Thank you for your kind (and prompt) reply to my inquiry.

I have been researching Jack Bridges' life for thirty years. He is a complex, difficult man to understand. There is absolutely no question that as "Jack Beauregard" of Hoyt's "Red Legs" he was at best a thief and at worst a killer. And yet like so many of the Missouri guerrillas who went home after the war and turned their backs on criminal activity, Bridges also redeemed himself somewhat. After the war he served as a scout in Western Kansas for the army. He was severely wounded during a fight with a small band of "Native Americans" (pssst....i.e., Indians). He served as a deputy U. S. marshal in Kansas from 1869 to 1876. Later he was a detective in Kansas and Colorado. Afterwards he was at Tombstone, and later turned up in Texas where he died in 1915. Truly a man of the west. Interesting, considering Bridges was born in Maine and was a sailor before the outbreak of the Civil War.

Most of my best "bits" about Bridges have been accidental finds while reading through Kansas newspapers of his time. William E. Connelley said of him that "not much is known." Rather an astounding statement, as Bridges was rather well known in Kansas during his service as a deputy U. S. marshal.

While to my knowledge no transcript of the George Maddox trial is known to exist, I was fortunate to find a synopsis printed in the KANSAS DAILY TRIBUNE (Lawrence), 4 April 1867 (Thursday). Some parts of the testimony are reported in full; other testimony is briefly described (unfortunately for historians. All of the white Missourians and a few of the black Missourians who were witnesses testified that George Maddox was NOT at Lawrence on August 21, 1863. The majority of black Missourians who testified stated that Maddox bragged of his deeds that day and had plenty of loot. Maddox was acquitted. Was George Maddox at Lawrence? Only Maddox and God know for sure.

James W. Evans (whose son John Zane Evans, 24, was murdered at Lawrence) testified as to what he saw the day of August 21, 1863, including the killing of his son. "After further describing the acts of the raiders, the witness said that he was taken prisoner and carried to the neighborhood of Fry's stable, where he saw his son lying on his back.... Just then one of the band rode up from the west, and said to the man who was protecting me, 'George is wounded; send some one to help me fetch him around.' Some assistance was ordered. ...The man whom I supposed was called George was approaching from the west to where I stood. When I first saw him he was about one hundred and fifty feet off. He came slowly, and passed within six feet of me, and went on east about one hundred feet further, to where there was a carriage which was being haranessed up; there was a man walking by his side. As I faced to the west, the sun was at my back, and saw the man distinctly; that is the man, (pointing to the prisoner); next saw him after he was brought a prisoner to Lawrence, at the jail....
Upon cross-examination, witness stated that he never intimated to any living man that this man was shot in the right side. There were other men at the carriage; they went to a fence and got a wounded man and put him into the carrige; did not see any other men, and did not see the carriage drive off. ...[I did not tell Sheriff Ogden]that this man was wounded near the hip.... ...Maddox on day of raid was dressed in walnut-colored clothes and a dark coat and black hat; think there were no men with Maddox when I saw him on the horse." * * *

Douglas County, Kansas, Sheriff Ogden testified for the defense that while viewing the prisoner in the jail after his arrival at Lawrence, James Evans told him that while Maddox looked like someone he had seen before, he was not absolutely sure that he was the wounded man he saw that day. "He also said the man they brought was wounded here (pointing to the left hip)." * * *

"Wm. Waterhouse, Jack Bridges and Peter Linn testified that the men in the ambulance which the raiders took out of town was [sic] killed, and that one of them was named George.
Peter Linn also testified to a conversation with Mr. Evans, in which Evans stated that he could not identify Maddox as the man whom he saw at the raid." * * *

"Here Maddox's affidavit was put in evidence, to the following purport: That Samuel A. Riggs would swear that he had frequently talked with Evans about the Maddox case; that he stated he could not state positively that he saw Maddox at the raid; that he resembled a man he saw there badly wounded, who was got into an ambulance and taken off with the other wounded men, but that he could swear to nothing positive as to the prisoner's identity...."

The only way that Bridges could testify to the fate of the wounded men was if he was present at their execution. It is also extremely likely that "Beauregard" was one of the "Red Legs" who shot the men. The absence of his complete testimony from the Maddox trial is a real blow to history.

At the time of the Lawrence raid Jack Bridges was at Paola, Kansas, where "Lieutenant" Bridges was serving as a recruiting officer for the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry. When word of Quantrill's movements in Kansas reached Paola, Bridges took to the field and soon joined up with George H. Hoyt and other members of the "Red Legs" band.

William E. Connelley's excellent book on Quantrill states that "Bledsoe" was one of the wounded men, and that he was a member of "Colonel Holt's" group at Lawrence. "J. L. Bledsoe" is listed as a member of Quantrill's band on several lists that I have seen, as is a "William Bledsoe." Several other sources that I have talk of "Lieutenant Bledsoe" being one of the wounded men from the hack who were discovered and killed. A search of the National Park Service's Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System informed me that 2nd Lt. Josiah L. Bledsoe was a member of Co. F, 5th Regiment, Missouri Cavalry. This was Jo Shelby's old regiment. Further research on the internet provided me with the family information about Josiah L. Bledsoe's relationship with Capt. Hiram M. Bledsoe and Capt. Joseph Bledsoe of the Missouri Artillery, and that the family resided in Lafayette County. I can only presume that Bledsoe was on recruiting duty in Missouri with Captain John D. Holt of the Ninth Regiment, Missouri Cavalry (Elliott's). Members of the "Missouri Partisan Rangers" were natural recruits for the regular Confederate Cavalry, which explains how Holt and Bledsoe "fell in" with Quantrill and the others for the Lawrence raid. It was a tragic decision for Bledsoe, as he was one of the few raiders wounded that day. Bledsoe and at least one other man were hit by volleys fired from the other side of the Kansas River by a small detachment of soldiers of Company A, 12th Kansas Infantry. (The lieutenant commanding the detachment, George Ellis, was in Lawrence during the raid and barely escaped being killed. Later Ellis died of wounds received at Jenkin's Ferry, Arkansas. The county in which I reside is named for Ellis. Just one of those quirky yet interesting sidenotes to history.)

There was an account of Samuel Boies (Boyce?), who "was sleeping at the Eastern House, and with five or six others was taken a prisoner and marched to Fry's Livery Stable. Here Quantrell rode up and told his men to save one from the number to drive an ambulance down with two of his men who were wounded. Mr. Boies was ordered to fall back, while the others were marched forward a few steps and shot down in the streets. He was ordered to drive the ambulance with the wounded men." Boies' complete account appeared in the Kansas City WESTERN JOURNAL OF COMMERCE on August 27, 1863. (I have a copy printed in the WYANDOTTE COMMERCIAL GAZETTE, September 19, 1863.)

Several other contemporary Kansas newspaper articles in my collection give information about the killing of "Lieutenant Bledsoe" during Quantrill's return to Missouri from Lawrence.

I think the story of Josiah L. Bledsoe's participation in the Lawrence raid and his subsequent execution (all right, for all of you "Missouri Partisan Rangers" fans out there)or rather, his murder, would make a very interesting and informative article. Trying to be as accurate as I can possibly be, I am trying to track down all of the pertinent information that I can find. If someone else out there can provide me with information about the wounded men in the hack and their fate, or more family information about Josiah L. Bledsoe, I would be most appreciate.

But to Mr. Bruce Nichols I say, "Well done, Sir! And Thank You!"

JAMES D. DREES