Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
I've been talking about Cole Younger and his life as a Bushwhacker and Confederate soldier during the turmoil and insanity of the American Civll War. In the last post we left off with Cole joining the Confederate army while the Union captain was continuing to carry out his personal vendetta against Cole''s family. They had burned the family home down and had murdered his father.
Cole was enraged and was a fearless soldier and that gained him respect immediately upon joining the army. The South wanted to take, or capture, the city of Independence, Missouri but they had no intelligence on the number of Union soldiers there so they came up with a plan to send in a spy to gather information.
Cole goes Drag to become a spy..
Nobody wanted to do it and no one would volunteer so Cole offered to do it. He knew he needed a disguise so he got a dress, spectacles/glasses, a gray wig and a basket and went as an old lady selling fruit. I assume he had to have gotten an old pair of shoes of the type an old lady would be wearing in those days too. He got a real fast horse and fitted it with a side saddle which a female would be seen riding on.
So there he goes trotting and then walking into town and calling out with a high, crackling, screechy voice "Apples and fresh vegetables!" He rode up and down the street taking note of the number of soldiers and equipment he saw, and occasionally being stopped by a soldier buying an apple.
He finally raised suspicion by a guard, probably because he spent so much time looking around and riding instead of trying to sell produce. The guard mounted up and followed him and called out "Wait a minute Granny, I want to talk to you." Cole ignored him.
This time the guard shouted "I tell you to stop." A sergeant with 6 men fell in behind the guard, thinking something may be up.
By this time the the guard was getting pissed and yelled "I order you to stop!" Each time he was ordered to stop he sped up a little faster.
By now the guard was furious and shouted "Damn you, I'll teach you something!" And brought his horse up beside Cole's and when he reached over to grab the reins Cole drew his pistol and shot the man in the chest, sending him off his horse.
Cole then spurred his horse and charged down the street, the basket flung down, the bonnet blown off. With the wig and dress flowing back in the wind he rode for all he was worth. He raced back to the Confederate line, the soldiers pulling up when he got close to his troops.
The information which Cole was able to gather helped the Confederate's significantly and they were able to capture Independence.
The battle of Lone Jack..
The small town of Lone Jack is still there today and is located just East of Kansas City. It's name isn't named after a lonely guy named Jack, it was named that because in an area of prairie there stood a Blackjack tree by itself. Anyway this battle provided Cole another chance to show his courage.
When the battle began, with both sides hunkered down and firing at each other, it was the Confederates who were running out of ammunition. There was more ammo stored in a farm's Spring house about a mile away so Cole jumped on his horse and rode to it, gathered ammo in a basket and headed back to the lines.
Courage under fire..
While being fulled exposed and the only one on horseback the Union soldiers fired repeatedly at Cole while he rode up and down the lines tossing boxes of ammo to the men. This was at a distance of a little over 100 yards. When he'd finished giving out all the ammunition there came a great shout as the Union soldiers cheered him for his bravery!
Courage and honor were hallmarks of a man back then and it says something when even your enemies honor you for your bravery. There is another bizarre situation concerning the war in that area. A few miles away there were Union and Confederate companies training for battle in Warrensburg. It was a small town and probably most of the people knew each other.
Well, there was a problem in that there was only one field in town that was suitable for marching and training so the opposing forces alternated days so they could both use that field to train on! Is that strange or what? They could work out things like that but they couldn't work out any kind of peace?
Compassion for your enemy..
I'm not even sure who won that battle and it doesn't really matter to me but something happened after the battle that gives us another glimpse into the character of Cole. The commanding officer for the Union was a Major by the name of Foster, he was wounded and captured by the Confederates and taken to a house set up as a hospital for the Confederates.
He was lying there in bed when a Confederate guerrilla noticed him and drew his pistol saying he was going to kill him right there. Well, Cole happened to be in the room and told the man to stop it and get out. When he stated even louder that he would kill Foster, Cole rushed him and forced him outside, telling him that if he came back he'd kill him.
Upon re-entering the house Foster told him he had money and asked that Cole deliver it to his mother in another town, it was $700 which was a large sum back then. Cole did indeed deliver the cash to Foster's mother after the battle. Foster knew he could trust him when he saw what Cole had done for him.
To me this is another confusing aspect of Cole who was supposed to be a cold blooded killer. lol. But aside from him riding with the bloodthirsty Quantrill bunch he seems like an honorable man. But his story is just getting started, he may turn darker.
Confederate cemetery in Lone Jack, Missouri:
This is a photo of 3 brothers who fought in the Lone Jack battle, courtesy of the Lone Jack Historical Society:
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
ps- ya know....you might just be a redneck if:
You consider a good tan to be the back of of your neck and the left arm below the shirt sleeve!