ADVENTURES IN SEPARATE FIELDS.
The days of Guerrilla warfare were drawing to a close. The retreat
of Price and Shelby from Missouri left the Federals free to operate
against the Guerrillas. The old bands were decimated. Death had
been busy in their ranks; and for the remnants of a once formidable
organization, no Confederate army could extend over them sheltering
arms. The drama was about completed; the curtain was soon to drop.
Jesse James went with Lieutenant George Shepherd to Texas in the
autumn of 1864. During the long march through the Indian Territory,
they met with many stirring adventures. On the 22d day of November,
Shepherd's band encountered the band of Union militia, commanded
by Captain Emmett Goss, which had acquired an unenviable name on
account of the excesses which they had committed. Goss was coming
up from a marauding trip into Arkansas, and had reached Cabin
Creek, in the Cherokee Nation. Goss was "a fighting man," and a
fierce conflict ensued. Jesse James singled out the commander
and rode full at him, firing his pistol and receiving the return
fire of the other. The contest was short; the steady aim of the
Guerrilla secured him a triumph. Goss fell from his horse with
one bullet-hole through his head and another through his heart. On
this occasion there was one other to realize the skill of Jesse
James with the pistol, if indeed he realized anything after his
ineffectual plea for life. The Rev. U. P. Gardiner, chaplain of the
Thirteenth Kansas, rode with Captain Goss' band up from toward the
South. Jesse James pursued him, and came up with him. The chaplain
told his pursuer who he was, and plead for life. The answer he
received to this petition was a bullet through the brain. He fell
from his horse dead.
[Illustration: Jesse James' Escape from "Pin" Indians.]
Two days afterward, Jesse and a companion were riding over the
prairie, near the bank of a stream. For some cause the comrade of
Jesse left him for a time alone. Not far away was a skirt of heavy
timber. On a sudden, a wild shout burst from the wood, and a party
of Pin Indians--that is, Cherokees, who were friendly to the Union,
came skurrying across the prairie, directly toward the Guerrilla.
His danger was imminent, for the Cherokees were well armed with
long range guns, which they knew well how to use. Safety lay in
retreat, and Jesse turned to flee. He was on the open prairie, and
could not get to the timber. There was a high and steep bank before
him, and the Indians were following close behind. He determined
to leap his horse down the precipice. It happened to be where the
water was deep, and a slight projection and growth of brush broke
the fall. The leap was successfully made, and neither horse nor
rider was badly injured. Jesse, following down the creek, made his
escape, and soon regained Lieutenant Shepherd's camp.
[Illustration: A Horrible Deed.]
During the winter of 1864-5 Jesse James remained in Texas, leading
quite an inactive life. With the spring, however, that part of
the Missouri Guerrillas which went with Shepherd, began to think
of Missouri again. In April they began the return march. The road
was beset with dangers. The Pin Indians in the Cherokee country
were extremely hostile, and left no opportunity to strike at
them unimproved. By the time the May flowers bloomed, Jesse James
had reached Benton county, Missouri. In that county lived a Union
militiaman named Harkness, who had made himself exceedingly
obnoxious to people of Confederate sympathies. This man was
captured by the returning Guerrillas, and Jesse James and two
comrades held him in a vice-like embrace, while another Guerrilla,
Arch. Clements, cut his throat from ear to ear.
At Kingsville, Johnson county, Mo., lived an old man named Duncan,
who had belonged to the militia, and was very cordially disliked on
account of his bad disposition toward the Southern people. Jesse
James sought him, found him, and slew him. Duncan was a man of 55
years of age.
