Who are you?”
-arose on the night air, followed by a pistol shot, and then
-a volley. Quantrell, sleeping always like a cat, shook
-himself loose from his blankets and stood erect in the
-glare of the firelight. Three hundred Federals, following
-all day on his trail, had marked him take cover at
-night and went to bag him, boots and breeches. They had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span>
-hitched their horses back in the brush and stole upon the
-dwelling afoot. So noiseless had been their advance, and
-so close were they upon the sentinel before they were
-discovered, that he had only time to cry out, fire, and
-rush for the timber. He could not get back to his comrades,
-for some Federals were between him and the
-door. As he ran he received a volley, but in the darkness
-he escaped.</p>
-
-<p>The house was surrounded. To the men withinside
-this meant, unless they could get out, death by
-fire and sword. Quantrell was trapped, he who had
-been accorded the fox’s cunning and the panther’s
-activity. He glided to the window and looked out cautiously.
-The cold stars above shone, and the blue figures
-under them and on every hand seemed colossal.
-The fist of a heavy man struck the door hard, and a
-deep voice commanded, “Make a light.” There had
-been no firing as yet, save the shot of the sentinel and
-its answering volley. Quantrell went quietly to all
-who were still asleep and bade them get up and get
-ready. It was the moment when death had to be looked
-in the face. Not a word was spoken. The heavy fist
-was still hammering at the door. Quantrell crept to
-it on tip-toe, listened a second at the sounds outside
-and fired. “Oh,” and a stalwart Federal fell prone
-across the porch, dying. “You asked for a light and
-you got it, d——n you,” Quantrell ejaculated, cooler
-than his pistol barrel. Afterwards there was no more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span>
-bravado. “Bar the doors and barricade the windows,”
-he shouted; “quick, men!” Beds were freely used and
-applicable furniture. Little and Shepherd stood by
-one door; Jarrette, Younger, Toler and Hoy barricaded
-the other and made the windows bullet-proof.
-Outside the Federal fusilade was incessant. Mistaking
-Tate’s house for a frame house, when it was built
-of brick, the commander of the enemy could be heard
-encouraging his men to shoot low and riddle the building.
-Presently there was a lull, neither party firing
-for the space of several minutes, and Quantrell spoke
-to his people: “Boys, we are in a tight place. We
-can’t stay here, and I do not mean to surrender. All
-who want to follow me out can say so. I will do the
-best I can for them.” Four concluded to appeal to the
-Federals for protection; seventeen to follow Quantrell
-to the death. He called a parley, and informed the
-Federal commander that four of his followers wanted
-to surrender. “Let them come out,” was the order.
-Out they went, and the fight began again. Too eager
-to see what manner of men their prisoners were, the
-Federals holding the west side of the house huddled
-about them eagerly. Ten Guerrillas from the upper
-story fired at the crowd and brought down six. A
-roar followed this, and a rush back again to cover at
-the double quick. It was hot work now. Quantrell,
-supported by James Little, Cole Younger, Hoy and
-Stephen Shores held the upper story, while Jarrette,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span>
-Toler, George Shepherd and others held the lower.
-Every shot told. The proprietor of the house, Major
-Tate, was a Southern hero, gray-headed, but Roman.
-He went about laughing. “Help me get my family out,
-boys,” he said, “and I will help you hold the house.
-It’s about as good a time for me to die, I reckon, as any
-other, if so be that God wills it. But the old woman
-is only a woman.” Another parley. Would the Federal
-officer let the women and children out? Yes,
-gladly, and the old man, too. There was eagerness for
-this, and much of veritable cunning. The family occupied
-an ell of the mansion with which there was no
-communication from the main building where Quantrell
-and his men were, save by way of a door which
-opened upon a porch, and this porch was under the
-concentrating fire of the assailants. After the family
-moved out the attacking party would throw skirmishers
-in and then—the torch. Quantrell understood it in
-a moment and spoke up to the father of the family:
-“Go out, Major. It is your duty to be with your wife
-and children.” The old man went, protesting. Perhaps
-for forty years the blood had not coursed so rapidly
-and so pleasantly through his veins. Giving ample
-time for the family to get safely beyond the range of
-the fire of the besieged, Quantrell went back to his
-post and looked out. He saw two Federals standing
-together beyond revolver range. “Is there a shotgun
-here?” he asked. Cole Younger brought him one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span>
-loaded with buckshot. Thrusting half his body out the
-nearest window, and receiving as many volleys as there
-were sentinels, he fired the two barrels of his gun so
-near together that they sounded as one barrel. Both
-Federals fell, one dead, the other mortally wounded.
-Following this daring and conspicuous feat there went
-up a yell so piercing and exultant that even the horses,
-hitched in the timber fifty yards away, reared in their
-fright and snorted in terror. Black columns of smoke
-blew past the windows where the Guerrillas were, and
-a bright red flame leaped up towards the sky on the
-wings of the wind. The ell of the house had been
-fired and was burning fiercely. Quantrell’s face—just
-a little paler than usual—had a set look that was
-not good to see. The tiger was at bay. Many of the
-men’s revolvers were empty, and in order to gain time
-to reload them, another parley was held. The talk
-was of surrender. The Federal commander demanded
-immediate submission, and Shepherd, with a voice
-heard above the rage and the roar of the flames,
-pleaded for twenty minutes. No. Ten? No. Five?
-No. Then the commander cried out in a voice not a
-whit inferior to Shepherd’s in compass: “You have
-one minute. If, at its expiration, you have not surrendered,
-not a single man among you shall escape
-alive.” “Thank you,” said Cole Younger, <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">soto voce</i>,
-“catching comes before hanging.” “Count sixty, then,
-and be d——d to you”! Shepherd shouted as a parting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span>
-volley, and then a strange silence fell upon all these
-desperate men face to face with imminent death.
-When every man was ready, Quantrell said briefly,
-“Shot guns to the front.” Six loaded heavily with buck
-shot, were borne there, and he put himself at the head
-of the six men who carried them. Behind these those
-having only revolvers. In single file, the charging
-column was formed in the main room of the building.
-The glare of the burning ell lit it up as though the
-sun was shining there. Some tightened their pistol
-belts. One fell upon his knees and prayed. Nobody
-scoffed at him, for God was in that room. He is everywhere
-when heroes confess. There were seventeen
-about to receive the fire of three hundred.</p>
-
-<p>Ready! Quantrell flung the door wide open and
-leaped out. The shotgun men—Jarrette, Younger,
-Shepherd, Toler, Little and Hoy, were hard behind him.
-Right and left from the thin short column a fierce
-fire beat into the very faces of the Federals, who recoiled
-in some confusion, shooting, however, from
-every side. There was a yell and a grand rush, and
-when the end had come and all the fixed realities figured
-up, the enemy had eighteen killed, twenty-nine
-badly wounded; and five prisoners, and the captured
-horses of the Guerrillas. Not a man of Quantrell’s
-band was touched, as it broke through the cordon on
-the south of the house and gained the sheltering timber
-beyond. Hoy, as he rushed out the third from Quantrell<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span>
-and fired both barrels of his gun, was so near to a
-stalwart Federal that he knocked him over the head
-with a musket and rendered him senseless. To capture
-him afterwards was like capturing a dead man. But
-little pursuit was attempted. Quantrell halted at the
-timber, built a fire, reloaded every gun and pistol,
-and took a philosophical view of the situation. Enemies
-were all about him. He had lost five men—four
-of whom, however, he was glad to get rid of—and the
-balance were afoot. Patience! He had just escaped
-from an environment sterner than any yet spread for
-him, and fortune was not apt to offset one splendid
-action by another exactly opposite. Choosing, therefore,
-a rendezvous upon the head waters of the Little
-Blue, another historic stream of Jackson County, he
-reached the residence of David Wilson late the next
-morning, after a forced march of great exhaustion.
-The balance of the night, however, had still to be one
-of surprises and counter-surprises, not alone to the Federals,
-but to the other portion of Quantrell’s command
-under Haller and Todd.</p>
-
-<p>Encamped four miles south of Tate House, the battle
-there had roused them instantly. Getting to saddle quickly,
-they were galloping back to the help of their comrades
-when a Federal force, one hundred strong, met
-them full in the road. Some minutes of savage fighting
-ensued, but Haller could not hold his own with thirteen
-men, and he retreated, firing, to the brush.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span>
-Afterwards everything was made plain. The four
-men who surrendered so abjectly at the Tate house
-imagined that it would bring help to their condition
-if they told all they knew, and they told without solicitation
-the story of Haller’s advance and the whereabouts
-of his camp. A hundred men were instantly
-dispatched to surprise it or storm it, but the firing
-had roused the isolated Guerrillas, and they got out
-in safety after a rattling fight of some twenty minutes.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_11">Fight at Clark’s Home</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">In</span> April, 1862, Quantrell, with seventeen men, was
-camped at the residence of Samuel Clark, situated
-three miles southeast of Stony Point, in Jackson
-County. He had spent the night there and was waiting
-for breakfast the next morning when Captain
-Peabody, at the head of one hundred Federal cavalry,
-surprised the Guerrillas and came on at the charge,
-shooting and yelling. Instantly dividing the detachment
-in order that the position might be effectively
-held, Quantrell, with nine men, took the dwelling, and
-Gregg, with eight, occupied the smoke house. For a
-while the fighting was at long range, Peabody holding
-tenaciously to the timber in front of Clark’s, distant
-about one hundred yards, and refusing to come
-out. Presently, however, he did an unsoldierly thing—or
-rather an unskillful thing—he mounted his men
-and forced them to charge the dwelling on horseback.
-Quantrell’s detachment reserved fire until the foremost
-horseman was within thirty feet, and Gregg permitted
-those operating against his position, to come
-even closer. Then, a quick, sure volley, and twenty-seven
-men and horses went down together. Badly demoralized,
-but in no manner defeated, Peabody rallied
-again in the timber, while Quantrell, breaking out from
-the dwelling house and gathering up Gregg as he went,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span>
-charged the Federals fiercely in return and with something
-of success. The impetus of the rush carried him
-past a portion of the Federal line, where some of their
-horses were hitched, and the return of the wave
-brought with it nine valuable animals. It was over the
-horses that Andrew Blunt had a hand-to-hand fight
-with a splendid Federal trooper. Both were very brave.</p>
-
-<p>Blunt had just joined. No one knew his history.
-He asked no questions and he answered none.
-Some said he had once belonged to the cavalry of the
-regular army; others, that behind the terrible record
-of the Guerrillas he wished to find isolation. Singling
-out a fine sorrel horse from among the number fastened
-in his front, Blunt was just about to unhitch him
-when a Federal trooper, superbly mounted, dashed
-down to the line and fired and missed. Blunt left his
-position by the side of the horse and strode out into
-the open, accepting the challenge defiantly, and closed
-with his antagonist. The first time he fired he missed,
-although many men believed him a better shot than
-Quantrell. The Federal sat on his horse calmly and
-fired the second shot deliberately and again missed.
-Blunt went four paces toward him, took a quick aim
-and fired very much as a man would at something
-running. Out of the Federal’s blue overcoat a little
-jet of dust spurted up and he reeled in his seat. The
-man, hit hard in the breast, did not fall, however. He
-gripped his saddle with his knees, cavalry fashion,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span>
-steadied himself in his stirrups and fired three times
-at Blunt in quick succession. They were now but
-twenty paces apart, and the Guerrilla was shortening
-the distance. When at ten he fired his third shot.
-The heavy dragoon ball struck the gallant Federal fair
-in the forehead and knocked him dead from his horse.</p>
-
-<p>While the duel was in progress, brief as it was,
-Blunt had not watched his rear, to gain which a dozen
-Federals had started from the extreme right. He saw
-them, but he did not hurry. Going back to the coveted
-steed, he mounted him deliberately and dashed back
-through the lines closed up behind him, getting a fierce
-hurrah of encouragement from his own comrades, and
-a wicked volley from the enemy.</p>
-
-<p>It was time. A second company of Federals in
-the neighborhood, attracted by the firing, had made a
-junction with Peabody and were already closing in
-upon the houses from the south. Surrounded now
-by one hundred and sixty men, Quantrell was in almost
-the same straits as at the Tate house. His horses
-were in the hands of the Federals, it was some little
-distance to the timber, and the environment was complete.
-Captain Peabody, himself a Kansas man, knew
-who led the forces opposed to him and burned with
-a desire to make a finish of this Quantrell and his
-reckless band at one fell sweep. Not content with the
-one hundred and sixty men already in positions about
-the house, he sent off posthaste to Pink Hill for additional<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span>
-reinforcements. Emboldened also by their
-numbers, the Federals had approached so close to the
-positions held by the Guerrillas that it was possible
-for them to utilize the shelter the fences gave. Behind
-these they ensconced themselves while pouring a
-merciless fusillade upon the dwelling house and smoke
-house in comparative immunity. This annoyed Quantrell,
-distressed Gregg and made Cole Younger—one of
-the coolest heads in council ever consulted—look a
-little anxious. Finally a solution was found. Quantrell
-would draw the fire of this ambuscade; he would
-make the concealed enemy show himself. Ordering
-all to be ready and to fire the very moment the opportunity
-for execution was best, he dashed out from the
-dwelling house to the smoke house, and from the smoke
-house back again to the dwelling house. Eager to
-kill the daring man, and excited somewhat by their
-own efforts made to do it, the Federals exposed themselves
-recklessly. Then, owing to the short range, the
-revolvers of the Guerrillas began to tell with deadly
-effect. Twenty at least were shot down along the
-fences, and as many more wounded and disabled. It
-was thirty steps from one house to the other, yet Quantrell
-made the venture eight different times, not less
-than one hundred men firing at him as he came and
-went. On his garments there was not even the smell
-of fire. His life seemed to be charmed—his person
-protected by some superior presence. When at last<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span>
-even this artifice would no longer enable his men to
-fight with any degree of equality, Quantrell determined
-to abandon the houses and the horses and make
-a dash as of old to the nearest timber. “I had rather
-lose a thousand horses,” he said, when some one remonstrated
-with him, “than a single man like those
-who have fought with me this day. Heroes are scarce;
-horses are everywhere.”</p>
-
-<p>In the swift rush that came now, fortune again
-favored him. Almost every revolver belonging to the
-Federals was empty. They had been relying altogether
-upon their carbines in the fight. After the first
-onset on horseback—one in which the revolvers were
-principally used—they had failed to reload, and had
-nothing but empty guns in their hands after Quantrell
-for the last time drew their fire and dashed away
-on the heels of it into the timber. Pursuit was not
-attempted. Enraged at the escape of the Guerrillas,
-and burdened with a number of dead and wounded
-altogether out of proportion to the forces engaged,
-Captain Peabody caused to be burned everything upon
-the premises which had a plank or shingle about it.</p>
-
-<p>Something else was yet to be done. Getting
-out afoot as best he could, Quantrell saw a company
-of cavalry making haste from toward Pink Hill.
-It was but a short distance to where the road
-he was skirting crossed a creek, and commanding
-this crossing was a perpendicular bluff inaccessible to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span>
-horsemen. Thither he hurried. The work of ambushment
-was the work of a moment. George Todd, alone
-of all the Guerrillas, had brought with him from the
-house a shotgun. In running for life, the most of them
-were unencumbered. The approaching Federals were
-the reinforcements Peabody had ordered up from Pink
-Hill, and as Quantrell’s defense had lasted one hour
-and a half, they were well on their way.</p>
-
-<p>As they came to the creek, the foremost riders halted
-that their horses might drink. Soon others crowded in
-until all the ford was thick with animals. Just then
-from the bluff above a leaden rain fell as hail might
-from a cloudless sky. Rearing steeds trampled upon
-wounded riders; the dead dyed the clear water red. Wild
-panic laid hold of the helpless mass, cut into gaps, and
-flight beyond the range of the deadly revolvers came
-first of all and uppermost. There was a rally, however.
-Once out from under the fire the lieutenant commanding
-the detachment called a halt. He was full of dash,
-and meant to see more of the unknown on the top of
-the hill. Dismounting his men and putting himself
-at their head, he turned back for a fight, marching
-resolutely forward to the bluff. Quantrell waited for
-the attack to develop itself. The lieutenant moved
-right onward. When within fifty paces of the position,
-George Todd rose up from behind a rock and
-covered the young Federal with his unerring shotgun.
-It seemed a pity to kill him, he was so brave and collected,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span>
-and yet he fell riddled just as he had drawn his
-sword and shouted “Forward!” to the lagging men.
-At Todd’s signal there succeeded a fierce revolver volley,
-and again were the Federals driven from the
-hills and back towards their horses.</p>
-
-<p>Satisfied with the results of this fight—made solely
-as a matter of revenge for burning Clark’s buildings—Quantrell
-fell away from the ford and continued his retreat
-on towards his rendezvous upon the waters of the
-Sni. Peabody, however, had not had his way. Coming
-on himself in the direction of Pink Hill, and mistaking
-these reinforcements for Guerrillas, he had quite a
-lively fight with them, each detachment getting in several
-volleys and killing and wounding a goodly number
-before either discovered the mistake.</p>
-
-<p>“The only prisoner I ever shot during the war,”
-relates Captain Trow, “was a ‘nigger’ I captured
-on guard at Independence, Missouri, who claimed
-that he had killed his master and burned his houses
-and barns. The circumstances were these: Captain
-Blunt and I one night went to town for a
-little spree and put on our Federal uniforms.
-While there we came in contact with the camp guard,
-which was a ‘nigger’ and a white man. They did
-not hear us until we got right up to them, so we, claiming
-to be Federals, arrested them for not doing their
-duty in hailing us at a distance. We took them prisoners,
-disarmed them, took them down to the Fire<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span>
-Prairie bottom east of Independence about ten miles,
-and there I thought I would have to kill the ‘nigger’
-on account of his killing his master and burning his
-property. I shot him in the forehead just above the
-eyes. I even put my finger in the bullet hole to be
-sure I had him. The ball never entered his skull, but
-went round it. To make sure of him, I shot him in
-the foot and he never flinched, so I left him for dead.
-He came to, however, that night and crawled out into
-the road, and a man from Independence came along
-the next morning and took him in his wagon. This
-I learned several years afterwards at Independence
-in a saloon when one day I chanced to be taking a
-drink. There I met the ‘nigger’ whom I thought dead.
-He recognized me from hearing my name spoken and
-asked if I remembered shooting a ‘nigger.’ I said
-‘Yes.’ I had the pleasure of taking a drink with him.”</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_12">Jayhawkers and Militia Murder Old
-Man Blythe’s Son</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Quantrell</span> and His Company Were on Foot Again
-and Jackson County was filled with troops. At
-Kansas City there was a large garrison, with smaller
-ones at Independence, Pink Hill, Lone Jack, Stoney
-Point and Sibley. Peabody caused the report to be
-circulated that a majority of Quantrell’s men were
-wounded, and that if the brush were scoured thoroughly
-they might be picked up here and there and
-summarily disposed of. Raiding bands therefore began
-the hunt. Old men were imprisoned because they
-could give no information of a concealed enemy; young
-men murdered outright; women were insulted and
-abused. The uneasiness that had heretofore rested
-upon the county gave place now to a feeling of positive
-fear. The Jayhawkers on one side and the militia
-on the other made matters hot. All traveling was dangerous.
-People at night closed their eyes in dread lest
-the morrow should usher in a terrible awakening. One
-incident of the hunt is a bloody memory yet with many
-of the older settlers of Jackson County.</p>
-
-<p>An aged man by the name of Blythe, believing his own
-house to be his own, fed all whom he pleased to feed, and
-sheltered all whom it pleased him to shelter. Among
-many of his warm personal friends was Cole Younger.
-The colonel commanding the fort at Independence sent a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span>
-scout one day to find Younger, and to make the country
-people tell where he might be found. Old man Blythe
-was not at home, but his son was, a fearless lad of
-twelve years. He was taken to the barn and ordered
-to confess everything he knew of Quantrell, Younger,
-and their whereabouts. If he failed to speak truly he
-was to be killed. The boy, in no manner frightened,
-kept them some moments in conversation, waiting for
-an opportunity to escape. Seeing at last what he
-imagined to be a chance, he dashed away from his
-captors and entered the house under a perfect shower
-of balls. There, seizing a pistol and rushing through
-the back door towards some timber, a ball struck him
-in the spine just as he reached the garden fence and
-he fell back dying, but splendid in his boyish courage
-to the last. Turning over on his face as the Jayhawkers
-rushed up to finish him he shot one dead, mortally
-wounded another, and severely wounded the
-third. Before he could shoot a fourth time, seventeen
-bullets were put into his body.</p>
-
-<p>It seemed as if God’s vengeance was especially exercised
-in the righting of this terrible wrong. An old negro
-man who had happened to be at Blythe’s house at the
-time, was a witness to the bloody deed, and, afraid of his
-own life, ran hurriedly into the brush. There he came
-unawares upon Younger, Quantrell, Haller, Todd, and
-eleven of his men. Noticing the great excitement
-under which the negro labored, they forced him to tell<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span>
-them the whole story. It was yet time for an ambuscade.
-On the road back to Independence was a pass
-between two embankments known as “The Blue Cut.”
-In width it was about fifty yards, and the height of
-each embankment was about thirty feet. Quantrell
-dismounted his men, stationed some at each end of
-the passageway and some at the top on either side.
-Not a shot was to be fired until the returning Federals
-had entered it, front and rear. From the Blue Cut
-this fatal spot was afterwards known as the Slaughter
-Pen. Of the thirty-eight Federals sent out after Cole
-Younger, and who, because they could not find him,
-had brutally murdered an innocent boy, seventeen
-were killed while five—not too badly shot to be able
-to ride—barely managed to escape into Independence,
-the avenging Guerrillas hard upon their heels.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_13">The Low House Fight</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> next rendezvous was at Reuben Harris’, ten
-miles south of Independence, and thither all the
-command went, splendidly mounted again and eager
-for employment. Some days of preparation were
-necessary. Richard Hall, a fighting blacksmith, who
-shot as well as he shod, and knew a trail as thoroughly
-as a piece of steel, had need to exercise much
-of his handiwork in order to make the horses good for
-cavalry. Then there were several rounds of cartridges
-to make. A Guerrilla knew nothing whatever of an
-ordnance master. His laboratory was in his luck. If
-a capture did not bring him caps, he had to fall back
-on ruse, or strategem, or blockade-running square out.
-Powder and lead in the raw were enough, for if with
-these he could not make himself presentable at inspection
-he had no calling as a fighter in the brush.</p>
-
-<p>It was Quantrell’s intention at this time to attack
-Harrisonville, the county seat of Cass County, and
-capture it if possible. With this object in view, and
-after every preparation was made for a vigorous campaign,
-he moved eight miles east of Independence,
-camping near the Little Blue, in the vicinity of Job
-Crabtree’s. He camped always near or in a house.
-For this he had two reasons. First, that its occupants
-might gather up for him all the news possible; and,
-second, that in the event of a surprise a sure rallying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span>
-point would always be at hand. He had a theory that
-after a Guerrilla was given time to get over the first
-effects of a sudden charge or ambushment the very
-nature of his military status made him invincible;
-that after an opportunity was afforded him to think,
-a surrender was next to impossible.</p>
-
-<p>Before there was time to attack Harrisonville, however,
-a scout reported Peabody again on the war path,
-this time bent on an utter extermination of the Guerrillas,
-and he well-nigh kept his word. From Job Crabtree’s,
-Quantrell had moved to an unoccupied house
-known as the Low house, and then from this house
-he had gone to some contiguous timber to bivouac for
-the night. About ten o’clock the sky suddenly became
-overcast, a fresh wind blew from the east, and rain
-fell in torrents. Again the house was occupied, the
-horses being hitched along the fence in the rear of it,
-the door on the south, the only door, having a bar
-across it in lieu of a sentinel. Such soldiering was
-perfectly inexcusable, and it taught Quantrell a lesson
-to remember until the day of his death.</p>
-
-<p>In the morning preceding the day of the attack Lieutenant
-Nash, of Peabody’s regiment, commanding two
-hundred men, had struck Quantrell’s trail, but lost it
-later on, and then found it again just about sunset. He
-was informed of Quantrell’s having gone from the Low
-house to the brush and of his having come back to it when
-the rain began falling heavily. To a certain extent this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span>
-seeking shelter was a necessity on the part of Quantrell.
-The men had no cartridge boxes, and not all of them had
-overcoats. If once their ammunition were damaged, it
-would be as though sheep should attack wolves.</p>
-
-<p>Nash, supplied with everything needed for the
-weather, waited patiently for the Guerrillas to become
-snugly settled under shelter, and then surrounded the
-house. Before a gun was fired the Federals had every
-horse belonging to the Guerrillas, and were bringing to
-bear every available carbine in command upon the only
-door. At first all was confusion. Across the logs that
-once had supported an upper floor some boards had
-been laid, and sleeping upon them were Todd, Blunt
-and William Carr. Favored by the almost impenetrable
-darkness, Quantrell determined upon an immediate
-abandonment of the house. He called loudly
-twice for all to follow him and dashed through the
-door under a galling fire. Those in the loft did not
-hear him, and maintained in reply to the Federal volleys
-a lively fusillade. Then Cole Younger, James
-Little, Joseph Gilchrist and a young Irish boy—a
-brave new recruit—turned back to help their comrades.
-The house became a furnace. At each of the two corners
-on the south side four men fought, Younger calling
-on Todd in the intervals of every volley to come
-out of the loft and come to the brush. They started at
-last. It was four hundred yards to the nearest shelter,
-and the ground was very muddy. Gilchrist was shot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span>
-down, the Irish boy was killed, Blunt was wounded
-and captured, Carr surrendered, Younger had his hat
-shot away, Little was unhurt, and Todd, scratched in
-four places, finally got safely to the timber. But it
-was a miracle. Twenty Federals singled him out as
-well as they could in the darkness and kept close at his
-heels, firing whenever a gun was loaded. Todd had a
-musket which, when it seemed as if they were all upon
-him at once, he would point at the nearest and make
-pretense of shooting. When they halted and dodged
-about to get out of range, he would dash away again,
-gaining what space he could until he had to turn and
-re-enact the same unpleasant pantomime. Reaching
-the woods at last, he fired point blank, and in reality
-now, killing with a single discharge one pursuer and
-wounding four. Part of Nash’s command were still on
-the track of Quantrell, but after losing five killed and
-a number wounded, they returned again to the house,
-but returned too late for the continued battle. The
-dead and two prisoners were all that were left for
-them.</p>
-
-<p>Little Blue was bank full and the country was
-swarming with militia. For the third time Quantrell
-was afoot with unrelenting pursuers upon his trail in
-every direction. At daylight Nash would be after him
-again, river or no river. He must get over or fare
-worse. The rain was still pouring down; muddy, forlorn,
-well-nigh worn out, yet in no manner demoralized,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span>
-just as Quantrell reached the Little Blue he saw
-on the other bank Toler, one of his own soldiers, sitting
-in a canoe. Thence forward the work of crossing was
-easy, and Nash, coming on an hour afterwards, received
-a volley at the ford where he expected to find
-a lot of helpless and unresisting men.</p>
-
-<p>This fight at the Low house occurred the first week
-in May, 1862, and caused the expedition against Harrisonville
-to be abandoned. Three times surprised and
-three times losing all horses, saddles, and bridles, it
-again became necessary to disband the Guerrillas in
-this instance as in the preceding two. The men were
-dismissed for thirty days with orders to remount themselves,
-while Quantrell—taking Todd into his confidence
-and acquainting him fully with his plans—started
-in his company for Hannibal. It had become
-urgently necessary to replenish the supply of revolver
-caps. The usual trade with Kansas City was cut off.
-Of late the captures had not been as plentiful as formerly.
-Recruits were coming in, and the season for
-larger operations was at hand. In exploits where
-peril and excitement were about evenly divided, Quantrell
-took great delight. He was so cool, so calm; he
-had played before such a deadly game; he knew so
-well how to smile when a smile would win, and when
-to frown when a frown was a better card to play, that
-something in this expedition appealed to every quixotic
-instinct of his intrepidity. Todd was all iron; Quantrell<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span>
-all glue. Todd would go at a circular saw; Quantrell
-would sharpen its teeth and grease it where there
-was friction. One purred and killed, and the other
-roared and killed. What mattered the mode, however,
-only so the end was the same?</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_14">Quantrell and Todd Go After Ammunition</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Clad</span> in the full uniform of Federal majors—a supply
-of which Quantrell kept always on hand, even
-in a day so early in the war as this—Quantrell and
-Todd rode into Hamilton, a little town on the Hannibal
-&amp; St. Louis Railroad, and remained for the night
-at the principal hotel. A Federal garrison was there—two
-companies of Iowa infantry—and the captain
-commanding took a great fancy to Todd, insisting that
-he should leave the hotel for his quarters and share his
-blankets with him.</p>
-
-<p>Two days were spent in Hannibal, where an entire
-Feneral regiment was stationed. Here Quantrell was
-more circumspect. When asked to give an account of
-himself and his companion, he replied promptly that
-Todd was a major of the Sixth Missouri Cavalry and
-himself the major of the Ninth. Unacquainted with
-either organization, the commander at Hannibal had
-no reason to believe otherwise. Then he asked about
-that special cut-throat Quantrell. Was it true that he
-fought under a black flag? Had he ever really belonged
-to the Jayhawkers? How much truth was
-there in the stories of the newspapers about his operations
-and prowess? Quantrell became voluble. In
-rapid yet picturesque language he painted a perfect
-picture of the war along the border. He told of Todd,
-Jarrette, Blunt, Younger, Haller, Poole, Shepherd,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span>
-Gregg, Little, the Cogers, and all of his best men just
-as they were, and himself also just as he was, and
-closed the conversation emphatically by remarking:
-“If you were here, Colonel, surrounded as you are by
-a thousand soldiers, and they wanted you, they would
-come and get you.”</p>
-
-<p>From Hannibal—after buying quietly and at various
-times and in various places fifty thousand revolver
-caps—Quantrell and Todd went boldly into St. Joseph.
-This city was full of soldiers. Colonel Harrison B.
