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/ 
 
 COLONEL JOHN McCORKLEv 
 
1 
 
 "^ 
 
THREE YEARS 
 
 WITH oua:strelt. 
 
 A TRUE STORY 
 
 TOLD BY HIS SCOUT 
 
 JOHN McCORKLE 
 
 It 
 
 WRITTEN BY O. S. BARTON 
 
 ARMSTRONG HERALD PRINT 
 ARMSTRONG, MO. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In all wars there have always been, and always 
 will be a class of men designated as guerillas, but it 
 can be said that the Missouri guerillas are more not- 
 ed than those of any war in any country for ages. 
 Their deeds of daring, their miraculous escapes, and 
 the physical sufferings that they endured are almost 
 beyond belief. Following the close of the Civil War, 
 a number of highly-colored and melodramatic 
 books, concerning the acts of the guerillas were pub- 
 lished, in the majority of which the desire to be sen- 
 sational defeated any attempts at truthfulness on 
 the part of the authors. Another class of books, 
 written from an intensely partisan standpoint, has 
 given to the world a very imperfect conception of 
 the motives and of the conduct of the Missouri guer- 
 rillas. All of these books were published at a time 
 when men were controlled by feelings of prejudice 
 and passion and a number of the inhabitants of Mis- 
 souri have, for years, endeavored to find someone 
 who knew the facts and would truthfully relate 
 them as they were. 
 
 In the summer of 1865, a tall, gaunt, blue-eyed 
 Confederate soldier landed from a steamboat at the 
 town of Glasgow. Howard County, Missouri. He 
 was dressed in a ragged, faded gray uniform and 
 had all of his possessions about him. In the country 
 above Glasgow he had some relatives, connections, 
 both by blood and marriage, of some of the best fam- 
 ilies in Missouri, and at the home of one of these rel- 
 
 
 OCT 3 1914 
 
Three Years With QuantrelL 3 
 
 atives this young man found employment as a farm 
 laborer and it soon became known that he was John 
 McCorkle, one of Quantrell's bravest and most 
 trusted soldiers and one of his leading scouts. For 
 some time the neighbors kept a close watch upon 
 the newcomer and viewed him with something of 
 suspicion, fearing that he might follow the alleged 
 example of some of the other of Quantrell's men 
 and become an outlaw, but they soon found him to 
 be a steady, law-abiding citizen. In 1867, he was 
 married to an estimable lady of Howard County, 
 and soon became one of its leading farmers and one 
 of its best and most trusted citizens, and today no 
 man in the county stands higher in the estimation of 
 his neighbors and acquaintances than does John 
 McCorkle. For years a member of the Baptist 
 church, he is known as a true Christian gentleman of 
 strong character, as tender-hearted and sympathetic 
 as a woman, but as stern and fearless as a lion and 
 the word "fear" has no place in John McCorkle's vo- 
 cabulary. And when the time comes, he will, as he 
 has many times in the past, face Old Death with a 
 smile on his face. 
 
 Quite a number of his friends, knowing his history 
 and his record with Quantrell, and knowing that 
 from his lips would come naught but the truth, have 
 been tr3nng to persuade him to write a brief story of 
 his life with Quantrell. He has at last consented anc 
 T have agreed to write the account for him. He has 
 told me the facts and I have written them down; 
 every word in the following pages is true: I have at- 
 tempted to neither add to, or detract from any of 
 
4 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 these facts, as related by him; there is no fiction in 
 this account but a true story. JNIr. ]\IcCorkle has more 
 than lived out his alloted time of three-score years 
 and ten, but his memory is still good and while he 
 may have forgotten a few of the facts after a lapse of 
 half a century, still everything related by him actual- 
 ly occurred. As he would relate his experiences and 
 those of his comrades, I could see that all the sad and 
 awful scenes of these three terrible years were crowd- 
 ing fast upon his memory, and I could not help but 
 notice the changing expression of his eyes, which are 
 of that determined blue, while he was relating" these 
 facts to me. i\t times, while describing some of the 
 battles and some of the outrages committed against 
 the helpless non-combatants of the South, during 
 those four yeears of civil war in Missouri by unprin- 
 cipled men who hid their misdeeds under the cloak 
 of a Federal uniform and the Stars and Stripes, I 
 could almost see the fire flash from those eyes and 
 at other times, while telling of the death of some 
 comrade, or the sufferings and hardships of defence- 
 less old men and women of the South, those same 
 eyes would fill with tears and the voice which had so 
 often sent terror to the hearts of Kansas Jayhawkers 
 and militiamen as it gave forth the rebel yell, would 
 sink into a husky whisper. This story is not publish- 
 ed in any spirit of malice or hatred, but in order that 
 the truth may be known, that the world may know 
 that Quantrell and his band were justified, in nearly 
 all of their acts and that they were not altogether 
 bad; that they were driven to desperation by brutal 
 outrages committed against them and their friends, 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 5 
 
 and our only desire is that the world shall know the 
 true facts in the case before it is too late, for we all 
 are forced to realize the sad fact that ere long "taps" 
 will sound for the last Confederate soldier on earth. 
 All is forgiven, if not forgotten. 
 
 O. S. Barton. 
 
THREE YEARS WITH QUANTRELL 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I was born December 12, 1838, two miles east of 
 Savannah, in Andrew County, Missouri, and when I 
 was about eight years of age, my father moved from 
 Andrew County and located on a farm near West- 
 port, in Jackson County, Missouri. I lived with my 
 lather on this farm, attending country school in the 
 winter time, until the year 1858, when I went to the 
 State of Texas and stayed for six months. I then re- 
 turned to my mother's farm, my father having died 
 m 1 85 1. I remained on the farm with my mother un- 
 til April, 1861, when I, with a number of other young 
 men, enlisted in Company A of the Missouri State 
 Guards,' near Raytown, in Jackson County. Captain 
 Thurston was the first commander of this company. 
 We would meet in Raytown and drill tvv^ce a week. 
 In about a month, we were ordered to report at In- 
 dependence and after remaining in Independence a 
 short time, we were then ordered to Lock Creek and 
 the next evening after we reached Lock Creek, we 
 heard that Col. John P. Crittenden was coming from 
 Kansas City with a regiment to capture us. We were 
 then ordered to move out into the road and to form 
 in platoons of eight. At this time, all of us, who were 
 boys and raw recruits, became very much excited at 
 the prospect of going into a battle and our orderly 
 sergeant, Faulkner, became so excited that he got 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 7 
 
 his saber between his knees, fell down and began to 
 yell that the enemy were right on us. We then learn- 
 ed that two other companies of State Guards had 
 come out from Independence, one called the Blues, 
 under the command of Captain Whitehead and the 
 other called the Grays, under the command of Cap- 
 tain Bob Flournoy. By this time, we had persuaded 
 our orderly sergeant that the enemy were not on us 
 and were ordered to join the Blues and Grays who 
 had formed in line of battle on the hill. Col. Hollo- 
 way was in command of all the State Guards. Col. 
 Crittenden had entered the mouth of a lane about a 
 quarter of a mile off and Col. Holloway, our comman- 
 der, rode down and met him. They shook hands and 
 after a few moments' conversation. Col. Crittenden 
 ordered his regiment to countermarch and they 
 turned and started back toward Kansas City. As the 
 Federal troops marched off. Captain Whitehead, 
 who was in command of the Blues, lost his head and 
 ordered his company to fire and they, being as much 
 excited as their captain, fired into our ov/n men, 
 wounding Col. Holloway and killing Charles Har- 
 baugh. Colonel Holloway died in a few days at Inde- 
 pendence from the wound. 
 
 We then returned to Independence and the next 
 day were ordered from there to Blue Mills, east of 
 Independence. While we were at Blue Mills, Captain 
 Thurston and Captain Duncan of Clay County had 
 ridden across the Little Blue on a bridge at night 
 and as they were returning across the bridge, some- 
 one fired on them, striking Captain Duncan in the 
 neck. He was taken from there to Doctor Twvman's 
 
8 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 at Blue Alills, where he died in a few days. After 
 Captain Duncan was shot, Captain Thurston became 
 very much excited, ordered us to strike our arms, 
 disband and go home. The arms we had consisted of 
 Burnsides rifles and sabers which had been shipped 
 to Kansas City by the Federal Government and 
 which we had borrowed one night from a warehouse 
 when there was no one around. After we had gone 
 about two miles from where we disbanded, it dawn- 
 ed on me that we might have further use for some of 
 those arms and I suggested that we had better go 
 back and get them and seven of us returned, s;ot our 
 rifles and sabers and a supply of ammunition and 
 hid them in a bluff on the Little Blue. We stayed 
 around home until after the battle of Springfield and 
 General Price had started back to Lexington. Our 
 company was then ordered together again and se- 
 curing our guns, we marched and joined General 
 Price at Warrensburg and came with him to Lexing- 
 ton and went into camp at the Fair Grounds. Before 
 the Battle of Lexington, Captain Thurston resigned 
 and the company elected j\linor Smith, a Mexican 
 veteran, who is still living at this time. Our company 
 was then placed in the Seventh Missouri Regiment 
 of Cavalry, Raines' Division and known as Ras- 
 sieuer's Regiment and Lieutenant-Colonel Martin 
 was in command. This regiment was placed on the 
 east side of the college where the Federals were for- 
 tified, and our regiment was ordered to support the 
 famous Bledsoe battery. For some unknown cause, 
 Col. Rassieuer ordered our regiment to change posi- 
 tions and to go down a ravine and come up through 
 
Three Years With QuantreU. g 
 
 the woods between the college, where the Federals 
 were fortified and Bledsoe's Battery. General Raines 
 who was in command took us for Federal soldier^ 
 and ordered Col. Bledsoe to open fire ob us with his 
 battery, and he fired three shots at us with his can- 
 non, the first shot wounding seven men. When this 
 first shot was fired, we all dropped to the ground 
 and Col. Martin, drawing his saber in a very excited 
 manner, ordered us to get up and stand up like men, 
 but when Bledsoe fired the second shot, Col. Martin 
 was the first one to fall flat on his face and John 
 Staulcupe, a private, ran up to the Colonel and kick- 
 ed him and said, ''Damn you, don't be a coward; get 
 up and stand up like a man." We then sent a runner 
 to notify the battery of their mistake and they ceased 
 firing on us. Our Colonel then gave the command to 
 move fro mthere and we marched down the road un- 
 der a hill where we were protected. While this battle, 
 which lasted for three days, was in progress, one 
 night, Henry Brookins, our First Lieutenant, pro- 
 posed to me that we go up the hollow and climb a 
 tree and look into the fort. We got permission from 
 our Captain, but he told us positively not to fire a 
 shot into the fort. Brookins and I went over and 
 climbed up into two trees, where we could see into 
 the fort. Then Brookins remarked, "John, we can't 
 lose this chance; we must have a shot apiece,'' and he 
 said ''Fire." We fired and then we immediately pro- 
 ceeded to fall out of the trees, for a perfect hailstorm 
 of bullets from the fort soon warned us that our ele- 
 vated positions had not only been discovered, but 
 were exceedinerlv dangerous. Of course, we never re- 
 
10 Three Years With Quant rell. 
 
 ported to our Captain what was the cause of the men 
 in the fort tr3'ing to top those trees. 
 
 Immediately after the Battle of Lexington and 
 General Mulligan had been paroled, Rassieur's Regi- 
 ment was placed on guard around the fortifications, 
 and strict orders were issued to permit no one to en- 
 ter or go out of the fortifications without a pass. 
 During this time, one of Col. Bledsoe's gunners, wdio 
 was drinking very heavily, was inside the fortifica- 
 tions, and putting on a Federal uniform, he started 
 to pass out. He was halted by Jim Howell, a member 
 of my company, who demanded his pass. The gunner 
 replied to Howell in a very insulting manner that he 
 had no pass and was going out anyway. Howell told 
 him what the orders were and told him to go back. 
 The gunner kept advancing and when he started to 
 make a rush, Howell fired and killed him. Howell re- 
 gretted this fact so much that he soon resigned from 
 the army and never entered the service again. 
 
 When General Price left Lexington, my company 
 started South with him, but when we reached Bates 
 County, Ike Brown and I were taken sick and left at 
 the home of Barker Price, near Johnstown and 
 Green Reagan was detailed to remain and take care 
 of us. We were both suffering with what was then 
 known as camp fever, and after remaining at Mr. 
 Price's house for nine weeks, my younger brother, 
 Jabez McCorkle, came down and took me back to 
 my mother's home in Jackson County. While Brown 
 and I were in bed at Price's, Jim Lane, the noted 
 Kansas Redleg and murderer, came out to Mr. 
 Price's and saw Brown and me and told us that he 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. iz 
 
 would be back and kill us and would give us that 
 night to prepare to die, but for some unknown reason 
 he did not return and I suppose the reason he did not 
 return is that he was too busy in burning the town of 
 Osceola and robbing and murdering its citizens. Af- 
 ter I had been at miy mother's for about a week, still 
 being very weak from my fever, a Union man, who 
 was a friend of our family, called on me one evening 
 and told me that Jennison the partner and co-laborer 
 in murdering and robbing of Jime Lane, had como 
 within two miles of my mother's house and had mur- 
 dered one of our neighbors, a very old and defense- 
 less man, by the name of George House, and if Jen- 
 nison found out that I was there he would come and 
 murder me, although I was sick. This Union friend 
 advised me to leave at once. That night my sister 
 assisted me to carry my bed to a secluded spot in the 
 woods where I stayed that night, and early the next 
 morning, she accompanied me about eight miles to 
 the home of our friend, John Prewitt, who hid me 
 under a blufif on the banks of the Little Blue, where 
 I remained for a week. His two daughters, Jane and 
 Ellen, bringing me food and water. Remaining there 
 for over a week, I returned to my mother's at night 
 and there I found my brother, Jabez, who was at that 
 time with Captain Upton Hayes, and who told me 
 that Hayes was going south and the next morning I 
 mounted a mule and went with him. We did not 
 overtake Colonel Hayes and his command until we 
 had reached Clinton in Henry County. I went with 
 Colonel Hayes to Osceola and there I joined my old 
 company. We stayed in camp at Osceola for about 
 
12 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 a week, and having received the news that General 
 Fremont was attempting to cut General Price off 
 from his march from the South, we were ordered to 
 Springfield on a forced march. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 On the second morning after leaving Osceola 
 when I awoke I found that I was too sick to proceed 
 with the army, who broke camp very early in the 
 morning and was left to follow later. I stayed in the 
 camp alone until about noon, when I realized the 
 danger I was in and, weak as I was, I mounted and 
 started to follow the armv. I manao-ed to ride until 
 about dark when I stopped at a farmer's house and 
 asked if I might stay all night. He told me that he 
 was perfectly willing to keep me, but was afraid that 
 the Federals would capture me and kill me as there 
 were a great many Federal militia in that country. 
 I told him that I would die from weakness if I at- 
 tempted to go farther that night, and he consented 
 that I might remain. The next morning, I left his 
 house early in the morning and reached Springfield 
 late the next night. It seemed that Fate was against 
 my proceeding south with Price for after being in 
 camp at Springfield for ten days, the measles broke 
 out among the soldiers and I was detailed to take 
 charge of seven of the boys, my brother, Jabez, being 
 among the number, and take them to a house about 
 three miles from Springfield and nurse them through 
 their sickness. I was isolated from the rest of the 
 army and in about a week, some of the boys having 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. ij 
 
 grown worse, I saddled my horse with the intention 
 of riding to Springfield to consult with a physician 
 and to procure medicines and provisions for the sick 
 men. I had ridden only a short distance when I met 
 the physician who asked me where I was going, and 
 informed me that there were no more Confederates 
 m Springfield, that they had started South and Gen- 
 eral Fremont was in possession of the town. The 
 physician advised me to take a flag of truce and go to 
 Springfield and surrender myself and my seven sick 
 men. This I refused to do. He then asked me to 
 accompany him to another house where there were 
 some sick soldiers, where we were detained for about 
 an hour and I left the physican there and started 
 back to see my sick boys. Imagine my consternation 
 when upon reaching the house I found it deserted, a 
 squad of Federals having been there during my ab- 
 sence and taken all the boys back to Springfield as 
 prisoners. I then started south and riding a few 
 miles I stopped at a house, hitched my horse to the 
 stile-blocks and as I started through the yard to the 
 front door, a lady came running out of the side-door 
 and told me that there were some Federal soldiers in 
 the house and unless I wanted to be captured I had 
 better be moving away. Not waiting for any further 
 orders, I wheeled and started on the run and, placing 
 my hands upon the top plank of the fence, I put spurs 
 to my horse and dashed away. I soon came to a little 
 prairie and looking back, I saw a company of Feder- 
 als coming after me. I immediately increased my 
 speed and reached the woods ahead of them and 
 turned abruptly south until I reached Wilson Creek 
 
14 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 at a point where there was a water-mill. The mill was 
 running, but no one was there. I noticed a house up 
 on the hill west of the mill and saw three or four men 
 standing in the yard, and as I rode up to them, I no- 
 ticed that one of the men had an old Mississippi rifle 
 in his hand and I, of course, took them to be some of 
 Price's men. I asked them to direct me to the road 
 over which Price's army had gone; one of them di- 
 rected me, but as I started to ride through the gate, 
 another man caught my horse by the bridle and the 
 man with the ]\Iississippi rifle presented it at my 
 breast, remarking that they would take care of me 
 and take me back to Springfield. My pistol being 
 empty, I immediately obeyed and dismounted. They 
 took me into the house with them, where we had a 
 good supper and, after supper one of them brought 
 out a basket of apples and we all sat around until a 
 late hour discussing the war and its probable end. I 
 was then shown to my room, which was to be occu- 
 pied with me by the owmer of the Mississippi rifle. I 
 still had my pistol buckled around me, and as I went 
 to undress, I threw it on the bed, remarking, "That 
 pistol is empty : if it had been loaded, you might have 
 had a little fun in taking me." The owner of the rifle 
 broke into a hearty laugh and remarked, "Well, the 
 rifle that I captured you with was empty too." the 
 next morning, the owner of the place, who had been 
 out somewhere all night, came home, accompanied 
 by two other men, one of them had the longest and 
 largest shot-gun I ever saw. It looked to me as if the 
 barrels were at least ten feet long and I thought they 
 had sent out in the night and procured it for the ex- 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. is 
 
 press purpose of shooting me with. We then started 
 back to Springfield and after we had crossed Wilson 
 Creek near the mill, my captors left the main road, 
 turning up a bridle path through a ravine. I could 
 hardly ride for thinking that they were taking me 
 into the woods to shoot me and I kept my eyes con- 
 stantly on the gentleman with the big gun; but in a 
 short time, we reached the road that Price had taken 
 in his march south. About this time, we met the en- 
 tire command of Federals going south, following 
 Price, and I was taken along with them. They had 
 with them sixteen other Confederates, including 
 Colonel Freeman and forage master. After proceea- 
 ing a short distance, we met a man in citizen's clothes, 
 who told us that Price was about four miles south of 
 us in camp. The regiment to which I was turned 
 over was the Seventh Missouri Cavalry, and leaving 
 the prisoners with a guard, moved forward after 
 Price. In a short time, we heard four cannon shots, 
 one of the guards remarking, ''J^st listen to that: 
 they are giving old Price Hell now; they're going to 
 eat him up." The cannonading at first sounded like 
 '^i'^tant thunder, approaching nearer and nearer, and 
 in less than an hour, the federal cavalry came into 
 sight, rushing at break-neck speed through the biush 
 and ordered guards and prisoners to mount and re- 
 treat to Sprinfield on the double quick. Some of our 
 boys then remarked to the guard, "You were mis- 
 taken about who was catching hell, wasn't you?" 
 While we were riding back toward Springfield, a 
 Federal private rode out of line and coming up to us 
 Confederate prisoners, drawing his revolver, began 
 
i6 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 to flourish it and curse, and said, "You damned 
 rebels I ought to shooe every one of you.'' Along the 
 road in that section there were a great many aban- 
 doned shafts of lead and zinc mines, and just about 
 the time that this gallant and brave soldier had 
 w^orked himself into a frenzy, he and his horse both 
 suddenly disappeared through a brush pile, having 
 gone into a hidden shaft, but, unfortunately, the 
 man was not much hurt, although his horse was 
 killed; and the next morning he was called before 
 his colonel, who gave him a severe reprimand, took 
 his side-arms away from him and ordered him to 
 report to the infantry, telling him that may be ser- 
 vice in infantry would teach him to treat prisoners 
 with respect. We were then taken back to the head- 
 quarters of the commander, where a description v/as 
 taken of us, and our horses taken from us and we 
 were started back to Springfield afoot. The seven- 
 teen prisoners were placed under charge of a lieuten- 
 ant with twenty-seven guards and we started back 
 to walk the twenty-seven miles to Springfield. This 
 lieutenant and his men treated us all with courtesy, 
 the lieutenant going ahead and securing provisions 
 for us, waiting on the roadside with a large basket 
 well filled with provisions. Upon reaching Spring- 
 field the prisoners were placed under guard in the 
 third story of a brick building. The next morning, 
 while sitting in this room with the other boys, I 
 noticed a Union soldier who kept watching me very 
 closely. Whenever I would turn my head, he would 
 change his position, so as to see my face, his conduct 
 made me nervous. T g^ot up and went to the window 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. i'] 
 
 and, leaning out, was looking clown upon the street. 
 He left the room, went down to the street and looked 
 up into my face again. I returned to my seat in the 
 room; he came back, walked up to me, put his hand 
 on my shoulder and remarked, "Is not yoiu- name 
 McCorkle?" I replied in the affirmative and he told 
 me that his name was Frank Hoerheimer, that he 
 had known me in Newton County, where I had been 
 at his father's house and attended a number of 
 dances with him. I was very anxious to go to the hos- 
 pital to see how my brother and the other sick boys 
 were and Frank went to Colonel Mills, who was in 
 command there, and told the Colonel that if he would 
 let me go to the hospital to see the sick boys, he 
 would go with me and be responsible. We went over 
 and my brother, Jabez and I went out in town and 
 took dinner with Frank. When I first went into the 
 hospital, one of the boys whom I had nursed, George 
 Shue, by name, took me by the hand and said, "John, 
 I am awful sick ; I feel very queer. Please tell the doc- 
 tor to come." I went upstairs where the physician 
 was and, after some little time, succeeded in finding 
 him and took him down to see Shue, but when we 
 reached George's cot, the poor fellow had gone to 
 that land where there is no fighting. I then went to 
 Frank Hoerheimer and Lieutenant Baker and made 
 arrangements for his burial and his dust today sleeps 
 in the graveyard at Springfield. 
 
 Soon after we had reached Springfield, as prison- 
 ers. Lieutenant Baker tried to persuade my brother 
 and me to take the oath of allegiance and return 
 home, and one nisrht he came to me and told me that 
 
J 8 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 on the next day we would be removed to St. Louis 
 and there placed in prison, and that we would have 
 to travel eighty miles by foot to Rolla. After consult- 
 ing with my brother and other friends, and having 
 come to the conclusion that Fate was against my ev- 
 er reaching Price's army, brother and I took the oath 
 of allegiance, were given our paroles and started 
 back to Jackson County, Missouri, afoot. Brother 
 was still very weak and our progress was, of neces- 
 sity, very slow. I carried all the baggage we had, 
 which consisted of a cheap suit of clothes each, two 
 blankets, one of them a fine Mexican overcoat blan- 
 ket, which were packed in an old-fashioned carpet 
 bag. While in prison in Springfield, brother and I 
 both had acquired thousands of those little friends 
 of the soldier, that sticketh closer than a brother, 
 familiarly known as "gray-backs,'' and these friends 
 of ours entertained us along our weary tramp and 
 kept us from sleeping too soundly at night. After 
 we had reached Cedar County, we saw a man and 
 woman coming toward us in a wagon and upon their 
 approach we recognized a friend of ours from Jack- 
 son County, Missouri, by the name of William Fox, 
 the lady with him being his wife. Fox was glad to 
 see us and directed us to go on to his house and stop. 
 After leaving Fox we met another old gentleman, 
 whom We had known before in Jackson County, but 
 who had fallen from grace and become a strong 
 Union man and, with all of our talking, we could not 
 persuade him that he had ever seen us or heard of 
 us before, but he gave us some very fatherly advice, 
 to the effect that if we had any preparations to make 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. ig 
 
 for the future, we had better be making them, for no 
 rebel could live in that county. After leaving our un- 
 friendly friend, we met another marauder garbed in 
 a Federal uniform, in the person of a young man 
 with a large rifle. He presented the rifle and halted 
 us, asking us where we were from and demanding 
 our passports, which we showed him and of which I 
 am satisfied he could not read a word. He then de- 
 manded to search our baggage, which he did and 
 then proceeded with us to Fox's house, where he 
 again wanted to search our baggage, telling us that 
 if we would give him the Mexican blanket, he would 
 bother us no more. We decided to give it to him and 
 in less than an hour he came back with another man 
 who was armed with a shotgun and walking up to 
 me the latter placed the muzzle of the gun to my 
 breast and said, "Damn you ! surrender." I told him 
 we had already surrendered and taken the oath. He 
 lowered his gun and the two of them took all of our 
 clothing and two dollars and a half, being all the 
 money we had. When our friend Fox returned home, 
 we related to him our experience with these two 
 brave Union soldiers and he reported the fact to the 
 Lieutenant who was in command of the home guards 
 and he and Fox tried to recover our property for us, 
 but only succeeded in recovering the Mexican blan- 
 ket, which these two thieves dropped in their flight. 
 The next morning Fox accompanied us about twelve 
 miles, letting my brother ride his horse and he walk- 
 ed with me. He told us to avoid the town of Humans- 
 ville, in Polk County, because there was a company 
 of militia there, who were a hard set Leaving this 
 
20 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 town about two miles to our right, w^e walked on till 
 sundown, and, seeing a man in his barn-lot, feeding 
 his stock, I asked permission to stay all night, frank- 
 ly telling him who we were and the feeble condition 
 of my brother. He said that he had just returned 
 from Bolivar, where he had taken an oath not to aid, 
 abet or protect any Southern soldier, under penalty 
 of death, and then added, "But boys, I am a South- 
 ern man and love the South, and if you are willing to 
 risk staying with me I will risk it, and if they come 
 and find you here, they can do no more than kill us 
 and we'll all die together, but we will try to take 
 some of the blue-coated devils with us, as I have 
 some guns hidden." We went into his house, his wife 
 prepared us a nice supper, and when he suggested it 
 was time to retire, I told him about our traveling 
 companions, the graybacks, and that we did not 
 want to infect his beds. He replied, ''That makes no 
 difference ; I am a Southern man, and nothing I have 
 IS too good for a Southern soldier. The beds can be 
 cleaned." This statement made us feel better, of 
 course. We left early the next morning, and having 
 been fortunate enough to ride in a w^agon part of the 
 way, we reached the place where the town of Osceola 
 had once been, but there was no town there, as Gen- 
 eral Jim Lane, of Kansas, had shortly before made it 
 a visit and, following his universal practice, had left 
 only ashes. Here I sold the Mexican blanket for five 
 dollars. Just after we had crossed the Osage River, 
 we met Tom Carter and a man by tTie name of 
 Younger, a cousinn of Cole's, and went to Carter's 
 house and stayed until the next day. From there we 
 
Three Years With Quant rell. 21 
 
 went to Lone Jack, where we met John Little, Sam 
 Montgomery and Dick Hopkins, who belonged to 
 Colonel Ouantrell's command. After leaving Lone 
 Jack, we went to my uncle, John Wigginton's, who 
 lived fourteen miles south of Independence. We 
 stayed with Uncle John mitil the next day, when 
 my brother and I went on to our mother's home, 
 where we received a tearful and hearty welcome. 
 There we changed our clothes and parted company 
 v/ith our traveling companions, the graybacks. In a 
 few days, it was decided that my brother would stay 
 with my mother and try to raise a crop and I went 
 down to Uncle John Wigginton's and intended to 
 farm there with him on shares. This was in the 
 spring of 1862. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I fully intended, when I started in to raise this 
 crop with my uncle, to remain a quiet, law-abiding 
 citizen. I had taken the oath of allegiance at Spring- 
 field and had been given a passport, showing to the 
 v/orld that I was a law-abiding American citizen and 
 still entitled to protection under the law, but before 
 the ink was hardly dry on that passport, I had been 
 robbed of all I had, and that by men who claimed to 
 be in the service of the United States government. I 
 tried to forget these outrages and work on the farm, 
 but before I had gotten my crop planted, a squad of 
 Federal soldiers came by and compelled me twice a 
 week to accompany them with a mail carrier twelve 
 or fifteen miles and then to walk back, claiming that 
 
22 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 prior to this time, some Southern men had fired on 
 the mail carrier and I would be a protection to him. 
 Not satisfied with taking me from my crop two or 
 three days out of each week, in July, one Lieutenant 
 Swann, who hailed from that loyal state of Kansas 
 and who had been in command of the mail-carrier's 
 bodyguard, notified me that I must appear at Inde- 
 pendence before Captain Mayhew, the Provost-Mar- 
 shal. I obeyed, and when I presented myself to Cap- 
 tain Mayhew, he told me he knew of no charges 
 against me, but to present myself in person to the 
 commander, ColoneJ Btiell. I asked Colonel Buell 
 what charges were preferred against me, and, in a 
 very gruff, insulting manner, he told me he had 
 heard of my conduct and for me to return to the Pro- 
 vost-Marshal and give a bond of $5,000 for my good 
 behavior. I then asked Colonel Buell what I had 
 been doing and the only charge that he could remem- 
 ber against me was that I had been singing some 
 rebel songs. This offense, if offense it was, was true 
 for on one occasion, in going from my uncle's to my 
 mother's I was singing that song, two lines of which 
 are: 
 
 We'll hang John Brown on a sour apple tree 
 And feed Jeff Davis on peaches and cream, 
 and, while singing this song, I had passed Alfred 
 Lee's house, where ten or twelve Federal soldiers 
 were quartered. They ran out into the road, halted 
 me and took me back to the house of my uncte, John 
 Fristoe, where their captain was an unwelcome 
 guest. They kept me there all night with them, hav- 
 -mjg me to again sing about John Brown and other 
 
COLONEL WILLIAM QUANTRELL. 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 2j 
 
 rebel songs. The next morning, hearing them curs- 
 ing, firing their pistols in the yard and saying "some 
 damned bushwhacker had stolen one of their halt- 
 ers," I started down where they were, when Dan 
 Davidson, a stage driver, who was staying at my 
 uncle's, told me not to go, that they would shoot me. 
 1 told him I reckoned not, that I had been given pro- 
 tection by the government, and he said that protec- 
 tion, passports nor anything else from the Federal 
 government made any difference to that bunch. I 
 stayed upstairs until after they had gone and then 
 v/ent back to my uncle's where I was living. One Sat- 
 urday afternoon, my cousin, George Wigginton, and 
 I went over to Big Cedar Church, where there was a 
 singing school. While we were in the church, a com- 
 pany of Federals rode up and examined every saddle, 
 looking for gun marks. When we returned from the 
 singing school, Mollie Wigginton told us that there 
 had been a company of Federal soldiers there that 
 evening, leaving an order for George and me to come 
 to Independence the next Monday and to enlist in 
 the State Militia, and that unless we did report, that 
 they would come back and take Mollie and put her 
 m prison and hold her until we did report. Now 
 imagine, if you can, my feelings. I honestly and con- 
 scientiously believed in the principles of the Confed- 
 eracy, had started out to fight, and, if necessary, to 
 give my life for those principles, but, on account of 
 sickness and misfortune, had been captured, and, 
 that I might save my brother and myself from lan- 
 guishing and dying in a Federal dungeon, I had tak- 
 en the oath of allegiance to the Federal government 
 
24 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 with the full intention of abiding by it; I had return- 
 ed to Jackson County, Missouri, where my mother 
 and all my relatives were living, had gone to work, 
 trying to be a peaceable, law-abiding citizen, but I 
 had been constantly harrassed, annoyed and threat- 
 ened, had been forced to leave my farm and my 
 crops twice a week; I had been required to give a 
 bond of Five Thousand dollars for merely singing a 
 foolish song, and now, under the penalty of having 
 a pure, innocent girl, my cousin, Mollie Wigginton, 
 imprisoned in a Northern dungeon, to probably meet 
 a fate far more terrible than death itself; after all this 
 I was ordered to enlist in an alien army and to take 
 up arms against the cause I loved and against my 
 own people. I could not and I would not longer sub- 
 mit, and I then resolved that if die I must, I would 
 die fighting for my own people and for their cause, 
 so, when George Wigginton asked me what I intend,- 
 ed to do, I promptly told him that I was going to 
 find Colonel OuantrelTs command and join it where- 
 upon, he replied with equal promptness, ''Jo^^"^' I ^^^'^ 
 going with you." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 After the execution, in Virginia, of the famous 
 abolitionist, John Brown, a number of men who had 
 been with him in his attempt to make Kansas a free 
 state, organized, at the town of Lawrence, a com- 
 pany of free lances, who were familiarly called the 
 Kansas Redlegs. The leaders of this band were Gen- 
 eral Jim Lane and Colonel Jennison, names which 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 25 
 
 became watchwords of terror to the inhabitants of 
 the border counties of Missouri. 
 
