captain dick yager, commanding ten men, the usual number the guerrillas then operated with, engaged twenty federals under lieutenant blackstone of the missouri militia regiments, and slew fourteen.
yager had ambushed a little above a ford over the little blue and hid behind some rocks about fifteen feet above the crossing place, and blackstone, unconscious of danger, rode with his troops leisurely into the water and halted midway in the stream that his horses might drink. he had a tin cup tied to his saddle and a bottle of whiskey in one of his pockets. after having drunk and while bending over from his stirrups to dip the cup into the water, a volley hit him and knocked him off his horse dead, thirteen others falling close to and about him at the same time.
jarrette and poole, each commanding ten men, made a dash into lafayette county and struck some blows to the right and left, which resounded throughout the west.
poole pushed into the german settlement and comparatively surprised them.
where concordia now is, there was then a store and a fort, strong and well built. this day, however, poole came upon them unawares and found many who properly belonged to the militia feeding stock and in an exposed position. fifteen of these he killed and206 ten he wounded severely but not so severely as to prevent them from making their way back to the fort.
207
arrock fight, spring of 1864
todd and dave poole went east through fayette county to saline county and thence to arrock, with one hundred and twenty men to avenge the death of jim janes, charles bochman and perkins, who were captured by the federals under captain sims.
the men who captured the boys made them dig their own graves and shot them and rolled them into them. we made the raid for the benefit of this captain and were successful. we caught him and his men playing marbles in the street, unaware of any danger. we rode slowly into town with our federal uniforms on, sim whitsett in advance.
“boys,” said he, “i will knock the middle man out for you.”
he fired the first shot. then it was a continuous fire and the federals surrendered in a very few minutes.
we killed twenty-five men, wounded thirty-five and had only one man, dick yager, wounded.
ben morrow and i had the pleasure of capturing the captain in an upstairs bed room of a hotel. he died with quick consumption with a bullet through his head.
we captured one hundred and fifty men and swore them out of service.
209
fire bottom prairie fight, spring of 1864
one of the most daring things i ever witnessed was when ben morrow saved my life at the time they got me off my horse at the battle of fire prairie creek near napoleon, missouri, in the spring of 1864.
george todd, in command, was sent out to meet a bunch of federals going from lexington to independence. we expected to meet them in the road and charge them in the usual way, but they got word we were coming and dismounted, hid their horses in the woods and came up, on foot, and fired on us from the brush as we charged. they caught my horse by the bridle and before they could shoot me i jumped off over the horse’s head. as i went over, i fired at the man holding him and he fell. i was on foot amidst the worst of them. this gave me an advantage as i could fire in any direction i wanted to and they could not, as their men were all around me and in danger of being hit by their own bullets. i saw a hole where a large tree had been uprooted, a hole large enough to conceal me almost, and i made direct for it, firing at everything in sight as i went.
captain todd ordered his men back, with three of them, babe hudspath, bill mcguire and tid sanders, so badly wounded they were unable to go further.
i was left there in the hole, bullets blowing up the dirt all around me, the hole being deep enough for me210 to get out of sight. i lay on my back, loading my pistols and watched close as a hawk. they said i was dead and wanted to come up and get my pistols. whenever one would show his head i took a shot at him and they saw that i was very much alive and their scheme would not work.
one of the blue billies climbed a tree close by, thinking he would be able to get a better shot at me. i waited until he got fairly up in the tree and then shot him in the thigh and down he came. i kept up firing, thinking the boys would hear it and come back and help me.
they were a quarter of a mile off when ben morrow said, “boys, we are all here except harrison trow, and do you hear that shooting? he is still alive and by g—d i am going back to get him.” so on came ben morrow, yelling and shooting with a pistol in each hand. when within forty yards of me and letting in on the enemy with a pistol in each hand, he saw me and came straight for me. i caught the crupper of his saddle, jumped up behind him, and pulling two pistols, one in each hand, firing as we went, we got safely away. from that day on, i would have died any where, and any place and any how for ben morrow, who saved my life at the risk of his own.
after the fayette fight lieutenant jim little, one of quantrell’s best men, was badly wounded in howard211 county, missouri, and quantrell went with him to the woods to take care of him until he recovered.
then, after the centralia fight, ben morrow, bill hulsh and i went to where quantrell and jim little were in the woods. jim was much better by this time, so that quantrell could leave him and he came back to us in jackson county, where we swam the river on our horses near saline city. after we had crossed the river we went to a house to get breakfast and dry our clothes. quantrell wanted to intercept general price who was on a raid and have a consultation with him.
at this house we discovered some federal clothing—caps, etc.—in the hall and asked whose they were. we were told they belonged to some federal soldiers who had stayed there through the night and attended a dance. we captured them at once and swore them out of service. we then went on to intercept price at waverly, saline county, missouri, where arrangements were made for quantrell’s men to take the advance clear on up through fayette and jackson counties, and up through kansas city. we were in advance all of the way from that time until price started south, and we went with him, about one hundred miles, almost to the arkansas line, and turned back to jackson county.
