Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-12-11
JENNIsoN AND HIS MEN.
something About Mary harris and
Her Guerrilla Lover-Border
Times In 81.

JENNI6ON AND HIS MEN.
Something About Mary harris and
| Her Guerrilla lover-8order
| Times In 81.
To the Editor Of the Chicago Tribune.
| CHICAGO, Nov. xY.--titteen years,
free from that intense excitement
and strife which was the inheritance
Of the border Slave.State Union men
during the war of the rebellion, has
TO . certain extent obliteI ated the de.
tails attending the perpetual warfare
We were then engaged in, but the
general outline, and certainly the
splendid results, can never be effaced
from our memory. should not re-
cali these troubles to the public mind
we're it not that the Northern press,
just now, is publishing long article
from New Orleans paper, which
was inspired by the death of Sister
Celeste, q Catholic nun, whose past
life had been strangely interviewer
with the troubles of the timos of the
rebellion. Her maiden name was
Harris, and her father giving aid and
comfort to the enemy, or rather har-
boring the cut-throat gang led by
Quantrell, had his property destroy.
ed, his house burned, his life taken,
and HE family turned into the night
Mary Harris (Sister Celes,e) then fol-
lowed Quantrell's gang and married
one Of his rough-riders, and, after
the 7th Kansas Cavalry Jennison's
Jayhaw kers) had virtually crushed
the guerillas in that section, Mary and
her husband went south. but, return
Ing again in the spring, her husband
was shot and killed and buried by
Missouri Union militia.
The above is . brief resume OF the
article SO far as 1t relates to Sister Ce.
leste; but the sneeripg tone in which
Col. Jennison and his command was
referred to has SO excited my indig-
nation that cannot resist the temp
tation to do what had never inteud-
ed to do-relate some Of the causes
which made that officer and his ever.
ready men so hated by the cowsrdly
devils, who, too cowardly TO firht in
open battle, took to tho by-paths and
gorges of the hills, from whence TO
waylay and murder.
AZ I said in the outset, fifteen years
of time passed from scenes and incl
dents that I only wish to God might
never come to mind again, blots out
some Of the details; but what I shall
relate will cover the most important
features of the story-the essentials
will be there anyhow-and, after
read, the man or woman who can
fiud sympathy for such cowardly and
inhuman fiends as Quantrell and the
gang he led must have q heart lost to
every sense Of shame, and whose pat
riotism 10 Of the kind that should be
rewarded with hemp and limb.
The unwritten history of Missouri
will never be completed. The ter
rors enacted after the outbreak Of the
war were Of character to make the
heart sick. I had lived in Missouri
some years before the war, was .
Southern man, aud in full sympathy
with the peculiar institutions of the
South; but when the question of ee-
cession or no secession was submitted
to the people of tho state, / took an
active part in the campaign in favor
Of the Union. The result Of that cleo.
ton 10 know n, the state givinga large
Union majority. After the election
we turned to our secession neighbors
and said: "Of course you are salts.
fed now the state must stay in the
Union, and Instead of war, and max.
ing our homes the battle ground, we
will have peace. Those who want to
fight, let them 60 to the armies and
light there, but here let US have
peace This was the way the Union
men talked, but instead OF meeting .
generous response, their cowardly op.
pOnents resorted to the hedge and
field, and from covert places shot
down in cold blood, their inoffeneive
neig hbors. All manner of tricks
were resorted to got leading men to
expose themselves 50 es to give the
assassins q chance to murder them
and be out of danger themselves.
One instance l will, relate to illus
trate what l mean: A prominent
physician aud Union man, residing
&C Maryville, received 8 letter pur.
porting to come from the gallant Col.
Peabody, Who was afterwards killed
at Shiloh, In which he was requeaied
to come to st. Joseph and accept the
position Of surgeon Of the 18th aiis.
souri, regiment. The physician was
in the habit Of driving 10 the city In
his own carriage, but on this occasion
fortunately took the atage, and thus
escaped the shots Of the assassins no
were lying In wait expecting 70 sec
him drive by in his own conveyance
Col. Pes body had written him no let
ter, but nevertheless recommended
him to the position Of surgeon, which
he secured and filed with credit.
The torch followed murder in start.
ling frequency, the lurid flames often
furnishing light to sight the rife by,
As these events troop thro' my mind
time vanishes, and it seems but yes.
ternight / was covering In the dark
and saw the flames lap up my own
home, and my old mother staggering
across the road, lazed and frightened
by the armed gang, whose only re-
greet seemed to be that "the old man
and the boys" had escaped them.
crept away into the shadows, but
turned to see once more how well the
work of destruction was being done
the walls of the dear old home were
IJuet Vi uAVIuB, 6uu tuo luhA 6PhI a.
ieaped heavenward, as If to free them.
selves from the hateful presence OF
the crowd below, and as they mount
ed upward on each cent curse up.
on the men who were making 80
much misery. and all to aid in DIES.
troying . country whose liberties
had been taught to love at my moth.
er's knee.
These personal matters can have no
interest to the reader; but before
coming again to the article which
seemed to regard Quantrell and his
gang as such heroes, aud Jennison and
his men, who thrashed the coward
every time they got in reach Of him,
as such bad men, will state that the
charred walls still mark the place
where the home stood, and of, the
leaders (our own neighbors) who des-
troyed it, not one lives to-day.
The 7th Kansas Regiment, or let
Cavalry, as 1t was called, was organ
ICED by Col. Charles Jennison at Fort
Leavenworth, soon after the siege of
Lexington, Mo-, where the gallant
Col. Mulligan surrendered to Price.
| was one Of the unfortunates at Lex.
iagton, and, being paroled after the
surrender, and not being satisfied to
give up SO early in the contest, I
IOOknd AhOuf fnr n cnm m nd uvhara