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- Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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THE BORDER BANDITS
An Authentic and Thrilling History of the Noted Outlaws, Jesse and Frank James, and Their Bands of Highwaymen
James W. Buel
LACONIA PUBLISHERS
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All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2017 by James W. Buel
Interior design by Pronoun
Distribution by Pronoun
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE BORDER BANDITS.
PREFACE.
THE BORDER BANDITS.
THEIR CAREER AS GUERRILLAS.
THE FIRST SKIRMISHES.
THE DESOLATION OF LAWRENCE.
DESPERATE FIGHTING BY SQUADS.
DIREFUL MASSACRE AT CENTRALIA.
FORTUNE TURNING AGAINST THE GUERRILLAS.
THE WHIRLWIND OF DESTRUCTION CHANGES.
JESSE JAMES’ CAREER IN TEXAS.
ROBBERY AND MURDER.
PLUNDERING A KENTUCKY BANK.
BANK ROBBERY AND MURDER.
THE MYSTERIOUS HIDING PLACE IN JACKSON COUNTY.
A TERRIBLE FIGHT IN MEXICO.
PLUNDERING AN IOWA BANK.
ANOTHER BANK ROBBERY IN KENTUCKY.
ROBBING OF THE CASH-BOX AT THE KANSAS CITY FAIR,
PLUNDERING THE STE. GENEVIEVE BANK.
WRECKING AND PLUNDERING A TRAIN.
THE STAGE ROBBERY NEAR HOT SPRINGS.
THE TRAIN ROBBERY AT GAD’S HILL.
WICHER’S UNFORTUNATE HUNT FOR THE JAMES BOYS.
MURDERING COW-BOYS AND DRIVING OFF CATTLE.
THE ATTACK ON THE SAMUELS RESIDENCE.
ASSASSINATION OF DANIEL ASKEW.
THE SAN ANTONIO STAGE ROBBERY.
THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY AT MUNCIE.
THE HUNTINGTON BANK ROBBERY.
THE ROCKY CUT TRAIN ROBBERY.
THE FATAL ATTACK ON A MINNESOTA BANK.
AT GLENDALE—THE LAST GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY.
SHOOTING OF JESSE JAMES BY GEO. SHEPHERD.
WHY DID SHEPHERD SHOOT JESSE JAMES?
ROBBERY OF THE MAMMOTH CAVE STAGES.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JAMES BOYS.
THE UNION PACIFIC EXPRESS ROBBERY.
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE YOUNGER BROTHERS.
ANECDOTES OF JESSE AND FRANK JAMES.
BASSHAM’S CONFESSION OF THE GLENDALE ROBBERY.
The James Boys Heard From Again.
ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, APRIL 3, 1882.
THE BORDER BANDITS.
AN AUTHENTIC AND THRILLING HISTORY OFTHE NOTED OUTLAWS,
Jesse and Frank James,And their Bands of Highwaymen.
COMPILED FROM RELIABLE SOURCES ONLY AND CONTAINING THE LATEST FACTS IN REGARD TO THESE DESPERATE FREEBOOTERS.
BY J. W. BUEL,
Author of “Heroes of the Plains,” “Legends of the Ozarks,” and other popular works.
ILLUSTRATED WITH LATE PORTRAITS AND COLORED PLATES.
PREFACE.
The career of Jesse and Frank James has been as checkered as the sunlight that streams through a latticed window, and their crimes are a commentary upon the development of intellectual America. No one can afford to ignore the lesson which the lives of these outlaws teach, and therefore a correct history of their desperate deeds becomes necessary as a part of the country’s annals, in juxtaposition with the commendable heroism of our brightest characters. So many improbable and romantic incidents have been credited to these noted brothers by sensational writers; so many dashing escapades and hair-breadth escapes attributed to them, which they never even dreamed of, that thinking people, especially in the East, have begun, almost, to regard the James Boys as a myth, and their deeds as creations of sensational dreamers.
It has been my purpose for more than three years to prepare a true history of these noted outlaws, and during that time material has been collecting which is now given to the public entirely free from fulsome description or elaborated sensation. In the main essentials the James Boys themselves will confirm the truthfulness of this narrative, which has been written with a special regard for candor and indisputable facts only.
