To go along with the story of how the wives of Quantrill's men journeyed alone to TX, here is a story of a similar journey:
"At that point in history, the Byrd family odyssey began. To the casual bystander, the action which followed must have looked rather odd. The women popped the reins and started their wagons up the lane in single file. The men, all on horseback drifted off into the woods beside the road and quickly disappeared from sight.

So, the men stayed out of sight, unquestionably within rifle range should trouble arise, and the women proceeded as though alone and fleeing with their children.

And so they made their way out of Missouri and into Arkansas; the women driving the wagons and the men staying out of sight during the day and coming into camp at night at a signal from Nancy Lewis. Nancy’s vice was the corn cob pipe. If it’s glow could be detected within the camp, it was safe for the men to enter. If it remained unlighted, they slept where they were."
Posted on Genforum by Gay Mathis:
A Tale of Two Trains
http://norrischambers.tripod.com/byrdrev.html

Fran Bolton