Chris,

Try Richard Brownlee's 1957 less biased "Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy" which has recently been reprinted. Another less biased account is Albert Castel's 1962 "The Life and Times of William C. Quantrill," which has also been reprinted. Donald Hale's more recent "We Rode With Quantrill" published about 1968 contains a number of excerpts from postwar guerrila accounts. Barton's edited memoirs of Quantrillian John McCorkle in "Three Years with Quantrill" is also available in reprint. You may wish to stay away from the James brothers stuff, as much of it exhibits inadequate knowledge of the James during the Civil War, but you are welcome to try. Goodrich has some good ones and there are others, but the closer you get to stuff printed right after the war the more bias you will encounter. You may obtain these using interlibrary loan through your local library.

Generally speaking, Frank James entered guerrilla service first in Ferdinando Scott's Clay County guerrilla band in 1862 then went along when Scott transferred most of his men to Quantrill south of the Missouri River. When Jesse was old enough to join in spring 1864 Quantrill was no longer in command of his former band. Jesse must have admired the dash and vigor of "Bloody Bill" Anderson, for he joined that band mostly. Jesse accidentally shot off part of his finger in one of his first fights about 1 Jun 1864 in Clay County, then was seriously wounded in the lung at Wakenda Creek in south Carroll County in July that year, as I recall my reading. In spring 1865 Jesse was seriously wounded again by as I recall a Minnesota infantryman in a fight in Lafayette County. So, you see, Jesse spent much of 1864 and 1865 recovering from battle wounds. Frank was not short of daring either, but lived a charmed life in battle compared to his teenage brother. I recited all this from memory being away from my sources today, so I hope I got most of the details correct for you.

I was hoping someone would have answered your question better than I can by now when the dust settled after that "bandit" landmine went off.

Bruce Nichols