During several years of the most exciting period in the career of these noted bandits, I was engaged as reporter for the Kansas City press, and not only became acquainted with many of their relatives and friends who reside in that section, from whom were obtained numerous facts and incidents never before published; but my duties as a journalist gave me many excellent opportunities to learn the real truth in regard to many of their most daring adventures, to one of which (the robbing of the cash-box at the Kansas City Fair) I was an eye-witness. As time unfolds the mysteries which have gathered around the names of these desperate outlaws, it will be seen that this is the most faithful history of their exploits that has ever been presented to the public.
J. W. B.
St. Louis, December 15, 1880.
THE BORDER BANDITS.
JESSE AND FRANK JAMES.
THEIR YOUTH.
STRANGELY, AND YET A NOT uncommon circumstance, Jesse and Frank James were the sons of a respectable Kentucky minister of the Baptist persuasion. Rev. Robt. James, “in the good old times,” as he was wont to call the early days of his ministry, was a great camp-meeting exhorter, and many of the rock-ribbed hills of middle Kentucky have been musical with the echoes of his strong voice. Like many other pastoral exhorters and close communionists, the Rev. James was illiterate so far as “book learning” was concerned, but his sincerity was rarely debated. It has been asserted that he passed an academic course at Georgetown College, but the records of that institution show the name of no such person. Zerelda Cole, (the mother of the noted outlaws,) was married to the Rev. Robert James in Scott county, Kentucky, the same county in which Georgetown College is located; this fact, added to the desire to heroize, to the largest possible extent, the paternity of the James boys, is doubtless the reason for ascribing to the father “a finished education and unusual ability.”
“Like father, like son,” is a very ancient oriental adage; but it does not apply to Jesse and Frank James, though it is true that their dispositions are due to maternal inheritance. In fact, the wife’s strength of will and uncompanionable traits of character resulted in a final separation a few years after their removal to Clay county, Missouri, in 1843. The Rev. James, in 1849, joined in the pilgrimage to California, from whence he never returned; and, in 1857, Mrs. James took another husband, in the person of Dr. Reuben Samuels. It is quite unimportant to follow the domestic career of Mrs. James, now Mrs. Samuels, and what has been related is merely for the purpose of defining the inherited bent and inclination of the parents of the great outlaws.
Jesse James was born in Clay county, Missouri, in 1845, while Frank’s nativity is Scott county, Kentucky, where he was born in 1841. At an extremely early age they displayed traits of character which have ever since distinguished them. Their hatreds were always bitter and their cruelty remorseless.
They manifested especial delight in punishing dumb animals, which is evidenced by their cutting off the tails and ears of dogs and cats, burying small animals alive, and diversions of every kind which would inflict the most grievous pains. Among other boys they were domineering and cruel, and would rarely participate in innocent amusements. They were never subjected to parental restraint and their youth was passed in the most perfect indulgence. At the age of ten and fourteen years, respectively, the boys were provided with fire-arms, in the use of which they readily became proficient, and were no less expert in throwing a bowie-knife which they could send quivering into a two-inch sapling, at the space of fifteen feet, almost without fail.
THEIR CAREER AS GUERRILLAS.
When the tocsin of war sounded, and the feverish thrill of excitement ran through the nation, boys though they were, Jesse and Frank James were electrified with the ominous news and longed to participate in the affray where human blood might be drawn until, like a fountain, it would swell into a gory river. Soon the unmerciful Quantrell, that terrible wraith of slaughter, came trooping through Missouri upon an errand of destruction, and attracted to his banner many impetuous youths of the West, among whom was Frank James; Jesse being the junior brother, and but little more than fourteen years of age, was rejected by Quantrell, and returned home to his farm labors with sorrow. But he did not remain inactive. The family being intensely Southern in their political predilections, all possible aid and sympathy were given to Quantrell. Many dark nights Jesse would mount his best horse and ride through the gloomy wilderness of Western Missouri until he gained the guerrilla haunts, where he would deliver important information concerning the movements of Federal troops.
The part played by Jesse and the open and decided expressions frequently made by Dr. Samuels and his decidedly demonstrative wife, greatly excited the Federal soldiers, and it was determined to make an example of the family. Accordingly, in June, 1862, a company of Missouri militia approached the Samuels’ homestead, which is near Kearney, in Clay county, and first meeting Dr. Samuels, they soon gave him to understand that their visit was made for a purpose decidedly unpleasant to him.
