Former Senator Thomas Ewing to President Abraham Lincoln: The Lane-Blunt Red Leg Connection

Senator James H. Lane

Senator Thomas Ewing

On 27 June 1863, former United States Senator Thomas Ewing wrote the following letter to President Abraham Lincoln. Senator Ewing's son, Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr. had just assumed command of the District of the Border.

Confidential

Lancaster Ohio June 27/63

Sir,

I think you have my son Thomas Ewing Jr. now in a position which he will discharge his duties to your satisfaction. I see by the Kansas City papers that he has begun well, in repelling & punishing a Guerrilla raid - a small matter to the Country at large, but important to the locality if followed up vigorously.

But the greatest difficulty is this - The Country is infested with robber bands - Jayhawkers & Red Legs - who rob & murder in behalf of the Union, as they profess, and they have had too much the countenance of the public authorities. Lane [Senator James H. Lane] first organized them and Blunt [Major General James G. Blunt] as I am well advised has since countenced and supported them. I saw Genl Denver the other day, just from Leavenworth. He says the opinion is rife that Blunt has mended his fortune by sharing their plunder. Of this he of course knew nothing & probably would not wish to be named as repeating it. My son, if allowed to do it, will deal with these fellows as he ought. I have advised him to take into the Service as many of them as choose to enlist & hold them to strict discipline and to treat as robbers or rebels all others that he shall find under arms, engaged in acts of violence. Lane is now friendly, but if Tom does his duty there will I think, almost certainly be a breach between them. I write to caution you of this and to suggest that Lane, whom nature made for a bandit, is not to be relied on as a safe & prudent counsellor...

How Blunt’s Scouts Nearly Killed Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr.

Cyrus Leland Jr. (Kansas Historical Society)

Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr.



I came across this letter sometime ago. The letter is from Lieutenant Cyrus Leland Jr. to his mother. At the time, Leland was a member of Ewing’s staff:

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE BORDER


Kansas City, Mo Nov. 14th , 1863

Dear Mother,

     I received your letter of the 8th inst. Was rather glad to hear of Crabb's election. So Howard has sold his Pone. I have me a fine mare. I got her three or four weeks ago. She is worth one Hundred & Twenty five dollars. By getting her, it made me a little short of money. I can send it to you. I must tell you of a little circumstance in which I was a____somewhat intended at this time. While we were down in Mo. at Neosho, the people gave us a dance. There was some of Blunt's [Major General James G. Blunt], scouts there & they got on a bust during the evening. One of them was a little more nosiy than the rest, so I put him out of the house & used him rather roughly in putting him out. After I shut the door he fired through it at me the ball passing over me and very close to Gen'l Ewing. I then got a revolver and stepped out [the] door. As he saw me step out he run (the scout). I then commenced firing. At the second shot he fell. The ball had just coursed itself on the top of his head, just enough to stun him. The folks brought him in searched his head & he came to his senses. The next morning Gen'l discharged him and all of the Fort Scott Scouts and they went back to Fort Scott. When we returned to Fort Scott, I saw this chap with his head tied up. He told the people at Fort Scott that he had been bushwhacked in coming up...

Operational Once Again!

I apologize for the long absence, but the blog is back in operation.

Dawson A. Hook

Interesting article found by Bill Hoyt on Detective Dawson A. Hook. Hook's name can be found under my previous posting:
DETECTIVES, SCOUTS AND GUIDES EMPLOYED UNDER GEORGE H. HOYT FOR BRIG. GEN THOMAS EWING, JR., IN 1863:
Hook, Dawson A., Detective, 16 June-31 Aug.

"An article in the White Cloud Kansas Chief talks about one of Ewing's Detectives named Dawson A. Hook, who got drunk and threatened the editor with pistols for mentioning his name in an article. I don't remember seeing his name listed before, but it looks to me like the detectives were getting a really, really bad name by the Time of the Lawrence Massacre (see Columns 2&3)."


