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IIJVKSTII : KANSAS OAVAI.IIY.'A
A soldier's first duty is obedience to
orders from his superior officer. Little
did I think when I first heard of the fir
ing on Fort Sumpter nearly three
months nfter the dastardly act was com
mitted , that I should over volunteer , or
that my services would be needed. I
thought all traitors would be promptly
arrested and hanged. I was in far-off
Colorado. There were no railroads or
telegraph lines west of the Missouri.
Coming to Denver about July 7,18(51 ( ,
I learned that war had been declared
and 75,000 volunteers were wanted.
Colorado had not been asked for help.
I met two young men unemployed ,
Crawford and Goodrich , and proposed
that if they would go with mo to the
states and enlist I would "paj * the
freight. " They accepted and on July
! ) , 18G1 , we left , Denver in a light wagon
drawn by two mules driven by a Missourian -
ian homeward bound. "We made a re
markably quick trip , only eighteen days
from Denver to Leavenworth , Kansas.
We tried to enlist at Fort Kearney ,
Neb. , where there were two companies
of regular troops , but were refused and
advised that our nearest enlistment
station was at Leavenworth.
At Marysville , Kan. , Crawford and
myself ( being in splendid physical con
dition , having averaged about eight
miles a day on foot , and feeling sure
that the war would be over before we
could reach Fort Leavenworth ) left the
wagon at 4 p. m. , just after our Mis
souri teamster had camped for the night
and pushed on on foot , walking and
trotting until i a. m. , then laid down on
the prairie for sleep and rest ; having no
overcoats or blankets two hours expos
ure was all we could stand , then we
"double quicked" about eight miles to
the first ranch where we received a good
breakfast and two hours rest and sleep ;
then until 3 p. m. we tried to outwalk
and outrun each other ; a good dinner
and three hours rest at an Indian
agency gave us strength for an all-night
rapid inarch to Atchison , Kansas , 127
miles in forty consecutive hours , feet
blistered and tired beyond description.
A short steamboat ride brought us to
Leavenworth on the evening of Jxily 00.
By 10 a. in. on the Hist day of July ,
1801 , my twentieth birthday , I enlisted ,
and was mustered out November 2,1805.
If I had dreamed that my four years ,
three months and three days' service
was to be all the time west of the Mis
sissippi , on the border , on the extreme
right wing of our great army , that obed
ience to orders and soldierly duty would
deprive mo of the gloiy of the "Army
of the Tennessee , " the "Atlanta Cam
paign , " the "Army of the Potomac"
the march in the "Grand Review , " that
the twenty-four general engagements
and hundreds of bushwhacking fights in
which I participated wore to be compar
atively insignificant , that they were to
be barely mentioned in the history to be
written of the great struggle ; if I had
but dreamed of the possibility of such a
fate , I would have walked to Washing
ton before enlisting. Within ten days
I participated in the fight at Indepen
dence , Mo. , and only a few days later ,
in a fierce little battle at Morristown ,
Mo. , where I learned my first lesson of
the horrors of what was then called the
"Border War. " In a charge upon the
rebels commanded by General Rains ,
Colonel Johnson , a gallant officer of the
Fifth Kansas Cavalry , was killed. We
won the fight and captured several con
federates , seven of whom were called
before a drum-head court martial and
sentenced to death. Their graves
were dug , were compelled to kneel
down by the edge of the grave ,
blindfolded , and shot by a regularly de
tailed file of soldiers , the graves filled
up and wo marched away. It was a
sickening reminder that wo were fight
ing under the black flag. This execu
tion was in retaliation for the murder
only a few days previous of seven men
of our command.
This story of the cowardly immler
that caused this revenging retaliatory
act is best told by the brilliant editor ,
author , and rebel soldier , John Edwards ,
who used his masterty pen to paint
Quantrill a hero in his book entitled
"Noted Guerrillas or the Warfare of
the Border , " page 111.
"A military execution is where one
man kills another ; it is horrible. In
battle one does not see death. He is
there surely ho is in that battery's
smoke , on the crest of that hill fringed
with the fringe of pallid faces , under
the hoofs of the horses , yonder where
the blue or the gray line creeps onward ,
trailing ominous guns but his cold ,
calm eyes look at no single victim. He
kills there yes , b\it ho does not dis
criminate. Harold , the dauntless , or
Robin , the hunchback what matters a
crown or a crutch to the immortal
reaper ?
"The seven prisoners rode into Mis
souri from Shawneetown puzzled ; when
the heavy timber along the Big Blue
was reached and a halt was had , they
were praying. Quantrill sat upon his
horse looking at the Kausans. His voice
was unmoved , his countenance perfectly
indifferent as ho ordered : 'Bring ropes ;
four on one tree , three on another. ' All
of a sudden death stood in the midst of
them and was recognized. One poor
fellow gave a cry as piercing as the
neigh of a frightened horse. Two
trembled , and trembling is the first step
towards kneeling. They had not talked
any save among themselves up to this
time , but when they saw Blunt
busy with some ropes , one spoke
up to Qnantrill : 'Captain , just
a word ; the pistol before the
rope ; a soldier's before a dog's death.
As for me , I'm ready. ' Of all the seven
this was the youngest. How bravo he
was 1
"Tho prisoners were arranged in a
line , the Guerrillas opposite them. They
had confessed to belonging to Jennisou ,
but denied the charge of killing and
burning. Quantrill hesitated a moment.
His blue eyes searched each face from
left to right and back again , and then
ho ordered : 'Take six men , Blunt , and
do the work. Shoot the young man
and hang the balance. '
"Hurry away ! The oldest man there ,
some white hairs were in his beard ,
prayed audibly. Some embraced. Si
lence and twilight , as twin ghosts , crept
up the river bank together. Blunt made
liasto and before Quantrill had ridden
far he heard a pistol shot. He did not
even look up ; it affected him no more
than the tapping of a woodpecker. At
daylight the next morning a woodchopper -
per , going early to his work , saw six
stark figures swaying in the early
breeze. At the foot of another tree was
a dead man and in his forehead a bullet
hole , the old mark. "
I was a member of the original First
Kansas battery , then equipped with one
12-pound brass cannon and a mountain
howitzer. We were attached to the
Fourth Kansas Infantry commanded by
Colonel William Weer ; the Third Kan
sas , then part infantry and part cavalry ,
was with us , and was commanded by
Colonel James Montgomery , a border
warrior since 1850 , and a copartner in
the John Brown conspiracy. Wo had
also part of the Fifth and Sixth Kansas
cavalry with us , all commanded by
United States Senator "General" James
H. Lane. This army was called Lane's
Brigade.
The battle of Dry wood , Mo. , east efFort
Fort Scott , Kan. , September 2 , 1801was
a dash by Col. Montgomery with about
1,200 men and our mountain howitzer ,
then known as "moonlights battery"
against over 5,000 rebels with six Parrot
guns , the famous "Bledsoo battery" the
confederate force commanded by Gen.
Rains , a late regular army officer. So
bold and determined was our assault
that Rains was content , after he had
shaken us off , to move on south without
trying to capture Fort Scott , as he in
tended to do.
At Balds Mill , September 20 , we
charged upon Col. Rosser's confederate
regiment , about 000 men and whipped
them badly. Here I saw a man escap
ing through a cornfield. Being on horse
back I gave chase and soon came up
with him. Ho threw himself on his
knees and prayed for life. While ho
was a full-grown man , nearly six feet
high , yet he was only a sixteen year old
boy , son of Col. Rosser , whoso homo was
at Westport , Mo. , and had just reached
his father's command with letters and
clothing sent by his mother. I took him