A strong rope was produced with which he was securely pinioned and then led away from the house a distance of about one hundred yards. Here the rope was fastened in a noose around his neck, while the other end was thrown over the limb of a tree, and several men hastily drew him up and left him suspended to choke to death. Mrs. Samuels, however, had followed stealthily, and the moment the militia had departed she rushed to the rescue of her husband, whom she hastily cut down, and by patient nursing saved his life. The enraged troops decided also to hang Jesse James, whom they found plowing in the field, but his youth saved him from any other violence than a few cuffs and the production of a rope with a suspicious noose which they threatened to ornament his neck with if he again visited the guerrilla camp.
Instead of producing the desired effect, this act of the militia only excited Jesse the more, and led him to deeds of graver importance. He continued to communicate almost daily with Quantrell, which so exasperated the militia that they paid a second visit to the Samuels’ residence, decided upon killing both Dr. Samuels and the daring Jesse. When they reached the place, however, they found their intended victims absent, but, determined not to return without some trophy of their revengeful sortie, they took Mrs. Samuels and her daughter, Miss Susie, captive, and carried them to St. Joseph, where they were kept confined in jail for several weeks. This last act greatly inflamed Jesse’s passions, and he immediately mounted his horse and again rode to Quantrell’s camp, where, after detailing the particulars of this last outrage, perhaps exaggerating the facts some in order to make his appeal more effective, he begged the guerrilla commander to accept his services as a private. So hard did he plead for permission to join the ranks that marched under the shadow of the black flag, that at length the barrier which his youth imposed was overlooked and the terrible Quantrell oath was administered to him.
THE FIRST SKIRMISHES.
Up to this time the guerrillas had been engaged in but few skirmishes, their services consisting chiefly in small foraging expeditions, making themselves thoroughly acquainted with the topography of the country preparatory to engaging in more effective measures. There was a slight brush at Richfield, in which Captain Scott, with twelve of Quantrell’s men, surprised thirty militia whom they captured, after killing ten, and in this attack Jesse James participated. Upon his return to camp he was sent out with orders from Quantrell to scour the counties adjoining Clay and locate the militia. After passing through Clinton county he paid a short visit to his mother, who received him with many manifestations of pleasure, and then began to unload herself of the valuable information she had gathered for the benefit of the guerrillas. She told him that the attack on Richfield had resulted in massing the militia for a determined stroke, and that the troops were concentrating near that point; that Plattsburg had been almost entirely relieved of its garrison and would fall an easy prey to the guerrillas if they chose to profit by the opportunity.
Jesse lost no time in communicating the situation to Quantrell, and, accordingly, three days after the capture of the squad of militiamen at Richfield, Captain Scott took fifteen men and silently stole upon Plattsburg, which he found defended by less than a score of Federals, under the command of a lieutenant. The guerrillas dashed into the town about 3 p. m. (August 25th), yelling like a tribe of Comanche Indians. The citizens fled into their houses with such fear that few ventured to look into the streets even through key holes. The Federal lieutenant chanced to be in the public square when the charge was made, and Jesse James had the honor and credit of capturing him. The rest of the militia gained the court-house, where it would have been impossible to dislodge them, and to have attacked the building would have exposed the guerrillas to the fire of the enemy. It was here that Jesse James’ strategy and military tact were first manifested. Turning his prisoner (the lieutenant) over to Captain Scott, he said in a loud voice: “Captain, there is no use parleying with these cut-throats; shoot this fellow if he don’t order his men in the court-house to surrender immediately.” Captain Scott replied that he would if the court-house was not surrendered in two minutes. The result was that Plattsburg fell into the hands of the guerrillas, who pillaged the town and gathered booty, consisting of two hundred and fifty muskets, several hundred rounds of ammunition, ten thousand dollars in Missouri warrants, besides a large quantity of clothing, etc. The money was divided among the participating guerrillas, each of whom received nearly one thousand dollars in warrants besides clothing and other articles of value. The guerrillas compelled the landlord of the principal hotel to prepare them a good supper, to which they invited their prisoners, whom they paroled; and after feasting until 9 o’clock p. m., they withdrew to the cover of the forest.
After raiding Plattsburg, Quantrell broke camp and moved southward, passing through Independence, and bivouaced near Lee’s Summit. The residents of that section suffered pitilessly from the sack and pillage of both Federals and Confederates. They occupied a middle ground which was subject to the incursions of both armies, and what was left after the forage of the Union forces was remorsely appropriated by the guerrillas. There were skirmishes almost daily, and every highway was red with human blood. The James boys, young as they were, became the terror of the border; the crack of their pistols or the whirr of their pirouetting bowies daily proclaimed the sacrifice of new victims. The sanguinary harvest grew broader as the sickle of death was thrust in to reap, and the little brooks and rivulets that had babbled merry music for ages and laved the thirst of man and beast with their crystal water, suddenly became tinged with a dye fresh from the fountain of bitterest sorrow. And thus the days sped on heavy with desolation. Quantrell and his followers were scarcely interrupted by the militia, who never attacked them except at the price of terrible defeat, until at length a direful scheme was proposed in which the desperate character of these free riders was manifested in its blackest hues.
