Bushwhacker Bill [ Jim ] Jackson.

Here are seventeen report on how the militia tried to catch the notorious bushwhacker Jim Jackson also known as Bill Jackson. Jackson was notorious for killing unarmed men and the hanging of Negro’s, he wasn’t hard to follow as he left dead men where ever he went. But catching him was a another matter.

I know many of you are looking for the names of bushwhackers, for this reason I will high light only the names of bushwhackers and those thought to be bushwhackers, these names will be in red. These reports cover the months of December 1864 through May 1865.

Note. This page is very long and will take a while to read.

Important note. I have thousands of names at this site, when asking about a name from this page or any other pages at this site, please give the ( Title of the page ), for without it I may not be able to help you. My address can be found in my profile.
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HEADQUARTERS, Brunswick, Mo., November 18, 1864.

General CLINTON B. FISK,

Commanding District of North Missouri, Macon City, Mo.:

GENERAL: I am still at this post, and think I could find business enough to do for the next six months if I had authority in hunting up and collecting the forfeited bonds of this section of the country. I find that Captain Hawkins, of the bushwhacking fraternity, and Captain Ryder and Jim Anderson and a notorious thief by the name of Jim Harris, are all in the vicinity of this place, circulating on the south side of the river in Saline County. The first-named captain has fifty-three men, and his family lives in the vicinity of the river some ten miles southeast, on south side of Missouri River. Ryder has twenty-five men and lives only eight miles from Brunswick, in Saline County, five men and lives only eight miles from Brunswick, in Saline County, making headquarters with his farther and other rebels in that locality. He comes up to the river daily to make observations. Jim Anderson lives or makes headquarters farther from the river, and this Jim Harris operates with Ryder. Jim Jackson is on this side the river, and I think I will be able to make his hiding place known in a few days. Ryder's men last night captured two boxes of shoes, one box of boots, and one box of ready-made clothing, shipped from Saint Louis by Judge McDaniels, a noted rebel of Saline County, and shipped to Mitchell Bell, rebel preacher of Miami. The boat landed and left the goods and Ryder and Harris took them. This is their plan for shoeing and clothing the bushwhacking whelps. The money robbed from Union men is taken to pay for these things. I would like authority to go into Saline County and clean up a small portion of that territory. I know I could prepare it for a new installment of settlers.

The whole rebel element seems to have taken a sudden fit in the way of moving. They have hardly any men, but the women are now on the move with bag and baggage. Bushwhackers are said to be concentrating now for a raid this side, and yesterday 150 were in a body at a place four miles from the ferry. I have men enough to operate well if you say go ahead. I will keep my men in good discipline and straight, but they are anxious for a muss, and I am somewhat in that fix. I shall give the country east and west on the river a good discipline and straight, but they are anxious for a muss, and I am somewhat in that fix. I shall give the country east and west on the river a good raking over, and may get tempted over the river if I see game. I can imagine that Saline County is in the District of North Missouri. What shall I do with conscripts? Lots of them are making their appearance; all of them noted rebels.

Before they went into the service of their beloved Confederacy they were certain that Price would hold the State, but after finding out their mistake they, knowing that their property would be liable to confiscation, return and express themselves willing to be forgiven. All the old king rebels have gone to Saint Louis and Illinois, and their families are now preparing to follow. I will move from here to-morrow and will leave a force here, and will make some point on the North Missouri Railroad and report to you in person. I will report to you from Keytesville and Glasgow by letter.
I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. J. CRANDALL,
Captain, Commanding Forces in Lewis and Chariton Counties, Mo.
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MACON, December 25, 1864.
Brigadier-General FISK,
Saint Louis, Mo.:

Matters are getting in bad shape in Chariton County. Captain Stanley telegraphs that Jim Jackson's band are roving at pleasure and killing indiscriminately. Several men living near Westville were killed by the gang yesterday. They go in squads of six or seven men. Have you any orders?

