Blunt's true identity was the subject of much wonderment among Quantrill's men both during and after the war, according to their memoirs. Blunt certainly knew horses, enjoyed a shooting scrape, and had a familiarity with military ways. He was not averse to killing, even in cold blood, too. I've been working on the circumstances of his last weeks and raised this question myself.

Warren Welch in his memoirs came the closest to determining Blunt's prewar experience, but it was just after Union troops killed Andy Blunt in early March 1864. Somebody laid out Blunt's body in the home of a Welch--either Warren or his kinfolk in the northeast Jackson County three miles south of Oak Grove. Welch was home since early October on leave of some kind from Shelby's brigade, but that's another story. A patrol of 2nd Colorado Cavalry passing by came in to see the bushwhacker leader laid out on a plank in the Welch home and a Welch familiy member heard one of the troopers pass a remark and later told Warren. One or more of the Coloradoans said they knew the dead man from before the war. They said they served with him in the U.S. Army out West and that he was a brave man and good fighter and they went through several hard places together. John N. Edwards in his "Noted Guerrillas" wrote that Blunt killed a man while serving in the Army prewar out West and had to change his name and move away to escape justice. Captain Quantrill certainly trusted Blunt, and if he knew the man's true identity he kept it to himself.

Not only is this in Joanne C. Eakin's 1997 "Warren Welch Remembers" on page 16, but Private Joseph Hays of 2nd Colo Cav wrote to the Kansas City newspaper (12 March 1864 edition) about seeing the corpse at the Welch house.

This is about the only clue that we seem to have about Andy Blunt's prewar identity.

Bruce Nichols