Show I 1 1 k I 1 AF GUERRILLA F I 1 A WOMAN WHO WAS A TERROR TO ALL I 1 the lone LZ clia chiare aine by olner after 11 I 1 i tiger aitt at ll 11 11 land ll AVAS M w finally ittin to rrth but med galut galat game alio lait last I 1 copyright 1833 by charles B lewis I 1 the close of t the t a war left the southwest 1 in the of ll 11 desperate lot of men r the regular soldiers as they returned to their homes accepted the situation but tb the al partisan rangers ranger and guerrilla band bands were v ere loath to disperse in hundreds of cases they defied the tile F federal troops which took possession of the country and in scores of instances they were bunted down dow and I 1 killed among the worst of the lot along I 1 the red river rh er were a st dozen men who w ho had I 1 nerved served under the notorious quintrell quantrell but none of them was the peer of a young woman named fanny davis that I 1 believe was lier her real name she was the daughter of a missouri firmer farmer and left home in to join quantrell she was then twenty years of age stout and roburt buthod but had a face which even her parents called caled ugly three different members of bund blind have told me the story of be hiir r introduction the guerrillas were en camped on the neosho ri river vernear near the boundary line between kansas kangas and the indian territory they had bad nineteen prisoners twelve of whom were federal soldiers and the remainder citizens who bad been arrested as unionists the young t woman entered camp on her ber own borso horse armed with a shotgun and a re revolver alv er she told quantrell she had come to join but he be replied that such work w ork as ills needed stouter hearts than women could boast of who are ti I 1 oso men she asked as the she p pointed hinted to the unfortunates prisoners what are you going to do with them I 1 shoot lent cm then ill show you w hether whether I 1 have hai e the nerve of a man or a wo w manill tb the e prisoners were under guard but not tied bho be walked over to them and stood kein six of huun up in it row four soldiers and two civilians then she drw drew her tier revolver and passed down the line and shot every man through the head lend TV two 0 of the soldiers belonged to the tile third wisconsin cavalry and a third to the second kansas kamm colored regiment not a hand was raised to prevent her action and when she had finished quantrell accepted nc apted her as a member of his ills band it was at this same name time and place that the guerrilla gu errill i chief and his ilia lieutenant got into a dispute as its to the killing filing potter power of a carbine captured with one of the fed brals to settle I 1 he lie question seven of the prisoners were ordered to stand one behind the other as cloay as possible and aguer rilla stood about six feet from the first man inan and arid dred at ills its lly the bullet killed the first three ind and wounded the fourth two of these men belonged to the fourteenth kansas cavalry cm car alry from this time on fanny davis was called tiger cat and she never left tile band for a it day she was with it at baxter springs when the horrible massacre took place in october general blunt started to remove his big headquarters from front fort scott kan nan to fort smith sinith ark lie ile had an tin escort of ninety men nien eight or ten wagons the brigade bri otle bind band and a core score of stair officers bealquin clerks and non combatants As tay they neared the springs which post wan was held by a small federa force they were attacked by Quan ln bind of COO men about ninety of blunts force were killed of these not riot more than two were killed while fighting the others being shot down clown after surrender hurn ader the wagon containing the entire brigade band waa wm captured early in the fight and no sooner soo 1 er were w ere the men deprived of their re 4 colven than the guerrillas guerrilla led on by the tiger cat began a massacre even ei en the little drummer drumn nr boy was w as not riot spared with her ber own hand funny fanny davis killed five rive of those unarmed men she boasted of the fact a dozen times afterward it was this she fiend who set fire to the waon wagon after the bodies bad been piled plied up in it and who rode over the littlefield firing upon the wounded federal federals and shouting no quarterly trl terl no quarter As soon as possible after the close of the war the federal authorities began to bunt hunt down Quan guerrillas eve every cry man of whom deserved lia hanging nging the men scat over a wide territory and when the pursuit became too hot dome home of tile them in crossed into mexico and others hid out in the swamps and had tied a price set on heir their heads beads as outlaws the tiger cat took up her qu quarter arterb in the southeast corner of the indian territory where she had friends I 1 but was seen and heard of for a hundred i miles along the tile arkansas line being a vi oman woman and falsely stating that the federal soldiers had wiped out her family iu lu missouri