G. A. HOLLOWAY,
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SAINT LOUIS, December 26, 1864.
Captain G. A. HOLLOWAY, Assistant Adjutant-General:

Send out from Macon fifty of the best mounted men you can muster, under an officer who will not rest day or night until Jim Jackson and his infernal clan are exterminated. Send officer who will give the bushwhackers' friends to understand that they will share the same fate. Captain Glaze is the best man to take hold of this matter if he can possibly be spared. Captain Benecke don't seem to be rendering the service he should.

CLINTON B. FISK,
Brigadier-General.
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HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI, Macon, January 7, 1865.

Major General G. M. DODGE, Commanding Department of the Missouri, Saint Louis:

GENERAL: I have the honor to report that a comparative quiet prevails throughout the District of North Missouri. The elements of trouble yet remain in many localities. In nearly all the River counties from Buchanan to Montgomery there are more or less of guerrillas. We hear of them in squads of five and three and single ones moving about. All the mounted troops we have are on the move constantly day and night, and many of the villains are found and killed. The notorious Jim Jackson, of Chariton County, was doubtless mortally wounded near Bynumville, Chariton County, last week. Every effort is being made to discover his place of concealment. Hines, a lieutenant in Holtzclaw's guerrillas, was captured and killed near Rocheport a few days since, and one Campbell, a desperado of much notoriety, was found in a cave, two miles from Fayette, in Howard County, and killed on the spot, by a detachment of the Ninth Cavalry Missouri State Militia.

Others of the bushwhacking rank and file are being gathered up and mustered out. I have five companies of the Ninth Cavalry Missouri State Militia, at Glasgow, Fayette, and Rocheport, and one company Forty-ninth Infantry at Columbia. They are well located for the winter duty. It would be pleasant for certain politicians at Columbia to have a company of cavalry stationed at that point to act as escort to said politicians to and from the railroad. With the limited number of troops at my command I am unable to furnish body guards for the distinguished gentleman, hence their cry out in the Democrat of the 5th instant. The rebel register is being rapidly completed, and I will soon be able to furnish you a list of the parties who ought no to remain among us. I trust our legislature will not lose any time in giving us the right kind of militia law, for we need to hasten the organization of every man who can load and fire a gun and be ready before the leaves come. I go to Hannibal to-day to give personal attention to some irregularities in the northeast.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
CLINTON B. FISK,
Brigadier-General.
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GLASGOW, January 11, 1865.
Brigadier-General FISK:

Lieutenant Gannon has returned. Run Jim Jackson out of his boots. Followed him eleven miles south of Fayette. Stopped at dark and went to Fayette. Lieutenant Williams with thirteen men started on his trial this morning. Jackson has been wounded in both thighs. Left his boots at the house where Gannon first came up with him. Lieutenant thinks he cannot ride all night, and wherever he stops he will be compelled to remain. Robinson had six revolvers. Had emptied two when he was shot through the head.

THOS. B. REED,
Captain, Commanding Post.
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Lieutenant and Acting Aide-de-Camp.

LEXINGTON, January 11, 1865.

Colonel JAMES McFERRAN:
We have just had a fight with bushwhackers near town. There seems to be a consolidated force said to be commanded by Jackson. Send me some ammunition, as we are nearly out.

WM. MEREDITH,
Captain, Commanding.
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COLUMBIA, MO., February 22, 1865.

[Lieutenant W. T. CLARKE, Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, District of North Missouri:]

LIEUTENANT: I in close you a note written by Jim Jackson and pinned to the coat of an old negro man he hung night before last. I can't tell the object of this move, unless it is for the interest of the substitute brokers, a great number of whom have made their appearance here since this occurrence. Of course the negroes have been coming into town in droves. This negro was hung about six miles east of this place. Jackson had three men with him. I still hear of a few other bushwhackers in this county, and am trying to plan some way to get some of them.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. N. COOK, Captain Company F, Ninth Cavalry Missouri State Militia.
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ALLEN, February 27, 1865.