THE DESOLATION OF LAWRENCE.
Lawrence, Kansas, a thrifty town located on the Kaw river, was selected by Quantrell as the place upon which to wreak a long -pent-up vengeance. Sitting around the camp fire on the night of August 18th, 1863, the chief of the black banner held a consultation with Frank and Jesse James, the Younger boys, the Shepherd brothers, and others of his most daring followers, as to the next advisable move upon a place which would furnish the best inducements for their peculiar mode of war. There was a concert of opinion that Lawrence was the most available place. The point having been selected, Quantrell did not neglect to inform his followers of the danger such an undertaking involved; that their road would be infested with militia, the forces of which would be daily augmented when the first intimation of the purposes of the guerrillas should be made known; that it would be ceaseless fighting and countless hardships, and many would be left upon the prairies to fester in the sun. He then called his command to arms and acquainted every man with the decision in the following speech: “Fellow soldiers, a consultation just held with several of my comrades has resulted in a decision that we break camp to-morrow and take up a line of march for Lawrence, Kansas; that we attack that town and, if pressed too hard, lay it in ashes. This undertaking, let me assure you, is hazardous in the extreme. The territory through which we must pass is full of enemies, and the entire way will be beset by well armed men through whom it will be necessary for us to carve our way. I know full well that there is not a man in my command who fears a foe; that no braver force ever existed than it is my honor to lead, but you have never encountered danger so great as we will have to meet on our way to Lawrence; therefore let me say to you, without doubting in the least your heroism, if there are any in my command who would prefer not to stake their lives in such a dangerous attempt, let them step outside the ranks.”
At the conclusion of Quantrell’s remarks a shout went up from every man, “On to Lawrence!” Not a face blanched, but on the other hand there was but one desire, to lay waste the city on the Kaw.
On the following day the order was given to “mount,” and with that dreadfully black flag streaming over their heads the command, two hundred strong, turned their faces to the west. As they crossed the Kansas line at the small town of Aubrey, in Johnson county, Quantrell compelled three men, whom he found sitting in front of a small store kept by John Beeson, to accompany him as guides. The command passed through Johnson county midway between Olathe and Spring Hill, and through the northern part of Franklin county. When they reached Cole creek, eight miles from Lawrence, the three guides were taken into a clump of thick woods and shot by Jesse and Frank James. One of the party, an elderly man, begged piteously to be spared, reminding his executioners that he had never done them any wrong, but his prayers for mercy ended in the death rattle as a bullet went crashing through his neck.
Quantrell had been agreeably mistaken concerning the resistance he expected to encounter. Not a foe had yet appeared, but he never permitted a person to pass him alive. No less than twenty-five persons whom he met in the highway, after getting into Kansas, had been shot, and yet he avoided the public roads as much as possible.
Early in the morning of August 21st Quantrell and his band came in sight of the fated town. The sun was just straggling above the undulations of the prairie and the people of the place were beginning to resume the duties of a newly-born day. With a cry which froze the blood of every one in the town who heard it, Quantrell and his two hundred followers descended upon the place with pistol, sword and firebrand.
The prime object of the guerrillas was to capture Gen. Jim Lane, who resided at Lawrence, and retaliate upon him for the burning and sacking of Osceola, Mo., which had been accomplished by men under his command. But Lane fled on the first alarm, and concealed himself in an adjacent cornfield. Foiled in their desire to capture him, the enraged guerrillas turned their vengeance loose upon the ill-fated town, killing every man who came within range of their deadly revolvers. Quantrell’s orders were to kill all the men, but to spare the women and children. By accident, however,—possibly by design of some drunken privates—several women and children were shot; and this fact was made use of in subsequent reports of the affair to greatly exaggerate its barbarous details. It was certainly sufficiently inexcusable and barbarous without exaggeration. The torch was applied to the light frame buildings as the killing progressed, and the beautiful little city was soon enveloped in a sheet of flames. Stores and saloons were broken into and robbed of their contents, and the guerrilla band soon became a howling mob of drunken madmen. The dreadful harvest of death and destruction lasted nearly all day, and when the guerrillas took up their line of retreat toward the borders of Missouri, the city of Lawrence had disappeared from the face of the earth. In this affair Jesse James is said to have killed thirty men and Frank thirty-five. They seemed to take a sort of devilish pride in numbering their victims.
