"Hell and its Fury" Part II

George H. Hoyt, Chief of the Kansas Red Legs

Major General James G. Blunt, Commander of the District of Kansas

Major General Samuel Ryan Curtis, Commander of the Department of Missouri

On 18 April, the Weekly Champion and Press reprinted the following story from the Wyandotte Gazette:

About one hundred negroes, men, women and children, arrived in this city, on Tuesday morning, from down in the [neighborhood] of and below Lexington, Mo. They had two fights with bushwhackers on their way up, and cleaned them out both times.

Just before night, another invoice of about sixty, all of the male persuasion, came in with Capt. Hoyt. Recruiting for the colored regiments goes on briskly here just now.

The Daily Evening Bulletin in San Francisco ran a story from one of the St, Louis newspapers on 9 May 1863, under the headline, Raid upon Secessionist in Lafayette County. The article stated that the Red Legs, along with 200 of Burris' men attacked the Chapel Hills section of Lafayette County. They did so with such fury that they killed 50 men of the inhabitants and burned 30 houses...Governor Gamble has since [?] Gen. Hall to command in that district and he and Gen. Curtis have ordered an investigation of that affair. It was not undertaken upon any responsible military authority, and the consequence has been that Union men have been murdered.

In the next post, "The Hammer Falls"

"Hell and its Fury" Part I

From about the last week of March until approximately the third week of April 1863, the Kansas Red Legs, lead by Hoyt, launched a series of deadly raids deep into Missouri. They were, perhaps, the largest Red Leg incursions of the war and certainly the most violent. Below is a list of newspaper articles related to these raids:

28 March 1863

Weekly Champion and Press (Atchison, Kansas)

Late yesterday evening we received information to the following effect: Sixty of Maj Ransom's men and thirty Red Legs were on High Blue all day Sunday and killed the notorious [illegible] Perry and several other bushwhackers. They arrived at Raytown at nine o'clock yesterday morning and heard there of the disaster to Penick's men. Late dispatches from Capt. Harvey [could be "Jack" Harvey], says that he has reliable information that Quantrill returned on Saturday with very considerable force, making the enemy's force about two hundred. --Kansas City Jour. of Com.

It is very possible that some or all of this group of Red Legs were the ones mentioned by Lieutenant Hankins as "going home to Lawrence," in his report dated 30 March.

8 April 1863

Boston Daily Advertiser (Boston, MA)

Successful Scouting Expedition

Kansas City, Mo., April 7 - Major Ransom of the 6th Kansas, has just returned from a highly successful scout. Thirty-one guerillas were killed, 15 camps broken up and nearly all the camp equipage, arms, horses, &c., captured, 27 houses and places of resort burned and two leaders hung. The latter were concerned in the robbery of the steamer Gaty. A large amount of powder and other munitions of war were destroyed. Only one of Ransom's men was wounded, and he will return to the field in a day or two.

11 April 1863

Freedom's Champion, (Atchison, Kansas)

Bushwhackers Cleaned Out - Capt. Hoyt and his squad of men who have been down below with Maj. Ransom, cleaning out bushwhackers, returned yesterday. Maj. Ransom had about 160 men, under Capts. Stout and Harvey. Capt. Hoyt had 30, making in all nearly 200. The expedition was all commanded by Maj. Ransom, and had for its object the killing and driving out of the bands of rebels which have so long infested that district. The raid has been very successful. About forty rebels have been killed, over twenty rebel houses burned, and Maj. Ransom has seized a large amount of rebel munitions, &c. Several of the negroes who escaped from the Gaty were rescued. Among the rebels killed were some of those engaged in the steamboat massacre. None of our men were hurt. Capt. Hoyt's men killed 32. [see comments by "Fifth Cavalry" http://jayhawkersandredlegs.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-believe-red-legs-will-kill-any-man-in.html ].

Capt. Todd, who commands the bushwhackers was badly wounded.-He was shot in three places, but escaped. This effective raid will doubtless terrify the rebels in that part of the country, so that the business of murdering, stealing and plundering, which they have carried on so long, will not be a very popular calling for some time to come - Leav. Conservative.

25 April 1863

Appleton Crescent (Wisconsin)

Creating a Union Sentiment in Missouri

A letter from Lexington, Lafayette county, [Missouri], dated the 6th inst., informs us that, within the five days previous, some thirty or forty Kansas Red Legs, and one hundred and fifty or two hundred of Burris' [Lieutenant Colonel John T. Burris 10th Kansas Volunteer Infantry], regular United States soldiers had entered the southwest part of that county, "and burnt at least thirty houses and killed at least fifty men, who were unarmed and heretofore lived in peace and quiet through all the troubles which have existed in that country." It was enough that a man has taken the alarm, and carried his negroes and stock away, to mark his property for confiscation by the Red Legs. Among those who have had their property burned, the writer names Dillard, Walker, Bledsoe, Woods, and others. Several Union men were killed, among them one James, near Chapel Hill. The southern men killed had taken the oath of allegiance and given bonds, and no one ever charged them with a violation of either. "Even while I write (says the correspondent), the streets are full of wagons and stock belonging to persons fleeing from that section of the country."