Lieutenant W. T. CLARKE, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

Bill [Jim?] Jackson passed through Milton, six miles east of here, this morning, going toward Renick. They hung one negro and carried off Doctor Hall, of Milton.

H. S. GLAZE,
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HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI, Macon, Mo., February 27, 1865.

Jim Jackson is making south from Renick, killing and hanging on his way; probably making for Perche Hills. Move a scout of twenty or twenty-five men toward Centralia.

By order of Brigadier-General Fisk:
W. T. CLARKE,
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MEXICO, MO., March 4, 1865.
Honorable I. H. STURGEON,

DEAR SIR AND FRIEND: Well knowing your wishes and desires, as often expressed to me, for the future welfare and interests of Missouri, particularly Northeast Missouri, I now write you, hoping that you may be able to lay some matters before General Pope in such a manner as will be to our future advantage as a people and State. I find on my arrival at home that the people of my county and the adjoining counties [are] in a great state of excitement, and many good citizens leaving the State, leaving their farms, making such dispositions of their personal effects as they can, in some instances selling their farms for what they can get, and others leaving their farms and lands and either moving into town or leaving the State-and in most cases leaving the State-many of whom are good, loyal citizens, who have ever been friends of the Government.

This present increased excitement has been produced by the raids of a few notorious thieves and bushwhackers, not more than ten in number. As I am informed, five or six of them made a raid into the west end of this county the day before I left home and killed one man and beat and robbed others, which occurred on or about the 25th of February, and afterward some ten, claiming to be the same gang led by the notorious Jim Jackson, of Texas, as he claims, made a raid through the northwestern part of Boone and Randolph and to Jackson Station, killing some two or three persons and robbing others. These raids have been made and these brutal outrages committed upon Union men generally and such Southern sympathizers as have manifested a disposition to favor the Union cause, and in no case have any notorious rebels been molested. Such seems to be the programme, that all Union men are to be driven out of the State by such fiends, and the disloyal element of the country sit quietly down and fold their arms and rejoice over the result thus brought about.

I am satisfied in my own mind that many of the Southern men are willing to see the work of death go on as inaugurated by such fiends claiming to be Confederate guerrillas, &c., until every Union man shall be driven out of the State.

During the fall and winter the rebel element of the country was the restless element, and were wishing to sell and leave the State for fear of the reaction to follow the raid of Price; but as that was about to subside these raids have caused them to become more quiet, and many of them seem satisfied to remain, as the loyal men are thus to be either killed or run out of the State. Cannot some plan be set on foot to relieve Union men and retain our population in the State, especially the Union element? I have herein given you a few facts in a very broken manner, and hope you may thereby get the idea intended to be conveyed by me of the necessity of some action to retain our population protect Union men and produce quiet in our State as speedily as possible. You can judge of the wants of the country people, and General Pope can fully appreciate the case as presented by you, and I hope will be able to devise some means for our future and immediate quiet and safety. I dislike very much to call on you for any part of your valuable time, but duty to our country requires ucan for protection.

I am, very truly, yours.
J. P. CLARK.
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SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS SUB-DISTRICT OF HOWARD,

Numbers 16.

Glasgow, Mo., March 7, 1865.

Captain Meredith, Company D, Thirty-ninth Regiment Missouri Volunteers, with twenty men, will, in accordance telegraphic dispatch from Brigadier-General Fisk, proceed forthwith to hunt down the notorious guerrilla Jim Jackson and his nefarious band, and all other bushwhackers. Will be particular to have good order and discipline observed by his command, returning as soon as pursuit proves fruitless.
By order of:
ED. A. KUTZNER,

Colonel, Commanding.

Captain JOHN D. MEREDITH, Company D, Thirty-ninth Regiment Missouri Volunteers.