 D. A. Hook, Detective.



Having had business at St. Joseph, we started, for that place, on Saturday morning last. While in the Treasurer's office, atTroy, attending to a little business which we had there, an individual who has been circulating somewhat extensively through this upper country, as a sort of detective, by name Dawson A Hook, came swaggering' (or staggering) In, and immediately commenced, taking us to task for something we had published about Ewing. It appears that the offensive article was a statement which we had made, upon. facts gathered from a police report in the Leavenworth Bulletin, that a couple of Ewing's detectives had been detected endeavoring to kidnap a negro, and that Mayor Anthony had prevented it. Hook's main grievance
seemed To be, that we bad not given the names of those detectives ; and as be; D. A. Hook, was universally known.as Ewing's secret detective, everybody wonld think that he was the one alluded to not that he had any great scrnples against catching a nigger, but he didn't want the impression to prevail that his master's great adversary, Mayor Anthony, had "brought him to taw." We quickly saw that the fellow was so drunk that all explanation wonld be wasted upon him, and therefore endeavored to have as little as possible to do, with him ; but he nevertheless went on with his bullying and threats, occasionally throwing back his coat to exhibit a brace of revolvers buckled at his sides, which frightened us so terribly that we soon after went to the hotel and devoured, a hearty dinner. He swore that no editor should "buck sgainst Ewing over the backs, of his detectives;" that we shouldn't publish anything about the detectives, without also giving their names; and boasted that he was the only man who had ever caught a nigger in Kansas, and returned him to Missouri After reaching Elwood, and going on board the ferry boat, Hook again made his appearance, and his battery, in the same, strain as before. This time he hauled out his revolvers,, flourishing them somewhat, but through mistake held them both in one hand, which, to a person not used to being shot, did not look very terrifying. We promised him then and there, that he should have no occasion to complain that we did not mention names in onr next article. Now, we care nothing for D. A Hook's abuse and threats. He was sober enough to know that his business was not to go abont shooting people, and he had no such intention. He merely want'ed to blow and bully. Had he attempted anything else, cither at Troy or on the ferry boat, there wonld not have been enough left of him to have made a respectable stink. Neither do we' believe that Gen. Ewing would approve of his conduct in the least. But we wish to know whether the whole State of Kansas
is under martial law, that detectives can roam in every direction, insulting and abusing peaceable citizens at pleasure under cover of their commissions? Is this the sort of men Ewing employs to perform particular and secret service? We always had an idea that a detective should be a man who conld go his ronnds without creating suspicion, instead of one who constantly kept beastly drnnk, boasted of his business to every one, and insulted and abused persons indiscriminately.
Lord forgive us for swearing!

Current Reading List

I just finished reading William L. Shea’s Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign.Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Civil War America) I highly recommend this book.

The following is a list of other books associated with Guerrillas, Jayhawkers, Red Legs and the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi that I recommend:

Quantrill and the Border Wars by William Elsey Connelley Quantrill and the Border Wars

A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War by Daniel E. Sutherland (highly recommended) A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War (Civil War America)

Jayhawkers: The Civil War Brigade of James Henry Lane by Bryce D. Benedict Jayhawkers: The Civil War Brigade of James Henry Lane

Jennison's Jayhawkers: A Civil War Cavalry Regiment and Its Commander by Stephen Z. Starr Jennison's Jayhawkers: A Civil War Cavalry Regiment and Its Commander (Civil War Paperbacks)

Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West by William L. Shea and Earl J. Hess Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West

The Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Story of William Clarke Quantrill by Edward E. Leslie The Devil Knows How To Ride: The True Story Of William Clarke Quantril And His Confederate Raiders

Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861-1865 by Thomas Goodrich Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861-1865: A Riveting Account of a Bloody Chapter in Civil War History

The Border Between Them: Violence and Reconcilliation on the Kansas-Missouri Line by Jeremy Neely The Border Between Them: Violence and Reconciliation on the Kansas-missouri Line

Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and His Myth by Joseph G. Rosa (highly recommended) Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and His Myth

"The Widow's God Will Avenge The Wrong" The Strange Case of Albert E. Saviers, Alias Captain Kirk Part II

By August 1863, Albert Saviers was back in Wyandotte. He had spent most, if not all of July, under arrest at Fort Leavenworth. On 8 August, the Wyandotte Commerical Gazette reported that "Saviers was forced to hide in a field while his father, mother and a black man held off Confederate bushwhackers attacking the 'Junction House.'" On 12 September, the same newspaper wrote that, "Captain M. Saviers and Lieut Al Saviers [were] recruiting a company for the 15th Ks. Vol. Cav. It is unnecessary where they are known, to speak of the fighting qualities of Al or his father. The old gentleman, a few weeks ago, defended his own residence (the Junction House) and beat off twenty Bushwhackers, singlehanded and Al has slain more rebels than an active man could shake a stick at in a week."



