by B.L. Williams

Once the Confederates were taken the yankees immediately "forgot" their promised priosioner-of-war status. After a show trial that Joe Stalin would have been proud of, Jerome Clark was hung three days after his capture. When asked shortly before his "legal" murder, about his being "Sue Mundy", Clark simply replied that Sue mundy was a girl who stole a horse and he took the blame.⁽⁶⁴⁾ the "horse" he referred to was, of course, "Bold Cheif", one of the nineteen or so thorouhgbreds taken from R. A. Alexander by Susan Mundy & company.

It’s probably a mark of the success of the ruse that Susan Mundy’s party was traverse so much of Kentucky without suspicion or incident until April of, 1865. Lafayette Bentley, one of the Kentucky scouts, being near his home decided to check on his family. A staunch Confederate, he was somehow discovered by Unionists and hung near the road at Rockhouse Creek.⁽⁶⁵⁾

The other Confederates continued to near Whitesburg and on April 16, 1865, were in the process of unloading wagons and packing pack horses when Union troops made a sudden appearance on the other side of the Kentucky River. The Yankees demanded that they cease their activity and send over boats to carry them across the river: The war was over! The Confederates refused to do so. A lively skirmish broke out when the Yankees fired upon Lieutenant Hauk’s flag of truce which killed or wounded four Confederates, among them Jesse James.

Captain Blankenship later reported that he had fired upon Lieutenant Hauk because he believed that the Confederate was only pretending to surrender in order to buy time.⁽⁶⁶⁾ Pretense or not, Lieutenant Houk skirmished with the Yankees for the next three hours and methodically destroyed every skiff up and down the river for miles. Yankee Captain Blankenship observed that the Confederates headed towards Sand Lick-- "Devil Zeke" Counts’ home range!

Jesse James, badly wounded, was loaded onto the bed of a wagon and the guerrillas, successfully eluding Captain Blankenship’s Yankees, continued on their eastward journey. Billy McCoy attended to Jesse’s wounds,⁽⁶⁷⁾ as best he could, but the trip over the mountains must have been very painful.

The Yankees had occupied Pound Gap, so the Confederates bypassed that place and split into two groups. Susan Mundy, ColeYounger, Captain Tom Smith and two other men crossing Big Pine Mountain at Cantrill Gap. They were leading a seven pack horse train.

The second group continued up the Elkhorn Fork to a point near Breaks, Virginia. Jesse James and the other wounded men were turned over to the tender care of the war weary women of that area. There were rumors that Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox on April 9. This was little believed as the Yankees and bushwhackers remained active.

Towards the end of April, Susan Mundy and Cole Younger returned nearly famished. Captain Smith, who knew the terrain well had led them safely as far as the Powell Valley. There were hordes of Union and Confederate soldiers about who confirmed that General Lee had surrendered. Others had told them that General Joseph E. Johnston had surrendered the Army of the Cumberland on April 13, 1865. The war was lost. They could find no one who knew of any organized confederate resistance anywhere. Of more immediate danger, there were roving bands of criminals and bushwhackers killing and robbing indiscriminately. There were also particularly nasty bands of Yankees, bent on personal vengeance , killing on whim. Captain Smith, fearful that the laden packhorses would draw too much of the wrong kind of attention, suggested that they be relieved of their burdens, which were hidden in a cave. They then obscured the entrance. The pack horses were led away and disposed of.

They then decided to return to Kentucky and await developments. They were very low on provisions. The country was so devastated by war and there were so many thieves, in and out of uniform, that many farmers shot at anyone, who came by. The more civil ones simply denied that they had anything to spare, emphasizing their words with the point of a gun. Susan Mundy and Cole Younger as "Granny Apples" went in search of food. It was hoped that a woman’s wit, a good story and hard money would get them much needed supplies.

When they returned to camp the next day, they found their companions dead. They surmised that they had been surprised by Yankees, presumably of Stoneman’s command, and hung as guerrillas. The sons-of-bitches had taken everything of value, leaving only their bodies to swing in the breeze.

A few days later, in early May of 1865, Andy Potter, Miles Ramey and Alex Ratliff and other men, returned from Paintsville. They had attempted to surrender, but when they had approached the Union pickets on Paint Creek, near that town. The Yankees had treated them roughly. They were particularly tough on Andy and forced them to sign a promissary note for one hundred dollars, under threat of death.⁽⁶⁸⁾ When Andy got away from the Yankees, he left the area, having soured on the idea of surrender.

Shortly after Susan Mundy and Cole Younger returned, a band of vengeful Yankees boldly attacked the Potter place. David Stapleton, the husband of Mary "Polly" Potter, on scout, saw them coming. He hurried to their cabin and told her to take the children and run as fast and as far as she could, he couldn’t stop them. He could only slow them down. She did as she was told. David Stapleton died in a hail of lead, loyal unto death to the marriage vows that others regard so lightly.

Hard on Mary’s heels came the Yankees, looting and burning. They found seventeen year old Jesse James in bed. Shot through the lung and leg. The poor boy could do nothing to defend himself. Rather than waste a bullet, the Yankees proposed to hang him. The women, including "Teeney" Ramey Potter and Susan Mundy⁽⁶⁹⁾ bravely put themselves between Jesse James and the Yankee rope.