-Branch was there in command of a regiment of militia—a
-brave, conservative, right-thinking soldier—and
-Quantrell introduced himself to Branch as Major Henderson
-of the Sixth Missouri. Todd, by this time, had
-put on, in lieu of a major’s epaulettes, with its distinguishing
-leaf, the barred ones of a captain. “Too many
-majors traveling together,” quaintly remarked Todd,
-“are like too many roses in a boquet: the other flowers
-don’t have a chance. Let me be a captain for the balance
-of the trip.”</p>
-
-<p>Colonel Branch made himself very agreeable to
-Major Henderson and Captain Gordon, and asked Todd
-if he were a relative of the somewhat notorious Si
-Gordon of Platte, relating at the same time an interesting
-adventure he once had with him. En route from
-St. Louis, in 1861, to the headquarters of his regiment,
-Colonel Branch, with one hundred and thirty thousand
-dollars on his person, found that he would have to remain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span>
-in Weston over night and the better part of the
-next day. Before he got out of the town Gordon took
-it, and with it he took Colonel Branch. Many of Gordon’s
-men were known to him, and it was eminently
-to his interest just then to renew old acquaintanceship
-and be extremely complaisant to the new. Wherever
-he could find the largest number of Guerrillas there
-he was among them, calling for whiskey every now
-and then, incessantly telling some agreeable story or
-amusing anecdote. Thus he got through with what
-seemed to him an interminably long day. Not a dollar
-of his money was touched, Gordon releasing him unconditionally
-when the town was abandoned and bidding
-him make haste to get out lest the next lot of
-raiders made it the worse for him.</p>
-
-<p>For three days, off and on, Quantrell was either
-with Branch at his quarters or in company with him
-about town. Todd, elsewhere and indefatigable, was
-rapidly buying caps and revolvers. Branch introduced
-Quantrell to General Ben Loan, discussed Penick with
-him and Penick’s regiment—a St. Joseph officer destined
-in the near future to give Quantrell some stubborn
-fighting—passed in review the military situation,
-incidently referred to the Guerrillas of Jackson County
-and the savage nature of the warfare going on there,
-predicted the absolute destruction of African slavery,
-and assisted Quantrell in many ways in making his
-mission thoroughly successful. For the first and last<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span>
-time in his life Colonel Branch was disloyal to the
-government and the flag—he gave undoubted aid and
-encouragement during those three days to about as
-uncompromising an enemy as either ever had.</p>
-
-<p>From St. Joseph Quantrell and Todd came to Kansas
-City in a hired hack, first sending into Jackson
-County a man unquestionably devoted to the South
-with the whole amount of purchases made in both
-Hannibal and St. Joseph.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_15">A Challenge</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Quantrell</span> with his band of sixty-three men
-were being followed by a force of seven hundred
-cavalrymen under Peabody. Peabody came up in the
-advance with three hundred men, while four hundred
-marched at a supporting distance behind him. Quantrell
-halted at Swearington’s barn and the Guerrillas
-were drying their blankets. One picket, Hick George,
-an iron man, who could sleep in his saddle and eat as
-he ran and who suspected every act until he could
-fathom it, watched the rear against an attack. Peabody
-received George’s fire, for George would fire at
-an angel or devil in the line of his duty, and drove
-him toward Quantrell at a full run. Every preparation
-possible under the circumstances had been made
-and if the reception was not as cordial as expected, the
-Federals could attribute it to the long march and the
-rainy weather.</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell stood at the gate calmly with his hand
-on the latch; when George entered he would close and
-fasten it. Peabody’s forces were within thirty feet
-of the fence when the Guerrillas delivered a crashing
-blow and sixteen Federals crashed against the barricade
-and fell there. Others fell and more dropped out
-here and there before the disorganized mass got back
-safe again from the deadly revolver range. After
-them Quantrell himself dashed hotly, George Maddox,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span>
-Jarrette, Cole Younger, George Morrow, Gregg, Blunt,
-Poole and Haller following them fast to the timber and
-upon their return gathering all the arms and ammunition
-of the killed as they went. At the timber Peabody
-rearranged his lines, dismounted his men and
-came forward again at a quick run, yelling. Do what
-he would, the charge spent itself before it could be
-called a charge.</p>
-
-<p>Peabody arranged his men, dismounted them, and
-came forward again at a double-quick, and yelling.
-Do what he would, the charge again spent itself before
-it could be called a charge. Never nearer than
-one hundred yards of the fence, he skirmished at long
-range for nearly an hour and finally took up a position
-one mile south of the barn, awaiting reinforcements.
-Quantrell sent out Cole Younger, Poole, John
-Brinker and William Haller to “lay up close to Peabody,”
-as he expressed it, and keep him and his movements
-steadily in view.</p>
-
-<p>The four daredevils multiplied themselves. They
-attacked the pickets, rode around the whole camp in
-bravado, firing upon it from every side, and finally
-agreed to send a flag of truce in to Peabody with this
-manner of a challenge:</p>
-
-<p>“We, whose names are hereunto affixed, respectfully
-ask of Colonel Peabody the privilege of fighting
-eight of his best men, hand to hand, and that he himself<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span>
-make the selection and send them out to us immediately.”</p>
-
-<p>This was signed by the following: Coleman
-Younger, William Haller, David Poole and John
-Brinker.</p>
-
-<p>Younger bore it. Tieing a white handkerchief to
-a stick he rode boldly up to the nearest picket and
-asked for a parley. Six started towards him and he
-bade four go back. The message was carried to Peabody,
-but he laughed at it and scanned the prairie in
-every direction for the coming reinforcements. Meanwhile
-Quantrell was retreating. His four men cavorting
-about Peabody were to amuse him as long as possible
-and then get away as best they could. Such risks
-are often taken in war; to save one thousand men,
-one hundred are sometimes sacrificed. Death equally
-with exactness has its mathematics.</p>
-
-<p>The reinforcements came up rapidly. One hundred
-joined Peabody on the prairie, and two hundred
-masked themselves by some timber on the north and
-advanced parallel with Quantrell’s line of retreat—a
-flank movement meant to be final. Haller hurried off
-to Quantrell to report, and Peabody, vigorous and
-alert, now threw out a cloud of cavalry skirmishers
-after the three remaining Guerrillas. The race was
-one for life. Both started their horses on a keen run.
-It was on the eve of harvest, and the wheat, breast
-high to the horse, flew away from before the feet of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span>
-the racers as though the wind were driving through it
-an incarnate scythe blade. As Poole struck the eastern
-edge of this wheat a very large jack, belonging to
-Swearingen, joined in the pursuit, braying loudly at
-every jump, and leading the Federals by a length.
-Comedy and tragedy were in the same field together.
-Carbines rang out, revolvers cracked, the jack brayed,
-the Federals roared with merriment, and looking back
-over his shoulder as he rode on, Poole heard the laughter
-and saw the jack, and imagined the devil to be after
-him leading a lot of crazy people.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_16">The Battle and Capture of Independence</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">“On</span> August 11, 1862,” says Trow, “about a month
-prior to the capture of Independence, while
-Press Webb and I were out on a little frolic, we attended
-a dance at his father’s, Ace Webb, and stayed
-all night there. During the night a regiment of soldiers
-surrounded the house. We barred the doors
-against them and I aimed to get away in a woman’s
-garb and had my dress all on, bonnet and everything,
-with permission to get out of the house with the women
-without being fired upon. But old Mrs. Webb objected
-to my going out for fear it would cause her son
-to be killed, so I had to pull off the dress and hide my
-pistols in the straw tick under the feather bed and surrender
-to them. I was taken to Independence and
-made a prisoner for a month.</p>
-
-<p>“While in prison several incidents happened. A
-Federal officer in the prison who called himself Beauregard,
-was put into jail with me for some misdemeanor
-and challenged me to a sparring match, with
-the understanding that neither one of us was to strike
-the other in the face. However, he hit me in the face
-the first thing he did and I kicked him in the stomach
-and kept on kicking him until I kicked him down the
-stairs. For this offense I was chained down on my
-back for ten hours.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span>
-“The provost marshal would come in once in a
-while and entertain me while I was chained down. He
-was a Dutchman, and would say in broken Dutch,
-‘How duse youse like it?’ and would sing me a song
-something like this: ‘Don’t youse vish you vas in
-Dixie, you d——d old secess?’ and dance around me.</p>
-
-<p>“After I had been there a few days they cleaned
-up the prison and took out the rubbage and dirt. Press
-Webb, who had been captured with me, and I were
-detailed to do the work. We had an understanding
-that when we went out into the back yard, which was
-walled, we were each to capture the guards who were
-guarding us, take their arms and scale the wall. But
-Webb weakened and would not attempt to take his
-man, so we did not attempt to get away then. Then
-I was court-martialed and remained there in jail,
-while Webb was sent to Alton prison. I was held
-there under court-martial and sentenced to be shot.</p>
-
-<p>“All this time Quantrell was trying to hear from
-me, whether I had been killed, and at the same time
-getting the boys together to make a raid on Independence
-and try to capture the town and release me
-from jail, all unbeknown to me, should I still be alive.
-Colonel Hughes had joined Quantrell with his company,
-the expedition being agreed between Quantrell
-and Colonel Hughes. Colonel Hughes asked Quantrell
-for some accurate information touching the strongest
-and best fortified points about the town. It was three<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span>
-days previous to the attack; the day before it was begun
-the information should be forthcoming. ‘Leave it to me,’
-said Cole Younger, when the promise made to Hughes
-had been repeated by Quantrell, ‘and when you report
-you can report the facts. A soldier wants nothing
-else.’ The two men separated. It was the 7th day of
-August, 1862.</p>
-
-<p>“On the 8th, at about ten o’clock in the morning,
-an old woman with gray hair and wearing spectacles,
-rode up to the public square from the south. Independence
-was alive with soldiers; several market
-wagons were about the streets—the trade in vegetables
-and the traffic in fruit were lively. This old woman
-was one of the ancient time. A faded sunbonnet, long
-and antique, hid almost all her face. The riding skirt,
-which once had been black, was now bleached; some
-tatters also abounded, and here and there an unsightly
-patch. On the horse was a blind bridle, the left rein
-leather and the right one a rope. Neither did it have
-a throat latch. The saddle was a man’s saddle, strong
-in the stirrups and fit for any service. Women resorted
-often to such saddles then; Civil War had made
-many a hard thing easy. On the old lady’s arm was a
-huge market basket, covered by a white cloth. Under
-the cloth were beets, garden beans and some summer
-apples. As she passed the first picket he jibed at her.
-‘Good morning, grandmother,’ he said. ‘Does the
-rebel crop need any rain out in your country?’ Where<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span>
-the reserve post was the sergeant on duty took her
-horse by the bridle, and peered up under her bonnet
-and into her face. ‘Were you younger and prettier I
-might kiss you,’ he said. ‘Were I younger and prettier,’
-the old lady said, ‘I might box your ears for your
-impudence.’</p>
-
-<p>“‘Oh, ho! you old she-wolf, what claws you have
-for scratching,’ and the rude soldier took her hand
-with an oath and looked at it sneeringly. She drew it
-away with a quick motion and started her horse so
-rapidly ahead that he did not have time to examine
-it. In a moment he was probably ashamed of himself,
-and so let her ride on uninterrupted.</p>
-
-<p>“Once well in town no one noticed her any more.
-At the camp she was seen to stop and give three soldiers
-some apples out of her basket. The sentinel in
-front of Buell’s headquarters was overheard to say to
-a comrade: ‘There’s the making of four good bushwhacking
-horses yet in that old woman’s horse,’ and
-two hours later, as she rode back past the reserve
-picket post, the sergeant still on duty, did not halt her
-himself, but caused one of his guards to do it; he was
-anxious to know what the basket contained, for in
-many ways of late arms and ammunition had been
-smuggled out to the enemy.</p>
-
-<p>“At first the old lady did not heed the summons
-to halt—that short, rasping, ominous call which in all
-tongues appears to have the same sound; she did, however,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span>
-shift the basket from the right arm to the left
-and straighten up in the saddle for the least appreciable
-bit. Another cry and the old lady looked back
-innocently over one shoulder and snapped out: ‘Do
-you mean me?’ By this time a mounted picket had
-galloped up to her, ranged alongside and seized the
-bridle of the horse. It was thirty steps back to the
-post, maybe, where the sergeant and eight men were
-down from their horses and the horses hitched. To
-the outpost it was a hundred yards, and a single picket
-stood there. The old woman said to the soldier, as he
-was turning her horse around and doing it roughly:
-‘What will you have? I’m but a poor lone woman going
-peacefully to my home.’ ‘Didn’t you hear the sergeant
-call for you, d——n you? Do you want to be
-carried back?’ the sentinel made answer.</p>
-
-<p>“The face under the sunbonnet transformed itself;
-the demure eyes behind their glasses grew scintillant.
-From beneath the riding skirt a heavy foot emerged;
-the old horse in the blind bridle seemed to undergo an
-electric impulse; there was the gliding of the old hand
-which the sergeant had inspected into the basket, and
-a cocked pistol came out and was fired almost before
-it got in sight. With his grasp still upon the reins of
-the old woman’s bridle, the Federal picket fell dead
-under the feet of the horse. Then stupified, the impotent
-reserve saw a weird figure dash away down the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span>
-road, its huge bonnet flapping in the wind, and the
-trail of an antique riding skirt, split at the shoulders,
-streaming back as the smoke that follows a furnace.
-Coleman Younger had accomplished his mission. Beneath
-the bonnet and the bombazine was the Guerrilla,
-and beneath the white cloth of the basket and its apples
-and beets and beans the unerring revolvers. The
-furthest picket heard the firing, saw the apparition,
-bethought himself of the devil, and took to the brush.</p>
-
-<p>“During this month’s stay in prison, being chained
-down, drinking coffee sweet as molasses, when they
-knew I did not like sweetened coffee they made it that
-much sweeter, running a boxing match, having songs
-sung to me of the sweet South in an insulting way and
-being janitor for the jail and thousands of other things
-that go with a prison life, and while Cole Younger was
-getting information under disguise as an old lady Sally
-selling apples and cookies to the Federals three days
-before, I made my bond, my father being a Union man
-and interceding with Colonel Buell in my behalf. I
-made bond for $50,000 to report at headquarters every
-two hours during the day and be locked up at night.</p>
-
-<p>“About the third day after I gave bond and after I
-was thoroughly acquainted with the location of the
-soldiers I made my escape through the back way,
-through the guard, and found my way to a near-by
-friend by the name of Sullivan and got a horse and
-saddle, went by Webb’s and got my pistols out of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span>
-hollow log back of the barn where Mrs. Webb had hid
-them, and rode on to Quantrell’s camp, arriving there
-about eleven o’clock that night. After telling Quantrell
-how the soldiers and camps were located, and as
-Younger had told him about six hours before, it was
-decided to make the charge the next morning, and after
-a hard night’s riding we struck Independence just a
-little before daylight on the morning of August 11,
-1862, surprised the camp, and nine hundred soldiers,
-with the exception of the colonel, who was in command,
-surrendered to two hundred and fifty of us. Colonel
-Buell was quartered in a brick building with his body
-guard and it was not until about nine o’clock that he
-surrendered. Buell lost about three hundred killed,
-besides three hundred and seventy-five wounded. We
-had a loss of only one man killed and four wounded.
-In attempting to take the provost marshal, who tortured
-me so when I was in prison, Kitt Child was shot
-and killed, making two men lost in the attack, all told.</p>
-
-<p>“In the skirmish I was badly cut up by a saber, but
-I got away from them on foot, and so did Quantrell.
-While the colonel was slashing at me I struck him with
-a heavy dragoon pistol and burst his knee cap and he
-fell off his horse. This ended the fight. That night
-we got together at camp and Quantrell came in on
-foot, and I had to remount.</p>
-
-<p>“If Quantrell’s men could have been decorated for
-that day’s fight, and if at review some typical thing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span>
-that stood for glory could have passed along the ranks,
-calling the roll of the brave, there would have answered
-modestly, yet righteously, Trow, Haller, Gregg,
-Jarrette, Morris, Poole, Younger, James Tucker, Blunt,
-George Shepherd, Yager, Hicks, George, Sim Whitsett,
-Fletch Taylor, John Ross, Dick Burns, Kit Chiles,
-Dick Maddox, Fernando Scott, Sam Clifton, George
-Maddox, Sam Hamilton, Press Webb, John Coger, Dan
-Vaughn, and twenty others, some dead now, but dead
-in vain for their country. There were no decorations,
-however, but there was a deliverance. Crammed in
-the county jail, and sweltering in the midsummer’s
-heat, were old men who had been pioneers in the land,
-and young men who had been sentenced to die. The
-first preached the Confederacy and it triumphant;
-the last to make it so, enlisted for the war. These
-jailbirds, either as missionaries or militants, had work
-to do.”</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_17">The Lone Jack Fight</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Once</span> there stood a lone blackjack tree, taller than
-its companions and larger than any near it. From
-this tree the town of Lone Jack, in the eastern portion
-of Jackson County, was named. On the afternoon of
-the 13th of August clouds were seen gathering there.
-These clouds were cavalrymen. Succoring recruits in
-every manner possible, and helping them on to rendezvous
-by roads, or lanes, or water courses, horsemen
-acquainted with the country kept riding continuously
-up and down. A company of these on the evening of
-the 15th were in the village of Lone Jack.</p>
-
-<p>Major Emory L. Foster, doing active scouting duty
-in the region round about Lexington, had his headquarters
-in the town. The capture of Independence
-had been like a blow upon the cheek; he would avenge
-it. He knew how to fight. There was dash about him;
-he had enterprise. Prairie life had enlarged his vision
-and he did not see the war like a martinet; he felt
-within him the glow of generous ambition; he loved
-his uniform for the honor it had; he would see about
-that Independence business—about that Quantrell living
-there between the two Blues and raiding the West—about
-those gray recruiting folks riding up from the
-South—about the tales of ambuscades that were told
-eternally of Jackson County, and of all the toils spread
-for the unwary Jayhawkers. He had heard, too, of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span>
-company which halted a moment in Lone Jack as it
-passed through, and of course it was Quantrell.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_85" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 30em;">
- <img src="images/i_086.jpg" width="472" height="700" alt="" />
- <div class="caption">COLE YOUNGER GOING TO INDEPENDENCE</div></div>
-
-<p>It was six o’clock when the Confederates were
-there, and eight o’clock when the Federal colonel,
-Colonel Foster, marched in, leading nine hundred
-and eighty-five cavalrymen, with two pieces of
-Rabb’s Indiana battery—a battery much celebrated for
-tenacious gunners and accurate firing. Cockrell, who
-was in command, knew Foster well; the other Confederates
-knew nothing of him. He was there, however,
-and that was positive proof enough that he wanted to
-fight. Seven hundred Confederates—armed with shotguns,
-horse pistols, squirrel rifles, regulation guns,
-and what not—attacked nine hundred and eighty-five
-Federal cavalrymen in a town for a position, and
-armed with Spencer rifles and Colt’s revolvers, dragoon
-size. There was also the artillery. Lone Jack
-sat quietly in the green of emerald prairie, its orchards
-in fruit and its harvests goodly. On the west was timber,
-and in this timber a stream ran musically along.
-To the east the prairies stretched, their glass waves
-crested with sunshine. On the north there were groves
-in which birds abounded. In some even the murmuring
-of doves was heard, and an infinite tremor ran
-over all the leaves as the wind stirred the languid pulse
-of summer into fervor.</p>
-
-<p>In the center of the town a large hotel made a
-strong fortification. The house from being a tavern,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span>
-had come to be a redoubt. From the top the Stars and
-Stripes floated proudly—a tricolor that had upon it
-then more of sunshine than of blood. Later the three
-colors had become as four.</p>
-
-<p>On the verge of the prairie nearest the town a
-hedge row stood as a line of infantry dressed for battle.
-It was plumed on the sides with tawny grass. The
-morning broke upon it and upon armed men crouching
-there, with a strange barred banner and with guns
-at trail. Here they waited, eager for the signal.</p>
-
-<p>Joining Hays on the left was Cockrell and the detachments
-of Hays, Rathburn and Bohannon. Their
-arms were as varied as their uniforms. It was a duel
-they were going into and each man had the gun he
-could best handle. From the hedgerow, from the green
-growing corn, from the orchards and the groves, soldiers
-could not see much save the flag flying skyward
-on the redoubt on the Cave House.</p>
-
-<p>At five o’clock a solitary gunshot aroused camp and
-garrison, and all the soldiers stood face to face with
-imminent death. No one knew thereafter how the
-fight commenced. It was Missourian against Missourian—neighbor
-against neighbor—the rival flags
-waved over each and the killing went on. This battle
-had about it a strange fascination. The combatants
-were not numerous, yet they fought as men seldom
-fight in detached bodies. The same fury extended to
-an army would have ended in annihilation. A tree<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span>
-was a fortification. A hillock was an ambush. The
-cornfields, from being green, became lurid. Dead men
-were in the groves. The cries of the wounded came in
-from the apple orchards. All the houses in the town
-were garrisoned. It was daylight upon the prairies,
-yet there were lights in the windows—the light of musket
-flashes.</p>
-
-<p>There is not much to say about the fight in the way
-of description. The Federals were in Lone Jack; the
-Confederates had to get them out. House fighting and
-street fighting are always desperate. The hotel became
-a hospital, later a holocaust, and over all rose
-and shone a blessed sun while the airy fingers of the
-breeze ruffled the oak leaves and tuned the swaying
-branches to the sound of a psalm.</p>
-
-<p>The graycoats crept nearer. On east, west, north
-or south. Hays, Cockrell, Tracy, Jackman, Rathburn
-or Hunter gained ground. Farmer lads in their first
-battle began gawkies and ended grenadiers. Old plug
-hats rose and fell as the red fight ebbed and flowed;
-the shotgun’s heavy boom made clearer still the rifle’s
-sharp crack. An hour passed, the struggle had lasted
-since daylight.</p>
-
-<p>Foster fought his men splendidly. Wounded once,
-he did not make complaint; wounded again, he kept
-his place; wounded a third time he stood with his men
-until courage and endurance only prolonged a sacrifice.
-Once Haller, commanding thirty of Quantrell’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span>
-old men, swept up to the guns and over them, the play
-of their revolvers being as the play of the lightning
-in a summer cloud. He could not hold them, brave as
-he was. Then Jackman rushed at them again and bore
-them backward twenty paces or more. Counter-charged,
-they hammered his grip loose and drove him
-down the hill. Then Hays and Hunter—with the old
-plug hats and wheezy rifles—finished the throttling;
-the lions were done roaring.</p>
-
-<p>Tracy had been wounded. Hunter wounded. Hays
-wounded, Captains Bryant and Bradley killed, among
-the Confederates, together with thirty-six others and
-one hundred and thirty-four wounded. Among the
-Federals, Foster, the commander, was nigh unto death;
-his brother, Captain Foster, mortally shot, died afterwards.
-One hundred and thirty-six dead lay about the
-streets and houses of the town, and five hundred and
-fifty wounded made up the aggregate of a fight, numbers
-considered, as desperate and bloody as any that
-ever crimsoned the annals of a civil war. A few more
-than two hundred breaking through the Confederate
-lines on the south, where they were weakest, rushed
-furiously into Lexington, Haller in pursuit as some
-beast of prey, leaping upon everything which attempted
-to make a stand between Lone Jack and Wellington.
-Captain Trow, who was in this battle, narrates
-that at one time during the battle, “I was forced
-to lie down and roll across the street to save my scalp.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span>
-A mighty blow seemed impending. Commanders
-turned pale, and lest this head or that head felt the
-trip-hammer, all the heads kept wagging and dodging.
-Burris got out of Cass County; Jennison hurried into
-Kansas; the Guerrillas kept a sort of open house; and
-the recruits—drove after drove and mostly unarmed—hastened
-southward. Then the Federal wave, which
-had at first receded beyond all former boundaries,
-flowed back again and inundated Western Missouri.
-Quantrell’s nominal battalion, yielding to the exodus,
-left him only the old guard as a rallying point. It was
-necessary again to reorganize.</p>
-
-<p>After the Guerrillas had reorganized they stripped
-themselves for steady fighting. Federal troops were
-everywhere, infantry at the posts, cavalry on the war
-paths. The somber defiance mingled with despair did
-not come until 1864; in 1862 the Guerrillas laughed as
-they fought. And they fought by streams and bridges,
-where roads crossed and forked and where trees or
-hollows were. They fought from houses and hay
-stacks; on foot and on horseback; at night when the
-weird laughter of owls could be heard in the thickets;
-in daylight, when the birds sang as they found sweet
-rest. The black flag was being woven, but it had not
-yet been unfurled.</p>
-
-<p>Breaking suddenly out of Jackson County, Quantrell
-raided Shawneetown, Kansas, and captured its
-garrison of fifty militia. Then at Olathe, Kansas, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span>
-next day, the right hand did what the left one finished
-so well at Shawneetown; seventy-five Federals surrendered
-there. Each garrison was patrolled and set
-free save seven from Shawneetown; these were Jennison’s
-Jayhawkers and they had to die. A military
-execution is where one man kills another; it is horrible.
-In battle, one does not see death. He is there,
-surely—he is in that battery’s smoke, on the crest of
-that hill fringed with the fringe of pallid faces, under
-the hoofs of the horses, yonder where the blue or the
-gray line creeps onward trailing ominous guns—but
-his cold, calm eyes look at no single victim.</p>
-
-<p>The seven men rode into Missouri from Shawneetown
-puzzled; when the heavy timber along the Big
-Blue was reached and a halt made, they were praying.
-Quantrell sat upon his horse looking at the Kansans.
-His voice was unmoved, his countenance perfectly indifferent
-as he ordered: “Bring ropes; four on one
-tree, three on another.” All of a sudden death stood
-in the midst of them, and was recognized. One poor
-fellow gave a cry as piercing as the neighing of a
-frightened horse. Two trembled, and trembling is the
-first step towards kneeling. They had not talked any
-save among themselves up to this time, but when they
-saw Blunt busy with some ropes, one spoke up to Quantrell:
-“Captain, just a word: the pistol before the
-rope; a soldier’s before a dog’s death. As for me, I’m<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span>
-ready.” Of all the seven this was the youngest—how
-brave he was.</p>
-
-<p>The prisoners were arranged in line, the Guerrillas
-opposite to them. They had confessed to belonging to
-Jennison, but denied the charge of killing and burning.
-Quantrell hesitated a moment. His blue eyes
-searched each face from left to right and back again,
-and then he ordered: “Take six men, Blunt, and do
-the work. Shoot the young man and hang the balance.”</p>
-
-<p>The oldest man there, some white hair was in his
-beard, prayed audibly. Some embraced. Silence and
-twilight, as twin ghosts, crept up the river bank together.
-Blunt made haste, and before Quantrell had
-ridden far he heard a pistol shot. He did not even
-look up; it affected him no more than the tapping of
-a woodpecker. At daylight the next morning a wood-chopper
-going early to work saw six stark figures
-swaying in the river breeze. At the foot of another
-tree was a dead man and in his forehead a bullet hole—the
-old mark.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_92" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 44em;">
- <img src="images/i_094.jpg" width="700" height="394" alt="" />
- <div class="caption">QUANTRELL HANGS SIX MEN ON THE SNI</div></div>
-
-<p>“After Quantrell hanged these men, the only time
-I was ever scared during the war,” relates Captain
-Trow, “I had left camp one night to visit a lady friend
-of mine, and a company of Federals got after me, and
-in the chase I took to the woods and it was at the place
-where Quantrell had hanged these men. My saddle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span>
-girth broke right there, but I held on to my horse. I
-thought the devil and all his angels were after me, but
-I made it to the camp.”</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_18">The March South in 1862</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Winter</span> had come and some snow had fallen.
-There were no longer any leaves; nature had
-nothing more to do with the ambuscades. Bitter
-nights, with a foretaste of more bitter nights to follow,
-reminded Quantrell that it was time to migrate. Most
-of the wounded men were well again. All the dismounted
-had found serviceable horses. On October
-22, 1862, a quiet muster on the banks of the Little
-Blue revealed at inspection nearly all the old faces and
-forms, with a sprinkling here and there of new ones.
-Quantrell counted them two by two as the Guerrillas
-dressed in line, and in front rank and rear rank there
-were just seventy-eight men. On the morrow they
-were moving southward. That old road running between
-Harrisonville and Warrensburg was always to
-the Guerrilas a road of fire, and here again on their
-march toward Arkansas, and eight miles east of Harrisonville,
-did Todd in the advance strike a Federal
-scout of thirty militia cavalrymen. They were Missourians
-and led by a Lieutenant Satterlee. To say
-Todd is to say Charge. To associate him with something
-that will illustrate him is to put torch and powder
-magazine together. It was the old, old story. On
-one side a furious rush, on the other panic and imbecile
-flight. After a four-mile race it ended with this
-for a score: Todd, killed, six; Boon Schull, five;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span>
-Fletch Taylor, three; George Shepherd, two; John
-Coger, one; Sim Whitsett, one; James Little, one;
-George Maddox, one; total, twenty; wounded, none.
-Even in leaving, what sinister farewells these Guerrillas
-were taking!</p>
-
-<p>The second night out Quantrell stopped over beyond
-Dayton, in Cass County, and ordered a bivouac for the
-evening. There came to his camp here a good looking
-man, clad like a citizen, who had business to transact,
-and who knew how to state it. He was not fat, he was
-not heavy. He laughed a good deal, and when he
-laughed he showed a perfect set of faultlessly white
-teeth. He was young. An aged man is a thinking
-ruin; this one did not appear to think—he felt and enjoyed.
-He was tired of dodging about in the brush,
-he said, and he believed he would fight a little. Here,
-there and everywhere the Federals had hunted him
-and shot at him, and he was weary of so much persecution.
-“Would Quantrell let him become a Guerrilla?”
-“Your name?” asked the chief. The recruit
-winced under the abrupt question slightly, and Quantrell
-saw the start. Attracted by something of novelty
-in the whole performance, a crowd collected. Quantrell,
-without looking at the newcomer, appeared yet
-to be analyzing him. Suddenly he spoke up: “I have
-seen you before.” “Where?” “Nowhere.” “Think
-again. I have seen you in Lawrence, Kansas.” The
-face was a murderer’s face now, softened by a woman’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span>
-blush. There came to it such a look of mingled fear,
-indignation and cruel eagerness that Gregg, standing
-next to him and nearest to him, laid his hand on his
-revolver. “Stop,” said Quantrell, motioning to Gregg;
-“do not harm him, but disarm him.” Two revolvers
-were taken from his person and a pocket pistol—a Derringer.
-While being searched the white teeth shone
-in a smile that was almost placid. “You suspect me,”
-he said, so calmly that his words sounded as if spoken
-under the vault of some echoing dome. “But I have
-never been in Lawrence in my life.”</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell was lost in thought again, with the
-strange man—standing up smiling in the midst of the
-band—watching him with eyes that were blue at times
-and gray at times, and always gentle. More wood
-was put on the bivouac fire, and the flames grew
-ruddy. In their vivid light the young man did not
-seem quite so young. He had also a thick neck, great
-broad shoulders, and something of sensuality about
-the chin. The back of his skull was bulging and prominent.