In obedience to the above order, with Lieutenant Self and twenty men of my company and two citizens as guides, I started on the morning of the 7th instant on search of guerrillas, moving in the direction of what is known as the Perche Hills, in Howard and Boone Counties. After scouting the country for two days without gaining any information of importance, I sent Lieutenant Self with several men to the house of Mr. Lewis Barnes, the only loyal man I could learn of in that part of the country, to ask him to accompany us as guide. The men whom I had with me for that purpose I found did not know the country thoroughly. The lieutenant found Mr. Barnes at home, too unwell to go with us, but willing to do all he could. He gave him the names of parties in the neighborhood most likely to harbor guerrillas, and consequently most likely to be cognizant of their haunts and hiding places. In order to gain the desired information, I ordered Lieutenant Self and four men to disguise themselves as bushwhackers, visit the houses indicated, receive any aid voluntarily offered, and learn if possible the camp (if any of the bona fide guerrillas, I with the remainder of the command stopping in camp to give the lieutenant time to perform his mission.

After waiting two or three hours I followed the lieutenant until, coming to the house of Anthony Drane, I stopped to feed and make inquires. After asking about feed I asked Mr. Drane if he had seen or head of any troops being in the neighborhood. He answered Numbers Had he seen or heard of any bushwhackers? Numbers Had he seen any strange men passing about? Numbers I then told him I thought I had seen tracks leading to the house, but the ground was frozen and I could not tell positively. He said, "There have been no men here, and I have not seen any passing. " At this time one of my men came and whispered to me that Lieutenant Self was outside the house and wished to see me. I went out, and the lieutenant told me he had ssquad at the house in the morning; that he had asked Mr. Drane if he knew of any Federals being about, and was answered, "no. "

The lieutenant then asked him if he knew where any of the boys were, as he wished to get with them. Mr. Drane told him he did not but that he himself was a 'southern man from the ground up,' and that he wanted the lieutenant and his men to come in and get dinner. The lieutenant told him he was afraid to stop for it, but if he had any eggs his (self's) men would like to have a few. Mr. Drane told him he should have them, and going into the house soon had a large number of eggs cooked and brought to the boys. He (Drane) then asked Lieutenant Self of he could do anything more for him. Self told him that one of his men needed a pair of socks, and if he (Drane) could give him a pair he (Self) would be obliged to him. Drane went in the house and got a pair of socks and gave them to Lieutenant Self, remarking as he did so that he wished they were better (they had been worn and washed), as when ha gave he liked to give the best. Lieutenant Self then took his leave, Mr. Drane telling him the best roads to travel to avoid Federal scouts, should any be out.

After my conversation with Lieutenant Self I re-entered the house, and in the presence of several of my men questioned Mr. Drane closely. He persisted in saying he had seen or hear of no one. I ordered my men to mount, and detailed a corporal and two men to set fire to the premises, which was done. Lieutenant Self and his men (Still in disguise) had visited several other houses in the neighborhood, the residents of which professed to be Southern men. They did not seem so particularly anxious to assist, but told Lieutenant Self he might rest assured they never would report on him. I let it be known that I had burned Mr., Anthony Drane's house and why I did it; that I considered parties who would willingly harbor whackers (or men supposed to be such) equally guilty with outlaws themselves, and that they must either take every opportunity of reporting to the proper authorities or leave the country.

If they did not, I would, as far as in my power, treat them with the same severity I would a guerrilla. This was in the eastern part of Howard County. From this point I moved down on to Perche Creek, scouting the brush on the creek and its tributaries, but without success, as I could get no information from any of the citizens as to bushwhackers, roads, localities, or anything else, and I became satisfied that a large majority of the citizens of this region would harbor guerrillas. After camping at night I sent a sergeant with twelve men to the residence of Joseph Graves, in Boone County, to feed. On his return the sergeant told me he thought Mr. Graves was a bad man, and that he had expressed himself in the most disloyal manner. On starting in the morning, wishing a guide to a place known as Dripping Spring Meeting-House, I sent a corporal to bring Graves along to pilot us to said place.

