Autograph letter signed by James W. Early, Co. E, 2nd Ohio Cavalry. Fort Scott, [Kansas], 19 March 1862. 4 pages, 4to. 

A soldier's account of a skirmish with notorious Confederate guerilla William Quantrill (1837-1865) in Independence, Missouri. 

After leaving Fort Leavenworth, Earl writes home while en route to Independence, Missouri: "a place much noted for its secesh." After surrounding the town, the soldiers of the 2nd Ohio Cavalry found, to their disappointment, "that the Rebels had vammoused the day before. It appears that there is a roving band...which we call Jayhawkers, but who are nothing more or less than highway robbers of Secesh principles who live by plundering Union Men."

They were recalled, however, when the guard they left came under attack: "Our boys came dashing down the road...terribly frightened telling us that Quantrill and Parker with his men were in town and had fired on them. We immediately started our horses on a dead run and encountered them 60 of them all mounted just opposite of the Court House...the way the bullets whistled and blood flowed was a caution they stood our fire for about 10 minutes when they broke and run and the Ohio boys after we chased them through town and then down a steep hill, where they attempted to make another stand but we soon broke their ranks and away they went again."

James W. Earl enlisted as a saddler on 10 August 1862, mustering into Company E of the 2nd Ohio Cavalry at the end of October. They operated in Missouri and Kansas in the summer of 1862, where Earl and his comrades encountered the notorious Confederate raider Quantrill. The regiment would later move to the Eastern Theater, joining the Overland Campaign in 1864. Tragically, however, Earl died of disease as a prisoner of War on 9 March 1864 in Richmond, Virginia. 

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