IN THE HANDS OF FRIENDS.
Jesse James, soon after the night attack before related, proceeded
to Kentucky, where Frank was stopping with friends. He had not
recovered from the effects of the terrible wounds which he had
received in the breast just after the close of the war. Frank was
still unable to ride abroad on account of the bullet wound in
his hip received on the day of the Brandenburg tragedy. In the
early part of the summer of 1867, Jesse arrived at the house of a
friend in Nelson county, Kentucky, near the town of Chaplin. Frank
was already there. In this neighborhood dwelt a large number of
people who were either related to them or devoted admirers of the
noted Guerrillas. They had been the friends and entertainers of
Quantrell, Marion, Sue Mundy, and others of the Guerrillas in the
closing days of the war.
Soon after his arrival in Chaplin, Jesse, whose condition seemed to
grow worse instead of better, concluded to place himself under the
surgical care of Dr. Paul F. Eve, of Nashville, Tenn. He proceeded
to Nashville, where he remained for several months, and received
much benefit to his health.
In the beginning of the year 1868 Jesse and Frank were once more
re-united at the house of a relative at Chaplin. From all that
can be learned, the life led by the wounded desperadoes while
with their Kentucky friends was as pleasant as could be expected
under the circumstances. There was a large community of people in
that section who were intensely Southern in feeling, and mourned
the defeat of the cause for which so many noble lives had been
sacrificed, with an intense grief. Every one who had fought for
that cause was dear to them, and when the Missouri youths came
to the homes of the Samuels, and McClaskeys, and Russels, and
Thomases, and Sayers, they were sure to receive a warm welcome.
In that part of Kentucky there were scattered about many of the
adventurous partisans who had followed Sue Mundy, Magruder, Marion
and other Guerrilla chiefs in the days of the war. With some of
these Frank James had served in the closing days of Quantrell's
career.
The Jameses were feted and feasted by the hospitable Kentuckians,
and so tenderly nursed that their wounds had very much improved.
Logan county was also the home of many of their friends, and
numerous relatives of the boys, and between these and those
residing in Nelson county, they passed to and fro at will, and
wherever they might happen to rest, they were honored guests of
families who possessed the pecuniary means to enable them to be
hospitable. Fair ladies smiled on them, and gentle hands were ready
to serve them in the hour of pain. It seems that they should have
been happy, or at least contented.
But the James boys' career had been stormy; they had an active,
restless disposition; they had lost the delicate sensibilities
of well organized members of society, and the rough experiences
through which they had passed had evidently destroyed, in a
measure, whatever of human sympathy had belonged to their nature.
And yet at this time their friends--and they had many--believed
them to be honorable and honest, if desperate in conflict. They
knew that they had killed many men, but this was excused, because
the men killed were enemies, and the killing was done in combats.
So it came about that these most noted of outlaws for many years
had friends who believed in their integrity, and were ready at all
times to engage in the defense of their character.
The times were favorable. There were many desperate young men
turned adrift by the events of the war; men ready to engage in any
undertaking which promised excitement and gain. Over such, Jesse
and Frank James could exercise a large influence, and from among
such they drew allies in the commission of crime.
The individual members of organizations which had hovered along
the borders, and hung on the verge of the great field of warfare,
in character one half soldier and the other half bandit, were
just the kind of men from whose ranks recruits for lawless
enterprises could be enlisted. In Kentucky and Tennessee, Arkansas
and Missouri, there were many such persons--men who, during the
great strife, when mighty hosts clashed against each other, and
tremendous events were taking place, had occupied an anomalous
position which brought upon them the hate of the Federals, and
incurred for them the displeasure of the Confederates, were in a
position where a step further could not materially alter their
relations to society. The men who had fought with regiments,
banded in great armies, whether on the side of the Federals or
Confederates, did not look with any great consideration on those
who had lingered along the borders of war, as independent companies
of scouts and Guerrillas.
There were many men in Kentucky at the time of which we speak who
had been in organizations of the character above described--that
is, Guerrilla bands, both Federal and Confederate. The regular
soldiers of both armies, whose families had suffered in consequence
of the partisan warfare, looked with ill-concealed dislike upon the
free riders of the border, and this fact, no doubt, had a large
influence in driving many of the Guerrillas into downright outlawry
when the war had closed. It was in a community of ex-Guerrillas
that Frank and Jesse found themselves in Kentucky, and among such
"friends," no doubt, their first great project of bank robbing had
its inception and complete maturity.