After they had overtaken the column (which they did after we had moved a short distance) Lieutenant Self had a conversation with Graves, in which he (Graves) told the lieutenant that he had always been a Southern man, and that he had no cause to change his principles. The lieutenant asked Graves if he has seen any bushwhackers lately. He answered that he had not. Lieutenant Self then asked him if he would have reported on them if he had. Graves answered, "No," as it might get him into trouble. Lieutenant Self then asked him the question, "Would you feed guerrillas and not report than to the authorities?" Graves answered, "I would not report on anybody.

" I asked Graves a number of questions and received the same answers, The conversation took place in the presence of the lieutenant, myself, and several others who were riding with the advance. I had one or two other men, whom I had arrested for uttering disloyal sentiments, with me at the time. The plainly and boldly said they had been Southern men at the beginning of the war, and were so yet that they had no reason to change their principles. I told them such men could not live in that country, that they must leave either the State or go to some military post and remain. If they did not, they must the take the consequences. Graves I retained, and after more conversation with him ordered his execution. I considered him a quiet, determined, and dangerous man; a man of some influence and one who could and do more harm by his acquiescence and aid (unarmed though he was) than if he were in the brush with his revolvers belted around him. "Desperate diseases require desperate remedies," and the disease is getting desperate when the number of guerrillas is rapidly increasing in a country, and a large proportion of the citizens are ready and willing to harbor and aid them.

The killing of a few such men will do more good than anything else for a country like the Perche and Blackfoot Hills, for it will deter others. Where guerrillas cannot be fed without being reported they cannot remain. We were in sight of the bushwhackers several times, and I did my best to come up with them, chasing them for two days, but found it impossible to come up with them, as the citizens would almost invariably put me upon the wrong trail.

There is but one Union family in the Blackfoot Hills, and this is the family of a Federal soldier (named Schwabe, I think). This family told me the guerrillas were harbored in the neighborhood; that they had seen them several times within a few days riding about, accompanies by three or four young women. After scouting about for a day or two I concluded to divide my squad, and did so, sending Lieutenant Self with ten men and one of the guides up the east side of Perche Creek to meet me at a given at the expiration of two days. With the other ten men and one guide I started up the west side of Perche, but after going some distance, hearing of some bushwhackers (through negroes), I divided my men again, taking four men again, taking four men with me and sending the remainder to scout the Franklin Hills. About this time, receiving information from a most reliable citizen that a sister of Bill Hines was staying at a house in the neighborhood, and that I would probably find Hines and his brother (both notorious bushwhackers) about there, I started in search of them.

On arriving at the house mentioned the family denied to ms had been there, but finally admitted it, and I knowing that the Hines; had been at the house a number of times to visit her, I burned the house and ordered the owner (Mrs. ---) to either leave the State or go to a military post to live. Here I got on the trail of two men, whom from description I thought to be Lewis Hoard and Younger Grubbs (bushwhackers), and followed it to Brick Chapel Meting-House, but not being able to find Hoard and Grubbs, and losing all trace of them, I started on my return to Perche Creek. In the vicinity of the Brick Chapel resided who had a son in the brush (I have forgotten the name, as I have lost my memoranda).

They had harbored and fed him for months. My informations here were negroes, but I questioned them closely, and was perfectly satisfied of the truth of their statements. I had a conversation with the lady of the house, and she expressed herself in the most disloyal; manner. I burned the house, as it was harboring place for guerrillas. Lieutenant Self found no guerrillas, nor did he destroyed any property on his route, but reported to me that he saw a squad of the Ninth Missouri State Militia (a lieutenant and seventeen men), who were reporting themselves to the citizens as a portion of the "Thirty-ninth Missouri, from Glasgow, under command of Lieutenant Johnson. " The other squad of my command burned the residence of Bas. Maxwell, and ordered him to leave that part of the country.