she gained the sympathy of a large class she remained quiet and peaceable pta ceable she would not lave have been dis but sho she went riding over the coun try to stir up tip decord and gratify a hate late which had become a mania she site killed a federal soldier on the highway between 0 P oa kaville L I 1 T and Locks burg ark and whenever she heard of a settler who I 1 bad favored the anion union cause she site sought to revenge on him sometimes slie had bad two or three of tho the old band with her but oftener rode alone she dressed entirely in mens clothing clu thing and waa was generally taken for foi a man my orders from headquarters in arkansas in tn regard to this woman were w ere lake take such force as you think necessary and go in pursuit of the woman known as tiger cat if possible capture her tier alive that she may be hanged for her many cold blooded murders sa s1 you u are expected to either bring her tier in as ft a prisoner or furnish conclusive ev evidence that she is dead 1 I took only one man with me a soldier who had bad served sen ed as a scout the last two years of the war when last heard beard from the tiger cat mas was on the Ar kanbas river to the west of van an duren buren had a price been set on her head some of the in titans would haie have turned out to hunt her kj down as they bad had others of the band but W as there was nothing to be made they had INV I 1 no interest in fit the case indeed they were v ere F disposed dia posed to shield her we had been I 1 tc outing for ft a week before we got track of lier her and then we mot met her lier face to face on the highway we were ere dressed as citizens and passed ourselves oft off as lorse horse buyers she had crossed the mountains and was on her way w ay south wo we bad had a fair description I 1 of her ber but she bo had somewhat disguised herself she usually wore her hair bair donn down on her shoulders on this oc occasion casio n it was cut short up tothie to this time she had always ab ays worn a black felt bat she now had bad on a cap gap wh while ile she mie was smooth faced her look and bearing was exactly that of a man she had bad reason to suspect every air stranger for she knew that she was being hunted down but her tier conduct ns as we met was cool ness itself we saw her when yet 5 ct half a mile away and find had she en even slowed down we should have suspected lier ter she came gal loping up halted ns as she reached us and after a 1 good day stranger sl mie added halt a dozen of us are camped over thereon there on sugar creek one of our mules got away early this morning and we are am out looking forill forti im lm seen anything of the critter alone this road I 1 could say my that I 1 suspected her but it would not bu the truth I 1 MUS was dead sure the stranger w is a man and w ben he ex tended a flask aask and asked us to nip I 1 put I 1 him down as a good fellow lie ile was wati in no hurry to boand go anji it was wag a quarter quarte of an hou r before we separated there w as J k cricq one up unpleasant eleax arit thing thin about him while alle 1 b was friendly and his smiles fre re quit lib eyes JIM a look they for an W but seti meil w boal I 1 to blood both tf alj vera istrick wyte 1 W bastai Ua stai W it it ns 3 wn CL or VIVO I 1 a I 1 I 1 I 1 i ui e kerlinger wa it iab bin to fool with we hail lial gone a it distance 1 I three miles when we came upon in tin emi call grant family it in their wagon it consi of husband wife nil find lie five children tit dud they belonged d to tin the squatter fraternity all were scared hilf half h to death as a s the man mail we ave had encountered had beld liel 1 up till ter for his hi mony mon nion y which to only fourteen dollars after securing it the tile robber said if you meet any one looking for tiger cat tell them that she is still boins bust ness at tho the old stand an 1 cant be captured or run out of the coun tryl rl the squatter had never heard of the tile notorious moman woman but when he be gave us her mes message ge we knew that we had missed ft a kolden golden opportunity we returned down the road at a gallop and then bean began a pursuit lasting three long w weeks all eliat birst day we were not more thin than five miles be hind her at any hour and we rode over forty miles she w as headed tor the choc taw country and aa its she knew the roads better than we did she gave us the slip when night came came we picked up her trail next day but it was slow work following it some of the people we met gave us straight information but others who evi dently knew the woman and sympathized with ith her put us on the wrong scent alile by mile we traced her south to the tile texas border she rested for two days with a family living on the north bank of the red river south of Doaks ville and then fol foi lowed the stream down into arkansas in some someway way she got information that she was pursued and she laid I 1 id a plan to wipe w ipe us out near the arkansas line where the high way crossed a swamp she prepared to am bush and await