COLE YOUNGER AND LONE JACK
Col. S.D. Jackman of Texas informs the REPUBLICAN that he some time ago received a letter from Cole Younger, who is now in the Stillwater (Minn.) penitentiary, and has been reading some of the Lone Jack literature. Cole writes that he was at the battle, but that Quantrell was not there, and that he (Cole) was the horseman mentioned by Maj. Foster as riding along the line and distributing cartridges to the men from a basket. Foster describes the incident, except that the cartridges were carried in his hat and not in a basket. Col. Jackman remembers that Cole Younger and Capt. Yeager met him at Rose Hill on the night that Shelby and Cockrell left to go North. These men gave information as to the prospects for recruiting.
A representative of the REPUBLICAN showed this to Maj. Foster some days ago and he says that while he had always been told the Quantrell commanded a mounted force in the fight, and while Maj. Edwards had so recorded in one of his thrilling volumes of war history, still, if Cole Younger said it was a mistake that was enough. Cole has been accused of a good many things, but the major was satisfied that he wouldn’t misrepresent an affair of this kind, and as he belonged to the Quantrell crowd he undoubtedly knew the facts.
Missouri Republican, St. Louis, Missouri, January 30, 1886