-Here and there in his hair were little white
-streaks. Because there was such bloom and color in
-his cheeks, one could not remember these. Quantrell
-still tried to make out his face, to find a name for
-that Sphinx in front of him, to recall some time or circumstance,
-or place, that would make obscure things
-clear, and at last the past returned to him in the light
-of a swift revealment. “I have it all now,” he said,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span>
-“and you are a Jayhawker. The name is immaterial.
-I have seen you at Lawrence; I have seen you at Lane’s
-headquarters; I have been a soldier myself with you;
-we have done duty together—but I have to hang you
-this hour, by G—d.” Unabashed, the threatened man
-drew his breath hard and strode a step nearer
-Quantrell. Gregg put a pistol to his head. “Keep
-back. Can’t you talk where you are? Do you mean
-to say anything?”</p>
-
-<p>The old smile again; could anything ever drive
-away that smile—anything ever keep those teeth from
-shining? “You ask me if I want to talk, just as if I
-had anything to talk about. What can I say? I tell
-you that I have been hunted, proscribed, shot at, driven
-up and down, until I am tired. I want to kill somebody.
-I want to know what sleeping a sound night’s
-sleep means.” Quantrell’s grave voice broke calmly
-in: “Bring a rope.” Blunt brought it. “Make an end
-fast.” The end was made fast to a low lying limb. In
-the firelight the noose expanded. “Up with him,
-men.” Four stalwart hands seized him as a vice. He
-did not even defend himself. His flesh beneath their
-grip felt soft and rounded. The face, although all the
-bloom was there, hardened viciously—like the murderer’s
-face it was. “So you mean to get rid of me that
-way? It is like you, Quantrell. I know you but you
-do not know me. I have been hunting you for three
-long years. You killed my brother in Kansas, you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span>
-killed others there, your comrades. I did not know,
-till afterwards, what kind of a devil we had around
-our very messes—a devil who prowled about the camp
-fires and shot soldiers in the night that broke bread
-with him in the day. Can you guess what brought me
-here?”</p>
-
-<p>The shifting phases of this uncommon episode attracted
-all; even Quantrell himself was interested. The
-prisoner—threw off all disguise and defied those who
-meant to hang him. “You did well to disarm me,”
-he said, addressing Gregg, “for I intended to kill your
-captain. Everything has been against me. At the
-Tate house he escaped; at Clark’s it was no better;
-we had him surrounded at Swearington’s and his men
-cut him out; we ran him for two hundred miles and
-he escaped, and now after playing my last card and
-staking everything upon it, what is left to me? A
-dog’s death and a brother unavenged.” “Do your
-worst,” he said, and he folded his arms across his
-breast and stood stolid as the tree over his head. Some
-pity began to stir the men visibly. Gregg turned away
-and went out beyond the firelight. Even Quantrell’s
-face softened, but only for a moment. Then he spoke
-harshly to Blunt, “He is one of the worst of a band
-that I failed to make a finish of before the war came,
-but what escapes today is dragged up by the next tomorrow.
-If I had not recognized him he would have
-killed me. I do not hang him for that, however, I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span>
-hang him because the whole breed and race to which
-he belongs should be exterminated. Sergeant, do your
-duty.” Blunt slipped the noose about the prisoner’s
-neck, and the four men who had at first disarmed him,
-tightened it. To the last the bloom abode in his cheeks.
-He did not pray, neither did he make plaint nor moan.
-No man spoke a word. Something like a huge pendulum
-swung as though spun by a strong hand, quivered
-once or twice, and then swinging to and fro and
-regularly, stopped forever. Just at this moment three
-quick, hot vollies, and close together, rolled up from
-the northern picket post, and the camp was on its
-feet. If one had looked then at the dead man’s face,
-something like a smile might have been seen there,
-fixed and sinister, and beneath it the white, sharp
-teeth. James Williams had accepted his fate like a
-hero. At mortal feud with Quantrell, and living only
-that he might meet him face to face in battle, he had
-joined every regiment, volunteered upon every scout,
-rode foremost in every raid, and fought hardest in
-every combat. It was not to be. Quantrell was leaving
-Missouri. A great gulf was about to separate
-them. One desperate effort now, and years of toil
-and peril at a single blow, might have been rewarded.
-He struck it and it cost him his life. To this day
-the whole tragic episode is sometimes recalled and discussed
-along the border.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span>
-The bivouac was rudely broken up. Three hundred
-Federal cavalry, crossing Quantrell’s trail late in the
-afternoon, had followed it until the darkness fell,
-halted an hour for supper, and then again, at a good
-round trot, rode straight upon Haller, holding the rear
-of the movement southward. He fought at the outpost
-half an hour. Behind huge trees, he would not
-fall back until his flanks were in danger. All the rest
-of the night he fought them thus, making six splendid
-charges and holding on to every position until his grasp
-was broken loose by sheer hammering. At Grand
-River the pursuit ended and Quantrell swooped down
-upon Lamar, in Barton County, where a Federal
-garrison held the courthouse and the houses near
-it. He attacked but got worsted, and attacked again
-and lost one of his best men. He attacked the third
-time and made no better headway. He finally abandoned
-the town and resumed, unmolested, the road to
-the south. From Jackson County to the Arkansas
-line the whole country was swarming with militia and
-but for the fact that every Guerrilla was clad in Federal
-clothing, the march would have been an incessant
-battle. As it was, it will never be known how many
-isolated Federals, mistaking Quantrell’s men for comrades
-of other regiments not on duty with them, fell
-into a trap that never gave up their victims alive. Near
-Cassville in Barry County, twenty-two were killed
-thus. They were coming up from Cassville and were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span>
-meeting the Guerrillas, who were going south. The
-order given by Quantrell was a most simple one, but
-a most murderous one. By the side of each Federal
-in the approaching column a Guerrilla was to range
-himself, engage him in conversation, and then, at
-a given signal, blow his brains out. Quantrell gave
-the signal promptly, shooting the militiaman assigned
-to him through the middle of the forehead, and where,
-upon their horses, twenty-two confident men laughed
-and talked in comrade fashion a second before, nothing
-remained of the unconscious detachment, which was
-literally exterminated, save a few who straggled in
-agony upon the ground, and a mass of terrified and
-plunging horses. Not a Guerrilla missed his mark.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_19">Younger Remains in Missouri With a Small
-Detachment—Winter of 1862 and 1863</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> remaining part of this chapter is the escapades
-of Cole Younger, who stayed in Missouri
-the winter of 1862 and 1863, with quite a number of
-the old band who were not in condition to ride when
-Quantrell and Captain Trow went south. But I know
-them to be true.</p>
-
-<p>Younger was exceedingly enterprising, and fought
-almost daily. He did not seem to be affected by the
-severity of the winter, and at night, under a single
-blanket, he slept often in the snow while it was too
-bitter cold for Federal scouting parties to leave their
-comfortable cantonments or Federal garrisons to poke
-their noses beyond the snug surroundings of their well
-furnished barracks.</p>
-
-<p>The Guerrilla rode everywhere and waylaid roads,
-bridges, lines of couriers and routes of travel. Six
-mail carriers disappeared in one week between Independence
-and Kansas City.</p>
-
-<p>In a month after Quantrell arrived in Texas, George
-Todd returned to Jackson County, bringing with him
-Fletch Taylor, Boon Schull, James Little, Andy Walker
-and James Reed. Todd and Younger again came together
-by the bloodhound instinct which all men have
-who hunt or are hunted. Todd had scarcely made
-himself known to the Guerrilla in Jackson County before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span>
-he had commenced to kill militiamen. A foraging
-party from Independence were gathering corn
-from a field belonging to Daniel White, a most worthy
-citizen of the vicinity, when Todd and Younger broke
-in upon it, shot five down in the field and put the
-rest to flight. Next day, November 30, 1862, Younger,
-having with him Josiah and Job McCockle and Tom
-Talley, met four of Jennison’s regiment face to face
-in the neighborhood of the county poor house.
-Younger, who had an extraordinary voice, called out
-loud enough to be heard a mile, “You are four, and we
-are four. Stand until we come up.” Instead of standing,
-however, the Jayhawkers turned about and rode
-off as rapidly as possible, followed by Younger and
-his men. All being excellently mounted, the ride lasted
-fully three miles before either party won or lost. At
-last the Guerrillas began to gain and kept gaining.
-Three of the four Jayhawkers were finally shot from
-their saddles and the fourth escaped by superior riding
-and superior running.</p>
-
-<p>Todd, retaining with him those brought up from
-Arkansas, kept adding to them all who either from
-choice or necessity were forced to take refuge in the
-brush. Never happy except when on the war path,
-he suggested to Younger and Cunningham a ride into
-Kansas City west of Little Santa Fe, always doubtful
-if not dangerous ground. Thirty Guerrillas met sixty-two
-Jayhawkers. It was a prairie fight, brief, bloody,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span>
-and finished at a gallop. Todd’s tactics, the old yell
-and the old rush, swept everything—a revolver in
-each hand, the bridle reins in his teeth, the horse at
-a full run, the individual rider firing right and left.
-This is the way the Guerrillas charged. The sixty-two
-Jayhawkers fought better than most of the militia
-had been in the habit of fighting, but they could not
-stand up to the work at revolver range. When Todd
-charged them furiously, which he did as soon as he
-came in sight of them, they stood a volley at one hundred
-yards and returned it, but not a closer grapple.</p>
-
-<p>It was while holding the rear with six men that
-Cole Younger was attacked by fifty-two men and literally
-run over. In the midst of the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">melee</i> bullets fell
-like hail stones in summer weather. John McDowell’s
-horse went down, the rider under him and badly hit.
-He cried out to Younger for help. Younger, hurt himself
-and almost overwhelmed, dismounted under fire
-and rescued McDowell and brought him safely back
-from the furious crash, killing as he went a Federal
-soldier whose horse had carried him beyond Younger
-and McDowell who were struggling in the road together.
-Afterwards Younger was betrayed by the
-man to save whose life he had risked his own.</p>
-
-<p>Divided again, and operating in different localities,
-Todd, Younger and Cunningham carried the terror
-of the Guerrilla name throughout the border counties
-of Kansas and Missouri. Every day, and sometimes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span>
-twice a day, from December 3rd to December 18th,
-these three fought some scouting party or attacked
-some picket post. At the crossing of the Big Blue on
-the road to Kansas City—the place where the former
-bridge had been burned by Quantrell—Todd surprised
-six militiamen and killed them all and then hung them
-up on a long pole, resting it, either end upon forks,
-just as hogs are hung in the country after being
-slaughtered. The Federals, seeing this, began to get
-ready to drive them away from their lines of communication.
-Three heavy columns were sent out to
-scour the country. Surprising Cunningham in camp
-on Big Creek, they killed one of his splendid soldiers,
-Will Freeman, and drove the rest of the Guerrillas
-back into Jackson County.</p>
-
-<p>Todd, joining himself quickly to Younger, ambuscaded
-the column hunting him, and in a series of
-combats between Little Blue and Kansas City, killed
-forty-seven of the pursuers, captured five wagons and
-thirty-three head of horses.</p>
-
-<p>There was a lull again in marching and counter
-marching as the winter got colder and colder and some
-deep snow fell. Christmas time came, and the Guerrillas
-would have a Christmas frolic. Nothing bolder
-or braver is recorded upon the records of either side
-in the Civil War than this so-called Christmas frolic.</p>
-
-<p>Colonel Henry Younger, father of Coleman
-Younger, was one of the most respected citizens of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span>
-Western Missouri. He was a stalwart pioneer of Jackson
-County, having fourteen children born to him and
-his noble wife, a true Christian woman. A politician
-of the old school, Colonel Younger was for a number
-of years a judge of the county court of Jackson County,
-and for several terms was a member of the state legislature.
-In 1858, he left Jackson County for Cass
-County where he dealt largely in stock. He was also
-an extensive farmer, an enterprising merchant and
-the keeper of one of the best and most popular livery
-stables in the West, located at Harrisonville, the County
-seat of Cass County. His blooded horses were very
-superior, and he usually had on hand for speculative
-purposes amounts of money ranging from $6,000 to
-$10,000. On one of Jennison’s periodical raides in the
-fall of 1862, he sacked and burned Harrisonville. Colonel
-Younger, although a staunch Union man, and
-known to be such, was made to lose heavily. Jennison
-and his officers took from him $4,000 worth of buggies,
-carriages and hacks and fifty head of blooded horses
-worth $500 each. Then the balance of his property
-that was perishable and not movable, was burned.
-The intention was to kill Colonel Younger, on the principle
-that dead men tell no tales, but he escaped with
-great difficulty and made his way to Independence.
-Jennison was told that Colonel Younger was rich and
-that he invariably carried with him large amounts of
-money. A plan was immediately laid to kill him.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span>
-Twenty cut-throats were organized as a band, under
-a Jayhawker named Bailey, and set to watch his every
-movement. They dogged him from Independence to
-Kansas City and from Kansas City down to Cass
-County. Coming upon him at last in an isolated place
-within a few miles of Harrisonville, they riddled his
-body with bullets, rifled his pockets and left his body
-stark and partially stripped by the roadside.</p>
-
-<p>Eight hundred Federals held Kansas City, and on
-every road was a strong picket post. The streets were
-patrolled continually, and ready always for an emergency.
-Horses saddled and bridled stood in their
-stalls.</p>
-
-<p>Early on the morning of December 25th, 1862,
-Todd asked Younger if he would like to have a little
-fun. “What kind of fun?” the latter inquired. “A
-portion of the command that murdered your father
-are in Kansas City,” said Todd, “and if you say so we
-will go into the place and kill a few of them.” Younger
-caught eagerly at the proposition and commenced
-at once to get ready for the enterprise. Six
-were to compose the adventuresome party—Todd,
-Younger, Abe Cunningham, Fletch Taylor, Zach
-Traber and George Clayton. Clad in the uniform of
-the Federal cavalry, carrying instead of one pistol,
-four, they arrived about dusk at the picket post on the
-Westport and Kansas City road. They were not even
-halted. The uniform was a passport; to get in did<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span>
-not require a countersign. They left the horses in
-charge of Traber, bidding him do the best he could do
-if the worst came to the worst.</p>
-
-<p>The city was filled with revelry. All the saloons
-were crowded. The five Guerrillas, with their heavy
-cavalry overcoats buttoned loosely about them, boldly
-walked down Main Street and into the Christmas
-revelry. Visiting this saloon and that saloon, they
-sat knee to knee with some of the Jennison men, some
-of Jennison’s most blood-thirsty troopers, and drank
-confusion over and over again to the cut-throat
-Quantrell and his bushwhacking crew.</p>
-
-<p>Todd knew several of the gang who had waylaid
-and slain Colonel Younger, but hunt how he could,
-he could not find a single man of them. Entering
-near onto midnight an ordinary drinking place near the
-public square, six soldiers were discovered sitting at
-two tables playing cards, two at one and four at another.
-A man and a boy were behind the bar. Todd,
-as he entered, spoke low to Younger.</p>
-
-<p>“Run to cover at last. Five of the six men before
-you were in Bailey’s crowd that murdered your father.
-How does your pulse feel?”</p>
-
-<p>“Like an iron man’s. I feel like I could kill the
-whole six myself.”</p>
-
-<p>They went up to the bar, called for whiskey and
-invited the card players to join. They did so.</p>
-
-<p>If it was agreeable, the boy might bring their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span>
-whiskey to them and the game could go on.</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly,” said Todd, with purring of a tiger cat
-ready for a spring, “that’s what the boy is here for.”</p>
-
-<p>Over their whiskey the Guerrillas whispered. The
-killing now was as good as accomplished. Cunningham
-and Clayton were to saunter carelessly up to the
-table where the two players sat, and Todd, Younger
-and Taylor up to the table where the four sat. The
-signal to get ready was to be, “Come, boys, another
-drink,” and the signal to fire was, “Who said drink?”
-Cole Younger was to give the first signal in his deep
-resonant voice and Todd the last one. After the first
-each Guerrilla was to draw a pistol and hold it under
-the cape of his cavalry coat and after the last he was
-to fire. Younger, as a special privilege, was accorded
-the right to shoot the sixth man. Cole Younger’s deep
-voice broke suddenly in, filling all the room and sounding
-so jolly and clear. “Come, boys, another drink.”
-Neither so loud nor so caressing as Younger’s, yet
-sharp, distinct, and penetrating, prolonging, as it were,
-the previous proposition, and giving it emphasis, Todd
-exclaimed, “Who said drink?” A thunderclap, a single
-pistol shot, and then total darkness. The barkeeper
-dum in the presence of death, shivered and stood still.
-Todd, cool as a winter’s night without, extinguished
-every light and stepped upon the street. “Steady,”
-he said to his men, “do not make haste.” So sudden
-had been the massacre, and so quick had been the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span>
-movements of the Guerrillas, that the pursuers were
-groping for a clue and stumbling in their eagerness
-to find it. At every street corner an alarm was
-beating.</p>
-
-<p>Past the press in the streets, past the glare and
-the glitter of the thicker lights, past patrol after patrol,
-Tod had won well his way to his horses when a black
-bar thrust itself suddenly across his path and changed
-itself instantly into a line of soldiers. Some paces
-forward a spokesman advanced and called a halt.</p>
-
-<p>“What do you want?” asked Todd.</p>
-
-<p>“The countersign.”</p>
-
-<p>“We have no countersign. Out for a lark, it’s only
-a square or two further that we desire to go.”</p>
-
-<p>“No matter if its only an inch or two. Orders are
-orders.”</p>
-
-<p>“Fire; and charge men!” and the black line across
-the streets as a barricade shrivelled up and shrank
-away. Four did not move, however, nor would they
-ever move again, until, feet foremost, their comrades
-bore them to their burial place. But the hunt was
-hot. Mounted men were abroad, and hurrying feet
-could be heard in all directions. Rallying beyond
-range and reinforcements, the remnant of the patrol
-were advancing and opening fire. Born scout and
-educated Guerrilla, Traber—judging from the shots
-and shouts—knew what was best for all and dashed
-up to his hard-pressed comrades and horses. Thereafter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span>
-the fight was a frolic. The picket on the Independence
-road was ridden over and through, and the
-brush beyond gained without an effort; and the hospitable
-house of Reuben Harris, where a roaring fire
-was blazing and a hearty welcome extended to all was
-reached.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_114" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 44em;">
- <img src="images/i_114.jpg" width="700" height="411" alt="" />
- <div class="caption">TODD AND YOUNGER WENT TO KANSAS CITY TO HAVE A LITTLE FUN</div></div>
-
-<p>In a week or less it began snowing. The hillsides
-were white with it. The nights were long, and the
-days bitter, and the snow did not melt. On the 10th
-of February, 1863, John McDowell reported his wife
-sick and asked Younger permission to visit her. The
-permission was granted, the proviso attached to it
-being the order to report again at 3 o’clock. The illness
-of the man’s wife was a sham. Instead of going
-home, or even in the direction of home, he hastened
-immediately to Independence and made the commander
-there, Colonel Penick, thoroughly acquainted with
-Younger’s camp and all its surroundings. Penick was
-a St. Joseph, Missouri, man, commanding a regiment
-of militia. The echoes of the desperate adventure of
-Younger and Todd in Kansas City had long ago reached
-the ears of Colonel Penick, and he seconded the traitor’s
-story with an eagerness worthy the game to be hunted.
-Eighty cavalry, under a resolute officer, were ordered
-instantly out, and McDowell, suspected and closely
-guarded, was put at their head as a pilot.</p>
-
-<p>Younger had two houses dug in the ground, with
-a ridge pole to each, and rafters. Upon the rafters<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span>
-were boards, and upon the boards straw and earth.
-At one end was a fireplace, at the other a door. Architecture
-was nothing, comfort everything.</p>
-
-<p>The Federal officer dismounted his men two hundred
-yards from Younger’s huts and divided them,
-sending forty to the south and forty to the north. The
-Federals on the north had approached to within twenty
-yards of Younger’s cabins when a horse snorted
-fiercely and Younger came to the door of one of them.
-He saw the approaching column on foot and mistaking
-it for a friendly column, called out: “Is that you,
-Todd?” Perceiving his mistake, in a moment, however,
-he fired and killed the lieutenant in command
-of the attacking party and then aroused the men in
-the houses. Out of each the occupants poured, armed,
-desperate and determined to fight but never to surrender.
-Younger halted behind a tree and fought fifteen
-Federals for several moments, killed another who
-rushed upon him, rescued Hinton and strode away
-after his comrades, untouched and undaunted. Fifty
-yards further Tom Talley was in trouble. He had one
-boot off and one foot in the leg of the other, but
-try as he would he could get it neither off nor on. He
-could not run, situated as he was, and he had no knife
-to cut the leather. He too called out to Younger to
-wait for him and to stand by him until he could do
-something to extricate himself. Without hurry, and
-in the teeth of a rattling fusilade. Younger stooped to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span>
-Talley’s assistance, tearing literally from his foot by
-the exercise of immense strength the well-nigh fatal
-boot, and telling him to make the best haste he could
-and hold to his pistols. Braver man than Tom Talley
-never lived, nor cooler. As he jumped up in his stocking
-feet, the Federals were within twenty yards, firing
-as they advanced, and loading their breech loading
-guns as they ran. He took their fire at a range
-like that and snapped every barrel of his revolver
-in their faces. Not a cylinder exploded, being wet
-by the snow. He thus held in his hand a useless pistol.
-About thirty of the enemy had by this time outrun
-the rest and were forcing the fighting. Younger
-called to his men to take to the trees and drive them
-back, or stand and die together. The Guerrillas, hatless
-and some of them barefoot and coatless, rallied
-instantly and held their own. Younger killed two
-more of the pursuers here—five since the fighting began—and
-Bud Wigginton, like a lion at bay, fought
-without cover and with deadly effect. Here Job
-McCorkle was badly wounded, together with James
-Morris, John Coger and five others. George Talley,
-fighting splendidly, was shot dead, and Younger himself,
-encouraging his men by his voice and example,
-got a bullet through the left shoulder. The Federal
-advance fell back to the main body and the main body
-fell back to their horses.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span>
-A man by the name of Emmet Goss was now beginning
-to have it whispered of him that he was a
-tiger. He would fight, the Guerrillas said, and when
-in those savage days one went out upon the warpath
-so endorsed, be sure that it meant all that it was intended
-to mean. Goss lived in Jackson County. He
-owned a farm near Hickman’s mill, and up to the fall
-of 1861, had worked it soberly and industriously.
-When he concluded to quit farming and go fighting,
-he joined the Jayhawkers. Jennison commanded the
-Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry, and Goss a company in
-this regiment. From a peaceful thrifty citizen he became
-suddenly a terror to the border. He seemed to
-have a mania for killing. Twenty odd unoffending
-citizens probably died at his hand. When Ewing’s
-famous General Order No. 11 was issued—that order
-which required the wholesale depopulation of Cass,
-Bates, Vernon and Jackson Counties—Goss went about
-as a destroying angel, with a torch in one hand and
-a revolver in the other. He boasted of having kindled
-the fires in fifty-two houses, of having made fifty-two
-families homeless and shelterless, and of having killed,
-he declared, until he was tired of killing. Death was
-to come to him at last by the hand of Jesse James,
-but not yet.</p>
-
-<p>Goss had sworn to capture or kill Cole Younger,
-and went to the house of Younger’s mother on Big
-Creek for the purpose. She was living in a double log<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span>
-cabin built for a tenant, by her husband before his
-death, and Cole was at home. It was about eight
-o’clock and quite dark. Cole sat talking with his
-mother, two little sisters and a boy brother. Goss,
-with forty men, dismounted back from the yard, fastened
-their horses securely, moved up quietly and surrounded
-the house.</p>
-
-<p>Between the two rooms of the cabin there was an
-open passageway, and the Jayhawkers had occupied
-this before the alarm was given. Desiring to go from
-one room to another, a Miss Younger found the porch
-full of armed men. Instantly springing back and closing
-the door, she shouted Cole’s name, involuntarily.
-An old negro woman—a former slave—with extraordinary
-presence of mind, blew out the light, snatched
-a coverlet from the bed, threw it over her head and
-shoulders.</p>
-
-<p>“Get behind me, Marse Cole, quick,” she said in a
-whisper.</p>
-
-<p>And Cole, in a second, with a pistol in each hand,
-stood close up to the old woman, the bed spread covering
-them both. Then throwing wide the door,
-and receiving in her face the gaping muzzles of a
-dozen guns, she querously cried out:</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t shoot a poor old nigger, Massa Sogers. Its
-nobody but me going to see what’s de matter. Ole
-missus is nearly scared to death.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span>
-Slowly, then, so slowly that it seemed an age to
-Cole, she strode through the crowd of Jayhawkers
-blocking up the portico, and out into the darkness and
-night. Swarming about the two rooms and rumaging
-everywhere, a portion of the Jayhawkers kept looking
-for Younger, and swearing brutally at their ill-success,
-while another portion, watching the movements
-of the old negress, saw her throw away the bed-spread,
-clap her hands exultantly and shout: “Run,
-Marse Cole; run for your life. The debbils can’t catch
-you dis time!”</p>
-
-<p>Giving and taking a volley that harmed no one,
-Cole made his escape without a struggle. As for the
-old negress, Goss debated sometime with himself
-whether he should shoot her or hang her. Unquestionably
-a rebel negro, she was persecuted often and often
-for her opinion’s sake, and hung up twice by militia
-to make her tell the whereabouts of Guerrillas. True
-to her people and her cause, she died at last in the
-ardor of devotion.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_20">The Trip North in 1863</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">On</span> the return from Texas in the spring of 1863,
-Quantrell’s journey in detail would read like a
-romance. The whole band, numbering thirty, were
-clad in Federal uniforms, Quantrell wearing that of
-a captain. Whenever questioned, the answer was,
-“A Federal scout on special service.” Such had been
-the severity of the winter, and such the almost dead
-calm in military quarters, that all ordinary vigilance
-seemed to have relaxed and even ordinary prudence
-forgotten.</p>
-
-<p>South of Spring River a day’s march, ten militia
-came upon Quantrell’s camp and invited themselves to
-supper. They were fed, but they were also killed.
-Quantrell himself was the host. He poured out the
-coffee, supplied attentively every little want, insisted
-that those whose appetites were first appeased should
-eat more, and then shot at his table the two nearest to
-him and saw the others fall beneath the revolvers of
-his men, with scarcely so much as a change of color
-in his face.</p>
-
-<p>North of Spring River there was a dramatic
-episode. Perhaps in those days every country had
-its tyrants. Most generally revolutions breed monsters.</p>
-
-<p>On the way to Missouri, they fell in with Marmaduke,
-who was commanding a bunch of Bushwhackers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span>
-in St. Claire County, Missouri. He also had been wintering
-in Texas, and they camped one night near us.
-Marmaduke was telling Quantrell about an old Federal
-captain named Obediah Smith—what a devil he was
-and how he was treating the Southern people. Quantrell
-laughed and asked:</p>
-
-<p>“Why don’t you kill him?”</p>
-
-<p>Marmaduke said he was too sharp and cunning for
-him.</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell said, “If you will detail one or two of
-your men to come with me and show me where he
-lives, I will kill him with his own gun.”</p>
-
-<p>It being agreed upon, the next morning Marmaduke
-called on Oliver Burch to pilot Quantrell to where
-Smith lived. The following morning all marched up
-to within about a mile or so of where Captain Smith
-lived. Quantrell called his men together, chose
-Wash Haller, Dick Burns, Ben Morrow, Dick
-Kenney, Frank James and myself of his own command,
-and Oliver Burch of Marmaduke’s command. They
-rode up to Captain Smith’s house, all dressed in Federal
-uniforms, and called at the gate, “Hello.” Smith
-came walking out and Quantrell saluted him and told
-him he was a scout for the Federals from Colonel
-Penick’s army. Smith saw them in the same uniform
-as himself and did not once think of their betraying
-him. They talked for a few minutes when Quantrell
-said:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span>
-“Captain, that is a fine gun you have there; why
-don’t you furnish us scouts with a gun like that.”</p>
-
-<p>“This is a fine gun,” replied Smith, “it has killed
-lots of d——d bushwhackers.”</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell said, “Captain, would you mind letting
-me see that gun?”</p>
-
-<p>Taking it from him, Quantrell began to look it over,
-and turning to his pals, said, “Ain’t that a dandy?”</p>
-
-<p>They all answered, “Yes, wish I had one.”</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell kept fooling with the gun and, catching
-Captain Smith’s eye off him, fired it at him, shooting
-him through the heart and killing him instantly. Killing
-Smith was getting rid of one of the worst men
-in Cedar County.</p>
-
-<p>That day about ten o’clock, three militiamen came to
-the column and were killed. A mile from where dinner
-was procured, five more came out. These also were
-killed. In the dusk of the evening two more were
-killed, and where we bivouacked, one was killed. The
-day’s work counted eleven in the aggregate, and nothing
-of an exertion to find a single soldier made, at
-that.</p>
-
-<p>Evil tidings were abroad, however—evil things
-that took wings and flew as birds. Some said from
-the first that Quantrell’s men were not Union men
-and some swore that no matter what kind of clothing
-they wore, those inside of said clothing were wolves.
-Shot evenly; that is to say, by experienced hands, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span>
-the head, the corpses of the first discovered ten awakened
-from their sleep the garrison along the Spring
-River. Smith’s execution stirred them to aggression,
-and the group of dead militiamen crossed continually
-upon the roadside, while it enraged it also horrified
-every cantonment or camp. Two hundred cavalrymen
-got quickly to horse and poured up from the rear after
-Quantrell. It was not difficult to keep on his track.
-Here a corpse and there a corpse, here a heap and
-there a heap—blue always, and blue continually—what
-manner of a wild beast had been sent out from the
-unknown to prey upon the militia?</p>
-
-<p>At the Osage River the Federal pursuit, gathering
-volume and intensity as it advanced, struck Quantrell
-hard and brought him to an engagement south of the
-river. Too much haste, however, cost him dearly. The
-advance, being the smaller, had outridden the main
-army and was unsupported and isolated when attacked.
-Quantrell turned upon it savagely and crushed it at
-a blow. Out of sixty-six troopers he killed twenty.
-In those days there were no wounded. Before the
-main body came up he was over the Osage and away,
-and riding fast to encompass the immense prairie between
-the river and Johnstown. When scarcely over
-it, a flanking column made a dash at him coming from
-the west, killed Blunt’s horse and drove Quantrell to
-timber. Night fell and he rode out of sight and out
-of hearing. When he drew rein again it was at the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span>
-farm of Judge Russell Hicks on the Sni, in Jackson
-County. The next morning at David George’s he disbanded
-for ten days, sending messengers out in all
-directions to announce his arrival and make known
-the rendezvous.</p>
-
-<p>The ten days allotted by Quantrell for concentration
-purposes had not yet expired, but many of the
-reckless spirits, rapacious for air and exercise, could
-not be kept still. Poole, Ross and Greenwood made
-a dash for the German settlement of Lafayette County,
-and left some marks there that are not yet obliterated.