 During the Pike's Peak excitement, a young man, 
 by the name of William Clark Quantrell, left his 
 home in Maryland, accompanied by his younger 
 brother, a boy of eighteen years, and taking with 
 them two negro men they started west for the Pike's 
 Peak Country. When they reached Jackson County, 
 Missouri, they supplied themselves with two wag- 
 ons and two four-mule teams. After laying in a quan- 
 tity of supplies, these two boys, with their two ne- 
 groes acting as drivers, left Missouri ^nd started for 
 Colorado. On the first night out, they camped ten 
 or twelve miles south of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 
 and, thinking that they were in a civilized country, 
 were soon asleep. About midnight, thirty of the Kan- 
 sas Redlegs rode up to the camp and, without any 
 warning, fired a volley into the two sleeping boys, 
 killing the younger brother and breaking the thigh 
 of William Quantrell. These loyal citizens then ap- 
 propriated to their own use the eight head of mules, 
 the wagons and all provisions and, taking the two 
 negroes with them, left the two boys, they supposed 
 to b? dead on the plains of Kansas. When daylight 
 came, William Quantrell crawled to the lifeless body 
 of his brother and, after discovering that his young 
 life had passed out, he crawled around, pulling up the 
 grass, and covered up the dead body. Being unable 
 to walk a step, he started to crawl across the prairie, 
 hoping to find aid. He crawled until nearly noon, 
 when an Indian found him, and having more heart 
 and sympathy than the white men of Kansas, the In- 
 
26 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 dian tenderly placed the wounded boy on his saddle 
 and, getting behind him, took him to Fort Leaven- 
 worth. He was taken to the hospital there and, in 
 several months, partially recovered the use of his 
 limb. His money and property all having been tak- 
 en from him, he sought and secured employment 
 ne arL eavenworth, Kansas, as a school teacher, 
 where he taught during the coming wniter. In the 
 spring, he went to California and again engaged in 
 school teaching. All the time he was teaching, he 
 was known as the Melancholy Teacher. Constantly 
 brooding over the fate of his brother and the way he 
 had been treated, when his term of school ended in 
 California, he decided to return to Kansas, and, if 
 possible, find the perpetrators of this outrage and to 
 be revenged. He returned to Fort Leavenworth, 
 and staying there only a few weeks, he went to Law- 
 rence, Kansas, going under the name of Charles 
 Hart. In a short time, he learned who the leaders 
 of the Redlegs were, and becoming well acquainted 
 with Jim Lane and Jennison, he joined their band 
 and would accompany them on their horse stealing 
 raids in the border counties of Kansas. He soon 
 learned who the men were that had murdered his 
 brother and robbed him, and on every raid that he 
 would make with these men, from one to three of 
 the men he had spotted would fail to return and 
 would afterwards be found with a bullet hole in the 
 forehead. His greatest desire was to kill the leader 
 of this band of thirty, and with this end in view, he 
 accompanied six of this band in a raid that they had 
 planned into Jackson County, Missouri, to steal 
 
Three Years With Quantrell, 2; 
 
 some negroes from a man by the name of Walker, 
 who was a large slave holder. The plan these gen- 
 tlemen worked was to go into Missouri, forcibly 
 take slaves into Kansas and hide them and when the 
 Missouri owners would offer rewards for them, they 
 would return the slaves, secure the reward, take sev- 
 eral horses and cattle with them and return to Kan- 
 sas, and, in a few weeks, return, steal the negroes 
 again and collect another reward. When they had 
 reached Walker's home, Quantrell went into the 
 house and told Walker's son, Mr. Walker being ab- 
 sent from home, Vv^hat they had intended to do, and 
 told him that when they had entered the house to 
 take the negroes, that he, Quantrell, would shoot the 
 leader of the Redlegs. Just as they entered the 
 house, Mr. Walker, who had returned, stepped in. 
 The leader demanded his money and four negroes. 
 Quantrell drew his revolver, but, before he could 
 fire, Mr. Walker, not understanding his object, 
 struck the pistol and he missed the leader. The Kan- 
 sans hurriedly left, two of them hiding on a creek 
 back of Mr. Walker's house, where they were found 
 the next day by Quantrell, Mr. Walker and his son. 
 Quantrell commanded them to surrender and re- 
 ceived a reply from one of them, "Take that, you 
 damned traitor," accompanied by a shot which went 
 wild and w^as answered by shots from Quantrell and 
 Walker and there were two less Kansas Redlegs. 
 Quantrell remained in Missouri, assisting the citi- 
 zens in defending their property and in catching 
 these horse, cattle and negro thieves, and occasional- 
 ly paying a debt he owed the Redlegs who had killed 
 
28 Three Years With QuantrelL 
 
 his brother. In 1861, after the war had started, 
 Quantrell had six men with him, who were assisting 
 in a search for these Jayhawkers, and thought he was 
 assisting the Federal troops in preventing these out- 
 rages. On two different occasions, while Quantrell 
 was out with his men, he was fired upon by a compa- 
 ny of Federal soldiers and got away from them with- 
 out returning the fire. He then went into Independ- 
 ence and told the authorities that he was trying to 
 assist them in putting down this lawlessness and 
 that he was also getting tired of the Federal soldiers 
 firing on him and his men and that he would not run 
 from them any more. In a short time, about ten or 
 twelve Federal soldiers fired onto him and his men 
 and they very promptly returned the fire, killing five 
 L'i the soldiers and chasing the remainder into Inde- 
 pendence. From that time on, the Federal soldiers 
 and the Kansas Jayhawkers devoted a great deal of 
 time and energy in attempting to catch Quantrell 
 and his men. 
 
 On the night after we had received the order to 
 to come to Independence and enlist, George Wiggin- 
 lon and I mounted our horses and started to find 
 Quantrell. eW first went to the home of Dave Tally, 
 Quantrell. We went first to the home of Dave Tally, 
 who directed us to Cole Younger's camp in the 
 brother, Jabez McCorkle, Dick Tally, Tom Tally, 
 Jim Morris and Tom Rice. When we had told Cole 
 Younger our object, he asked us what arms we could 
 get and I secured a rifle and eight cartridges and 
 George a double-barreled shot-gun. We remained in 
 camp in the woods until the next Saturday when we 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 2g 
 
 received word to join Quantrell Sunday night at 
 Blue Springs. On Sunday morning the eight of us 
 met at Uncle John Wigginton's where they had pre- 
 pared for us an elegant dinner and, immediately af- 
 ter dinner, we bid them good-bye and left. When 
 we arrived at Blue Springs, we found that Quantrell, 
 who had been joined by Colonel Upton Hayes, Colo- 
 nel Hughes and Colonel Thompson, had left word 
 for us to meet them at the bridge crossing the Little 
 Blue near Independence. When Vv^e reached the 
 bridge, Quantrell selected all the men who had revol- 
 vers and Cole Younger, Tom Tally and Jim Morris 
 were among this number. When we prepared to 
 leave, Quantrell had sixty men, and Colonel Hughes 
 assumed command of the remainder, amounting to 
 about 350, raw recruits, old soldiers and boys. It 
 was agreed between the two officers that Quantrell 
 was to dash through Independence, direct to the 
 camp of the Federals on the Kansas City road and 
 Colonel Hughes was to follow him through, not stop- 
 ping in the town because the Federals were fortified 
 in the court-house and a bank building, where Colo- 
 nel Buell had his headquarters. Just at day-break on 
 the tenth day of August, 1862, Colonel Quantrell 
 rode out before his sixty men and, saying "Come on, 
 boys,'' dashed through the town of Independence, 
 followed by Colonel Hughes and his command. 
 When we reached the court-house square, Colonel 
 Hughes ordered us to dismount and he sprang over 
 the fence into the court-house yard and immediately 
 the Federals opened fire on us from the court-house 
 and bank building-. Colonel Husfhes and Colonel 
 
JO Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 Thompson were both wounded at the first volley. 
 Colonel Hayes took command then and ordered us 
 to go at double quick to the camp of the Federals. As 
 we came in sight of the camp, the Federals were run- 
 ning, trying to get behind some rock fences, most of 
 them, having failed to stop to put on their clothes, 
 but many of them carrying their guns. As soon as 
 we reached the Federal camp, I ran into a tent and 
 found a box of ammunition. I pitched it out and told 
 the boys to help themselves and filled my cartridge 
 box. About this time, Colonel Hayes noticed some of 
 the Federal soldiers behind the rock fence on the 
 Kansas City road and, calling me to him, said "John, 
 you are the only man with a long-range rifle. Make 
 those fellows take their heads down." I fired, but the 
 first shot fell short. I fired the second shot and they 
 all fell off the fence and didn't stick their heads up 
 any more. Most of the Federal troops had gotten be- 
 hind the rock fence on a hill towards the town of In- 
 dependence and, north of this rock fence, there was 
 a hedge fence, an orchard and a sweet potato patch. 
 Colonel Hayes called for volunteers to go behind the 
 hedge and rout them from behind the rock fence. 
 One of our bravest men, Barney Chambers, a Pres- 
 byterian minister, volunteered to lead us and thirty 
 of us accompanied him and got 1)ehind the hedge 
 fence. Chambers gave the order to fire and the en- 
 emy rciurned our fire v/ith a perfect hailstorm of 
 minie '^lalls that literallv mowed the hedofe fence 
 from over our heads. Poor Chambers was killed. Ije- 
 ing the only man struck. The Federals continued 
 thvir n.-c, when vre decided to retreat. Tn mv has^c to 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 31 
 
 get away, I sUumbled and fell between two sweel po- 
 tato rows and my brother Jabez hid behind an 
 apple tree. There were at least twenty-five balls 
 struck the tree he was behind and the balls threw the 
 dust and dirt over me until I was in danger of being 
 buried alive. When they had ceased firing at us, 
 Brother asked me if I was wounded, and, telling him 
 no, I started lor a tree, the Federals opening fire on 
 us again. We remained behind these trees a few 
 moments, exchanging shots with the Federals when 
 we suddenly discovered that he and I were the on^ ' 
 ones on our side in sight, and we immediatt^iy re- 
 treated in great haste over the brow of the hill. While 
 we were running away, my cousin, George Wiggiii- 
 ton, received a wound in the thigh and Rice was 
 wounded in the instep. Colonel Hayes told me that 
 he was afraid that we would have to retreat and for 
 me to make some provisions to take the two hoys a- 
 wav with us for he was satisfied that if the Federals 
 captured them they would be killed. I went down to 
 r.n old mill and secured an old delivery wagon and a 
 horse, but when I went to harness the horse, i found 
 there were no lines. The miller's wife came to the 
 door and told me to take her clothes line and use it 
 for lines. I then started to assist the boys into the 
 v/agon when she ran out of the house and told me 
 that I could not put those boys into that wagon, and. 
 running back into the house, she returned with a 
 feather bed and throwing it into the wagon, she re 
 marked "Now, put 'em in." During this time, Quan- 
 trell, who had been pursuing the Federals toward 
 Kansas Citv returned and, dashing up into the town, 
 
j2 Three Years With QaantrelL 
 
 began to fire at the windows of the court house and 
 bank building. Discovering that he was unable to dis- 
 lodge the Federals, called for volunteers to rush in 
 and set fire to the bank building. Cole Younger and 
 my brother volunteered, and, rushing to a nearby 
 carpenter shop, they gathered an armful of shavings 
 each, Cole going to the front door, and my brother 
 to rhe rear door, and, piling the shavings against 
 the doors, set fire to them. The men, in the n-.ean- 
 tinje, kept a constant fire at the windows. As soon as 
 the smoke began to rise, the Federals ran ou!. a white 
 flcig and ^ai'l ihey would surrender if they would be 
 treated as i)risoners of war, afterwards sa3nng that 
 tliey would have surrendered before, but knowing it 
 was Ouantrell and his men, they were afraid. They 
 were assured that they would be treated as prison- 
 ers of war and were drawn up in line on the court- 
 house square and disarmed and were paroled and let 
 go free. 
 
 When we first entered Independence, there v^/ere 
 confined in the county jail two Southern men, Frank 
 liarbaugh and Bill Bassham, who had been sen- 
 tenced by the Federal officers to be shot the next 
 day. Neither of these men had ever taken any part in 
 the war, Harbaugh being a farmer and Bassham in 
 the employ of the Government, carrying the over- 
 land mail. As soon as w^e had entered the town, 
 George Todd took ten men with him and went to the 
 jail and, securing sledge hammers from a black- 
 smith shop, broke the doors in and released these 
 two men. As soon as they were free, Bassham began 
 calling for a gun and was told to go to the provost- 
 
r^- "^ Three Years With QuantrelL 33 
 
 marshal's office, which was filled with guns that had 
 been taken from the Southern citizens. He rushed to 
 die office, secured him a double-barrelled shot gun, 
 and immediately began to try to get even with the 
 men that had put him in jail, but Harbaugh didn't 
 seem to desire any gun, but started for home on a 
 dead run and I have never seen nor heard of him 
 since, but suppose he has stopped running ere this. 
 Among the men captured by us was a neighbor boy 
 of mine, Anderson Cowgill, whom I had known for 
 years and after he was paroled, I went up to him and 
 offered to speak to him, but he refused, saying, "I 
 will get even with you yet," and how well he kept his 
 word will appear later in these pages. 
 
 We then destroyed all of the Federal camps and, 
 taking all their guns, ammunition and supplies that 
 we could carry, we left Independence and went into 
 camp on Morgan Rucker's farm near Blue Springs, 
 where we remained until the morning of the eleventh 
 of August, where Ouantrell reorganized his company 
 consisting of 120 men and we were all sworn into the 
 Confederate service by Colonel Thompson, who was 
 at that time still suffering from the wound he had re- 
 <:eived at Independence. The next day word was 
 brought that Colonel Hoyt with his Kansas Redlegs 
 was on the east side of East Blue, burning the 
 houses of Southern people. Colonel Thompson as- 
 sumed command and we started in pursuit of Hoyt, 
 aiming to intercept him at Hickory Grove, but he 
 had passed before we had reached there and was so 
 far ahead that we were unable to overtake him, and 
 he returned to the State of Kansas. Here we separ- 
 
24 Three Years With QuantrelL 
 
 ated from Thompson and Hayes, they g'oin^ to Lone 
 Jack, where, on the next day, the hardest fought bat- 
 tle, considering the number on each side, was fought. 
 After leaving Hayes and Thompsonn, word was 
 brought to Quantrell that Hoyt was returnning to 
 burn the town of Independence, He immediately 
 divided into two groups of sixty men each, he taking 
 one group to Independence and the other groups, un- 
 der the command of William Haller, went over on 
 the Sni. When we reached Independence, Jim Stev- 
 enson and I were detailed as pickets on the road 
 leading from Kansas City to Independence. We 
 stayed there all that night, the orderly sergeant hav- 
 ing forgotten us, and the next afternoon, two pickets 
 came out from Haller's groups and informed us that 
 Quantrell had left Independence during* the previous 
 night. We camped there until the next day and Col- 
 onel Quantrell having returned, we left for Lone 
 Jack, where we found the commands of Colonel 
 Hayes, Colonel Vard Cockrell, Colonel Coffey and 
 Colonel Thompson, they having succeeded in finally 
 whipping the Federals after a hard fight. We learned 
 that among the Federals captured there was a cer- 
 tain Lieutenant, Levi Copeland, from the state of 
 Kansas, who had been making himself exceedingly 
 obnoxious to the Southern people of Jackson county, 
 who had a short time before gone to the house of a 
 very old man, who had two sons in our company, 
 and having demanded of the father the surrender of 
 his two boys and being told that he knew nothing of 
 their whereabouts, Copeland and his men took him 
 to a tree within a few feet of his front porch and 
 
COLE YOUNGER. 
 
Pgjp" Three Years With Quantrell. SS 
 
 there, in the presence of his wife and daughters, 
 hanged him, remarking as he rode off. ''This is what 
 I do to all damned rebel sympathizers." When Quan- 
 trell learned that Copeland was a prisoner under 
 charge of Colonel Cofifey, he wrote a note, demand- 
 mg that Copeland be turned over to him. Cofifey re- 
 plied that he could not do it. Quantrell immediately 
 wrote him another note, telling him fully what Cope- 
 land had done and also telling him that unless Cope- 
 land was turned over to him by a certain hour, that 
 he would take his company and charge Coffey's 
 command and take Copeland by force, and just be- 
 fore the time was up, Quantrell gave us the command 
 to saddle and mount, and, just at that time, two men 
 appeared and turned Copeland over to us. Quantrell 
 questioned him, then called for the two sons of the 
 old man he hung, remarking, ''Boys, he's yours." 
 The two boys led him a short distance into the woods 
 and the reports of two pistols soon told the end of 
 Levi Copeland. 
 
 We remained in camp at Lone Jack several days 
 and going down near Bone Hill, justs as we were 
 getting ready to eat breakfast, our pickets informed 
 us that there was a regiment of militia from Lexing- 
 ton rapidly approaching. We immediately mounted 
 and rode about ten miles up the Sni and started to 
 cross the prairie to Blue Springs and w^hen in about 
 a mile of Blue Springs, we met a man who told us 
 that there was another regiment of Federals coming 
 from Blue Springs after us. We turned to the South, 
 crossed the Sni and, as we started up the bottom, we 
 ran almost into Jennison's Kansas regiment, engag- 
 
S6 Three Years With QuantrelL 
 
 ed in their usual pastime of burning houses. Quan- 
 trell gave the command to counter-march. We then 
 re-crossed the Sni and started across the six-mile 
 prairie to Big Creek. As we entered the prairie, Cole 
 Younger was detaild to fall back with twenty men 
 and act as rear guard to Ouantreirs force. When 
 we had gotten about half way across the prairie 
 Younger sent to Ouantrell for reinforcements, as 
 the Federals were pressing us hard. Quantrell sent 
 word Lo cross over to a nearby ridge, where he 
 would form a battle line and give battle to the Fed- 
 erals. We dashed for the ridge and just as we got 
 there Quantrell came up, with the Federals in close 
 pursuit. They did not see us until they were less 
 than thirty yards distant when, yelling and firing 
 our guns, we charged them. They lost nine men, 
 while we lost only one. 
 
 After this skirmish we marched to Big Creek, 
 crossed it and went about three miles up the creek. 
 The next morning we started across the prairie to 
 the head of the Little Blue. When we had gone a- 
 lout five miles down the Little Blue we discovered 
 that a large force of Federals were on our trail, and 
 that they outnumbered us ten to one. We then cross- 
 ed the prairie, riding swiftly to avoid the pursuing 
 Federals. Suddenly we came upon another force of 
 encamped in a pasture. We dashed by them before 
 they could make an attack. Finally we came to a 
 bridge across the Blue, and we destroyed the bridge 
 and put an end to further pursuit. After traveling 
 for several days we came in the neighborhood of 
 Lone Jack. There we encountered a regiment of 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. j; 
 
 Federals. We struck back towards the Blue and the 
 next day decidd to disband as Federal troops were 
 scattered over the whole country. 
 
 Ike Bassham and I started out together. We came 
 to a house where a man by the name of Cummins 
 lived. We went into the house to see if we could get 
 some breakfast. 
 
 While we were waiting for breakfast, we heard the 
 front gate open and close and, looking out of the 
 window, we saw the Federal lieutenant and an or- 
 derly sergeant walking toward the house. We sprang 
 to the door with a revolver in each hand, when the 
 lieutenant, who was in front, threw up his hands and 
 said, "If you won't shoot, I won't," to which Bass- 
 ham replied, "Then get out of this yard, and damned 
 quick." They wheeled and started to the gate, the 
 orderly sergeant going through the gate, but the 
 lieutenant in his hurry missed it, and bolted right 
 through the hedge fence, leaving his coat tail and a 
 good deal of his blue uniform hanging on the thorns. 
 Just then a negro came around the house and told us 
 that there was a company of Federals camped about 
 a quarter of a mile from the house and were simply 
 separated, hunting their breakfast. Bassham and T 
 immediately decided that we were not hungry, and 
 bidding Mr. Cunningham a hasty good morning and 
 apologizing for leaving before breakfast, we rushed 
 out, interrupted our horses in the midst of their 
 breakfast, sprung into our saddles and rushed into 
 the woods. After riding about five miles, we stopped 
 at the Widow Dillingham's and our appetites having 
 returned, we ate a hearty breakfast. While we were 
 
S8 Three Years With QuantreU. 
 
 waiting to go South, it was reported to Colonel 
 QuantreU that two men who had been with him, Car- 
 lyle and Black, had been taking horses from farmers 
 and telling that QuantreU had ordered them to take 
 them, and that they would then take the horses to 
 Lexington and sell them for a high price. Six other 
 men with myself were sent out to look for them. We 
 captured them and brought them to QuantreU, to- 
 gether with eight horses that they had stolen. Quan- 
 treU made them return the horses to their owners 
 and told them that if they were guilty of this again, 
 Jie would have them shot. They stayed in camp for a 
 week or two, when the citizens again came to Colonel 
 QuantreU and asked him what he wanted with so 
 many horses and told him that these men were still 
 stealing horses. He then took ten of us with him and 
 found Carlyle at his brother-in-law's, a man by the 
 name of Thompson. We knocked on the door and, 
 being admitted into Thompson's bedroom, we found 
 his bed empty, but Will Hulse finally discovered him 
 on a trundle bed beneath the other bed. QuantreU 
 told Hulse to throw back the top mattress and he 
 would just shoot him through the straw tick. Carlyle 
 immediately jumped out, turning the bed over. The 
 colonel then compelled him to tell where the horses 
 he had been stealing were and he took us to their hid- 
 ing place in the dense woods where we discovered 
 sixteen head of horses that he had stolen. Carlyle 
 was placed on a horse and a rope tied around his 
 neck, and the horse was led from under him. The 
 next day the horses were returned to their owners. 
 Shortly after this, sixteen of us, under the com- 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. jg 
 
 mand of Colonel Quantrell stopped at the house of a 
 man by the name of Tate, four miles south of West- 
 port, where we stopped, intending to stay all night. 
 This house was two stories in front, with a one-story 
 e\\ in the rear. It was built of logs, but afterwards 
 weatherboarded. A picket was placed in the road. 
 Being very tired we all retired early and were soon 
 asleep, Colonel Quantrell and Cole Younger occupy- 
 ing the bed and the remainder of us sleeping on the 
 floor. About midnight it began to rain very hard and 
 it was exceedingly dark. About one o'clock, our pick- 
 et dashed by the house, firing his pistol and calling 
 to us to get out as we were surrounded by Federals 
 and we soon found that about four hundred had sur- 
 rounded the house. Not knowing that the house was 
 built of logs, the Federals- began to fire into the 
 walls, calling on us to surrender. One of our boys 
 called to them to cease firing until Mr. Tate and his 
 family could get out of danger, which they did. 
 When Tate and his family had gotten out of the 
 house, an officer came to the door and tried to open 
 it, calling on us to surrender. Quantrell, who was 
 sitting on the bed, said, "Boys, get away from that 
 door a minute." He then fired his pistol through the 
 door and the Federal officer fell, mortally wounded. 
 Another officer ran up and we heard him say, "Boys, 
 he's dead. I'll go to the door and make them surren- 
 der," and as soon as he rattled the door, Quantrell 
 fired again and he fell, mortally wounded. At this 
 time, one of our men began to beg us to surrender 
 and said he wanted to surrender. Quantrell called to 
 the Federals to cease firing a few minutes, that he 
 
40 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 had a "damned coward" in there that he wanted to 
 give to them. They ceased firing and we put our 
 coward out of the window. 
 
 All this time, we could hear the officers on the 
 outside telling their men to shoot low, that we were 
 lying on the floor, but their bullets had no effect on 
 the heavy weatherboarding and logs. We then dis- 
 covered that they had set fire to the house and that 
 they had withdrawn a short distance from the house, 
 waiting for us to emerge. Quantrell went upstairs, 
 and stepping out of a window onto the roof of the ell 
 part of the house, fired at the commander, with a 
 double-barrelled shot gun, killing him instantly. 
 While he was upstairs some of the boys found a door 
 leading out into the back yard and told Quantrell of 
 it. Quantrell said, "As they have set fire to the house 
 this door will be our only means of safety; some of 
 us are bound to be killed. Now I will go first, you 
 boys follow me; stoop and jump as far as you can, 
 shooting with both hands.'' The Federals were 
 drawn on either side of the door. Quantrell opened 
 the door, shooting the Federal who was standing 
 near it and we all sprang after him, shooting with 
 both hands. The Federals opened fire on us from 
 both sides, killing their own men. We ran into the 
 garden, through a gooseberry patch and through 
 the garden fence, literally tearing the fence down 
 and then out into a stalk field and then into the tim- 
 ber. The only wounds any of us had were made by 
 the thorns of the gooseberry bushes. Cole Younger 
 suffered more from the gooseberry bushes than any 
 of us, having run out of the house without his boots 
 
Three Years With QuantreU, 41 
 
 and we teased him a good deal about the Federals 
 running him out of his boots. We learned from the 
 neighbors afterwards that there were over forty Fed- 
 erals killed, but most of them were killed by their 
 own fire when they were attempting to cross-fire us 
 as they escaped. 
 
 One day, shortly after this, Cole Younger and I 
 decided to go out and see if we could locate the Fed- 
 erals. We passed Sam Caldwell's house and Mrs. 
 Caldwell and her sister came out and stood on the 
 stile-blocks and talked to us a while. We left them 
 and started down the road. We had gone about a 
 quarter of a mile, we turned into a lane, and, to 
 our utter surprise, were face to face with about eigh- 
 ty Federals. They commanded us to halt, which we 
 answered with pistol shots and, wheeling our horses, 
 we started back in the direction of Caldwell's house, 
 followed by the Federals, shooting at us, constantly, 
 and, to our consternation, we saw the two women 
 standing on the stile blocks watching us. Cole Youn- 
 ger yelled to them to lie down, which they did be- 
 hind the blocks and, as we dashed by them, with the 
 Federals in close pursuit, still keeping up a constant 
 fire at us, they called to us, "Run, boys, run, and lay 
 low on your horses." By this time, we had gone over 
 the brow of the hill and turned into the woods and 
 the Federals gave up the chase. The only damage 
 they did to us was to shoot part of Cole Younger's 
 stirrup off. 
 