In that dark moment the Confederate Calvary literally came to the rescue. "Devil Zeke" Counts had somehow learned of their predicament and scraped together a force of men that now poured like a torrent toward the Yankees, giving the Rebel Yell, spitting fire and lead from their revolvers. The Yankees skedaddled like the devil, himself was after them. He very nearly was in the form of a number of Teeney Potter’s sons and one very formidable brother-in-law. Lazarus Hunt was hard on the Yankee heels. All seven feet and three hundred pounds of him; Hunt carried a huge knife. The blade was fully a half inch thick, some six inches wide and eighteen inches long and said to weigh twenty pounds. Oddly, it didn’t look outsized in his huge hand. His booming voice could be heard for miles as he dared the Yankees to stand and fight. He just wanted a chance to skin every one of them alive!

When the men returned, they discussed their situation: Was the war really over? It appeared that there were Yankees who didn’t think so! It would be best to remain watchful and ready for trouble. "Devil Zeke" had a gut full of war, but he didn’t intend to be victim of the "peace" that followed. His men scouted the nearby hills and exchanged gunfire with Unionists determined to a further pound of flesh. Within days of Counts’ timely arrival, one of his men, Winwright Adkins, killed a fellow Confederate soldier, a matter of mistaken identity. The man wore Union blue and beneath it, Confederate gray. His identity has been a matter of much conjecture, but in fact was known. Just not told to anyone who happened by.

When I was but a boy, my grandmother, who lived on Potter land on Big Pine Mountain, near where this Confederate sleeps eternal, cared for his grave, to keep it clean, as have I. It’s a family tradition. Her grandfather was Andy Potter, one of Susan Mundy’s scouts, her great grandmother was "Teeney" Ramey Potter, the old woman who dared to stand between death and Jesse James. Teeney had five sons in the Confederate Army. Her brothers furnished at least twelve Rameys to the war for southern independence. The death of this young Confederate touched them deeply. He had been good and brave. He had stood and fought when lesser men would have turned tail and run. A young lion, who was only a boy, and now he was dead. Lazarus Hunt, Ezekiel Counts, George and Henry Potter went to their task with sorrow. They would bury him as if he were their own. They felled a large tree and split it into a coffin. The women washed the blood from his clothes, cleaned his body and combed his hair. When they had finished their grim task, Lazarus Hunt, who had once "hugged" a bear to death, tenderly laid the boy into his coffin. They buried him near where he fell.⁽⁷⁰⁾; The grave is located near Kentucky route 80 close to Breaks, Virginia.

On May 10, 1865, Federal querrilla Edwin Terrill and his men surprised Quantrill and his men in a barn on the farm of James Wakefield in Spencer County, Kentucky. It was raining very hard and this helped conceal the Yankees until they were very close. The confederates were distracted with a corn cob play-fight. John Ross the target of thier fun, ran from the barn, followed by a hail of cobbs. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the Yankees charging across the field. He ran back to the barn door and yelled that the Federals were on them.⁽⁷¹⁾ Qauntrill jumped to his feet and ordered the men to "mount about face and charge!" He then ran to his horse and when he tried to mount the stirrup leather broke throwing him off balance. The horse, with Quantrill awarkedly clinging to it, raced out of the barn doorway into the lot, with the other mounted guerrillas.

As Quantrill tried to right himself, a Yankee, either Ben Kirkpatrick or Horace Allen shot him in the back.⁽⁷²⁾ Both men fired at the same time, one hit Quantrill near the left shoulder blade and lodged in the spine, parplizing him fromt he shoulders down. Clark Hockensmith and Dick Glasscock were both killed trying desperately to save Quantrill. The rest of the guerrillas made good their escape.⁽⁷³⁾

The wounded man identified himself as Captain Clark of the Fourth Missouri Cavalry. Terrill had him taken to the nearby house of James Heady Wakefield. Terrill also robbed Quantrill and Wakefield, who threw in a jug of whiskey to be rid of the "Federal guerrilla".⁽⁷⁴⁾

On May 15, 1865, George Prentice of The Louisville Daily Journal wrote, "It is said that Quantrell, so-called, who was shot through the body by Terrell’s men and brought to this city (on May 13), isn’t the Quantrell, the fiend-like ruffian who murdered the population of Lawerence, Kansas, but only a fellow - that has assumed his name..."

About 4:00 p.m., June 6, 1865, William Clarke Quantrill died - or was it "John Quantrill"? There is much evidence that Terrill got his man, but there are also sound reasons to doubt.

There is a reasonable possiblity that the Unknown confederate that sleeps eternal near Breaks, Virginia was a last messenger form Quantrill for Susan Mundy. There is local lore that indicates travel by a lone man in that area, but this could also have been Frank James. Jim Potter said that Frank had come insearch of his brother and this is probable after Quantrill’s real or supposed death. Perhaps a date after September 26, 1865 ( the day Frank James and fifteen other Quantrill men surrendered at Samuels Station, Kentucky) would be appropriate.⁽⁷⁵⁾ Either way, little is known of Frank James’ movements between Quantrill’s demise and the surrender at Samuel’s Station (also known as Samuel’s Depot). Frank James’ movements become vague after his surrender.⁽⁷⁶⁾

***Footnotes***