The Guerrilla career of Jesse James drew to a close. In May, 1865,
all the Confederate bands in the State were coming into the Federal
posts and surrendering. A considerable number of those who had come
up from Texas with Arch. Clements desired to surrender, but several
refused to do so. Among these were Jesse James. But the formality
of a surrender of the others led them all to Lexington, Mo., under
a flag of truce. There were eight unsurrendered Guerrillas to bid
a last adieu to their old comrades. This little band had proceeded
into Johnson county, when suddenly they were met by a band of
Federal troops returning from a scouting expedition. These fired
upon the Guerrillas, and a sanguinary struggle ensued. Jesse
James' horse was killed; he was wounded in the leg and retired into
the woods pursued by the Federals. He fought with desperation,
but received, at last, a shot through the lungs. The wound was
a terrible one, but he escaped, and dragged himself to a hiding
place near the banks of a small stream. Here, for two days and
nights, alone, consumed by a raging fever, the wounded Guerrilla
lay. Finally he crawled to a field where a man was ploughing. This
man proved to be a friend, and took James in, cared for him, and
finally sent him to his friends. The soldier who shot Jesse James
that day was John E. Jones, Company E., Second Wisconsin regiment
of cavalry. The Guerrilla and his antagonist afterward became
acquainted, and were warm personal friends. Jesse James joined his
mother in Nebraska, and returned with her to Clay county, Missouri.
* * * * *
Quantrell gathered up a small band of his old comrades in the
Guerrilla warfare, at Wigginton's place, five miles west of the
town of Waverly, Lafayette county. Among those who obeyed the
summons to this rendezvous was Frank James. The Confederate armies
had retreated from Missouri. There was no longer a field in that
State for the exercise of his peculiar talents. He resolved to
go East, to Maryland, and there open up a Guerrilla warfare. It
was on the fourth day of December when Quantrell and Frank James
and about thirty others of their old followers and comrades left
Wigginton's for Kentucky. On the first day of January, 1865, the
dreaded Quantrell's band effected the passage of the Mississippi
river at Charlie Morris' "Pacific Place," sixteen miles above
Memphis. Morris rendered Quantrell valuable service, although at
that time he was a frequent visitor to Memphis, and on excellent
terms with the Federal authorities at that place. After leaving
the river they marched through Big Creek, Portersville, Covington,
Tabernacle, Brownsville, Bell's, Gadsden, Humboldt, Milan,
McKenzie, and on to Paris. Here they had their first difficulty,
and were compelled to mount in hot haste and ride away. From
Paris the Guerrillas proceeded to Birmingham, and crossed the
Tennessee river. Their route then lay through Canton, Cadiz, and
to Hopkinsville. Near this place they came to a house where there
were twelve cavalrymen. Nine of them fled, leaving their horses.
The three men who remained fought the whole of Quantrell's band
for many hours, until preparations were made to burn the house,
and, indeed, until the fire was kindled. They then came out and
surrendered. Quantrell, of course, appropriated the twelve fresh
horses which were in the stable.
There was one Captain Frank Barnette, who commanded a company of
Kentucky militia stationed at Hartford, Ohio county. Quantrell at
that time was playing the role of a Federal captain. As such,
he induced Barnette to go with him on a hunt for Confederate
Guerrillas. Barnette carried with this expedition about thirty of
his men. Quantrell resolved to assassinate them all, and a way was
found to do so during the day. Frank James was made the executioner
of Captain Barnette, and as he rode by him when they entered a
stream of water at a ford, as the sun went down behind the western
hills, Frank James fired the fatal shot, and Barnette fell dead
from his horse, dying the clear waters of the brook red with his
blood.
The career of the Guerrillas was drawing to a close in Kentucky
as well as in Missouri. Quantrell, and Mundy, and Marion were
constantly hunted by dashing cavalry officers.
The disguise thrown off, the Federal officers knew that work must
be done in order to stop the Guerrillas, and they were not slow in
engaging in the undertaking. Major Bridgewater and Captain Terrell
were untiring in their pursuit of Mundy, Marion and Quantrell.
Frank James visited an uncle, and was not with Quantrell when that
chieftain fought his last fight at Wakefield's house, near the
little post village of Smiley, Kentucky. That day Quantrell's band
was nearly annihilated. Subsequently, Henry Porter gathered up the
survivors of the once formidable Guerrilla band, and surrendered
with them at Samuel's depot, Nelson county, Kentucky, on the 25th
of July, 1865. Among those who surrendered was Frank James. After
the surrender, Frank remained in Kentucky because of a deed which
he had performed in Missouri about a year before. There lived in
the northeast corner of Clay county a man named Alvas Dailey.
He had made himself very obnoxious to the James Boys, and Frank
resolved to rid the world of his presence. One night he went to
Alvas Dailey's place, and the next morning he was found dead with
two bullet holes through his head. Frank James had assassinated
him.