by B.L. Williams

It is unlikely that Frank James traveled alone to the Potter place. The Missouri guerrillas, and later the James-Younger gang, had a habit of travelling in two’s and three’s. It was safer, a man alone invites trouble, and common enough to arouse little or no curiousity. Sylvester Akers⁽⁷⁷⁾, one of the men who came to Kentucky with Quantrill was born in Floyd County, Kentucky, a stop on the way, and had relatives there. Jim White was also likely to have been with Frank. He was probably the same White that appears on the roster of men with Henry Magruder on his last raid.⁽⁷⁸⁾ There were at least two "Jim Whites" on the roster of the 10th Kentucky Cavalry, C.S.A.⁽⁷⁹⁾, it could have been either. A "George White" perhaps the same mand known as Jim White, was with Frank and Jesse James, Clell Miller and James Pool when they roade into Liberty, Missouri in the fall of 1866.⁽⁸⁰⁾ Jim Cummins, a member of the James-Younger gang metions Jim White twice in his book and recounts that he went to Kentucky after retiring form the outlaw profession (pages 78, 79, 115). We can probably guess why!

When Frank James arrived at the Potter place, he found that Jesse was being well cared for and slowly recovering from grevious wounds. There were still plenty of Yankee bushwhackers about; fellows who didn’t give a hoot in hell that the war was "officially" over. They had personal greviences that they intended to settle. To deal with them Captain William "Bloody Bill" Smith of the Confederate army continued to patrol the Kentucky-Virginia boarder area, giving protection to the southern population of the region.

On October 12, 1865, President Andrew Johnson put an end to martial law in Kentucky. The largely pro-southern population welcomed the news as a God send. The Yankees felt a stab of terror: The reign of the little Ceasars was at an end! Everywhere the Yankees felt unwelcome. Railroads, ferry boats and stage coaches refused to transport negros or obey military orders.

General Palmer, who had replaced the much hated former Military Governer General Stephen Burtrigde, wired Washington that he was no longer obeyed by civilians and could not protect the interests of the radicals. An effort was made to to place Kentucky under "re-construction" by northern radicals. But Kentucky had one great weapon that she could use in her defense; Unlike the other Southern States, she had never seceded! The radicals failed in their effort to have Kentucky "reconstructed" and the Union armies began to leave the state or be disbanded.⁽⁸¹⁾

Some left with unseemly haste. Others, like Yankee General Stephen Burbridge, without doubt the most loathed man in Kentucky, tried to stick it out. Actively hated, socially ostracized and unable to earn a living, Burbridge was forced from Kentucky for reasons of health, in 1867. There were just too many Kentuckians who wanted to see him dead! He went to New York and died in Brooklyn on December 2, 1894, much to the satisfaction of many Kentuckians.⁽⁸²⁾

On December 18, 1865, with a huge majority, the Kentucky General Assembly repealed the Expatriation Act of 1861, this returned the full citizenship of all Kentucky Confederates. They could vote in state elections or run for office.⁽⁸³⁾

Outside the Applalchians, an uneasy peace settled. But little had changed for "Bloody Bill" Smith and his men. The continued to patrol the Sandlick area and the boarder region of Kentucky and Virginia. They wore Confederate Uniforms and displayed the Confederate flag. Occassionaly, they exchanged hot lead or other pleasantries with Yankee bushwhackers, that continued to infest the region.

Pike County unionist officials reported that William McCoy and other men were "still at large and under arms", on March 12, 1866, they reported that he was a part of "an armed band of Rebels to resist the officers of the law".⁽⁸⁴⁾ Andy Potter was with them. Thomas J. Owens, who was connected to the Potter and Ramey families in a number of ways, noted in his official capacity as Deputy Sheriff of Pike County, that Andrew Potter count not be found in Pike County.⁽⁸⁵⁾ Unofficially, Tom Owens didn’t give a hoot what the Yankees wanted.

Ezekiel Counts prepared to take a number of families from the Wise and Dickerson Counties in Virginia and Pike County, Kentucky to Meeker County, Minnesota.⁽⁸⁶⁾ It is likely that Susan Mundy, Cole Younger, Frank and Jesse James were with them. There is some evidence to indicate that John D. Mims of Piketon (Pikeville) Kentucky and colonel David Mims of the 39th Kentucky Union may have helped the James boys on their way.

We know that Jesse James was taken to the home of his uncle, George Hite of near Adairville, Kentucky.⁽⁸⁷⁾ We are not sure of the exact dates of Counts’ departure as he led several wagon trains from Appalachia to Meeker County, Minnesota, from 1864 to 1866.

The Kentucky General Assembly declared that the Civil War was over on Feburary 28, 1866.⁽⁸⁸⁾ This pronoucement barely made a ripple in Appalachia. The war had created too many hatreds. The cannon no longer boomed around Richmond, but their echos still reverberated in the far away valleys of Kentucky and Virginia. A sizeable number of Confederates simply refused to surrender or acknowledge that the Yankees had won. To deal with the hard cases, Kentucky’s governer hit upon a novel solution: Executive clemency was granted on October 23, 1866⁽⁸⁹⁾ Billy McCoy, Andy Potter and all the other hold outs of Bloody Bill’s Command could simply go home-- no official would demand surrender, or a loyality oath or interfere with their lives so long as they lived peaceably. It was a wise decision. The last Confederates didn’t surrender-- they just went home.

Frank and Jesse James would return to Pike County, but that is another Jim Potter story.

***Footnotes***