Sometimes they had so much plunder n***ers were needed to haul it, so they took a few along. ”Jayhawkers said they raided to free slaves, but mostly they freed horseflesh from riders, furniture from houses, cattle from pastures, precious jewelry from family troves and wives from husbands. The Jayhawkers, based out of Lawrence, Kansas, are the most hated of the Union supporters.
This is a time in the territories when long standing feuds can be ended by accusing your enemies of being Seceshs (secessionists) if you are talking to Union troops or calling them Yankee sympathizers if you are talking to the Bushwhackers who are loosely tied to the Confederate cause. They are men from Kansas and Missouri who choose not to head South to join the Confederacy but to stay close to home to bring the fight to the Yankee soldiers and civilians. They call themselves the First Kansas Irregulars, which is an apt designation given the fact that they are a bunch of feral young men turned loose on the countryside in search of mayhem more than fighting for a cause. ”’ Good’ doesn’t mean anything like what it used to mean. The prose is occasionally rather pretentious, but this is a generally enjoyable coming-of-age novel by the author of Under the Bright Lights.Ĭopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc Jake's loyalty to the "secesh" cause is unquestioning and doesn't quite gibe with his growing unease amid the gore, or with his departure in the midst of the war for Texas with wife and child. There's plenty of hard riding, drinking and shooting, most of it leading to bloodshed. The studiedly cool Jake experiences loss (the deaths of his best friend, father and comrades) and love (the best friend's "widow") he also learns about tolerance from his contact with a nobly reserved black Irregular. Most of the action takes place in Kansas and Missouri between the rebel Irregulars (bushwhackers) and the Union Jayhawkers, with some civilians caught in the crossfire. During the next few years he sees, and commits, more than his share of Civil War atrocities.
Narrator Jake Roedel is in his mid-teens when he joins the First Kansas Irregulars in 1861.
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