Leavenworth at that time was quite an important outfitting post for the West and Southwest, and the fort there was garrisoned by a large number of troops.  While in the city one day I met several of the old, as well as the young men, who had been members of the Free State party all through the Kansas troubles, and who had, like our family, lost everything at the hands of the Missourians.  They now thought a good opportunity offered to retaliate and get even with their persecutors, as they were all considered to be secessionists.  That they were all secessionists, however, was not true, as all of them did not sympathize with the South.  But the Free State men, myself among them, took it for granted that as Missouri was a slave state the inhabitants must all be secessionists, and therefore our enemies.  A man by the name of Chandler proposed that we organize an independent company for the purpose of invading Missouri and making war on its people on our own responsibility.  He at once went about it in a very quiet way, and succeeded in inducing twenty-five men to join him in the hazardous enterprise.  Having a longing and revengeful desire to retaliate upon the Missourians for the brutal manner in which they had treated and robbed my family, I became a member of Chandler’s company.  His plan was that we should leave our homes in parties of not more than two or three together, and meet at a certain point near Westport, Missouri, on a fixed day.  His instructions were carried out to the letter, and we met at the rendezvous at the appointed time.  Chandler had been there some days before us, and, thoroughly disguised, had been looking around the country for the whereabouts of all the best horses.  He directed us to secretly visit certain farms and collect all the horses possible, and bring them together the next night.  This we did, and upon reassembling it was found that nearly every man had two horses.  We immediately struck out for the Kansas line, which we crossed at an Indian ferry on the Kansas river, above Wyandotte, and as soon as we had set foot upon Kansas soil we separated with the understanding; that we were to meet one week from that day at Leavenworth.

[Illustration:  NEARLY EVERY MAN HAD TWO HORSES.]

Some of the parties boldly took their confiscated horses into Leavenworth, while others rode them to their homes.  This action may look to the reader like horse-stealing, and some people might not hesitate to call it by that name; but Chandler plausibly maintained that we were only getting back our own, or the equivalent, from the Missourians, and as the government was waging war against the South, it was perfectly square and honest, and we had a good right to do it.  So we didn’t let our consciences trouble us very much.

We continued to make similar raids upon the Missourians off and on during the summer, and occasionally we had running fights with them; none of the skirmishes, however, amounting to much.