On 23 Feburary, 1864, Saviers and several other men raided the home of Baptist Minister Reuben Alexander in Holt County, Missouri. The home was located near the town of Oregon. A few days after the assault on the Alexander home, United States Detective James A. Pickett captured Saviers and Charles Bradshaw in Brown County, Kansas.



In early March, Saviers and Bradshaw were brought before a military tribunal at St. Joseph, Missouri. They were charged with robbery, assault with intent to kill and arson, all in connection with the raid on Alexander's home. The minister's wife, Julia Alexander testified at the trial:



"Questioned by Judge Advocate [Colonel John Scott] Do you know them or either of them by name?"

"Answer: The one in the black whiskers, (pointing to defendant Saviers) called himself Capt. Kirk. (In his testimony Reuben Alexander stated that Saviers called himself "Lieut. Kirk)."

"Questioned by Judge Advocate: Were there any others concerned in the outrages spoken of except the two prisoners?"

"Answer: There was a third one present who did not say as much as the prisoners, but helped them and did all they told him and helped search the house. The red [-] whiskered prisoner (alluding to Charles Bradshaw), guarded Mr. Alexander while the other two went and searched the upper part of the house..."

More in Part III

The Strange Case of Albert E. Saviers, Alias Captain Kirk Part 1

In William E. Connelly's list of the original thirteen Kansas Red Legs the name Al Saviors appears. His real name was Albert E. Saviers. He was born in 1842 and in 1857 was living south of Argentine in Wyandotte County, Kansas. According to his own statement his "residence in Kansas, was Shawneetown or rather three miles from Shawneetown on the road leading from Kansas City to Shawneetown. That prior to my enlistment I resided with my father[,] Milton Saviers[,] a farmer and also a carpenter by trade and under him I learned my trade as carpenter." The Wyandotte Commercial Gazette reported on 18 July, 1861, on Fourth of July festivities held at Milton Saviers "at the junction of Shawnee, Wyandotte, and Kansas City roads..." When the war broke out Albert enlisted in Company G, Cass County Mounted Missouri Home Guards. This company was later attached to the 9th Kansas Volunteers. On 5 Febuary, 1862, Saviers was mustered out of Company H, 9th Kansas Volunteers.



On 30 November, 1861, the Leavenworth Conservative reported that "A captured bushwhacker named Fitzpatrick was accused of several crimes, including murder. One of the crimes was stealing a horse or mule from Milton Saviers, and then trying to shoot him. The pistol misfired and Saviers escaped." Fitzpatrick was apparently executed by a firing squad from the 7th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry.



In August 1862, Albert E. Saviers was identified as one of the men with Joseph B. Swain when Swain conducted a raid into Clay County, Missouri, to recruit slaves for the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers. During this raid, Albert was shot in the back. In his pension file Albert claimed that the "Ball entered in back[,] passing through right lung & still remain [s] in his body, lodged against brea[s]t Bone [.]



By May 1863, Albert had been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers. However, monthly returns show the young lieutenant as "absent on leave since 24 May, 1863." Interestingly, Albert married Louisa Searl at Leavenworth on 10 April, 1863. Connelley reported that a "Pony" Searl "was said to have been a member " of the Kansas Red Legs.

On 13 June, 1863, the Kansas City newspaper The Western Journal of Commerce reported: "A Robber Caught - A bold robbery was lately committed near the Wyandot [te] Ferry, in the day time, on this side of the river. Captain Sears, commander of the post in this city, immediately set to work to ferret out the guilty parties. A man called 'Al Saviers,' an ex-member of the Red Leg organization, as he says, was apprehended in Wyandot[te], and another by the name Bill Jones. The robbery was clearly proven on Saviers by the testimony of the parties robbed, and by other parties and circumstances...The robbery was a very glaring and aggravated one. An old gentleman, over 60 years of age, accompanied by his niece, were coming from Wyandot[te], where they live, and were met by this scoundrel and deliberately robbed. He took from the old man about $350 in cash, and the horse, leaving the man and women to foot it into town. The horse was found a few days afterward in the timber of Kaw bottom. Saviers is said to be a desperate fellow."

The story will continue in Part II.