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202 Series I Volume XLI-III Serial 85 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part III

Page 202 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

INDIANAPOLIS, September 15, 1864.

General W. S. ROSECRANS:

Persons are on their way from Lawrence, Kans., to identify Quantrill. It would not be advisable to send the prisoner away from here now.

ALVIN P. HOVEY,

Brevet Major-General, Commanding.

SAINT LOUIS, MO., September 15, 1864.

Brigadier-General HOVEY,

Indianapolis, Ind.:

Quantrill is a spare built man with sandy hair and light complexion. Was educated at Carroll, Ohio, and came west to teach school. The man is a great scoundrel no doubt, but don't think he is Quantrill. The reason I asked for him is because we have a man who has Quantrill's photograph, and we could not trust him to leave here.

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General.


HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF INDIANA,
Indianapolis, September 15, 1864.

Major-General ROSECRANS,

Commanding, &c.:

I herewith send you a copy of the article which led to the apprehension of Hart, alias Burgess, alias Quantrill. Several men of undoubted character have visited him and say that he is Quantrill. There is a strange delusion if he is not the man. All the evidence so far is very strong against him, and would convict him before any jury in the country.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

ALVIN P. HOVEY,

Brevet Major-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

WHO IS QUANTRILL?

Last Sunday two men were arrested at the Bates House as rebel spies. One goes by the name of Johnson, the other gave his name as Hart, but afterward acknowledge it to be Burgess. Some times last spring a communication was widely published, giving a history of Quantrill, which communication we give below. Without leading questions or any suspicion of the article, Burgess, in giving an account of himself, names nearly all the circumstances therein mentioned down to the killing of the Mexican. Doctor Burgees, surgeon of the Seventeenth Kentucky Infantry, states that he had a brother who left home a number of years since, from whom they had no direct communication, but that from what he had learned by various sources he believed him to be the man known as Quantrill. This man arrested on Sunday, knowing nothing of this, says he is a brother of Doctor Burgess, of the Seventeenth Kentucky. These circumstances are so clear as to warrant the use of all necessary means to establish the identity of the prisoner; and it is hoped that all persons who know anything of Quantrill will communicate with the authorities here. Colonel Hovey is making diligent inquiry in regard to the matter. It will be borne in mind that Quantrill


Page 202 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.