More in Part II

"God Damn an eyewitness anyway! He always spoils a good story!" New True Grit Film

With the new True Grit  film opening today, I thought I would post the link to our article on the battle of Lone Jack. Kip Lindberg and I wrote this back in 2004 for North & South magazine. . As some of you know, the fictional "Rooster" Cogburn lost his eye at Lone Jack.

www.historiclonejack.org/shotalltopieces.pdf

"Going Home to Lawrence"

Lawrence, Kansas 1863 or 1864 (KSHS)

This is a remarkable correspondence from Lieutenant Nimrod Hankins, 9^th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, which confirms that many Red Legs resided in Lawrence. It also illustrates how some Red Legs were protected by certain Kansas Army officers. The letter is located in the Missouri State Archives, Missouri’s Union Provost Marshal Papers: 1861-1866.

Shawneetown Kansas

March 30th 1863

Commanding Officer

9th Kas Vol Cav Olatha Kas

Some horses being stolen on last Friday night south of this place I thought prudent to take a small scout. I took four men and went to the bridge on the Kaw River and there thought I had found track of said Horses, followed up trail three miles west of the Six Mile House on my return I arrested two Red Legs Jeff Davis [Joseph B. Swain], and A. Sayvor [Al Saviers], brought them to camp intending to send them to Head Quarters, but on receiving a dispatch from Maj. Ransom [Major W.C. Ransom, 6th Kansas Cavalry], stating that to his [c]ertain knowledge they were both with him in Mo the night the  Horses were stolen and also that he had arrested them by your order and accepted their parole to report to Head quarters Fort Leavenworth immediately I released them. There was about fifty Red Legs passed here Saturday evening going home to Lawrence. All leading Horses. I was not here being on scout. They had passes from Maj Ransom. I am Col your most obt Servt Lieut N. [Nimrod] Hankins
Commanding at Shawneetown Kas

Where, exactly, were these fifty Red Legs returning from? In the next post I will examine what was perhaps the largest Red Leg raid of the war and how it prompted the downfall of Hoyt’s structured fraternity.  

Early Report on Scouts in Red Leggins

The newspaper clipping below can be found in the Jennison Scrapbook at the Kansas Historical Society. There is no date or other identification with the clipping. The Jennison Scrapbook contains a host of interesting articles. It would appear that Charles Jennison's wife, Mrs. Mary Jennison, assembled the scrapbook. After interviewing Mrs. Mary Jennison in 1905, William E. Connelley reported that, "She had many scrap books containing clippings of accounts of Jennison, but she sold them in San Francisco. She said she would borrow them for me."

Lies

The "Republican" says that the "Red Legs" never fought Quantrile [Quantrill], thereby intimating a collusion between them. The writer lies, and knows it, in the statements thus made. Let us give a fact. In the winter of '61 and '62, Captain (now Col.) Oliver, Seventh Missouri Volunteers, was in command of a battalion at Independence. Oliver had been educated under Jennison, and knew how to deal with bushwhackers.
Quantrile was ranging in that section. Boorn Swaine [Joseph Bloomington Swain], (better known as Jeff Davis) John Bridges [Jack Bridges], (Beauregard) and eleven other Federal scouts were empowered by Oliver to hunt Quantrile down, receiving as compensation the horses and arms they might capture from the guerrillas, not belonging to Union men. One or two men in the party wore red leather leggins. This was adopted as an insignia by the scouts. Within two weeks they had nine fights with Quantrile, shooting three horses from under him, and reducing band to twelve or fifteen men.
A change occurred. It didn't suit officers of the Gamble-Republican stripe to destroy him entirely. He might have a vote when the rebellion was over. His friends would be offended. So [,] Lieut Col. Brown (now General) of the Seventh Missouri, an officer of conservative opinions, relieved Capt. Oliver, who was sent under arrest to Lexington on charges of Jayhawking. The "Red Leg" scouts were all arrested and kept in the Independence Guard House for forty days. The only charge was irregular warfare. The real offence was exterminating bushwhackers. The "Republican" and its set have not changed a bit. To-day they would rather that Quantrile and his friends should escape, than that the martyred dead of Lawrence should be avenged.

Cleveland's Widow Exhumed his Body

Marshall Cleveland

An interesting little piece from The Daily Times in Leavenworth, dated 5 August 1862:

Cleveland's "widow" had the body of the great jayhawker exhumed, last week for the purpose of getting a lock of his hair. That tombstone at last is planted at the head of his grave.

http://jayhawkersandredlegs.blogspot.com/2009/08/hell-is-full-of-such-angels-part-iii.html



Initial Beginnings of the Kansas Red Legs

William S. Tough

George H. Hoyt

Jack Bridges "Beauregard"



The Chicago Tribune published this interesting story on 18 November 1862:

The War on the Border

From Kansas another corespondent writes:

It is proposed to raise here, if Gen. Curtis will sanction the proceedings, a force of 400 or 500 mounted men to be enrolled, for three months, and to be employed especially in the task of hunting Quantrell and his followers. We have about that number of young men who have been with the army as scouts, etc; and who are, of all the men on this border, the ones to place in such service. It is daring and comparative freedom that would suit them, and there is a strong ambition among them to be so employed. The ordinary supplicants of warfare will never reach the guerilias [guerrillas] and we shall have to accept the services of men who know their every haunt, and if allowed to go at it in their own way, will clear the border in a short time. Under the leadership of Captains Hoyt, Boom, Swain [Joseph Bloomington Swain], Bridges [Jack Bridges “Beauregard”], Tufts [could be William S. Tough], and others they can exterminate Quantrell by New Years, if allowed to go ahead. The mustering into service for three months will be a sufficient restraint upon the men and the officers of such an organization and provide against the irregularities which attend the operations of irresponsible scouting parties.