In January, 1865, Quantrell collected together nearly fifty of his old followers, among whom was Frank James, and started for the hills of Kentucky, where he expected to continue his warfare. Their route lay south-east, and before they got out of Missouri they came very near falling into the hands of Curtis, who pursued them hard almost to the [Pg 32]Arkansas line, where the trail was lost. The guerrillas crossed the Mississippi river at Gaine's Landing, nearly twenty miles above Memphis, and made their way through Tennessee, entering Kentucky from the south. At Hartford, in Ohio county, the command met a squad of thirty militia under command of Capt. Barnett, whom they readily deceived into the belief that they were Federal troops searching for guerrillas, and that Quantrell was a Federal captain. Indeed the deception was played so successfully that Barnett was induced to accompany them upon an expedition. Quantrell managed to communicate with each of his men, whom he instructed to ride beside the Federals, and when he should draw his handkerchief and throw it over his shoulder it was the signal for the slaughter. At about five o'clock in the afternoon Frank James rode up beside Capt. Barnett, while Quantrell moved forward, and as his horse stepped into a shallow branch where all his men could see him, he drew the fatal handkerchief, a............