-Albert Cunningham, glorying in the prowess of a splendid
-manhood, and victor in a dozen combats against
-desperate odds, fell before the spring came, in an insignificant
-skirmish on the Harrisonville and Pleasant
-Hill road.</p>
-
-<p>In the lull of military movements in Jackson
-County, Cass was to see the inauguration of the heavy
-Guerrilla work of 1863. Three miles west of Pleasant
-Springs, Younger and his comrades struck a blow that
-had the vigor of the olden days in it. The garrison
-at Pleasant Hill numbered three hundred, and from
-the garrison of Lieutenant Jefferson took thirty-two
-cavalrymen and advanced three miles towards Smith’s,
-on a scouting expedition. While Hulse and Noah Webster,
-two Guerrilas who seemed never to sleep and to
-be continually hanging about the flanks of the Federals,
-discovered Jefferson and reported his movements<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span>
-to the main body encamped at Parson Webster’s. Taking
-with him eight men, Joe Lee hurried to cut Jefferson
-off from Pleasant Hill. Younger, with eight more,
-was close up from the west. Lee had with him John
-Webster, Noah Webster, Sterling Kennedy, David
-Kennedy, William Hays, Perry Hays, Henry McAninch,
-James Marshall, Edward Marshall and Edward Hink.
-He was to gain the east end of the lane and halt there
-until Younger came up at its western extremity. Jefferson
-discovered Lee, however, and formed a line of
-battle in front of Smith’s, throwing some skirmishers
-forward and getting ready apparently for a fight,
-although afterwards it was reported that Lee’s men
-were mistaken for a portion of the garrison left behind
-at Pleasant Hill. Younger had further to go than
-he at first supposed, but was making all the haste possible,
-when Lee, carried away by the uncontrolable
-impulse of his men, charged down the lane from the
-east, at a furious rate. Jefferson held his troopers
-fair to their line, until the Guerrillas reached a carbine
-range, but could hold them no longer. A volley
-and a stampede and the wild race was on again. About
-a length ahead and splendidly mounted, William Hays
-led the Guerrillas. Shot dead, his horse fell from under
-him and crushed his senses out for half an hour. John
-and Noah Webster took Hays’ place through sheer
-superiority of horse flesh and forced the fighting,
-John killing three of the enemy as he ran and Noah,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span>
-four. Noah’s pistols were empty, but he dashed alongside
-of the rearmost trooper and knocked him from
-his saddle with the butt of one of them, and seized
-another by the collar of his coat and dragged him to
-the ground. Both were dispatched. Too late to block
-the western mouth of the lane, Younger joined in the
-swift pursuit as it passed him to the left and added
-much to the certainty of the killing. Of the thirty-two,
-four alone escaped, and Jefferson was not among
-them. Hulse shot him running at a distance of fifty
-yards, and before he got to him he was dead.</p>
-
-<p>Pleasant Hill was instantly evacuated. Not a Federal
-garrison remained in Cass, outside of Harrisonville,
-and the garrison there was as effectively imprisoned
-as if surrounded by the walls of a fortress.
-The Guerrillas rode at ease in every direction.</p>
-
-<p>Younger and Lon Railey hung about the town for
-a week killing its pickets and destroying its foraging
-parties. Other bands in other directions gathered up
-valuable horses for future service and helped onward
-to the southern army troops of recruits who needed
-only pilots and protection to the Osage River.</p>
-
-<p>Like Cunningham, the man who had fought as a
-lion in twenty different combats, was destined to
-fall in a sudden and unnoted skirmish. Returning
-northward in the rear of Quantrell, Lieutenant William
-Haller was attacked at sunset and fought till dark. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span>
-triumphed, but he fell. His comrades buried him and
-wept for him, and left him.</p>
-
-<p>The battle of the year 1863 had commenced; formidable
-men were coming to the surface in every direction.
-Here and there sudden Guerrilla fires leaped
-up from many places about the State, and burned as
-if fed by oil, until everything in their reach had been
-consumed. It was a year of savage fighting and killing;
-it was the year of the torch and the black flag; it
-was the year when the invisible reaper reaped sorest
-in the ranks of the Guerrillas and gathered into harvest
-sheaves, the bravest of the brave.</p>
-
-<p>Anderson, newly coming into sight, was flashing
-across the military horizon as a war comet. Left to
-himself and permitted to pursue his placid ways in
-peace, probably the amiable neighbor and working
-man would never have been developed into a tiger.
-But see how he was wrought upon! One day late in
-1862, a body of Federal soldiers, especially enrolled
-and uninformed to persecute women and prey upon
-non-combatants, gathered up in a half day’s raid a
-number of demonstrative Southern girls whose only
-sin had been extravagant talk and pro-Confederacy
-cheering. They were taken to Kansas City and imprisoned
-in a dilapidated tenement close upon a steep
-place. Food was flung to them at intervals, and brutal
-guards sang ribald songs and used indecent language
-in their presence. With these women, tenderly nurtured<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span>
-and reared, were two of Will Anderson’s sisters.
-Working industriously in Kansas with his father, Anderson
-knew nothing of the real struggles of the war,
-nor of the imprisonment of his sisters. A quiet, courteous,
-fair-minded man who took more delight in a
-book than in a crowd, he had a most excellent name
-in Randolph County, Missouri, where he was born,
-and in Johnson County, Kansas, where he was living
-in 1862. Destiny had to deal with him, however. The
-old rickety, ramshackle building in which were the
-huddled women, did not fall down fast enough for
-the brutes who bellowed about it. At night and in
-the darkness it was undermined, and in the morning
-when a little wind blew upon it and it was shaken,
-it fell with a crash. Covered up, the faces disfigured,
-the limp, lifeless bodies were past all pain! Dead to
-touch, or kiss, or passionate entreaty, Anderson’s eldest
-sister was taken from the ruins a corpse. The younger,
-badly injured in the spine, with one leg broken and
-her face bruised and cut painfully, lived to tell the terrible
-story of it all to a gentle, patient brother kneeling
-before her at her bedside and looking up above to
-see if God were there.</p>
-
-<p>Soon a stir came along the border. A name new
-to the strife was beginning to pass from band to band
-and about the camp fires to have a respectful hearing.</p>
-
-<p>“Anderson?” “Anderson?” “Who is this Anderson?”
-The Guerrillas asked one of another. “He kills<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span>
-them all. Quantrell spares now and then, and Poole
-and Blunt, and Yager, and Haller, and Jarrette, and
-Younger, and Gregg, and Todd, and Shepherd, and all
-the balance; but Anderson, never. Is he a devil in
-uniform?”</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_21">Jesse James Joins Command</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Jesse James,</span> younger brother of Frank James, had
-now emerged from the awkwardness of youth. He
-was scarcely thirteen years of age, while Frank was
-four years older. The war made them Guerrillas.
-Jesse was at home with his stepfather, Dr. Reuben
-Samuels, of Clay County. He knew nothing of the
-strife save the echoes of it now and then as it reached
-his mother’s isolated farm. One day a company of
-militia visited this farm, hanged Dr. Samuels to a tree
-until he was left for dead, and seized upon Jesse, a
-mere boy in the fields plowing, put a rope about his
-neck and abused him harshly, pricking him with sabers,
-and finally threatening him with death should they
-ever again hear of his giving aid or information to
-the Guerrillas. That same week his mother and sisters
-were arrested, carried to St. Joseph and thrown into
-a filthy prison, where the hardships they endured were
-dreadful. Often without adequate food, insulted by
-sentinels who neither understood nor cared to learn
-the first lesson of a soldier—courtesy to women—cut
-off from all communication with the world, the sister
-was brought near to death’s door from a fever which
-followed the punishment, while the mother—a high
-spirited and courageous matron—was released only
-after suffering and emaciation had aged her in her
-prime. Before Mrs. Samuels returned to her home,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span>
-Jesse had joined Frank in the camp of Quantrell, who
-had preceded him a few years, and who had already,
-notwithstanding the briefness of his service, made a
-name for supreme and conspicuous daring. Jesse
-James had a face as smooth and innocent as the face
-of a school girl. The blue eyes, very clear and penetrating,
-were never at rest. His form, tall and finely
-moulded—was capable of great effort and great endurance.
-On his lips there was always a smile, and
-for every comrade a pleasant word or a compliment.
-Looking at the small white hands with their long,
-tapering fingers, it was not then written or recorded
-that they were to become with a revolver among the
-quickest and deadliest hands in the West. Frank was
-four years older, and somewhat taller than Jesse.
-Jesse’s face was something of an oval; Frank’s was
-long, wide about the forehead, square and massive
-about the jaw and chin, and set always in a look of
-fixed repose. Jesse laughed at many things; Frank
-laughed not at all. Jesse was light hearted, reckless,
-devil-may-care; Frank sober, sedate, a splendid man
-always for ambush or scouting parties.</p>
-
-<p>Scott had to come back from the South and, eager
-for action, crossed the Missouri River at Sibley May
-20, 1863, taking with him twelve men. Frank James
-and James Little led the advance. Beyond the river
-thirteen miles, and at the house of Moses McCoy, the
-Guerrillas camped, concocting a plan whereby the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span>
-Federal garrison at Richfield, numbering thirty, might
-be got at and worsted.</p>
-
-<p>Captain Sessions was in command at Richfield, and
-his grave had already been dug. Scott found a friendly
-citizen named Peter Mahoney who volunteered to do
-the decoy work. He loaded up a wagon with wood,
-clothed himself in the roughest and raggedest clothes
-he had, and rumbled away behind as scrawny and
-fidgety a yoke of oxen as ever felt a north wind in
-the winter bite their bones, or deceptive buckeye in
-the spring swell their body.</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. Mahoney, what is the news?” This was
-the greeting he got.</p>
-
-<p>“No news, I have wood for sale. Yes, there is
-some news, too. I like to have forgot. Eight or ten
-of those Quantrell men are prowling about my way,
-the infernal scoundrels, and I hope they may be hunted
-out of the country.”</p>
-
-<p>Mahoney did well, but Scott did better. He secreted
-his men three miles from Richfield, and near the
-crossing of a bridge. If an enemy came the bridge
-was a sentinel—its resounding planks, the explosion
-of a musket. Scott, with eight men, dismounted and
-lay close along the road. Gregg, with Fletch Taylor,
-James Little and Joe Hart, mounted and ready to
-charge, kept still and expectant fifty yards in the
-rear in ambush. Presently at the crossing a dull
-booming was heard, and the Guerrillas knew that Sessions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span>
-had bit at the bait Mahoney offered. A sudden
-clinking along the line—the eight were in a hurry.</p>
-
-<p>“Be still,” said Scott; “You cock too soon. I had
-rather have two cool men than ten impatient ones.”</p>
-
-<p>The Federals came right onward; they rode along
-gaily in front of the ambuscade; they had no skirmishers
-out and they were doomed. The leading files
-were abreast of Scott on the right when he ordered a
-volley, and Sessions, Lieutenant Graffenstein and
-seven privates fell dead. What was left of the Federal
-array turned itself into a rout; Gregg, Taylor, Little,
-and Hart thundered down to the charge. Scott mounted
-again, and altogether and away at a rush, pursuers and
-pursued dashed into Richfield. The remnant of the
-wreck surrendered, and Scott, more merciful than
-many among whom he soldiered, spared the prisoners
-and paroled them.</p>
-
-<h3>House Occupied by Women Light of Love</h3>
-
-<p>Four miles from Independence, and a little back
-from the road leading to Kansas City, stood a house
-occupied by several women light of love. Thither regularly
-went Federal soldiers from the Independence
-garrison, and the drinking was deep and the orgies
-shameful. Gregg set a trap to catch a few of the comers
-and goers. Within the lines of the enemy much
-circumspection was required to make an envelopment
-of the house successful. Jesse James was chosen from
-among the number of volunteers and sent forward to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span>
-reconnoiter the premises. Jesse, arrayed in coquettish
-female apparel, with his smooth face, blue eyes, and
-blooming cheeks, looked the image of a bashful country
-girl, not yet acquainted with vice, though half eager
-and half reluctant to walk a step nearer to the edge
-of its perilous precipice. As he mounted, woman
-fashion, upon a fiery horse, the wind blew all about his
-peach colored face the pink ribbons of a garish bonnet
-and lifted the tell-tale riding habit just enough to
-reveal instead of laced shoes or gaiters, the muddy
-boots of a born cavalryman. Gregg, taking twelve
-men, followed in the rear of James to within a half
-a mile of the nearest picket post and hid in the woods
-until word could be brought from the bagnio ahead.
-If by a certain hour the disguised Guerilla did not return
-to his comrades, the pickets were to be driven in,
-the house surrounded, and the inmates forced to give
-such information as they possessed, of his whereabouts.</p>
-
-<p>Jesse James, having pointed out to him with tolerable
-accuracy the direction of the house, left the
-road, skirted the timber rapidly, leaped several ravines,
-floundered over a few marshy places and finally
-reached his destination without meeting a citizen or
-encountering an enemy. He would not dismount, but
-sat upon his horse at the fence and asked that the
-mistress of the establishment might come out to him.
-Little by little, and with many gawky protests and
-many a bashful simper, he told a plausible story of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span>
-parental <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">espionage</i> and family discipline. He, ostensibly
-a she, could not have a beau, could not go with the
-soldiers, could not sit with them late, nor ride with
-them, nor romp with them. She was tired of it all
-and wanted a little fun. Would the mistress let her
-come to her house occasionally and bring some of the
-neighborhood girls with her, who were in the same
-predicament? The mistress laughed and was glad.
-New faces to her were like new coin, and she put
-forth a hand and patted the merchantable thing upon
-the knee, and ogled her smiling mouth and girlish
-features gleefully. As the she-wolf and venturesome
-lamb separated, the assignation was assured. That
-night the amorous country girl, accompanied by three
-of her female companions, was to return, and the mistress,
-confident of her ability to provide lovers was
-to make known among the soldiers the attractive acquisition.</p>
-
-<p>It lacked an hour of sunset when Jesse James got
-back to Gregg; an hour after sunset the Guerrillas,
-following hard upon the tracks made by the boy spy,
-rode rapidly on to keep the trysting place. The house
-was aglow with lights and jubilant with laughter.
-Drink abounded, and under cover of the clinking
-glasses, the men kissed the women. Anticipating the
-orgy of unusual attraction, twelve Federals had been
-lured out from the garrison and made to believe that
-barefoot maidens ran wild in the woods and buxom<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span>
-lasses hid for the hunting. No guards were out; no
-sentinels posted. Jesse James crept close to a window
-and peered in. The night was chilly and a large wood
-fire blazed upon a large hearth. All the company
-were in one room, five women and a dozen men. Scattered
-about, yet ready for the grasping, the cavalry
-carbines were in easy reach, and the revolvers handy
-about the persons. Sampson trusting everything to
-Delilah, might not have trusted so much if under the
-old dispensation there had been anything of bushwhacking.</p>
-
-<p>Gregg loved everybody who wore the gray, and
-what exercised him most was the question just now
-of attack. Should he demand a surrender? Jesse
-James, the boy, said no to the veteran. Twelve men
-inside the house, and the house inside their own lines
-where reinforcements might be hurried quickly to
-them, would surely hold their own against eleven outside,
-if indeed they did not make it worse. The best
-thing to do was to fire through the windows and kill
-what could be killed by a carbine volley, then rush
-through the door and finish, under the cover of the
-smoke, horror and panic, those who should survive the
-broadside.</p>
-
-<div id="ip_137" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 30em;">
- <img src="images/i_138.jpg" width="468" height="700" alt="" />
- <div class="caption">JESSE JAMES GOING TO HOUSE OF LIGHT OF LOVE</div></div>
-
-<p>Luckily the women sat in a corner to themselves
-and close to a large bed fixed to the wall and to the
-right of the fireplace. On the side of the house the
-bed was on, two broad windows opened low upon the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span>
-ground, and between the windows there was a door,
-not ajar, but not fastened. Gregg, with five men,
-went to the upper window, and Taylor, with four, took
-possession of the lower. The women were out of immediate
-range. The house shook; the glass shivered,
-the door was hurled backward, there was a hot stifling
-crash of revolvers; and on the dresses of the women
-and the white coverlet of the bed great red splotches.
-Eight out of the twelve fell dead or wounded at the
-first fire; after the last fire all were dead. It was
-a spectacle ghastly beyond any ever witnessed by the
-Guerrillas, because so circumscribed. Piled two deep
-the dead men lay, one with a glass grasped tightly in
-his stiffened fingers, and one in his shut hand the
-picture of a woman scantily clad. How they wept, the
-poor, painted things, for the slain soldiers, and how
-they blasphemed; but Gregg tarried not, neither did
-he make atonement. As they lay there heaped where
-they fell and piled together, so they lay still when
-he mounted and rode away.</p>
-
-<div class="tb">* * * * *</div>
-
-<p>In the three months preceding the Lawrence massacre,
-over two hundred citizens were killed and their
-property burned or stolen. In mid-winter houses were
-burned by the hundred and whole neighborhoods devastated
-and laid waste. Aroused as he had never
-been before, Quantrell meditated a terrible vengeance.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_22">Lawrence Massacre</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">In</span> the spring of 1863, Quantrell issued a proclamation
-to the Federal forces of Kansas that if they
-did not stop burning and robbing houses, killing old
-men and women, he would in return come to Lawrence
-at some unexpected time and paint the city blacker than
-hades and make its streets run with blood.</p>
-
-<p>On Blackwater, in Johnson County, and at the house
-of Captain Purdee, Quantrell called the Guerrillas together
-for the Lawrence massacre. Todd, Jarrette,
-Blunt, Gregg, Trow, Anderson, Yager, Younger, Estes
-and Holt, all were there, and when the roll was called
-three hundred and ten answered promptly to their
-names. Up to the mustering hour Quantrell had probably
-not let his left hand know what his right hand
-had intended. Secrecy necessarily was to be the salvation
-of the expedition, if indeed there was any salvation
-for it. The rendezvous night was an August
-night—a blessed, balmy, mid-summer night—just
-such a night as would be chosen to give force to reflections
-and permit the secrets of the soul to escape.
-The sultry summer day had lain swarthily in the sun
-and panting; the sultry summer winds had whispered
-nothing of the shadowy woods, nothing of the babble of
-unseen brooks. Birds spoke goodbye to birds in the
-tree tops, and the foliage was filled with twilight.
-Quantrell sat grave and calm in the midst of his chieftains<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span>
-who were grouped about him. Further away
-where the shadows were, the men massed themselves
-in silent companies or spoke low to one another, and
-briefly. Something of a foreboding, occult though
-it was, and undefinable, made itself manifest. The
-shadow of a great tragedy was impending.</p>
-
-<p>Without in the least degree minimizing or magnifying
-the difficulties of the undertaking, Quantrell
-laid before his officers his plans for attacking Lawrence.
-For a week a man of the command—a cool,
-bold, plausible, desperate man—had been in the city—thought
-it, over it, about it and around it—and
-he was here in their midst to speak. Would they
-listen to him?</p>
-
-<p>“Let him speak,” said Todd, sententiously.</p>
-
-<p>Lieutenant Fletcher Taylor came out from the
-shadow, bowed gravely to the group, and with the
-brevity of a soldier who knew better how to fight than
-to talk, laid bare the situation. Disguised as a stock
-trader, or rather, assuming the role of a speculating
-man, he had boldly entered Lawrence. Liberal, for
-he was bountifully supplied with money; keeping open
-rooms at the Eldridge House, and agreeable in every
-way and upon every occasion, he had seen all that
-it was necessary to see, and learned all that could be
-of any possible advantage to the Guerrillas. The city
-proper was but weakly garrisoned; the camp beyond
-the river was not strong; the idea of a raid by Quantrell<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span>
-was honestly derided; the streets were broad and good
-for charging horsemen, and the hour for the venture
-was near at hand.</p>
-
-<p>“You have heard the report,” Quantrell said with
-a deep voice, “but before you decide it is proper that
-you should know it all. The march to Lawrence is a
-long one; in every little town there are soldiers; we
-leave soldiers behind us; we march through soldiers;
-we attack the town garrisoned by soldiers; we retreat
-through soldiers; and when we would rest and refit
-after the exhaustive expedition, we have to do the
-best we can in the midst of a multitude of soldiers.
-Come, speak out, somebody. What is it, Anderson?”</p>
-
-<p>“Lawrence or hell, but with one proviso, that we
-kill every male thing.”</p>
-
-<p>“Todd?”</p>
-
-<p>“Lawrence, if I knew not a man would get back
-alive.”</p>
-
-<p>“Gregg?”</p>
-
-<p>“Lawrence, it is the home of Jim Lane; the foster
-mother of the Red Legs; the nurse of the Jayhawkers.”</p>
-
-<p>“Shepherd?”</p>
-
-<p>“Lawrence. I know it of old; ‘niggers’ and white
-men are just the same there; its a Boston colony and
-it should be wiped out.”</p>
-
-<p>“Jarrette?”</p>
-
-<p>“Lawrence, by all means. I’ve had my eye on it
-for a long time. The head devil of all this killing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span>
-and burning in Jackson County; I vote to fight it with
-fire—to burn it before we leave it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Dick Maddox?”</p>
-
-<p>“Lawrence; and an eye for an eye and a tooth for
-a tooth; God understands better than we do the equilibrium
-of Civil War.”</p>
-
-<p>“Holt?”</p>
-
-<p>“Lawrence, and be quick about it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yager?”</p>
-
-<p>“Where my house once stood there is a heap of
-ruins. I haven’t a neighbor that’s got a house—Lawrence
-and the torch.”</p>
-
-<p>“Blunt?”</p>
-
-<p>“Count me whenever there is killing. Lawrence
-first and then some other Kansas town; the name is
-nothing.”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you all voted?”</p>
-
-<p>“All.”</p>
-
-<p>“Then Lawrence it is; saddle up, men!”</p>
-
-<p>Thus was the Lawrence Massacre inaugurated.</p>
-
-<p>Was it justifiable? Is there much of anything that
-is justifiable in Civil War? Originally, the Jayhawkers
-in Kansas had been very poor. They coveted the goods
-of their Missouri neighbors, made wealthy or well-to-do
-by prosperous years of peace and African slavery. Before
-they became soldiers they had been brigands, and
-before they destroyed houses in the name of retaliation
-they had plundered them at the instance of personal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span>
-greed. The first Federal officers operating in Kansas;
-that is to say, those who belonged to the state, were
-land pirates or pilferers. Lane was a wholesale plunderer;
-Jennison, in the scaly gradation, stood next to
-Lane; Anthony next to Jennison; Montgomery next
-to Anthony; Ransom next to Montgomery, and so on
-down until it reached to the turn of captains, lieutenants,
-sergeants, corporals and privates. Stock in
-herds, droves and multitudes were driven from Missouri
-into Kansas. Houses gave up their furniture;
-women, their jewels; children, their wearing apparel;
-store-rooms, their contents; the land, their crops, and
-the banks, their deposits. To robbery was added murder;
-to murder, arson, and to arson depopulation. Is
-it any wonder, then, that the Missourian whose father
-was killed should kill in return, whose house was burnt
-should burn in return, whose property was plundered,
-should pillage in return, whose life was made miserable,
-should hunt as a wild beast and rend accordingly?
-Many such were in Quantrell’s command—many whose
-lives were blighted; who in a night were made orphans
-and paupers; who saw the labor and accumulation of
-years swept away in an hour of wanton destruction;
-who for no reason on earth save that they were Missourians,
-were hunted from hiding place to hiding place;
-who were preyed upon while not a single cow remained
-or a single shock of grain; who were shot at,
-bedeviled and proscribed, and who, no matter whether<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span>
-Union or disunion, were permitted to have neither flag
-nor country.</p>
-
-<p>It was the summer night of August 16, 1863, that
-the Guerilla column, having at its head its ominous
-banner, marched west from Purdee’s place on Blackwater.
-With its simple soldiers, or rather volunteers
-for the expedition, were Colonels Joseph Holt and Boaz
-Roberts. Officers of the regular Confederate army,
-who were in Missouri on recruiting service when the
-march began, fell into line as much from habit as from
-inclination.</p>
-
-<p>The first camp was made upon a stream midway between
-Pleasant Hill and Lone Jack, where the grazing
-was good and the hiding places excellent. All day
-Quantrell concealed himself there, getting to saddle
-just at dark and ordering Todd up from the rear to the
-advance. Passing Pleasant Hill to the north and
-marching on rapidly fifteen miles, the second camp was
-at Harrelson’s, twenty-five miles from the place of
-starting. At three o’clock in the afternoon of the second
-day, the route was resumed and followed due west
-to Aubrey, a pleasant Kansas stream, abounding in
-grass and timber. Here Quantrell halted until darkness
-set in, feeding the horses well and permitting the
-men to cook and eat heartily. At eight o’clock the
-march began again and continued on throughout the
-night, in the direction of Lawrence. Three pilots were
-pressed into service, carried with the command as far<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span>
-as they knew anything of the road or the country, and
-then shot down remorselessly in the nearest timber.</p>
-
-<p>On the morning of the 21st, Lawrence was in sight.
-An old man a short distance upon the right of the road
-was feeding his hogs in the gray dawn, the first person
-seen to stir about the doomed place. Quantrell sent Cole
-Younger over to the hog-pen to catechize the industrious
-old farmer and learn from him what changes had
-taken place in the situation since Taylor had so
-thoroughly accomplished his mission. Younger,
-dressed as a Federal lieutenant, exhausted speedily the
-old man’s limited stock. Really, but little change had
-taken place. Across the Kansas river there were
-probably four hundred soldiers in camp, and on the
-Lawrence side about seventy-five. As for the rebels,
-he didn’t suppose there was one nearer than Missouri;
-certainly none within striking distance of Lawrence.</p>
-
-<p>It was a lovely morning. The green of the fields
-and the blue of the skies were glad together. Birds
-sang sweetly. The footsteps of autumn had not yet
-been heard in the land.</p>
-
-<p>“The camp first,” was the cry which ran through
-the ranks, and Todd, leading Quantrell’s old company,
-dashed down, yelling and shooting. Scarcely any resistance
-was made, as every time they stuck their heads
-out of a tent it was met with a bullet. Ridden over,
-shot in their blankets, paralyzed, some of them with
-terror, they ran frantically about. What could they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span>
-do against the quickest and deadliest pistol shots along
-the border?</p>
-
-<p>Bill Anderson, Todd, Jarrette, Little, McGuire,
-Long, Bill McGuire, Richard Kenney, Allen Parmer,
-Frank James, Clemmons, Shepherd, Hinton, Blunt,
-Harrison Trow, and the balance of the older men did
-the most of the killing. They went for revenge, and
-they took it. These men killed. They burned. The
-Federals on the opposite side of the river made scarcely
-any attempt to come to the rescue of their butchered
-comrades. A few skirmishes held them in check. It
-was a day of darkness and woe. Killing ran riot. The
-torch was applied to every residence; the air was filled
-with cries for mercy; dead men lay in cellars, upon
-streets, in parlors where costly furniture was, on velvet
-carpets. The sun came up and flooded the sky with its
-radiance and yet the devil’s work was not done. Smoke
-ascended into the air, and the crackling of blazing
-rafters and crashing of falling walls filled the air. A
-true story of the day’s terrible work will never be told.
-Nobody knows it. It is a story of episodes, tragic—a
-story full of collossal horrors and unexpected deliverances.</p>
-
-<p>Frank James, just as he was in the act of shooting a
-soldier in uniform who had been caught in a cellar—his
-pistol was at the Federal’s head—heard an exceedingly
-soft and penetrating voice calling out to him, “Do
-not kill him for my sake. He has eight children who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span>
-have no mother.” James looked and saw a beautiful
-girl just turned sixteen, blushing at her boldness and
-trembling before him. In the presence of so much
-grace and loveliness her father was disarmed. He remembered
-his own happy youth, his sister, not older
-than the girl beside him, his mother who had always
-instilled into his mind lessons of mercy and charity. He
-put up his pistol.</p>
-
-<p>“Take him, he is yours. I would not harm a hair of
-his head for the whole state of Kansas,” said James.</p>
-
-<p>Judge Carpenter was killed in the yard of H. C.
-Clark, and Colonel Holt, one of the Confederate officers
-with the expedition, saved Clark. He saved others besides
-Clark. He had been a Union man doing business
-in Vernon County, Missouri, as a merchant. Jennison,
-belonging to old Jim Lane of Lawrence, noted “nigger”
-thief, robber and house burner, who always ran from
-the enemy, raided the neighborhood in which he lived,
-plundered him of his goods, burnt his property, insulted
-his family, and Holt joined the Confederate army for
-revenge. The notorious general, James H. Lane, to get
-whom Quantrell would gladly have left and sacrificed
-the balance of the victims, made his escape through a
-corn field, hotly pursued but too speedily mounted to
-be captured. He swam the river.</p>
-
-<p>There were two camps in Lawrence at the time of
-the attack, one camp of the “nigger” troops being
-located at the southern end of Massachusetts street and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span>
-the other camp of white soldiers were camped in the
-heart of the city. In this latter camp there were twenty-one
-infantry, eighteen of whom were killed in the first
-wild charge.</p>
-
-<p>Cole Younger had dragged from his hiding place in
-a closet a very large man who had the asthma. In his
-fright and what with his hurry the poor man could not
-articulate. Younger’s pistol was against his heart
-when his old wife cried out, “For God’s sake, do not
-shoot him. He has not slept in a bed for nine years.”
-This appeal and the asthma together, caused Younger
-to roar out, “I never intended to harm a hair of his
-head.”</p>
-
-<p>Todd and Jarrette, while roaming through Eldridge’s
-house in search of adventure, came upon a door
-that was locked. Todd knocked and cried out that the
-building was in flames and it was time to get away.
-“Let it burn and be d——d,” a deep voice answered,
-and then the voices of three men were heard in conversation.