42 Three Years With QuantrelL 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Late in the fall of 1862, 140 of us, consisting of a 
 few new men and Ouantrell's original company, met 
 at Lone Jack and started south. When we had reach- 
 ed a point on the road in Cass County, between Har^ 
 risonville and Dayton, we discovered a provision 
 train of fourteen wagons, guarded by a company of 
 Federal soldiers. Colonel Ouantrell commanded us 
 to charge them and, after firing only a few shots, 
 they scattered in different directions and here was 
 where I captured my first Federal soldier. I pur- 
 sued him for about a quarter of a mile and when he 
 discovered that I was gaining on him, he stopped his 
 horse, threw up his hands and asked me not to shoot 
 him. I told him to hand me his rifle, which he did, 
 and taking the cap off of it, I handed it back to him 
 and demanded his revolver. When he handed me 
 his belt, there was no revovler in the scabbard. He 
 had dropped it in his flight. I then told him to re- 
 mount his horse and, as we were returning to the 
 command, we found his revolver lying in the grass. 
 I kept his horse and pistol and gave the rifle to a raw 
 recruit .nd we afterwards paroled him. We killed 
 eight or ten of them and after taking all the provi- 
 sions that we could carry, we set fire to the wagons 
 and proceeded on our journey south. 
 
 About nine o'clock that night, a Federal compa- 
 ny came up in our rear and fired on our guard. We 
 immediately formed in line and, after firing a volley 
 or two at them, we then fell back. Then some of our 
 raw recruits became scattered and some of them nev- 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 4j 
 
 iv did return. We rode all night that night at a live- 
 ly pace and crossed the Osage River about day-break 
 at the old town of Papinsville. When we had gotten 
 out on the prairie we looked back and saw a regiment 
 of Feedral soildiers following us about five miles in 
 our rear. We rode all day until about lo o'clock that 
 night, when we stopped and prepared something to 
 eat and fed our horses. We started on the march 
 again next morning at 4 o'clock and went into camp 
 near Lamar in Barton County. There we learned 
 that there was a Captain Lewis with about forty men 
 camped near us and that he was going South the 
 next day. Quantrell sent him word to come over and 
 join us and we would go South together. When 
 Lewis came he suggested that we would go to Lamar 
 that night and capture a Federal company stationed 
 there. Before we got to the town the Federals who 
 had heard we were coming, had gotten into the court- 
 house and we, only having side-arms, could not dis- 
 lodge them. We had one man, Jim Donohue, killed 
 there. Will Halloran and myself crawled up behind 
 an old frame building and fired into the court-house 
 windows with our revolvers. The Federals poured a 
 volley into the old shop and the flying splinters 
 knocked us both down, one striking me just above 
 the right eye and one striking Halloran in the neck. 
 We were not in Lamar over thirty minutes. During 
 this fight the negro, John Noland, who had been with 
 us since Captain Childs was wounded at Sibley, gave 
 more commands than anyone, calling for general 
 Shelby to come up on the south side and General 
 Marmaduke to com.e on the west, and ordering the 
 
44 Three Years With Quantrell, 
 
 artillery to advance and blow the court-house up, but 
 his talk failed to scare the Federals into surrender- 
 ing. As we left Lamar, we picked up the body of 
 poor Jim Donohue and, tying it on his horse, we 
 buried him at the mouth of a lane about two miles 
 south of town, building a rail pen around his grave. 
 We then porceeded south into Newton County. 
 There Captain Lewis separated from us, going to the 
 left and we going to the right down into the Indian 
 Territory. We went on into Fort Smith, Arkansas, 
 where we stayed for about ten days, this country 
 then being in the hands of the Confederates. While 
 at Fort Smith, I sold the black mare that I had rid- 
 den from Jackson County for $200, Confederate 
 money, keeping the horse that I had captured in Cass 
 County. Leaving Fort Smith, we crossed the Arkan- 
 sas River at Van Buren, and at Dipper Springs we 
 joined General Marmaduke and General Shelby and 
 our company was attached to Elliott's battalion of 
 cavalry. After remaining in camp about a week the 
 entire command went from there to Cane Hill. While 
 at Cane Hill, Jim Lane and Montgomery, with a 
 large force, got past our pickets and the first intima- 
 tion we had of their presence was when just at sun-up 
 they fired a cannon right in our camp. Soon learing 
 that they had too much force for us, we retreated 
 across the Boston Mountain. When we had reached 
 the foot of the mountain, Elliott's battallion was put 
 to the right to hold the Federals in check until the 
 baggage train could get up the mountain. 
 
 Colonel Quantrell had left us and had turned the 
 command over to Captain Bill Gregg. Quantrell 
 
' Three Years With Quant rell. 4$ 
 
 had gone to Richmond, Virginia, and secured his 
 commission as a colonel and command of a batal- 
 lion of Missourians. I was detailed on the watch. I 
 saw the enemy coming up the creek and, at once, re- 
 ported to Gregg and Colonel Elliott. Returning to 
 my post, I saw that they were advancing very rapid- 
 ly and immediately returned to Elliott and Gregg 
 and told them if we stayed there a few minutes lon- 
 ger we would be cut off and would have to cut a hole 
 through the enemy to get out. Colonel Elliott, as 
 soon as he saw our perilous position, ordered a re- 
 treat, and, as we crossed the creek, about fifty yards 
 ahead of them, the enemy poured a heavy volley of 
 grape, canister and minie balls at us, and nothing 
 but the poor shooting of the Yankees saved us all 
 from being killed, but only two of Elliott's men were 
 slightly wounded. We kept us a constant firing as 
 we went up the mountains. During this running 
 fight, one of our company, Dick Turpin, became sep- 
 arated from us, and, riding up to where General Shel- 
 by was, the general asked him what command he 
 belonged to. He replied "Ouantrell's." Shelby re- 
 plied, **I thought those boys always stayed in their 
 places." To which Turpin replied, "I can go any place 
 you can : come on." The general started to follow, 
 when his horse was killed under him. Turpin turned 
 in his saddle and saw Shelby getting up and said, 
 "General, what in the hell are you stopping there 
 for? Why don't you come on?'' Going up the moun- 
 tain, General Shelby had three horses killed under 
 him. After getting over the mountain, we started 
 down Cole Creek, the baggage train being ahead of 
 
46 Three Years With QuantreU. 
 
 us. The Federals closed up and made a saber charge 
 on our rear guard. Captain Gregg then told me to go 
 down the creek and find a place to form, as he want- 
 ed to check that charge. I started and took Dave 
 Pool with me and, just past the spur of the mountain, 
 I found a place about large enough for forty men to 
 form on. Leaving Poole there, I rode back and noti- 
 fied Gregg. The boys came on down on the double 
 quick, about half of them forming and the remainder 
 forming in the rear. About that time, Captain John 
 Jarrett, who had formerly been with QuantreU, but 
 who was then in command of a company of cavalry 
 under Shelby, came up and asked me what we were 
 going to do. I told him we were going to check that 
 charge and to get in the rear. Before we had time 
 really to re-form the Federals came to within about 
 thirty yards of us and Captain Gregg gave the com- 
 mand to charge. We rushed forward, yelling and 
 shooting and, at the first volley, we un-horsed thirty- 
 seven of them, among them being a Major Hubbard. 
 The federals immediately turned and went back up 
 the mountain at a more rapid pace than they had 
 come down, we following them about a quarter of a 
 mile, wounding and killing a good many more. 
 When one of the men came up to where Captain 
 Hubbard was lying wounded, he dismounted and 
 took his belt, revolver and sword and a fine, new 
 overcoat that Hubbard was wearing and told him he 
 was going to kill him. Just then General Shelby 
 came along and asked what he was going to do with 
 that man, and being told he was going to kill him, 
 Shelby very sternly, said, "No, you are not. Return 
 
WILLIAM GREGG. 
 
Thiee Years With Quantrell. 47 
 
 that man his belt, sword, revolver and overcoat," 
 which was very promptly done. In about an hour 
 from this time, the Federals came down with a flag 
 of truce and took up their dead and wounded. We 
 then went into camp near Van Buren and remained 
 in camp about four days, when we learned that Gen- 
 eral Sterling Price was coming up from the South 
 with his infantry, intending to give battle to the Fed- 
 erals. We then went back to Dripping Springs and 
 waited for General Price. Among the first company 
 to arive were a number of my former friends, whom 
 I had not seen since 1861 and among them my friend 
 Henry Brookins. When we first joined Price at War- 
 rensburg in 1861, Brookins and I had agreed not to 
 have our hair trimmed nor to shave until the war 
 was over. I had kept my promise and when I sav/ 
 Brookins, he had his hair nicely trimmed and clean- 
 ly shaved except a long mustache, and, with my long 
 hair which v/as then below my shoulders and with 
 my flowing beard, I walked up to him, caught him 
 by the mustache and said, "Henry, you lied to me. 
 Where is that hair?" He said, ''They would not let 
 us wear long hair in the South ; if we would not have 
 it trimmed they v/ould throw us down and cut it or! 
 for us. 
 
 The next morning the entire command was order- 
 ed north. Tom Harris, Rice and I were detailed to 
 remain and cook up all the provisions we had in our 
 company. We did the cooking, loading the provis- 
 ions into the wagon, and overtook the company 
 about 2 o'clock in the morning and the boys soon de- 
 voured what v/e had cooked. We then proceeded 
 
48 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 north, the infantry on the right and the cavalry on 
 the left. Just as the cavalry, Elliott's battallion be- 
 ing in the advance, turned the spur of the mountain, 
 near Prairie Grove, we discovered the advance guard 
 of the enemy getting breakfast. There were a thous- 
 and men in this advance guard and just at sunrise, 
 Colonel Elliott ordered us to form in line and charge. 
 We captured about four hundred of them and pur- 
 isued the remainder to a creek. The weather being 
 very cold the creek banks were frozen and we cap- 
 tured 200 more at the creek and took possession of 
 all their wagons and provisions. We only killed ten 
 or fifteen of them, but wounded several. They never 
 fired a shot at us, being too busy trying to get away. 
 Our battalion was then moved forward and took up 
 a position on a high ridge to the extreme left, from 
 which we could see the infantry of both armies grad- 
 ually drawing near each other and about 9 o'clock in 
 the morning both sides opened fire and the battle 
 continued all day until dark when we were ordered 
 to fall back. AYe retreated South to Dripping- 
 Springs and stayed there a day or two. Then we 
 were ordered South and so we marhed dowcn into 
 Arkansas. While we were at A'an Buren, Arkansas, 
 one of the boys came up to me and said, "John, lets 
 go back to Missouri." ''All right," I replied. So six 
 of us started back, including George Wigginton 
 and Ike Bassham. We put on Federal uniforms as 
 the country through which we were to go was full 
 of Federals. On the way back we learned that there 
 was a regiment of Federals at Bowers* Mill, so we 
 decided to pass to the left of Bowers' Mill in order 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 4g 
 
 to avoid embarrassing questions that the Federals 
 there might ask us. We had to cross a creek, where 
 we saw several militiamen stationed. 
 
 Just before we got to the creek we saw one of the 
 militiamen get on a horse and start in a fast gallop 
 towards Bowers' Mill and we knew that he had gone 
 to report us. We crossed the river and just to the 
 right of the road, we saw a company of militia com- 
 ing across a little field. They called to me and I an- 
 swered them when Ike Bassham put spurs to his 
 horse and started to run. I caught his bridle and told 
 him to hold on. The militia did not attempt to follow 
 us so we rode into the woods, and when we reached 
 the edge of the prairie, we saw three different sets of 
 Federal scouts. We stayed in the woods until dark 
 when we rode up to a house. A man came to the door 
 and we asked him if we could get something to eat 
 and feed our horses. He, supposing us to be Federals 
 invited us in and, while we were at the supper table, 
 he told us that he belonged to the militia and that his 
 company was in camp about a mile from the house, 
 and that after supper he was going back and would 
 be glad to have us go with him and spend the night 
 with the boys. We, of course, told him we would 
 be only too glad to do so. After supper, we all start- 
 ed toward the Federal camp, the militiaman and P 
 riding together in front. After getting out a short 
 distance from the house, I suddenly drew my revol- 
 ver and throwing it to his face, told him to give up 
 his gun, which he handed to one of the other boys. I 
 then said to him, "We are Confederate soldiers; we 
 want vou to show us the way to Sim's Point. If you 
 
so Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 attempt to mislead us, we'll shoot you, and if you 
 take us into a Federal camp, I'll kill you before they 
 can get us. Now show us the way." He said he did 
 not know the way, but I told him he did, and he had 
 to have us at Sims' Point by daylight, or I would 
 shoot him. We rode all night and, just at daylight^ 
 we reached Sims' Point and I was well acquainted 
 with a man who lived there. He was in a corn-crib 
 when we rode up and I called to him to come outside. 
 He said, "Well, what in the devil are you doing" 
 here?" I said, "It is none of your business what I am 
 doing here- you can come out here, I want to find 
 out something." When he had gotten outside, he saw 
 the militiaman and said, "What in the hell are you 
 doing with that damned Home Guard with you?' I 
 told him to never mind the Home Guard; I was tak- 
 ing care of him, "He'll not bother you any." "But he- 
 may bother me after a while." But I told him that 
 this Home Guard would never bother him any more. 
 T then asked him if he knew where there were any 
 Federal soldiers and he said that there were none 
 any nearer than ten miles. We got our breakfast with 
 him and taking feed for our horses with us and also 
 taking the Home Guard along for good company, we 
 went into the woods and stayed until dark and then 
 rode all night long, covering about forty-five miles 
 of road, we reached Calvin's Branch between Pleas- 
 ant Hill and Harrisonville just about sun-up. Having- 
 secured our breakfast, we went down into the woods 
 and stayed until night, where we paroled our pris- 
 oner, and going north across Big Creek, we went to 
 the home of my uncle, John Wigginton, arriving 
 
Three Years With QuantreU. $i 
 
 there in January, 1863, this being the same place 
 where I had attempted to raise a crop the preceding 
 summer and where on August 11, 1862, I joined 
 Quantrell. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 When we reached the house about 12 o'clock at 
 night, George Wigginton knocked on the door. His 
 mother called, "Who is there?" and when he replied, 
 "George," she sprang out of the bed, opened the door 
 and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him and 
 crying, and to my great delight and surprise, I found 
 my mother there. Oh! How glad these two old moth- 
 ers were to see their boys whom they did not know 
 were living or dead. My uncle John said to us, "Boys, 
 I am afraid you have done a bad job, coming back 
 here before spring; I doubt very much if you get 
 through the winter. This country is full of Federals. 
 There is a big force at Independence under Colonel 
 Pennock and a regiment at Pleasant Hill and also a 
 regiment at Harrisonville." The next afternoon we 
 went in search of Cole Younger and George Todd 
 and the next day we found them in camp in the 
 woods about seven miles south of Independence on 
 Howard's Branch, and with him were my brother, 
 Jabez, Tom Tally, George Tally, Joe Hardin, Doc 
 Hale and Jim Morris and in a few days Ike Bassham 
 and three others joined us. We then dug a pit or cave 
 in the side of the hill and covered it with logs, old 
 boards and brush, with a fireplace in the back with a 
 chimnev made of sticks and mud. This was a warm 
 
S2 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 place to stay, but we cooked only at night for fear the 
 Federals would locate us by the smoke from our 
 camp. Cole Younger and his men had a similar den 
 about twenty feet from ours. One night while we 
 were here, George Wigginton and I decided we 
 would ride over and see our mothers, who were both 
 at his father's. As we came to the edge of the prairie, 
 noticing several fires, we stopped our horses and 
 counted seventeen houses belonging to Southern 
 men burning, and among them was the house of 
 Wigginton's father. Imagine our feelings — both of 
 our old mothers were then being thrown out of shel- 
 ter in the dead of winter. We sat on our horses and 
 watched them burn. Wigginton, who was always a 
 very quiet man, sat with his eyes fixed on his father's 
 home and I said to him, "George, what do you think 
 now?" He turned to me and said, "Well John, I 
 think, 'Damn it.' '' After we had been in camp about 
 ten days, John McDowell came into our camp. He 
 had gone south with us, being a member of Captain 
 Jarrett's company and, as soon as he returned to 
 Jackson County, had gone direct to Independence 
 and surrendered to Colonel Pennock and been pa- 
 roled. As soon as he came into camp, I suspicioned 
 him, for the reason that Pennock had never been 
 known to parole a Southern man before. I told Cole 
 Younger he was a traitor and we ought to get rid of 
 him but Younger would not believe it. In a few days 
 Captain George Todd came into our camp and I 
 spoke to him about McDowell and he agreed with 
 me, but Younger would not consent to our doing 
 anything to him. A heavy snow had fallen and a 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. SS 
 
 crust had formed, making the traveling exceedingly 
 bad. McDowell told Younger that he wanted to go 
 over to John Garrison's to see his wife who was 
 there. I objected and said to Younger, in the pres- 
 ence of McoDwell; "Cole, do not let him go. He is a 
 traitor and will get us into trouble, and if I was in 
 command of this squad, he would not be John Mc- 
 Dowell much longer, for I would either hang him or 
 shoot him. You know and John McDowell knows 
 that old Pennock never released a rebel soldier be- 
 fore and has made arrangements with him to betray 
 us, so either shoot or hang the traitor." Younger re- 
 plied, "John, you are too hard on him; he's all right. 
 He went South with Jarrett." I told him that might 
 be true but that I knew he was a traitor and a spy 
 and was a liar about his wife and just as soon as he 
 gets out of our sight, he will run his horse to Inde- 
 pendence and tell Pennock where we are. But Cole 
 let him go. After McDowell had been gone a while, 
 we were trying to catch some hogs that were run- 
 ning in the woods and had left our pistols inn our 
 den, when one of the boys yelled out, "The Federals 
 are coming."! looked up and saw about sixty men 
 coming afoot and only about fifty yards from us. 
 Some of the boys said, "They are not Federals, but 
 George Todd's men." I said, "What the devil is 
 George Todd doing coming afoot; break for your 
 weapons boys." The Federals then called to us, 
 "Don't be alarmed, we are friends." Then Cole 
 Younger fired at them and they fired on us. I sprang 
 into the den, jerked my revolver from a rafter and 
 told the bovs to sfct out. As T rushed out of the den, I 
 
54 Three Years With QuantreU. 
 
 attempted to fire on them, but my pistol snapped. 
 We all scattered. Ike aBssham was killed just as he 
 came out of the door. Joe Hardin fell dead within 
 about ten feet of the door and Doc Hale and George 
 Tally were killed about a hundred yards from the 
 camp. I started on a run through the brush, the Fed- 
 erals firing at me all of the time. I ran over a log and 
 fell down, but got up running, the bullets making 
 snow fly all around me. I crossed a little branch and 
 someone called to me and said "John, wait." I turned 
 and it was George Wigginton. Just back of George 
 was a negro militiaman, i~unning after him; George 
 wheeled and killed the negro, and said ''John, let's 
 turn and fight them." I told him that we had better 
 save our loads until the last and get away if we 
 could. Just then another man called me and, as he 
 had on a Federal cap, I started to shoot him, when 
 he called again and I recognized Jim Morris. He also 
 wanted to stop and fight them. I asked him where 
 his pistols were and he said he had lost them. I then 
 advised him that the best thing that he could do was 
 to get in front of us and do some of his best running. 
 We came to a little clearing and, as we started a- 
 cross, several Federals fired at us, and I noticed 
 blood on the snow, and Morris looked at his hand, 
 around which we tied a handkerchief to keep the 
 blood from leaving a trail in the snow. We kept on 
 until we came to the creek, where there were a good 
 many cattle paths. We got into one of these paths 
 and followed it for a while and then we went into 
 the brush and on through the woods to Carroll John- 
 son's house, and there, we secured two horses from 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 55 
 
 Johnson, promising him to return them as soon as 
 we could find some of our own, and George Wiggin- 
 ton and Morris rode one horse and we started to find 
 Captain Todd's camp. When we reached the house 
 of John Prewitt, we were nearly frozen, and so 
 hoarse we could hardly speak above a whisper. We 
 stopped at his house a short while and then went on 
 in search of George Todd's camp. 
 
 When the Federals fired on us at our den, my 
 ])rother Jabez received a scalp wound and, while it 
 Vv'as not very serious, it bled very freely. He and 
 Cole Younger ran together, and he had on a pair of 
 heavy cavalry boots. From the loss of blood and 
 tt3nng to run with heavy boots on, he became very 
 tired and told Cole that he could not stand it much 
 longer. He sat down on the snow and while ten or 
 fifteen Federals were shooting at them, Cole pulled 
 my brother's boots off. He then jumped up and ran 
 through the snow and ice in his stocking feet. In 
 this little skirmish, they killed four of our boys and 
 we killed seven white men and one negro for them. 
 ^^'e afterwards learned that this man, John Mc- 
 Eride, had made an agreement with Colonel Pen- 
 nock that he was to receive $1,000 for Cole Younger^ 
 v^500 each for myself and my brother and $100 each 
 for either of the other boys, the money to be paid 
 for our delivery to him or his men, either dead or 
 alive, and they well knew that there was very little 
 chance of any of us being delivered alive. 
 
 After leaving Mr. Prewitt's, Wigginton, Morris 
 and I went across the Blue, where we found Craid 
 Wells and John Blythes in a dugout on the side of 
 
jS6 Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 a bank. We stayed there ten days. Wells' sisters and 
 mother came at night to where we were and brought 
 us food from the house. After the snow had melted, 
 Wigginton and I started back to learn how many of 
 the boys had been killed and wounded. On this trip 
 I received word from Travis Morgan that he had a 
 fine four year old saddle stallion in a barn about a 
 mile from Independence, and a good saddle and 
 bridle in the loft, and I was willing to run the risk 
 of being captured, I could have him. Accompanied 
 by Will Hulse, I secured the horse, saddle and bridle 
 and came back to his father's house, secured a late 
 supper and Will's sister. Miss Sallie, presented me 
 with a quart bottle of blackberry cordial. In a few 
 days George Wigginton captured him a horse and 
 vve returned Johnson's horses to him. At this time, 
 George Todd had ten men under his command and 
 Cole Younger sixteen in his command. We contin- 
 ued to sleep in the woods at night and eat with our 
 friends, and William Hopkins invited us all to meet 
 at his house on February 14, 1863, and to enjoy a big 
 turkey dinner. On the morning of the thirteenth of 
 February, Captain Wagner came out of Indepen- 
 dence with sixty-four men from the Fifth Missouri 
 State Militia, looking for us, and went into camp in 
 Mr. Hines' yard, whose son Jim was with us. That 
 night twelve of us went to Hines' with the intention 
 of firing on the militia, but before reaching there I 
 suggested to Cole Younger that if we did, they 
 would probably kill Mr. Hines and burn his house. 
 We abandoned the trip and went back into the 
 woods. On that morning, Captain John Jarrett and 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. $j 
 
 John Roth had returned from the South and joined 
 us. When the morning of the 14th of February came 
 Cole Younger suggested that if we expected to en- 
 joy our turkey dinner we had better first get rid of 
 Captain Wagner and his militia. The house of Wil- 
 liam Hopkins was on a high bluff and his father, 
 Dick Hopkins, lived on the opposite side of the bot- 
 tom on a high bluff. We agreed that Cole Younger 
 should go with his men on the bluff near Will Hop- 
 kins' house at a point where the roads made a sharp 
 turn around the bluff* and John Barrett and John 
 Roth should ride out where the militia could see 
 them and when the militia attempted to capture 
 them, make a rush to this place of ambush. When 
 we reached the point near Will Hopkins' house, we 
 met Captain Todd and his ten men and he took com- 
 mand and ordered us to form a line back from the 
 road on the top of the hill. In a short time, we saw 
 Barrett and Roth coming at full speed with the 
 militia in full pursuit. When they had gotten into 
 the cut, Barrett and Roth rushed around the turn 
 and joined us. Captain Wagner ordered his com- 
 pany in the cut between the bluff" and the high rail 
 fence and he and his first lieutenant rode around in 
 sight of us. Captain Todd, who was standing in 
 front of our lines, fired at him. Wagner raised his 
 hand with his revolver in it and shouted, ''Don't fire, 
 men, we are Federal soldiers and belong to the 
 artillery; don't you see the brass on my saddle?" 
 Todd replied, "To hell with your artillery; kill them 
 boys, kill them." I was standing near Captain Todd 
 at the time with a double barrelled shot-gun, with 
 
^8 Three Years With QuantreU. 
 
 each barrel loaded with fifteen pistol balls. I fired 
 at Captain Wagner. Several of the balls struck his 
 horse and one cut his little finger off, causing him 
 to drop his revolver. Todd then yelled "Charge." 
 They became bunched up between the fence and the 
 bluff and we were right on them before they could 
 get their horses to running, and emptying saddles at 
 every jump the horses made, they soon left the road 
 and ran into the woods and into a V-shaped place, 
 where a drainage ditch entered the Little Blue. 
 Some of them forced their horses into the Little 
 Blue and into the ditch. The water in the Blue was 
 very deep and their horses were soon swimming. I 
 rode up to the bank of the Blue and, emptying the 
 other barrel of my shotgun at them, dropped the 
 grn and emptied my revolvers. In this company of 
 militia, there was a man by the name of Jim Lane, 
 who before leaving Independence had said, "Before 
 I return I will either kill a damned bushwhacker or 
 one of their Southern sympathizers." When he 
 reached the Blue, he turned and forced his horse 
 into the ditch and was trying to force him up the 
 opposite bank. Boone Shull saw him and yelled, 
 "Boys, there goes the fellow that was going to kill 
 "a damned bushwhacker,' " and fired. Lane fell dead 
 and Shull jumped off his own horse remarking, 
 "That's too fine a horse to let get away," and ran 
 into the ditch and captured the horse. Captain Todd 
 then gave command to reload quick and tried to 
 head them at Blue Springs. 
 
 While we were reloading an old hypocrite, who 
 tinder the guise of a Northern Methodist minister 
 
Three Years With Quant r ell. S9 
 
 had been going over that country, robbing South- 
 ern people with the Redlegs and militia, rode up on 
 a mule. He would go to the home of Southern peo- 
 ple and hold family prayers with them and then 
 charge them for divine service and, if they had no 
 money, he would by force take their bedding, silver- 
 ware or anything else of value, and at the time, he 
 had a roll of blankets and comforts and two silk 
 dresses and some silverware that he had forced Mrs. 
 Stanley, the wife of Judge Stanley, to give him that 
 morning. A short time before this, this old hypo- 
 crite, with a gang of militia, had gone to the house 
 of Judge Stanley and demanded money from him. 
 Upon the failure of the Judge to comply with their 
 demands,. the.y had burned his feet, pulled his finger- 
 natLs out artd' struck: him; over the hfiad with their 
 revolvers until he had lost his mind, and when this 
 sanctimonious old hypocrite came riding up to us, 
 Jim Little, who knew him too well, rode up to him 
 and asked him what he wanted. The preacher, think- 
 ing we were Federal soldiers, told Jim that he had 
 been up and stayed all night at Judge Stanley's, and, 
 hearing the firing, had ridden down to see about it. 
 Jim said to him, "You are the old devil we have been 
 looking for. You have been going around this coun- 
 try praying with Southern people and in every one 
 of your pretended prayers you would offer an insult 
 to the South, and demanding pay, and when you 
 were refused, you would rol) defenceless women and 
 children by taking what little property they had and 
 you now have blankets and dresses belonging to 
 Judge Stanley's wife, and now we've got you." The 
 
6o Three Years With Quantrell. 
 
 preacher said, "I have a right to have pay for my 
 divine services and ought to be paid for praying for 
 sinners.'' Jim remarked, ''Well, you'd better be pray- 
 ing for yourself, and get at it damned quick." The 
 preacher asked him if he would kill a minister of the 
 gospel. Jim said, "No, but I am going to kill a damn- 
 ed thief and old hypocrite," and shot him and his 
 mule. We afterwards came back and got what he had 
 and took them back and delivered them to Mrs. Stan- 
 ley. 
 
 We then wheeled our horses and tried to intercept 
 the remaining militia at Blue Springs. When we 
 reached the road leading into Blue Springs, they had 
 just passed and would have succeeded in slipping up 
 on them if it had not been for Jim Little, who began 
 to yell. The militia looked back and began to whip 
 their horses with their rifles and, in a few minutes, 
 we were close enough to open fire on them, follow- 
 ing them through the town of Blue Springs. About 
 three quarters of a mile from the town of Blue 
 Springs, there was a very bad mud hole in the road 
 and there had been a number of poles laid across it, 
 and, when the militia reached this place, their horses 
 going in a run, quite a number of their horses stum- 
 bled and fell, piling men and horses in one promis- 
 cuous heap and ten of the militia ceased to bother us 
 from that time on. We continued to follow them un- 
 til they had reached the bridge across the Little Blue 
 when Captain Wagner rode on to the bridge ahead 
 of them and, drawing his revolver, commanded them 
 to halt and face us, saying that he would shoot the 
 first man who attempted to ride by him, to which 
 
Three Years With Quant relL 6i 
 
 command one of his men replied, ''There's a damned 
 sight more danger behind us than in front of us." 
 We fired at them again and wheeled our horses, rid- 
 mg back. We afterwards learned that out of the six- 
 ty,four men that had left Independence with Cap- 
 tain Wagner, only seven ever returned, and two of 
 that number were badly wounded. Just before we 
 reached the mud hole, one of the militiamen fell o^^' 
 his horse in a fence corner. Mart Belt, who had been 
 following him and shooting at him, rode up to him 
 look his pistols away from him and, leading the 
 militiaman's horse, came galloping up to the rest of 
 us and said, "Boys, I got that fellow all right." Some 
 of the boys, who knew that Mart was a poor pistol 
 shot, laughed at him and told him he couldn't hit a 
 1)arn. Mart said, ''Wait until we go back, and I'll 
 show you where I shot him in the side of the head." 
 When we got back to the place where the man had 
 fallen, there was no man there, and an old gentle- 
 man, who lived nearby, came out into his yard and 
 Mart asked him what had become of that dead man. 
 The old man replied, "Dead man, Hell ! If you'd have 
 seen him running through that field after you boys 
 rode off, you wouldn't have taken him for a corpse." 
 We rode back to Will Hopkins' and arrived there at 
 two o'clock in the afternoon, and did ample justice 
 to a fine turkey dinner. 
 