Maxwell is notoriously one of the worst men in the country. Doctor Holman, surgeon of the Thirty-ninth Regiment Missouri Volunteers, sometime ago gave me his name and a statement of his deeds and doings, all proving him a dangerous man. The squad who burned his house, however, did it on information received at the time in the neighborhood. with the three squads we scouted the country thoroughly, but it raining and the roads becoming almost impassable, I decided on returning to camp, which I did, arriving at Glasgow on the 15th instant. Though the order headquarters this report is the only written one I received, my verbal instructions from Colonel Kutzner were not to stop at county or district lines, and to treat aiders and abettors with the same severity I would armed bushwhackers. On my return the colonel told me I need not make any report to him, and he therefore does now know what I did. I maintained good order and discipline in my command.

Respectfully submitted.
Your obedient servant, JOHN D. MEREDITH, Captain Company D, Thirty-ninth Infantry Missouri Volunteers.
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HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI, Macon, Mo., March 11, 1865.

Major J. W. BARNES, Asst. Adjt. General, Department of the Missouri, Saint Louis, Mo.:

MAJOR: I have the honor to state, for the information of the general commanding, that the troops of the district have been and are now actively pursuing the bushwhacking enemy. We have not been able to find and fall upon any band of the villains during the week ending this day. I am well persuaded, however, that int he Perche Hills and what is termed the "Blackfoot country," in Boone County, there are quite a number of Jim Jackson's and Bill Anderson's old gang of murderous outlaws. The geography of the country is to them well known, and the topography of that section, as well as the topography of the hearts of the people is most admirably adapted to bushwhacking purposes.

I have ordered the Ninth Cavalry Missouri State Militia detachments on duty at this post to move to Sturgeon and organize a most through and vigorous campaign throughout Boone, Howard, Randolph, and Audrain Counties. Sturgeon, you will discover, is an admirable point to operate from we shall doubtless stir up the snakes and drive them into Chariton and Carroll, where I am also preparing to meet and bang them out. The citizens of the district are generally fearful of a repetition of the troubles of last summer. It remains with them principally to prevent such a lamentable state of affairs. I am exerting all the influence I possess to unite the people in vigorous war against the outlaws. I think at no time have the sympathizing rascals been so determined to put down the guerrillas as now. They shall be encouraged in good works even at this eleventh hour. The people need assurance and confidence in each other. They truly honest, loyal, earnest men of the State must lay aside all petty differences and shoulder to shoulder unite in the extermination of all outlaws, and in securing protection, security, and peace for our waiting, suffering, struggling loyalists oft he rural district.

I have the honor to be, major, your respectful and obedient servant,

CLINTON B. FISK,
Brigadier-General.
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HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI, Macon, Mo., March 13, 1865.

Captain H. N. COOK,

Company F, Ninth Cav. Missouri State Militia, Columbia, Mo:

CAPTAIN: Your have this day been ordered to Sturgeon to assume command of your regiment. I have sent al of the Ninth that was at this post to Sturgeon. ; not to do post duty at Sturgeon or anywhere else, but to he sent into the brush forthwith on a vigorous, continued, and protracted hunt after Jim Jackson and company. We must take the offensive and take it early against these outlaws. Until Major Leonard returns to the command, you will give director to the movement. Parcel out your men in squads and put them at the work. When they strike a track tell time to follow it day and night until Christmas, if necessary, so that they succeed in the end. Your knowledge of the geography of the country and the topography of the hearts and consciences of the people in the Perche Hills and the Blackfoot country ought to enable you to make a very successful campaign against the villains. You can at the same time push on the organization of the Boone County Rangers, of which I would like You to be made commander. Let You operations extend to Grand River. Stop not short of Jim Jackson's grave, if possibly You can reach it. Keep me posted of all Your movements and mortality list.