-Jarrette threw his whole weight against the
-door, bursting it open, and as he did so Todd fired and
-killed one of the three, Jarrette another and Todd the
-third, who were hiding there. They were soldiers who
-had escaped in the morning’s massacre, and who did
-not even make an effort to defend themselves. Perhaps
-the number killed will never be accurately known,
-but I should say there were at least one thousand killed,
-and none wounded. The loss of property amounted to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span>
-the enormous sum of $1,500,000. The total buildings
-consumed were one hundred and eighty-nine. In the
-city proper Quantrell had one man killed and two
-wounded. The man who lost his life was drunk when
-the firing began. His name was Larkin Skaggs, and
-the fighting at Lawrence was the first he had ever done
-as a Guerilla.</p>
-
-<p>Fate favored Quantrell from the time he left Missouri
-until he returned to Missouri. A man from Johnson
-County, Kansas, started by an Indian trail to inform
-the people of Lawrence of his coming. He rode
-too carelessly and his horse fell and so injured him that
-he died. A full company of soldiers were situated at
-Oxford, but they seemed more anxious to keep out of
-the way than to fight.</p>
-
-<p>As Quantrell retreated from Lawrence, he sat upon
-the right end, William Gregg with twenty men upon
-the left. Bill Anderson with twenty men, Gregg
-took with him Frank James, Arch Clemmons,
-Little, Morrow, Harrison Trow and others of
-the most desperate men of the band. Anderson took
-Hockinsmith, Long, McGuire, Parmer, Hicks, Hi
-George, Doc Campbell and other equally desperate
-characters. Each was ordered to burn a swath as they
-marched back parallel with the main body and to kill
-in proportion as he burned. Soon on every hand were
-columns of smoke beginning to rise, and soon was heard
-the rattle of firing arms from around the consuming<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span>
-houses, and old farmers who had taken up arms were
-shot down as a holiday frolic. This unforgiving farewell
-lasted for twelve miles until pressed too heavily in
-the rear. Quantrell was forced to recall his detachments
-and look to the safety of his aggregate columns.</p>
-
-<p>Missouriward from Kansas ten miles, Quantrell
-halted to rest and eat a little. Cole Younger rode out
-into a cabbage patch and got himself a cabbage head
-and began to eat it. The lady of the house came out.
-Younger said:</p>
-
-<p>“This is a very fine cabbage you have.” The lady
-replied:</p>
-
-<p>“I hope it will choke you to death, you d——d old
-rebel son-of-a-buck.”</p>
-
-<p>“Thank you, ma’am,” was the reply. “Where is
-your husband?”</p>
-
-<p>Before any of the men had finished eating, the
-pickets were drawn into the rear, pressed to the girth.
-Todd and Jarrette held out as two lines that had not
-broken fast. Step by step, and firing at everyone in
-pursuit, at arm’s length, for ten miles further the
-Federals would not charge. Overwhelming in numbers
-though they were, and capable of taking at any moment
-everything in opposition to them, they contented themselves
-with firing at long range and keeping always at
-and about a deadly distance from the rear. The
-Guerillas, relying principally upon dash and revolver,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span>
-felt the need of a charge. Quantrell halted the whole
-column for a charge. The detachments on either flank
-had some time since been gathered up and the men
-brought face to face with urgent need. Turned about
-quickly and dressed up in line handsomely as he came
-trotting up in the rear guard Todd fell into line upon
-the left and Quantrell gave the word. The Federal pursuit
-had hardly time to fire a volley before it was rent
-into shreds and scattered upon the prairie.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_23">Order Number 11, August, 1863</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Two</span> days after his safe arrival in Missouri from
-the Lawrence massacre, Quantrell disbanded the
-Guerrillas. Fully six thousand Federals were on his
-track. The savageness of the blow struck there had
-appalled and infuriated the country. The journalistic
-pulse of the North rose to fever heat and beat as though
-to its raging fever there had been added raving insanity.
-In the delirium of the governing powers impossible
-things were demanded. Quantrell was to be
-hunted to the death; he was to be hanged, drawn and
-quartered; his band was to be annihilated; he was to be
-fought with fire, persecution, depopulation and wholesale
-destruction. At the height of the very worst of
-these terrible paroxysms, Ewing’s famous General
-Order No. 11 was issued. It required every citizen of
-Jackson, Cass, Bates and a portion of Vernon counties
-to abandon their houses and come either into the lines
-of designated places that were fortified, or within the
-jurisdiction of said lines. If neither was done, and said
-citizens remained outside beyond the time limit specified
-for such removal, they were to be regarded as outlaws
-and punished accordingly. Innocent and guilty
-alike felt the rigors of this unprecedented proscription.
-For the Union man there was the same line of demarkation
-that was drawn for the secessionist. Age had no
-immunity; sex was not regarded. The rights of property<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span>
-vanished; predatory bands preyed at will; nothing
-could be sold; everything had to be abandoned; it was
-the obliterating of prosperity by counties; it was the depopulation
-of miles upon miles of fertile territory in a
-night.</p>
-
-<p>General Ewing had been unjustly censured for the
-promulgation of such an order and held responsible in
-many ways for its execution. The genius of a celebrated
-painter, Captain George C. Bingham of Missouri,
-had been evoked to give infamy to the vandalism
-of the dead and voice to the indignation of history over
-its consummation. Bingham’s picture of burning and
-plundering houses, of a sky made awful with mingling
-flames and smoke, of a long line of helpless fugitives going
-away they knew not whither, of appealing women
-and gray haired non-combatants, of skeleton chimneys
-rising like wrathful and accusing things from the
-wreck of pillaged homesteads, of uniformed things
-called officers rummaging in trunks and drawers, of
-colonels loaded with plunder, and captains gaudy in
-stolen jewelry, will live longer than the memories of
-the strife, and keep alive horrible memories long after
-Guerrilla and Jayhawker are well forgotten.</p>
-
-<p>Ewing, however, was a soldier. General Order No.
-11 came from district headquarters at St. Louis where
-Scofield commanded, and through Scofield from Washington
-City direct. Ewing had neither choice nor discretion
-in the matter. He was a brave, conscientious,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span>
-hard fighting officer who did his duty as it came to his
-hands to do. He could not have made, if he had tried,
-one hair of the infamous Order white or black. It was
-a portion of the extraordinary order of things, and
-Ewing occupied towards it scarcely the attitude of an
-instrument. He promulgated it but he did not originate
-it; he gave it voice but he did not give it form and substance;
-his name had been linked to it as to something
-that should justly cause shame and reproach, but history
-in the end will separate the soldier from the man
-and render unto the garb of the civilian what it has
-failed to concede to the uniform of the commander. As
-a citizen of the republic he deplored the cruelty of an
-enactment which he knew to be monstrous; but as a
-soldier in the line of duty, the necessity of the situation
-could not justify a moment’s argument. He had
-but to obey and to execute, and he did both—and mercifully.</p>
-
-<p>For nearly three weeks Jackson County was a Pandemonium,
-together with the counties of Cass, Bates,
-Vernon, Clay and Lafayette. Six thousand Federals
-were in the saddle, but Quantrell held his grip upon
-these counties despite everything. Depopulation was
-going on in a two-fold sense—one by emigration or
-exodus, and one by the skillful killing of perpetual ambushment
-and lyings-in-waiting. In detachments of
-ten, the Guerrillas divided up and fought everywhere.
-Scattered, they came together as if by instinct. Driven<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span>
-from the flanks of one column, they appeared in the
-rear of another. They had voices that were as the
-voices of the night birds. Mysterious horsemen appeared
-on all the roads. Not a single Federal scouting
-or exploring party escaped paying toll. Sometimes the
-aggregate of the day’s dead was simply enormous. Frequently
-the assailants were never seen. Of a sudden,
-and rising, as it were, out of the ground, they delivered
-a deadly blow and rode away in the darkness—invisible.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_24">Fights and Skirmishes During Fall and Winter,
-1863–1864</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap al"><span class="smcap1">As</span> the Lawrence raid put the whole Federal forces
-after us, it was a continuous fight from September
-1, 1863, to Price’s raid in August, 1864, but Quantrell
-held his own.</p>
-
-<p>Up to the time of the Lawrence massacre there had
-been no scalping done; after it a good deal. Abe Haller,
-brother of Lieutenant William Haller, was wounded
-and hiding in some timber near Texas Prairie in the
-eastern edge of Jackson County. Alone, he faced
-seventy-two men, killing and wounding five of the attacking
-party, when he fell. His slayers scalped him
-and cut off his ears. Shortly afterwards Andy Blunt
-came upon the body, mutilated as it was, and pointed
-out the marks of the knife to his companions.</p>
-
-<p>“We have something to learn yet, boys,” he said,
-“and we have learned it.” “Scalp for scalp hereafter!”</p>
-
-<p>The next day Blunt, Long, Clemens, Bill Anderson
-and McGuire captured four militiamen from a regiment
-belonging to North Missouri. Blunt scalped each
-of the four, leaving their ears intact, however. He said
-he had no use for them.</p>
-
-<h3>Fire Prairie</h3>
-
-<p>The killing went on. Between Fire Prairie and Napoleon
-Gregg, Taylor, Nolan, Little and Frank James
-captured six of Pennick’s militiamen. They held over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span>
-them a kind of court martial and killed them all. These
-were not scalped.</p>
-
-<h3>Wellington</h3>
-
-<p>The next day Richard Kenney, John Farretts, Jesse
-James and Sim Whitsett attacked a picket post of eight
-men about a mile from Wellington and annihilated it,
-cutting them off from the town and running them in a
-contrary direction. Not a man escaped.</p>
-
-<h3>Lexington Road</h3>
-
-<p>Two days afterwards Ben Morrow, Pat O’Donald
-and Frank James ambushed an entire Federal company
-between Salem church on the Lexington road and Widow
-Child’s. They fought eighty men for nearly an hour,
-killing seven and wounding thirteen. O’Donald was
-wounded three times and James and Morrow each once
-slightly.</p>
-
-<h3>Shawnee Town Road</h3>
-
-<p>Todd gathered together thirty of his old men and,
-getting a volunteer guide who knew every hog path in
-the country, went around past Kansas City boldly and
-took up a position on the Shawnee Town road, looking
-for a train of wagons bringing infantry into Kansas
-City. There were twenty wagons with twenty soldiers
-to the wagon, besides the drivers. Here and there between
-the wagons intervals of fifty yards had been permitted
-to grow. Todd waited until all the wagons but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span>
-three had passed by the point of his ambush when he
-sprang out upon them and poured into them and upon
-their jammed and crowded freight a deadly rain of
-bullets. Every shot told. Todd butchered sixty in the
-three wagons and turned away from his work of death
-and pursued the balance.</p>
-
-<h3>Independence</h3>
-
-<p>Cole Younger, while Todd was operating in Kansas,
-gathered about him ten men and hid himself as close to
-Independence as it was possible to get without getting
-into town. His eyes for some time had been fastened
-upon a large corral. He sent William Hulse out to
-reconnoiter the position and bring word of the guard
-stationed to protect it. Younger avoided the pickets and
-by eleven o’clock had made the distance, halting at the
-turning off place on the main road and giving his
-horses in charge of two of the detachment. With the
-other eight on foot led by Hulse, he crept close to the
-reserve post and fired point blank into the sleeping
-guard, some rolled up in their blankets and some resting
-at ease about the fire. Choosing his way as well as
-possible by the uncertain light. Younger escaped unpursued
-with three excellent horses to the man after
-killing seventeen Federals in the night attack and
-wounding many more.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_25">Blue Springs Fight in December, 1863</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Colonel Pennick’s</span> men came from Independence
-down to Blue Springs and burned houses,
-killed old men—too old to be in the service. They numbered
-two hundred, while Quantrell’s men numbered
-one hundred. On the road from Blue Springs to Independence
-they killed John Sanders and a man
-named Kimberland—both old men—and left them lying
-in the roadway. If neighbors had not offered their
-services the hogs would have eaten their bodies. They
-burned from two to twelve houses and left the families
-homeless.</p>
-
-<p>The people of the neighborhood sent a runner to
-Quantrell. We mounted, struck a gallop and did not
-slow down until we charged the rear and went through
-them like fire through stubble, killing as we went.
-After the battle was over we counted seventy-five killed
-and an equal number wounded. Those who were not
-hit were so scared that we had no more trouble with
-them.</p>
-
-<p>On our retreat Quantrell’s password was, “Bat
-them, boys, over the left eye.”</p>
-
-<p>A good old citizen by the name of Uncle George
-Rider, hearing the firing and seeing us coming, got off
-his horse and laid down in the woods close to the road,
-face up, having a belly on him like a ten-gallon beer keg.
-Quantrell said to Dick Burns, “You go out and bat him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span>
-over the left eye.” Burns went out to him and hollered
-back to Quantrell that “he has been dead a week; see
-how he is swelled up.” We had lots of fun afterwards
-about his belly saving him.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_26">Wellington</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Four</span> miles east of Wellington stood a large house
-occupied by some lewd women, notorious for their
-favors and their enticements. Poole knew the situation
-well, and suggested to Jarrette that a sufficient
-detour should be made to encompass the building. Arriving
-there about eleven o’clock at night, it appeared
-from the outside as if there were some kind of a frolic.
-Lights shone from many of the windows, music and the
-sound of dancing feet could be heard occasionally.
-Frank James crept to a back door and looked in and
-counted five women and eleven men. Some of the men
-were sitting on the laps of the women and some were so
-close to others that to risk a volley would be murderous.
-At no time without hitting a woman could they make
-sure of hitting a man. They waited an hour to gain a
-favorable opportunity, but waited in vain. Jarrette
-solved the problem.</p>
-
-<p>He was dressed in Federal uniform, and after placing
-his men so as to cut off any escape from the house
-if the occupants once came outside, he rode boldly up
-to the fence in front of the premises and cried,
-“Hello!” A soldier came to the door with a gun in his
-hand and answered him. Jarrette continued, “Who are
-you that you come to this place in defiance of every
-order issued for a month? What business have you
-here tonight? Who gave you permission to come?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span>
-Where are your passes? Come out here and let me read
-them.” Thinking Jarrette a provost captain scouting
-for runaways from the Lexington garrison, ten of the
-eleven militiamen started confidently for the fence, receiving,
-when half way, the crushing fire of twenty
-concealed Guerrillas. In a space four blankets might
-have covered the ten fell and died, only one of the lot
-discharging a weapon or making a pretense of resistance.</p>
-
-<p>Frank James stooped to count them, and as he rose
-he remarked: “There are but ten here. Awhile ago
-there were eleven.” The building was entered,
-searched from top to bottom in every nook and corner,
-but no soldier. The women were questioned, one at a
-time, separately. They knew only that when the man
-at the fence called they all went out together.</p>
-
-<p>Frank James, whose passive face had from the first
-expressed neither curiosity nor doubt, spoke up again
-and briefly: “Awhile ago I counted but five women,
-now there are six.” Save four sentinels on duty at
-either end of the main road, Guerrillas had gathered
-together in the lower large room of the dwelling house.
-The fire had burned low, and was fitful and flickering.
-Where there had been half a dozen candles there were
-now only two.</p>
-
-<p>“Bring more,” said Poole, “and we will separate
-this wolf from the ewes.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span>
-“Aye, if we have to strip the lot,” spoke up a coarse
-voice in the crowd.</p>
-
-<p>“Silence,” cried Jarrette, laying a hand upon a
-pistol and turning to his men in the shadow, “not a
-woman shall be touched. We are wild beasts, yes, but
-we war on wild beasts.”</p>
-
-<p>More light was brought, and with a candle in each
-hand Poole went from woman to woman, scanning the
-face of each long and searchingly, and saying when he
-had finished, “I give it up. If one of the six here is a
-man, let him keep his dress and his scalp.”</p>
-
-<p>Frank James, just behind Poole, had inspected each
-countenance also as the candles passed before it, and
-when Poole had done speaking, he laid a finger upon
-a woman’s shoulder and spoke as one having authority:
-“This is the man. If I miss my reckoning, shoot me
-dead.”</p>
-
-<p>The marvelous nerve, which up to this time had
-stood with the militiaman as a shield and a defense, deserted
-him when the extremity came, and he turned
-ghastly white, trembled to his feet, and fell, sobbing
-and praying on his knees. Horrified by the slaughter
-in the yard, and afraid to rush from the house lest he be
-shot down also, he hurriedly put on the garments of one
-of the women, composed his features as best he could,
-and waited in suspense the departure of the Guerrillas.
-Almost a boy, his smooth face was fresher and fairer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span>
-than the face of any real woman there. His hair, worn
-naturally long and inclined to be brown, was thick and
-fine. The dress hid his feet, or the boots would have
-betrayed him at the start. Not knowing that an observation
-had been made before the firing, and the number
-accurately taken of both men and women, he hoped
-to brave it through and laugh afterwards and tell to his
-messmates how near death had passed by him and did
-not stop. The reaction, however, upon discovery, was
-pitiful. He was too young to die, he pleaded. He had
-never harmed a human being in his life. If he was
-spared he would abandon the army and throw away his
-gun. As he prayed he wept, but Jarrette abated further
-abasement of his manhood.</p>
-
-<p>“He is yours, James,” he said, “and fairly yours.
-When he changed color ever so little under Poole’s inspection
-you saw it and no other man saw it, and he belongs
-to you. Take him.” Property in human flesh was
-often disposed of in this way.</p>
-
-<p>“Come,” said Frank James, lifting the young Federal
-up to his feet with his left hand and drawing his
-revolver with his right; “come outside, it is not far
-to go.”</p>
-
-<p>Scarcely able to stand, yet unresisting, the militiaman
-followed the Guerrilla—the lamb following the
-tiger. As they went by the ghastly heap, all ragged and
-intangible in the uncertain light, the one shuddered and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span>
-the other was glad. At the fence the poor prisoner was
-so weak he could scarcely climb it. Beyond the fence
-was the road and down this road a few hundred yards
-towards Lexington Frank James led his victim. Under
-the shadows of a huge tree he halted. It was quite dark
-there. Only the good God could see what was done; the
-leaves shut the stars out.</p>
-
-<p>“Do not kill me for my mother’s sake,” came from
-the pinched lips of the poor victim, “for I have no one
-else to pray for me. Spare me just this once.”</p>
-
-<p>“You are free,” said James, “go,” and as he spoke
-he pointed in the direction of Lexington.</p>
-
-<p>“Free? You do not kill me? You tell me go?
-Great God, am I sleeping or awake!” and the man’s
-teeth chattered and he shook as if in a fit of ague.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, go and go quickly; you are past the guards,
-past all danger; you belong to me and I give you your
-life. <em class="bold">Go!</em>”</p>
-
-<p>At that moment Frank James lifted his pistol in the
-air and fired. When he returned to the house Jarrette,
-who had heard the pistol shot, rallied him.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” he said, “it was soon over. Boys and babies
-are not hard to kill.” James had just taken the trouble
-to save the life of a Federal soldier because he had appealed
-to him in the name of his mother.</p>
-
-<p>Jarrette continued on his raid. South of Lexington
-six miles he came suddenly upon nine Federals in a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span>
-school house, sheltered against a heavy rain that was
-falling. After shooting the nine and appropriating the
-house, he propped each corpse up to a desk, put a book
-before it and wrote upon the blackboard fixed against
-the wall: “John Jarrette and David Poole taught this
-school today for one hour. We found the pupils all
-loyal and we left them as we found them.”</p>
-
-<p>Again in the German settlement a company of
-militia were engaged and cut to pieces. Near Dover
-five militiamen from Carroll County were caught encamped
-at Tebo bridge and shot. Near Waverly ten
-men at odd times were picked up and put out of the
-way. And on the return march to Jackson County no
-less than forty-three straggling Federals, in squads of
-from three to nine, were either surprised or overtaken
-and executed without trial or discussion.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_27">The Grinter Fight</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap a"><span class="smcap1">A Dutch</span> colonel, with his company of men, one
-day came into Piser’s saloon in Independence,
-Mo., and got to drinking pretty freely and said to Piser,
-the saloon keeper:</p>
-
-<p>“Dose you’se knows where dot Quantrell, dot kill-devil,
-iss? Gife us another drink. We are going out
-and get dot Quantrells today, brings his scalps in on
-ours vidle bits.”</p>
-
-<p>Piser, a friend of both Federals and Confederates,
-pleaded with him to leave the job alone. The Dutch
-colonel wore a pair of earrings as big as a ring in a
-bull’s nose.</p>
-
-<p>“Give us another drinks,” the Dutch colonel said.
-“Ills tells youse we are going after Quantrells, and ven
-I finds him I is going to says, ‘Haltz!’ and ven I says
-‘haltz’ dot means him stops a little viles.”</p>
-
-<p>So they took the Independence and Harrisonville
-road and found Quantrell camped close to old man
-Grinter’s and as usual always ready for any surprise,
-for he had been surprised so much. When the Dutch
-colonel and his company came in sight, Quantrell
-ordered his men to mount and charge, which they did,
-and when the smoke cleared away only two remained
-to tell the story. They were a couple hundred yards
-away sitting on their horses cursing us, calling us all
-kinds of d——d “secesh,” telling us to come on. I said<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span>
-to Sim Whitsett, “Let’s give them a little chase. They
-seem to be so brave.” We took after them but they
-would not stand. They broke and ran. We ran them
-for a quarter of a mile down the big road. One fell off
-his horse dead, the other one jumped off and ran into
-old man Grinter’s house. Mrs. Grinter was in the yard.
-He ran to her and said, “Hide me.” She put him under
-a bee gum. Sim and I stopped but never could find
-him. Sim does not to this day like the Grinter name.
-Sim said, “I got the earring, but he is the lad.” He
-afterwards gave them to a girl on Texas Prairie, Missouri.
-Poor old Dutchman. He lost his life with all his
-men but one.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span></p>
-
-<div id="ip_173" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 44em;">
- <img src="images/i_173.jpg" width="700" height="410" alt="" />
- <div class="caption">TAKING DINNER WITH THE FEDERALS</div></div>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_28">The Centralia Massacre</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">In</span> history, this is called a battle of massacre, but
-there never was a fight during the Civil War that
-was fought any more fairly than this battle was fought.</p>
-
-<p>Along about September, 1864, at Paris, in Monroe
-County, there had been a Federal garrison three hundred
-strong, under the command of a Major Johnson.
-These soldiers, on the watch for Anderson, had been
-busy in scouting expeditions and had come down as
-near to Centralia as Sturgeon.</p>
-
-<p>After Anderson had done all the devilment that he
-could lay his hands to in Centralia and had retired
-again to the Singleton camp, Major Johnson came into
-the pillaged town, swearing all kind of fearful and
-frightful things.</p>
-
-<p>At the head of his column a black flag was carried.
-So also was there one at the head of Todd’s column. In
-Johnson’s ranks the Stars and Stripes for this day had
-been laid aside. In the ranks of the Guerrillas the
-Stars and Stripes flew fair and free, as if there had
-been the intention to add to the desperation of the sable
-banner the gracefulness and abandon of legitimate
-war.</p>
-
-<p>The Union citizens of Centralia, knowing Anderson
-only in his transactions, besought Johnson to beware of
-him. He was no match for Anderson. It was useless to
-sacrifice both himself and his men. Anderson had not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">176</span>
-retreated; he was in ambush somewhere about the
-prairie. He would swoop down like an eagle; he would
-smite and spare not. Johnson was as brave as the best
-of them, but he did not know what he was doing. He
-had never in his life fought Guerrillas—such Guerrillas
-as were now to meet him.</p>
-
-<p>He listened patiently to the warnings that were well
-meant, and he put away firmly the hands that were
-lifted to stay his horse. He pointed gleefully to his
-black flag, and boasted that quarter should neither be
-given nor asked. He had come to carry back with him
-the body of Bill Anderson, and that body he would have,
-dead or alive.</p>
-
-<p>Fate, however, had not yet entirely turned its face
-away from the Federal officer. As he rode out from
-the town at the head of his column a young Union girl,
-described as very fair and beautiful, rushed up to Major
-Johnson and halted him. She spoke as one inspired.
-She declared that a presentiment had come to her, and
-that if he led his men that day against Bill Anderson,
-she felt and knew that but few of them would return
-alive. The girl almost knelt in the dust as she besought
-the leader, but to no avail.</p>
-
-<p>Johnson’s blood was all on fire, and he would march
-and fight, no matter whether death waited for him one
-mile off, or one hundred miles off. He not only carried
-a black flag himself, and swore to give no quarter, but
-he declared on his return that he would devastate the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span>
-country and leave of the habitations of the southern
-men not one stone upon another. He was greatly enraged
-towards the last. He cursed the people as
-“damned secesh,” and swore that they were in league
-with the murderers and robbers. Extermination, in
-fact, was what they all needed, and if fortune favored
-him in the fight, it was extermination that all should
-have. Fortune did not favor him.</p>
-
-<p>Johnson rode east of south, probably three miles.
-The scouts who went to Singleton’s barn, where Anderson
-camped, came back to say that the Guerrillas had
-been there, had fed there, had rested there, and had
-gone down into the timber beyond to hide themselves.
-It was now about four o’clock in the afternoon.</p>
-
-<p>Back from the barn, a long, high ridge lifted itself
-up from the undulating level of the more regular
-country and broke the vision southward. Beyond this
-ridge a wide, smooth prairie stretched itself out, and
-still beyond this prairie, and further to the south, was
-the timber in which the scouts said Bill Anderson was
-hiding.</p>
-
-<p>As Johnson rode towards the ridge, still distant
-from it a mile or so, ten men anticipated him by coming
-up fair to view, and in skirmishing order. The leader
-of this little band, Captain John Thrailkill, had picked
-for the occasion David and John Poole, Frank and
-Jesse James, Tuck Hill, Peyton Long, Ben Morrow,
-James Younger, E. P. DeHart, Ed Greenwood and Harrison<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span>
-Trow. Next to Thrailkill rode Jesse James, and
-next to Jesse, Frank. Johnson had need to beware of
-what might be before him in the unknown when such
-giants as these began to show themselves.</p>
-
-<p>The Guerrillas numbered, all told, exactly two hundred
-and sixty-two. In Anderson’s company there
-were sixty-one men, in George Todd’s forty-eight, in
-Poole’s forty-nine, in Thomas Todd’s fifty-four, and in
-Thrailkill’s fifty—two hundred and sixty-two against
-three hundred.</p>
-
-<p>As Thrailkill went forward to skirmish with the
-advancing enemy, Todd came out of the timber where
-he had been hiding, and formed a line of battle in an
-old field in front of it. Still further to the front a
-sloping hill, half a mile away, arose between Johnson
-and the Guerillas. Todd rode to the crest of this, pushing
-Thrailkill well forward into the prairie beyond, and
-took his position there. When he lifted his hat and
-waved it the whole force was to move rapidly on. Anderson
-held the right, George Todd joined to Anderson,
-Poole to George Todd, Thomas Todd to Poole, and
-Thrailkill to Thomas Todd—and thus were the ranks
-arrayed.</p>
-
-<p>The ten skirmishers quickly surmounted the hill and
-disappeared. Todd, as a carved statue, stood his horse
-upon its summit. Johnson moved right onward. Some
-shots at long range were fired and some bullets from
-the muskets of the Federals reached to and beyond the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span>
-ridge where Todd watched, Peyton Long by his side.
-From a column of fours Johnson’s men galloped at
-once into line of battle, right in front, and marched so,
-pressing up well and calmly.</p>
-
-<p>The advanced Guerillas opened fire briskly at last,
-and the skirmishing grew suddenly hot. Thrailkill,
-however, knew his business too well to tarry long at
-such work, and fell back towards the ridge.</p>
-
-<p>As this movement was being executed, Johnson’s
-men raised a shout and dashed forward together and in
-a compact mass order formation, ranks all gone. This
-looked bad. Such sudden exultation over a skirmish
-wherein none were killed exhibited nervousness. Such
-a spontaneous giving way of the body, even beyond the
-will of their commander, should have manifested
-neither surprise nor delight and looked ominous for discipline.</p>
-
-<p>Thrailkill formed again when he reached Todd’s line
-of battle, and Johnson rearranged his ranks and went
-towards the slope at a brisk walk. Some upon the
-right broke into a trot, but he halted them, cursed them,
-and bade them look better to their line.</p>
-
-<p>Up the hill’s crest, however, a column of men suddenly
-rode into view, halted, dismounted and seemed to
-be busy or confused about something.</p>
-
-<p>Inexperienced, Johnson is declared to have said to
-his adjutant: “They will fight on foot—what does
-that mean?” It meant that the men were tightening<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span>
-their saddle girths, putting fresh caps on their revolvers,
-looking well to bridle reins and bridle bits, and
-preparing for a charge that would have about it the
-fury of a whirlwind. By and by the Guerrillas were
-mounted again. From a column they transformed
-themselves into a line two deep and with a double interval
-between all files. At a slow walk they moved
-over the crest towards Major Johnson, now advancing
-at a walk that was more brisk.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps it was now five o’clock. The September
-sun was low in the west, not red nor angry, but an Indian
-summer sun, full yet of generous warmth and
-grateful beaming. The crisp grass crinkled under
-foot. A distance of five hundred yards separated the
-two lines. Not a shot had been fired. Todd showed a
-naked front, bare of skirmishers and stripped for a
-fight that he knew would be murderous to the Federals.
-And why should they not stand? The black flag waved
-alike over each, and from the lips of the leaders of each
-there had been all that day only threats of extermination
-and death.</p>
-
-<p>Johnson halted his men and rode along his front
-speaking a few calm and collected words. They could
-not be heard in Todd’s ranks, but they might have been
-divined. Most battle speeches are the same. They
-abound in good advice. They are generally full of such
-sentences as this: “Aim low, keep cool, fire when you
-get loaded. Let the wounded lie till the fight is over.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span>
-But could it be possible that Johnson meant to receive
-the charge of the Guerrillas at a halt! What cavalry
-books had he read? Who had taught him such
-ruinous and suicidal tactics? And yet, monstrous as
-the resolution was in a military sense, it had actually
-been made, and Johnson called out loud enough to be
-heard by the opposing force: “Come on, we are ready
-for the fight!”</p>
-
-<p>The challenge was accepted. The Guerillas gathered
-themselves together as if by a sudden impulse, and
-took the bridle reins between their teeth. In the hands
-of each man there was a deadly revolver. There were
-carbines, too, and yet they had never been unslung. The
-sun was not high, and there was great need to finish
-quickly whatever had need to be done. Riding the best
-and fastest horses in Missouri, George Shepherd, Oll
-Shepherd, Frank Shepherd, Frank Gregg, Morrow, McGuire,
-Allen Parmer, Hence and Lafe Privin, James
-Younger, Press Webb, Babe Hudspeth, Dick Burnes,
-Ambrose and Thomas Maxwell, Richard Kinney, Si and
-Ike Flannery, Jesse and Frank James, David Poole;
-John Poole, Ed Greenwood, Al Scott, Frank Gray,
-George Maddox, Dick Maddox, De Hart, Jeff Emery,
-Bill Anderson, Tuck Hill, James Cummings, John Rupe,
-Silas King, James Corum, Moses Huffaker, Ben Broomfield,
-Peyton Long, Jack Southerland, William Reynolds,
-William and Charles Stewart, Bud Pence, Nat
-Tigue, Gooly Robertson, Hiram Guess, Buster Parr,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span>
-William Gaw, Chat Rennick, Henry Porter, Arch and
-Henry Clements, Jesse Hamlet, John Thrailkill, Si Gordon,
-George Todd, Thomas Todd, William and Hugh
-Archie, Plunk Murray, Ling Litten, Joshua Esters,
-Sam Wade, Creth Creek, Theodore Castle, John Chatman
-and three score men of other unnamed heroes
-struck fast the Federal ranks as if the rush was a rush
-of tigers. Frank James, riding a splendid race mare,
-led by half a length, then Arch Clements, then Ben
-Morrow, then Peyton Long and then Harrison Trow.</p>
-
-<p>There was neither trot not gallop. The Guerrillas
-simply dashed from a walk into a full run. The attack
-was a hurricane. Johnson’s command fired one
-volley and not a gun thereafter. It scarcely stood until
-the five hundred yards were passed over. Johnson cried
-out to his men to fight to the death, but they did not
-wait even to hear him through. Some broke ranks as
-soon as they had fired, and fled. Others were attempting
-to reload their muskets when the Guerrillas, firing
-right and left, hurled themselves upon them. Johnson
-fell among the first. Mounted as described, Frank
-James singled out the leader of the Federals. He did
-not know him then. No words were spoken between
-the two. When James had reached within five feet of
-Johnson’s position, he put out a pistol suddenly and
-sent a bullet through his brain. Johnson threw out his
-hands as if trying to reach something above his head
-and pitched forward heavily, a corpse. There was no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span>
-quarter. Many begged for mercy on their knees. The
-Guerrillas heeded the prayer as a wolf might the bleating
-of a lamb. The wild route broke up near Sturgeon,
-the implacable pursuit, vengeful as hate, thundering in
-the rear. Death did its work in twos, threes, in squads—singly.
