Los Angeles herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1890-1893, 1890-10-13
QUANTRELL.
IN LOS ANGELES SEVEN YEARS
AFTER THE WAR.
Some Interesting Inside History About the
Noted Confederate Bushwhacker.

Taliesin Evans, whom old-timers will
recollect as a newspaper man here and
in San Diego, writes in the San Fran
cisco Chronicle as follows:
The following dispatch appeared in
the Chronicle of the 4th inst:
NEW York, Oct. ga special from
Birmingham Ala, says man known as
TT. Henderson died yesterday at the
house of Mrs. Ponnell.
She now says that before death he
told her he was really Charles William
Quantrell, the famous Missouri and
Kansas guerrilla, who, it was always
supposed, had been killed by the federal
soldiers in Kentucky near the close OF
papers, but will not give them up until
she verifies the matter herself.
In the minds of most people it will
probably be regarded as canard similar
to that which is every now and again re-
vived declaring that j. Wilkes Booth,
the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, is still
alive, In the mind OF the writer it re-
wives, however, a curious reminiscence OF
the spring OF 1872. The writer was at
that time local writer OF the Los Ange-
les News, paper long since dead and in
the minds of most Californians forgotten.
The News was owned and edited by
Captain Charles E. Beane, who served
through the war in the confederate
cavalry, although born, raised and
educated in the state OF Maine. I think
that he had at one time served under
Quantrell. At all events he was in
timately acquainted with the famous
guerrilla. Beane was one of the leading
members of colony of ex-confederates
and southern sympathizers who out
wardly submitted to the results of the
war, but inwardly were anything but
reconstructed.
This colony constituted select social
circle from whose conferences and con-
fidences northerners were religiously ex-
cluded. One morning Beane came into
the News Office, and after quietly chat
ting awhile about various affairs con-
nected with the news of the morning
and Office matters, suddenly assumed
confidential tone and air and said to
me: 81 want to tell you piece of i'm
portant news, but do not want you to
of it to living soul until l tell you that
you are at liberty to do so. Quantrell
was in Los Angeles last night"
"Why,"I remarked, "Quantrell has
been dead these many years."
"Well," responded Beane in his quiet,
but positive way, {" that is the popular
belief, but it is nevertheless not 80. Some
OF us (meaning ex-Confederates) have
known all along that he was living and
have been in constant communication
with him, and last night, agreeable to
appointment, he met number of
friends secretly in this CITY. | was pre-
sent at the conference and held long
conversation with him. What will be
the result of his visit time alone will
reveal. He is now on his way to safety
as fast as horses can carry him, and
nothing must be said of his visit until
he has had ample time to get out of
the way"
A few days later the injunction was
removed and the story of Quantrell's
visit to Los Angeles was published in
the News, creating quite sensation. 1t
went the rounds of the press and was
commented upon by almost every news
paper in the state, every one ridiculing
it, however, as a canard. A smile OF
satisfaction fitted over Beane's face
whenever he read one of these news
paper comments.
knew Beane we'll enough to be con-
WINGED in my own mind that no matter
what others may have thought of the
subject, he firmly believed that the man
who secretly conferred on the night in
question with that select southern
colony in Los Angeles was really his old
associate in arms, Quantrell, the guer-
rilla chieftain, and he took comfort in
the fact that everybody outside that
colony doubted it.