If Donald Hale in one of his books wrote that Quantrill's first meeting with his lieutenants to discuss the Lawrence Raid was on the Goodloe farm of the Blue Springs area in Jackson County, I would tend to accept it. Hale, while living, was one of the most thorough researchers of things Quantrill, and his specialty was painstaking research.

Although I have seen no source talking about the Goodloe farm specifically, Bill Gregg, Quantrill's adjutant during the Lawrence Raid wrote in his manuscript postwar on pages 47 and 48 that:

"About the 10th of August, 1863, Quantrill called his various captains together for a council of war, which lasted near twenty four hours."
I have found Gregg's memoir to be extremely reliable as far as being able to corroborate nearly everything he wrote from other reliable or fairly reliable sources. I cite Gregg myself in my writings with complete confidence after studying everything he wrote about the Lawrence Raid in detail with other available sources. The man had a memory like a steel trap.

William Connelley possessed Gregg's manuscript for some time, and in his 1910 "Quantrill and the Border Wars" cites Gregg on pages 310 and 311 as stating "The council of captains to make final plans and arrange for the raid was held about the 10th of August." but did not give a place. This council of war on about August 10 was not the rendezvous at the Pardee farm near Columbus in north-central Johnson County, MO, as that came later when all Quantrill's subordinate leaders brought their men together to actually conduct the raid.

Albert Castel in his 1962 "William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times" on page 122 wrote that the initial council of war where Quantrill made his proposal to his lieutenants was on August 10 in the Blue Springs area. Castel listed as his sources for the early Lawrence Raid planning 1. the Gregg manuscript, 2. Frank Smith's manuscript memoir, and 3. F. W. Hinsey's 19 July 1903 article "The Lawrence Raid" in the "Kansas City Star" newspaper. I have not seen #2 and #3, but Donald Hale certainly read them as he cited Smith's manuscript in his authoritative 1974 "We Rode With Quantrill" which quoted from Smith and which cited numerous "Kansas City Star" postwar articles.

Therefore, although I have not seen mention of the Goodloe farm specifically, if Don Hale wrote that, then I accept it as well-researched and authoritative.

Bruce Nichols