Well, sir, I suppose a guerrilla at the time would have said, maybe it was a case of tit for tat. Because it's verifiable that the guerrillas in LARGE PART came from the best families along the border, what sort of psychological trauma do you suppose was inflicted on them to turn them into scalpers and murderers. Although, I think you ought to be aware that before Centralia that a number of guerrillas were scalped by Union troops, and I'd be glad to furnish you with the Union Army records to prove that, the citation, if you need it. And of course when Quantrill retreated out of Lawrence in August 21, 1863, his ambulances were overun by his pursuers and the men dragged out onto the grass and shot, all of them, and no one denies it, wounded men. And as William Elsey Connelley, check page 416, says in Quantrill and the Border Wars, "After the guerrillas were shot the Indians {accompanying the Union troops] scalped them." And we're not going to challenge Connelley, the former president of the Kansas State Historical Society, I would suppose not.

So to cut to the chase, the problems associated with the Missouri guerrillas are not as easy to sort out as some people think. If you want a simplistic history of the Border War, well, just assume one. I wanted to know the truth, so I sought it out, accepted it when it appeared to be true, and learned what really happened. But it takes guts to do that. And honesty.

Don G.