 This had been a good day's work; twenty-seven 
 of us had routed a company of sixty-four, killed 
 fifty-seven of them and none of our men were 
 wounded, and at this time, there were seven thous- 
 and Federal soldiers in Jackson county and a large 
 
62 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 Federal force in Lexington, Harrisonville and Pleas 
 ant Hill, and our little bunch of twenty-seven men, 
 who were the only armed Confederates in that part 
 of the country, caused all these soldiers to stay 
 there and kept them from following General Price, 
 After dinner at Will Hopkins', we separated 
 again and remained in hiding for about ten days^ 
 when Cole Younger, John Jarrett, Captain Scott^ 
 Jim Noland and I went down into Lafayette county 
 and stopped at the house of my uncle, William 
 Fristoe. The next morning we started out on the 
 road to intercept the stage, running from Lexington 
 to Warrensburg. We had a two-fold object in want- 
 ing to intercept this stage; one was that the Federal 
 officers made frequent trips in this stage and we 
 were anAisou to see them, and, if possible, to secure 
 a newspaper, and, when the stage come in sight, we 
 halted it and we found Colonel King, son of Ex-Gov- 
 trnor King and another Federal officer, who was a 
 provost-marshal from Lexington. We afterwards 
 jearned that when we first halted them, the provost- 
 marshal took the star from his hat on which there 
 was a number "5", for he well knew that No. 5 meant 
 death, because that was the number of old Pennock's 
 regiment. When we had made them get out of the 
 stage, Colonel King asked what we intended to with 
 them, and Captain Scott told him, "Kill you, of 
 course," to which King remarked. "That is a strange 
 way to carry on civil war." Captain Scott walked up 
 to him and, putting his hand on his shoulder, said, 
 "Colonel, that is the fault of your side; whenever 
 you fight us, you always carry a black flag; our Col- 
 
Three Years With Quantrell. 63 
 
 <;nel, Quantrell, has made overtures to you to ex- 
 change prisoners and has always been refused, and 
 you troops are instructed to take none of us prison- 
 ers, but to either hang or shoot us as soon as captur- 
 ed, and, in addition to that, you murder all of the old 
 men, who sympathize with the South and burn and 
 destroy all their property, and we are only retalia- 
 ting." About that time, John Jarrett walked up and. 
 Colonel King, seeing a Masonic pin on Jarrett, let 
 him know he was a Mason. Jarrett then said, ''Hold 
 on, boys," and, turning to Colonel King, said 
 "What Captain Scott has told you is true- we only 
 kill the men who kill us and our friends ; we do not 
 burn houses and we do not rob Union citizens, for if 
 we did, our Colonel would have us shot. Now, if you 
 will promise me to do all in your power to have this 
 burning stopped, we will release you." Colonel King- 
 made him the promise and they were released, and I 
 must say to his credit that, for two or three months, 
 the burning ceased. We stayed with our friends un- 
 til April, when Colonel Quantrell returned from the 
 South with the remainder of our company. 
 
 On his way back from the South, Colonel Quan- 
 trell came by way of Spring River to have a little in- 
 terview v/ith that hartless old murderer, Colonel 
 Obediah Smith, who had done so much murdering 
 and burning in that part of the state. When Quan- 
 trell rode up to Smith's house, he found him in the 
 garden, having a rifle with him and, as Quantrell 
 and his men were all wearing blue overcoats, Smith 
 came to the fence. Quantrell shook hands with him 
 and told him that that was a very fine rifle he had 
 
64 Three Years With Quantrell, 
 
 and that he would like to see it. Smith handed him 
 the rifle, remarking, "Yes, and I've turned many a 
 damed rebel over with it." Quantrell pointed the gun 
 at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun snapped. 
 Smith took the hint, ran around his house and jump- 
 ed into a stable lot, and when he was about to reach 
 the fence on the opposite side of the lot, Bill Mg- 
 Guire shot at him and Obadiah Smith never turned 
 over another rebel. Colonel Quantrell told me that 
 in his trip from the South, he had no trouble passing 
 the Federal pickets, as he passed himself off as Col- 
 onel Clark, of a Colorado regiment. We waited 
 around in hiding, waiting for the leaves to get thick 
 on the trees and in the brush. One day Cole Younger 
 rode over to see his Grandmother Fristoe and hitch- 
 ed his mare in the orchard. While he was talking to 
 his grandmother, a negro woman came and told him 
 the Federals were ocming. Cole beat a hasty retreat 
 but had to leave his mare, which the Federals capt- 
 ured. Quantrell then ordered my brother, Jabez Mc- 
 Corkle, and me to hunt the boys up and get them to- 
 gether. I had a squad with me under a bluff on Cedar 
 Creek, and one morning before I dressed Jabez came 
 up with a squad and, leaving his men, came to where 
 I was and was standing on a rock, when in some way 
 he dropped a Springfield rifle which he had in his 
 hand, discharging it, the ball striking him in the 
 right leg just below the knee and, passing upward, 
 shattered the knee joint. We placed him on a blanket 
 and carried him under a bluff and waited on him for 
 several days, but fearing the Federals might discov- 
 er him, we moved him over on the Nelson Creek and 
 
FRANK JAxMES. 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 6$ 
 
 made him a bed under a bluff. His wife and sister 
 stayed with him where he lingered thirteen days and 
 died, and, when the end came, his mother-in-law, 
 Mrs. Harris, his wife, and sister and I were with him. 
 In this sad manner ended the life of my only brother, 
 a brave, true man and soldier. It seems strange that, 
 having passed through so many dangerous places, 
 he had to die at last from a wound inflicted by his 
 own gun. Just after he died, Frank James, Captain 
 Scott and Tom Harris came to where we were. This 
 was the first time I had ever seen Frank James, and 
 when he rode up to where my dead brother was ly- 
 ing, he remarked, "We heard he was here wounded 
 and had come to stay with him to keep the Federals 
 from finding and killing him." That night, we took 
 his body to his mother-in-law's house, leaving only 
 the women to watch with him and the men all return- 
 ed to the woods, waiting for the coffin to be made. 
 While his corpse was lying in Harris' house, a com- 
 pany of Federal troops came in, looked at the corpse 
 and left. The next day, he was buried in a country 
 grave-yard near the house, where a few years before, 
 he had been married. Soon after the death of broth- 
 er, one of our bravest men, Jim Vaughan, was in Wy- 
 andotte, Kansas, and, while being shaved in a barber 
 shop, the Federals rushed in on him and captured 
 him, taking him into Kansas City, where they placed 
 him in prison. General Buell, after learning who he 
 was, ordered him to be hung within ten days. In a 
 few days after his capture, we captured three Union 
 soldiers, a lieutenant, an orderly sergeant and a pri- 
 vate. Quantrell told a Union citizen to go to Kansas 
 
66 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 City and to see Colonel Buell and to tell him that if 
 he would exchange Vaughan for the three Federals 
 we had, that he would send the three Union soldiers 
 to Kansas City unharmed, but if he carried out his 
 intention to hang Vaughan, then the three Federals 
 would be either hung or shot. The next day, this citi- 
 zen returned to Kansas City and, in the presence of 
 our three prisoners, reported that the Federal com- 
 mander had refused to exchange A^aughan and was 
 going to hang him. The lieutenant left the other 
 prisoners and, walking up to Quantrell, said, ''Col- 
 onel, I know you intend to execute me and my two 
 companions and, after knowing you have tried to 
 save us, I do not blame you, but I have a proposition 
 to make to you : if you will let me, I w411 go to Kan- 
 sas City and see the authorities and, I believe, that 
 being a lieutenant in the regular arm}^, I may be able 
 to prevail upon them to accept your proposition, and 
 I now promise you, upon my honor, that I will re- 
 turn, whatever may be their decision." Quantrell 
 looked at him a moment and said, "I will trust you; 
 go." On the afternoon of the third da}^ the lieuten- 
 ant rode into our camp and, walking straight up to 
 our colonel, said, "I have failed; I gave you my word, 
 and I have returned to be executed, and am prepared 
 to die. I do not blame you, Colonel, and I do not be- 
 lieve that if you had fifty of our best men, they 
 would exchange Vaughan for all of them, so, Col- 
 onel, we await your orders." Quantrell looked at 
 him a moment, making no reply, turning on his heel, 
 called Cole Younger, Frank James and myself to 
 him, and taking us to one side, said, "Boys, this man 
 
^r Three Years With Quantrell 67 
 
 is loo honorable and brave to die; he has done all in 
 his power to save Jim Vaughan, and I believe that 
 either one of the others would have done the same 
 thing, and they ought not to suffer for the brutality 
 and meanness of others, and I'll be darned if any of 
 them shall die by my hand." He then sent for the 
 three prisoners and said to them, *'Boy's, your lieu- 
 tenant is too honorable and brave a man to die and 
 I believe you are all that way. There is not one man 
 m ten thousand who would have acted as your lieu- 
 tenant has. Now, if you'll give me your word of hon- 
 or, and I know your lieutenant is a man of honor, 
 that you will never again take up arms against the 
 South, I am going to let you go. My men and I may 
 be outlaws, but we are honorable and have some 
 heart left and have never yet murdered a brave 
 man." The three Federal soldiers, with tears in their 
 eyes, thanked Colonel Quantrell, mounted their 
 horses and left, and we afterwards learned that they 
 went into Kansas City, reported these facts to the 
 commander and resigned from the service, going 
 back home, but nevertheless, the next morning, Jim 
 Vaughan was hung. As they led him out to the scaf- 
 fold, with his head erect, he said, "You may kill me, 
 but you'll never conquer me, and taking my life to- 
 day will cost you a hundred lives and this debt my 
 friends will pay in a short time." And how prophetic 
 his last words were will soon be seen. 
 
 A short time after the execution of Vaughan, 
 Quantrell took about half of his company and went 
 down on the Sni, leaving the remainder of us under 
 
68 Three Years With Quantreli 
 
 the command of Captain George Todd, and, on the 
 seventeenth day of June, 1863, we discovered a com- 
 pany of Federals crossing the prairie in the direction 
 of Westport. We turned into the woods and, follow- 
 ing Brush Creek, entered the town of Westport on 
 the south. On the southeast side of this town there 
 was a lane, which had a high rock fence on either 
 side. When we reached this lane, we formed in pla- 
 toons of eight and waited for them. They came rid- 
 ing very leisurely over the hill, the captain in front, 
 with his leg thrown over his horse's neck. He asked 
 who we were when Captain Todd yelled, "Charge, 
 kill 'em, boys, kill 'em,'' which we immediately pro- 
 ceeded to do. We charged them in the lane, yelling 
 and shooting as we rode. They were thrown into a 
 perfect stampede and rushed out on to the open pra- 
 irie. While we were running them, I saw two of them 
 leave their horses and I tried to get some rocks off 
 the fence so my horse could get over. Bill McGuire 
 rode up to me and said, "My horse will take th-^ 
 fence,'' so putting spurs to his horse, he went over 
 the fence and followed them, returning with their 
 guns and pistols. Boone Sholl, who was riding the 
 horse that he had taken from Jim Lane near Blue 
 Springs, lost control of his horse, which ran away 
 with him and through the line of Federals, who shot 
 him in the back, the ball passing through his body 
 and breaking the buckle on his belt. We found that 
 we had killed thirty-three of them. Will McGuire 
 rode up to a dead Federal officer who had assisted in 
 the hanging of Jim Vaughan, and wrote upon a slip 
 of paper, "Remember the dying words of Jim 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 6g 
 
 Vaughan," and placed it in the teeth of the dead 
 Federal. 
 
 Sholl held up and rode his horse about nine miles 
 that night, and was taken to the home of a widow 
 by the name of Young, where he died the next morn- 
 ing, and, just before he died, he told the boys that 
 he wanted Captain Todd to have his horse. During 
 this fight in the lane, Al Wyatt's horse also became 
 unmanageable and ran into the Federals. Wyatt was 
 shot in the breast and instantly killed. He had only 
 been with us a few days. I took his spurs and sent 
 them to his wife. After the Federals had left the lane 
 <:nd we had quit following them, they began to fire 
 at us and one of the balls struck Captain Scott in the 
 neck. He threw up his hands, exclaming, "I am a 
 dead man," and fell from his horse. These three men, 
 Captain Scott, Al Wyatt and Boone Sholl, were the 
 only men we lost. Not another one of our men was 
 even wounded. We tied the bodies of Captain Scott 
 and Al Wyatt across their saddles and, leading their 
 horses, took them to a graveyard, and, wrapping 
 their blankets around them, buried them. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 We then went into camp on Cedar Creek at a ren- 
 dezvous we called the "bull-pen." This was situated 
 in the dense woods about a mile from Cedar Creek. 
 There w^re two ways of approaching the "bull pen." 
 one through the bottom and the other through the 
 woods south of John Moore's farm. We never ap- 
 proached this camp together, nor left it together, al- 
 
^0 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 ways going separately in different directions, in this 
 way leaving no trail and this camp never was dis- 
 covered by the Federals until after the war. 
 
 We stayed in this camp for four or five days wait- 
 ing to hear from Colonel Quantrell. In a few days, 
 v/e went with Captain Todd down on the Sni and 
 joined Quantrell. Dave Poole took forty of us with 
 him and went down in what was known as the Dutch 
 settlement in Lafayette County, near Concordia. 
 There was stationed there a company of Dutch mili- 
 t-a, who held a fort or blockhouse near the town, and, 
 whenever any strangers were seen in that neighbor- 
 h'-od, the- would blow the dinner horns and ring 
 the bells all running for the blockhouse, and when 
 vv^e reached there, we found them all securely forti- 
 fied, in the blockliouse, and having only side arms 
 with us, we left them alone, and securing a number 
 of extra good horses, v/e returned to the Sni. In a 
 few days, we went over to Olathe, Kansas, and cap- 
 tured a Federal major and found a Mexican wagon- 
 train. We did not molest the Mexicans, but I traded 
 hats with the wagon master and also traded my 
 Colt's revolver for a dragoon pistol. 
 
 One morning Captain Todd, with about twenty 
 of us, started south to Big Creek, and, at a point 
 v/here the town of Lee's Summit is now located, we 
 met a company of thirty Federals and before they 
 had time to form in line, we charged them and they 
 scattered and we chased them on the prairie, killing 
 seven of them. Captain Todd was riding a horse that 
 Boone Sholl had left him and the horse acted the 
 same way that he did with Sholl, running off with 
 
Three Years With Quantrell yi 
 
 him and right through the Federals, Todd receiving 
 a slight wound in his arm. Todd then wanted to 
 trade horses with me, but I told him that I didn't 
 want anything to do with that damned Yankee 
 horse, that he had as well kill him as me, but, after 
 the captain had offered me sufficient inducements, I 
 finally traded with him. We went back to Pleasant 
 Hill and from there to Chapel Hill in Johnson Coun- 
 ty. There were six or eight of us riding in advance, 
 when we encountered twelve or fifteen Federals and 
 charged them. They formed in line and fired, killing 
 Bill Greenwood's horse, which fell, throwing Bill 
 over its head. Before Bill had time to regain his 
 feet a Federal soldier rode up to him and, drawing 
 his revolver, commanded Bill to hand over his pis- 
 tols. Greenwood, who had the reputation of being 
 one of the best and quickest pistol shots in the com- 
 pany, replied, "All right,'' and drawing his pistols, 
 fired. The Federal fell; Bill grabbed his horse by the 
 bridle and swinging himself into the saddle, came 
 galloping up, remarking, ''Boys, I made a good 
 horse trade." We went back on the Sni and rejoined 
 Quantrell. We went from there to Bone Hill and 
 from there to Sibley, on the Missouri River. While, 
 at Sibley, we saw a militiaman standing in the door 
 of a house across the Missouri river. I drew my big* 
 dragoon pistol, that I had gotten from the Mexican, 
 I fired at the militiaman, who very promptly left the 
 door and I afterwards learned from a friend that the 
 ball buried itself just over his head in the door. 
 
 We then returned to the Little Blue and separated. 
 One morning, Will Bassham asked me to go over to 
 
'jz Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 his uncle's, Jack Bassham's with him. While we were 
 waiting for our breakfast to be cooked, Will went in- 
 to another room to change his clothes and I was to 
 stand in the door and watch for Federals. Mr. Bass- 
 ham had two daughters. Miss Annie and Miss Mai- 
 sie. Miss Annie came to the door and was talking 
 with me, and, being very pretty and very attractive, 
 my attention was on her and not on the Federals. 
 After we had stood there a few moments, her moth- 
 er called her and, as soon as she had left the door, to 
 my utter surprise, nine Federals rose from behind a 
 clump of bushes, not over forty yards from me and 
 fired at me. This was the first intimation I had of 
 their presence. I called to Bill to get out quick. We 
 sprang on our horses and dashed across the field and 
 the Federals yelled at us, "Oh, damn you, we'll eat 
 your breakfast for you." When we came on the road 
 leading to Blue Springs, we met Captain Todd, Lee 
 McMurty and Will Hulse. Hulse and I then rode in 
 iront and he exclaimed, stopping his horse, "Yon- 
 der is a damned Yankee kneeling in the brush," and 
 we both fired at him and then turned and went 
 back. At this time the Federals, in groups of fifteen 
 or twenty were scouring that country watching for 
 us, guarding all the fords and crossroads and the 
 houses of all our friends, which kept us constantly 
 on the lookout. After shooting at the Yankee, we 
 went to the house of a friend, Jim Woods, to see if 
 we could not have better luck getting our breakfast, 
 but, just as we got to Woods' yard, we found anoth- 
 er squad of Federals there ahead of us. We exchang- 
 ed a few shots with them and left and about ii o'- 
 
Three Years With Quantrell yj 
 
 clock, succeeded in getting something to eat at the 
 Widow Dillingham's. About this time, Cole Young- 
 er decided that he just must see his sweetheart, a 
 Miss Lizzie Brown who lived about two miles north- 
 west of Harrisonville, and so he persuaded Tom 
 Tally, Will Hulse, George Wigginton and George 
 Jackson and myself to go with him and act as his 
 bodyguard and to protect him while he talked to his 
 sweetheart. We stayed in this neighborhood for 
 about a week. Cole going to see his girl every day 
 and every night. We had no trouble on this trip, al- 
 though we were within two miles of three hundred 
 Federals who were located in Harrisonville. Going 
 back to Big Creek, we started across the prairie to 
 Hickory Grove, and when we had reached a high 
 point on the road leading from Kansas City to Lone 
 Jack, we saw a regiment of Federal soldiers, which 
 we afterwards learned was the Seventh Kansas Cav- 
 alry. As soon as they saw us, they started in pursuit 
 and followed us six miles across the prairie. When 
 we had reached the top of another ridge. Cole 
 Younger said, ''Hold up, boys, they have run a mile, 
 while we've only run a half. Hold your horses back 
 and save them for the dash in the woods." He and I 
 dropped back behind the boys, trying to hold them 
 in check and when we had gotten within half a mile 
 of the timber. Cole yelled, "Now give your horses 
 their heads." We soon were in the brush, when Cole 
 wheeled his horse and waved his hat and told them 
 now to come on, but they refused to follow us into 
 the woods. The next day Colonel Quantrell himself 
 took command and we went over to Pink Hill, and 
 
74 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 being informed that on Texas Prairie, which was 
 about ten miles distant, there was a company of Fed- 
 erals, we went in that direction, but when we got 
 there, we found that it was a regiment instead of a 
 company, and as soon as they saw us, they started 
 after us and followed us ten or twelve miles across 
 the Sni and on to Little Blue. When about a mile 
 from the Little Blue, having gotten over the brow 
 of a hill, Quantrell orde'red us to form in line, about 
 face and charge them. This checked them and they 
 turned and went back towards Lexington. We killed 
 several of them. We scattered that evening in order 
 to get our supper and while one of our men, Jim 
 Tucker, was eating his supper, they captured him. 
 They took him to where the company was camped 
 and kept him all night and the next morning about 
 daylight, Tucker and his guard were a little distance 
 from the company, when Tucker suddenly wheeled 
 on him, struck him with his fist, knocked him down 
 and dashing into the brush, escaped. They fired a 
 number of shots at him, but he was not struck, and 
 when he returned to camp, he composed a song, us- 
 ing the tune of that old negro song, "Run, nigger, 
 run, or the pat-er-ole'll catch you,'' and the chorus 
 of his song was: 
 
 Run, Jim run, or the Feds will cetch you, 
 They shot ten times and never tetched you. 
 We went from there over to the Missouri river at 
 a point between Wellington and Sibley and, during 
 the night, we saw a steamboat coming up the INIis- 
 souri river. We hitched our horses in the brush, and 
 concealed ourselves on the bank near a bend in the 
 
Three Years With Quantrell j$ 
 
 river. When the boat was opposite us, Quantrell hail- 
 ed the boat and ordered the captain to land or we 
 would sink the boat, and when she landed, we order- 
 ed the stage plank lowered and went aboard. We 
 found aboard about a dozen Kansas soldiers and a 
 good many negroes. The Kansas soldiers and the 
 negroes were paroled and, after taking a number of 
 horses, and throwing the Government supplies over- 
 board, we then let the boat and the passengers pro- 
 ceed on their way. This boat was called the Sam 
 Gatey. John Ross captured a very fine sorrel stallion 
 that was being shipped to a Federal officer at Kan- 
 sas City and gave him the name of the boat. 
 
 In September, 1863, Captain Bill Anderson and his 
 company joined us. At this time, the outrages com- 
 mitted by the Federal troops, which consisted most- 
 ly of Home Guards and Kansas Redlegs and Jay- 
 hawkers, beggars description. At this late day, it 
 seems impossible that human beings could have 
 been guilty of such merciless outrages as these men 
 mitted. Among the leaders of these bands were Jen- 
 nison, Jim Lane and a Captain Mead and I will only 
 attempt to give a few of their acts as an illustration 
 of their brutality and to further impress upon the 
 minds of my readers why we acted as we did. Cap- 
 tain Mead, with his band went to the home of Mrs. 
 Carter, a widow seventy years of age, and compelled 
 her, at the hour of 12 o'clock at night to ride fourteen 
 miles horseback, facing a bitter snowstorm, to the 
 town of Independence, where she was lodged in jail 
 for feeding rebel soldiers, her two boys being in the 
 Confederate Army. 
 
7^ Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 About this time, the Federal soldiers at Kansas 
 City, under the command of General Ewing, were 
 guilty of one of the most brutal and fiendish acts 
 that ever disgraced a so-called civilized nation. My 
 sister, Mrs. Charity Kerr and my sister-in-law, Mrs. 
 Nannie McCorkle, the widow of my brother, Jabez,. 
 went to Kansas City in a wagon, driving a yoke of 
 oxen, with a load of wheat to exchange it for flour, 
 the women then having all the buying to do. When 
 they had procured their flour and were ready to start 
 home, Anderson Cowgill, a neighbor, who had 
 known these girls all their lives, and the same man 
 who refused to speak to me when we paroled him at 
 Independence, saw these two girls and reported to 
 the authorities that these two women were rebels 
 and were buying flour to feed the bushwhackers. 
 They were immediately arrested and placed in jail 
 with some other girls, who had been arrested and 
 sentenced to be banished and here I copy the follow- 
 ing description of what occurred as given by Mrs, 
 Flora Stevens, as she stood at the grave of Josephine 
 Anderson and published in the Kansas City Post^ 
 under date of May 2, 1912: 
 
 "There were nine of these girls in the prison at 
 1409 Grand Avenue, when it fell. One of these was 
 Josephine Anderson. Her two sisters, Mollie, aged 
 sixteen, and Janie, ten years old, were also prisoners 
 with her, and it was these three especially that the 
 Union soldiers wanted to kill because they were sis- 
 ters of Bill Anderson, the guerrila. The others were 
 Mrs. Susan Vandiver, Mrs. Armenia Whitsett-Gil- 
 vey and Mrs. Christie McCorkle Kerr, all of whom 
 
\ 
 
 Three Years With Quantrell yj 
 
 were killed and Miss Mollie Cranstafif, now Mrs. 
 William Clay, Miss Sue Mundy, now Mrs. N. M. 
 Womacks of Blue Springs and Mrs. Nan Harris Mc- 
 Corkle. The last three escaped with serious injuries. 
 These girls, none of whom were more than twenty 
 years old, had been arrested and brought in by the 
 Union soldiers because they were Southern sympa- 
 thizers and were being held in prison while waiting 
 to be banished. When the soldiers heard that Bill 
 Anderson's sisters were in their power, they determ- 
 ined to kill them. The first inkling of the plot was 
 when Mrs. B. F. Duke, who now lives at 1717 Wa- 
 bash avenue, but who then had a boarding house at 
 Independence Avenue and Oak Street, heard some 
 of the soldiers who were staying at her house speak 
 of the progress they were making in tearing down a 
 wall. Mrs. Duke was a cousin of Bill Anderson, but 
 the soldiers did not know it and told her of their 
 scheme, and how they had removed a large section 
 of the foundation wall of the woman's prison. Gen- 
 eral Bingham, the owner of the building, had pro- 
 tested, they said, but it did not stop them. The build- 
 mg did not fall the first day, so more of the wall was 
 removed and it was at this time that Mrs. Duke 
 learned of it. She was beside herself with rage and 
 ordered all the soldiers from the house. With a num- 
 ber of friends she hurried to the military headquar- 
 ters and begged that the girls be taken from the 
 building before they were killed. Their pleadings 
 were in vain and an hour later the building fell. The 
 girls had been uneasy by hearing the people on the 
 floor below moving out their stock of groceries and 
 
7* Three Years With Quantrell '< 
 
 whisky which they took to a safe place. The plaster- 
 ing had been falling all day and the girls were in a 
 panic. Nan Harris and Mollie Anderson had just 
 gone out into the hall for a bucket of water, when 
 they heard cries from the other girls that the roof 
 was falling. The guard, evidently repenting at the 
 4ast moment, carried these two girls to safety. Janie 
 Anderson, who was the youngest, tried to escape 
 through a window, but a twelve pound ball that had 
 been chained to her ankle held her back and both her 
 legs were broken. The other girls went down with 
 the ruins. There were groans and screams for a long 
 time, and Josephine Anderson could be heard calling 
 for someone to take the bricks off her head. Finally 
 her cries ceased." 
 
 This foul murder was the direct cause of the fa- 
 mous raid on Lawrence, Kansas. We could stand no 
 more. Imagine, if you can, my feelings. A loved sis- 
 ter foully murdered and the widow of a dead brother 
 seriously hurt by a set of men to whom the name as- 
 sassins, murderers and cutthroats would be a compli- 
 ment. People abuse us, but, my God, did we not have 
 enough to make us desperate and thirst for revenge? 
 We tried to fight like soldiers, but were declared out- 
 laws, huntd under a black flag and murdered like 
 beasts. The homes of our friends burned, our aged 
 sires, who dared sympathize with us had been either 
 hung or shot in the presence of their famalies and all 
 their furniture and provisions loaded in wagons and 
 with our live stock taken to the state of Kansas. The 
 beautiful farming country of Jackson county, Cass 
 Countv and Johnson C'^'in^v w^ere worse than desert. 
 