-Beyond the first volley not a single Guerrilla
-was hurt, but in this volley Frank Shepherd, Hank Williams
-and young Peyton were killed, and Richard Kenney
-mortally wounded. Thomas Maxwell and Harrison
-Carter were also slightly wounded by the same volley,
-and two horses were killed, one under Dave Poole and
-one under Harrison Trow. Shepherd, a giant in size,
-and brave as the best in a command where all are brave,
-fought the good fight and died in the harness. Hank
-Williams, only a short time before, had deserted from
-the Federals and joined Poole, giving rare evidences, in
-his brief Guerrilla career, of great enterprise and consummate
-daring. Peyton was but a beardless boy from
-Howard County, who in his first battle after becoming
-a Guerrilla, was shot dead.</p>
-
-<p>Probably sixty of Johnson’s command gained their
-horses before the fierce wave of the charge broke over
-them, and these were pursued by five Guerrillas—Ben
-Morrow, Frank James, Peyton Long, Arch Clements
-and Harrison Trow—for six miles at a dead run. Of
-the sixty, fifty-two were killed on the road from Centralia
-to Sturgeon. Todd drew up the command and
-watched the chase go on. For three miles nothing obstructed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span>
-the vision. Side by side over the level prairie
-the five stretched away like the wind, gaining step by
-step and bound by bound, upon the rearmost rider.
-Then little puffs of smoke rose. No sounds could be
-heard, but dashing ahead from the white spurts terrified
-steeds ran riderless.</p>
-
-<p>Knight and Sturgeon ended the killing. Five men
-had shot down fifty-two. Arch Clements, in apportionment
-made afterwards, had credited to himself
-fourteen. Trow ten, Peyton Long nine, Ben Morrow
-eight, Frank James, besides killing Major Johnson and
-others in the charge upon the dismounted troopers,
-killed in the chase an additional eleven.</p>
-
-<p>Johnson’s loss was two hundred ninety one. Out
-of the three hundred, only nine escaped.</p>
-
-<p>History has chosen to call the ferocious killing at
-Centralia a butchery. In civil war, encounters are not
-called butcheries where the combatants are man to
-man and where over either ranks there waves a black
-flag.</p>
-
-<p>Johnson’s overthrow, probably, was a decree of
-fate. He rushed upon it as if impelled by a power
-stronger than himself. He did not know how to command
-and his men did not know how to fight. He had,
-by the sheer force of circumstances, been brought face
-to face with two hundred and sixty-two of the most
-terrible revolver fighters the American war or any<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span>
-other war ever produced; and he deliberately tied his
-hands by the very act of dismounting, and stood in the
-shambles until he was shot down. Abject and pitiable
-cowardice matched itself against recklessness and desperation,
-and the end could be only just what the end
-was. The Guerrillas did unto the militia just what the
-militia would have done unto them if fate had reversed
-the decision and given to Johnson what it permitted to
-Todd.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_29">Anderson</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">In</span> June, 1864, Anderson crossed the Missouri River.
-Four miles out from the crossing place, he encountered
-twenty-five Federals, routed them at the first onset,
-killing eight, two of whom Arch Clements scalped,
-hanging the ghastly trophies at the head-stall of his
-bridle. One of the two scalped was a captain and the
-commander of the squad.</p>
-
-<p>Killing as he marched, Anderson moved from Carroll
-into Howard, entered Huntsville the last of June
-with twenty-five men, took from the county treasury
-$30,000, and disbanded for a few days for purposes of
-recruiting.</p>
-
-<p>The first act of the next foray was an ambuscade
-into which Anderson fell headlong. Forty militia waylaid
-him as he rode through a stretch of heavy bottom
-land, filled his left shoulder full of turkey shot, killed
-two of his men and wounded three others. Hurt as he
-was, he charged the brush, killing eighteen of his assailants,
-captured every horse and followed the flying remnant
-as far as a single fugitive could be tracked
-through the tangled undergrowth.</p>
-
-<p>In July Anderson took Arch Clements, John Maupin,
-Tuck and Woot Hill, Hiram Guess, Jesse Hamlet,
-William Reynolds, Polk Helms, Cave Wyatt and Ben
-Broomfield and moved up into Clay County to form a
-junction with Fletch Taylor. By ones and twos he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span>
-killed twenty-five militiamen on the march and was
-taking breakfast at a house in Carroll County when
-thirty-eight Federals fired upon him through doors
-and windows, the balls knocking dishes onto the floor
-and playing havoc with chinaware and eatables generally.
-The Guerrillas, used to every phase of desperate
-warfare, routed their assailants after a crashing
-volley or two, and held the field, or rather the house.
-In the melee Anderson accidentally shot a lady in the
-shoulder, inflicting a painful wound, and John Maupin
-killed the captain commanding the scouts, cut off his
-head and stuck it upon a gate-post to shrivel and
-blacken in the sun.</p>
-
-<p>In Ray County, one hundred and fifty Federal cavalrymen
-found Andersons’ trail, followed it all day,
-and just at nightfall struck hard and viciously at the
-Guerrillas. Anderson would not be driven without a
-fight. He charged their advance guard, killed fourteen
-out of sixty, and drove the guard back upon the
-main body. Clements, Woot Hill, Hamlet and Hiram
-Guess had their horses killed and were left afoot in the
-night to shift for themselves. Walking to the Missouri
-River, ten miles distant, and fashioning a rude raft
-from the logs and withes, Hamlet crossed to Jackson
-County and made his way safe into the camp of Todd.</p>
-
-<p>While with Anderson John Coger was wounded
-again in the right leg. Suffering from this wound and
-with another one in the left shoulder, he had been carried<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span>
-by his comrades to a house close to Big Creek, in
-Cass County, and when it was night, and by no road that
-was generally traveled. Coger, without a wound of
-some kind or in some portion of his body, would have
-appeared as unaccountable to the Guerrillas as a revolver
-without a mainspring.</p>
-
-<p>At the end of every battle some one reckless fighter
-asked of another: “Of course, John can’t be killed, but
-where is he hit this time?” And Coger, himself, no matter
-how often or how badly hurt, scarcely ever waited
-for a old wound to get well before he was in the front
-again looking for a new one. He lived for fifty years
-after the battle, carrying thirteen bullet wounds.</p>
-
-<p>The wonderful nerve of the man saved him many
-times during the war in open and desperate conflicts,
-but never when the outlook was so unpromising as it
-was now, with the chances as fifty to one against him.</p>
-
-<p>Despite his two hurts, Coger would dress himself
-every day and hobble about the house, watching all the
-roads for the Federals. His pistols were kept under the
-bolster of his bed.</p>
-
-<p>One day a scout of sixty militiamen approached the
-house so suddenly that Coger had barely time to undress
-and hurry to bed, dragging in with him his
-clothes, his boots, his tell-tale shirt and his four revolvers.
-Without the help of the lady of the house he
-surely would have been lost. To save him she surely—well,
-she did not tell the truth.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span>
-The sick man lying there was her husband, weak
-from a fever. Bottles were ostentatiously displayed for
-the occasion. At intervals Coger groaned and ground
-his teeth, the brave, true woman standing close to his
-bedside, wiping his brow every now and then and putting
-some kind of smelling stuff to his lips.</p>
-
-<p>A Federal soldier, perhaps a bit of a doctor, felt
-Coger’s left wrist, held it awhile, shook his head, and
-murmured seriously: “A bad case, madam, a bad case,
-indeed. Most likely pneumonia.”</p>
-
-<p>Coger groaned again.</p>
-
-<p>“Are you in pain, dear?” the ostensible wife tenderly
-inquired.</p>
-
-<p>“Dreadful!” and a spasm of agony shot over the
-bushwhacker’s sun-burnt face.</p>
-
-<p>For nearly an hour the Federal soldiers came and
-went and looked upon the sick man moaning in his bed,
-as deadly a Guerrilla as ever mounted a horse or fired a
-pistol.</p>
-
-<p>Once the would-be doctor skirted the edge of the
-precipice so closely that if he had stepped a step further
-he would have pitched headlong into the abyss. He insisted
-upon making a minute examination of Coger’s
-lungs and laid a hand upon the coverlet to uncover the
-patient. Coger held his breath hard and felt upward
-for a revolver. The first inspection would have ruined
-him. Nothing could have explained the ugly, ragged<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span>
-wound in the left shoulder, nor the older and not entirely
-healed one in the right leg. The iron man, however,
-did not wince. He neither made protest nor
-yielded acquiescence. He meant to kill the doctor, kill
-as many more as he could while life lasted and his pistol
-balls held out, and be carried from the room, when he
-was carried at all, feet foremost and limp as a lock of
-hair. Happily a woman’s wit saved him. She pushed
-away the doctor’s hand from the coverlet and gave as
-the emphatic order of her family physician that the
-sick man should not be disturbed until his return.</p>
-
-<p>Etiquette saved John Coger, for it was so unprofessional
-for one physician to interfere with another
-physician’s patient, and the Federal soldier left the
-room and afterwards the house.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_30">Press Webb, a Born Scout</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Press Webb</span> was a born scout crossed upon a highlander.
-He had the eyes of an eagle and the endurance
-of the red deer. He first taught himself coolness,
-and then he taught it to others. In traveling he
-did not travel twice the same road. Many more were
-like him in this—so practicing the same kind of woodcraft
-and cunning—until the enemy began to say:
-“That man Quantrell has a thousand eyes.”</p>
-
-<p>Press Webb was ordered to take with him one day
-Sim Whitsett, George Maddox, Harrison Trow and
-Noah Webster and hide himself anywhere in the vicinity
-of Kansas City that would give him a good view
-of the main roads leading east, and a reasonably accurate
-insight into the comings and going of the Federal
-troops.</p>
-
-<p>The weather was very cold. Some snow had fallen
-the week before and melted, and the ground was frozen
-again until all over the country the ground was glazed
-with ice and traveling was made well nigh impossible.
-The Guerrillas, however, prepared themselves
-and their horses well for the expedition. Other cavalrymen
-were forced to remain comparatively inactive,
-but Quantrell’s men were coming and going daily and
-killing here and there.</p>
-
-<p>On the march to his field of operation, Webb overtook
-two Kansas infantrymen five miles west of Independence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span>
-on the old Independence road. The load
-under which each soldier staggered proved that their
-foraging expedition had been successful. One had a
-goose, two turkeys, a sack of dried apples, some yarn
-socks, a basket full of eggs and the half of a cheese;
-while the other, more powerful or more greedy than
-the first—toiled slowly homeward, carrying carefully
-over the slippery highway a huge bag miscellaneously
-filled with butter, sausages, roasted and unroasted coffee,
-the head of a recently killed hog, some wheaten
-biscuits not remarkably well cooked, more cheese and
-probably a peck of green Jenniton apples. As Webb
-and his four men rode up the foragers halted and
-set their loads on the ground as if to rest. Piled about
-them, each load was about as large as a forager.</p>
-
-<p>Webb remarked that they were not armed and inquired
-of the nearest forager—him with the dried
-apples—why he ventured so far from headquarters
-without his gun.</p>
-
-<p>“There is no need of a gun,” was the reply, “because
-the fighting rebels are all out of the country and the
-stay-at-homes are all subjugated. What we want we
-take, and we generally want a good deal.”</p>
-
-<p>“A blind man might see that,” Webb rather grimly
-replied, “but suppose some of Quantrell’s cut-throats
-were to ride up to you as we have done, stop to talk with
-you as we have done, draw out a pistol as I am doing
-this minute, cover you thus, and bid you surrender now<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span>
-as I do, you infernal thief and son of a thief, what
-would you say then?”</p>
-
-<p>“Say!”—and the look of simple surprise yet cool
-indifference which came to the Jayhawker’s face was
-the strongest feature of the tragedy—“what could I
-say but that you are the cut-throat and I am the victim?
-Caught fairly, I can understand the balance. Be
-quick.”</p>
-
-<p>Then the Jayhawker rose up from the midst of his
-spoils with a sort of quiet dignity, lifted his hat as if
-to let his brow feel the north wind, and faced without
-a tremor the pistol which covered him.</p>
-
-<p>“I cannot kill you so,” Webb faltered, “nor do I
-know whether I can kill you at all. We must take a
-vote first.”</p>
-
-<p>Then to himself: “To shoot an unarmed man, and
-a brave man at that, is awful.”</p>
-
-<p>There amid the sausages and cheese, the turkeys
-and the coffee grains, the dried apples and the green,
-five men sat down in judgment upon two. Whitsett
-held the hat; Webster fashioned the ballots. No arguments
-were had. The five self-appointed jurors were
-five among Quantrell’s best and bravest. In extremity
-they had always stood forth ready to fight to the
-death; in the way of killing they had done their share.
-The two Kansas Jayhawkers came close together as if
-in the final summing up they might find in the mere
-act of dying together some solace. One by one the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span>
-Guerrillas put into the hat of Whitsett a piece of paper
-upon which was written his vote. All had voted.
-Harrison Trow drew forth the ballots silently. As
-he unfolded the first and read from it deliberately;
-“Death,” the younger Jayhawker blanched to his chin
-and put a hand on the shoulder of his comrade. The
-two listened to the count, with every human faculty
-roused and abnormally impressionable. Should any
-one not understanding the scene pass, they would not
-be able to comprehend the situation—one man standing
-bareheaded, solemnly, and all the eyes bent keenly
-forward as another man drew from a hat a dirty slip
-of folded paper and read therefrom something that
-was short like a monosyllable and sepulchral like a
-shroud.</p>
-
-<p>“Life,” said the second ballot, and “Life” said the
-third. The fourth was for death and made a tie. Something
-like the beating of a strong man’s heart might
-have been heard, and something as though a brave man
-were breathing painfully through his teeth lest a sigh
-escape him. Whitsett cried out: “One more ballot yet
-to be opened. Let it tell the tale, Trow, and make an
-end to this thing speedily.” Trow, with scarcely any
-more emotion than a surgeon has when he probes a
-bullet wound, unfolded the remaining slip of paper,
-and read, “Life”!</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span>
-The younger Jayhawker fell upon his knees and
-the elder ejaculated solemnly: “Thank God, how glad
-my wife will be.”</p>
-
-<p>Webb breathed as one from whose breast a great
-load had been lifted and put back into its scabbard his
-revolver. The verdict surprised him all the more because
-it was so totally unexpected, and yet the two men
-there—Jayhawkers though they were and loaded with
-spoils of plundered farm houses—were as free to go
-as the north wind that blew or the stream that was
-running by.</p>
-
-<p>As they rode away the Guerrillas did not even suggest
-to one another the virtue of the parole. At the
-two extremities of their peculiar warfare there was
-either life or death. Having chosen deliberately as
-between the two, no middle ground was known to them.</p>
-
-<p>Press Webb approached to within sight of Kansas
-City from the old Independence road, made a complete
-circle about the place, as difficult as the traveling
-was, entered Westport notwithstanding the presence of
-a garrison there; heard many things told of the plans
-and number of the Federal forces upon the border;
-passed down between the Kansas river and what is
-now known as West Kansas City, killed three foragers
-and captured two six-mule wagons near the site of the
-present gas works; gathered up five head of excellent
-horses, and concealed himself for two days in the Blue
-Bottom, watching a somewhat notorious bawdy house<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span>
-much frequented by Federal soldiers. This kind of
-houses during the war, and when located upon dangerous
-or debatable grounds, were man traps of more
-or less sinister histories.</p>
-
-<p>Eleven women belonged to this bagnio proper, but
-on the night Webb stalked it and struck it, there had
-come five additional inmates from other quarters equally
-as disreputable. Altogether the male attendants
-numbered twenty, two lieutenants, one sergeant major,
-a corporal, four citizens and twelve privates from an
-Iowa regiment. Webb’s attacking column, not much
-larger than a yard stick, was composed of the original
-detail, four besides himself.</p>
-
-<p>The night was dark; the nearest timber to the house
-was two hundred and fifty yards. There was ice on
-everything. The tramping of iron shod feet over the
-frozen earth reverberated as artillery wheels. At the
-timber line Maddox suggested that one man should be
-left in charge of the horses, but Webb overruled the
-point.</p>
-
-<p>“No man shall stir tonight,” he argued, “except he
-be hunted for either war or women. The horses are
-safe here. Let us dismount and make them fast.”</p>
-
-<p>As they crept to the house in single file, a huge
-dog went at Harrison Trow as if he would not be
-denied, and barked so furiously and made so many
-other extravagant manifestations of rage, that a man
-and a woman came to the door of the house and bade<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span>
-the dog devour the disturber. Thus encouraged he
-leaped full at Trow’s throat and Trow shot him dead.</p>
-
-<p>In a moment the house emptied itself of its male
-occupants, who explored the darkness, found the dog
-with the bullet through its head, searched everywhere
-for the author of the act, and saw no man, nor heard
-any retreating steps, and so returned unsatisfied to
-the house, yet returned, which was a great deal.</p>
-
-<p>As for the Guerrillas, as soon as Trow found himself
-obliged to shoot or be throttled, they rushed back
-safely and noiselessly to their horses, mounted them
-and waited. A pistol shot, unless explained, is always
-sinister to soldiers. It is not to be denied. Fighting
-men never fire at nothing. This is a maxim not indigenous
-to the brush, nor an outcome of the philosophy
-of those who were there. A pistol shot says in
-so many words: “Something is coming, is creeping,
-is crawling, is about—look out!”</p>
-
-<p>The Federals heard this one—just as pertinent and
-as intelligible as any that was ever fired—but they
-failed to interpret aright this significant language of
-the ambuscade, and they suffered accordingly.</p>
-
-<p>Webb waited an hour in the cold, listening. No
-voices were heard, no skirmishers approached his position,
-no scouts from the house hunted further away
-than the lights from the windows shone, no alarm had
-been raised, and he dismounted with his men and again
-approached the house.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span>
-By this time it was well on to twelve o’clock. Chickens
-were crowing in every direction. The north wind
-had risen high and was blowing as a winter wind
-always blows when there are shelterless men abroad
-in a winter night.</p>
-
-<p>The house, a rickety frame house, was two stories
-high, with two windows on the north and two on the
-south.</p>
-
-<p>George Maddox looked in at one of these windows
-and counted fourteen men, some well advanced in liquor
-and some sober and silent and confidential with
-the women. None were vigilant. The six upstairs
-were neither seen nor counted.</p>
-
-<p>At first it was difficult to proceed upon a plan of
-action. All the Federals were armed, and twenty
-armed men holding a house against five are generally
-apt, whatever else may happen, to get the best of the
-fighting.</p>
-
-<p>“We cannot fire through the windows,” said Webb,
-“for women are in the way.”</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly” replied Whitsett, “we do not war upon
-women.”</p>
-
-<p>“We cannot get the drop on them,” added Trow,
-“because we cannot get to them.”</p>
-
-<p>“True again,” replied Maddox, “but I have an idea
-which will simplify matters amazingly. On the south
-there is a stable half full of plank and plunder. It
-will burn like pitch pine. The wind is from the north<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span>
-is strong, and it will blow away all danger from the
-house. Were it otherwise I would fight against the
-torch, for not even a badger should be turned out of
-its hole tonight on word of mine, much less a lot of women.
-See for yourself and say if the plan suits you.”</p>
-
-<p>They saw, endorsed the proposition, and put a match
-at once to the hay and to the bundles of fodder. Before
-the fire had increased perceptibly the five men
-warmed their hands and laughed. They were getting
-the frost out of their fingers to shoot well, they said.
-A delicate trigger touch is necessary to a dead shot.</p>
-
-<p>“Fire!”</p>
-
-<p>All of a sudden there was a great flare of flames,
-a shriek from the women and a shout from the men.
-The north wind drove full head upon the stable, roared
-as like some great wild beast in pain.</p>
-
-<p>The Federals rushed to the rescue. Not all caught
-up their arms as they hurried out—not all even were
-dressed.</p>
-
-<p>The women looked from the doors and windows
-of the dwelling, and thus made certain the killing that
-followed. Beyond the glare of the burning outhouse,
-and massed behind a fence fifty paces to the right of
-the consuming stable, the Guerrillas fired five deadly
-volleys into the surprised and terrified mass before
-them, and they scattered, panic-striken and cut to
-pieces,—the remnant frantically regained the sheltering
-mansion.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span></p>
-
-<div id="ip_202" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 44em;">
- <img src="images/i_202.jpg" width="700" height="406" alt="" />
- <div class="caption">PRESS WEBB, A BORN SCOUT</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span>
-Eight were killed where they stood about the fire;
-two were mortally wounded and died afterwards; one,
-wounded and disabled, quit the service; five, severely
-or slightly wounded, recovered; and four, unhurt, reported
-that night in Kansas City that Quantrell had
-attacked them with two hundred men, and had been
-driven off, hurt and badly worsted, after three-quarters
-of an hour’s fight. Press Webb and his four men
-did what work was done in less than five minutes.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_31">Little Blue</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Captain Dick Yager,</span> commanding ten men, the
-usual number the Guerrillas then operated with,
-engaged twenty Federals under Lieutenant Blackstone
-of the Missouri Militia regiments, and slew fourteen.</p>
-
-<p>Yager had ambushed a little above a ford over the
-Little Blue and hid behind some rocks about fifteen
-feet above the crossing place, and Blackstone, unconscious
-of danger, rode with his troops leisurely into
-the water and halted midway in the stream that his
-horses might drink. He had a tin cup tied to his
-saddle and a bottle of whiskey in one of his pockets.
-After having drunk and while bending over from his
-stirrups to dip the cup into the water, a volley hit him
-and knocked him off his horse dead, thirteen others
-falling close to and about him at the same time.</p>
-
-<p>Jarrette and Poole, each commanding ten men,
-made a dash into Lafayette County and struck some
-blows to the right and left, which resounded throughout
-the West.</p>
-
-<p>Poole pushed into the German settlement and comparatively
-surprised them.</p>
-
-<p>Where Concordia now is, there was then a store
-and a fort, strong and well built. This day, however,
-Poole came upon them unawares and found many who
-properly belonged to the militia feeding stock and in
-an exposed position. Fifteen of these he killed and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span>
-ten he wounded severely but not so severely as to
-prevent them from making their way back to the fort.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_32">Arrock Fight, Spring of 1864</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Todd</span> and Dave Poole went east through Fayette
-County to Saline County and thence to Arrock, with
-one hundred and twenty men to avenge the death of
-Jim Janes, Charles Bochman and Perkins, who were
-captured by the Federals under Captain Sims.</p>
-
-<p>The men who captured the boys made them dig their
-own graves and shot them and rolled them into them.
-We made the raid for the benefit of this captain and
-were successful. We caught him and his men playing
-marbles in the street, unaware of any danger. We rode
-slowly into town with our Federal uniforms on, Sim
-Whitsett in advance.</p>
-
-<p>“Boys,” said he, “I will knock the middle man
-out for you.”</p>
-
-<p>He fired the first shot. Then it was a continuous
-fire and the Federals surrendered in a very few minutes.</p>
-
-<p>We killed twenty-five men, wounded thirty-five and
-had only one man, Dick Yager, wounded.</p>
-
-<p>Ben Morrow and I had the pleasure of capturing
-the captain in an upstairs bed room of a hotel. He
-died with quick consumption with a bullet through his
-head.</p>
-
-<p>We captured one hundred and fifty men and swore
-them out of service.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_33">Fire Bottom Prairie Fight, Spring of 1864</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">One</span> of the most daring things I ever witnessed
-was when Ben Morrow saved my life at the time
-they got me off my horse at the battle of Fire Prairie
-Creek near Napoleon, Missouri, in the spring of 1864.</p>
-
-<p>George Todd, in command, was sent out to meet a
-bunch of Federals going from Lexington to Independence.
-We expected to meet them in the road and
-charge them in the usual way, but they got word we
-were coming and dismounted, hid their horses in the
-woods and came up, on foot, and fired on us from the
-brush as we charged. They caught my horse by the
-bridle and before they could shoot me I jumped off
-over the horse’s head. As I went over, I fired at the
-man holding him and he fell. I was on foot amidst
-the worst of them. This gave me an advantage as I
-could fire in any direction I wanted to and they could
-not, as their men were all around me and in danger of
-being hit by their own bullets. I saw a hole where
-a large tree had been uprooted, a hole large enough
-to conceal me almost, and I made direct for it, firing
-at everything in sight as I went.</p>
-
-<p>Captain Todd ordered his men back, with three
-of them, Babe Hudspath, Bill McGuire and Tid Sanders,
-so badly wounded they were unable to go further.</p>
-
-<p>I was left there in the hole, bullets blowing up the
-dirt all around me, the hole being deep enough for me<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span>
-to get out of sight. I lay on my back, loading my
-pistols and watched close as a hawk. They said I was
-dead and wanted to come up and get my pistols. Whenever
-one would show his head I took a shot at him and
-they saw that I was very much alive and their scheme
-would not work.</p>
-
-<p>One of the blue billies climbed a tree close by, thinking
-he would be able to get a better shot at me. I
-waited until he got fairly up in the tree and then shot
-him in the thigh and down he came. I kept up firing,
-thinking the boys would hear it and come back and help
-me.</p>
-
-<p>They were a quarter of a mile off when Ben Morrow
-said, “Boys, we are all here except Harrison Trow,
-and do you hear that shooting? He is still alive and
-by G—d I am going back to get him.” So on came
-Ben Morrow, yelling and shooting with a pistol in
-each hand. When within forty yards of me and letting
-in on the enemy with a pistol in each hand, he saw
-me and came straight for me. I caught the crupper
-of his saddle, jumped up behind him, and pulling two
-pistols, one in each hand, firing as we went, we got
-safely away. From that day on, I would have died
-any where, and any place and any how for Ben Morrow,
-who saved my life at the risk of his own.</p>
-
-<p>After the Fayette fight Lieutenant Jim Little, one
-of Quantrell’s best men, was badly wounded in Howard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span>
-County, Missouri, and Quantrell went with him
-to the woods to take care of him until he recovered.</p>
-
-<p>Then, after the Centralia fight, Ben Morrow, Bill
-Hulsh and I went to where Quantrell and Jim Little
-were in the woods. Jim was much better by this
-time, so that Quantrell could leave him and he came
-back to us in Jackson County, where we swam the river
-on our horses near Saline City. After we had crossed
-the river we went to a house to get breakfast and
-dry our clothes. Quantrell wanted to intercept General
-Price who was on a raid and have a consultation
-with him.</p>
-
-<p>At this house we discovered some Federal clothing—caps,
-etc.—in the hall and asked whose they were.
-We were told they belonged to some Federal soldiers
-who had stayed there through the night and attended
-a dance. We captured them at once and swore them
-out of service. We then went on to intercept Price
-at Waverly, Saline County, Missouri, where arrangements
-were made for Quantrell’s men to take the advance
-clear on up through Fayette and Jackson Counties,
-and up through Kansas City. We were in advance
-all of the way from that time until Price started south,
-and we went with him, about one hundred miles, almost
-to the Arkansas line, and turned back to Jackson
-County.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_34">Death of Todd and Anderson, October, 1864</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Curtis’</span> heavy division, retreating before General
-Price all the way from Lexington to Independence,
-held the western bank of the Little Blue, and some
-heavy stone walls and fences beyond. Marmaduke and
-Shelby broke his hold from these, and pressed him
-rapidly back to and through Independence, the two
-Colorado regiments covering his rear stubbornly and
-well. Side by side McCoy and Todd had made several
-brilliant charges during the morning, and had driven
-before them with great dash and spirit every Colorado
-squadron halted to resist the continual marching forward
-of the Confederate cavalry.</p>
-
-<p>Ere the pursuit ended for the day, half of the 2nd
-Colorado regiment drew up on the crest of a bold hill
-and made a gallant fight. Their major, Smith, a brave
-and dashing officer, was killed there, and there Todd
-fell. General Shelby, as was his wont, was well up
-with the advance, and leading recklessly the two companies
-of Todd and McCoy. Next to Shelby’s right
-rode Todd and upon his left was McCoy. Close to these
-and near to the front files were Colonels Nichols, Thrailkill,
-Ben Morrow, Ike Flannery and Jesse James.</p>
-
-<p>The trot had deepened into a gallop, and all the
-crowd of skirmishers covering the head of the rushing
-column were at it, fierce and hot, when the 2nd
-Colorado swept the road with a furious volley,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span>
-broke away from the strong position held by them and
-hurried on through the streets of Independence, followed
-by the untiring McCoy, as lank as a fox-hound
-and as eager.</p>
-
-<p>That volley killed Todd. A Spencer rifle ball entered
-his neck in front, passed through and out near
-the spine, and paralyzed him. Dying as he fell, he was
-yet tenderly taken up and carried to the house of Mrs.
-Burns, in Independence. Articulating with great
-difficulty and leaving now and then almost incoherent
-messages to favorite comrade or friend, he lingered
-for two hours insensible to pain, and died at last as
-a Roman.</p>
-
-<p>George Todd was a Scotchman born, his father
-holding an honorable position in the British navy. Destined
-also for the sea, it was the misfortune of the son
-to become engaged in a personal difficulty in his eighteenth
-year and kill the man with whom he quarreled.