Quantrell and his men hastily retraced their steps, but they were terribly harassed during the entire return march by the Kansas militia and Federal troops that hurriedly concentrated and went in pursuit of them. This force has been reliably estimated at fully seven thousand, and nothing but hard marching, determined fighting, and an endurance that has never been equalled saved the guerrillas from total destruction. At Black Jack, about fifteen miles from Lawrence, a stand was made and some brisk fighting occurred. The guerrillas took to cover in a large barn which stood at the edge of an orchard. Several assaults were made to dislodge them but in vain. The horses of the guerrillas were suffering severely, however, and realizing that without horses they would be unable to get out of Kansas, the guerrillas made a desperate charge in which thirty-two of the militia were killed and a panic was the result. But the guerrillas did not care to follow up the victory, as every moment was precious. The militia were swarming and closing in upon them rapidly, and it was only by the rarest stroke of fortune that Quantrell and his men ever escaped from Kansas; this rare fortune was due entirely to the unparalleled cowardice of three hundred well armed and mounted men who had been organized into a militia force near Spring Hill, Kansas. These men exhibited remarkable bravery until the enemy appeared in sight, when they immediately retreated and never halted until they were ten miles from the place where they saw Quantrell. Had they engaged the enemy, which was one-third less in number, besides badly fatigued, they could either have beaten Quantrell or held him at bay until enough reinforcements were received to have annihilated every one of the guerrilla band.
It was a continual fight, however, and as Quantrell predicted, many of his followers were left dead and unburied on the hot prairies, where they became the prey of carrion birds. At Shawnee, in the northern part of Johnson county, the last stand was made, but the fight lasted only a few minutes, for the guerrillas, appreciating the critical position they occupied, with nearly five thousand militia gradually surrounding them, in the manner of early settlers who join in general hunts for the destruction of obnoxious wild animals, Quantrell soon ordered a charge and retreat. After breaking through the lines the guerrillas disbanded and each one then considered alone his own safety; this rendered a general pursuit impossible, and with a total loss of twenty-one men the bands reached the coverts of Jackson and Clay counties, where they were comparatively safe.
DESPERATE FIGHTING BY SQUADS.
After spending a month in apparent leisure, during which time Jesse and Frank James were frequent night visitors to their old home, Quantrell again called his command together for the purpose of resuming active hostilities, but he changed his tactics and added new terrors to the border counties of Missouri. The command was divided into squads of twenty and thirty, by which means they could make bold dashes at various points almost simultaneously and so confuse their enemies as to make pursuit futile. Indeed this peculiar and remorseless warfare gave rise to the strange superstition that Quantrell was some spirit of darkness who could transport himself and troops from place to place in the twinkle of an eye. He became no less dreaded by the Federal troops than by Union citizens, and day and night non-combatants as well as armed militiamen fell victims to the terrible guerrillas.
In the early part of October, Jesse James, in charge of a squad of twenty-five men, learning of the movements of a company of Federal cavalry under command of Capt. Ransom, who was marching toward Pleasant Hill, made a rapid detour and flanked the Federals five miles north of Blue Springs. Jesse selected a place near the road which was well screened by a dense thicket; here he stationed his men, and when the Federals came riding leisurely by, unconscious of any lurking danger, suddenly a storm of bullets poured upon them from the thicket and men fell like leaves in an autumn gust. The entire company was immediately thrown into the greatest confusion. The youthful commander of the guerrillas made the most of his advantage and ordered a dash into the confused and stricken ranks of the enemy, which he shot down with as little resistance as is offered by dumb animals. The havoc was terrible, for out of nearly one hundred Federals less than one-third the number escaped, while the loss of the guerrillas was only one killed and three slightly wounded.
On the following day another squad of Quantrell’s men ambushed a body of militia who were returning from a forage in Lafayette county, and mercilessly annihilated nearly every one of the unfortunate command. One week later Frank and Jesse James, with fifty men, suddenly appeared in Bourbon county, Kansas, five miles south of Fort Scott, and swooped down upon Capt. Blunt and his company of seventy-five mounted infantry, and with a yell of rage and triumph swept with deathly missiles the astonished Federals, leaving forty of them to bleach in autumn rains.