Three Years With Quantrell yg 
 
 and on every hillside stood lone blackened chimneys, 
 sad sentinels and monuments to the memory of our 
 once happy homes. And these outrages had been 
 done by Kansas troops, calling themselves soldiers, 
 but a disgrace to the name soldier. And now our in- 
 nocent and beautiful girls had been murdered in a 
 most foul, brutal, savage and damnable manner. We 
 were determined to have revenge, and so, Colonel 
 Quantrell and Captain Anderson planned a raid on 
 Lawrence, Kansas, the home of the leaders, Jim Lane 
 and Jennison. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 We were all in camp in our headquarters on the 
 banks of the Sni. Colonel Quantrell and Captain 
 Anderson were getting the boys together for the raid 
 on Lawrence, Kansas. The day before they started 
 to Lawrence, Colonel Quantrell sent Andy Blount 
 with fifteen men down into Johnson County in order 
 to attract the Federal forces in that direction. After 
 the fifteen men left with Blount, there still remained 
 with Colonel Quantrell and Anderson about 150 
 men. On the morning of the 20th of August, Quan- 
 trell gave the order to break camp and march in a 
 southwesterly direction, and went over on the Big 
 Blue to a point south of Little Santa Fe, a town just 
 on the Kansas line. His entire march until he reach- 
 ed the Kansas line was through smoking ruins and 
 blackened fields. He halted in the woods all day and 
 just about dark he gave the order to mount and 
 crossed into Kansas at a point about ten miles south 
 
8o Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 of Little Santa Fe and turned directly west toward 
 the town of Lawrence, and, riding all night, the town 
 was reached just at daylight. At the entrance to the 
 town, there were a lot of tents in which were camped 
 a detachment of negro soldiers and a few white men. 
 The command halted here and someone fired a shot. 
 Immediately the negroes and white men rushed out 
 of their tents, the majority of them starting in the 
 direction of the river and some going in the direction 
 of town. The command was given to break ranks, 
 scatter and follow them. A few of the negroes 
 reached the river, plunging inta it, but none succeed- 
 ed in reaching the opposite shore. The troops then 
 dashed back up into the town, down the main street, 
 shooting at every blue coat that came in sight. Just 
 before entering the town Colonel Quantrell turned to 
 his men and said, "Boys, this is the home of Jim 
 Lane and Jennison; remember that in hunting us 
 they gave no quarter. Shoot every soldier you see, 
 but in no way harm a woman or a child." He dashed 
 ahead of his command down Main Street, firing his 
 pistol twice, dismounted from his horse and went in- 
 to the hotel, where he was met by the landlord, 
 whom he recognized as an old friend and immediate- 
 ly gave orders for the landlord not to be molested 
 and stayed in the hotel and guarded him. During all 
 this time, his command were busy hunting men with 
 blue clothes and setting fire to the town. Jim Lane 
 and Jennison were the ones wanted and some of the 
 boys dashed at once to Jim Lane's house, but;, 
 unfortunately for the world, did not find him. They 
 found his saber, which was very handsome, the scab- 
 
TOM LITTLE. 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 8i 
 
 bard being heavily gold-plated. In the parlor of 
 Lane's house, there were three pianos and the boys 
 recognized two of them as having belonged to South- 
 ern people in Jackson County, and a great many oth- 
 er things belonging to Southern people were found 
 in his house. Quantrell remained in Lawrence about 
 two hours and when he left, the town was in ashes 
 and 1^5 Jayhawkers were dead. Lane and Jennison 
 had made desolate the border counties of Missouri, 
 pillaged and burned homes, murdered Southern men, 
 msulted, outraged and murdered the wives and sis- 
 ters of these men. Quantrell and his command had 
 come to Lawrence to be avenged and they were. In 
 this raid, a few innocent men may have been killed 
 but this was not intentional. 
 
 As the command left the town, they discovered 
 a command of Federals coming in pursuit. The 
 whole face of the earth looked blue. One of Quan- 
 trell's men returned to the town and was literally 
 riddled with bullets. The command then turned 
 south, with the Federals still in close pursuit and 
 having gone about two miles, stopped at a big house. 
 There was no one at home, but the doors were open 
 and one of the rooms was fitted up as a doctor's of- 
 fice, a lot of bottles and medicine setting on the 
 shelves. The boys knocked the medicine all down 
 and soon the house was afire, a case of spontaneous 
 combustion. Tom Hamilton and another one of boys 
 were wounded in Lawrence; they were placed in as 
 ambulance and brought to the commnad. These were 
 placed with the advance guard of twenty men under 
 Dick Yeager, who was appointed to pilot the com- 
 
82 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 mand out. Before the horess had finished eating, the 
 pickets fired; the order was given to mount and go 
 west through a lane, the Federals getting closer all 
 the time. At the mouth of the lane, Quantrell gave 
 the command to form in line and, as the Federals 
 came in sight, coming through a corn-field, he order- 
 ed a charge, the Federals running back a short dis- 
 tance. He again fell back and the Federals crowded 
 right up. Some of the men becoming excited, broke 
 ranks and rushed to the advance o-uard. Ouantrell 
 immediately formed his remainder in line and gave 
 orders to shoot any man who attempted to pass. 
 When the men had been quited and formed in line 
 again, he said to them, "Now, if any of you intend to 
 break ranks again, do it now; if you stay with me 
 and act like men, I can get you out of this, but if you 
 are going to run, go now, but do not come back to 
 me." After this not a man broke ranks. The command 
 then marched in line of battle all day, the Federals 
 still following close and several times they started 
 to charge, but when they would hear Quantrell give 
 the command to about face, the Federals would al- 
 ways stop. Late in the evening, when within about 
 fiive or six miles of the little town of Auberry, Yea- 
 ger was seen to suddenly turn to the left. Quantrell 
 remarked, "Boys, there's something wrong, or Dick 
 Yeager would not have turned off." When the top of 
 the ridge was reached, there was a regiment of Fed- 
 erals formed in line of battle. They stood in line un- 
 til the entire command had passed, never offering to 
 make a move or fire a shot. If they had made a 
 charge while the other regiment was in the rear of 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 83 
 
 Quantrell and his command none of the command 
 would ever have escaped. About ten o'clock at night, 
 having reached a large pool of water, the command 
 was given to unsaddle and to hold our horses by the 
 bridles and let the meat grass and for none of us to 
 go to sleep. Dick Barry and I sat down on our sad- 
 dles and, not having closed our eyes for two days 
 and two nights, we both dropped oft to sleep and the 
 next thing we heard was the command to saddle and 
 mount. We sprang to our feet and our horses were 
 both gone and, just at this time, we heard some of 
 the boys say, "Here's a loose horse,'' I stayed with 
 the saddles and Dick soon returned with our horses. 
 We were soon mounted and rode all night long and, 
 at sun rise, we reached the head of Grand River in 
 Cass County, Missouri. From a ridge, we looked 
 back into Kansas and the whole face of the earth 
 was black with Federals following us. The two 
 wounded men were then hid in the woods, but the 
 Federals soon found them and killed them. We re- 
 mained here and rested our horses until the Federals 
 were within half a mile of us when we went across 
 the prairie to Big Creek. Late in the evening, I saw 
 some men to the right of the road in the edge of the 
 timber. I told Quantrell that they were Federals and 
 he said, "No, it's Andy Blount returning from John- 
 son county." I insisted that Blount did not have that 
 many men with him, but he insisted that he was 
 right and we moved right toward them. I remarked, 
 *'I reckon you can see their uniforms now and tell 
 who they are," to which he replied, "If you are so 
 damed. certain of it, ride out and see." I started to- 
 
S4 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 ward them in a gallop, two of them coming to meet 
 me, firing at me. Quantrell then remarked, "That'll 
 do, John; you are right. Come back." We then turn- 
 ed due east and they made a charge on us and, as we 
 crossed a little ravine, they fired a volley at us, but 
 struck none of us. In about a mile, having come to 
 the Big Creek timber, Quantrell said "Disband and 
 every man take care of himself." 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 I was truly glad when Colonel Quantrell gave 
 the command because I was well acquainted in that 
 country and wanted to get away from the command 
 for it looked to me as if every bush had a Yankee be- 
 hind it. I turned my horse into the brush about a 
 hundred yards from the Federals and about forty of 
 the boys started to follow me. I turned to them and 
 said, "Boys, this'll never do; they can follow this 
 bunch as well as they could the whole command, and 
 they'll be on us in twenty minutes." As soon as we 
 got to the creek we separated and seven of the boys 
 went with me down the creek in the water about fifty 
 yards and then coming out on the same side into the 
 brush. Going about lOO yards into the brush, I told 
 the boys to dismount and hold their horses by the 
 bridles. We had hardly dismounted, when we saw 
 the Federals going down the creek after the other 
 boys and we soon heard some firing, but I do not 
 think anyone was hurt. I was well acquainted with 
 this locality and told the boys that I knew who lived 
 there and, riding to the corn-field, some of the boys 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 85 
 
 got corn and fed their horses while the others watch- 
 ed. I very cautiously went around toward the house 
 and saw a man ai the barn, feeding his stock. I gave 
 him a signal and he came to the fence. As soon as he 
 recognized me, he exclaimed, "Great God, John, 
 haven't they got you yet?" I replied, "No, and they 
 will not get me.'' "Yes,, they will," he said, "this 
 country is full of them," to which I replied, "Well, if 
 they do, while they are getting me, I'll get some of 
 them.'' I then told him that we had not had a mouth- 
 ful to eat for two days and two nights. He said he 
 had plenty to eat, but nothing cooked, and for me to 
 go into the woods and he would have his women 
 cook us something to eat and he would bring it to us, 
 but not to make any light. In a short time the old 
 man came out and two of his girls with him, each 
 carrying a bucket or a basket and one of them a large 
 pot of coffee. After we had eaten our supper, I order- 
 ed the boys to saddle up, knowing that the Federals 
 would be there next morning. We crossed the road 
 leading from Pleasant Hill to Harrisonville and took 
 a by-road leading through the fields, and, just before 
 we came out on the main road, we heard the Federals 
 crossing a bridge on Big Creek. They were coming 
 directly towards us. W^e rode out into a corn field, 
 dismounted and held our horses until they had pass- 
 ed. We then rode across the road into another corn- 
 field and I told the boys to ride fast, which we did for 
 about two miles and then went into the Big Creek 
 bottom. At the lower end of the bottom, we crossed 
 Bi^ Creek at a cow ford. We then went into the 
 woods, where we hitched our horses and, having 
 
86 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 been in the saddle for three days and three nights, 
 without any sleep, we soon w^ent to sleep and did not 
 wake up until nine o'clock the next morning. That 
 day we secured food from a neighborning house and, 
 after dark, we rode out on the prairie where we could 
 see the lights from two Federal camps about a m^ile 
 apart. I told the boys that it would be dangerous for 
 us to attempt to go either to the right or left of these 
 camps and we decided to ride between and we were 
 not even halted. We then went over on th Little Blue 
 and stayed in the woods for several days. 
 
 About this time, there was issued by General 
 Ev^ing, in command of the Federal troops at Kansas 
 City, the famous Order No. ii, which was as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Headquarters District of the Border, 
 
 Kansas City, Mo., August 25, 1863. 
 
 First: All persons Hving in Ca§s, Jackson and Bates 
 Counties, Missouri, and in that part of Vernon County, in- 
 cluded in this district, except those living within one mile of 
 the city limits of Independence, Hickman's Mills, Pleasant 
 Hill and Harrisonville, and except those in that part of Kaw 
 Township, Jackson County, north of Brush Creek and west 
 of the Big Blue, embracing Kansas City and Westport, are 
 hereby ordered to move from their present places of residence 
 within 15 days from the date hereof. Those who within that 
 time establish their loyalty to the satisfaction of the com- 
 manding officer of the military station nearest their present 
 place of residence, will receive from him certificates stating 
 the facts of their loyalty and the names by whom it can be 
 shown. All who receive such certificates will be permitted to 
 remove to any military station in this district or to any part 
 of the State of Kansas, except all the counties on the eastern 
 border of the state. All others shall remain out of the district. 
 
 Officers commanding companies and detachments, serv- 
 ing in the counties named will see that this paragraph is 
 promptly obeyed. 
 
 Second : All grain or hay in the fields or under shelter in 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 87 
 
 the district from which the inhabitants are required to move 
 within reach of military stations, after the ninth day of Sep- 
 tember will be taken to such stations and turned over to the 
 proper officers there ; and report of the amount so turned over 
 made to the district headquarters specifying the names of all 
 loyal owners and the amount of such produce taken from 
 them. All grain and hay found in such district after the ninth 
 day of September next, not removed to such stations will be 
 destroyed. 
 
 (Signed) H. Hannans, Adjutant, by order 
 
 Brigadier-General E'wing, 
 
 The effect of this order meant utter ruin to aU 
 Southern citizens in this district. They were banish- 
 ed and robbed by the same order. No transportation 
 was prepared for them. Their horses, mules and cat- 
 tle had already been stolen and taken to Kansas 
 along with their buggies, carriages and wagons, but 
 fortunately it may be said, they did not have very 
 much left to move. 
 
 In September 1863, Captain Bill Anderson again 
 joined us and, after supplying ourselves with ammu- 
 nition and clothing, we all started south again, there 
 being about 150 men in both commands. We pro- 
 ceeded through southwest Missouri without meeting 
 and Federals until we reached Carthage, in Jasper 
 County. Having stopped near this town, we were 
 awakened, just before day, by the noise of moving 
 wagons. Colonel Quantrell immediately sent out 
 scouts, who reported that there were a company of 
 Federals moving north, and that they so greatly out- 
 numbered us that we decided not to molest them. 
 Going a little distance from this town, the boys 
 brought into our camp two men claiming to be 
 Southern men and Quantrell secured one of them a 
 
S8 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 guide. About dark, we left camp and came to the 
 load leading from Neosho to Fort Scott, on which 
 we traveled until about 9 or 10 o'clock that night. 
 Captain Todd rode up to me about that time and I 
 asked him where Quantrell was going and he told 
 me South. I then told him that we were going wrong 
 and that our new-found guide was leading us to 
 Fort Scott, Kansas, where there was a large force of 
 Federals. I was well acquainted with this part of the 
 country and knew what I was talking about. Quan- 
 trell sent for me and, after talking with him for 
 awhile, he told me to take the lead and, if I did not 
 show him the right way out of that country, he 
 would shoot me. I told him to command the men to 
 countermarch and, taking the lead with the advance 
 guard, went back along the road for three miles and 
 turning out of the road into a prairie, about 2 or 3 
 o'clock in the morning, we came to Reading's Mill 
 on Shoal Creek in Newton County. Quantrell knew 
 this place and, calling me to him, said, "John, you 
 do know this country, and I will not have to shoot 
 you. He then told me to go over to the mill and re- 
 connoitre. I took Allen Palmer with me. We rapped 
 on the door of the mill and one of the Redding boys 
 came to the door and, recognizing me, asked me 
 what I was doing there. I told him that I was with 
 a command and wanted to know if there were any 
 Federals in the country. He said none that he knew 
 of nearer than Neosho, which was twelve miles dis- 
 tant. He told us to go up into his corn-field, hitch 
 our horses and come back by the mill and get all the 
 flour and bacon we wanted. The next morning we 
 
Three Years With Quant rell 8g 
 
 had a fine breakfast, bread made up of flour and wa- 
 ter and twisted around a stick and cooked, broiled 
 bacon and coffee. We then went from there to Fvie 
 Mile Creek and there discovered a number of tracks 
 of horses and Ouantrell ordered us to follow them 
 and when we reached the bottom south of the Neosho 
 River we found ten or fifteen Federal soldiers guard- 
 ing some wagons loaded with lumber going toward 
 Baxter Springs. I sent word back to Colonel Quan- 
 Irell and he came forward and ordered us to follow 
 them. We captured the wagons as they were 
 crossing the creek, the men on the horses dashing up 
 the creek. Dave Poole took command of the advance 
 guard of twenty men and followed the Federals, 
 telling me to remain and inform Ouantrell of the di- 
 rection he had taken. We all then rushed up the 
 creek and to our utter surprise, we found a fort at 
 Baxter Springs. None of us had ever heard that 
 there was a fort there with a command of troops 
 stationed in it. While the boys were riding around 
 trying to get a shot at the gunners in the fort, Ouan- 
 trell himself discovered a company of Federals with 
 a wagon train, ambulance and buggies, who were 
 drawn up in line of battle on the prairie. We after- 
 wards learned that this was General Blount's body 
 guard of about two hundred men with nineteen wag- 
 ons, four ambulances and five buggies and a brass 
 band, that he had formed in line for the purpose of 
 marching down to the fort at Baxter Springs and to 
 have his band serenade them and take breakfast 
 with them. Ouantrell turned to me and told me to 
 get the boys away from the fort and to form in line. 
 
<^o Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 just as I had succeeded, the Federals fired from the 
 fort with their two cannon, one of the balls litterally 
 decapitating Dave Woods. Quantrell then rode be- 
 hind the lines and when he had reached the center, 
 rode out in front, taking oft his hat, placed it in the 
 bosom of his coat, touched his horse with his spur 
 and said, "Come on, boys," and we started toward 
 them in a run. When about seventy-five yards from 
 the Federals we went into a little branch and then 
 they fired on us, but did us no damage, none of our 
 men even hearing a bullet whistle. We then went at 
 them in our accustomed manner, yelling and shoot- 
 ing and they scattered across the prairie, running 
 in all directions. There was an ofiicer and a woman 
 in a buggy, driving a very handsome pair of bay 
 liorses. Several of us boys tried to catch them and 
 followed them about a mile and of course, we would 
 iiot shoot at them on account of the v/oman. The 
 v/oman w.'is holding the lines and the man whipping 
 the horses, and when they reached the main road, 
 we decided to let them go and turned back on the 
 prairie after the men. We really wanted the horses 
 worse than we did the Colonel. We followed these 
 soldiers for about three miles leaving most of them 
 on the prairie and there were only a few of them that 
 ever returned our fire. I galloped up to the side of a 
 Federal officer, who had his revolver in his hand 
 and commanded him to halt, but he only spurred his 
 horse the harder. I snapped my pistol at him six 
 times and discovered it was empty. I then struck 
 him over the head with my pistol. He fell from his 
 horse and I led his horse on with me. George Mad- 
 
Three Years With Quantrell gi 
 
 dox caught up with a yellow negro driving General 
 Blount's team. Blunt had left the buggy and mount- 
 ed a horse and escaped when he first saw us. The 
 team was an elegant pair of dun horses with docked 
 tails. When Maddox first covered the negro with 
 his pistol, the negro threw up his hands and said, 
 "Before you shoot me, I want to ask you a question.'^ 
 Maddox told him to ask it damned quick. He then 
 asked if Captain George Todd was in this command, 
 Maddox told him he was and then the negro said, 
 "Please don't shoot me until I see him." Maddox 
 then took the negro up to where the wagon train 
 was and told Captain Todd, and when Captain 
 Todd had gotten within sixty feet of the negro, 
 Todd exclaimed, "By God, it's Rube," and jumping 
 off of his horse, ran tip to him and shook hands with 
 him and was as delighted to see him as if he had 
 been a long-lost brother. Captain Todd then turned 
 to the men and said, "Boys, the first man that hurts 
 this nigger, I will kill." He then told us that dur- 
 ing the winter of 1862, when he had returned from 
 the South, where he had been with General Price 
 and was visiting his wife, who was staying at his 
 father's house in Kansas City, he was in the habit 
 of going to a barber shop, which was run by Rube, 
 who had for a number of years been known as a free 
 negro. After Captain Todd had been in Kansas 
 City several days, the Federal soldiers learned that 
 he was there and determined to capture him and 
 hang him, and some of them were discussing their 
 plans in Rube's barber shop. As soon as Rube 
 heard this, he immediately went to Captain Todd's 
 
$2 Three Year^ With Quantrell 
 
 lather's house and informed him of the Federal 
 plans, and told Captain Todd to wait until dark, 
 then come to his house and go into the cellar. He 
 stayed in this cellar for ten days. Rube feeding and 
 taking care of him and keeping constantly on the 
 lookout for the Federals, and one night assisted him 
 in getting out of Kansas City. After Captain Todd 
 had related to us these facts, none of the boys de- 
 sired to harm Rube and we took him on South with 
 .us. 
 
 John Koger, one of our men, while busily en- 
 gaged in examining the contents of a wagon, was 
 shot from the fort, three buckshot and an ounce ball 
 striking him in the back. It seemed that it was im- 
 possible to kill him, for at this time he already had 
 in his body five Federal bullets, and fully recovered 
 from these last wounds and lived until the fall 
 of 1913. 
 
 Bill Bledsoe was riding by the Federal band- 
 wagon when one of the members of the band fired 
 en him, mortally wounding him. The driver of the 
 l^andwagon immediately forced his horses into a 
 run. When Bledsoe fell from his horse, he said to 
 Fletch Taylor, "FJetch, that outfit have shot and 
 l-:illed me- take my two pistols and kill all of them." 
 Taylor immediately started in pursuit of the band- 
 wagon and, in about a half a mile, one of the wheels 
 ■came oft* of the bandwagon, throwing the occupants 
 'Out, and Taylor dashed up to them and carried out 
 Bledsoe's dying request, and then returned to Bled- 
 soe and found him dead. 
 
 When T returned from chasing the Federals. I 
 
Three Years With Quantrell gj 
 
 met Colonel Quantrell coming from the wagon train, 
 having in front of him, on his horse, a five-gallon 
 demijohn of brandy that had been taken from Gen- 
 eral Blount's buggy. When he saw me, he said, 
 in a vei*>' gruff manner, "J^^" ^ thought you always 
 knew that whenever a pilot led me into trouble, I 
 always shoot him," and thinking that he was in 
 earnest, I drew my revolver, remarking, *'If you can 
 shoot quicker than I can, shoot.'' He laughed and 
 said, "Put that thing up, you damned fool; I'm go- 
 mg to shoot you in the neck," and handed me the 
 demijohn of brandy. After shooting myself in the 
 neck wUh the brandy, I rode up to a wagon that had 
 already begun to burn and, seeing a small trunk in 
 it, I threw it on the ground and breaking it open, I 
 found it to contain a very handsome Federal colo- 
 nel's uniform, a pair of fine cavalry boots, six white 
 shirts and a pair of Colt's revolvers. Wrapping all 
 of it except the revolvers in an oil-cloth, which I tied 
 on the horse that I had taken fro ma Yankee, I rode 
 on to another wagon where I found a fine saddle be- 
 longing to General Blount and I also found in the 
 buggy General Blount's saber. I gave the saber and 
 saddle to Colonel Quantrell and he afterwards pre- 
 sented the saber to General Sterling Price. General 
 Blount was in the regular army, but when we exam- 
 ined his flag, which we captured here, we found sew- 
 ed around the x\merican eagle on the flag a border 
 of black silk, which meant no quarter. 
 
 During this day we captured the notorious ne- 
 gro, Jack Mann, whose history we all well knew; 
 havincf been raised in Jackson Countv, he was well 
 
g4 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 acquainted with the locality and with all of the citi- 
 zens and in 1861 he ran away from his owner and 
 joined the Kansas redlegs and acted as their guide 
 in a number of their murdering raids into Missouri. 
 He was exceedingly insulting to the Southern peo- 
 ple and especially so to the women and old men and, 
 on one occasion, he led a squad of Kansas redlegs to 
 the house of Dick Maddox, who was with us and, 
 finding no one at home but Mrs. Maddox, this negro 
 entered the house with his white associates and, 
 cursing and abusing her all of the time. In ransack- 
 ing the house, this black fiend found Maddox's wed- 
 ding suit and, undressing before Mrs. Maddox, put 
 the wedding suit on and, striding up before her, said, 
 "How do you like my looks with this wedding suit 
 on?" He had been guilty of a number of other simi- 
 lar offenses. When we captured him, Maddox, who 
 was with us, wanted to shoot him at once, but Quan- 
 trell told him to wait, and that we would attend to 
 his case later on. 
 
 After destroying this Vv^agon train, we took an 
 ambulance with four mules and let Rube, Captain 
 Todd's pet nigger, drive his buggy. We put John 
 Koger and Bill Bledsoe's corpse in the ambulance. 
 When we had gone about ten miles, we stopped and 
 buried Bill Bledsoe in an old cabin. While we were 
 burying Bill, we left Will McGuire to guard the ne- 
 gro Jack Mann, who had made some insulting re- 
 marks to IMcGuire, who could stand it no longer and, 
 drav/ing his revolver, shot him between the e3-es. 
 When Dick Maddox saw McGuire shoot the negro, 
 he drew his revolver and started to shoot McGuire, 
 
Three Years With Quantrell p5 
 
 because he had not let him shoot the black fiend. 
 About sundown that evening, we came upon a wag- 
 on train of Pin Indians, who were supposed to be in 
 the service of the Federal government and who, with 
 the Kansas Jayhawkers, had killed and scalped a 
 number of women and children. We charged on the 
 Indians and, in a short timiC, they were all good In- 
 dians. Leaving this place, we marched until the 
 next day when we came in sight of a camp of Pi;;i 
 Indians, containing 800 or a 1000 Indians and, know- 
 ing that they were too strong for us to attack while 
 in camp, we went into camp near them, raising Gen- 
 eral Blount's flag in the hope that they would scatter 
 and we could get at them. Captain Todd, while at- 
 tempting to kill a beef, was hurt by his horse falling 
 with him and he was placed in the ambulance for 
 two or three days. We had no more real fighting for 
 several days, occasionally "rounding up" a stray In- 
 dian and a stray nigger, and one morning. Bill Tol- 
 ler came across three armed negroes. They fired on 
 him, shooting him through the arm, and he returned 
 the fire, killing one of the negroes. We laughed at 
 Bill a great deal about letting a nigger shoot him 
 and get away. Having camped on a small stream, 
 George Wigginton and I crossed a little branch and, 
 taking the saddles from off our horses, were soon 
 asleep. Quantrell not looking for any danger from 
 the south, failed to place any pickets on that side of 
 our camp and, just at daylight, we were awakened 
 by the blast of a bugle, which was followed by a 
 quick command from Colonel Quantrell, "Mount 
 and form line." Wigginton and I sprank to our 
 
g6 Three Years With Quantiell 
 
 horses without taking time to sadle them and rode 
 into line. Just then, a soldier rode in sight and yell- 
 ed, "Don't fire boys; we are friends." We then learn- 
 ed that when the bugler sounded the charge their 
 commander came to the ambulance where John Ro- 
 ger was and asked him who we were. He then told 
 them who we were and not to lire, that if they did 
 there would be five hundred men killed. When learn- 
 ing that we were Confderates, Colonel Mcintosh, 
 their commander, rode forward and we learned that 
 it was a part of the famous Confederate Indian bri- 
 gade, known as Cooper and Sandwadie's command, 
 which was composed of Cherokee, Chickasaw and 
 Choctaw Indians and a few white men. Colonel 
 Mcintosh had with him on this occasion 1,500 sol- 
 diers and had us ocmpletely surrounded. Their 
 scouts had reported that we were coming that way 
 and, as we were carrying General Blount's flag, 
 wearing blue overcoats and having with us a Feder- 
 al ambulance, it was very natural to mistake us for 
 Federals. After talking awhile with Colonel Ouan- 
 trell. Colonel Mcintosh left pilots with us and invit- 
 ed us to come to their camp, which was about fifteen 
 miles away. We soon started to their camp and were 
 given a hearty welcome. The commander issued ra- 
 tions for us and our horses and we visited with them 
 five or six days and then proceeded south across Red 
 River to Sherman, Texas, where we remained two 
 days and went into camp about two miles from the 
 town of Sherman, where we remained for two weeks 
 and then went into the neighborhood of George- 
 town, on the south of Red River and remained in 
 
Three Years With Quantrell gy 
 
 camp until the spring of 1864. During this winter, 
 we spent our time hunting, fishing and going to 
 dances and during Christmas week, quite a number 
 of us attended a big ball in Sherman, having been 
 mvited by the young people of Sherman. We also 
 received an invitation to visit General McCullousrh 
 at Bonham, Texas. During Christmas week. Cap- 
 tain Bill Anderson married a Southern lady in Sher- 
 man, all of us attending the wedding. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 On the 20th of March, 1864, we broke camp on 
 Red River and started back north. Colonel Bard 
 Cockrell, a brother of the fighting General Francis 
 M. Cockerell, who for so many years, was United 
 States Senator from Missouri, accompanied us. 
 When we reached Cooper and Sandwadie's we stop- 
 ped and stayed with them two days and Colonel' 
 Mcintosh came wath us as far north as the Canadian 
 River. When we reached the Arkansas River, which 
 was very high, after waiting two or three days for 
 the water to run down and our provisions running 
 short, Quantrell said we could wait no longer, but 
 would have to swin it and as he was riding a good 
 liorse, he would cross first, but for not more than two 
 of us to enter the river at once. He urged his horse 
 into the river and reaching the other side in safety, 
 he rode down to two log cabins and, finding two 
 hogs in one of them, he fastened the door, riding* 
 back to the bank, he called to us "Hurry up, boys, 
 I've got a good supper for you over here." When 
 
g8 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 we had crossed, we killed the hogs, built a fire in 
 the cabin and soon had burnt and scorched pork for 
 supper. On the third day, after crossing the Arkan- 
 sas River, we came to the log cabin where we had 
 buried Bill Bledsoe. We found the cabin torn down 
 and that wolves had eaten all the flesh from his 
 body. We again reinterred his bones. Near this cab- 
 in, we also found the bare skull of the negro, Jack 
 Mann, which we could identify by its thickness and 
 2 round hole in it. Here Colonel Quantrell told me 
 to take the lead as I was well acquainted with the 
 country from there on. We crossed the Neosho Riv- 
 er at Gilstrap's ferry and, as we reached the edge of 
 Buckhardt's prairie, we saw five men, who were 
 Southern men and, mistaking us for Federals, they 
 ran into the woods. Colonel Cockrell, who was wear- 
 ing his Confederate uniform, said he would ride into 
 the woods and talk to them, but they, still thinking 
 that he was a Federal in disguise, fired on him, se- 
 verly wouding him in the shoulder. We had neith- 
 er feed for ourselves or our horses and Colonel Cock- 
 lell, who was very sore from his wound, said he 
 could not ride and would have to stop. Quantrell 
 told me that I would have to stay with him, which I 
 very politely declined to do. He then said he would 
 force me to stay, and I told him that as soon as he 
 got out of sight, I would leave. Colonel Cockrell 
 then decided that he could probably ride and we 
 saddled his horse and he came on through with us. 
 We reached South Grand River in Bates County 
 and, learning that there was a company of Federals 
 guarding the ford, we turned down the river and, 
 
Three Years With Quantrell gg 
 
 reaching a point three miles below the ford at night, 
 we made our horses swim the river. We stayed on 
 the bank until morning, drying our blankets and 
 clothes. When we came in sight of aDyton in Cass 
 County, we saw some Federal soldiers there. We 
 rode on and finally one of them rode out toward us. 
 Will McGuire rode out to meet him and the Federal 
 asked him what command we were. McGuire, draw- 
 ing his revolver, told him we were Southern soldiers 
 and he would have to go with us. 
 