Very respectfully, Your obedient servant,
CLINTON B. FISK,
Brigadier-General.
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HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI,
Macon, Mo., March 21, 1865.

General D. M. DRAPER, Mexico, Mo.:

GENERAL: It seems a burning shame that Jim Jackson and company are permitted to roam leisurely through Boone, Randolph, Howard, and Chariton Counties, shooting and hanging citizens. Can you not organize a half dozen scouts and follow the villain until he is dead? I know it is not an easy thing to do, but if with the force we now have and the limited number of bushwhackers yet on duty, and before the leaves come out we can't exterminate this gang, what will become of us when the bushwhacking campaign fairly opens? I am fearful the Ninth are too indolent; too little inclined to pitch into hard work or hard fighting. Stir up their pure minds.

Don't allow them to rot away at posts or to spend their time foraging. Let supplies be furnished from here, and keep every able bodied soldier in the brush. I have ordered Captain Reed to move from Brunswick to Salisbury, where he can devote the remainder of his term of service to the vigorous muster out of his bushwhacking neighbors. You can keep at least 200 men on the constant move. A scout out for a few hours or a day and a night accomplish but little. Occupy and possess the Perche Hills country back and forth until the friends of Jim Jackson wish he would die to relieve them of the presence of your troops.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
CLINTON B. FISK,
Brigadier-General.
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HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI,
Macon, Mo., March 22, 1865.

MAJOR: I have the honor to report that with but slight exception all is quiet in this district. What troops I have are kept busily employed scouting through the river counties. Jim Jackson and company are roaming through Boone, Callaway, and Howard Counties. They are chiefly engaged in plundering and murdering negroes. They have hung two negroes in Boone and one in Callaway County within the last few days. I have 200 men on the move day and night after the fiends. We have killed two of the gang of late. It seems strange, I know, that this villain should go so long without being caught, but did the general commanding know the country and the people as well as Jim Jackson does, he would readily discover how it is that a small party can thus elude the strictest vigilance. I am now organizing a Jim Jackson exterminating corps, and hope to muster out a few of the rascals by that means. A few brave, determined soldiers, stimulated by private rewards offered by citizens, go into the Blackfoot country to-morrow, sworn not to return without the head of the monster in a charger.

The volunteer militia companies being organized under the governor's General Orders, Numbers 3, are in some localities progressing very well, but in others only moderately. The volunteer force of the district is now very small and altogether too limited for the safety of the public property, thoroughfares and their appointments, and the duty of killing bushwhackers required at my hands. The people generally in that portion of the district south of the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad are apprehensive of more serious trouble than they have ever experienced before, and I can but advise the most thorough preparation for trouble there by insuring quiet. The civil authorities are generally endeavoring to discharge their duty. I have advised judges that I am simply their aide-de-camp; that we will catch and guard thieves if necessary, while they must try and punish. We don't mean to have bushwhackers brought in for trial at all.

I have the honor to be, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
CLINTON B. FISK,
Brigadier-General.
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HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF NORTH MISSOURI, Macon, Mo., March 25, 1865.

JAMES E. YEATMAN, Esq.,

Law Commissioner, Saint Louis, Mo.:

DEAR SIR: I have yours of the 22nd instant, and will cheerfully do all I can to restore the family circle of the Monroe County freedwomen. Slavery dies hard. I hear it s expiring agonies and witness its contortions in death in every quarter of my district. In Boone, Howard, Randolph, and Cavalry the emancipation ordinance has caused disruption of society equal to anything I saw in Arkansas or Mississippi in the year 1863. I blush for my race when I discover the wicked barbarity of the late masters and mistresses of the recently freed persons of the counties heretofore named. I have no doubt but that the monster, Jim Jackson, is instigated by the late slave owners to hang or shoot every negro he can find absent from the old plantations. Some few have driven their black people away from them with nothing to eat or scarcely to wear.