-He fled to Canada, and from Canada to the United
-States. His father soon after resigned and followed
-him, and when the war began both were railroad contractors
-in North Missouri, standing well with everybody
-for business energy, capacity and integrity.</p>
-
-<p>Todd made a name by exceeding desperation. His
-features presented nothing that could attract attention.
-There was no sign in visible characters of the
-powers that was in him. They were calm always, and
-in repose a little stern; but if anything that indicated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span>
-“a look of destiny” was sought for, it was not
-to be found in the face of George Todd. His was simple
-and confiding, and a circumspect regard for his
-word made him a very true but sometimes a very blunt
-man. In his eyes the fittest person to command a Guerrilla
-was he who inspired the enemy before people began
-to say: “That man, George Todd, is a tiger. He
-fights always; he is not happy unless he is fighting.
-He will either be killed soon or he will do a great amount
-of killing.” It has just been seen that he was not to
-be killed until October, 1864—a three years’ lease of
-life for that desperate Guerrilla work never had a counterpart.
-By and by the Guerrillas themselves felt confidence
-in such a name, reliance in such an arm, favor
-for such a face. It was sufficient for Todd to order a
-march to be implicitly followed; to plan an expedition
-to have it immediately carried out; to indicate a spot on
-which to assemble to cause an organization sometimes
-widely scattered or dispersed to come together as the
-jaws of a steel trap.</p>
-
-<p>Nature gave him the restlessness of a born cavalryman
-and the exterior and the power of voice necessary
-to the leader of desperate men. Coolness, and great
-activity were his main attributes as a commander. Always
-more ready to strike than to speak, if he talked
-at all it was only after a combat had been had,
-and then modestly. His conviction was the part he
-played, and he sustained with unflinching courage and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span>
-unflagging energy that which he had set down for his
-hands to do.</p>
-
-<p>A splendid pistol shot, fearless as a horseman,
-knowing nature well enough to choose desperate men
-and ambitious men, reticent, heroic beyond the conception
-of most conservative people, and covered with
-blood as he was to his brow, his fall was yet majestic,
-because it was accompanied by patriotism.</p>
-
-<p>Before the evacuation of Independence, Todd was
-buried by his men in the cemetery there, and Poole succeeded
-to the command of his company, leading it splendidly.</p>
-
-<p>The night they buried Todd, Ike Flannery, Dick
-Burns, Andy McGuire, Ben Morrow, Press Webb, Harrison
-Trow, Lafe Privin, George Shepherd, George
-Maddox, Allen Parmer, Dan Vaughn, Jess and Frank
-James and John Ross took a solemn oath by the open
-grave of the dead man to avenge his death, and for the
-following three days of incessant battle it was remarkable
-how desperately they fought—and how long.</p>
-
-<p>Until General Price started southward from Mine
-Creek in full retreat, the Guerrillas under Poole remained
-with him, scouting and picketing, and fighting
-with the advance. After Mine Creek they returned to
-Bone Hill, in Jackson County, some going afterwards
-to Kentucky with Quantrell, and some to Texas with
-George Shepherd.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span>
-Henceforward the history of the Guerrillas of Missouri
-must be the history of detachments and isolated
-squads, fighting always, but fighting without coherency
-or other desire than to kill.</p>
-
-<p>Anderson had joined Price at Boonville and the
-meeting was a memorable one. The bridles of the
-horses the men rode were adorned with scalps. One
-huge red-bearded Guerrilla—six feet and over, and
-girdled about the waist with an armory of revolvers—had
-dangling from every conceivable angle a profuse
-array of these ghastly trophies. Ben Price was shocked
-at such evidence of a warfare so utterly repugnant to
-a commander of his known generosity and forbearance,
-and he ordered sternly that they be thrown away
-at once. He questioned Anderson Long of Missouri, of
-the forces in the state, of the temper of the people, of
-the nature of Guerrilla warfare, of its relative advantages
-and disadvantages and then when he had heard
-all he blessed the Guerrillas probably with about as
-much unction as Balaam blessed Israel.</p>
-
-<p>General Price was a merciful man. Equable in
-every relation of life, conservative by nature and
-largely tolerant through his earlier political training,
-thousands are alive today solely because none of the
-harsher or crueler indulgences of the Civil War were
-permitted to the troops commanded by this conscientious
-officer.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span>
-Finally, however, he ordered Anderson back into
-North Missouri, and he crossed at Boonville upon his
-last career of leave taking, desperation and death.</p>
-
-<p>Tired of tearing up railroad tracks, cutting down
-telegraph poles, destroying miles and miles of wire,
-burning depots, and picking up and killing isolated
-militiamen, terrified at the uprising in favor of Price,
-Anderson dashed into Danville, Montgomery County,
-where sixty Federals were stationed in houses and
-strong places.</p>
-
-<p>He had but fifty-seven men, and the fight was
-close and hot.</p>
-
-<p>Gooley Robinson, one of his best soldiers, was mortally
-wounded while exposing himself in a most reckless
-manner.</p>
-
-<p>It was difficult to get the enemy out of the houses.
-Snatching up torches and braving the guns of the entrenched
-Federals, Dick and Ike Berry put fire to one
-house. Arch Clements and Dick West to another, Theo.
-Castle, John Maupin and Mose Huffaker to a third,
-and Ben Broomfield, Tuck, Tom and Woot Hill to the
-fourth.</p>
-
-<p>It was a night of terror and agony. As the militiamen
-ran out they were shot down by the Guerrillas in
-the shadow. Some wounded, burnt to death, and
-others, stifled by the heat and smoke, rushed, gasping
-and blackened into the air, to be riddled with bullets.
-Eight, barely, of the garrison escaped the holocaust.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span>
-Anderson turned west towards Kansas City, expecting
-to overtake General Price there. En route he killed
-as he rode. Scarcely an hour of all the long march
-was barren of a victim. Union men, militiamen, Federal
-soldiers, home guards, Germans on general principles—no
-matter what the class or the organization—if
-they were pro-United States, they were killed.</p>
-
-<p>Later on, in the month of October, while well advanced
-in Ray County, Anderson received the first
-news of the death of Todd and the retreat of Price. By
-this time, however, he had recruited his own command
-to several hundred, and had joined to it a detachment
-of regular Confederates, guiding and guarding to the
-South a motley aggregation of recruits, old and young.
-Halting one day to rest and to prepare for a passage
-across the Missouri River, close to Missouri City, Anderson
-found one thousand Federals—eight hundred infantry
-and two hundred cavalry. He made haste to
-attack them. His young lieutenant, Arch Clements,
-advised him urgently against the attack, as did Captain
-A. E. Asbury, a young and gallant Confederate
-officer, who was in company with him, commanding
-fifty recruits. Others of his associates did the same,
-notably Colonel John Holt, a Confederate officer, and
-Colonel James H. R. Condiff. Captain Asbury was a
-cool, brave, wary man who had had large experience in
-border fighting, and who knew that for a desperate
-charge raw recruits could not be depended upon.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span>
-Anderson would not be held back. Ordering a
-charge, his horse ran away with him and he was seventy-five
-yards ahead of his followers when he was
-killed. Next to him was William Smith, a veteran
-Guerrilla of four years’ service. Five balls struck him,
-and three struck Anderson. Next to Smith was John
-Maupin, who was wounded twice, and next to Maupin,
-Cundill, who was also hit, and next to Cundill, Asbury,
-who got four bullets through his clothes. John Holt,
-Jim Crow Chiles and Peyton Long had their horses
-killed. The three Hill brothers and Dick West and ten
-others of Anderson’s old company fought their way up
-to Anderson’s body and sought to bring it out. Tuck
-Hill was shot, so was his brother Woot and Dick West.
-Their wounds were severe, but not mortal. Once they
-succeeded in placing it upon a horse; the horse was
-killed and fell upon the corpse and held it to the ground.
-Still struggling heroically over the body of his idolized
-commander, Hank Patterson fell dead, not a foot from
-the dead Guerrilla. Next, Simmons was killed, and
-then Anson Tolliver, and then Paul Debonhorst, and
-then Smith Jobson, and then Luckett, then John McIlvaine,
-and finally Jasper Moody and William Tarkington.
-Nothing could live before the fire of the concealed
-infantry and the Spencer carbines of the cavalry.</p>
-
-<p>A single blanket might have covered the terrible
-heap of dead and wounded who fought to recover all
-that remained of that tiger of the jungle. John Pringle,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span>
-the red-headed giant of the Boonville scalps, far ahead
-of his company, was the last man killed, struggling even
-to the death to bear back the corpse. He was a captain
-of a company, and a veteran of the Mexican war, but
-he did what he would not order his men to do—he
-rushed up to the corpse heap and fastened about the leg
-of Anderson a lariat that he might drag the body away.
-The Federals killed his horse. Shot once, he tugged at
-the rope himself, bleeding pitifully. Shot again, he
-fell, struggled up to his feet, fired every barrel of
-three revolvers into the enemy, and received as a
-counter blow two more bullets.</p>
-
-<p>This time he did not rise again or stir, or make a
-moan. All the wild boar blood in his veins had been
-poured out, and the bronzed face, from being rigid,
-had become august.</p>
-
-<p>Joseph and Arch Nicholson, William James, Clell
-Miller and John Warren, all young recruits in their
-first battle, fought savagely in the melee, and all were
-wounded. Miller, among those who strove to rescue
-the corpse of Anderson, was shot, and Warren,
-wounded four times, crawled back from the slaughter
-pen with difficulty. A minie ball had found the heart
-of Anderson. Life, thank God, was gone when a rope
-was put around his neck and his body dragged as the
-body of a dog slain in the woods.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span>
-Many a picture was taken of the dead lion, with his
-great flowing beard, and that indescribable pallor of
-death on his bronzed face. The Federals cut his head
-off and stuck it on a telegraph pole.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_35">Going South, Fall of 1864</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Todd’s</span> death fell upon the spirits of his men as a
-sudden bereavement upon the hearts of a happy
-and devoted family. Those who mourned for him
-mourned all the more tenderly because they could not
-weep. Nature, having denied to them the consolation
-of tears, left them the infinite intercourse and remembrances
-of comradeship and soldierly affection.</p>
-
-<p>The old bands, however, were breaking up. Lieutenant
-George Shepherd, taking with him Matt Wyman,
-John Maupin, Theo. Castle, Jack Rupe, Silas
-King, James and Alfred Corum, Bud Story, Perry
-Smith, Jack Williams, Jesse James and Arthur Devers,
-Press Webb, John Norfolk and others to the number of
-twenty-six, started south to Texas, on the 13th of November,
-1864. With Shepherd also were William
-Gregg and wife, Richard Maddox and wife, and James
-Hendrix and wife. These ladies were just as brave and
-just as devoted and just as intrepid in peril or extremity
-as were the men who marched with them to guard
-them.</p>
-
-<p>Jesse and Frank James separated at White River,
-Arkansas, Frank to go to Kentucky with Quantrell,
-and Jesse to follow the remnant of Todd’s still organized
-veterans into Texas.</p>
-
-<p>Besides killing isolated squads of Federals and
-making way for every individual militiaman who supposed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span>
-that the roads were absolutely safe for travelers
-because General Price and his army had long been
-gone, Shepherd’s fighting for several days was only
-fun. On the 22nd, however, Captain Emmett Goss, an
-old acquaintance of the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry, Jennison’s,
-was encountered, commanding thirty-two Jayhawkers.</p>
-
-<p>Of late Goss had been varying his orgies somewhat.
-He would drink to excess and lavish his plunder and
-money on ill-famed mistresses, who were sometimes
-Indians, sometimes negresses, and but rarely pure
-white. He was about thirty-five years old, square
-built, had broad shoulders, a swaggering gait, stood
-six feet when at himself, and erect, had red hair and a
-bad eye and a face that meant fight when cornered—and
-desperate fight at that.</p>
-
-<p>November 22, 1864, was an autumn day full of sunshine
-and falling leaves. Riding southward from Missouri
-Lieutenant Shepherd met Captain Goss riding
-northward from Cane Hill. Shepherd had twenty-six
-men, rank and file. It was an accidental meeting—one
-of those sudden, forlorn, isolated, murderous meetings
-not rare during the war—a meeting of outlying detachments
-that asked no quarter and gave none. It
-took place on Cabin Creek, in the Cherokee Nation.
-Each rank arrayed itself speedily. There were twenty-six
-men against thirty-two. The odds were not great—indeed
-they never had been considered at all. There<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span>
-came a charge and a sudden and terrible storm of revolver
-bullets.</p>
-
-<p>Nothing so weak as the Kansas detachment could
-possibly live before the deadly prowess and pistol practice
-of the Missourians. Of the thirty-two, twenty-nine
-were killed. One, riding a magnificent race horse,
-escaped on the wings of the wind—one, a negro barber,
-was taken along to wait upon the Guerrillas, and the
-third, a poor emaciated skeleton, as good as dead of
-consumption, was permitted to ride on northward,
-bearing the story of the thunderbolt.</p>
-
-<p>Among the Missourians four were killed. In the
-melee Jesse James encountered Goss and singled him
-out from all the rest. As James bore down upon him,
-he found that his horse, an extremely high-spirited and
-powerful one, had taken the bit in its teeth and was
-perfectly unmanageable. Besides, his left arm being
-left weak from a scarcely healed wound, it was impossible
-for him to control his horse or even to guide him.</p>
-
-<p>Pistol balls were as plentiful as the leaves that were
-pattering down. However, James had to put up his
-revolver as he rode, and rely upon his right hand to reinforce
-his left. Before he could turn his horse and
-break its hold upon his bit, Goss had fired upon him
-four times. Close upon him at last James shot him
-through and through. Goss swayed heavily in his
-saddle, but held on.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span>
-“Will you surrender?” Jesse asked, recocking his
-pistol and presenting it again.</p>
-
-<p>“Never,” was the stern reply. Goss, still reeling in
-the saddle and bleeding dreadfully.</p>
-
-<p>When the blue white smoke curled up again there
-was a riderless steed among the trees and a guilty
-spirit somewhere out in the darkness of the unknown.
-It took two dragoon revolver bullets to finish this one,
-and yet James was not satisfied with his work.</p>
-
-<p>There was a preacher along who also had sat himself
-steadfast in the saddle, and had fought as the best
-of them did. James rode straight at him after he had
-finished Goss. The parson’s heart failed him at last,
-however, and he started to run. James gained upon
-him at every step. When close enough for a shot, he
-called out to him:</p>
-
-<p>“Turn about like a man, that I may not shoot you in
-the back.” The Jayhawker turned, and his face was
-white and his tongue voluble.</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t shoot me,” he pleaded, “I am the chaplain of
-the Thirteenth Kansas; my name is U. P. Gardner, I
-have killed no man, but have prayed for many; spare
-me.” James did not answer. Perhaps he turned away
-his head a little as he drew out his revolver. When the
-smoke lifted, Gardner was dead upon the crisp sere
-grass with a bullet through his brain.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span>
-Maddox, in this fight, killed three of Goss’ men,
-Gregg five, Press Webb three, Wayman four, Hendrix
-three, and others one or two each.</p>
-
-<p>The march through the Indian country was one long
-stretch of ambushments and skirmishes.</p>
-
-<p>Wayman stirred up a hornet’s nest one afternoon,
-and though stung twice himself quite severely, he killed
-four Indians in single combat and wounded the fifth
-who escaped.</p>
-
-<p>Press Webb, hunting the same day for a horse, was
-ambushed by three Pins and wounded slightly in the
-arm. He charged singlehanded into the brush and was
-shot again before he got out of it, but he killed the three
-Indians and captured three excellent ponies, veritably
-a god-send to all.</p>
-
-<p>The next day about noon the rear guard, composed
-of Jesse James, Bud Story, Harrison Trow and Jack
-Rupe, was savagely attacked by seventy-five Federal
-Cherokees and driven back upon the main body rapidly.
-Shepherd, one of the quickest and keenest soldiers the
-war produced, had formed every man of the command
-in the rear of an open field through which the enemy
-must advance and over which in return a telling charge
-could be made. The three heroic women, mounted on
-excellent horses and given shelter in some timber still
-further to the rear of the Guerrilla line, bade their husbands,
-as they kissed them, fight to the death or conquer.
-The Indians bore down as if they meant to ride<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span>
-down a regiment. Firing their pistols into their very
-faces with deadly effect, the rear guard had not succeeded
-in stopping them a single second, but when in
-the counter-charge Shepherd dashed at the oncoming
-line, it melted away as snow in a thaw. Shepherd,
-Maddox, Gregg, the two Corums, Rupe, Story, James,
-Hendrick, Webb, Smith Commons, Castle, Wayman
-and King fought like men who wanted to make a clean
-and a merciless sweep.</p>
-
-<p>John Maupin, not yet well from the two ugly
-wounds received the day Anderson was killed, insisted
-on riding in the charge, and was shot the third time by
-the Indian into whom he had put two bullets and whose
-horse he rushed up to secure.</p>
-
-<p>Jesse James had his horse killed and a pistol shot
-from his hand. Several other Guerrillas were wounded
-but none killed, and Williams, James Corum and Maddox
-lost horses.</p>
-
-<p>Of the sixty-five Indians, fifty-two were counted
-killed, while some, known to be wounded, dragged
-themselves off into the mountain and escaped.</p>
-
-<p>During the battle Dick Maddox’s wife could not
-keep still under cover, and commenced to shoot at the
-enemy, and had a lock of her hair shot off just above
-the ear.</p>
-
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_36">The Surrender</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Early</span> in the month of March, 1865, Captain Clements,
-having been reinforced by ten men under the
-command of Captain David Poole, marched from Sherman,
-Texas, to Mount Pleasant, Titus County, Arkansas.
-From Mount Pleasant, on the 14th of April, the
-march began once more and for the last time into Missouri.
-Forming an advance of David Poole, John
-Poole, John Maupin, Jack Bishop, Theo. Castle, Jesse
-James and Press Webb, Clements pushed on rapidly,
-killing five militiamen in one squad, ten in another,
-here and there a single one, and now and then as many
-together as twenty. In Benton County, Missouri, a
-Federal militiaman named Harkness, was captured,
-who had halted a brother of Clements and burnt the
-house of his mother. James, Maupin and Castle held
-Harkness tightly while Clements cut his throat and
-afterwards scalped him.</p>
-
-<p>At Kingsville, in Johnson County, something of a
-skirmish took place and ten Federals were killed. A
-militiaman named Duncan, who had a bad name locally
-and who was described as being a highwayman and a
-house burner, also was captured at the same time. Being
-fifty-five years of age and gray headed did not
-save him. But before he surrendered he fought a desperate
-battle. Knowing instinctively what his fate
-would be if he fell alive into the hands of any hostile<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span>
-organization, much less a Guerrilla organization,
-he took a stand behind a plank fence, armed
-with a Spencer rifle and two revolvers, and
-faced the enemy, now close upon him. Arch Clements,
-Jesse James and Jack Bishop dashed at Duncan. The
-first shot killed his horse, and in falling the horse fell
-upon the rider. At the second fire Clement’s horse also
-was killed, but James stopped neither for the deadly
-aim of the old man nor for the help of his comrades
-who were coming up as fast as they could on foot. He
-shot him three times before he knocked him from his
-feet to his knees, but the fourth shot, striking him fair
-in the middle of the forehead, finished the old man
-and all his sins together.</p>
-
-<p>The last of April a council was held among the
-Guerrillas to discuss the pros and cons of a surrender.
-Virtually the war was over. Everywhere the regular
-Confederate armies had surrendered and disbanded,
-and in no direction could any evidences be discovered
-of that Guerrilla warfare which many predicted would
-succeed to the war of the regular army and the general
-order. All decided to do as the rest of the Southern
-forces had done.</p>
-
-<p>Anxious, however, to give to those of the command
-who preferred a contrary course the dignity and the
-formality of official authority, Captain Clements entered
-Lexington, Mo., on the fifteenth, with Jesse
-James, Jess Hamlet, Jack Rupe, Willis King and John<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span>
-Vanmeter, bearing a flag of truce. The provost marshall
-of Lexington, Major J. B. Rogers, was a liberal
-officer of the old regime, who understood in its fullest
-and broadest sense that the war was over, and that
-however cruel or desperate certain organizations or
-certain bodies of men had been in the past, all proscription
-of them ceased with their surrender.</p>
-
-<p>Shortly after the surrender, and as Jesse James was
-riding at the head of a column with the white flag,
-eight Federals were met who were drunk and who did
-not see the flag of truce or did not regard it. They fired
-point blank at the Guerrillas, and were charged in turn
-and routed with the loss of four killed and two
-wounded. These eight men were the advance of a
-larger party of sixty, thirty Johnson County militia,
-and thirty of the Second Wisconsin Cavalry. These in
-the counter attack drove back the Guerrillas and followed
-them fiercely, especially the Second Wisconsin.
-Vanmeter’s horse was killed but Jack Rupe stopped
-under fire for him and carried him to safety. James
-and Clements, although riding jaded horses—the same
-horses, in fact, which had made the long inhospitable
-trip up from Texas—galloped steadily away in retreat
-side by side, and fighting as best they could. Mounted
-on a superb black horse, a single Wisconsin trooper
-dashed ahead of the balance and closed in swiftly upon
-James, who halted to court the encounter. At a distance
-of ten feet both fired simultaneously and when<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span>
-the smoke cleared away the brave Wisconsin man was
-dead with a dragoon ball through his heart. Scarcely
-had this combat closed before another Wisconsin
-trooper rushed at James, firing rapidly, and closing in
-as he fired. James killed his horse, and the Federal in
-turn sent a bullet through James’ right lung. Then the
-rush passed over and past him. Another volley killed
-his horse, and as the Johnson County militia galloped
-by, five fired at him as he lay bleeding under the prostrate
-horse.</p>
-
-<p>Clements, seeing horse and rider going down together,
-believed his beloved comrade was killed, and
-strove thereafter to make good his own escape.</p>
-
-<p>Extricating himself with infinite toil and pain,
-Jesse James left the road for the woods, pursued by
-five Federals, who fired at him constantly as they followed.
-At a distance of two hundred yards he killed
-the foremost Federal and halted long enough under fire
-to disencumber himself of his heavy cavalry boots, one
-of which was a quarter full of blood. He fired again
-and shattered the pistol arm of the second pursuer, the
-other three closing up and pressing the maimed Guerrilla
-as ravenous hounds the torn flanks of a crippled
-stag. James was getting weaker and weaker. The
-foremost of the three pursuers could be heard distinctly
-yelling: “Oh! g——d——n your little soul, we have
-you at last! Stop, and be killed like a gentleman!”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span>
-James did not reply, but when he attempted to lift
-his trusty dragoon pistol to halt the nearest trooper, he
-found it too heavy for his hand. But reinforcing his
-right arm with his left, he fired finally at the Wisconsin
-man almost upon him and killed him in the saddle.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps then and there might have been an end
-made to the career of the desperate Guerrilla if the two
-remaining pursuers had been Wisconsin Cavalry instead
-of Johnson County militia; but terrified at the
-prowess of one who had been so terribly wounded,
-and who killed even as he reeled along, the militiamen
-abandoned the chase and James, staggering on four or
-five hundred yards further, fell upon the edge of a
-creek and fainted. From the 15th to the 17th he lay
-alongside the water, bathing his wound continually and
-drinking vast quantities of water to quench his burning
-thirst and fever. Towards sunset, on the evening of
-the 17th, he crawled to a field where a man was plowing,
-who proved to be a Southern man and a friend.</p>
-
-<p>That night he rode fifteen miles to the house of a
-Mr. Bowman, held upon a horse by his new-found
-friend, where he remained, waited upon by Clements
-and Rupe, until the surrender of Poole, on the
-21st, with one hundred and twenty-nine Guerrillas.</p>
-
-<p>Major Rogers was so well satisfied that James
-would die that he thought it unnecessary to parole him,
-and so declared. To give him every chance, however,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span>
-for his life, and to enable him to reach his mother, then
-a fugitive in Nebraska, Rodgers furnished him with
-transportation, money and a pass.</p>
-
-<p>A good many of my men surrendered with Poole,
-while others planned to go to Old Mexico with me and
-not surrender at all. However, when I came up from
-the South, planning to go back to Old Mexico and join
-General Shelby with his old command, some of my best
-citizen friends insisted on my surrendering and going
-home, and through their influence arrangements were
-made with Major Rodgers to meet me at the Dillard
-farm, on Texas Prairie. There we held a consultation,
-he and I, for about half a day, regarding my surrender.
-He promised me protection and my side arms,
-and the horse that I had, and I surrendered, receiving
-the protection he had promised me.</p>
-
-<p>I went home and went to work and took my part
-in trying to make peace with the Federal soldiers, some
-of whom proved to be very good friends to me, and we
-lived very peacefully after the war.</p>
-
-<p>I very much opposed and tried to put a stop to the
-robbery, thieving and horse stealing that was so prominent
-after the war, and advised the boys that got into
-trouble to leave the country time and time again, and
-go to Old Mexico while it was yet time to get away.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span>
-I returned home with no money and no means at
-all, but found plenty of friends who were ready to help
-me and who furnished me money to start with.</p>
-
-<p>I advise all who read this book to appreciate character
-above money.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_37">Death of Quantrell</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">Quantrell,</span> with forty-eight of the most daring
-of his old band, accompanied Shepherd as far south
-as White River, Arkansas. He left them there to go to
-his old home in Maryland. He passed all Federal
-camps, had no trouble staying in Federal camps, eating
-with Federal soldiers, playing Federal himself until he
-reached Upton Station, in Hart County, Kentucky,
-where he crossed the Louisiana &amp; Nashville Railroad,
-still representing himself and his men as Federal
-soldiers.</p>
-
-<p>Near Marion County he entered the Lebanon and
-Campbellville turnpike at Rolling Fork and traveled
-north to New Market, thence east to Bradford, and
-from Bradford towards Hustonville, camping for the
-night preceding the entrance into this place at Major
-Dray’s, on Rolling Fork. Thirty Federal soldiers were
-at garrison at Hustonville, possessed of as many horses
-in splendid condition, and these Quantrell determined
-to appropriate. No opposition was made to his entrance
-into the town. No one imagined him to be other
-than a Union officer on a scout.</p>
-
-<p>He dismounted quietly at a hotel in the place and
-entered at once into a pleasant conversation with the
-commander of the post. Authorized by their chieftain,
-however, to remount themselves as speedily as possible
-and as thoroughly as possible, the Guerrillas spread<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span>
-quickly over the town in search for horses, appropriating
-first what could be found in the public stables and
-later on those that were still needed to supply the deficiency,
-from private places.</p>
-
-<p>As Quantrell conversed with the commander, a
-Federal private made haste to inform him of the kind
-of work the newcomers were doing, and to complain
-loudly of the unwarranted and outrageous appropriation.</p>
-
-<p>Enraged and excited, the commander snatched up a
-brace of revolvers as he left his headquarters and
-buckled them about him and hurried to the nearest
-livery stable where the best among the animals of his
-men had been kept. Just as he arrived, Allen Parmer
-was riding out mounted on a splendid horse. The
-Federal major laid hands upon the bridle and bade Parmer
-dismount. It was as the grappling of a wave with
-a rock.</p>
-
-<p>No Guerrilla in the service of the South was cooler
-or deadlier; none less given to the emotion of fear. He
-looked at the Federal major a little curiously when he
-first barred the passageway of his horse and even
-smiled pleasantly as he took the trouble to explain to
-him the nature of the instructions under which he was
-operating.</p>
-
-<p>“D——n you and d——n your instructions,” the
-major replied fiercely. “Dismount!”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span>
-“Ah,” ejaculated Parmer, “has it really come to
-this?” and then the two men began to draw. Unquestionably
-there could be but one result. The right hand
-of the Federal major had hardly reached the flap of
-his revolver, before Parmer’s pistol was against his
-forehead, and Parmer’s bullet had torn half the top of
-his head off.</p>
-
-<p>In June, 1865, Quantrell started from Bedford Russell’s,
-in Nelson County, with John Ross, William
-Hulse, Payne Jones, Clark Hockinsmith, Isaac Hall,
-Richard Glasscock, Robert Hall, Bud Spence, Allen Parmer,
-Dave Helton and Lee McMurtry. His destination
-was Salt River.</p>
-
-<p>At Newel McClaskey’s the turnpike was gained and
-traveled several miles, when a singularly severe and
-penetrating rain storm began. Quantrell, to escape
-this, turned from the road on the left and into a woods
-pasture near a postoffice called Smiley. Through this
-pasture and for half a mile further he rode until he
-reached the residence of a Mr. Wakefield, in whose barn
-the Guerrillas took shelter. Unsuspicious of danger
-and of the belief that the nearest enemy was at least
-twenty miles away, the men dismounted, unbridled
-their horses, and fed them at the racks ranged about the
-shed embracing two sides of the barn.</p>
-
-<p>While the horses were eating the Guerrillas amused
-themselves with a sham battle, choosing sides and
-using corncobs for ammunition. In the midst of much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span>
-hilarity and boisterousness, Glasscock’s keen eye saw
-through the blinding rain a column of cavalry, one hundred
-and twenty strong, approaching the barn at a trot.</p>
-
-<p>He cried out instantly, and loud enough to be heard
-at Wakefield’s house sixty yards away: “Here they
-are! Here they are.” Instantly all the men were in
-motion and rushing to their horses.</p>
-
-<p>Captain Edward Terrell, known well to Quantrell
-and fought stubbornly once before, had been traveling
-the turnpike from the direction of Taylorsville, as completely
-ignorant of Quantrell’s proximity as Quantrell
-had been of his, and would have passed on undoubtedly
-without a combat if the trail left by the Guerrillas in
-passing from the road to the pasture had not attracted
-attention. This he followed to within sight of the barn,
-understood in a moment the character of the men sheltered
-there, and closed upon it rapidly, firing as he
-came on.</p>
-
-<p>Before a single Guerrilla had put a bridle upon a
-horse, Terrill was at the main gate of the lot, a distance
-of some fifty feet from the barn, and pouring such a
-storm of carbine bullets among them that their horses
-ran furiously about the lot, difficult to approach and
-impossible to restrain.</p>
-
-<p>Fighting desperately and deliberately, and driving
-away from the main gate a dozen or more Federals stationed
-there, John Ross, William Hulse, Allen Parmer,
-Lee McMurtry, and Bud Pence, cut their way through,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span>
-mounted and defiant. The entire combat did not last
-ten minutes. It was a fight in which every man had
-to do for himself and do what was done speedily.</p>
-
-<p>Once above the rattling of musketry, the neighing
-of horses and the shouting of combatants, Quantrell’s
-voice rang out loud and clear: “Cut through, boys,
-cut through somehow! Don’t surrender while there is
-a chance to get out.”</p>
-
-<p>The fire upon the Guerrillas was furious. Quantrell’s
-horse, a thoroughbred animal of great spirit and
-speed, could not be caught. His master, anxious to
-secure him, followed him composedly about the lot for
-several minutes, trying under showers of bullets to get
-hands upon his favorite.</p>
-
-<p>At this moment Clark Hockingsmith, who was
-mounted and free to go away at a run, saw the peril
-of his chief, and galloped to his rescue. Quantrell,
-touched by this act of devotion, recognized it by a smile,
-and held out his hand to his comrade without speaking.