 At this time, neither men or horses had had a 
 mouthful of food for four days. We then reached a 
 neighborhood where the Federals had left a few 
 houses standing, where we succeeded in getting 
 getting something to eat. I rode up to a lady's house 
 and she told me that she could give me something 
 to eat but had no feed for our horses and then she 
 started in to frying ham and eggs, and I do not think 
 that before or since in my life I have ever smelt any- 
 thing as good as the ham and eggs did cooking. 
 When we reached Johnson County, we learned that 
 there were four hundred Federals at Chapel Hill. In 
 passing a farmhouse, wc saw two horses belonging 
 to Federals officers. Two of the boys unhitched the 
 horses, and left the officers unmolested. We started 
 to go into the timber and when we were within about 
 half a mile of it, the horses of Dave Hilton, George 
 Wigginton, Nathan Carr and myself stopped and 
 refused to go another step. They were too weak and 
 poor to travel farther. Some of the boys road for- 
 ward and told Quantrell and he came back and said 
 it would not do to leave us there afoot. We took the 
 
100 Three Years With Quantrel! 
 
 saddles off of our horses and, leaving them on the 
 prairie, we carried our saddles and blankets into the 
 woods where we stayed all night. We stayed in the 
 woods three or four days, Colonel Quantrell having 
 left us and, at night we started out to find us some- 
 thing to eat and, after traveling for some time in the 
 dark, we came to a house and I left the boys in the 
 road and went to the door. After knocking several 
 times, a lady raised the window and asked who was 
 there. I asked how far it was to Chapel Hill and who 
 lived there. She told me and I knew her husband. He 
 came to the door and recognizing me, said he would 
 look for something for us to eat, but he was afraid 
 to strike a light. He soon returned with half of a boil- 
 ed ham, a big loaf of home-made light-bread and a 
 jar of buttermilk and in a very few minutes we had 
 finished our lunch. He then gave us a large piece of 
 dried beef each, telling us that that Vv^ould keep u.s 
 from starving. We would go to sleep walking along 
 the road and, coming into a piece of timber, suppos- 
 ing ourselves well into the woods, we dropped down 
 and went to sleep and did not wake up until 8 o'clock 
 the next morning, when we found that we were wit^.- 
 in twenty or thirty feet of a public road. We then 
 came out on the prairie and saw some houses we rec- 
 ognized and went to the house of the Widow Hill, 
 the mother of Wood and Tuck Hill. We approached 
 the house from the rear and Mrs. Hill came out on 
 the porch and ran to us and told us to get away quick, 
 that there were three hundred Federal soldiers camp- 
 ed in her pasture ; there were five or six in her house 
 at that time. We then went down the road leading 
 
Three Years With Quantrell loi 
 
 to the Sni. By this time our supply of dried beef was 
 exhausted and we stopped at a house on the edge of 
 the timber and got something to eat and learned 
 where some of the other boys were. The next morn- 
 ing, we went to Joe Hook's. Three of us were bare- 
 footed. At Mr. Hook's house, there were three young 
 ladies, his two daughters and a Miss Wayman. Miss 
 W^ayman laughingly asked us what size boots we 
 wore and told us to come back there the next night. 
 We left and went from there to Dick Kinney's and 
 found that he was also hiding in the woods. We 
 stayed with Dick in the woods that night and the 
 next night returned to Joe Hook's, where the young 
 ladies presented us with a nice pair of boots and 
 yarn socks each. They had been to Lexington that 
 day and bought them. Being again among friends, 
 we stayed in this neighborhood for ten or twelve 
 days, always using the same bedroom at night — the 
 woods. George Wigginton, Dave Hilton, George 
 Langdon and I went down into Lafayette County 
 and on down to Harlan on the Missouri River, where 
 Hilton's mother, two sisters and little brother lived, 
 her house having been burned in Jackson County, 
 and she having been ordered to leave there by the 
 militia. Dave remained with his mother and sisters 
 and the rest of us went to John Wigginton's, near 
 Waverly, his house also having been burned in 
 Fackson County and he left under Order No ii. 
 About this time George Langdon decided to go 
 home, which was north of Rocheport in Boone 
 County. We helped him secure a skiff and saw him 
 start down the Missouri River. T afterwards saw 
 
102 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 him at his home after the fight at Centralia. George 
 and I stayed at his father's, or rather, in the woods 
 near there until the leaves were out again, and I 
 went up to Joe Chrisman's, and he loaned me a 
 good horse and bridle. George found him a horse 
 and then we went on into Jackson County to find the 
 boys. We were both riding bareback when we met 
 Bill Yowell and he told us where we could find two 
 good saddles hid in the woods. We found the sad- 
 dles and we were ready for business again. Riding 
 through Jackson County one night between the Sni 
 and Tabo Creek, we rode right into a company of 
 Federals who were asleep. We put spurs to our 
 horses and dashed through. They opened fire on us 
 and we could hear them firing after we were a mile 
 away. We stayed around in Jackson County for 
 several weeks, when we learned that Dave Poole 
 was up on Tabo with about forty men. We joined 
 them and then Dave decided to make another visit 
 to his Dutch friends near Concordia, A short time 
 before this some of the boys had captured a Federal 
 flag, which we took with us, having a man to ride 
 at our head, carrying it. When we had gotten with- 
 in a quarter of a mile of the store, one of the militia 
 saw us and recognizing Poole started to give the 
 alarm. Some of our boys captured him and hung 
 him to a stake on a rail fence. Poole rode up in 
 front of the store and the old Dutchman, who owned 
 the store, came out and seeing the Federal flag and 
 taking us for Federal soldiers, exclaimed, "Oh, py 
 golly, we sendt a company and now it is come al- 
 ready yet. Now, we get that tamned Davy Poole; 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 103 
 
 he's up on Tabo mit one leg broke. We take the 
 company and go up in that Tabo brush and get him. 
 He is vun tamned bad man ; he come down here vun 
 morning before breakfast und kicked me right be- 
 fore mine face and tell me my wife is vun bad 
 woman." Dave Poole looked at him a minute and 
 said, "Damn your Dutch soul, I'm Dave Poole that 
 you're going after. Now, where's your money?" 
 The old Dutchman threw up both hands, exclaiming, 
 "I am vun of the bestest men you ever saw. I never 
 done noddings wrong in all my life yet; I don't got 
 3ome money." Poole replied, "Yes, you have, and 
 get it quick. The fellow out here in the road told 
 me you had money." "Who told you I had some 
 money?" the Dutchman asked. Dave said, "Come 
 out here and I'll show you," and, leading the Dutch- 
 man out in the road to where the man was tied to the 
 fence-stake, he said, "That's the fellow that told me 
 you had the money." The old Dutchman began to 
 throw his hands around, exclaiming, "Oh, mine Gott, 
 Mr. Poolie, my money's upstairs in my black britches 
 pocket in a little rag tied up." While Poole was 
 having fun with this Dutchman, the rest of the 
 militia had gotten to the block house. We went 
 back upon the Sni and about sixty of us met at an 
 appointed place on the Sni, Captain George Todd 
 being in command. Colonel Quantrell, soon after 
 we had returned from the South, had taken with him 
 Jim Little, John Barker, Tom Harris. Dave Hilton 
 and Tom Evans, and, crossing the Missouri River 
 at Arrow Rock, in Saline Countv, went into Howard 
 
2 04 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 County, where he remained all summer until after 
 Price's raid. 
 
 At this time there was stationed in Indepen- 
 dence the Colorado troops, a regiment of Federal 
 cavalry, who had made repeated threats that if ever 
 they met us, they would exterminate our whole com- 
 mand. Captain Todd ordered us to go to a point on 
 the Independence and Harrisonville road, where we 
 cut the telegraph wires, taking several feet of it into 
 the woods, knowing that this would bring the Fed- 
 erals out to hunt us. We went into the woods oppo- 
 site the Widow Moore's place. In front of this place, 
 and just across the road from where we were, there 
 was an open field. W^e stationed pickets on the road 
 and having waited until 2 o'cl ..:k, Captain Todd and 
 Lee McMurty crossed the road, going up to Mrs. 
 Moore's house and hitching their horses to the yard 
 fence. Shortly after they had entered Mrs. Moore's 
 house our pickets came in and told us that there were 
 about twenty Federals coming and we supposed 
 that this was all there were of them. As soon as 
 they saw the two horses hitched to the fence, they 
 started in a gallop. Todd and Mcj\Iurty ran out, 
 springing on their horses and started down the field, 
 the Federals following them in the road. Lieuten- 
 ant Dick Yeager ordered us to charge. We gained 
 on the Federals and they left the road and went into 
 the brush. Yeager then commanded us to dismount 
 and follow them. Just as we had dismounted, we 
 heard someone give the command, "Charge," and, 
 looking back, we saw the rest of the Colorado com- 
 pany coming after us in a run. Yeager immediately 
 
Three Years With Quantrell io$ 
 
 commanded us to remount, about face and charge 
 them. We rushed at them and threw them, wheeling 
 our horses, we charged them again and in that open 
 field this was repeated seven times, both commands 
 wheeling and charging. This lasted until the Feder- 
 als were out of ammunition and, to their credit it can 
 be said that they were the bravest soldiers we had 
 encountered. They had fought fearlessly and desper- 
 ately till they had emptied their last pistol, but they 
 shot too low, only wounding one of our men, but 
 killing seven horses for us and wounding six of sev- 
 en more. We killed thirty-seven of them and capt- 
 ured three of their horses. After the Federals had 
 retreated one of the boys remarked to me, "John look 
 at 3'our hat," and taking my hat off I discovered a 
 bullet hole through it and I also discovered two bul- 
 let holes through my coat under my left arm and 
 one in front of my saddle. The only man we had 
 wounded v/as Ike Flannery. He was shot under the 
 right shoulder-blade, the ball passing through his 
 body and tearing away his left nipple. Not having 
 any physician with us, some of the boys took charge 
 of him, keeping his wound well bathed with cold wa- 
 ter and in thirteen days he had recovered and was 
 ready to go with us again. We took a number of 
 the pistols that the enemy were using which were a 
 very large caliber pistol, known as the French Dra- 
 goon pistol and we then discovered why they had 
 not killed more of us. These pistols were very heavy 
 at the muzzle and would undershoot and none of our 
 best marksmen could shoot them with any accuracy. 
 
io6 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 In two weeks, we left our camp in Jackson Coun- 
 ty and rode to Arrow Rock in Saline County. There 
 was a company of Federals stationed at Arrow 
 Rock and as soon as they saw us approaching, they 
 hastily departed from the town, going up the Mis- 
 souri River. They fired back at us several times, 
 wounding Dick Yeager. We secured a conveyance 
 and took him up near Frankfort and kept him in the 
 woods near the home of Ike Flannery's father, who 
 was a refugee from Jackson County, and in about 
 two weeks afterwards a company of Federal soldiers 
 came down from Marshall and killed him. AVe re- 
 turned to Jackson County from Arrow Rock and 
 again went into hiding on the Sni and the Blue. At 
 this time there were no people living on the farms 
 m Jackson County, but near the towns there were a 
 few Union men still on the farms. We found provis- 
 ions hid in the woods that our friends had placed 
 there for us. One night Captain Todd, Lee McMur- 
 try, Bill Hulse, Allen Palmer, Payne Jones and I 
 lode across to the East Blue and when we had reach- 
 ed the farm of an old man by the name of Shepherd, 
 the Federals fired on us from ambush but the only 
 damage they did was to shoot Lee McMurtry's horse 
 through the nose. We returned the fire, but, on ac- 
 count of the darkness could not tell with what efifect. 
 We started to run when McMurtry's horse refused 
 to follow us, but was plunging, snorting and blow- 
 ing the blood from its nostrils. Lee yelled out, 
 "Hold on, boys, my horse is shot." Some of us caught 
 
MARY ANN WIGGINTON. 
 
Three Years With Quantrell loj 
 
 his bridle rein and, riding around, we went back ta 
 where the remainder of the boys were. 
 
 On the 23rd day of August, 1864, John Mead, 
 who was a new recruit, started with me to my uncle, 
 John VVigginton's, to secure pistol caps that my 
 cousin Mollie Wigginton had brought from Illinois. 
 
 Her brother, Will Wigginton, had been with 
 General Price in the South and had been captured 
 and placed in prison at Alton, Illinois. He and thir- 
 teen others had escaped from the prison by digging 
 under the foundation with table knives. They would 
 lie on their backs and dig, putting the dirt in their 
 pockets and afterwards scattering it. Will worked 
 in this position so long that he wore all the hair from 
 the back of his head. They finally succeeded in escap- 
 ing from Alton, being assisted by a guard. Will re- 
 mained in the state of Illinois and wrote to his sis- 
 ter, Mollie, that he could furnish us with all the arms 
 we might want. Mollie communicated this fact to 
 me and I told her it was no trouble for us to se- 
 cure all the arms we wanted from the Federals, but 
 we did have trouble in getting pistol caps. Mollie 
 immediately told her friends she had decided to' 
 make a visit to Illinois and was several days busily 
 engaged in packing her trunk, in which she had a 
 false bottom made. Leaving for Illinois and, taking 
 her trunk with her, she visited Will and other rela- 
 tives for about a week and when she returned to Mis- 
 souri, there v^rere 35,000 pistol caps between the two 
 bottoms of her trunk. Uncle John, at this time, as 
 had been said, was living in Lafayette County, Mis- 
 souri. When Mead-^and I approached his house, we 
 
Jo8 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 saw a command of Federal soldiers approaching and 
 they had seen us. We wheeled our horses and started 
 back through a hemp field, the Federals pursuing us. 
 When we reached a ravine in the hemp-field, I told 
 Mead to ride on and throw the riders off of the fence 
 and I would stay and fire at the Federals and check 
 them. After firing five or six shots, I dashed up to 
 where IMead w^as and found him sitting on his horse 
 trembling and never having touched the fence. I 
 threw the rider off of the fence which my mare jump- 
 ed and we then turned into the brush, when I 
 stopped my horse and Mead began to yell t o me, 
 "Come on, for God's sake!" to which I replied, "In 
 this kind of brush I am not afraid of the whole Fed- 
 eral army." The Federals then left us and returned 
 to Uncle John's house and, calling him out, told him 
 that they had been sent from Sedalia to kill him, 
 knowing that he had a son with Quantrell and had 
 been feeding and harboring the bushwhackers. They 
 seized him and started out of the house with him. 
 His aged wife and his daughter clung to him until 
 they had reached the yard when the soldiers rough- 
 ly jerked them back and riddled him with bullets, 
 utterly ignoring the cries and pleas of the two wo- 
 men. This was another relative of mine whose foul 
 murder I was called upon to revenge. 
 
 In three or four days, George W^igginton and 
 I visited his mother and sister and, as we started to 
 leave, we secured a number of the caps and, riding 
 dovv^i into the hem]) field, we found six negroes cut- 
 ting hemp and, dismounting from my horse, I told 
 one of the negroes to give me the cradle and let me 
 
Three Years With Quantrell log 
 
 show him how to cut hemp. Suddenly the two ne- 
 groes looked up and said to me, "Young master, is 
 dem some of your men coming yonder?'' and I saw 
 a company of Federals pursuing us. Not having any 
 desire to longer cut hemp, I mounted my horse and 
 we dashed through the field into the woods, the Fed- 
 erals firing at us, and Wigginton and I joined the 
 other boys. In the latter part of August, 1864, sixty- 
 eight of us went to a point between Independence 
 and Wellington, and, crossing the Missouri River, 
 the men going in skiffs and leading our horses, we 
 entered Clay County. Going through Ray County 
 and down through Carroll County on to Keytesville, 
 Ihe county seat of Chariton County. From Keytes- 
 ville, we went south, crossing the east fork of the 
 Chariton at Switzler's Mill into Howard County and 
 going between the towns of Glasgow and Roanoke, 
 we came to the Wilcoxson place, west of. Fayette. 
 During this entire march, we had traveled only at 
 night. Procuring our breakfast at the Wilcoxson 
 place, we went on into Boone County and, when 
 about six miles from the town of Rocheport, on the 
 Rocheport and Sturgeon road, at a point known as 
 Goslin's Lane, we saw a train of about sixteen 
 wao:ons with fifteen Federals in front and about six- 
 ty in the rear going in the direction of Rocheport. 
 We dropped out of sight under a hill and, when 
 about half of them had passed Gosline's house, we 
 dashed on them and they divided, fleeing in utter 
 confusion, going towards Fayette, Sturgeon, Roche- 
 port and Columbia. I followed for quite a distance 
 those going north and, being unable to capture any 
 
110 Three Years With Quantrell ' '' 
 
 more of them, I returned to the wagon train, which 
 was being burned. As I rode up to the wagon train, 
 Dave Poole called to me, saying, "John, I just killed 
 the damnedest longest yellow nigger I ever saw; he 
 looks to me like he's nine feet long. Come and look 
 at him." [ went with him and saw lying near a wag- 
 on a negro with a blue uniform on and I agreed with 
 E>ave that he was the tallest man I had ever seen. In 
 fchis little skirmish we killed twenty-five of the Fed- 
 erals without the loss of a single man. 
 
 We then turned back west into Howard County 
 and, at the John R. White farm, between Franklin 
 and Rocheport, we were joined by Captain Ander- 
 son and, in a few days, Captain Tom Todd and forty 
 men, and Captain Thrailkill with sixteen men, join- 
 ed us. And then to our delight, Colonel Quantrell, 
 with his friends who had been with him in this coun- 
 ty, came to us. The officers then held a consultation 
 in regard to attacking Fayette. All were in favor of 
 ft except Quantrell, with whom Colonel Cale Per- 
 kins sided. He told the other officers there. was no 
 use in attacking men in brick houses and log cabins 
 with only side arms; that if we did, we would only 
 succeed in getting some of our men killed and 
 wounded and we well knew that if any of our wound- 
 ed boys fell into the hands of the Federals they 
 would be murdered and insisted that we let Fayette 
 alone and the facts afterwards demonstrated that 
 Quantrell was right, but the majority of the officers 
 being against him, on the 24th of September, we 
 started for Fayette. Here was a command of Feder- 
 als under Colonel Reeves Leonard, who were fortifi- 
 
Three Years With Quantrell in 
 
 ed in the courthouse and the college building and on 
 a hill southwest of the college. They had fortifica- 
 tions built of logs. When we reached the creek south- 
 east of town, we halted and John B. Dickerson, who 
 now lives in the town of Fayette, and for a number 
 of years has been City Marshal, was asked to take 
 the lead and pilot us through the town, but John de- 
 murred, saying that his father and mother were liv- 
 ing in Fayette and that the Federals would burn 
 their home and murder his father and he recom- 
 mended that Captain Tom Todd, who was also well 
 acquainted with the town, take the lead. Captain 
 Todd, taking the lead, the command, "Forward, 
 march" was given and we dashed into the town up 
 the street leading from the graveyard to the court- 
 house square and when we reached the corner of the 
 square, we turned west one block, then turned south 
 a block, then back again, all of us riding at the top of 
 our speed and were passing down a side street when 
 the Federals from the court house poured a perfect 
 volley into us. On of these bullets struck Lee Mc- 
 Murtry under the left eye, giving him a severe flesh 
 wound, blinding him for the time being and he fell 
 from his horse. I caught his horse, led it back to him 
 and, assisting him to mount, I led his horse down a 
 side street to a pasture near where the Fayette High 
 School is now situated. The remainder of our com- 
 mand went on up the street leading toward the town 
 of Glasgow where the Federals had log fortifica- 
 tions. When I reached the pasture I there found 
 Colonel Quantrell with Jim Little, who had received 
 a bad wound in the right arm. I left Mc]\Iurtry with 
 
112 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 Quantrell and started up north for the town where 
 1 could hear a great deal of firing. Quantrell called 
 to me and asked me where I was going, to which I 
 leplied, "To help the boys.'' He said, "Come on back, 
 there's no use trying to shoot through brick walls 
 and logs with pistols." I then turned ni}' horse and 
 rode back to where he was. In a few moments the 
 rest of the command came back, having failed to dis- 
 lodge the Federals and only killing four of them. 
 We had five men killed and several severely wound- 
 ed. One of our best men, 01 Johnson was shot 
 through the hips. We placed him on a pillow on a 
 saddle and led his horse six or eight miles from Fay- 
 ette in the neighborhood of Washington Church and 
 placed him in the woods near the farm of Jeff Payne 
 and Mr. Payne's two daughters. Miss Pollie, now 
 the widow of A. J. Kirby, a Confederate soldier and 
 her sister. Miss Letitia, now the widow of Robert 
 Baskett, carried him food and water and that splen- 
 did Southern gentleman, the late Dr. W. C. Harvey, 
 of Roanoke, at the risk of his own life, visited him 
 dail3\ 01 only lived five days and, just before he di- 
 ed, the doctor having told him that there was no 
 hope for him, he wrote a long letter to his mother, 
 who was at that time living in Jackson County, and 
 Dr. Harvey sent it to her. 
 
 Quantrell left us at Fayette, going back into 
 Boon's Lick Township and taking Jim Little with 
 him. The rest of us w^ent up towards Roanoke, some 
 of us passing through the town, and that night we 
 camped on Silver Creek near Mt. Airy. 
 
 The next day we passed within a few miles of 
 
CAPTAIN BILL ANDERSON. 
 
Three Years With Quantrell iij 
 
 Huntsville where there was a company of Federals. 
 Captain Anderson wanted to go in and attack them, 
 but Captain Todd, who was in command, refused, 
 saying he had enough experience in trying to shoot 
 through brick walls with pistols. That night we 
 camped near Renick and the next day we went into 
 the woods southeast of Centralia in Boone County. 
 
 Captain Anderson wanted us to go into the 
 town of Centralia. but Todd refused to do it, so An- 
 derson took his own company, leaving us in the 
 woods and went into the town. While he was there 
 a passenger train came in on the North Missouri 
 Railroad, which is now the Wabash, with a number 
 of Federal soldiers aboard. Anderson had all the pas- 
 sengers and soldiers get out on the platform and, 
 separating the soldiers from the other passengers, 
 he and his men shot and killed all the Federal sol- 
 diers. He then commanded the engineer to start his 
 train, having set fire to the coaches. The old engi- 
 neer, James Clark, who died a few years ago at Mo- 
 berly, Missouri, v/hen he started his engine, opened 
 a valve, so that the water would soon run out of the 
 boiler and the burning train soon stopped after only 
 running a few miles. Captain Todd nor none of our 
 command were with Anderson at the time and knew 
 nothing of the killing of the soldiers until Anderson 
 returned to our camp and told us, when Captain 
 Todd severely reprimanded Anderson for doing it, 
 telling him that he did not indorse such actions. 
 
 In the afternoon, our pickets came in and report- 
 ed that there was a command of Federals coming 
 with a black flaq- hoisted. Captain Todd ordered 
 
J 14 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 Dave Poole to go and see who they were. He return- 
 ed and reported that there were between two and 
 three hundred of them. Todd then commanded us to 
 form in line, telling us that he would ride ahead of 
 us and for us to remain standing until he signaled 
 us to come forward. He took three men with him, 
 leaving us behind the brow of the hill out of sight 
 and when the Federals had gotten to the foot of the 
 hill, he raised his hat and we loped to him. 
 
 Major Johnson was in command of the Federals 
 and, while in Centralia, he was bragging how he was 
 going to extinguish our entire command, showing 
 his black flag and saying that he would take no 
 prisoners, but would kill us all. The citizens begged 
 him not to go, but he only laughed and told them 
 that it would be no more to him than a breakfast par- 
 ty and when he was starting a lady came out to his 
 horse and, taking hold of his bridle rein, asked him 
 not to go, telling him that George Todd and Bill 
 Anderson were both there. He told her to stand aside, 
 that he would kill us all and for her to watch for him 
 when he returned, that he would have Todd's and 
 Anderson's heads tied to a pole. 
 
 When we reached Captain Todd after he had 
 signalled to us he commanded us to dismount and 
 tighten our girths. When we dismounted, the Fed- 
 erals yelled, "They are dismounting; they are going 
 to fight us afoot." Johnson then gave the command 
 for his men to dismount and every fourth man to 
 hold horses. We stood by our horses until their 
 horses had been led away, when Captain Todd said, 
 ■'Remount. Charge and kill them." We sprang into 
 
Three Years With Quantrell n^ 
 
 our saddles and started after them, each one of us 
 trying to get there first. They fired one volley and 
 then, becoming utterly demoralized, stampeded in 
 all directions, some of them running for their horses 
 and some of them starting for Centralia afoot. We 
 followed them into the town of Centralia, which was 
 about three miles away, dealing death at every jump. 
 Some of them went through the town of Centralia 
 and Frank James, Bill Hulse, Pink Gibson, Lee ■\Ic- 
 Murtry, three others whose names I have forgotten 
 and myself followed them to the edge of the town 
 of Sturgeon, when we saw the Federal infantry sta 
 tioned there forming into line to come out to meet 
 us. Frank James then said, "Hold on, boys, we've 
 killed enough of them; let's go back." When we 
 turned to start back, I found my mare could not go 
 out of a walk, I having run her for nearly eleven 
 miles. Frank James said "That's all right, John; 
 we'll not leave you and, if necessary we'll take you 
 behind one of us." Pink Gibson, whose horse was 
 comparatively fresh, galloped ahead of us and told 
 Captain Todd, who sent me another horse. 
 
 There were 206 men in Major Johnson's command 
 when we met them, and there were fourteen of them 
 escaped, 2 of the latter number were badly wounded. 
 We had one man killed, Frank Shepherd, who was 
 shot in the head when they first fired. He was riding 
 between Frank James and I when he was shot and 
 the blood from his wound spurted on Frank's boot. 
 Dick Kinney was shot through the knee and after- 
 wards died from his wound. 
 
 When we had gotten back to our camp we only 
 
ii6 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 stayed a short time, going in a southeast direction to- 
 Big Cedar Creek in Boone County. We rode seven or 
 eight miles and scattered, trying to find something 
 to eat. We then secured a pilot, who said he knew the 
 country well and could take us out of it. W^e tiu-ned 
 west and crossed a big creek. It was dark as pitch 
 and raining torrents and our pilot became lost. Cap- 
 tain Todd then commanded us to dismount and ev- 
 ery man get under a tree and stay until daylight. 
 When daylight came we went up to a cornfield and 
 were getting corn to feed our horses, and hearing' 
 someone on the other side of the field, we sent a man 
 to find out who it was and he returned and told us 
 that it was General Guitar with his entire command 
 of Federals getting corn for their horses. Captain 
 Todd then said, "Boys, this country's full of Feder- 
 als and they are all after us and we'll have to disband 
 and scatter." He told me to get my sqtiad together 
 and start. I said, "Captain, I know nothing about 
 this country and I do not know a man in it." He re- 
 plied, "You know as much about it as I do, and you 
 have never been any place yet that you've failed to 
 get out of, so take your men and go ahead." 1 called 
 mv men too'ether and rode throu^-h the woods all 
 day and, just at sun-down, I rode up to a house and 
 asked if we could get something to eat and feed for 
 our horses. He told. us that we could but we would 
 have to wait until supper was cooked. He started to 
 the barn with us, and looking back, asked, ''Are they 
 some of your men coming too?" I told him I thought 
 "lot, that thev were Federals probably. He then told 
 us to ride throusfh his vard and into a field and thev 
 
Three Years With Quantrell jiy 
 
 could not see us. Crossing a field, we came out into a 
 narrow lane and I saw two men in the road. I called 
 to them to halt, which they did and I asked who 
 they were and they told me citizens and one of them 
 very promptly said, "We don't know who you are, 
 but we are both Southern men." I then asked them 
 where they lived and they told me about half a mile 
 from where we were and invited us to go home and 
 take supper with them. After supper one of the men 
 and two of my men went over to where the Federals 
 had run us from and came back and reported that 
 there was a company of Federals camped in the 
 yard. We stayed in the woods that night and, leav- 
 ing early the next morning, we rode until late in the 
 afternoon when we came to Goslin's Lane where we 
 had had the fight shortly before. This was the first 
 place I recognized. We rode up to a house and found 
 two ladies at home. One of them asked me if we were 
 in the fight that had taken place there shortly before. 
 I told her "Yes." She then asked me if any of us had 
 lost part of a pistol in that fight. Jim Younger told 
 her that he had lost the cylinder of his pistol and the 
 lady remarked, "Well, we found some part of a pistol 
 out there in the road ; I don't know what you call it, 
 but here it is,'" and it was the cylinder of Jim Young- 
 er's pistol that he had lost in the road pursuing some 
 of the Federals. 
 