The consequence is, between Jim Jackson and his collaborators among the first families, the poor blacks are rapidly concentrating in the towns and especially at garrisoned places. My hands and heart are full. I am finding homes for them in Northwest Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and Iowa. There is much sickness and suffering among them; many need help. Is there any fund that you can appropriate a small sum from to aid me in the deportation of the families I can't provide for in Missouri? I am retaining all in Missouri that I can get work for in quiet localities. We ought not to spare a single pound of our industrial element. We need to import rather than deport manual labor. I hope the waters will soon grow still, and Missouri in peace be permitted to pursue her way in the golden path of freedom and empire. It looks well all around the rapidly-concentrating lines. Sherman's conquering legions are marching on; redemption draweth night. All hail the Republic!

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
CLINTON B. FISK,
Brigadier-General.
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MAY 24, 1865. -Skirmish near Rocheport, Mo.

Report of Captain Warren W. Harris, Howard County Company Volunteer Missouri Militia.

HEADQUARTERS,
Post Fayette, May 25, 1865.

I have the honor to report to you that Sergt. Robert Digges, with a detachment of my company, had a fight with eleven bushwhackers, supposed to be under Jim Anderson, yesterday morning at 7. 30 o'clock. The bushwhackers were at the house of Elias Thompson, in this county, about six miles from Rocheport. We killed 4 bushwhackers and captured 4 horses and equipments, several pistols, overcoats, &c. Sergeant Digges is satisfied that there were several wounded who escaped. Our loss was Private Ben. Reeves, severely wounded in the shoulder; we also had two horses killed. The names of the bushwhackers killed, as obtained from a rebel deserter just from Price's army, are Theodore Cassell, of Jackson County; --- Kelly, of Saint Louis (right arm off); John Chapman, of Clay, and Thomas Maupin, of Callaway. The last named has the forefinger off his right hand. I inclose you two letters taken off the body of Cassell. Sergeant Digges was on the trail of Jim Jackson the evening before. He started it in Boone County, and was following in up when he heard of Anderson's gang.

We heard of Jackson yesterday at 10 a. m., with six other men near Boonsborough, in this county, going west. One citizen reports that Rider was along, and another reports that he recognized a man by the name of Finley with them. Finley was bushwhacking in this county last summer. I regret very much that there could not be a scout sent up after these last-mentioned bushwhackers. All my men who had serviceable horses were out, either with Sergeant Digges, with myself, who went out as soon as the fight was reported to me by a citizen, or with Lieutenant Davis, who had started from here the night before with forty men, under orders from Colonel Denny to proceed to Brunswick. I have been informed that Captain Meredith, with his command and a detachment of the Ninth Missouri State Militia, under Lieutenant Thompson, are out in the Boon's Lick country after Jackson. Lieutenant Davis returned this evening from Brunswick. I hope that it will not be deemed necessary again to have my men ordered so far from home, especially when I have my hands full in my own county.

The affair of yesterday is the third fight that my men have had with the bushwhackers. The first two came off in Boone County. Lieutenant Davis had a fight with Jim Jackson at the house of the Widow Cornelius, in Boone County, a week or ten days [ago]. Only his advance guard of seven men were engaged. The rebels fought desperately, but ran off before the main body of our men came up. No casualties on either side. Lieutenant Davis was on the trail of four or six men who had crossed the Missouri River at the mouth of the La Mine when he came across the trail of Jackson. Jackson had five men with him. I do not think, general, that there are any bushwhackers who stay habitually in this county. Jim Jackson and his gang make their home in Blackfoot, in Boone, and make a raid occasionally into this county. I believe that Holtzclaw is with Jackson. In every instance, except the last of yesterday, where we have got after bushwhackers we have followed them into or came across them in Boone. The gang we fought yesterday had just arrived in this county the day before. I hope the warm welcome they received will admonish them to stay away.

I am, general, your most obedient servant,
WARREN W. HARRIS.
Commanding Howard County Company Volunteer Missouri Militia.