-Hockingsmith dismounted until Quantrell took his own
-place in the saddle, and then sprang up behind him.</p>
-
-<p>Another furious volley from Terrill’s men lining all
-the fence about the great gate, killed Hockingsmith and
-killed the horse he and Quantrell were upon. The second
-hero now gave his life to Quantrell. Richard
-Glasscock also had secured his own horse as Hockingsmith
-had done and was free to ride’ away in safety as
-he had been.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span>
-Opposite the main entrance to the barn lot there
-was an exit uncovered by the enemy and beyond this
-exit a stretch of heavy timber. Those who gained the
-timber were safe. Hockingsmith knew it when he deliberately
-laid down his life for his chief, and Glasscock
-knew it when he also turned about and hurried up
-to the two men struggling there—Quantrell to drag
-himself out from under the horse and Hockingsmith in
-the agonies of death.</p>
-
-<p>The second volley from the gate mortally wounded
-Quantrell and killed Glasscock’s horse. Then a charge
-of fifty shouting, shooting men swept over the barn lot.
-Robert Hall, Payne Jones, David Helton, and Isaac Hall
-had gone out some time before on foot. J. B. Tooley,
-A. B. Southwick and C. H. Southwick, wounded badly,
-escaped fighting. Only the dead man lying by his
-wounded chief, and Glasscock, erect, splendid, and
-fighting to the last, remained as trophies of the desperate
-combat. Two balls struck Quantrell. The first,
-the heavy ball of a Spencer carbine, entered close to the
-right collar bone, ranged down along the spine, injuring
-it severely, and hid itself somewhere in the body. The
-second ball cut off the finger next to the little finger of
-the left hand, tearing it from its socket, and lacerating
-the hand itself badly. The shoulder wound did its
-work, however, for it was a mortal wound. All the
-lower portion of Quantrell’s body was paralyzed and
-as he was lifted and carried to Wakefield’s house his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span>
-legs were limp and his extremities cold and totally without
-sensation.</p>
-
-<p>At no time did he either make complaint or moan.
-His wonderful endurance remained unimpaired to the
-end. His mind, always clear in danger, seemed to recognize
-that his last battle had been fought and his last
-encounter finished. He talked very little. Terrill came
-to him and asked if there was any good service he
-might do that would be acceptable.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” said Quantrell quietly, “have Clark Hockingsmith
-buried like a soldier.”</p>
-
-<p>After he had been carried to the house of Wakefield
-and deposited upon a pallet, he spoke once more
-to Terrell:</p>
-
-<p>“While I live let me stay here. It is useless to haul
-a dying man about in a wagon, jolting out what little
-life there is left in him.”</p>
-
-<p>Terrell pledged his word that he should not be removed,
-and rode away in pursuit of those who had
-escaped.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the fugitive Guerrillas soon reached the
-well known rendezvous at the house of Alexander
-Sayers, twenty-three miles from Wakefield’s, with tidings
-of the fight.</p>
-
-<p>Frank James heard the story through with a set
-face, strangely white and sorrowful, and then he arose
-and cried out: “Volunteers to go back. Who will follow
-me to see our chief, living or dead?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span>
-“I will go back,” said Allen Parmer, “and I,” said
-John Ross, and “I,” said William Hulse.</p>
-
-<p>“Let us ride, then,” rejoined James, and in twenty
-minutes more—John Ross having exchanged his jaded
-horse for a fresh one—these four devoted men were
-galloping away to Wakefield’s.</p>
-
-<p>At two o’clock in the morning they were there.
-Frank James dismounted and knocked low upon the
-door. There was the trailing of a woman’s garments,
-the circumspect tread of a watching woman’s feet, the
-noiseless work of a woman’s hand upon the latch and
-Mrs. Wakefield, cool and courtly, bade the strange
-armed men upon the threshold to enter.</p>
-
-<p>Just across on the other side of the room from the
-door a man lay on a trundle bed. James stood over the
-bed, but he could not speak. If one had cared to look
-into his eyes they might have seen them full of tears.</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell, by the dim light of a single candle, recognized
-James, smiled and held out his hand, and said to
-him very gently, though a little reproachfully: “Why
-did you come back? The enemy are thick about you
-here; they are passing every hour.”</p>
-
-<p>“To see if you were alive or dead, Captain. If the
-first, to save you; if the last, to put you in a grave.”</p>
-
-<p>“I thank you very much, Frank, but why try to take
-me away? I am cold below the hips. I can neither
-ride, walk nor crawl; I am dead and yet I am alive.”</p>
-
-<p>Frank James went to the door and called in Parmer,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span>
-Ross and Hulse. Quantrell recognized them all in his
-old, calm, quiet fashion, and bade them wipe away their
-tears, for they were crying visibly.</p>
-
-<p>Then Frank James, joined in his entreaties by the
-entreaties of his comrades, pleaded with Quantrell for
-permission to carry him away to the mountains of Nelson
-County by slow and easy stages, each swearing to
-guard him hour by hour until he recovered or died over
-his body, defending it to the last. He knew that every
-pledge made by them would be kept to the death. He
-felt that every word spoken was a golden word and
-meant absolute devotion. His faith in their affection
-was as steadfast and abiding as of old. He listened
-until they had done talking, with the old staid courtesy
-of victorious Guerrilla days, and then he silenced them
-with an answer which, from its resoluteness, they knew
-to be unalterable.</p>
-
-<p>“I cannot live. I have run a long time; I have come
-out unhurt from many desperate places; I have fought
-to kill and I have killed; I regret nothing. The end is
-close at hand. I am resting easy here and will die so.
-You do not know how your devotion has touched my
-heart, nor can you understand how grateful I am for
-the love you have shown me. Try and get back to your
-homes, and avoid if you can the perils that beset you.”</p>
-
-<p>Until 10 o’clock the next day these men remained
-with Quantrell. He talked with them very freely of the
-past, but never of the earlier life in Kansas. Many<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span>
-messages were sent to absent friends, and much good
-advice was given touching the surrender of the remnant
-of the band. Again and again he returned to
-the earlier struggles in Missouri and dwelt long over
-the recollections and the reminiscences of the first two
-years of Guerrilla warfare.</p>
-
-<p>Finally the parting came, and those who looked
-last upon Quantrell’s face that morning as they stooped
-to tell him goodbye, looked their last upon it forever.</p>
-
-<p>Terrill had promised Quantrell positively that he
-should not be removed from Wakefield’s house, but in
-three days he had either forgotten his promise or had
-deliberately broken his pledge. He informed General
-Palmer, commanding the department of Kentucky, of
-the facts of the fight, and of the desperate character
-of the wounded officer left paralyzed behind him, suggesting
-at the same time the advisability of having him
-removed to a place of safety.</p>
-
-<p>General Palmer sent an ambulance under a heavy
-escort to Wakefield’s house and Quantrell, suffering
-greatly and scarcely more alive than dead, was hauled
-to the military hospital in Louisville and deposited
-there.</p>
-
-<p>Until the question of recovery had been absolutely
-decided against him, but few friends were permitted
-into his presence. If any one conversed with him at all,
-the conversation of necessity was required to be carried
-on in the presence of an official. Mrs. Ross visited him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span>
-thus—Christian woman, devoted to the South, and of
-active and practical patriotism—and took some dying
-messages to loved and true ones in Missouri.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Ross left him at one o’clock in the afternoon
-and at four the next afternoon the great Guerrilla died.</p>
-
-<p>His passing away, after a life so singularly fitful
-and tempestuous, was as the passing of a summer
-cloud. He had been asleep, and as he awoke he called
-for water. A Sister of Charity at the bedside put a
-glass of water to his lips, but he did not drink. She
-heard him murmur once audibly—“Boys, get ready.”
-Then a long pause, then one word more—“Steady!”
-and then when she drew back from bending over the
-murmuring man, she fell upon her knees and prayed.
-Quantrell was dead.</p>
-
-<p>Before his death he had become a Catholic and had
-been visited daily by two old priests. To one of these
-he made confession, and such a confession! He told
-everything. He was too serious and earnest a man to
-do less. He kept nothing back, not even the least justifiable
-of his many homicides.</p>
-
-<p>As the priest listened and listened, and as year after
-year of the wild war work was made to give up its
-secrets, what manner of a man must the priest have
-imagined lay dying there.</p>
-
-<p>Let history be just. On that hospital bed, watched
-by the calm, colorless face of a Sister of Charity, a
-dead man lay who, when living, had filled with his deeds<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span>
-four years of terrible war history. A singularly placid
-look had come with the great change. Alike was praise
-or censure, reward or punishment. Fate had done its
-worst and the future stood revealed to the spirit made
-omniscient by its journey through the Valley of the
-Shadow of Death. He had done with summer’s heat
-and winter’s cold, with spectral ambuscades and midnight
-vigils. There would never be any war in the
-land of the hereafter. The swoop of cavalry, the roar
-of combat, the agony of defeat, white faces trampled
-by the iron hoofs of horses, the march—the bivouac,
-the battle; what remains of these when the transfiguration
-was done and when the river called Jordan rolled
-between the shores of the finite and the infinite?
-Nothing! And yet by those, standing or falling, must
-the great Guerrilla be judged.</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell differed in some degree from every Guerrilla
-who was either a comrade or his contemporary.
-Not superior to Todd in courage and enterprise, nor
-to Haller, Poole, Jarrette, Younger, Taylor, Anderson,
-Frank James, Gregg, Lea, Maddox, Dan Vaughn, or
-Yager, he yet had one peculiar quality which none of
-these save Gregg, Frank James, Thrailkill, Lea and
-Younger possessed to the same pre-eminent degree—extraordinary
-resource and cunning.</p>
-
-<p>All the Guerrillas fought. Indeed, at certain times
-and under certain conditions fighting might justly have
-been considered the least of their accomplishments. A<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span>
-successful leader requires coolness, intrepidity, robust
-health, fine horsemanship, expert pistol practice, quick
-perception in peril, great rapidity of movement, immense
-activity, and inexorable fixedness of purpose.</p>
-
-<p>Those mentioned excelled in these qualities, but at
-times they were too eager to fight, took too many desperate
-chances, or rushed too recklessly into combats
-where they could not win. Quantrell counted the
-cost of everything; watched every way lest an advantage
-should be taken of him; sought to shield and save
-his men; strove by much strategy to have the odds
-with rather than against him; traveled a multitude
-of long roads rather than one short one once too often;
-took upon himself many disguises to prevent an embarrassing
-familiarity; retreat often rather than fight
-and be worsted; kept scouts everywhere; had the
-faculty of divination to an almost occult degree; believed
-in young men; paid attention to small things;
-listened to every man’s advice and then took his own;
-stood by his soldiers; obeyed strictly the law of retaliation;
-preferred the old dispensation to the new—that
-is to say, the code of Moses to the code of Jesus Christ;
-inculcated by precept and example the self abnegation
-and devotion to comrade; fought desperately; carried
-a black flag; killed everything; made the idea of surrender
-ridiculous; snapped his fingers at death; was
-something of a fatalist; rarely drank; trusted few
-women, but these with his life; played high at cards;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span>
-believed in religion; respected its ordinances; went at
-intervals to church; understood human nature thoroughly;
-never quarreled; was generally taciturn and
-one of the coolest and deadliest men in a personal combat
-known to the border. He rode like he was carved
-from the horse beneath him. In an organization where
-skill with a pistol was a passport to leadership he shot
-with a revolver as Leatherstocking shot with a rifle.
-He drilled his men to fight equally with either hand.
-Fairly matched, God help the column that came in contact
-with him.</p>
-
-<p>As to the kind of warfare Quantrell waged, that is
-another matter. Like the war of La Vendee, the
-Guerrilla war was one rather of hatred than of opinion.
-The regular Confederates were fighting for a cause
-and a nationality—the Guerrilla for vengeance.
-Mementoes of murdered kinsmen mingled with their
-weapons; vows consecrated the act of enlistment and
-the cry for blood was heard from homestead to homestead.
-Quantrell became a Guerrilla because he had
-been most savagely dealt with, and he became a chief
-because he had prudence, firmness, courage, audacity
-and common sense. In personal intrepidity
-he was inferior to no man. His features were pleasing
-without being handsome, his eyes were blue and
-penetrating. He had a Roman nose. In height he
-was five feet, eleven inches, and his form was well
-knit, graceful and sinewy. His constitution was vigorous,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span>
-and his physical endurance equal to an Indian. His
-glance was rapid and unerring. His judgment was
-clearest and surest when the responsibility was heaviest,
-and when the difficulties gathered thickest about
-him. Based upon skill, energy, perspicacity and unusual
-presence of mind, his fame as a Guerrilla will endure
-for generations.</p>
-
-<p>Quantrell died a Catholic and was buried in a Catholic
-cemetery at Louisville, Kentucky.</p>
-<hr />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 id="hdr_38">The Youngers and Jameses After the War</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="smcap1">The</span> end of the war also brought an end to armed
-resistance by the Guerrillas. As an organization,
-they never fought again. The most of them kept their
-weapons; and a few of them had great need to keep
-them. Some were killed because of the terrible renown
-won in the four years’ war; some were forced to
-hide themselves in the unknown of the outlying territories,
-and some were persecuted and driven into desperate
-defiance and resistance because they were human
-and intrepid. To this latter class the Jameses
-and Youngers belonged.</p>
-
-<p>No men ever strove harder to put the past behind
-them. No men ever submitted more sincerely to the
-results of a war that had as many excesses on one
-side as on the other. No men ever went to work with
-a heartier good will to keep good faith with society
-and make themselves amenable to the law. No men
-ever sacrificed more for peace, and for the bare privilege
-of doing just as hundreds like them had done—the
-privilege of going back again into the obscurity
-of civil life and becoming again a part of the enterprising
-economy of the commonwealth. They were
-not permitted so to do, try how they would, and as
-hard, and as patiently.</p>
-
-<p>After the death of Quantrell and the surrender of
-the remnant of his Guerrillas, Frank James was not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span>
-permitted, at first, to return to Missouri at all, much
-less to his home in Clay County.</p>
-
-<p>He lingered in Clay County as long as possible,
-very circumspect in his actions and very conservative
-in his behavior. Tempted one day by his beardless face
-and innocent walk and to bear upon him roughly, four
-Federal soldiers set upon Frank James in Brandenburg
-and made haste to force an issue. For a moment the
-old fire of his earlier and stormier days flared up all
-of a sudden from the ashes of the past and consumed
-as with a single hot blast of passion prudence, accountability,
-caution and discretion. He fought as he had
-fought at Centralia. Two of the Federals were killed
-instantly, the third was desperately wounded, while the
-fourth shot Frank badly in the joint of the left hip, inflicting
-a grievous hurt and one which caused him
-afterwards a great deal of pain and trouble.</p>
-
-<p>Staunch friends hid him while the hue and cry were
-heaviest, and careful surgical attention brought him
-back to life when he lay so close to death’s door that
-by the lifting of a hand he also might have lifted its
-latch.</p>
-
-<p>This fight, however, was not one of his own seeking,
-nor one which he could have avoided without the
-exhibition of a quality he never had known anything
-about and never could know anything about—physical
-cowardice.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span>
-Jesse James, emaciated, tottering as he walked,
-fighting what seemed to everyone a hopeless battle—of
-“the skeleton boy against skeleton death”—joined
-his mother in Nebraska and returned with her to their
-home near Kearney, in Clay County. His wound would
-not heal, and more ominous still, every now and then
-there was a hemorrhage.</p>
-
-<p>In the spring of 1866 he was just barely able to
-mount a horse and ride a bit. And he did ride, but he
-rode armed, watchful, vigilant, haunted. He might be
-killed, waylaid, ambuscaded, assassinated; but he would
-be killed with his eyes open and his pistols about him.</p>
-
-<p>The hunt for this maimed and emaciated Guerrilla
-culminated on the night of February 18th, 1867. On
-this night an effort was made to kill him. Five militiamen,
-well armed and mounted, came to his mother’s
-house and demanded admittance. The weather was
-bitterly cold, and Jesse James, parched with fever, was
-tossing wearily in bed. His pistols were under his head.
-His step-father. Dr. Samuels, heard the militiamen as
-they walked upon the front porch, and demanded to
-know what they wanted. They told him to open the
-door. He came up to Jesse’s room and asked him what
-he should do. “Help me to the window,” was the low,
-calm reply, “that I may look out.” He did so.</p>
-
-<p>There was snow on the ground and the moon was
-shining. He saw that all the horses hitched to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span>
-fence had on cavalry saddles, and then he knew that
-the men were soldiers. He had but one of two things
-to do—drive them away or die.</p>
-
-<p>Incensed at the step-father’s silence, they were hammering
-at the door with the butts of their muskets
-and calling out to Jesse to come down stairs, swearing
-that they knew he was in the house, and that they would
-have him out, dead or alive.</p>
-
-<p>He went down stairs softly, having first dressed
-himself, crept close up to the front door and listened
-until from the talk of the men he thought he was able
-to get a fairly accurate pistol range. Then he put a
-heavy dragoon pistol to within three inches of the upper
-panel of the door and fired. A man cried out and
-fell. Before the surprise was off he threw the door
-wide open, and with a pistol in each hand began a rapid
-fusillade. A second man was killed as he ran, two men
-were wounded severely, and surrendered, while the
-fifth marauder, terrified, yet unhurt, rushed swiftly
-to his horse and escaped in the darkness.</p>
-
-<p>What else could Jesse James have done? In those
-evil days bad men in bands were doing bad things
-continually in the name of the law, order and vigilance
-committees.</p>
-
-<p>He had been a desperate Guerrilla; he had fought
-under a black flag, he had made a name for terrible
-prowess along the border; he had survived dreadful
-wounds; it was known that he would fight at any hour<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span>
-or in any way; he could not be frightened out from
-his native county; he could be neither intimidated nor
-robbed, and hence the wanton war waged upon Jesse
-and Frank James, and this is the reason they became
-outlaws, and hence the reason also that—outlaws as
-they were and proscribed in county, or state or territory—they
-had more friends than the officers who
-hunted them, and more defenders than the armed men
-who sought to secure their bodies, dead or alive.</p>
-
-<p>The future of the Youngers after the war was similar
-to the Jameses. Cole was in California when the
-surrender came, and he immediately accepted the situation.
-He returned to Missouri, determined to forget
-the past, and fixed in his purpose to reunite the scattered
-members of his once prosperous and happy family,
-and prepare and make comfortable a home for his
-stricken and suffering mother.</p>
-
-<p>Despite everything that has been said and written
-of this man, he was, during all the border warfare, a
-generous and merciful man. Others killed and that in
-any form or guise or fashion; he alone in open and
-honorable battle. His heart was always kind, and his
-sympathies always easily aroused. He not only took
-prisoners himself, but he treated them afterwards as
-prisoners, and released them to rejoin commands that
-spared nothing alive of Guerrilla associations that fell
-into their hands.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">258</span>
-He was the oldest son, and all the family looked up
-to him. His mother had been driven out of Cass County
-into Jackson, out of Jackson into Lafayette, and out
-of Lafayette into Jackson again. Not content with
-butchering the father in cold blood, the ravenous cut-throats
-and thieves followed the mother with a malignity
-unparalleled. Every house she owned or inhabited
-was burnt, every outbuilding, every rail, every straw
-stack, every corn pen, every pound of food and every
-store of forage. Her stock was stolen. Her household
-goods were even appropriated. She had no place to lay
-her head that could be called her own, and but for the
-kindness and Christianity of her devoted neighbors, she
-must have suffered greatly.</p>
-
-<p>At this time Coleman and James returned to Missouri
-and went hopefully and bravely to work. Their
-father’s land remained to them. That at least had
-neither been set fire to nor hauled away in wagons, nor
-driven into Kansas.</p>
-
-<p>Western Missouri was then full of disbanded Federal
-soldiers, organized squads of predatory Redlegs
-and Jayhawkers, horse thieves disguised as vigilance
-committees, and highway robbers known as law and
-order men.</p>
-
-<p>In addition, Drake’s constitution disfranchised
-every property owner along the border. An honest
-man could not officially stand between the helpless of
-his community and the imported lazzaroni who preyed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">259</span>
-upon them; a decent man’s voice could not be heard
-above the clamor of the beggars quarreling over stolen
-plunder; and a just man’s expostulations penetrated
-never into the councils of the chief scoundrels who
-planned the murders and the robberies.</p>
-
-<p>Coleman Younger’s work was like the work of a
-pioneer in the wilderness, but he did it as became the
-hardy descendants of a stalwart race of pioneers. He
-cut logs and built a comfortable log house for his
-mother. He made rails and fenced in his land. In lieu
-of horses or mules, he plowed with oxen. He stayed
-steadfastly at home. He heard rumors of threats being
-made against his life, but he paid no attention to
-them. He took part in no political meetings. He tried
-to hide himself and be forgotten.</p>
-
-<p>The bloodhounds were on his track, however, and
-swore either to kill him or drive him from the country.
-A vigilance committee composed of skulking murderers
-and red-handed robbers went one night to surprise the
-two brothers and end the hunt with a massacre. Forewarned,
-James and Coleman fled. The family were
-wantonly insulted, and a younger brother, John, a mere
-boy, was brutally beaten and then hung until life was
-almost extinct. This was done to force him to tell the
-whereabouts of James and Coleman.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Younger never entirely recovered from the
-shock of that night’s work, lingering along hopelessly
-yet patiently for several months and finally dying in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span>
-the full assurance of the Christian’s blessed hereafter.</p>
-
-<p>The death of this persecuted woman, however, did
-not end the persecution. Cole Younger was repeatedly
-waylaid and fired at. His stock was killed through
-mere deviltry, or driven off to swell the gains of insatiable
-wolves. His life was in hourly jeopardy, as was
-the life of his brother James. They plowed in the fields
-as men who saw suspended above them a naked sword
-blade. They permitted no light to be lit in the house at
-night. They traveled the public highway warily. They
-were hunted men and proscribed men in the midst of
-their own people. They were chased away from their
-premises by armed men. Once Cole was badly wounded
-by the bullet of an assassin. Once, half dressed, he had
-to flee for his life. If he made a crop, he was not permitted
-to gather it and when something of a success
-might have come to him after the expenditure of so
-much toil, energy, long-suffering and forbearance, he
-was not let alone in peace long enough to utilize his
-returns and make out of his resources their legitimate
-gains.</p>
-
-<p>Of course there could be but one ending to all this
-long and unbroken series of malignant persecutions, lying-in-wait,
-midnight surprises, perpetual robbings,
-and most villainous assaults and attempted murders—Coleman
-and James Younger left home and left Jackson
-County. They buckled on their pistols and rode away
-to Texas, resolved from that time on to protect themselves,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span>
-to fight when they were attacked, and to make
-it so hot for the assassins and the detectives who were
-eternally on their track that by and by the contract
-taken to murder them would be a contract not particularly
-conducive to steady investments. They were
-hounded to it.</p>
-
-<p>They endured every species of insult and attack,
-and would have still continued to endure it in silence
-and almost non-resistance if such forbearance had mitigated
-in any manner the virulence of their enemies, or
-brought any nearer to an appeasement the merciless
-fate which seemed to be eternally at their heels. The
-peaceful pursuits of life were denied them. The law
-which should have protected them was overridden. Indeed,
-there was no law. The courts were instruments of
-plunder. The civil officers were cutthroats. Instead
-of a legal process, there was a vigilance committee.
-Men were hung because of a very natural desire to keep
-hold of their own property. To the cruel vigor of
-actual war, there had succeeded the irresponsible despotism
-of greedy highwaymen buttressed upon assassination.
-The border counties were overrun with bands
-of predatory plunderers. Some Confederate soldiers
-dared not return home and many Guerrillas fled the
-country. It was dark everywhere, and the bravest held
-their breath, not knowing how much longer they would
-be permitted to remain peacefully at home, or suffered
-to enjoy the fruits of the labors they had endured.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span>
-Fortunately for all, however, the well nigh extinct
-embers of a merciless border war were not blown upon
-long enough and persistently enough to kindle another
-conflagration.</p>
-
-<p>But neither the Jameses nor the Youngers had been
-permitted to rest long at any one time since the surrender
-of the Confederate armies. Some dastardly
-deeds had been done against them, too, in the name of
-the law. Take for example, Pinkerton’s midnight raid
-upon the house of Mrs. Zerelda Samuels, mother of the
-James boys. The family was wrapped in profound
-sleep. Only women and children were about the
-premises, and an old man long past his prime. The
-cowards—how many is not accurately known, probably
-a dozen—crept close to this house through the
-midnight, surrounded it, found its inmates asleep, and
-threw into the kitchen where an old negress was in bed
-with her children, a lighted hand grenade, wrapped
-about with flannel saturated with turpentine. The
-lurid light from this inflammable fluid awakened the
-negro woman and she in turn awakened the sleeping
-whites. They rushed to subdue the flames and save
-their property. Children were gathered together in
-the kitchen, little things, helpless and terrified. All of
-a sudden there was a terrible explosion. Mrs. Samuels’
-right arm was blown off above the elbow, a bright little
-boy, eight years old, had his bowels torn out. Dr.
-Samuels was seriously cut and hurt, the old negro<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span>
-woman was maimed, and several of the other children
-more or less injured. The hand grenade had done its
-work, and there had been a tragedy performed by men
-calling themselves civilized, in the midst of a peaceful
-community and upon a helpless family of women and
-children and what would have disgraced Nero or made
-some of the monstrous murders of Diocletian was as
-white is to black. Yet Pinkerton’s paid assassins did
-this because his paid assassins knew better how to kill
-women and children than armed men in open combat.</p>
-
-<p>Dear Reader, what would you have done under the
-same circumstances? Put yourself in the Jameses’ and
-Youngers’ places, and think it over.</p>
-
-<p>When Jesse James was killed at St. Joseph, Missouri,
-Governor Crittenden, then governor of the state
-of Missouri, wired me to know if I would go up and
-identify him.</p>
-
-<p>I wired him I would, providing I could go armed.</p>
-
-<p>He answered, “Perfectly satisfactory to me. Meet
-me at Union Station, Kansas City, Missouri, tomorrow
-morning.”</p>
-
-<p>I secured several of my old Guerrilla friends to accompany
-the Governor and myself to St. Joseph, Missouri,
-unbeknown to the Governor, however, for I did
-not know how I stood with the people at St. Joseph. I
-was just playing safety first. I met the Governor at
-the depot. He asked me what attitude I thought Frank
-James would take towards him for offering a reward<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span>
-and having Jesse killed. I told him “If Frank wanted
-to kill him for revenge, he surely would.”</p>
-
-<p>He looked pale, but not half so pale as he did the day
-Frank surrendered. A heavy reward hanging over
-Frank James’ head, he made his way past the guards
-and sergeant-at-arms, stationed at the Governor’s mansion
-at Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri, and surrendered
-to Governor Crittenden in his office. On entering
-his office, Frank said:</p>
-
-<p>“Is this Governor Crittenden?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” was the reply.</p>
-
-<p>“This is Frank James. I came to surrender,” at the
-same time pulling two heavy dragoon pistols and handing
-them to the Governor. “Here are arms, Governor,
-but not all I have, nor will I give them up until I know
-you will give me protection.”</p>
-
-<p>Frank told me afterwards that “Governor Crittenden’s
-face will never be whiter when he is dead than it
-was the day I surrendered.”</p>
-
-<p>I identified Jesse James at St. Joseph, Missouri, to
-the Governor’s entire satisfaction. Since then it has
-been said that Jesse was still alive and that it was a
-wax figure that was buried, but this is all a lie.</p>
-
-<p>There is one good act the James boys did while they
-were outlaws.</p>
-
-<p>A southern widow woman some time soon after the
-war had mortgaged her farm to an old Redleg who had
-moved from Lawrence, Kansas, to Kansas City.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">265</span>
-When the loan expired he drove out to see her and
-informed her that if she did not have the money by ten
-o’clock the next morning he would foreclose.</p>
-
-<p>Soon after he had left, up rode Jesse and Frank
-James, and found the lady crying and taking on. They
-inquired what was wrong, and she related the whole
-story.</p>
-
-<p>Frank said, “You send your son in the morning and
-tell the old Federal to bring all releases and all papers
-fully signed and you will pay him in full. Jesse and I
-will let you have the money.”</p>
-
-<p>Next morning the boy went with the message, and
-in the evening out came the old Federal in his bus with
-his negro driver, drove up to the house, went in, and the
-lady paid him in full with cash, getting all releases and
-papers fixed up. The old man bowed and scraped and,
-tipping his hat, said, “Goodbye, lady,” and he and his
-“nigger” driver started back to Kansas City. When but
-a few hundred yards or so from the house and close to a
-ravine, Jesse and Frank held him up and relieved him
-of the money they had loaned the lady, together with all
-the rest he had for interest.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">266</span></p>
-
-<div class="tb">* * * * *</div>
-
-<p>During the World War, in conversation with
-friends, I told them to take away from Germany her
-airplanes, gases and machine guns, and if it were possible
-to call Quantrell’s old band together, of which at
-no time were there over three hundred and fifty men,
-all told, under Todd, Poole, Yager, Anderson, Younger,
-Jarrett, Haller, Quantrell and myself, I could take
-these three hundred and fifty men and go to Berlin in
-a gallop, for history does not now and never will know
-the power there was in the Quantrell band. It has
-been given up long ago that they were the most fighting
-devils the world has ever known or ever will know.</p>
-
-<p class="p4 center smaller wspace">THE END</p>
-
-<div class="chapter"><div class="transnote">
-<h2 class="nobreak p1" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
-
-<p>Transcriber added six missing chapter references to the Table of
-Contents.</p>
-
-<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made
-consistent when a predominant preference was found
-in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.</p>
-
-<p>Many simple typographical errors were silently
-corrected, but several words that today would be
-considered misspelled have not been changed.</p>
-
-<p>Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned
-between paragraphs and outside quotations.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles W. Quantrell, by Harrison Trow
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