our coming we were then one day behind her there was a squatters cabin at the west end of the swamp she got there at noon and remained trial ned over night p issing passing for a man andi and claiming to hae have been grievously wronged bhe she carried the idea that a sheriff was aftem her and tile tier loaned her a double shotgun and arid selected her ambush this wait w as known some weeks w boks afterward and he lie ned fled the country to escape arrest I 1 just ut tit the cabin a road came in from the north and as we reached it we m met t two men on their way to ulton fulton I we V e made inquiries of them thern and found chati that they bad met a horseman about ten role up the north road the description was w us ai a fair one of tiger cat and we at once j started off on the gallop the two men amos fox and george Cunning liam barn took the road across the swamp sw amp and u c cro 0 00 t from their biddles by the woman in arn n bush this was w as at noon and we did not get back there until night she then had ha 1 half halt a days start of us and was doubtless aware that she he had killed the wrong men I 1 as she went off in great haste baste bhe site went within four miles nilles of fulton and then turned north and made for the mountains our pursuit was w as slow as we were st strangers to the country but we w e managed to keep the tile trail tin and fennly reached a midsize allbin a at the foot four OL 01 ihu tile lount mountain aill buele tiger cat had bad remained oer over night hero she was also supposed to be ft it man and she again told a story to gain byrn pathy whai vi e biad the settler as to her true character he lie informed us that she hail bad gine to the tile riot northwest thweat oer over the mountain we were then only three hours behind her tier her iler horse had cast two shoes an and she would likely halt on the crest of a mountain at ft a called nobletown hoble Noble town to get him the tile mountain road was a rt rough one but we pushed ahead at a reckless pace while she had to let her tier horse take it easy asa consequence ole armed arrived only half an hour ahead of us her iler horse was in the hands lands of the blacksmith and the woman bat sat on a htone stone at the door of the shop she did not riot see us nor we her tier until we turned a bend in the tile trail about thirty rods above the shop she instantly divined our identity and our mission she had bad a repeating rifle which was sandin the rude log shop she sprang tor for this and had the gun to her face almost as soon as we had bad made her tier out she fired three shots allots as fast ns as you could count one of them passed through my ny companions bat a second through the right car of my horse the third between our heads then as we dashed at her she turned and retreated into the shop f and t nl closed the tile door her iler horse and the smith were outside there were two windows in the shop and both were open the space between the logs had bad never liei r been chinked we dismounted and t ok cover where we cou could id command the door opposite ft t and not over 0 er ten rods away was a natural sink which vl lich made an excellent ride rifle pit and though she got two more shots at us before we were under undercover cover her aim was not good the tiger cat had ix been en driven to bay at last our first moe move after getting into position was to make use of the blacksmith and a flag of truce he ile was instructed to de roand mand her surrender in the name of the military authorities and to say that our orders were to capture or kill her tier she talked with him through a crevice and sent us her defy as follows tell those whelps that they can neither capture nor kill me and that I 1 g give e them ten minutes to get oil out t of t this his at about 2 in the afternoon my comrade got into position where ali ere his fire tire could be directed on the end of the tile shop he ile fired tor for the crevices and through the window while w alle I 1 did the same on the front the I 1 he woman returned almost every shot up tip to about 5 then she fired at longer intervals and finally ceased altogether we hoped that she had been hit lift and disabled able dand and the blacksmith was advanced with another flag of truce to ask tor for her surrender he ile w walked up tip to the door and called to her but she did not answer he ile pushed the door open and saw her lying on the ground but at the same instant a bul let from her revolver chipped his ear when lie reported the state of affairs to us wo we advanced upon the shop and finally made a rush through the door we ex pecked to be fired on from a corner buethe but the woman lay on her side on the hard beaten ground in the middle of the shop and her life had gone out three of our bullets had bit hit her tier and she was w as lying in tn a great pool of blood her right hand still firmly holding the weapon from front which ahe had fired her last shot thus fitly ended the bircer c of 0 it woman whose record has no equal in the history of our country |