 The next morning we met one of Captain Ander- 
 son's men, John Holt, and we. stayed with him that 
 day and that night we went up to near Boonesboro 
 in Howard County and found Colonel Quantrell and 
 several of the other boys. 
 
ji8 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 While we had been with Todd, Colonel Quantrell 
 had remained near Boonesboro and while there a 
 Captain Kimsey came to him with seven or eight 
 men, claiming to be Southern soldiers and told it 
 around the country that he had joined our command. 
 He would go to citizens in this neighborhood, there 
 being quite a number here who wei*e refugees from 
 Jackson County, and would tell them that Quantrell 
 was waiting for Captain Todd's return with the men 
 and had told him to secure money and horses from 
 Southern friends. Captain Kimsey became very in- 
 sulting in his demands for money and horses and 
 some of the citizens went to Colonel Quantrell and 
 complained of Kimsey's manner. He was utterly 
 surprised, telling his friends that he had never au- 
 thorized Kimsey nor anyone else to get money or 
 horses from Southern citizens and that he would in- 
 vestigate it. He immediately mounted his horse and, 
 taking several of the boys with him, he found Kim- 
 sey and told him he wanted to see him about robbing 
 Southern people and telling that he had instructed 
 him to do it and to consider himself under arrest and 
 to turn over his revolver. Kimsey drew his revolver, 
 telling Quantrell he had no authority to arrest him 
 and attempted to shoot, but was too slow, Quantrell 
 killing him. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 After staying in this neighborhood for a few days, 
 Quantrell told us that Jim Little was not well 
 enottgh to leave and for us to go on to a place near 
 
 ,-' J 
 
Three Years With Quant rell ijg 
 
 Rocheport, where it had been prearranged we should 
 meet, and to tell Captain Todd to take command and 
 for us to ask to go south and spend the winter. When 
 we met Captain Todd at the appointed place, there 
 were with him Captain Anderson, Captain Thrail- 
 kill and Captain Tom Todd, having in all about 240 
 men, and Captain George Todd assumed command. 
 We then went to the Missouri River, and, having se- 
 cured skiffs, we began to cross the river. We would 
 get into the skiffs, take a horse that was used to 
 swimming by the bridle and then tying a horse to 
 the tail of a horse ahead of him, start across the river, 
 making the horses swim behind us and in this man- 
 ner I crossed sixty horses at one time. We rested our 
 horses'a while, drying them the best we could and 
 started on south through Cooper County. After go- 
 ing about two miles from the river, we saw two 
 horses hitched in front of a house. George Shepherd 
 and I asked permission of Captain Todd to go and 
 see who they belonged to. He consented, but told us 
 to be very careful as the county was full of Dutch 
 militia. When we got to the horses, we saw they had 
 fine new saddles and bridles and blue overcoats tied 
 behind each saddle. W^e went into the house and an 
 old Dutchman and his wife met us. We asked them 
 who was in the house and they would talk nothing 
 but Dutch. Both of them were wearing wooden 
 shoes. W^e then left, untying the two horses and tak- 
 ing them with us and, after riding a short distance 
 in the road, we saw a dead militiaman lying in the 
 road. Shepherd remarked, "Hell's to pay, John, we'd 
 better ride fast." and every few yards, we would find 
 
i20 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 a dead militiaman lying by the side of the road. In 
 about three miles, we soon discovered that our com- 
 mand had left the road and had turned into a corn- 
 field. Just after making the turn around the cornfield 
 we met a man in citizen's clothes and, taking him 
 with us, we went on until we found our men in camp 
 and our prisoner turned out to be a Southern man 
 who was going South to join Price. The boys told us 
 that while Shepherd and I were after the two horses 
 they had suddenly met a company of militia, who 
 immediately wheeled and fled, our boys following 
 them and had killed over half of them. 
 
 The next morning we went on to Sedalia in Pettis 
 County, and then to Sweet Springs, Saline County. 
 When we entered Sweet Springs we scattered to get 
 our breakfasts. I rode up to a house and asked a lady 
 if I could get something for my horse and myself to 
 eat. She told me the barn had plenty of feed in it 
 and she would prepare me some breakfast. Just then 
 Dave Poole rode up, remarking he was hungry too. 
 She invited us both in and told us to wait a minute. 
 She then asked us if we ever indulged in anything 
 stronger than water to drink. We told her we did. 
 She then took us into the dining room, seated us at 
 the table and procured a quart bottle of whisky, and 
 told us to fix a toddy to suit ourselves. We ate a 
 hearty breakfast and as we were leaving, she insisted 
 on my taking a bottle of whisky, remarking that her 
 husband was with Price and she wouldhave another 
 bottle for him when he returned home. I took the 
 bottle and put it in my pocket and Dave remarked 
 that he had been detailed to ride in front and would 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 121 
 
 insist on my riding with him, especially as long as 
 the whisky lasted. 
 
 When we started from Sweet Springs, it was de- 
 cided that we should go up into the Dutch settlement 
 near Concordia, David Poole being very anxious to 
 again meet his old friends. Just before reaching the 
 town of Concordia, we came to a place in the road, ta 
 the right of which was a field of corn in the shock 
 and on the left a very dense brush thicket. Just as 
 our advance guard, consisting of twenty men, under 
 command of Dave Poole, and who were at least a 
 mile ahead of the rest of the command, got opposite 
 the brush, we were fired on from the brush, but none 
 of us were hit. Poole told the boys to scatter around 
 the thicket as well as they could and me to go back 
 and tell Captain Todd to come on, that the Dutch 
 were in the thicket. I dashed back, informed Captain 
 Todd' he came up on the double quick, ordering the 
 men to surround the thicket and for some of them ta 
 go in and run them out. What occurred afterwards 
 reminded me of a rabbit hunt in the country. The 
 boys started in the brush and every few minutes out 
 would run a Dutchman and the boys on the outside 
 would start after him. Not one of them escaped. Our 
 advance guard then started on towards Concordia, 
 when we discovered over two hundred Dutch com- 
 incr toward us. The rest of the command hurriedly 
 came and formed in line just over the brow of the 
 ridsre and, as the Dutch militia came over the hill, 
 Todd ordered us to charge and kill them. We made 
 a dash toward them and they made a dash to gtt 
 awav. We ran them into a lane, some of them left 
 
i22 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 their horses and, running over into a corn field, they 
 would hide in the shocks, where our boys would soon 
 find them and get them out. There were very few of 
 this company that ever reached home alive. 
 
 We went on up into the western portion of Lafay- 
 ette County and the eastern portion of Jackson coun- 
 ty. Here Captain Anderson and his company left us 
 and came on down into Howard County. This was 
 the last time I ever saw Bill Anderson and the next 
 I heard of him he had been killed. We then scattered 
 out. Captain Todd telling us to meet the gang at 
 Bone Hill and wait until General Price had reached 
 that part of the country when we all would join him. 
 
 One night, while we were waiting, Captain Todd 
 was with me and several of the other boys in the 
 brush. We were all discussing Price's return into 
 Missouri and what effect it would have, when Cap- 
 lain Todd, who seemed that night more serious than 
 usual, remarked, "Boys, when Price gets here, I will 
 join him and, in the first battle I am in with him, I 
 shall be killed and I want you boys to see that I have 
 a decent burial." I remarked, "Well, Captain, if I 
 thought I was going to be killed I would not go into 
 the battle." He said, "Yes, I am going' and I want 
 you boys to go with me. I know I'll be killed, but it 
 is just as fitting for me to die for my country as any 
 other man. All I ask is that you boys stay with me 
 and see that I get a decent burial." 
 
 In a few days Price had gotten near where we 
 were and had been constantly engaged with the en- 
 emy. I waited until the time set by Captain Todd to 
 meet at Bone Hill and when I reached there, T found 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 123 
 
 that he had left and had left word for me to go to 
 Captain Hedgepeth's on the Six Mile Prairie and to 
 wait until he came back. I waited until evening and 
 then went into the woods and stayed. The next 
 morning, with the men I had with me, which were 
 about thirty, I started out to find Captain Todd, 
 when I soon met Dan Vaughan. As soon as I saw 
 Dan I knew there was something serious the matter 
 and when he came up to me he said, "John, Captain 
 Todd wants you. He was badly wounded yesterday 
 near Blue Mills and told me to come and find you 
 and for you to come to Independence and bring the 
 boys with you, that he wanted to see you all before 
 he died." We started for Independence, having taken 
 a circuitous route to avoid the Federals and, within 
 about three miles of th^ town, we met General Fag- 
 an, going out to engage the Federals. He wanted us 
 to stop and go with him, but I said, "General, the 
 other boys may stay if they want to, but George 
 Todd is wounded and thinks he's dying and has sent 
 for me and I'm going to see him." I then hurried on 
 towards Independence, and just as I entered the 
 town I saw the boys coming out with Dave Poole in 
 command. As soon as Dave saw me, he dropped his 
 head and I knew it was all over. He rode up to me, 
 and extending his hand, his eyes filled with tears, 
 and he said, "John, our brave leader is gone. We are 
 just returning from burying him. I am sorry you 
 were not with him, for during the night he called for 
 you frequently, and once in his delirium, he said, 
 'Boys, we're in a tight place; where is John McCor- 
 kle? If he was here he could get us out of this.'" The 
 
124 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 entire company then uncovered and, after a few 
 minutes, I suggested that we elect another leader 
 and proposed Dave Poole. He, at first, declined and 
 suggested Henry Porter, but the boys insisted on 
 his taking it and he remarked, "Well, if you boys in- 
 sist, I will act, but I want it understood now that 
 you bo3^s must obey orders.'' I then asked permission 
 of Captain Poole to stay a day or two and visit some 
 friends and six of us remained and Dave went on. 
 
 I stayed in Independence about an hour, spending 
 most of my time at the newly made grave of George 
 Todd, whom I loved better than a brother, and start- 
 -ed to the country to see if I could find any of my old 
 friends, when I met Captain Beebe, one of General 
 Price's officers, who, with his command, was formed 
 in line of battle just sotitheast of Independence. He 
 asked me to what command T belonged and when I 
 told him, he said, ''Then you know this country. I 
 want you to go out and see what the Federals are do- 
 ing and report to me at once." It did not take us boys 
 long to see that the Federals were coming in town 
 and I reported to him that they were getting ready 
 to attack Price's rear guard. He immediately took 
 his command and left town. Just then, I noticed a 
 man whom I took to be a Confederate officer riding- 
 down a lane and, asking him who he was, he inform- 
 ed me he was Colonel Elliott and was trying to lo- 
 cate the Federals. I immediately informed the Col- 
 onel that it was no trouble to locate the Federals as 
 they were already in town and the best thing for him 
 to do was to get out of that lane and to join me. He 
 then asked me if I could "Tt him out of that and I 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 12$ 
 
 told him I could but that wc would have to ride live- 
 ly. We then took the road toward Harrisonvillc and 
 found a squad of forty pickets that had never been 
 relieved. Colonel Elliott told them to come with us 
 and, going about three quarters of a mile, we saw 
 some Federals advancing. We exchanged hre with 
 them, they following us for about a mile and. as we 
 crossed a ridge, I suggested to Colonel Elliott that 
 we had better form in line and fire them a volley, 
 which we did, checking them. I then rode ahead and, 
 meeting an officer, I asked him where he belonged 
 and he asked me what company was with me and 
 ] replied, "Most anybody's," "but wdio is your com- 
 mander?" he replied. "I belong to Colonel Elliott's 
 battalion." I then told him that Colonel Elliott was 
 with us and that I was one of Ouantrell's men. He 
 then turned to his men and exclaimed. "Boys, here's 
 our Colonel. He is safe," and the entire command 
 began to shout, for they thought their colonel was 
 either dead or captured. When we reached Colonel 
 Elliott's battalion, we found Dave Poole with them. 
 We finished that day south of Westport, fighting 
 with the Colorado troops, without the loss of any of 
 ■our men. 
 
 We then went into camp and went to bed without 
 any supper, our horses having feed and we nothing. 
 The next morning for breakfast, we had a little raw 
 beef and before we had time to even burn it over the 
 coals, we were again ordered to the front. We were 
 placed on a ridq-e with General Shelby to our left and 
 with the understanding that General Marmaduke 
 was to our ri-^-ht. About ten o'clock, still acting as 
 
126 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 courier and pilot, I rode out a little distance from 
 our battalion and noticed a command moving tow- 
 ard us. I immediately rode back and told Colonel 
 Elliott and Captain Poole that the Federals were 
 approaching us from the right. They said I was mis- 
 taken, that it was General Marmaduke's command. 
 I told them that Marmaduke's men did not wear blue 
 clothes. Captain Poole then told me if I was so cer- 
 tain that they were Federals to ride out and see. I 
 started toward them; two men left their command 
 and came to meet me. I asked them who they were 
 and they said Union soldiers; they asked me what 
 command I belonged to and I told them Elliott's 
 battalion of the Confederate cavalry and they both 
 shot at me. I wheeled my horse and dashed back and 
 told Colonel Elliott and Poole that I was going to 
 Gelieral Shelby, that maybe he could tell a Yankee 
 from a Confederate. Shelby rode up and taking in 
 the situation, ordered Colonel Elliott to hold his 
 position until he saw Shelby coming with his com- 
 mand. When we saw Shelby advancing we moved 
 forward at the double quick, the Federals keeping 
 pace with us and were about to cut us ofif when some 
 of Price's infantry, who had hidden behind a rail 
 fence, fired on them and checked them. In this ad- 
 vance the Federals captured seven of Shelby's men 
 and promptly shot them. We crossed Big Blue, dark 
 having come on us, when we went into camp and 
 just after dark, the courier from General Price came 
 and handed Captain Poole a note, which was a re- 
 quest from General Price that he take his men and 
 leave the armv because the Union soldiers were 
 
MRS. LIZZIE GREGG. 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 127 
 
 shooting- Shelby's men that they had taken prisoners 
 on account of hearing that Ouantrell's men were 
 with Shelby. Captain Poole sent work back to Gen- 
 eral Price, telling him that we would leave imme- 
 diately. He then gave command for us to mount and 
 we left the army, passing in safety between two Fed- 
 eral camps and riding on until we were in the edge 
 of Johnson County and from there, we formed two 
 camps, one on Tabo Creek and one on the Sni, where 
 we made preparations to go south. 
 
 While we were in camp on the Sni, Bill Gregg 
 told me that he was going to marry a beautiful 
 Southern girl. Miss Lizzie Hook, and take her south 
 w^ith him and wanted me and some of the boys to go 
 to the wedding with him. After dark, Gregg put on 
 a new uniform and twelve of us put on our best and 
 polished our pistols and spurs and accompanied him 
 to the home of the bride. It was a strange scene, 
 that wedding ceremony, a beautiful black-eyed, 
 black-haired Southern girl, with her little hand 
 placed on the arm of a stalwart soldier with four 
 Navy revolvers buckled around his waist and with 
 twelve long-haired, heavily-armed soldiers standing 
 as witnesses and with only the members of the fam- 
 ily beside the soldiers present, she plighted her 
 young life to this grim warrior, fully realizing that 
 at any moment she might be a widow, but this was 
 only one example of the love of a Southern girl. We 
 all stayed to a fine supper and we twelve, at a late 
 liour, left the house and stood as guards for the 
 bride and groom until we were called to breakfast 
 the next mornino-. We then separated and went 
 
128 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 back on Tabo, some of us waiting until Quantrell 
 could join us and the remainder of the boys, not 
 wanting to wait for Quantrell, elected George Shep- 
 herd commander and started South at once. I saw 
 them leave, Bill Gregg, with his bride by him, start- 
 ing with us. Gregg and his wife made the journey 
 South with the boys and are both living today in 
 Kansas City, Missouri. 
 
 In a few days after Captain Shepherd and his 
 men left. Colonel Quantrell returned and we started 
 South. He told us that he intended to cross the Mis- 
 souri River at Arrovv Rock, go across the State o£ 
 Missouri into Illinois, then into Kentucky and thence 
 into A'irginia, that we were all to wear Federal uni- 
 forms and to pass ourselves as Union soldiers, and 
 his name was to be Colonel Clark, in command of a 
 Colorado regiment. When we reached the Missouri 
 River we found it so full of ice that we could not 
 cross. Quantrell left us there and returned to La- 
 fayette County, and after waiting several days, we 
 started back to Lafayette County to join Quantrell 
 again. We reached a farm on a high mound in Sa- 
 line County and asked the owner if there were any 
 Federals around. He said none nearer than Mar- 
 shall and, as from his house we could see the country 
 in every direction for miles, we decided to stay there 
 all day and about ten o'clock a big flock of wild 
 geese settled among the corn shocks in front of the 
 house. Tom Harris and I went down into the field 
 and killed five geese with our revolvers and the lady 
 cooked them for our supper. We then rode from there 
 on and when near Grand Pass Lake, Jim Lilly and 
 
Three Years With Quantrell izg 
 
 I killed a deer. We got down and cut its throat and 
 quartered it, each man taking some and tying it to 
 his saddle. I rolled the hide up and tied it to my sad- 
 dle. When we reached the edge of Lafayette County 
 and rode up to the house of Baltimore Thomas and 
 when I called him out, I told him that 1 had come to 
 bring him a piece of venison and presented him with 
 the hind quarter and the hide. He said he would have 
 the hide tanned and have us a pair of gloves made 
 out of it. In 1865 I returned to Waverly on a visit 
 and, meeting Mr. Thomas, he presented me with a 
 very handsome pair of gloves that he had had made 
 out of the hide. 
 
 We joined Colonel Quantrell near Dover and 
 started on south, going through Lafayette, Saline, 
 Cooper, Moniteau and into Miller County, the weath- 
 er being extremely cold. At Tuscumbia on the Osage 
 River, there was stationed a company of militia and 
 we, wearing Federal uniforms, all rode into the town 
 and right up to their headquarters without being mo- 
 lested. Quantrell asked for the commander and as 
 he appeared, saluted him, telling him that we w^ere 
 out on a scout and would like to have feed for our 
 horses and as we were all very cold we would like to 
 warm. The commander had a fire built in their head- 
 quarters and invited us in. The Federals were stand- 
 ing around the room and we circled between them 
 and the fire and also got between them and their 
 arms, which were stacked in the corner of the room 
 and, when we heard Quantrell, who had remained 
 on the outside with the commander, tell him to sur- 
 render, we drew our revolvers and told the Federals 
 
ISO Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 that they were mistakn in their men, that we were 
 Confederate soldiers and they were under arrest. 
 They all promptly obeyed, except one man, who at- 
 tempted to get out of a window, when Frank James 
 gently tapped him on the head with his pistol and 
 told him to get back in line or he might be seriously 
 hurt. We marched the militia out into the street and, 
 placing a guard over them, the rest of us proceeded 
 to take their guns, break the stocks off of them and 
 throw them into the river. Seeing us do this, one of 
 the militiamen exclaimed, ''Why, what in the world 
 are they throwing our guns into the river for; we are 
 Union men as well as they are?" to which his com- 
 mander replied, ''Why, you damned fool, they are 
 Southern men and we are all prisoners." They had 
 just received a new supply of blankets and clothing 
 to which we helped ourselves. There was a ferry on 
 the Osage River, consisting of an old flat-boat and 
 an old over-head rope pulley. We compelled some of 
 them to ferry us and our horses over the river and 
 just before the last load crossed, Colonel Quantrell 
 administered an oath to the soldiers that they would 
 never again take up arms against the Southern Con- 
 federacy and told them to go and when he had cross- 
 ed, we cut holes in the bottom of the boat and it 
 sunk. We never fired a shot nor hurt a man. 
 
 We took two of these militia along with us to 
 act as pilots and kept them for three days, when they 
 informed us that they had reached a country with 
 which they were unfamiliar and that it would be no 
 use for th'='*-^ 'n continue further with us, when we 
 
I- Three Years With Quantrell iji 
 
 paroled them, instructing them not to report to any 
 command for two days. 
 
 We then proceeded southeast until we reached 
 the Current River, which we followed into Arkan- 
 sas. After we had gotten into the state of Arkansas, 
 Joe Hall was taken with the small pox, and leaving 
 Ike Hall, his brother, with him as a nurse, we left 
 them near the town of Pocahontas, Arkansas. We 
 then crossed the Black River and started through 
 the swamps to Crawley's Ridge. We stopped about 
 halfway through the swamps at a large house built 
 of cypress logs and on this place, there was also a 
 very large smokehouse and barn. A lady came to the 
 door and told the Colonel that they had nothing to 
 cat whatever. I was very doubtful as to the veracity 
 of this statement and, being rather hungry, I went 
 behind the smokehouse and removed a board and 
 discovered that it was nearly full of flour and bacon. 
 I told the Colonel that the lady was evidently mis- 
 taken and he demanded the keys, telling her that she 
 had probably forgotten what her smoke-house con- 
 tained and we helped ourselves to a sack of flour and 
 some bacon. We camped in the barn lot and about 
 nine o'clock that night, I discovered a fire in the 
 woods and calling the Colonel's attention to it, he 
 detailed me to take three of the boys with me and 
 investigate. Entering the woods, we discovered that 
 it was a light from a lamp in a house. I told the boys 
 to watch and I would go to the house, but not to fire 
 a shot unless they were forced to. Riding up to the 
 door, I called, which created quite a commotion in 
 the house and two men ran out of the back door into 
 
IJ2 Three Years With Quantrel! 
 
 the woods. An old gentleman came to the door, ask- 
 ing who was there. I told him "a friend" and to come 
 on out. I told him that we were Southern men and 
 asked him who the men were that ran out of the 
 back door. He said they were his two boys, who were 
 at home on a furlough from the Southern army. I 
 told him to call them back. He whistled a few times 
 and the two boys came in. I then asked about the 
 man that lived where we were camped. They told me 
 he was a captain of what was called the Mountain 
 Boomers, who did no fighting, but robbed and plun- 
 dered both sides. I took the two boys back to camp 
 with us, keeping out of sight of the people at the 
 house, and they imparted to Colonel Ouantrell some 
 very valuable information, especially about the gen- 
 tleman who lived in the big house, telling us that 
 the great quantity of provisions that he had stored 
 in his smoke-house had been stolen from the citizens 
 in that part of the country. 
 
 When we left the next morning, we helped our- 
 selves to the gentleman's provisions, knowing that 
 he had stolen them. We went on until we had reach- 
 ed Crawley's Ridge, riding down the ridge until we 
 came to the plantation of Colonel Morrison. Here 
 Jesse James, John Koger, Ben Morrow, Baker Hedg- 
 peth, Rufus Hedgpeth and Bob Hedgpeth left us 
 and went on South to the army. 
 
 Still passing ourselves off as Union soldiers, we 
 rode to the banks of the Mississippi River opposite 
 Memphis, where we tried to make arrangements to 
 cross the river. Being unable to get across the river 
 at Memphis, we went twenty-five miles up the river 
 
Three Years With Quantrell ijj 
 
 to a little place called Shawnee Village, on Devil's 
 Bend. We dismounted and leaving our horses in the 
 brush, drew up in line on the river bank. We had not 
 waited long before we saw a Federal transport com- 
 ing up the river. Quantrell hailed it and, telling the 
 Captain that we were a scouting party from Mem- 
 phis, which had been cut off by the rebels, asked him 
 to cross us. The captain told him he had strict orders 
 not to land at that bank i-ny more, that General Joe 
 Shelby had clipped in there and captured two of 
 their transports and sunk them. 
 
 The next day, we found a man by the name of 
 Murray Boswell, who had formerly lived in Lafay- 
 ette county, Missouri, who had an old yawl hid in 
 the swamps. We got it out and repaired it with old 
 lumber and nails that we could get from the houses 
 and fences. We worked at this until New Year's 
 Day, 1865, and all we had for our New Year's dinner 
 was bread, made from wheat that we ground in 
 handmills ourselves, which we cooked, bran and all, 
 as we had no sifters. 
 
 Having fixed the yawl, at dusk Allen Palmer and 
 I made the first trip, he leading two horses and I 
 leading four. While we were crossing, a Federal 
 transport came in sight. We held the yawl in some 
 willows until it had rounded the bend. It took us all 
 night to cross the command, there being forty-seven 
 of us in all and we were told that at the point where 
 we crossed the river was seven miles wide. After 
 staying on the bank until we had gotten our horses 
 dry and warm, we went on East for about a mile and. 
 coming to a fine Southern plantation, with a beauti- 
 
IS4 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 ful blue grass pasture in front, we asked permission 
 of its owner to camp there. He treated us in a very 
 friendly manner and sent us food from his home. 
 About nine o'clock the next morning, a man in his 
 shirt sleeves, but with blue pants and a heavy re- 
 volver on and asked for our commander. When he 
 met Colonel Quantrell he immediately became very 
 confidential and told him that the owner of that 
 plantation was an outrageous rebel, doing all in his 
 power for the South and that he hoped that we 
 would kill him before we left. Quantrell told him all 
 right to stay there with his men awhile and he would 
 go up to the house and interview this old rebel. 
 Leaving our visitor to be entertained by us he 
 mounted his horse and went up to the house. He was. 
 invited in. by the proprietor and, after being seated, 
 told him that he was Colonel Quantrell and was tak- 
 ing his command through to Virginia and also told 
 him what our visitor had said about him. The pro- 
 prietor then told Quantrell that our visitor, while a 
 native of that country, was a Federal spy and was 
 constantly watching and getting the Southern citi- 
 zens into trouble and if any of the Southern soldiers 
 returned, this man would promptly report it to the 
 authorities at Memphis, and they would be arrested 
 or killed. Quantrell bid our host goodbye, thanking 
 him for his hospitality toward us, and returned to 
 the camp, ordered us to saddle up and mount. He 
 then turned to our visitor, ordered him to give up his 
 revolver and took him with us. The next report that 
 this traitor made was to Him who receives final re- 
 ports from us all. .. « 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 13$ 
 
 We went on towards the Kentucky line. In a few 
 days, we were joined by a Federal soldier, who lived 
 in that country, who made himself exceedingly 
 familiar, ridin^^ with Colonel Quantrell nearly all 
 day and pointing out to him the homes of rebels, tell- 
 ing him which ones ono-ht to be killed and which 
 houses ought to be burned. Just about dusk, he 
 pointed to a certain house, saying, "That rebel that 
 lives there ought not to be permitted to live another 
 day. He is rich and the worst rebel in this country 
 and has done more to aid the damned rebels than 
 any man in the country." Quantrell turned to John 
 Barker and told him to take this man with him and 
 go up there and attend to that rebel. John left with 
 our informant and in an hour returned alone, and 
 the rebel who lived on the hill was not molested; the 
 man who talked about him never talked about his 
 neighbors any more. 
 
 CHAPTER XV, 
 
 Just before we reached the Kentucky line we 
 learned that at a little town in Tennessee, there was 
 a command of Confederates under Colonel Robert 
 Fristoe, who was my uncle. Uncle Robert had lost 
 his right leg at the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, but 
 was still in the Confederate army. He had received 
 word that there was a company of Missourians com- 
 ing and, just before we reached the town, a lady rode 
 up on horseback and asked Colonel Quantrell if we 
 were Missourians and if there were any Fristoes 
 with him, saying that she was the wife of Colonel 
 
ijO Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 Fristoe. He told her that there were no Fristoes with 
 him, but there were three of her husband's nephews, 
 Tom Harris, George Wigginton and John McCorkle. 
 He sent back for us and we came forward and were 
 introduced to her, none of us ever having seen her 
 before. She asked permission for us to go to town 
 with her and we did so, reaching the town some time 
 before the command and were heartily greeted by 
 our uncle, who wanted us to stay with him, but we 
 refused to leave the other boys and, after staying 
 with Uncle about two hotirs, we crossed into Ken- 
 tucky at the little town of Canton. At this town 
 Quantrell rode into a blacksmith shop to have a shoe 
 tightened on his horse and when he attempted to 
 raise the horse's hind foot, it jerked his foot away 
 from the smith and in some unaccountable way, 
 severed the tendon just below the hock joint, making 
 him entirely useless. Quantrell was terribly worried, 
 said he had lost his luck and now that his horse had 
 been -^"i-tnled. v»^e could take care of ourselves and 
 he would stay there. I then suggested to George 
 Wigginton and Tom Harris that we go on and catch 
 up with Uncle Bob and join his company, and just 
 as we mounted to start, Quantrell called to us, say- 
 ing he had another horse and would go on and stay 
 with us and we would go through to Virginia. 
 
 The day after we left Canton, we met a command 
 of about 800 Federals and stopped and talked and 
 joked with them. We then went to Greenville in 
 Muhlenburg County. We found another command of 
 Federals there. We stopped there, put our horses in 
 the livery stable and invited the Federal commander 
 
Three Years With Quantrell jj; 
 
 to go with us to the hotel for dinner, paying the 
 hotel and livery bill with government scrip signed, 
 ''Colonel Clark of Colorado!" 
 
 When we left this town several of the Federals ac- 
 companied us part of the way. Among our escort was 
 a man who was organizing a negro company, styling 
 himself "Captain," and during our ride, continued 
 to boast about what he and his negro company would 
 do to the Southern people. After escorting us a short 
 way, our companions dropped back, except the cap- 
 tain, who went with us a few miles farther, when 
 we left him. 
 
 On the next afternoon, we discovered a trail of 
 Federal soldiers and followed them until sundown^ 
 where we found them in a house. They had seen us 
 coming and all escaped except six, who remained in 
 the house and opened fire on us. Jim Little and I dis- 
 mounted and slipping up towards the house, were in 
 a corner of the fence, trying to get a shot at them, 
 when one of them shot Jim through the thigh shat- 
 tering the bone. As he fell to the ground he said, 
 "John, I am shot; my leg is shattered." Four of us 
 boys placed him in a blanket and carried him across 
 the hill, the Federals shooting at us all the time, and 
 one of the bullets tore the heel off my boot. I was 
 mad and desperate and reaching the yard gate, 
 started towards the house, when Quantrell yelled to 
 me, "John, you damned fool, come back from there." 
 He then ordered the house to be set afire, when the 
 Federals yelled, "We will surrender if you will treat 
 us ?^ rn-i'joners." They then surrendered and were 
 paroled. We brought Jim Little back and left 
 
1^8 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 him in the house, the Federals promising to take 
 good care of him. We all went in and told Jim good- 
 bye and left him and learned afterward that he died 
 from his wound. 
 
