Not a lot more on J. Drury Pulliam, as it is more fitting I leave the detail work to you relatives. My task is to fit Pulliam into the behind-Union-lines recruiting and the guerrilla work, and I think I at least covered the basics.

One interesting point another Pulliam descendant, Doug Purcell, brought to my attention from a little sentence the Columbia "Missouri Statesman" of 6 November 1863 printed at the bottom of a page. It says:

"Purcell Dead. Young A Purcell, formerly of this county, but of late a celebrated guerrilla, we are informed died in Callaway county recently with cramp colic. 'Mexico Ledger.'"

Note that evidently the "Missouri Statesman" printed this entire one sentence article probably word for word from the "Mexico Ledger," so when it says "this county," it refers to Audrain County.

Now, Doug Purcell is of the opinion that this whole death notice thing is a dodge to throw the Yanks off J. Drury Pulliam's scent so he can escape from northeast MO and perhaps the whole state without having Federal detectives dog his every step. Doug may very well be correct, but I just couldn't prove it. Doug's theory may even go so far as to indicate, if we accept this premise, that Pulliam was also planning to leave the Confederate cause and move away entirely, perhaps out West, but who knows. These little weekly papers often printed rumors and stuff that later they discovered was tripe, and this may be such a case. I was leery of this death notice thing, so I left it out of my "Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri, vol. II, 1863," although I see from the index that I mentioned Captain Pulliam thirteen times, so it's not like I slighted the man. Conjecture is fine while we are talking, but putting it into print without corroborating evidence is more chancey than I want to be. I just wish we could have proven it.

Bruce Nichols