For those of you who have read my work, you will find that this story is in a different vein. I'm trying to grow and branch out from my normal efforts and you the reader will hopefully tell me if it is worth the hard work. It is a multi-chaptered yarn which I will post on consecutive days; hopefully that will make the story easier to follow for the readers.
Some of the characters in this story were based on real people. They are part of my family tree and some of the events depicted here are factual and had a far reaching local importance, historically.
As usual with my stories there are no graphic sex scenes. Your constructive comments and emails will help me know if I'm on the right track. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on this new adventure.
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It was the spring of 1862 and the early morning fog was starting to rise and burn off in the valley so you could see the budding trees and other plants coming awake after the long winter. This was the valley where young Joshua Kelly lived and he was hiding at his father's orders; he would have rather been standing in front of his home with the rest of the family. Josh watched as the raiders know as "The Bushwhackers" sat on their horses and confronted Josh's father. "I should be down there with them," Josh thought; only his father's instructions kept him from coming down from the hilltop overlooking the farm house and joining his family.
If he couldn't be with his family he planned to help protect them from his hiding place. Josh had a Sharps rifle trained on the man talking with his father; that the man was the leader of the gang. It was a long shot to make with a carbine but he was an excellent marksman and if the raiders started trouble Josh would try and take out their leader.
The Bushwhackers operated as a guerilla force during the Civil War, raiding in Missouri and Kansas along the border and the interior of these Border States. They were almost as well known as "Quantrill's Raiders who were southern sympathizers and made famous, maybe infamous is a better term, by the newspapers of both the Union and the Confederacy.
This outlaw gang would burn, steal, rape and murder in the name of their cause. It seemed their cause was to benefit themselves because they attacked both Union and Confederate forces and followers. If a Union supply train could be attacked and the goods stolen, the Bushwhackers would do it. The following week they would attack a Confederate supply depot. They were a band of outlaws hiding behind the confusion and violence taking place in Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas during the Civil War.
John Fogerty was the leader of the group and was trying to intimidate the Kelly family members facing him and his gang of cutthroats. Josh's father, William, and his mother Molly stood on the front porch of the farmhouse facing the raiders; both were armed. Josh's 13 year old brother Samuel was in a front facing open window with a shotgun pointed at Fogerty. It was expected that William would be ready to fight to protect his family and farm but Fogerty hadn't counted on the two extra guns in the hands of Molly and Samuel.
"Where's that oldest boy of your'n Kelly? We need to talk at him a bit," Fogerty question Josh's father. He wasn't aware that the boy in question had a gun aimed at his back.
"That's my business and none of yours Fogerty. I'm thinking it's time for y'all to leave," William replied as he cradled his rifle in the crook of his arm. The weapon wasn't exactly pointed at the bandit chief but it wasn't far off.
"I'll leave when I'm ready Kelly. We got you outgunned so just put down your weapons and tell me what I want to know," Fogerty ordered.
"Yep, you've got more guns than us, but when the shootin' starts y'all be the first one killed," William told him. "We'll probably all die but I'll make sure that you go first. When we meet in Hell we can continue the fight there." Molly turned so that the double barreled shotgun she was holding was aimed in Fogerty's direction. The noise of Molly and Samuel cocking the twin hammers of their shotguns was a clear warning.
He thought it was a bluff but when he noticed the move that Molly made and also saw the other shotgun pointed at him through the front window, he wasn't as sure. The thing that made him back down was the look in the eyes of both William and Molly; it was the death stare.
Fogerty had seen that stare before in the eyes of the people fighting his gang when they raided other towns and farms in southeastern Missouri. It was a look that said "I know I'm dead but I'm going to take as many of you with me as I can"; it was a look of desperation and acceptance.
"I don't want no trouble Kelly; we just want your boy to join us. We lost some men last week and I'm recruiting from the farms around these parts. Figured you would want to help out the cause but I know you have to stay and run the farm so that leaves your boy," Fogerty explained as he tried to smooth over the earlier confrontation. "He can make a right nice bit of change to help with the cost of running your farm."
"What cause is that, Fogerty?" William asked already knowing the answer.
"The Confederacy of course. We make raids on Union troops and camps to help the South in this here war."
"Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining Fogerty," William responded. "Just two weeks ago you attacked a Confederate supply wagon and killed six soldiers and the week before you robbed a Union payroll; y'all killed ten in that raid. Seems to me your cause is you and your killers getting rich off this war. Neither me nor my boy want your blood money." William stepped toward Fogerty a couple of steps and continued.
"Just so you know me and my family aren't in sympathy with either the Union or the Confederacy. My family and my brothers are what you would call neutral in this stupid war. We're going to go on faming and stay out of it, if we can. If we're forced to, we'll fight both sides. Now turn your horses around and get off my farm," William ordered as he pointed his rifle directly at Fogerty.
"You haven't heard the last from me Kelly, I'll be back," Fogerty blustered.