 We then rode all night long and the next morn- 
 ing, after sun up, we stopped at a house for break- 
 fast, where there was an old gentleman, his wife, 
 two daughters and two young men, whom we after- 
 wards learned were Confederate soldiers. While we 
 were eating breakfast, the young ladies continued to 
 ply questions to us, trying to discover who we really 
 were, seeming to know that although we were wear- 
 ing Federal uniforms we were Confederates.. After 
 breakfast, when we had mounted, the young ladies 
 came out to the fence, and, as we told them good-bye 
 one of them remarked, "Gentlemen, from your man- 
 ners, we take you to be Southern men, and while I 
 do not know who you are, if you are Southern sol- 
 diers. I v/ish you all the happiness and success that 
 could possibly come to anyone, but if you are Fed- 
 erals, my heartfelt wish is that you all will be in hell 
 before night." Our boys could stand it no longer, and 
 immediately began to cheer. Quantrell, in a very 
 stern mannner, commanded "Silence in ranks; for- 
 ward, gallop,'' but taking off his hat, bade the ladies 
 goodbye. 
 
 The next day we met two gentlemen, and Will 
 Bassham, engaging in conversation with them found 
 that one of them was of the same name and related 
 to him and that they were both Southern men. Will 
 left us and accompanied his relative home and never 
 
JOHN McCORKLE AND T. B. HARRIS 
 Taken at Lexington, Missouri, fall. 1S64. 
 
Three Years With Quantrell ijg 
 
 Joined us again, and we afterwards heard that he 
 had been killed in that county. 
 
 On the next day, at the edge of a little village, 
 where there were some Federals stationed, we met 
 five government wagons and while we were talking 
 to the drivers of the wagons, we were fired on by the 
 soldiers from the town, which we returned and rode 
 on, leaving the town to our left, but the Federals did 
 not follow us. About twelve o'clock the next day, 
 having stopped to feed our horses at a horse shed 
 where there were thirty or forty head of horses, some 
 of the boys decided to trade horses, leaving their 
 own horses and taking some out of the shed. Before 
 we got to the town of Houstonville, the owner of the 
 horses caught up with us and remonstrated with us, 
 demanding the return of the horses. Quantrell told 
 him that the boys needed the horses worse than he 
 did and that he had better return to his farm and say 
 nothing about it. 
 
 In Houstonville, the boys found three or four fine 
 horses in a livery stable that belonged to a Federal 
 lieutenant and, as we started to leave the town, Al- 
 len Palmer mounted a very fine mare that belonged 
 to this lieutenant. The lieutenant rushed up, caught 
 the mare by the bridle, remarking that if she went 
 out of that stable she would go over his dead body, 
 to which Allen replied, "That is a damned easy job," 
 and shot him, and we rode on out of town. We went 
 from there to Danville. 
 
 The news that Allen had shot the lieutenant had 
 reached Danville before we did and, as we entered 
 the town, a company of Federals came out to meet 
 
140 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 us, but after some talk with Colonel Quantrell, they 
 returned to the town and we followed them. When 
 we had reached the courthouse square, Quantrell 
 drew up in line and gave the order to dismount, 
 which we understood to mean, Quantrell having 
 previously told us, to dash forward and compel 
 every soldier and man in the town to fall in line. We 
 immediately made a rush, telling them all to fall in 
 and face us. Quantrell was sitting on his horse in 
 front of a store, when the lieutenant rushed out with 
 a rifle in his hand and, leveling it at Quantrell, said, 
 "I want to see your papers." The Colonel replied, 
 'My orderly has my commission and papers." The 
 colonel then ordered John Barker to advance with 
 them. The lieutenant turned to receive the papers 
 from John, when the colonel suddenly drew his re- 
 volver and, leveling it on the lieutenant, said, "Here 
 are my papers- now drop that gun," when the lieu- 
 tenant's mother rushed up to the colonel and said, 
 "He is my boy; for my sake do not kill him." Quan- 
 trell replied, "Well, madam, for your sake I will not. 
 Take him and make him behave himself, but if he 
 bothers me any more, I may kill him." Turning in 
 his saddle, he told the soldiers and the men to all go 
 home and let him alone, that he intended to hurt no 
 one. We then put spurs to our horses, and turning to 
 the southwest, left Harrodsburg to our right. Night 
 was then coming on and we divided into squads to 
 get our suppers. John Barker and eleven men stop- 
 ped at one house; I, in command of seven men, 
 stopped at another house and Quantrell and the re- 
 mainder went to the next house. While we were eat- 
 
Thiee Years With Quantrell 141 
 
 ing our supper, I heard firing at the house where 
 Barker had stopped. Chad Renick, who was with 
 me, rushed out and jumping on his horse, started 
 toward the house and I followed him. Just as he 
 reached the top of the hill, I heard Chad exclaim, 
 "Quit firing down there," and then I met his horse 
 coming back without a rider. Catching his horse by 
 the bridle, I advanced a few yards farther and turned 
 and rode back, ordering my boys to mount, intend- 
 ing to go on where Quantrell was. 
 
 When we reached the house, we found Quantrell 
 had left, having discovered a company of Federals- 
 coming across a field. A lady ran out of the house 
 and asking us if we were Confederates, went back 
 into the house and brought us out some fried chickea 
 and biscuit, telling the direction Quantrell had tak- 
 en. 
 
 We afterwards learned that while John Barker 
 and his men were at supper the Federals had sur- 
 rounded the house and, as the boys started out, fired 
 on them, killing John Barker, Henry Noland, and 
 Foss Key and had killed Chad Renick as he came 
 over the hill before me and that they had captured 
 Dick Glasscock, Jim Younger, Bill Gaugh, Vess Ak- 
 er, Jack Graham, Dick Burns, George Robinson, 
 Tom Evans and Andy McGuire. These last nine 
 named were taken to Lexington and placed in jails 
 and on three different occasions were taken out into 
 the jail yard to be hung, but each time the boys 
 would come out of the jail cheering for JefT Davis 
 and daring them to hang them, telling them their 
 deaths would be avenged. 
 
142 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 In April, eight of them were taken to Louisville 
 and placed in prison, where afterwards, with the 
 assistance of some of the citizens, they escaped. Tom 
 Evans was kept in jail at Lexington, the Federals 
 thinking he had killed the Lieutenant at Houston- 
 ville, but after the war, he was released. 
 
 Af'p-- ^he ^nr^- had given us the fired chicken, 
 'we found Colonel Quantrell with his squad drawn 
 •up in line of battle. I asked him what to do about the 
 other boys. He said he did not know what to do, that 
 he was afraid none of us could get back there with- 
 out being killed, but if I felt like risking it, to go 
 ^head. I told him that if any of the other boys would 
 :go with me. I would try it. Payne Jones and Allen 
 Palmer rode out of line and said they would go with 
 me. I then changed horses, mounting Chad Renick's 
 horse. We started through the fields, letting down 
 the fences and leaving them down so that we could 
 retreat. When we had reached the cross road, I told 
 ihe boys that I would stay there and keep a look-out 
 and for them to go towards the house. They had 
 scarcely gotten a hundred yards from me when I dis- 
 covered a c^^^-^-^nv of Federals coming between us 
 and Colonel Quantrell. I called to the boys to stop 
 but they could not hear me. I put spurs to my horse 
 and caught up with them. We immediately turned 
 and, riding at a gallop, came in front of the company 
 of Federals. I asked who they were and they replied 
 Bridgewater's men and asked who we were. I repli- 
 ed, "Clark's men'* and was answered with a volley. 
 We returned the fire and dashed down the hill and 
 
Three Years With Quantrell i^j 
 
 across a branch, they following us, shooting and yell- 
 ing. 
 
 At this time, my horse begun to act as if he had 
 never been under fire before and was trying his best 
 to throw me and when we had reached one of the 
 gaps in the fence, he refused to go through it, but 
 kept on down through the woods. I could not stop 
 him nor turn him. Just then Payne Jones yelled to 
 me, "Hell fire, John, what are you doing? Look in 
 front of you," and when I raised my head, I saw a 
 company of Federals not sixty yards away, formed 
 in line. I pulled all the strength I had on one bridle 
 rein and, turning his head toward a fence, buried my 
 spurs in his side. He did not jump, but went through 
 the fence, scattering the rails in all directions. Just 
 then the Federals opened fire and killed Jones' horse. 
 Jones tried to get behind me, but my horse was act- 
 ing so badly he could not. I opened fire then, while 
 he got behind Palmer. Riding up by the side of Pal- 
 mer's horse, I told Jones to get on behind me, as I 
 had the stronger horse and without stopping our 
 horses, he swung from Palmer's horse to mine. We 
 then, in a few minutes, reached Quantrell and the 
 Federals quit following us. 
 
 After riding seven or eight miles, we came to a 
 large corn-pen at the corner of a field and pasture, 
 where we stayed all night. The next morning, we 
 stopped at a farmer's house and he told us that he 
 knew of no Federals nearer than Harrodsburg, but 
 that over in Nelson County, he said that there was a 
 noted character by the name of Sue Munday. who 
 was q-uerrilla. After eating breakfast here, we started 
 
144 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 for Nelson County, riding all day until three or four 
 o'clock in the afternoon, and, as we were entering a 
 lane, which was fenced on either side with a famous 
 Kentucky post and rail fence, we discovered a com- 
 pany of Federals about a quarter of a mile distant, 
 coming in our direction. Quantrell ordered me to go 
 ahead and tear the fence down, but I could do noth- 
 ing with it. He then told me to go ahead until I found 
 a gate or a pair of bars. In the meantime, the Feder- 
 als had got out into the road in our rear. Just as I 
 reached the town of Mayfield, I found a gate leading 
 into a pasture. Quantrell and the men riding up, he 
 said, "Rush, boys, those fellows are coming like the 
 devil." He and the command rushed through and I 
 remained to shut the gate, the Federals firing three 
 or four shots at me. We went over a hill and formed 
 in line of battle, the Federals following us and were 
 right on us before they discovered us. We charged 
 them and they wheeled and went back through the 
 gate and did not attempt to follow us any further, 
 as they passed a house they asked an old negro who 
 we were, and he told them, that we were strangers 
 to him, "but my advice, marster, would be, not to 
 follow them men any further, because, befo' God, 
 the}^ had more pistols on them than any men he had 
 ever seen befo' ." 
 
 When we had proceeded a short distance in the 
 pasture I saw a man riding down the creek and 
 Quantrell told me to go see what he wanted. I rode 
 up behind him and when I spoke to him he turned 
 and saw the command and became very much excit- 
 ed. I told him not to be excited, that we were all 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 14$ 
 
 Southern men and were from Missouri. He then told 
 me that in the town of Mayfield, there were two 
 Southern families, one by the name of Saunders and 
 a widow, by the name of Cooper. I knew both of 
 these families, as they had formerly lived in Jackson 
 County, Missouri, and had been forced to leave there 
 under Order No. 11. He then told me his name was 
 Russell, and taking him back to the command, I in- 
 troduced him to Colonel Quantrell and he asked us 
 to go over to his house and stay all night with him. 
 During all this time Mr. Russell seemed to doubt 
 who we were, and Quantrell suggested that he take 
 two or three of the boys, accompanied by Mr. Rus- 
 sell and go over into town and see these Missouri 
 families. After the visit to the town, Mr. Russell was 
 thoroughly satisfied that we were Southerners. 
 
 We stayed around in Nelson County some time, 
 sleeping in the woods at night and enjoying Ken- 
 tucky hospitality. Near where we were, there was a 
 large still-house, owned by an old gentleman by the 
 name of Jim Dawns. We called on him one morning 
 and he gave us a genuine Kentucky welcome, bring- 
 ing out a water-bucket of his best but none of us be- 
 came intoxicated and. at his earnest solicitation, we 
 spent the day with him . 
 
 Late that afternoon, John Hunter, a resident of 
 Spencer County, invited George Wigginton, John 
 Barnhill, Will Parker and me to go across Salt River 
 into Spencer County and get acquainted with some 
 of the Southern people over there. There we became 
 acquainted with two families by the name of Wig- 
 ginton. who were related to George and met Mr. 
 
J46 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 Aaron Thurman, who had two beautiful daughters^ 
 Miss Jennie and Miss Dollie and I must confess that 
 I was very much impressed with Miss Jennie and 
 afterwards made frequent visits to call on her. 
 
 One day George Wigginton, Will Parker, Joha 
 Hunter and I were in the woods north of Mr. Thur- 
 man's house when a body of Federal soldiers came 
 from Taylorsville looking for us. Miss Jennie saw 
 them coming and going over to a neighbor's house, 
 whose name was John Stilwell, she and Mrs. Stilwell 
 came to the woods and told us they were coming. We 
 mounted our horses and riding to the edge of the 
 woods, amused ourselves watching the Federals cir- 
 cling around the woods looking for us. They circled 
 the woods three times, but never entered it and, final- 
 ly, giving up the hunt, they returned to Taylorville 
 and we went up to one of the Wigginton's for sup- 
 per. 
 
 About this time there was in this country a cer- 
 tain man styling himself Major Metz, who claimed 
 to be a Southern soldier, but who was in reality, a 
 deserter from the Union Army and for whose arrest 
 the Federal authorities at Louisville had offered a 
 reward of $500. 
 
 Metz had married a woman by the name of Wal- 
 ker, who bore a very unsavory reputation and was 
 living with her father near Mr. Thurman's. There 
 had been a number of citizens and also a number of 
 country stores in this neighborhoocl recently robbedf 
 When we reached Wigginton's place that evening, 
 we were told that the night before two men had gone 
 to the home of a very old man by the name of Dun- 
 
Three Years With Quantrell 14J 
 
 can, and finding no one at home but the old man and 
 his wife, had demanded of Duncan his money and 
 upon his telling them that he had no money there, 
 having sent all his money to Louisville, they began 
 to abuse him, placing his finger-nails under the ram- 
 rods of their pistols and mashing them off. They left 
 him thus mutilated, taking \N\ih. them $30 in money 
 that he had. When they started to leave Duncan, 
 they told him that they were Missourians and if he 
 ever told who they were they would return and kill 
 both him and his wife. When Mr. Wigginton told 
 me this, I told him we would investigate it, that we 
 neither robbed nor mistreated citizens and asked 
 him to go over to Duncan's house and try to find out 
 who they were, but Mr. Duncan refused to disclose 
 their identity. 
 
 I then went down to see Mr. Duncan and told 
 him that we were Missourians and that we never 
 mistreated anyone, and that our commander, Col- 
 onel Quantrell, would not countenance such acts, 
 and that we did not propose to have the blame laid 
 on us and I wanted him to tell me who they were. 
 He told me he knew who they were, but was afraid 
 i to tell, that they would come and kill him. I told him 
 that if he would tell me who they were, I would as- 
 sure him that they would never bother him again, 
 and he finally told me that it was Major Metz and 
 another man. 
 
 I at once went back into Nelson County and 
 told Quantrell. He said. "Well, why didn't you go 
 get him? Go back and catch th'em an'd make short 
 work of them. We 'do not roH people anci I swear no 
 
J48 Three Years With Quantiell 
 
 man can accuse us of such hellish acts as this and 
 live." I immediately returned and for several days 
 tried to catch Major Metz, but he escaped me, and 
 one day a citizen of that county came to me and told 
 me that he would capture Metz and his companion 
 for $io. I told him I would give them $io apiece to 
 bring them to me. The next morning he returned 
 brineinc' Major Metz with him. I gave him the $io 
 and took the Major in charge. After taking the lat- 
 ter's pistol away from him, he inquired what I want- 
 ed with him and I told him, "We want you for rob- 
 bing old man Duncan and pinching his fingers off 
 and treating him so brutally, then trying to lay your 
 devilish conduct on us Missourians, and I am going 
 to kill you for doing it." He commenced to beg and 
 ask me for mercy. I told him that he had had no mer- 
 cy on defenseless old men and women and that any 
 brute who would treat an old man like he had treated 
 old man Duncan had no right to live. He then asked 
 me to take him near his home before I killed him 
 and, as we reached his father-in-law's gate, old man 
 AValker came running out of the house, calling to us^ 
 "Take that damned thief away from here and kill 
 him. I never want him in this yard again. He has done 
 nothing but rob and steal ever since he has been in 
 this county, pretending he was a Southern man, 
 when he is nothing but a damned thieving Yankee, 
 take him away and kill him.'' We led the Major into 
 the woods and he was soon deprived of all desire to 
 steal and rob and had abused and mistreated his last 
 man. Old man Walker called us back to the house, 
 saying, "I want you men to go into the room that 
 
COLONEL WILLIAM QUANTKELL. 
 
Three Years With Quantrell i4g 
 
 Metz has used to hide his plunder in. He has been 
 doing nothing but robbing people in this country for 
 the last year and I was too old and feeble to prevent 
 it and he threatened to kill me if I told." We went 
 into the room and found a large box filled with dry- 
 goods, boots and shoes and all kinds of articles scat- 
 tered around the room. 
 
 We returned and I reported to Colonel Quan- 
 trell what we had done with Metz and, after staying 
 with him a few days, John Barnhill and I returned 
 to Mr. Thurman's in Spencer County. There I met a 
 Captain Stone, who was recruiting for the Confed- 
 erates. When Captain Stone had secured a number 
 of recruits, they would be turned over to a Colonel 
 Jesse, who would take them back to Virginia. 
 
 A few days after we had returned, Miss Jennie 
 Thurman prepared a fine dinner for us and Captain 
 Stone was invited to join us. After dinner, we went 
 back into Nelson County and Colonel Quantrell led 
 us on a little trip up between Louisville and Taylors- 
 ville, and just before reaching Taylorsville, we saw a 
 negro regiment marching in the direction of that 
 town. We rode into the woods and would ride up to 
 the edge of the timber, fire into them, and dash back 
 into the woods. We kept this up until they had reach- 
 ed the town of Taylorsville. There we let them alone 
 and started toward Salt River. Just before we had 
 reached Salt River, a man met us and handed Colo- 
 nel Quantrell a paper, telling him to read it to us. It 
 was an account of the assassination of Abraham 
 Lincoln. Before the Colonel had finished reading it, 
 we all began to cheer and, breaking ranks, we all 
 
ISO Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 started at a gallop and never stopped until we had 
 reached Jim Dawns' still house, where we stayed for 
 a day or two. 
 
 We then separated and remained in hiding for 
 several days, when we returned to Nelson County 
 and found Colonel Quantrell. We there held a con- 
 ference, having just heard that General Lee had sur- 
 rendered and, knowing the war was over, we decided 
 to separate and make the best terms of surrender we 
 could. Quantrell then told us that before we separat- 
 ed, he had another act to perform, that he had just 
 been told that a man, claiming to be a Missourian 
 and one of our men, had robbed an old citizen by the 
 name of Jones, and that the description given of the 
 robber fitted one of our men, telling me the name 
 of the man. He said he was going to take the man 
 described to old man Jones and if the old man identi- 
 lied him he would have him killed, that he never had 
 permitted, nor never would permit any of his men to 
 commit robbery. I then told Quantrell that as the 
 man he suspicioned had been with me in a number 
 of close places and considered him a brave soldier, 
 that I would not go with him on such a mission. He 
 told me all right and to meet him in a day or two 
 at Mrs. Cooper's and, turning, he rode away. This 
 was the last time I ever saw Quantrell. Tom Harris, 
 George Wigginton and John Barnhill stayed with 
 me and we went back to Thurman's house. After 
 Colonel Quantrell left us, he started to go to Jones' 
 house and when he and his men reached the pike 
 leading from Taylorsville to Bloomfield, a very 
 haevy rain came up and they turned off of the pike 
 
Three Years With Quantrell i^r 
 
 and went into Dr. Wakefield's barn. Being very 
 tried, he laid down on a pile of hay to rest. The boys 
 began to romp and throw cobs at each other and four 
 or five of them were pelting John Ross with cobs 
 and he ran out of the barn door into the lot, when he 
 saw a compan yof Federals coming through the lot 
 gate. This company was under the command of Cap- 
 tain Mead. John ran back to the door and yelled, 
 'Great God, boys, the Federals are right on us." 
 Quantrell sprang up and said, "Mount, about face 
 and charge." He ran to his horse and as he started 
 to mount him, his stirrup leather broke, throwing 
 him across his saddle and, before he could regain his 
 position, his horse dashed out of the door, following 
 the other horses, and just as his horse entered the lot 
 with him, a Federal shot him in the back, the bullet 
 ranging up and forward. His horse ran with him into 
 a pasture. Quantrell still trying to regain his seat 
 and, as the horse made a turn, he fell to the ground 
 on his back and a Federal rode by him, shooting at 
 him when he exclaimed, "It is useless to shoot me 
 any more; I am now a dying man." The Federals 
 carried him into Dr. Wakefield's house, where his 
 wounds were dressed and the Federals left him there 
 that night. After the Federals left him, Frank James, 
 John Ross, Bill Hulse and Payne Jones went to see 
 him and wanted to take him away and hide him in 
 the woods, but he declined to go, saying, "Boys, it is 
 impossible for me to get well, the war is over and I 
 am in reality a dying man, so let me alone. Good- 
 bye," and the boys turned and left him. In a few 
 days, the Federals came with an ambulance and 
 
JS2 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 took him to Louisville, placing him in a hospital. He 
 remained in the hospital at Louisville for several 
 weeks, when a Catholic priest, who had been visiting 
 him, telling the authorities that he was bound to die, 
 prevailed upon them to let him be removed to a 
 Catholic hospital, where on the seventh day of June, 
 1865, the spirit of one of the truest, bravest men that 
 ever lived passed from earth to appear before his 
 maker and render an account for the deeds done 
 here. 
 
 There has been in late years a nimiber of sensa- 
 tional articles appearing in the public press, claiming 
 that Quantrell was not dead and at various times 
 some one, to gain notoriety, has published a state- 
 ment that Quantrell was still alive, but I know that 
 he died at Louisville, Kentucky. I know that just be- 
 fore his death, he gave the priest an order to Mrs. 
 Cooper for the money he had left with her. These 
 facts I have from a reliable authority. Miss Eliza 
 Sanders, who was familiar with all of these facts, 
 and who wrote them to me after the war. In 1872, 
 Miss Mary Beverley, of Howard County, Missouri, 
 who afterwards married Bill Greenwood, was in 
 Louisville, Kentucky, hunted us his grave, which 
 she found from the records kept by the sexton of the 
 Catholic graveyard and had it re-sodded. 
 
 It will be remembered that four of us did not go 
 with Quantrell on his last trip, but waited for him 
 near Mrs. Cooper's and having waited in vain a day 
 and night, I rode out on the pike to see if I could 
 hear anything of him and just as I came in sight of 
 Dr. Wakefield's house, I met Mr. Russell and asked 
 
Three Years With Quantiell i^j 
 
 him if he knew anything of our boys. He said, "Your 
 captain was shot day before yesterday and is mor- 
 tally wounded," and turning towards Dr. Wake- 
 field's house, he pointed to a lot of men in front of 
 the house and said, "There are the Federal soldiers 
 now with an ambulance taking your colonel to Louis- 
 ville. 
 
 George Wigginton and I then went back into 
 Spencer County to Mr. Thurman's and remained for 
 several days, where we again met Captain Stone and 
 he told us that he was going to Newcastle to surren- 
 der and that we had better go and surrender as new 
 recruits with him. We consulted with Mr. Thurman 
 and some other friends and they decided that, as 
 Quantrell's command was not recognized in Ken- 
 tucky as regular Confederate soldiers, it would prob- 
 ably be better for us to surrender with Captain Stone. 
 We then bade our Kentucky friends good-bye and I 
 must confess that it was a sad parting between Miss 
 Jennie Thurman and myself. I had with me at that 
 time the fine Colt's revolvers, with their scabbards 
 and belt that I had taken from the trunk of the Fed- 
 eral officer at Baxter Springs. I presented these to 
 Miss Jennie, with my compliments, telling her that 
 I might some day return and claim them, but I have 
 never seen any of the Thurman family since. 
 
 We went with Captain Stone, riding at night, 
 until we came to the town of Newcastle, Kentucky, 
 and about four o'clock in the morning, we stopped at 
 the house of a distinguished citizen of that country, 
 Mr. Joseph Prior, who was a first cousin of the illus- 
 tirous jurist, Judge Prior, of the Kentucky Court of 
 
JS4 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 Appeals and was also the father of William Prior, 
 who afterwards moved to Missouri and was for four 
 years Clerk of the County Court of Howard County. 
 Mr. Prior came to the door and invited us in and, af- 
 ter telling us to remain at his house and he would 
 go to Newcastle, see the Federal authorities and ar- 
 range to have us paroled. He returned from Newcas- 
 tle with a Federal colonel and a lieutenant colonel, 
 who treated us very nicely and stayed until after 
 dinner, talking with us about the war and on other 
 topics, and when they were ready to leave, they took 
 our arms and horses and paroled us and administer- 
 ed to us the oath of allegiance to the Federal gov- 
 ernment, which we have both kept ever since. 
 
 After the Federals left us, we decided it was bet- 
 ter for us to leave at once and Mr. Prior had two of 
 his horses saddled and, telling one of his boys to ride 
 behind us, he started us to Port Royal, giving us a 
 letter of introduction to a friend of his there. When 
 we reached the house of this friend of his, we handed 
 him the letter and he gave us a hearty welcome, but 
 told us that the Owen County militia might be on 
 that side of the river and we had better go into the 
 woods and stay until night, when we could return 
 to his house as the militia always returned to Owen 
 County at night. After dark, we returned to his 
 house and retired. This was the first time I had slept 
 all night in a house in three years. 
 
 In the morning, he advised us to return to the 
 brush and stay until he could make arrangements 
 for a boat to take us down the river. When we saw 
 a boat coming down the river, he took us to the shore 
 
Three Years With Quantrell i^s 
 
 and made arrangements for our transportation and 
 we went to Madison, Indiana, where we stayed all 
 night and from there, we went to Indianapolis and to 
 Terre Haute, then to Evansville, where we stayed 
 several days and from Evansville, we went by river 
 to Paducah, Kentucky, and to our uncle. Colonel 
 Robert Fristoe. There I went to work on the farm of 
 a Mr. Cobb and George Wigginton went to work for 
 uncle Robert Fristoe. 
 
 After we had been there for about a month, we 
 received a letter from my cousin, Mollie Wigginton, 
 in which she told us that they were still holding Tom 
 Evans at Lexington, Kentucky, charging him with 
 having shot and killed the lieutenant at Houston- 
 ville, and as we both knew that Tom did not shoot 
 the lieutenant, but that Allen Palmer was the one 
 that killed him, for us to go before some Notary 
 Public and make an affidavit to these facts and send 
 them to Lexington and she also stated in the letter 
 that they all wanted us to come home. George and 
 I went to Mayfield, Kentucky, and made the affida- 
 vit as suggested and forwarded it to Lexington. 
 
 At this time, we were both homesick and long- 
 mg for old Missouri and, in a few days, we started 
 home. Going to Paducah, Kentucky, we took a steam 
 boat on the Ohio River and went to Cairo, taking 
 another boat and going from there to St. Louis. 
 From St. Louis we went to Jefferson City on the 
 Missouri Pacific Railroad, and after staying there a 
 day or two, we went by boat to Glasgow, in Howard 
 County. I then went to the home of my uncle, John 
 Fristoe, who lived north of Glasgow, he had been a 
 
JS6 Three Years With Quantrell 
 
 refugee from Jackson County. I stayed in this vicin- 
 ity for several years, working on farm and, in No- 
 vember, 1867, I was married and have lived in How- 
 ard County, Missouri ever since. 
 
 It will be remembered that George Wigginton 
 and I were not present at the fight at the barn when 
 Colonel Quantrell was wounded, he and I, with our 
 two companions later surrendering at Winchester, 
 Kentucky, and the first account I had of the surren- 
 der of the remainder of the command was given me 
 after the war by Frank James. He told me that, after 
 Quantrell was removed to Louisville, they appoint- 
 ed another commander, and, in a few days, he went 
 into Bardstown, Kentucky, and saw Captain Mead, 
 who was a true soldier and a brave man, and agreed 
 on terms of surrender. They then reported to Cap- 
 tain Mead, who met them near Bardstown, with a 
 few of his men, and he told them to keep their arms 
 and horses; and remain with him until he could hear 
 from General Palmer, who was in command at 
 Louisville. 
 
 While waiting to hear from General Palmer, it 
 was reported to Captain Mead that two men had out- 
 raged a woman living in the country. Captain Mead 
 tried for several days to apprehend them, but failed. 
 Frank James then told him that he could take six 
 of his men and capture these two fiends. Mead told 
 liim to go ahead and he left with five other men and, 
 in a few days, captured them and, taking them to the 
 woman, who promtply identified them, and, acting 
 tmder the instructions of Captain Mead, James had 
 them shot. Placing the bodies in a wagon he took 
 
Three Years With Quantrell is7 
 
 them back to Captain Mead, telling him what he had 
 done. Captain Mead congratulated him and thanked 
 him for his actions in this matter and assured him 
 that he would notify General Palmer fully in regard 
 to it, and, in a few days, General Palmer issued an 
 order for the boys to be paroled and that they be per- 
 mitted to keep their arms and horses and, after tak- 
 ing the oath of allegiance to the Federal govern- 
 ment, allowed them to go in peace to their homes. 
 
 This is a true story of my life during the war. 
 Nearly all the men who fought and suffered with me 
 .are dead. There are only a few of us left and ere long 
 the last Missouri guerilla will be only a memory. I 
 realize that but a few years at least remain for me. 
 My record since the war is known to my neighbors 
 and friends and, while, in my declining years, these 
 scenes come up to me as horrible dreams, I feel 
 thankful that my life has been spared this long and 
 hope that my enemies will forgive me for any worng 
 act of mine, as I know my Maker has. This book has 
 been written at my dictation by my young friend 
 and written in the spirit expressed in the language 
 of Abraham Lincoln, "with malice toward none and 
 with charity to all." 
 
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