bushwhackers sacked the town of Centralia,
Missouri, and murdered 24 Federals on furlough
who had the misfortune of being on a train that
arrived at the depot during the mayhem. Later
that day, Anderson’s guerrillas routed a force
of 115 Federals that had come in pursuit of the
bushwhackers. Jesse, on a fleet horse at the head
of the charge, galloped to within a few feet of
the Union commander and knocked him out of
his saddle with a pistol shot to the head. Only a
handful of the Federals survived.
Jesse’s feat would become famous, but Cen-
tralia would be the bushwhackers’ last bloody
hurrah. Anderson died in a skirmish with militia
the next month. After another winter in Tex-
as, the guerrillas returned to Missouri in the
spring for more looting of towns and killing of
Unionists, but the Confederacy was finished. So
was Jesse’s part in the war. In a May 15 firefight
with a Federal patrol near Lexington, Missouri,
a pistol ball ripped through Jesse’s right lung,
in nearly the same place as his wound of the
previous year. This time, however, the injury
nearly killed him.
Jesse’s family claimed he was on his way to
surrender when his party was attacked. Re-
gardless, surrender he did after being wound-
ed again. A week later, as he lay on a Lexington
hotel bed slowly recuperating from the gunshot,
Jesse James swore his allegiance to the United
States. Brother Frank surrendered in Kentucky
on July 26.After the War
Jesse’s injury required several months to ful-
ly heal. When he returned to Clay County, he
found many of his Unionist neighbors weren’t
willing to let bygones be bygones. So, too, the
Radical Republicans who made up the Missouri
legislature. They drew up a new state constitu-
tion in 1865 that forbade slavery. It also forbade
any citizen from voting, holding public office,
or teaching school unless they took the noto-
rious “Ironclad Oath.” This pledge was entirely
different from the oath of allegiance required
of former Rebel soldiers. A person taking the
Ironclad swore that he or she had never fought
for, supported, or even sympathized with theDEATH COMES
TO LAWRENCE
A colored woodcut
(above) depicts the
1863 massacre in
Lawrence, Kansas.
Led by William C.
Quantrill, it left
more than 150
civilians dead in
its wake.
AKG/ALBUMNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 83