by B.L. Williams

The Yankees were working overtime trying to find Sue Mundy with a notable lack of success. When Captain Bill Marion, Susan Mundy and "John Quantrill"⁽⁵¹⁾ with the rest of the guerrilla force continued south to Versailles, they unwittingly created a problem for Henry Magruder, Jerome Clark, and Charley Quantrill. That problem was Captain J. H. Bridgewater. Alerted that the "Clark or Sue Mundy" had burned the depot at Midway and had gone in the direction of Versailles and would probably return to Bloomfield.⁽⁵²⁾ Yankee Bridgewater simply moved to position his troops between Versailles and Bloomfield as a blocking force - and ran right into Maruder, Clark and Quantrill in camp! The guerrillas were literally caught napping! The damage done to the guerrillas was minimal, about twenty-five horses captured and the command scattered.⁽⁵³⁾

Oddly enough, Magruder’s discomforter was Susan Mundy’s security. With Captain Bridgewater playing hide and seek with Magruder, Clark and Quantrill left an embarrassing shortage of Yankees to pursue Miss Mundy to somewhere in the vicinity of Lancaster.

Once the meeting had been effected with the Eastern Kentucky Confederates as arraigned by the other "Colonel Jesse" (David Jesse Caudill), Miss Mundy left Captain Bill Marion and "John Quantrill" (who ever he was) and with her new companions, which included Jesse James and Cole Younger, turned east to the Daniel Boone trail along the Kentucky River.

The Yankees had learned some details of the January 31^st meeting at Taylorsville and knew that the Confederates would be making a move towards Pound Gap.⁽⁵⁴⁾ Colonel Jesse or other unknown Confederates burnt the railroad depot and freight cars at Lair Station (February 2^nd) as a diversion. There were a lot of Confederate guerrilla bands operating nearby. Colonel Jones, Major Taylor, Press Williams, Bill Davidson, Ike Colter and others were playing cat and mouse with the Yankees.⁽⁵⁵⁾ Peter Everett, with some 300 well mounted confederate guerrillas, all of whom were armed with revolvers, kept 2,110 Yankees tied down at Elizabethton by threatening towns in all different directions.⁽⁵⁶⁾

The Yankees alerted and/or established bases to try to intercept the guerrillas heading for Pound Gap at : Flemingsburg, Poplar Planes, Carlisle, Mount Sterling, Owingsville and Hazel Green. Assistant Adjutant-General J. S. Butler wired Brigadier-General Hobson: "From report of Colonel Brown it will be very difficult for Rebels to get through."⁽⁵⁷⁾ Butler didn’t know it but the Confederates had totally deceived him and every other Yankee! Butler probably thought they were dealing with "Colonel Jesse" ie. Colonel george Jesse to the north and east of Elizabethtown, when the critical movement by Confederate forces was by Susan Mundy, et al, to the south and east of Lexington, arranged by the other "Colonel Jesse" ie. Lt. Colonel david Jesse Caudill.

February 4, 1865 found Susan Mundy, Cole Younger, Jesse James and other Confederates somewhere in the vicinity of Lancaster preparing for the journey to Pound Gap. There was much to do. The wagons had to be checked and needed repairs made.⁽⁵⁸⁾ The men had to accustom themselves to the new fangled Henry⁽⁵⁹⁾ rifle. Everyone was outfitted with both Union and Confederate uniforms, provisions stored. The revolvers required special care: they were carefully cleaned loaded and capped. The horses too, received a great deal of attention. They were vitally important to the success of the mission. The were brushed and combed. Their hooves carefully inspected. Feed for them had to be brought along. They needed to be shod.

Amid all the hurried activity, one sight must have been particularly amusing: Cole Younger and Jesse James in FEMALE clothing! Cole Younger⁽⁶⁰⁾ with his round fleshy face, played a convincing granny. In Missouri he had occasionally slipped into dresses and an old fashioned bonnet complete with gray hair. To which he added spectacles and a basket heavy with beans or beets or apples or cookies, anything would do, that would add to the illusion of a poor old lady trying to make a living during a cruel war. Hidden among the garments, as a kind of "personal insurance," was a heavy Colt’s revolver. Thus armored, Cole Younger would go forth to spy upon the Yankees!

‘Tis said that Jesse James had the face of a school girl and the heart of a lion! He was only seventeen and in the full blush of youth, "Jesse, arrayed in coquettish female apparel, with his smooth face, blue eyes and blooming cheeks, looked the image of a bashful country girl...."⁽⁶¹⁾ It was an illusion that would prove to be useful. Pound Gap was many a mile away and beyond that was Saltville.

The east Kentucky Confederates were "tough as nails" mountaineers. Descendants of pioneers who had trekked from North Carolina in the footprints of Daniel Boone. They spoke the quaint English of their ancestors and rolled their R’s. Quantrill’s veterans would have found little difference between themselves and the Kentuckians as they to had North Carolina roots and individuals among them shared kinship ties.

No roster exists of this very secret task force, but we shall attempt to present one based upon careful study:

The Confederates were divided into three categories: Scouts, Citizens and soldiers. The scouts had the finest horseflesh obtainable. (It’s likely that R. Aitcheson Alexander supplied some very fine thoroughbreds!) Their mission was to keep a sharp lookout for the Yankees and maintain contact with the two other groups.

The "citizens" were to travel openly. They included Cole Younger, alias "granny apples," Jesse James, alias "Sweet Sue," Susan Mundy, alias "Sour Sue," Dave Coleman, alias "Little Brother" and an unknown guerrilla played "The Old Man."

The "soldiers" had both union and confederate uniforms. They served as transport and their presents was to be kept secret. For that reason they traveled mostly by night.

They operated as a well oiled machine. The scouts were hardened veterans of a bush whacker’s war. They knew all the back paths, hidden pastures and obscure camp sites. Their object was to see everything and not be seen themselves. Although very heavily armed, confrontation was avoided, if at all possible.

The "citizens" had a particularly dangerous mission. They traveled by day. They were open to observation, but this also enabled them to gossip with whomever they happened to meet and thereby gain information of immediate value. They could buy or trade for needed items. Cook openly and so provide hot meals to the other guerrillas. It was very important that they not appear to "prosperous." The image they wished to project was one of just another poor family trying to escape a brutal war....one not too friendly, but not too unapproachable.

This method of travel was secure but slow. Frank and Jesse James were to use a simplified form of this ruse when they left Missouri for Tennessee, with their families in 1877.⁽⁶²⁾

Meanwhile, the other two "Sue Mundys"; Jerome Clark and Henry Magruder along with Henry Metcalf were captured on Sunday, March 12, 1865 in a tobacco barn on the Cox farm near Webster, Kentucky. Clark had fought like a tiger, wounding four yankees at first fire. Only outnumbering the Confederates seventeen to one, Major Cyrus J. Wilson decided that trickery might prevail where brute force had failed. He promised that the Confedertes would be treated as prisioners-of-war. Magruder who had been badly wounded some days previously, counciled surrender; Metcalf concurred. Clark was justly suspicious of yankee intentions, but allowed himself to be persuaded. They would allow themselves to be taken as prisioners-of-war.⁽⁶³⁾

***Footnotes***