J. H. Milhoan drove his team and wagon filled with several friends to Olathe, Kan., on the moonlit evening of Sept.

6, 1862. They were just returning from an errand to the court at DeSoto, Kan., 15 miles northwest. Pulling up in front of a saloon, Milhoan stepped down to hold the horses while his companions went inside to wash down the dust with a drink. In due time his companions returned and Milhoan took his turn at refreshment.

The saloon was full of men. Milhoan made his way through the crowd and got his drink at the bar. Ten or 12 men were straining to see the card games at the back of the saloon. Milhoan stepped around the crowd to an open door that offered a good view of the old trail to the east.

A squad of 10 or 12 men could be seen approaching under the light of the moon, prompting Milhoan to ask out loud who they might be. Someone suggested it might be Captain Jack Harvey’s company, as they were supposed to be coming in from Leavenworth.

Milhoan and several men stepped outside to greet the riders.

Someone asked, “Is this Captain Harvey’s company?” The reply was, “Yes, flank right and left and take possession of the town.” The ominous order came from William Clarke Quantrill, commanding approximately 140 men who appeared out of the darkness.

As men spread into the night, Milhoan rushed to his team. He hoped to turn them loose before they could be captured, as he knew from experience they were pretty hard to catch, but before he could set them loose, one of the raiders ordered, “Fall into line; I will take that team.”

Several men ran out of the saloon. A gunshot hit Milhoan’s brother in the foot. One of the raiders turned to Milhoan and ordered him to take off his overcoat. Milhoan protested, “I have no coat under it,” to which the raider answered, “Take it off … you won’t need it very long.” Milhoan took it off and handed to him. Hiram Blanchard went for his horse, but a bushwhacker told Blanchard he would take charge of the horse. Blanchard, who had ridden to Olathe from Spring Hill, stepped to the offside of his horse and began to mount with a butcher knife in his hand. As his head rose above the horse’s back, a blast from a shotgun blew off the top of his head. “He fell like a beef, and on striking the ground, he jumped around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

Phil Wiggins snatched a revolver from one of the raiders who went after him. It was a cap and ball pistol that was in use at the time; they frequently misfired.

Unfortunately for Wiggins, the pistol “snapped” three or four times without going off.

He was shot in the back by another raider. After he fell, the man Wiggins tried to shoot shot him three or four times, one for each ball that failed to make its mark the first time.

Quantrill’s men went through all the homes, ordering the men to assemble in the court house square where they were corralled behind the three-board fence that enclosed the square. At the First Presbyterian Church, Mr. Skinner was in a deep sleep and unaware of the raiders when they entered his room. When he didn’t respond to the command to get up, he was shot while still in bed.

Skinner died about a week later.

The men who complied with orders were unmolested. Quantrill’s men took everything they could haul away from the stores. When they began taking things from Frederick Hoff ’s grocery store, Mrs. Hoff frantically called for her husband, prompting him to attempt “to cross over where she was.” He was struck down and knocked senseless with the butt of a gun. Milhoan exclaimed, “It was a wonder that he was not shot down.”

Quantrill was particularly interested in the men being recruited for the Twelfth Kansas Infantry. On the way to Olathe, Quantrill’s men sought out and killed three of the recruits. At Olathe, the corralled citizens were ordered to form a line to the left while the recruits for the Twelfth Kansas were ordered to the right.

As early dawn began to break, the raiders filed out of town with four wagon-loads of plunder and the recruits marched forth to an unknown fate. Quantrill turned northeast upon learning that several companies of troops had just arrived at Spring Hill. The rebel raiders left the road, tearing down fences and crossing fields toward Squiresville.

At Squiresville the prisoners were placed in a storeroom while the raiders took breakfast. “Breakfast over, Quantrill had the prisoners all lined up before him and said, ‘For the last-half hour I have been doing something I never did before. I have been making up my mind whether to shoot you or not.’ He told them that he decided to have them take an oath not to take up arms against the Confederacy, and release them.” Few men could boast that they had stood in the presence of death and walked away unscathed, and yet the unbelievable often happened on The Way West.

“The Cowboy” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans. com.