In the early morning hour of 2 a.m. Saturday, March 28, 1863, the steam boat “New Sam Gaty” was laboring against the current of the Missouri River near the bluffs below Sibley’s Landing, about 30 miles east of Independence, Mo. The side-wheeler was loaded with freight that included government wagons and supplies. The passenger list included 76 former slaves that had been freed by Union troops.

Newspaper reports of the time referred to them as “contraband.”

Suddenly, shots rang out from the bluffs. A voice called out the order to run the boat to shore. With no real means of escape, the pilot complied, giving the gunmen the opportunity to rush onboard. Approximately a dozen guerilla fighters took possession of the boat, immediately demanding the presence of the Captain who was sleeping below deck.

There were many exaggerated newspaper reports. Some said the leader was George Todd, one of Quantrill’s loyal disciples. Some thought it was Quantrill himself, but he had spent the winter in Texas and had yet to return. It was later confirmed that 10 bold bushwhackers under the leadership of William “Bill” Gregg boarded the Gaty.

Ten days earlier as the result of a stagecoach robbery, five of the bushwhackers were described as “splendidly armed with from two to four revolvers each.”

Gregg’s objective for taking the Gaty was twofold. He believed that some of the members of the 5th Cavalry Missouri State Militia were on board. Additionally, the boat was carrying a reported 80 former slaves identified as “contraband.” They had been liberated from Missouri plantations by the Union Army. Capt. McCloy was interrogated as to the whereabouts of the officer in charge of the contraband, but refused to give him up. The escort, identified as Mr. Wilson, was actually hidden by passengers within the cargo hold. As the former slaves were being herded ashore, they suddenly broke and ran into the darkness. Furious over the loss, the bushwhackers lined up 10 of the men that were recaptured and shot them. One of them was later found to have survived a head wound.

Several 5th Cavalry troopers were found. The bushwhackers despised them and their leader Col. William R. Penick. The outfit was known to terrorize families in sympathy with the Confederacy. Known locally as “Penick’s Thieves,” Quantrill’s men had vowed to kill Penick and his men on sight, no exceptions. Two troopers were “paroled” when they were found to be 1st Cavalry instead of 5th. The bushwhackers told them that they respected the 1st, but detained a half dozen men of the 5th Cavalry. The first man was executed with a shot to the head, and as the second was about to be shot, the captive troopers bolted into the darkness as the former slaves had done. The excitement resulted in an errant shot that seriously wounded the second trooper.

Forty-eight government wagons were pushed overboard along with flour, bacon, sugar, coffee, and other stock meant to supply Union soldiers. The passengers were robbed but their cargo (and Mr. Wilson) were unmolested. Just before daylight the bushwhackers returned to their horses and disappeared.

At Fort Leavenworth, Major Wyllys Cadwell Ransom led the 6th Kansas Cavalry into Missouri, supported by elements of the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry and a team of Captain George Hoyt’s partisans known as Red Legs. Ransom had only just returned from a foray against bushwhackers in the same territory.

Ransom undoubtably had his hands full with Hoyt and his Red Legs. It was said that the stables at Lawrence were filled with horses stolen out of Missouri by Hoyt and his men. Hoyt supposedly shot a Missouri man simply because he had come to Lawrence looking for a stolen horse.

Ransom had a full complement of 200 men sweeping through Jackson County, Mo., in a ride of vengeance against the New Sam Gaty murderers. Ransom sent a dispatch to Major General James G. Blunt dated April 4, 1863. His troops had killed 17 bushwhackers. Two more were captured. Before they were hung, they admitted that they had been at the Gaty. Ransom’s men also recovered “a number of the contrabands kidnapped from the steamer Gaty.”

The raid was designed to reduce civilian support for the rebel bushwhackers. Several isolated rebel camps were captured along with a large amount of ammunition and “equipage.” Twentyone homes identified as were burned, identified as houses of the men engaged in the Gaty massacre. Once they had reached Jackson County, Hoyt’s Red Legs operated apart from Ransom’s command intent on uprooting civilians. They were credited with killing another seven men, burning another 37 homes in the process. By April 9 the roads were packed with refugees from war-torn Jackson County.

The fight was only beginning. On his return to the devastation on the Missouri border Quantrill issued a warning to Federals in Kansas. If they did not stop burning homes, if they did not stop robbing and killing old men and women, he would make the streets of Lawrence run with blood in his own blood-stained ride of revenge on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contac Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st RD, Geneseo, KS Phone (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.